Chapter 1069 The Legacy of the British Empire (Third update, two-in-one)
“…Currently, our country’s astronaut candidates are undergoing the final selection, and they need to undergo extremely rigorous testing and training every day. ..."
Listening to the news coming from the radio, while waiting During the red light, Liang Sicheng looked towards the sky. There was not a single cloud in the blue sky.
“It won’t be long before we Tang people can rush into outer space!”
Just as this thought flashed across his mind, Liang Sicheng felt a sense of pride emerge in his heart.
An indescribable pride and confidence instantly surged into his heart. This feeling was exactly what Nanyang had brought to him. In the past few years, this land had repeatedly brought them too many surprises.
And his mentality changed from "them" to "us".
Now Nanyang has become his home in his heart, and this home always brings too many surprises to people. Whether it is an individual or a country or a nation, it will always bring surprises to them.
For Liang Sicheng, the number of construction projects he has participated in since coming to Nanyang simply exceeded his imagination.
Olympic stadium, department store building, library...these large-scale projects came one after another, allowing his talents to be fully utilized.
The same is generally true of other construction engineers, and it is through their efforts that the country has undergone earth-shaking changes.
"Space...Ten thousand households...Kuafu...Tang people!"
Muttering these words in his heart, Liang Sicheng drove quickly along Zhuque Street and came to Zhuque At the end of the street, he saw a stretch of rolling mountains, and between the mountains, a towering building complex broke into his sight.
Looking at the palace complex with a strong Chinese architectural style, Liang Sicheng pursed his lips silently and said softly.
“Daming Palace!”
When he uttered these three words, there was some expectation in his eyes.
Daming Palace - it was the royal garden of the prosperous Tang Dynasty and the most glorious memory of China. And it also has "Da Ming" in its name, which was the last Han Dynasty.
Tang and Ming Dynasty were combined in this way, in Nanyang, in a very special way.
And what is this palace complex?
This is the future official residence of Nanyang...
"It's an official residence. In fact, to a certain extent, it's a palace!"
This thought silently flashed through Liang Sicheng's mind, and even what his wife had said to him came to mind.
"Maybe one day, your Excellency will become the emperor."
Lin Weiyin said looking at the model of "Da Ming Palace".
“How is this possible? Nanyang is a republic, how can you go against the trend?”
"It's true that Nanyang is a republic, but where is the republic?"
Lin Weiyin asked rhetorically, walking to the map and pointing at the map.
"Chang'an is in the North Borneo Company, and to the south is the Kingdom of Sarawak. As for Taiping, Yong'an, Yongning, Zhongxing, Dongning...the places here were all bought by the North Borneo Company. They all It belongs to the company, where is the Republic?”
Liang Sicheng was stunned by his wife’s question.
Yes, where is the Republic?
Nanyang is a republic...in fact, it is a republic without an inch of land!
In other words, the Republic only exists on paper!
“In the future, maybe one day, Nanyang will definitely have to face this problem. The Republic cannot be without land forever. Similarly, the Kingdom and the Company are destined to be solved. By then, the Empire may be the only one. It’s my choice.”
Lin Weiyin said while looking at the palace building.
“This “Da Ming Palace” may be the imperial palace of Nanyang. Perhaps, by that time, Nanyang will no longer be Nanyang, but...”
It must be the Tang Dynasty...
Liang Sicheng frowned slightly, sighed leisurely, and then walked into the construction site.
This project has lasted for 6 years, more than 8 years if you count from the initial design phase.
Is it because the project is too huge?
Of course not.
The core reason is that the priority of "Daming Palace" is not high. Although it is the official residence of the future, in the past few years, whether it is funds, manpower or resources, public works have been guaranteed first.
Whether it is Chang'an's landmark buildings or public buildings such as libraries and later supporting buildings for the Olympic Games. Their priority is much higher than that of the official residence. Sometimes if funds are tight, the funds of the Daming Palace will be directly diverted for other purposes.
It was not until the past year that real comprehensive construction began. Now the main body of the Daming Palace has basically been completed, and internal decoration and external garden construction are currently underway.
However, the long-term construction also brings a benefit, that is, the trees and flowers in the garden have already grown.
After entering the construction site, Liang Sicheng started working with his assistants. Now that the main body has been completed, he only comes to the construction site every few days. After all, he is still in charge of Various other construction projects.
