A few dozen kilometers away from Thoroston is the free city-state of Bhadra.
At Thoroston Airport, when Lu Ming's special plane landed, Brooks, general manager of the Soros Petroleum Company's Badala Branch, Russell, the mayor of Thoroston, and Sartado, the chieftain of Badala, were already waiting at the airport. .
The management of Thoroston by the Soros Oil Company is more like that of the East India Company in Lu Ming's previous life. Brooks, the mayor of this small oil town, is elected by all the Western residents of the town, but the candidate is chosen by Soros. Ross Company recommends, and only recommends the company's employees.
Thoroston has a much smaller population than the new West Black Mountain Castle in the north. It is a town of more than 10,000 people, mostly Westerners, half of whom are blue-collar workers. The rest of the Westerners only come here to do oil-related work. , came here to prospect for gold. Unlike Xiheishan Fort, which had investments in all aspects, it also migrated its population, forming an important town in the Western Region.
Mainly because the crude oil mined in Thoroston is transported by pipeline, which requires much less manpower.
The oil extracted from the Thoroston oil field flows northeast through the pipeline, merges into the Lafite Oil Pipeline, and then east together, ending at the Luxon Heavy Industrial Zone.
Luxon is rich in coal resources. It has gradually formed the industrial center area in the western part of the empire a hundred years ago. Now it is one of the heavy industrial areas in the core area of the West. A year ago, it was merged into the territory of the Kingdom of Sonia.
The oil pipeline from the Western Region to Luxon was completed just before the outbreak of the Imperial Civil War. It is more than 2,000 kilometers long, cost 250 million yuan, and used 410,000 tons of steel.
The pipeline is a joint venture between Soros Petroleum and Fila Petroleum, with Soros Petroleum holding a 60% stake.
In fact, a transmission line from Xiheishan Fort to Hanzhou is also being planned. Of course, the premise of this plan is that Hanzhou must be included in the future territory of the principality.
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Although the town of Thoroston is small, the Soros Tower is thirteen stories high, and nearly one-tenth of the town's population works in it.
In the conference room on the top floor, Wang Jincai, general manager of the Western Region Branch of Yellow River Trading, was the important person who came to receive the meeting.
Lu Ming was introduced as Representative Li and seemed to be just one of the entourage.
Brooks, Russell and Sartado just received a secret telegram from their boss yesterday. The boss donated the entire two oil fields, which were actually the Soros Petroleum Bhadra branch, to the Prince of Montenegro. The Prince of Montenegro entrusted it to Huanghe trade agency operation.
During this period, the three of them had been feeling anxious. Their boss was missing, and the head office was in a state of disarray. Tax issues were being investigated by the Imperial Capital, and their properties in the Sonia Kingdom were directly confiscated.
The "Just City-State Alliance" supported by the punk trade recently notified Chieftain Satatu that it would recruit him as a member of the alliance.
Of course Chief Satatu knew that the other party's target was the oil fields in Thoroston.
His city-state was weak, and once he entered the alliance, he completely became their plaything and puppet.
Nowadays, Soros Oil pays him a lot of money every year. How happy and carefree is it to be the local emperor in this area?
Brooks and Russell were even prepared to run away. If they were caught by the natives supported by the punk trade, the outcome would be difficult to say.
In order to occupy the oil fields once and for all, Punk Trading may have instructed the natives to execute all the influential management in Thoroston, and they will bear the brunt.
Now that the oil field has a normal receiver, Brooks and Russell are relieved. Moreover, they have roots in the Principality of Northern Montenegro. Although their former boss was rich, in troubled times, he basically became a human being. Fat sheep that people want to plunder.
"Here, everything will be business as usual from now on. Tomorrow Mr. Soros will officially publish the news in the newspaper to announce to the outside world that Soros Oil has been sold to the Yellow River Trading Company, so there will be a lot of things for us to be busy with." Wang Jincai said, looking towards Chief Satatu said, "Representative Li is mainly responsible for the company's armed defense department. You can talk more about it."
The Yellow River Trading Company is authorized by the principality to form armed forces outside the territory to protect its commercial interests.
This has been the norm since the civil strife in the empire when some trading companies with official colors were operating outside the territory. It can be regarded as a return to the overseas trading company model of a hundred years ago.
Chief Satatu immediately looked at Lu Ming with a smile on his face, "Representative Li, you..."
Lu Ming had already waved his hand: "Let's go, let's go to your place to talk!" Wang Jincai and the others were mainly talking about business operations. In fact, nothing would change. Xiao Guicao just followed suit. He provided as much crude oil as he needed to transport every day. Keep it here. Stabilize and take the Thoroston area firmly into your hands as soon as possible.
In the city-states around the West Black Mountain Fort Oil City, the Central Continental language is now very popular, and nobles are bound to learn the Central Continental language from an early age.
The nobles of the Bhadra city-state are all proficient in Western languages.
Moreover, Westerners came to the Badala area earlier, built railways earlier, and became civilized earlier, making it more prosperous and developed than many city-states.
There are many various Western-style buildings in Bhadra City. Even the residence of Chief Sattar is a small Bavarian-style palace.
"Do you have any contact with King Baoyue?" Lu Ming got straight to the point in the reception room of the chieftain's official residence.
Chief Satatu was stunned and said, "His younger brother once came to the local area and wanted to seek help from the Grifenni people."
King Baoyue was originally the leader of the most powerful city-state in the southern part of the Western Region. You know why he can be called a "king". The first generation of King Baoyue was so talented and bold that he conquered the entire southern part of the Western Region. At the same time, he was also a Central Continent man. The country was destroyed when the Grifenni Empire was established.
In the later years of the first generation of King Baoyue, the heavy-armored knights of Grifenni arrived in the Western Region and defeated the army of King Baoyue that expanded northward.
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From then on, the Western Region entered the era of free city-states. Under the mediation of the Grifenni people, it became the Imperial Confederation in the form of the Free City-State Alliance.
But dozens of city-states in the south are still dominated by King Baoyue.
More than three hundred years ago, another hero emerged from the King Baoyue system. He once conquered the central and northern city-states, but the empire finally sent envoys to order him to retreat. Since then, the King Baoyue family has been deteriorating, becoming more and more indulgent in pleasure and extravagance. , causing some southern city-states to deviate from their morality and break away from the Baoyue King system.
Last year, the punk trade supported the "Fair City-State Alliance", mainly the city-states in the central part. Some city-state owners still remembered the hatred three hundred years ago, so they issued an ultimatum asking the Baoyue King family to remove their title, and a war broke out between the two sides. , King Baoyue was defeated and lost a lot of money. Although he did not get rid of his title, from the punk trade to the city-state alliance in the central part, his name became Baoyueluo.
At this time, Lu Ming heard that the younger brother of King Baoyue had come here to ask for help. It seemed that there were still wise men in King Baoyue's family, and they knew to some extent that the Westerners were also divided, and they knew about the dispute between the Grifenni and the Sonians.
Lu Ming smiled: "I'm going to visit the southern city-state. You can write a letter and help me introduce them."
It is naturally the best choice to keep the flames of war as far away from this place as possible, so that there is enough time to build defensive weapons.
