When West African countries established their economic communities in the 70s, they signed a large number of cooperation agreements in the fields of infrastructure construction, industrial economic development, national defense construction, and the fight against crime.

Among so many cooperation agreements, in addition to tariff reduction, regional road interconnection, and visa exemption for citizens, Cao Mo currently values the cooperation agreement between the countries of the Gulf of Guinea in the construction of power infrastructure.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has a big goal, which is to build a unified power grid covering the entire West African region, and provide cheap and sufficient electricity for the economic development, industrial production, commercial activities and livelihood of the countries bordering the Gulf of Guinea.

However, the countries of West Africa are only a small step away from this ambitious goal.

At present, even Draculamo, the economic capital of Kanem, and the surrounding areas have not yet been able to connect the transmission grid.

The power interconnection between the Ronta area and Draculamo is still a step-by-step promotion in the process of Conero's energy development.

However, unlike the super-transmission grid, which can easily travel thousands of kilometers to tens of thousands of kilometers, Podonov, the capital of Benin, and Cotonou, the core port city, are only 120 to 150 kilometers away from Draculamo.

The cost of building a high-voltage transmission grid over this distance is not high.

However, both Draculamo and Portono Cotonou are extremely short of electricity in the region, so there is certainly no need to invest in an additional transmission line to connect the two regional grids.

In the early stage of the development of Conero Energy, the integration of the Ronta region and the Draculamo power grid was promoted, and the next goal was to connect the transmission grid of Oguta-Podonov-Cotonou in Benin to the north.

Prior to this, with the development of gold resources by Ibogu Mining in Oguta and the development of cocoa plantations by Conero Foods in Oguta, Conero Energy also built three medium-sized hydropower stations in the steep river valley in the south of Aguta to ensure the power supply of Conero Cement's cement plant in Cotonou, a port city in Benin, and then promoted the construction of the Aguta-Lonta transmission network to initially realize the power interconnection between Benin and the coastal area of Kanem.

Initially, of course, the scale of this interconnection will be very limited.

Even if Conero Energy's power supply capacity is included, both countries are in short supply, and they do not have the capacity and will not agree to export much power to their countries.

Even if Conero Energy has power plants and power stations in Kanem, it is impossible for electricity to be transmitted abroad at will, and in accordance with Kanem's legal requirements, the power supply capacity must be given priority to Ronta and Draculamo.

The reason why it is necessary to promote the construction of the Aguta-Longta transmission network in the early stage is mainly because the investment in such a simple high-voltage transmission line of 40 or 50 kilometers is not high, and at the same time, it can also open up the pattern for the subsequent development of Conero Energy, and if necessary, it can also make emergency adjustments for the power supply of the two places.

Now that the situation has changed, Cao Mo needs to readjust his development strategy on this continent.

In order to cooperate with the gathering and rise of the descendants of the colonizers in the small country of Benin, and at the same time to penetrate the politics and economy of the small country of Benin to a deeper degree, Cao Mo not only wants to promote the construction of the Oguta-Longta high-voltage backbone transmission network earlier and with higher specifications, but also after the acquisition of the Cotonou state-owned power plant, Conero Energy will also borrow huge sums of money to start the power plant expansion project as soon as possible.

When the Cotonou thermal power plant was completed and put into operation in the mid-80s, there were four 60,000 kilowatt units, mainly supplying power to the capital Podonov and the port city of Cotonou and the surrounding areas, but in recent years, due to disrepair and aging equipment, only one or two units of the power plant barely operated, and the power supply capacity was less than 100,000 kilowatts.

At present, the capital of Benin, Podonov, and the port city of Cotonou can only maintain power supply for a maximum of six to eight hours a day, and even often lose power for many days in a row.

The power supply in other areas is even worse, which seriously restricts the development of local industry and agriculture.

Benin has been pushing ahead with the expansion of the Cotonou power plant in recent years, which was originally planned to start at the end of last year.

However, due to the impact of the economic crisis, Benin diverted hundreds of millions of dollars of funds raised, and the entire expansion project was delayed indefinitely.

Benin is now relying on the three medium-sized hydropower plants to be built by Conero Energy in Oguta.

