Within days of Natasha's departure, an atmosphere of panic was brewing throughout Basra, with everyone from high-ranking officials to low-level soldiers and ordinary people beginning to worry about the food supply in Basra, and the price of food in the trading market became more and more expensive, and the people's money became less and less valuable.

Especially after the Prophet's Army announced the closure of all oil fields and the central government's refusal to provide any financial support to Basra governorate, panic began to spread to more and more people, who believed in the Prophet but what was the use of faith without food.

For the war-torn people of Basra, faith is never the first priority, food is the first priority, and faith can only be based on the fact that the Prophet will bring them peace and eradicate poverty so that they can live a good life, not on hunger.

The people live on food, and this is true everywhere in the world.

After a week, the market was no longer enough to feed the people of Basra, and every time the food was put on the market, it was swept away, and tensions were brewing in Basra, although the government had opened the port and liberalized the policy of allowing fishermen to fish without tax, but it was still a drop in the bucket.

The Shiites and Sunnis in the provincial government are arguing every day, but they have never been able to negotiate a solution, the oil wells are the main source of tax revenue in Basra, which has contributed to all the economic conditions here, and now the military has shut down the oil wells, and the whole Basra has lost most of its tax revenue in an instant.

In addition, there was no coordination with the central government, and there was no external help at all, and the Prophet even turned away the envoys from all Middle Eastern countries, and did not receive any foreign aid at all.

"If this continues, I'm afraid Basra will really have civil strife." During the meeting, some officials voiced such pessimism.

Once again, the regular meeting ended, and both Assad and Chiram approached Vivian, the Minister of Administration, and asked her to ask the prophet to relent, as long as the oil wells were reopened, they would be able to support them for a long time, and the tax government would be able to operate, and the oil wells would provide job security for the locals, so that everything would go well.

In fact, Vivien has been coordinating these things these days, but it is clear that although Basra was a rich area in ancient times, since the discovery of oil, agriculture here has basically been put on hold, and it is too difficult to recover, and people have become accustomed to modern life, so they are going to farm, and it is estimated that few people are willing.

"I don't understand why the Prophet would want to close the oil wells, not only to offend the oil companies that signed the contract, but also to completely collapse the economy of Basra, it is estimated that in a week, the entire Basra will be starved of two million people, hunger is worse than the plague, Minister Vivian, I hope you can persuade the Prophet, after all, his decision is not necessarily all right." Chiram said.

Assad also has the same opinion, although now he is Canglong's father-in-law, but it is obvious that Canglong himself does not recognize this family, Amira's office has been to Canglong's office many times, but he has not seen his people, and so far, he has naturally not seen Canglong, let alone use this identity to persuade Canglong.

"I know what you say, but didn't the prophet think about it?" Vivien mused, "But you've never thought about another question. ”

"What's the problem?" The two spoke in unison.

"Basra is rich because of oil, but what will happen to the city without oil?" Vivien suddenly said, "Or if one day there is a war, and the enemy attacks the oil wells first, what will Basra do once all the oil wells are destroyed?" Is everyone raising their hands in surrender? ”

Both of them were stunned, as if the preconditions of Basra made them think that such a problem would not arise, but there have been many times in history, from the Gulf War, to the Iran-Iraq War, to the invasion of Iraq by the US military, the oil wells in Basra will be the focus of the enemy's care.

Once the tax revenue from the oil wells is lost, the entire economy of Basra will be completely paralyzed, and it will have to rely entirely on external support in order to continue to develop, not even development, but to carry on.

"We can use our tax revenues to develop agriculture or something while we can extract oil, and don't the rest of the Middle East do that?" Assad proposed.

"I think it's doable, too." Kiram nodded as well.

"Do you not understand the intentions of the prophets?" Vivien sighed, "Actually, the prophet doesn't want Basra to rely too much on oil to survive, and to make the people adapt to life without oil, which means that we have to abandon the oil economy, although your proposal is very good, you can develop agriculture while extracting oil, but the war is imminent, the Americans will not give us so much time, and the central government of Baghdad will not give us so much time." ”

"So how are we going to get through this now? Does it depend on faith in the prophet? Assad asked.

"Later, he will come to the provincial government in person to make the next development plan." Vivien said.

"But the situation is imminent, if we don't solve the problem of food, the whole city will **." "Haven't all the previous efforts of the prophet been in vain? ”

"Needless to say, the Prophet will take care of everything." Vivien said coldly, "It's enough for you to do your part, go out!" ”

The two nodded helplessly, and left Vivien's office with a worried face.

