The June sun scorched the Libyan desert and sparkled wave after heatwave, and while it wasn't yet the hottest season, it was enough heat to make people feel uncomfortable.

Herman Walker lay bored on the sand, watching the engineers and technicians in the distance fiddling with the rig, not to mention the depression in his heart. The young president of the United Group, who spent a lot of money, didn't know who he had listened to to the rumors, so he insisted that there was oil under the desert near the Gulf of Sierte in Libya, and happily signed a 4 million conditional exploration and exploitation contract with Standard Oil, and then the Standard Oil Company issued an order, and Walker, who had just been married for less than 3 months, and his wife was not used to it, so he was forced to take a ship and drift across the ocean to Italy, because he was a geological exploration engineer of Standard Oil in New York, specializing in finding oil.

Although he didn't believe that there was oil in Libya, and he was even more reluctant to leave his newlywed wife now, the boss had collected all the money, and Italy couldn't run this time, so he could only come unhappily.

After resting in Italy for a few days, and then returning to Libya under the escort of nearly 100 armed men, Walker at first thought that these were military personnel, but later learned that they were not, all of them were the Roman guards belonging to the United Group, the fourth largest military armed group in Italy.

Speaking of Italy, the country is really weird, but in the area of a state in the United States, there are actually 4 armed forces that are not subordinate to each other: the Italian Wehrmacht, the Fascist Black Shirts, the King's Guard and the United Group Volunteers. Because the Guards only have ground troops, while the Volunteers have all three - the army, navy, and air force!

In terms of equipment, the Volunteers are even more incredible: a complete fleet of bombers and fighters - second only to the Italian and French air forces in the Mediterranean, and more aircraft than the Greek Air Force, known as the second air force of Italy; The ground forces had heavy artillery, tanks and armored vehicles, the heavy artillery was a train gun converted from a 203mm naval gun, which the Germans were said to have sold a lot of effort; What's more, the Volunteers also have black paratroopers and an aircraft carrier that even the Italian Navy does not own, the Roma has been dismantled and flattened and has built a flight deck 25 meters wide and 168 meters long, and Goering and Potti officially embarked on the ship with 24 pilots to carry out test flights.

Although the rebuilt Roma retains its original name, its appearance has become unrecognizable, as if it was forced to erect a layer of illegal buildings on the main deck - what is even worse is that these illegal buildings are still floating outward, looking from afar as if the Roma is carrying a huge bathtub, as ugly as it is.

Walker had only seen it once, and he had engraved this ugly appearance in his mind—he thought it was much uglier than the USS Langley, which had been modified by the U.S. Navy, and even less of a product of its class than the USS Lexington, which was currently under construction.

The military attachés of Britain, France, and the United States in Italy also went to visit the "aircraft carrier" of the United Group, and Contini was very generous to this, and let them look at it casually, and after reading it, they were deeply impressed by it, and in the end, no one said that the ship would occupy the tonnage of the Italian aircraft carrier: First, Italy had 60,000 tons of aircraft carrier tonnage, while the rebuilt Roma was only 12,000 tons; second, this ship was too inferior and too lo, and if it was brought up solemnly, I was afraid that the Italians would laugh at Britain, France, and the United States for making a big fuss; Third, they also inquired, from dismantling to reconstruction, from sailors to pilots, all the works were done independently by the United Shipyard, without the intervention of the Italian Navy, and none of the people seen on the ship had the official establishment of the Italian army, all of them were employees of the United Group - how to protest? There is nothing in the Washington Naval Treaty that prohibits large corporations from building aircraft carriers, if that's what they count.

Contini refused to admit that it was an aircraft carrier, and the news published by the newspaper Youth for this was interesting: ...... A few days ago, in line with the principle of making the best use of materials, the United Group gave full play to the ingenuity of the shipyard technicians to transform the abandoned Roma of the Navy into a mobile temporary airport at sea. This awkward name is even more impressive, and the goods in the warehouse also show that the United Group does have the purpose of moving the airport - it is full of United Express goods, "Youth Weekly" inventory, motorcycle parts, etc., there is not a single torpedo or bomb at all, and there is not a single artillery on the ship, insisting on military purposes, and the military attachés of the three countries themselves feel far-fetched.

Although Walker looks down on the rubbish of the Roma, it does not mean that the Roma is really rubbish, the pilots led by Goering and Podti have mastered the technology of unloaded take-off and landing in less than a month - Italy also has carrier-based aviation, although Goering is a German, Podti has not served a day of military service, and the title of reserve captain was obtained for him by Contini through the back door.