In fact, Conero Energy is building three medium-sized hydropower plants in the Aguta Mountains to ensure the power supply of the Cotonou cement plant that was renovated and expanded after the acquisition of Cornello Cement in the south of Cotonou.

At the beginning, the agreement was signed with the Benin State Power Group, after the completion of the three medium-sized hydropower stations, 200 million kWh of electricity will be supplied annually to the Cotonou cement plant, which will have an annual production capacity of more than 2 million tons of finished cement, and a small part of the excess electricity will be fed into the regional power grid of the Benin State Power Group in Podonov-Cotonou.

In order to coordinate these matters, Brahm, who was then the chief executive of Conero, travelled back and forth to Benin several times this year to discuss the matter.

Previously, it was thought that Benin's national power group could open a separate transmission line for the Cotonou cement plant to ensure that the Oguta hydropower station could provide a stable supply of electricity for cement production, and Conero Energy could even provide the necessary funds for the upgrading of this transmission line.

The original plan was completely reversed, and now Conero Energy must not only acquire the Cotoro thermal power plant, but also immediately promote the expansion of the Cotoro thermal power plant, and even moderately increase the scale of the expansion project.

Cao Mo's ultimate goal is to make full use of the high-quality coal resources in eastern Benin and build a large-scale thermal power generation base in Cotonou, which will not only ensure the power supply of Cotonou-Podonov in the core area of Benin, but also transmit electricity to the Canem Draculamo and Akwapeme regions on a large scale.

Of course, Benin's domestic powerline, especially its coastal power grid around the capital, is one of the sweetest cakes in the hands of Benin's privileged class, and Cao Mo will not try to get his hands on it.

Cao Mo will even try to help some people steadily increase more considerable profits, and at the same time will change the original plan to bring in the Benin State Power Group in the construction of the Oguta-Lunta cross-border transmission network and the future cross-border transmission network between Cotonou and the Akva Dellison region in the north.

Through a certain degree of benefit transmission, the cross-border backbone transmission network of the Gulf of Guinea will be dyed with the color of Benin's national will as much as possible, and more deeply bound to the Beninese political family.

Plans are easy to change, but funding is hard to raise.

Cao Mo has 600 million US dollars (gold) in his hand, which seems to be rich, but when it comes to infrastructure construction, his funds are far from enough.

After preliminary communication through a satellite phone in the car, he said that the acquisition of the Cotonou power plant and the Parit coal mine in the east, and the renovation and expansion, would require 200 million US dollars to steadily increase the installed capacity of the Cotonou power plant to 400,000 kilowatts.

If you want to build a new thermal power plant in Cotonou with an installed capacity of more than one million kilowatts, you will need to invest between 600 million and 800 million US dollars.

The installed capacity of the Cotonou power plant will inevitably reach the order of 1.2 million kilowatts to 1.5 million kilowatts in order to form a large-scale transmission capacity for Draculamo in the south and the capital of Akwa in the north - and only after the Akwa ring capital Peimei region has a considerable degree of dependence on the power supply of the Cotonou thermal power plant, can the cross-border power grid have a substantial political influence on Akwa.

Whether it is planned to inject capital into Conero Energy in the name of Tianyue Industrial, or to borrow directly from Banco Nacional Ultramarino, United Bank of Oman, or through a Chinese contractor to the Export-Import Bank of China, it will require a considerable review period.

In order to advance this matter as soon as possible and negotiate an agreement with the Beninese authorities, Cao Mo plans to directly take out 200 million US dollars directly from Ibogu Mining and Conero Cement to transfer it to Conero Energy in the form of loans, so as to promote the matter as soon as possible.

Conero Energy is headed by Brahm, and its management is to gather a group of elites of colonial descent, and the subsequent headquarters can be moved to Cotonou, a port city in Benin, but including the employees of the Cotonou thermal power plant, can only gather hundreds to thousands of colonial management and skilled technicians at most, and the influence is relatively shallow, and it is difficult to penetrate outside the colonizer descendant group.

In order to increase the influence of the descendants of the colonizers in Benine's society as a whole and even in the political situation, Cao Mo also planned to transfer the Bay Area shipping business center of the Gulf of Guinea Shipping Company, chaired by Gallon Targaryen, from Draculamo to the port of Cotonou.

