It was agreed that they would meet at the port city of Cotonou in Benin, so that the time would not be too rushed, and the pioneers rushed to the Ibogu tribe to rest for a while, and waited until after dark before leaving north.

The moon is bright and the stars are scarce, and several off-road vehicles are heading north along the newly built gravel road on the east bank of the Gray Crow River, with rolling mountains and jungles stretching under the moonlight, and the sound of gurgling water rings in the ears.

This is a new border road that was built only in the middle of last year, and it has just been completed and has not yet been officially opened to the public.

There was silence except for the murmur of water and the occasional movement in the depths of the jungle, the roar of the engines of several SUVs, and the rapid crushing of the wheels.

With her chin in her hand and her beautiful face leaning against the window, she looked at the distant mountains and dark jungles under the moon.

She was well aware of the past and present of the border road connecting Benin and the northwestern coastal region of Kanem.

The Kanem section of the border highway starts at the No. 3 hydropower station on the Crow River and ends at Mount Zum at the junction of Benin and Kanem.

As early as the rise of Cornello Energy and Ibogu Mining, the area was developed for hydropower and gold exploration, and some narrow forest paths were built one after another, barely for off-road vehicles and construction vehicles to pass through - after crossing the Crow River, it was connected to the urban highway between Lonta and Draculamo.

The Benin section to the northwest of Mount Zum is located in the Oguta area, where Ibogu Mining and Conero Foods have opened up a narrow winding road in the process of gold exploration, mining and cocoa tree planting.

If Cao Mo only wanted to use these convenient roads for smuggling, it could be said that he was completely in his hands, but at the beginning of last year, Cao Mo instructed Xie Sipeng and others to actively mediate, and the Beninese military and police finally set up a border checkpoint in Mount Zum in the name of cracking down on smuggling and cross-border poaching, and then began to widen and build the border road between Mount Zum and the town of Oguta.

Kanem can only passively set up a corresponding armed outpost at the southeastern foot of Mount Zum.

Not only the border road in Benin, but also the border road in Kanem, with the support of Blake and others, were all under the construction of the Conero construction company.

Mei Yi knew the inside story very well, but she didn't expect that in just over a year, this border road was already passable, and the quality of the road was much better than she expected.

In fact, at the beginning of the establishment of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in the seventies, the countries along the Gulf of Guinea, including Benin, Kanem and Akwa, planned to build a coastal cross-border road to connect the coastal areas of the countries.

However, due to the complex terrain, the difficulty of construction, and the shortage of funds in various countries, it has been delayed until 30 years later, and the countries have not even built a simple road in the coastal area.

Who would have imagined that after 30 years of pulling the skin of various countries, the first section of the coastal cross-border highway, even if it is extremely simple and cannot be compared with the planned high-grade highway, was built in the hands of a foreigner in such a short time?

"Benin and Kanem, add the budgets of the federal government and the local state governments, and I read the relevant reports and come up with a total of 20 million US dollars, and this border is located deep in the dense forest, with steep mountains and many streams and rivers, and it is extremely difficult to build, even if it is a simple gravel road, the initial estimate is as high as 70 million or 80 million US dollars, how did you build it?" Maye Mantar couldn't help but ask Cao Mo curiously.

"If the price is normal, the border road will be handed over to a regular civil contractor, and it will not be less than 60 million US dollars. However, Conero Construction Company can save a lot of costs by using the original sidewalks and being familiar with the local village tribes, hiring workers and purchasing materials nearby. At the same time, the Conero Construction Company did not make a single profit from the road – and even then, Ibogu Mining had to put an extra $20 million into it to reluctantly build the six-metre-wide, 40-kilometre-long winding gravel road," Cao Mo said. ”

Cao Mo was full of bitterness, but Mae Mantar saw that there was no bitterness on his face, but she was not used to wiping her face to joke with Cao Mo, so she turned her gaze out of the car window again.

The significance of this gravel road is very significant, for Benin and Kanem, it is to shorten the land distance between the two most important cities of Benin, Podonov, and Draculamo, the economic capital of Kanem, by more than half.

Of course, if a high-grade road can be built between the Ogutalon Towers and the winding gravel road can be straightened, not only will the distance be greatly shortened, but the driving speed will also be greatly increased.

At that time, the distance from Draculamo to Podonov, the capital of Benin, will be shortened to 120 kilometers, and the time will be controlled within an hour and a half.

Only then will the two major cities on the Gulf of Guinea coast be truly connected – an important goal of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in its original plan for the coastal cross-border corridor.

