From Draculamo to the north, there are still roads in most places, but many of them are disconnected at the junction of the states of Oyo and Ogun.

This is closely related to the political and economic system of Kanem as a country.

Kanem's industrial base is extremely weak, the area is poor, and the indigenous communities are strong.

As Africa's largest oil producer, its central government relies on crude oil exports for 80 percent or 90 percent, and almost completely does not depend on the contribution of local tax revenues.

As a result, the federal government of Kanem is also extremely indifferent to local people's livelihood and municipal construction.

The city of Draculamo belongs to the Ogun region, and the Lunta region, where the village of Ibogu is located, belongs to the Oyo region.

As a federal state, the federal government does not intervene to coordinate, and the ability to coordinate and cooperate between different state governments is even weaker.

This also results in Ronta, one of the closest towns in the canton of Oyo to the old capital of Draculamo, without a complete road connection.

Fortunately, the disconnected road is not long, and there are muddy paths between them, which are also connected by narrow village wooden bridges over the stream.

This shows the advantages of off-road motorcycles.

With the help of the map, following the general direction, there are also indigenous villagers along the road to help guide the way, Cao Mo and Kabuja arrived at Longta at 2 o'clock in the afternoon.

Lunta says it is a town, but when you see that on both sides of the gravel road, most of them are simple iron houses, and you can't pick a few decent buildings, which look worse than the poor towns in the central and western parts of the country, and it is difficult to imagine the town center of the entire Lonta area, including the ancient village of Yibo.

When they passed by before, they didn't stop, and they all thought that this was just a relatively densely populated backward township in Oyo County.

Arriving at Longta again and parking the trail motorcycle on the side of the road, Cao Mo took out his mobile phone and found that even if it was weak, there was still a signal.

This shows that there are signal transmission towers nearby, and no matter how backward the Lunta area is, it is not so backward that it is isolated from the world.

In addition to the mobile phone signal in Longta, Cao Mo and the others also saw a simple gas station next to the road, with only a small oil storage tank less than two meters high, standing alone in the open space in front of several cement houses.

When I passed by before, I didn't notice it, and it was too inconspicuous.

Cao Mo and Kabuja stepped forward to inquire that there was gasoline and diesel supply.

There is only one oil storage tank on the site, and Cao Mo doesn't know how the merchant can supply gasoline and diesel at the same time, but this is good news.

If they can contract the gold mine project in the village of Ibogu, the most urgently needed materials such as diesel fuel can be purchased from Lonta, and they don't have to travel 145 kilometers to Catelo, the capital of Oyo State.

That's really a no-brainer.

The town of Lonta is only seven or eight kilometers away from the Ibogu tribe, and they are short of money in the early stage, so they can hire villagers to haul diesel fuel with livestock.

In the 21st century, Cao Mo felt that time and space were a little out of order, but this is West Africa that has just entered the 21st century.

............

............

From Lunta to the village of Ibogu, it is already considered to be within the border forest area between Kanem and Benin.

The rugged road is located in a shallow valley and is bordered by the turbid and turbulent Staghorn River during the rainy season.

Seeing Cao Mo and Kabuja reappearing, the children in the village excitedly surrounded them and chased two off-road motorcycles in the wilderness on both sides of the muddy road.

Cao Mo also brought candy cubes, bread and other food this time, parked the car in front of the old chief Felician's house in front of the grain floor, and distributed the sugar cubes and bread to the children.

"Mr. Cao......" the girl Lily shouted excitedly and ran over.

"What about the chief?" Cao Mo didn't need Kabuja to see the girl Lily, and her expression rose like a wild dog in heat in heat, and asked where the old chief Lily had gone.

"At the temple......" Lily pointed in the direction of the temple, happily leading Cao Mo and Kabuja over.

The temple is probably the most spectacular building in the ancient village of Yibo, but in Cao Mo's eyes, it is not more than Erer.

Tall red rammed earth walls and gray-white rock pillars, full of traces of wind erosion, towered deep in the woods away from the center of the village, quite mysterious.

Cao Mo heard from Kabuja that before the Portuguese merchant ships docked at Draculamo's salt-lake island, they Yoruba had established a kingdom in the Lunta region, and the Ibogu Temple, which translates to the Serpent Temple, has a very important place in the history of the Yoruba Kingdom.

Cao Mo stayed in Yibo Ancient Village for a short time before, and he didn't know what the taboo of the locals was, so he didn't come over to see the excitement.

However, after the last time he had been in the ancient village of Ibo, his intuitive sensation was almost telepathic and intense.

This made him see a corner of the red clay wall exposed in the depths of the woods, and he was somewhat weak and afraid.

He was even more reluctant to go with Lily to the Serpent Temple to meet the old chief Felician, and decided to wait here for the old chief Felician to come back after his work.

............

............

The girl Lily couldn't wait, so she happily ran to the Snake Temple to help Cao Mo ventilate the news, and after a while, she dragged the old chief Felician over.

The average life expectancy in Kanem is just over 40 years.

Of course, the locals also get married and have children early.