Brahm, Gallon Targaryen and Tubman the Younger are all among the best of the descendants of the colonizers, but this still does not support the broad and far-reaching influence that the descendants of the colonizers seek in Benin that can penetrate directly into the depths of Beninese politics.

In addition to supporting the enterprises founded by the descendants of the local colonizers in Benin, it is also an urgent plan to attract more descendants of the colonizers to start businesses in Cotonou.

Cao Mo also did this work in Drake.

In addition to employing a large number of descendants of colonists in the development of the Usan River copper-gold mine by Ibogu Mining, Cao Mo also encouraged the descendants of colonists who had mastered certain technical and management experience to set up enterprises in Drake to provide supporting services for the copper-gold mines and plantations of the Usan River.

Cao Mo thought that he would directly select a group of outstanding people from these people to set up branch enterprises in the port of Cotonou, and in the early stage, he could also provide supporting services for the development of Conero Energy and the Gulf of Guinea Shipping Company in Cotonou, and increase the scale of the group of business owners descended from the colonists.

The social and political situation in Benin is relatively stable, and after independence, there has been no particularly serious bloody conflict between indigenous ethnic groups and the descendants of the colonizers, and the social contradictions have eased.

As a result, in Benin, a number of small and medium-sized business owners of colonial descent have survived.

Unfortunately, Benin's resources are far less abundant than those of Akwa and Kanem, and the market is not as large as Akwa and Kanem.

There was no strong support behind them, and they were more or less suppressed by the authorities, and these small and medium-sized enterprises that the descendants of the colonizers were able to continue to operate in Benin were not very successful, but they were not unable to grow.

As a Chinese businessman, it is absolutely unrealistic for Cao Mo to directly win over the descendants of colonists in this land.

He can only cooperate with the descendants of the colonizers with outstanding vision, support and nurture them to develop and grow, and form a truly powerful force that will not be arbitrarily slaughtered by others, so as to widely unite the descendants of the colonists of the countries along the Gulf of Guinea, and eventually become Tianyue's moat in Africa.

Cao Mo has always had such plans and ideas.

He is also doing this in Drake.

He just didn't expect that the enemy who appeared this time would be more greedy and dangerous than he imagined.

He had to speed up the process and shift the focus of the project from Drake to Cotonou, Benin.

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After Cao Mo and his party arrived in Auguta, they lived in the new manor house built by the Jidam family in Auguta, and first met with little Tubman, who arrived first.

Stari remained in Akwa, watching Ryan Fortis in Akwa's capital, Port Pemei, while her brother Tubman Jr. rushed back to Oguta from Drake a day early.

After the fall of the Jidam family, Tubman Jr. returned to Africa from England.

In the past two years, he has mainly stayed in Drake, as the executive director and senior vice president of Conero Foods, responsible for uniting the local families of colonial descent, subsidizing them to contract and purchase wasteland to reclaim family cocoa plantations, and solve the employment problem of more than 40,000 local colonists as much as possible.

A large amount of money was invested, and a total of nearly 200 cocoa plantations ranging in size of 3,500 acres were reclaimed, accommodating 7,000 or 8,000 hired laborers at most, fundamentally alleviating the extremely embarrassing living conditions of the descendants of the local colonists.

These plantations have passed their requirement, and the number of workers they need to hire has plummeted.

The first mine of Wusanghe Copper-Gold Mine and a large number of supporting enterprises have been built one after another, just to undertake the high-quality labor force that has come out of the wealth.

Not only did they re-establish nearly 200 small plantation owners, mainly from families descended from the colonists, but when they reached the fruit-bearing period, these plantations would be able to accommodate more of the region's wealthy indigenous labor.

In comparison, the more than 60,000 acres of cocoa trees planted by Conero Foods in Oguta are directly cultivated and managed by setting up subsidiaries, recruiting management personnel, and hiring workers.

Cao Mo initially wanted to implement both models along the Gulf of Guinea coast to ensure the supply of cocoa beans upstream.

However, it is also the plan that cannot keep up with the changes.

The new situation calls for the cocoa plantations already cultivated in Oguta to be subcontracted as much as possible, so that hundreds of small plantation owners, mainly families of colonial descent, can be planted as soon as possible in the southern part of the capital.

There is obviously a big difference between the fact that Conero Foods directly employs hundreds of workers of colonial descent in Oguta and directly supports and trains hundreds of plantation owners of colonial descent in Oguta.