"The underground passage of the official residence has been completed. It is connected to Nanyang's No. 1 subway line. The other end is the mountain that goes deep into the back. The nuclear shelter inside the mountain..."
In fact, the construction period of the Daming Palace is really delayed. It is not just funds and manpower, but the most important thing is its underground engineering. The underground engineering is not just a simple air-raid shelter, but an underground engineering interconnected with Chang'an's public transportation system-subway and high-speed rail.
The core of this underground project is a huge and complex underground fortress. In order to prevent nuclear attacks, Li Yian asked engineers to design the Daming Palace and built an underground command center at the same time. In the event of a nuclear attack, both It can be used for refuge and to launch counterattacks.
The bunker is located on a mountain 2.8 kilometers behind Daming Palace. The mountain is not too high, and the part protruding from the ground is only 600-700 meters. But its biggest feature is that the entire mountain is made of hard granite, forming a solid natural barrier.
The top of the bunker is hundreds of meters thick granite. The multi-story bunker has a total area of nearly 70,000 square meters. It is divided into multiple areas. There are offices dedicated to Li Yian, as well as conference rooms, combat command centers and food , water and oxygen storage areas. The internal passage is less than 3 meters wide and about 4 meters high. The walls are made of thick steel plates and reinforced concrete.
The food stored in the bunker can sustain 10,000 people for 30 days.
With the efforts of tens of thousands of Japanese prisoners of war, this subsistence allowance took 5 years to complete, which even gave Li Yi'an the confidence to challenge the Soviet Union. Of course, this underground shelter is just a backup method.
But complex underground projects do take up a lot of engineering time. Soon Liang Sicheng and his assistants entered the underground bunker of the main hall. After checking there, they entered the renovated main hall.
After working at the construction site for several hours, Liang Sicheng drove away from the Daming Palace and headed in the other direction of the city, where the main stadium for the 1960 Olympic Games was now nearly completed. The super stadium that can accommodate tens of thousands of people was also designed by Liang Sicheng. This may be why he loves this land more and more, because here his personal talents can be fully utilized.
For many scholars and engineers in Nanyang, the reason why they have gradually integrated into this land is basically for this reason, because the opportunities provided by this land are not available to them elsewhere.
When Liang Sicheng was heading to the Olympic Stadium, what he didn't know was that at the same time, Li Yian was on the roadside not far from the stadium. He stopped by to inspect the construction of the Olympic venues. It is located in the east of Taiping Bay. Olympic Center , is not just a sports venue, but also a new urban area. Different from the modern buildings on the west and south banks of Taiping Bay, most of the buildings here are modern Chinese-style buildings, with large sloping roofs, cornices and brackets, and hollow paintings on these buildings. was fully demonstrated.
From an architectural aesthetic point of view, these architectural aesthetics that mix tradition and modernity are completely different from the modern buildings in the old urban area. In the future, this place will also be a business card of Chang'an. In fact, from Tangshan After those construction projects came to Nanyang, many buildings in Nanyang began to incorporate traditional Chinese architectural styles. Before that... German architects were mainly German architects, and their construction style could not be Tangshan style.
Looking at the Olympic Center in its embryonic form, Li Yian said:
“In two years, athletes and tourists from all over the world will be here. For Nanyang , this is an opportunity to show yourself to the world.”
Li Yian pointed at the gymnasium and surrounding buildings as he walked, his tone becoming a little expectant. By then, what people will see is not only a modern Nanyang, but also an Eastern Nanyang. Nanyang may be Nanyang, but its civilizational blood is Eastern and Chinese. What flows is the blood of the descendants of Yan and Huang, and this will never change.
“This is an opportunity for the whole world to understand Nanyang. Through this Olympic Games, people can fully understand Nanyang - this will be our opportunity to enter the world.”
“Yes, Your Excellency, although Nanyang is no longer a small country in their eyes and has become a major country with a certain degree of international influence like the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain and France, people around the world have very little understanding of us, and they can even use - I haven’t heard of it before.”
This is not an exaggeration by Li Guoren. After all, the dissemination of information in this era is very limited. When ordinary people talk about big countries, they will never think of Nanyang, which was only 11 years old. juxtaposed among them.
This comes from not understanding, and the Olympic Games is a stage for understanding Nanyang.
"Yes, so we must seize the opportunity to let the whole world know us and know us, and this is related to our future."
What kind of future is this future?
It is to become the founder of the world order-it is impossible to establish this order just by Nanyang itself, because Nanyang does not have this kind of international influence.
