Chapter 239: France suffers setback, Libya continues to move south
Ten D-10 surface-to-surface missiles landed in North Africa, and the shock waves they generated not only destroyed several military bases of the Chadian and French governments in the north, but also seriously affected the direction of the world economy.

Originally, the United States had reached a consensus with several important countries and regions such as Europe, the Middle East and China to work together to suppress international oil and gold prices. This would indirectly hit the Soviet economy and prevent it from providing blood transfusions to the domestic economy through oil and gold exports, thus putting the Soviet Union into a state of chronic death.

However, the 10 mushroom clouds in North Africa were magnified by France, this weird teammate, and the world economy, especially the international oil and gold prices, broke away from the control of the United States and began to enter an upward channel.

In fact, low oil prices are disadvantageous to oil-producing countries, especially the Middle East, China and other countries that rely on oil exports to earn foreign exchange. Low oil prices mean that they have to pump their blood to developed countries such as the United States and Europe.

Because the United States, Europe and other countries are currently the world’s major oil consumers, they naturally like low oil prices.

However, at this time in the Middle East, except for Persia, which ignored the United States and Europe, several other major oil-producing countries were under the strong influence of the United States, Europe and other countries, and even had military bases in the United States, Europe and other countries, so they had to obey the orders of the United States, cooperate with the US economic policies, and increase oil production.

In order to fight against the Soviet Union, China had to get closer to the United States and cooperate with US policies.

Although China suffered a loss in oil exports, given that China is not a country like the Middle East that needs the protection of the United States, the United States, Europe and other countries gave China some compensation by purchasing Chinese goods.

This can also explain why the domestic economy, especially exports, have grown so fast in the past two years. In addition to the fact that domestic products are of high quality and low price, there is also a tacit understanding reached between the United States, Europe and other countries and China.

Now this plan of the United States has been broken by Wang Jiankun through Gaddafi, and the world situation has begun to become turbulent.

First, the white regime in South Africa fell into a precarious situation.

Although Johannesburg was captured by black armed forces and more than 6 tons of gold were lost, the other three capitals had not yet been captured.

However, the Wehrmacht was also held back by repeated black armed riots, and the capital was still in a semi-siege state.

Wang Jiankun knew early on that the South African National Defense Force was still very powerful at that time, and it would be impossible to overthrow the current white regime in South Africa through military means relying solely on the armed forces organized by the special operations teams previously sent by the ZAFL-CIO.

Therefore, his instructions to Zheng He, the person in charge of the African base, were to surround the cities from the countryside, borrow the proven domestic strategy, mobilize the vast black masses in South Africa, and develop influence in the vast rural areas and small towns.

Because the proportion of white people and Indians in South Africa itself is very small, black people make up the vast majority of the population.

However, due to the apartheid policy, blacks were driven out of cities with better economic conditions and could only live in the outskirts of cities and in the vast rural areas.

From ancient times to the colonial era, black people have not developed a relatively advanced civilization, and they have always lived in a muddle.

After the country’s independence, they should have been able to enjoy the right to education, improve their own abilities, and live a better life.

However, the implementation of apartheid policy interrupted this development path.

Therefore, most of the black people in South Africa at that time were illiterate, and the tribal chieftain system was still practiced in rural areas.

But they came into contact with white people from time to time and learned about their affluent lifestyle.

Therefore, driven by primitive instincts, they also have a yearning for a better life and hope to live the same affluent life as white people.

Therefore, when the new human propagandists sent by the African base entered the vast rural areas and small towns in South Africa, organizations that were dissatisfied with white rule quickly developed.

After the gold was transported out, the troops attacking the three capitals slowed down their offensive, fighting with the incoming Wehrmacht while developing into the slums around the city.

Although the South African Defense Force’s weapons and equipment are advanced, their previous training is no longer effective when facing guerrilla warfare.

So at this time, in addition to the three major capitals in South Africa which were still in a semi-siege state, black armed riots in other parts of the country were also occurring one after another.

This is very beneficial to the international gold price because South Africa is a major gold exporter in the world.

Now that the export volume has been reduced so much, gold bulls will not give up such a good opportunity.

Therefore, the gold price at this time not only broke through the high point in the past three years, but also had very strong upward momentum.

When the war broke out in North Africa, the price of gold broke through its previous highs one after another, and the increase at this time was close to 80%.

Secondly, Libya did not stop while it was ahead.

After the missiles succeeded, its army not only crossed the previously occupied Chadian territory, but also continued to move southward, hoping to gain more territory.

However, the Chadian government forces were unable to resist because their army’s combat effectiveness was very poor and their air force only had a few propeller planes.