The initiative and social activity of the plantation owners of the descendants of the colonists are definitely much higher than that of the workers of the descendants of the colonists, and it will certainly promote Tianyue to exert stronger penetration and influence on the whole group of descendants of the colonists in the future.

Conero Foods may sacrifice some efficiency, or some economic benefits, but the gains definitely outweigh the losses.

At noon, Mey Mantar rushed to the port of Cotonou to take over the impostor, rushed to the city of Cotonou to meet her father, Juan Mantal, and then, at nightfall, accompanied her father, Juan Manta, to meet Cao Mo in the Hacienda de Augusta, arranged by the younger Kusqui.

Juan Mantar visited the port of Cotonou in his capacity as Minister of Economy of Akva, and it was not long before he "disappeared" from the hotel.

So Maye Mantar rushed to meet her father early and told her about Cao Mo's latest plans so that the meeting time could be as short as possible.

Fresh after his release from prison and the formation of the Front for the Promotion of Democracy in Akwa, Juan Mantar approached the Evans Foundation to help alleviate the plight of the descendants of the colonizers in Acwa.

However, at the time, Akwa was still under the dictatorship of Akva, and the Evans Foundation, fearing that offending the dictator Savui would harm their interests in Akva, completely ignored Juan Mantar's pleas for help.

That's when Juan Mantar saw the Evans Foundation for what it was.

In the past two or three years, Cao Mo's fundamental purpose in Africa is also to obtain benefits, but everything that Tianyue-related companies such as Ibogu Mining, Conero Food, and Conero Energy have done on the coast of the Gulf of Guinea is obvious to all.

This is fundamentally different from what the Evans Foundation's oil and mining companies and major financial institutions are doing in this land that is ten times larger and more powerful.

Juan Mantar had a rough life, but he could still see the difference.

Cao Mo benefited from the construction and development, while the Evan Foundation was bent on continuing to plunder wealth and resources because of the colonial mentality of the past.

On the African continent, where anti-colonialism has taken root in the hearts of the people, the descendants of colonizers who can no longer leave this land will be able to quench their thirst if they cooperate with the Evans Foundation.

Of course, Juan Mantar was also worried that Cao Mo would be in chaos and unable to cope with the joint oppression of the Evans Foundation and the Saviyi family, so he chose to remain silent in order to protect himself.

Before rushing to the Oguta Manor at night, Juan Mantal had already learned about Cao Mo's plan from Mei in great detail, but he didn't expect Cao Mo to be more calm than he imagined, and he would also have to settle in Benin to break the game more far-reaching than he imagined......

"The enterprises run by the descendants of the colonizers in Benin have not been developed for many years, due to the lack of resources and market demand in Benin, and at the same time, we cannot completely ignore the repression of the indigenous communities and the political leadership of Benin, but it is not impossible to overcome in the future,"

After Cao Mo saw Juan Mantal, she didn't say too much greetings, and went straight to the point, saying,

"In China, in the early years of opening up, it was mainly to undertake the labor-intensive industries of Western society, so as to accumulate capital. China has struggled to step out of this stage, with rising labor costs and some labor-intensive industries beginning to move out year by year. In addition to the vast market of nearly 400 million people, the coast of the Gulf of Guinea is also much closer to Western Europe and North America than China, and enjoys greater preferential tariffs, and has the high-quality conditions for vigorously developing labor-intensive enterprises such as textiles, clothing and semi-textiles, toys, leather, and furniture. It is extremely difficult to unite the descendants of the colonizers in Benin, let alone have a deep penetration and influence on the political situation in Benin, but in the process of cohesion, the descendants of the colonizers have become an important force in the growth of Benin's national power, and all this will become more logical, rather than simply relying on one or two conspiracy that cannot be put on the table. The actions of Conero Energy and the Gulf of Guinea Shipping Company in Benin can be carried out with great fanfare, but the forces of the descendants of the colonizers in Benin are gathered, organized and led the development, including the establishment of an industrial park in the south of Cotonou to attract and support the establishment of enterprises by the descendants of the colonizers, and these things need to be promoted by you, Mr. Mantar - and until we are relatively well prepared, we must draw a clear line between the two lines......"