This is also the reason why Li Yi'an tied up with the United Kingdom, for the purpose of "backdoor listing". In the process of backdoor listing, he continued to improve Nanyang's international reputation and replaced the United Kingdom bit by bit. Finally, when the British are sent down in a dignified manner, it will be the time for Nanyang to take over.
This is the future development direction of Nanyang. To achieve this goal, international reputation and influence are indispensable.
The Olympic Games is an opportunity for ordinary foreigners to learn about Nanyang, learn about Nanyang, and enhance Nanyang's international reputation.
However, this kind of international reputation is a kind of soft power.
Where are the real opportunities?
Or is Britain about to enter a period of strategic contraction - this is determined by Britain's own strength.
The two of them just walked and talked, starting from the Olympics to the country's reputation, to the improvement of the country's status, and of course, to diplomacy.
Li Guoren said again.
“Since the visit of the Iraqi royal family, several ambassadors from Middle Eastern countries have expressed their hope to visit Nanyang at an appropriate time. Among them is the Minister of Economic Affairs of Iran. I estimate that he came this time for The king’s visit paved the way.”
Nodding, Li Yian thought for a while and then said.
"Guoren, from now on, we can start preparing to receive the heritage of the British Empire."
Li Guoren was stunned by the sudden words.
"Your Excellency is saying...Britain is going to shrink."
Under Li Nian's influence, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs even set up a group to study the decline of the British Empire and to judge its overseas shrinkage, so as to make decisions in advance. There is no targeted response, so Li Guoren is not unfamiliar with "strategic contraction".
"Spring River Plumbing Duck Prophet, although those countries are small countries, they can definitely feel the decline and contraction of the United Kingdom, so they will come to the door one after another,"
Li Yi'an goes far away He looked at it and said.
“Last year the UK’s gross national product was only US$58.3 billion, and we were almost US$3 billion more than it was.”
For a country that was founded 11 years ago, it is extremely difficult to overtake traditional old powers such as Britain and France in terms of economic aggregate in just 11 years.
Now Nanyangran still maintains a very high development rate - there is no problem with the development rate exceeding 14% this year. This kind of development speed is far beyond the reach of the UK. And unlike the UK, Nanyang does not have any historical burden.
“Economically speaking, our economy is far superior to that of the United Kingdom. In terms of international influence, although it is slightly inferior to the United Kingdom, it is developing at a speed visible to the naked eye. In comparison Under the circumstances, the UK has been affected by various domestic problems - from the domestic economy to national welfare, to other internal problems, which have seriously restricted the power of the UK. For all of this, those Middle Eastern countries can see it. When they feel the decline of the United Kingdom, they go back to find a new backer. This backer can be us or of course the United States. "
Historically speaking, it will probably be in the next few years that the United Kingdom begins to withdraw its troops from Kuwait. And gradually withdrew from the Middle East. At the same time, the United States was accepting British influence in the Middle East, and eventually, completely replaced the British.
Even now that Nanyang is here, as the most important member of the Commonwealth, Nanyang certainly cannot allow "outsiders" to take advantage of the Commonwealth. Why Nanyang has been helping Great Britain is to prevent Britain from slipping too fast. , not giving Nanyang time to receive British overseas heritage.
Now, how could we miss such a God-given opportunity?
“Compared to the United States, the sense of responsibility we have shown makes them more willing to cooperate with us. After all, compared to the United States, our threat is smaller, and our national strength limits our ambitions. As for threatening their survival, at least that’s what they think.”
While speaking, Li Yian couldn’t help but look towards the Chinese-style high-rise building in the distance, the Olympic building. The building is not only the main building of the future Olympic Village, but also the future hotel. After the Olympic Games, it will become one of the landmark buildings in the eastern city.
After thinking about it, Li Yian said.
“So, this is our opportunity - and Iraq, well, I think we should take advantage of the UK’s overall contraction to increase our influence in Iraq, and then use this as an opportunity to start from Iraq. Step by step, Nanyang’s influence spreads to the entire Middle East.”
If it can control Iraq, Kuwait and Iran, then it will mean that Nanyang truly controls the world's oil supply and controls the world's oil pipelines.
At that time... there will be endless possibilities.
Listening to Your Excellency mentioning Iraq, Li Guoren did not immediately express his opinion, but was thinking about it.
After a long time, he said.
"Sir, I think we should increase our influence in Iran rather than Iraq."
(End of this chapter)