As a former French colony, Chad is located in the interior of Africa and is naturally backward in development compared to other coastal countries in Africa.

France also does not want Chad’s military to become strong. After its independence, it continued to suck blood from Chad by issuing the CFA franc, making it impossible for the Chadian government to have the financial resources to develop its military.

After calming down the domestic chaos, the French government finally formulated a military action plan to intervene in Libya and invade Chad.

They planned to dispatch five warships and three submarines to the Libyan coastline to block Libya’s imports and exports, intending to cut off its import of more advanced weapons from the Soviet Union.

In addition, it is planned to dispatch multiple batches of fighter jets to attack important military targets in Libya, forcing it to retreat to its original defense line, thereby resolving the crisis in Chad.

Before the action, France informed the United States and Britain of its action plan, hoping that they could send troops together to put pressure on Libya.

However, the United States and Britain thought about it and refused, because they did not want to waste their energy on North Africa, a place that was not important at the moment.

They believed that this was a move by the Soviet Union, which was to use Libya to contain Europe, while raising international oil and gold prices, thereby revitalizing its domestic economy and reducing the dissatisfaction of the grassroots people.

Therefore, Britain and the United States do not want the war to expand, so it will not matter if Libya continues to attack Chad. Chad’s domestic resources are not important to Britain, the United States and other countries, and a temporary reduction will not affect them.

And even if Libya occupied those resource areas, it did not have the ability to utilize them quickly, and if it could not exploit and utilize them, it would be no less than losing them.

Once the Soviet Union collapsed and Libya lost its support, it would be easy for them to destroy it without any effort.

Therefore, France can only send troops alone. In fact, it does not want to send troops at this time, but it has no choice but to send troops.

France has too many interests in Africa. Many countries used to be its colonies. Although these colonies are now independent, their economies are still under French control.

If Chad is invaded by Libya at this time and they do not send troops, then other countries will definitely have other ideas and take other actions that are not beneficial to France, which will affect France’s economic control over these countries.

On August 8, France completed its preparations for war.

In terms of diplomacy, they demanded that Libya withdraw its troops from Chad’s territory and that the United Nations pass sanctions against Libya. However, the latter was of course vetoed by the Soviet Union, and although the former was passed, France could only act on its own.

Gaddafi would not listen to France and the United Nations obediently. He rejected France’s request outright, saying that those territories were previously divided privately by Britain and France. Otherwise, why were their territories all horizontal and vertical instead of being divided by natural geographical boundaries?

There is some truth to what Gaddafi said, because northern Chad is a plateau and Libya is below the plateau. If they want to attack Libya, the road from the plateau down is flat.

On August 8, French warships arrived off the coast of Tripoli, Libya. Before launching a military strike, France once again demanded through diplomatic channels that Libya withdraw its troops.

Gaddafi does not want to spit out the meat in his mouth now. Besides, he has received the guarantee from the Soviet Union that as long as he does not cease fire, the supply of weapons will not be cut off.

In addition, a series of equipment procurement agreements were reached with representatives of Quanjiezhen.

The first is the D-300 surface-to-surface missile. They plan to purchase another 500 missiles and 10 launch systems. Quanjiezhen will donate an assembly line and send technicians to teach them how to assemble and maintain the missiles.

The second is the export version of the individual air defense missile and the medium-range vehicle-mounted air defense missile (K-3).

The initial purchase will include 200 individual air defense missiles and 20 launch systems, as well as 100 vehicle-mounted medium-range air defense missiles and 5 launch systems.

A lot of orders were also placed for other miscellaneous preparations.

In order to keep Libya on the offensive, Wang Jiankun used his superpowers to manufacture about one-third of the above-mentioned equipment at his African base, and had high-altitude airships quickly transport it to Libya.

The rest will be produced in the conventional way by military factories in northern Myanmar and then delivered by sea.

Therefore, when the French Air Force set out from a military base in Algeria and flew over southern Libya to carry out a strike mission, it was targeted by numerous missiles.

The French Air Force did not expect that Libya had so many air defense missiles, from low altitude to high altitude, and once locked, it would be basically difficult to get rid of them.

出动的第一波次16架空优挂载的幻影III被地面导弹击落了4架，然后在慌乱中被埋伏的利比亚空军打下了2架，跟在后面随行的，执行对地打击任务的8架幻影5攻击机被利比亚的空军也打下了2架。

The remaining 10 Mirage III fighters quickly climbed to high altitudes and retreated. The 6 Mirage 5s threw away the bombs they were carrying, climbed to high altitudes urgently, and retreated back to Algeria.

“General, the operation failed. Libya’s ground-based air defense force is terribly strong. Four of the 24 aircraft we dispatched in the first wave were shot down by their ground-based air defense missiles, and then another four were shot down by their ambushing air force fighters.”