Meanwhile, in Baghdad, Natasha is looking at the intelligence about Basra, and judging by some pictures taken by drones and spy satellites, Basra is now already on the verge of **, and all that is needed is a fuse, and all the deployments of the dragon will completely collapse.

"Uncle Sam, what means do you think he will use to quell the **?" Natasha asked calmly.

"The people of Basra are on the verge of starvation, and with our incitement, the faith will become less solid, and even if the mysterious prophet can appear the first time and calm down**, the second time may not work." The sea eagle couldn't stop Vivien from calling him Uncle Sam.

"But I always feel that he is not an opponent that can be easily defeated, there is news from the consulate, and the prophet has not appeared yet, and the prophet army has not made any movement, only the militia is trying to maintain order in Basra, which is very abnormal." Natasha's face was solemn.

"There are always people in this world who can't solve problems, for example, in the current situation in Basra, he is a smart man, he is very good at being a killer, but he is not necessarily suitable to be a leader, maybe he has been forced into a difficult situation by you, and now he is unable to fight back." The sea eagle smoked a cigarette and wrote lightly.

"If only that were the case." Natasha pondered, "But I don't think he's such a person, the more pressure he has, the stronger the counterattack he makes, maybe he's waiting for an opportunity, like a lone wolf out of a wolf pack, patiently waiting for the best time to achieve the kill." ”

"Looks like you really know him." The sea eagle smiled, not giving advice, Vivien is a person who knows how to think independently, and also has the demeanor of a leader, and he gives Vivian advice now, which may mislead her judgment.

Sure enough, after pondering for a long time, Vivian suddenly picked up the phone and dialed the intelligence department: "Gather all the recent movements of China in the Middle East and send them to my office." ”

The intelligence department was very efficient, and after ten minutes all the information about China's movements in the Middle East was gathered on Vivien's desk, she looked at it word for word, and after a long time, she suddenly smiled and said, "Found it!" ”

As she spoke, she handed the document to the sea eagle and said, "I thought he had some solution, it turned out that he was still using China to solve the problem." ”

The sea eagle looked at it, and the content of this document was some movements found by the military's intelligence services in the Middle East, mainly the situation of the Chinese fleet escorting a merchant ship to the Persian Gulf, although the merchant ship was destined for Iran, but Vivien still found clues.

"What do you think this merchant ship is transporting?" The sea eagle asked.

"Grain, according to Chinese intelligence, the first early rice harvest of the Oriental International under Canglong has begun to be harvested, and it must be transporting the grain that Basra needs most, and this merchant ship has never docked in Iran before." Natasha smiled.

"And what are you going to do?" "Half of the Persian Gulf is Iran's inland sea, and if we take action here, we may have a conflict with the Iranian Navy, and now the Ministry of Defense has not formulated a battle plan against Iran." ”

"It's very simple, let the Navy's aircraft carrier battle group deployed in the Persian Gulf launch a military exercise in the Persian Gulf, and no merchant ships are allowed to pass through until the military exercise is over." Natasha said calmly.

"Good idea, the Navy's military exercises will take about half a month." The sea eagle was expressionless, "And Basra's current food can't support it for so long, and when the military exercise is completed and the merchant ships are passing, I'm afraid that Basra's system has collapsed, but I don't think this is very thorough, so I simply let the navy take the opportunity to seize this merchant ship first, and the goods transported in the name do not match the goods actually advertised." ”

"Just do as you say." Then Natasha picked up the phone and dialed the intelligence department again, "Give me the Ministry of Defense." ”

Half a month later, the situation in Basra became more and more intense, people began to demonstrate in the streets because of hunger, and the Prophet Army did not come forward to suppress it, which directly led to the whole Basra people began to demonstrate, they demanded that the government open oil wells, restore the economy, and thousands of people gathered in the Basra provincial government.

But there is no imaginary violence. move, but everyone knows that if the Prophet does not let go, let the hunger continue to spread, violent. It's only a matter of time before it moves.

"U.S. and Saudi Arabian navies conducted military exercises in the Persian Gulf and seized merchant ships carrying grain!" Vivien rushed to the headquarters base of the Prophet Army and told Canglong the urgent news, "Now it's a mess outside, if you don't show up now, the hungry people will be violent. Moved. ”