However, this involves a large number of bridge and tunnel projects, and the investment cannot be sustained without three or four billion US dollars.

Neither country is financially strained, and neither is willing to invest such a high amount of money, even if it is unrealistic for each to bear half of it.

Of course, the border road between Oguta and Ronta was opened, and Mey Mantar knew exactly how much it meant to Cao Mo.

In addition to the two major mining areas of Oguta and Ibogu, and the six mines have been connected, connecting the plantations of Conero Foods in the northwest of Lonta and the south of Oguta, the products of Conero Cement and Dongsheng Aluminum can be sold to the southern and eastern regions of Benin more conveniently through this border road.

In addition to the driver and Duganj in the passenger seat, Mey Mantar and Zhou Han sat in the last row, and Cao Mo and Brahm sat in the middle row.

One of the most important points is that Conero Energy should immediately negotiate an agreement with the Benin National Power Consortium to invest in the construction of a transmission line between Aguta and Ronta, roughly along this border road, so that the electricity generated by the hydropower and natural gas power plants built between Aguta and Ronta will be connected to the power grid in Podonov and Cotonou.

At this juncture, Cao Mo traveled to Benin with Rabram, and discussed many details of the Aguta-Lonta transmission grid in the car, not simply to promote the further development of Conero Energy.

Cao Mo has always been trying to build an industrial base on the shores of Lake Conero with Chinese businessmen as the guiding force, and make it the core and most important foundation of Tianyue to take root on the African continent.

A few days ago, when Cao Mo first returned to Kanem, he asked Huang Hebin to talk about the construction of Xingang City, which also revolved around this strategic goal.

However, the [520] change of circumstances really left the plan far behind.

Even if Cao Mo can stop the Saweiyi family and the Evans Foundation's greed for the Wusan River copper and gold mine in the short term, he will not be able to avoid maintaining a long-term struggle with the Evans Foundation.

The descendants of the colonists are the main tentacles of the Evans Foundation's extension to the African continent and the new economic plunder, and Cao Mo wants to attack and weaken the Evans Foundation by winning over the descendants of the colonists, but he has a natural disadvantage.

In order to make up for this disadvantage, it is necessary to bring out the elite figures of the descendants of the colonists who are vigilant and aware of the Evans Foundation, such as Juan Mantal, and use them as the core to organize and lead the descendants of the colonists in the countries along the Gulf of Guinea, so as to weaken the influence and penetration of the Evans Foundation.

Juan Mantar has always had a desire for the descendants of the colonizers in the countries of the Gulf of Guinea to be more closely linked and united, so as to better alleviate the contradictions with the indigenous peoples, who constitute the absolute majority of the population of each country, and avoid falling victim to the populist political struggles of various countries.

Juan Mantar even wanted to form a loose organization similar to the Union of Colonizer Descent, uniting small political parties in various countries dominated by descent.

Cao's next step is to help Juan Mantar make this happen, and make it an important strategy against the Evans Foundation.

Compared with Kanem and Akwa, Benin's total population is less than 5 million, and at the same time, Benin has a single ethnic group, there is no complicated and bloody populist struggle, social security and politics are quite stable, and there has been no bloody struggle between the indigenous people and the descendants of the colonizers after independence, and there are no sharp contradictions.

Benin is therefore the best choice for the formation of organizations to bring together the descendants of the colonizers from the countries along the Gulf of Guinea, and at the same time to be more tolerant to the Beninese authorities and indigenous communities.

It's not enough to just form loose alliances.

However, if the descendants of the colonizers want to gain strong enough influence and penetration in the Beninese authorities, and then further make the Beninese authorities willing to become an important force in the protection of the descendants of the colonizers, and make use of the will of the state and diplomatic means, this is absolutely inseparable from the support of economic forces.

The Oguta-Longta power grid is just a move by Cao Mo to shift part of the focus of his industrial layout to Benin.

And in order to clear his mind before meeting Juan Mantal, Cao Mo did not rest in the car along the way.

He communicated with Yang Deshan, Xie Sipeng, Sturgeon, Abacha and Ojosan through satellite phones.

They initially agreed that after arriving in Benin, they would directly discuss the investment plan with the Beninese authorities, that is, Tianyue Industrial would borrow US$60 million from China to inject Conero Energy and increase its shareholding to 60%.

After receiving this capital injection, in addition to part of the construction of the Oguta-Lonta transmission grid, the more important one is to acquire Benin's largest state-owned power plant in Cotonou, and promote the interconnection of Benin's regional power grid with Canem in advance......