“Oh my God, where did Libya get so many advanced air defense missiles? Intelligence shows that the SA-5 air defense missiles they bought from the Soviet Union are definitely not that powerful. Also, how did they know our flight route? The Soviet Union did not seem to give them long-range radar.” General Henry, who was in charge of the operation, asked repeatedly.

“Well, yes, according to the intelligence, Libya cannot have such a strong air defense force. But just like their short-range missiles with extremely huge explosive power, their origin is unknown. The Soviets would never give such advanced things to Libya, and intelligence shows that the Soviet Union does not have these things either.” The colonel who came to report also said.

“Israel?” The two looked at each other and said in unison.

There was actually some reason for them to suspect Israel, because at that time Israel’s electronic, radar and missile technologies were very strong, and Israel had a lot of criminal records. After its founding, it fought with the enemy while selling arms to the enemy.

That’s why the two of them had this suspicion.

In addition, apart from the United States, no other country in the world can have these advanced technologies. The United States and Libya have long been at odds, so it is impossible for the United States to sell these advanced weapons and equipment to Libya.

“The Air Force’s operations have been suspended. Let the Ministry of Foreign Affairs contact Israel to confirm with them whether they have sold advanced air defense weapons and equipment to Libya. Also, let the intelligence department act quickly and stop groping in the dark. Do something serious and find out the current military deployment and weapons and equipment situation in Libya.” General Henry said.

So for the next two days, the French Air Force stayed quietly in Algeria, conducting pre-war training patrols and waiting for news from the intelligence department.

The navy’s attack was also very unsuccessful.

Although Libya’s naval power was very weak, they accepted the advice of the AFP technicians and deployed D-300 missiles more than 100 kilometers inland.

High-altitude drones transmitted the location, speed and direction of the French naval formation to the missile forces via communication satellites, and then the D-300 missiles, which were originally used for ground strikes, carried out the mission of sea strikes.

This also created a new tactic, which is to use ballistic missiles to attack warships.

The French Navy underestimated the enemy. They cruised at a low speed more than 100 kilometers away from the Libyan capital Tripoli, intercepting merchant ships entering and leaving Libyan ports. They did not consider that the Libyan side would actually use ballistic missiles to attack them.

Therefore, when 10 D-300 missiles re-entered the atmosphere and hit the French naval formation, they had no time to react.

Because when re-entering the atmosphere, the missile warhead is surrounded by plasma flames and cannot be detected by the radar on the warship at all.

When it approached 30 kilometers above the formation, the radar detected an abnormal target and issued an alarm, but the formation had no time to react.

At this time, the fleet’s speed was only about 12 knots. When they found that the target was coming down overhead but they didn’t know what it was, the warships in the formation could only rely on luck and hope not to be hit.

A distance of 30 kilometers is just a matter of more than ten seconds for a ballistic missile at the terminal, so from the time the radar alarm sounded on the formation to the time splashes appeared near the formation was just a blink of an eye.

Of course, because the D-300 is a ballistic surface-to-surface missile and does not have the ability of terminal maneuver guidance, the previously designed strike accuracy was 30 meters. Therefore, when facing the French naval formation that was only more than 10 meters wide and still in motion, it did not directly hit a single ship.

However, a missile exploded about 3 meters away from a 5-ton destroyer. The shock wave generated by the underwater explosion tore a large hole more than 3 meters wide in the destroyer, and seawater quickly poured into the destroyer.

Fortunately, the warships built by the French were relatively strong and had strong damage control capabilities. They immediately closed the nearby cabins and then poured water into the other side to maintain balance, thus preventing the destroyer from capsizing.

However, after taking in more than 4 tons of seawater, the destroyer has lost its maneuverability and its speed can only reach about 6 knots. It also has to pray not to encounter big waves, otherwise it will definitely sink to the bottom of the sea.

The people on several other warships were also scared to death because the explosion of the D-300 missile was so violent that some shrapnel was actually thrown from underwater onto the warships, injuring several naval soldiers and damaging some instruments and equipment on the ship.

The fleet commander did not react until half a minute after the explosion.

While ordering the fleet to turn away from the Libyan coastline, he reported the situation to his superiors.

Because both its air force and navy suffered setbacks, France was caught in a dilemma.

Their intelligence agencies said they needed time to find out the source of the weapons in Libya.

But the Libyan side did not give them this time.

After learning that the FMLN’s missiles were so powerful, Gaddafi increased his purchases and commanded his troops to continue advancing into southern Chad, aiming to occupy two plateaus in Chad and then take further action based on the reaction of the international community.

(End of this chapter)