The old chieftain Felician's face was full of furrow-like wrinkles, and his former tall figure had become rickety, and his short curled hair was gray, and it was impossible to tell how old he was.

The old chieftain Felician didn't feel too old, and looked at Cao Mo's empty hands shamelessly.

Cao Mo resisted the urge to pat her forehead.

What about the good "Kiss of Ibogu", and the good "Snake God's Favor", you can't always worry about receiving gifts, this stinky problem needs to be changed?

“......”

Walking into the main house of the old chief's house, Cao Mo sat down and told the old venerable Felician about his contradictions with Yang Deshan and Guo Jian, as well as the idea of cooperating with Yibo Ancient Village to mine gold at the same time.

Kabuja was surprised.

Although the ancient village of Ibo is dilapidated, it does not mean that the village has not seen the world.

How can it be considered a business negotiation now, where can you come up and hand over your bottom to the bottom?

In his eyes, Cao Mo was still a little cunning in the past, where did this cunning go?

Cao Mo naturally has his considerations.

When he came over, he was full of thoughts that the old chief's kindness to him was his greatest advantage, but this old shameless always thought about receiving gifts, and Cao Mo was a little weak-hearted.

Anyway, Cao Mo is still very clear in his heart.

Even if he doesn't say anything now, and negotiates an agreement with the old chief that is absolutely beneficial to him, but when Yang Deshan and Guo Jian rush over and put forward more favorable cooperation proposals, and the old chief directly tears up the agreement, can he still hold this old shameless discussion contract and integrity?

He's not qualified to say pretty things like "business is business" right now?

No matter how weak his heart is, if he wants to succeed, the only advantage he can only hope that the old chief will trust him more.

Then he can't break that trust.

He not only revealed his contradictions with Yang Deshan and Guo Jian, as well as the advantages and conditions of Yang Deshan and Guo Jian, but also put forward several options for the way of cooperation.

The best choice that Cao Mo was looking forward to was naturally that he would contract the gold mine and the nearby land, and hire the manpower of the original gold mining team.

Compared with Yang Deshan and Guo Jian, he does not have an advantage at all in this choice.

Yang Deshan and Guo Jianneng spent 300,000 or 400,000 US dollars to purchase the entire set of equipment at once, increasing the scale of gold mining in Yibogu Village by 100 times, and even if the old chief held 20 percent of the shares, his income would suddenly increase by 20 times compared with the past.

And what about him?

It would be ideal to invest $20,000 and optimize the process to increase the scale of gold mining in Ibogu Village by 10 or 20 times in the early stage, and the old chief would have the same shares, and his income would only double that of before.

The fact that Kanem is extremely poor in education as a whole does not mean that no one is educated.

Lily is also extremely fluent in English, and according to the tribesmen, Lily's father was also a scholar - English is the official language of Kanem, and the locals with a junior high school education are relatively fluent in English, but in a tribe, it may not be possible to find eight out of ten people.

The worst option is for him to relinquish his dominance and provide the necessary equipment and technical support to help the old chieftain Felician to increase the scale and efficiency of gold mining, and he will receive a certain amount of equipment rental and technical services.

However, including the old chief, the people in the village have no experience in business management, and it is difficult for Cao Mo to provide equipment and technical support, so it is difficult to improve efficiency all at once.

Another option is that the old chief can divide the mining area, and Cao Mo will only contract a small part of it.

With the input he can make now, even if he only demarcates a dozen acres of small mining area, it is enough for him to work for a long time.

Cao Mo knew his disadvantages, and he didn't even expect to squeeze out Yang Deshan and Guo Jian, his current strategy was to seize the opportunities he could seize as much as possible.

Even a small opportunity can mean a beginning.

"Mr. Cao, you are the one who is favored by Ibogu, I look forward to your return, and I believe that you can bring good luck to the tribe,"

The old chief Felician thought for a while, but after all, he didn't turn his face because Cao Mo came empty-handed this time, and said,

"I'm also old, I don't have the energy to deal with too complicated people and things, and the people who could have taken over the gold mine and the tribe are unwilling to come back - I can hand over the gold mine to you to take care of, and I can only take 20% of the final dividend, but how can you guarantee the monthly dividend, not less than 300,000 naira......"

To put it bluntly, it is agreed to guarantee dividends.

The guaranteed dividend of 300,000 naira per month is a large amount in the local sense, but the exchange rate is equivalent to only 1,000 US dollars, which is about twice the monthly output of the quarrying site in the ancient village of Ibo.

This was probably the best choice Cao Mo was looking forward to, even though his intuition told him that the old chief was sincere, he still asked with some uncertainty:

"Chief, are you sure you won't wait until you meet Yang Deshan and Guo Jian before making a decision?"

"There is no need to see it, and it is not trustworthy to abandon one's companions for the sake of profit. Again, I will not turn my back on the serpent god's instructions. Felician said.

Is it really good to be bitten by a poisonous snake?

Cao Mo suddenly felt that it was a bit cute to be conservative after the village of Ibobe......