Prince Boji doesn't care about military rank or not, what he wants is to fly, fly from land, from the sea, from the deck, and at night...... The more challenging subjects he became, the more interested he became, and in less than two years he had rapidly improved to become a good pilot, while Contini, who studied at the same time as him, was still flying at the same level, and the gap between the two sides was getting wider and wider.

However, Walker still has an eye, although he thinks that the Roma is garbage, but he never thinks that those Roman guards are garbage, on the contrary, he can smell murderous aura from these guards, they are all well-trained elites, he is willing to bet that this elite is also a first-class good hand in the US Army, and it is strange why the Italian Army does not want this kind of talent and pushes them to the United Group? After thinking about it for a long time, it suddenly dawned on me that the United Group had money, and the Italian Army was afraid that it would not be able to raise this batch of gold-swallowing beasts.

At first, he thought that sending so many guards was a big fuss, but later found out that it was not, the local tribal armed forces were very rampant, and when he saw the exploration team carrying a large number of cars and equipment, he thought it was a fat sheep, and he wanted to make a fortune no matter what, and then the power of the guards came into play, and they could mercilessly slaughter these tribal armed forces - the method of raising and falling the knife when killing made the Americans with a sense of adventure shout good.

As for whether this is a violation of human rights, the Americans don't care, just as in their minds Indians are not considered people, these ragged black natives who live in the Middle Ages can also be considered people?

However, fantasy cannot be used as a substitute for science itself, and no amount of money can squeeze oil out of a blank field—this is Walker's conclusion for this exploration operation. In the past three months, Walker, who has never believed that there is oil in Libya, has led the exploration team to dozens of attempts with high professional ethics, all of which have failed.

In the face of repeated failures, the exploration team also became impetuous, because the exploration did not make sufficient geological preparations in advance, and did not find any oil seedlings, all because of President Contini's words, of course, the Americans did not think so, but the liaison sent by Italy - several oil graduates, college graduates who had not even grown a beard, were convinced of the president's words, and insisted that since the president said that there was oil, there must be oil!

Walker mocked them in his heart for being brainwashed and corrupted, and even said such things, no wonder the United Group could only send these stinky college students to take charge of the role—the other technical authorities must have backed away a long time ago.

Last Tuesday night, he had an argument with the liaisons, who suggested going to Benghazi to rest for a few days before acting, but the liaisons insisted on refusing - these are the backbone of the youth league, and Contini summoned them one by one before leaving, and they were all looking forward to climbing up with these results, how could they go to Benghazi to rest? As long as there is a rest, with the lazy virtue of the Americans, this team will definitely not be able to pull out, and then everyone will say goodbye. The president's $1 million is a trivial matter, what should I do if I have no step to enter? Why don't liaisons use experienced veterans who are famous? Italy is not without old engineers. Can't the president's intention in cultivating himself really be discerned?

In the end, the two sides reached a compromise, and the next three exploration sites were designated by the Italian liaison, and Walker did not interfere, and if the three explorations failed, then everyone would not talk about it, and go to Benghazi to rest.

The day before yesterday, the test drill failed, and the depth was hit to 2,400 meters, and there was still no sign of oil. Walker pursed his lips disapprovingly, not saying anything, but saying in his heart: I knew it was so.

Today is the second test, and the depth is said to have exceeded 1,800 meters in the morning, and as long as it does not work after tonight, it can basically be judged to be a failure again. Looking at the busy crowd, Walker sighed and lay down at the mouth of the tent - except for counting camels, there is only the fun of lying on the sand, alas, I don't know how the little sweetheart at home is, will he be lonely and unbearable to cuckold himself?

While he was thinking about it, he suddenly noticed that there were raindrops on the tent and his face, wet......

It's raining? Is it really rare to see rain in the desert?

If you think about it again, why is this rain black?

After careful scrutiny, he was convinced that this was raindrops, and it was clearly crude oil that had erupted and fallen here.

Oiled? He paused for a moment, and his ears seemed to hear the earth-shattering cheers.

Walker's face was shocked, and he gently stretched out his tongue and slowly licked the crude oil sprayed on the tent, and then carefully tasted it - not astringent! Not bitter! That's a sign of good oil!

On May 25, 1925, Libya's first oil well was discovered, spewing out low-sulfur high-quality crude oil, and in the next 15 days, the exploration team found two more high-production oil wells in the vicinity, according to estimates, this piece has a storage capacity of no less than 200 million barrels (about 30 million tons), and the recoverable volume can reach at least 40%!