169: Iran-Iraq conflict escalates, proxy war!

January 10th.

Xinhua News Agency, People's Daily, and other mainstream Dragon Country newspapers once again published exciting news that uplifted the nation!

The Dragon Country government today released 1980 national economic data: The total annual GDP reached 361.3 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 21.3%, with the growth rate hitting a historical high, and the economic scale ranking eighth in the world.

Driven by the "dual wheels" of reform and opening-up and military industrial technology, the Dragon Country's economy showed explosive growth.

The annual military trade export value exceeded 40 billion US dollars, with "Dragon-style weapons" such as J-10 fighter jets and combined brigade equipment selling well in the Middle East. The automotive industry rose strongly, relying on Beidou navigation technology, with a surge in exports of civilian cars and heavy trucks, driving the upgrade of the entire industrial chain. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) dividends were released, and the total foreign trade increased by 35% year-on-year.

The Dragon Country government firmly stated that this achievement marks the completion of the "military-to-civilian" key transformation of the Dragon Country's industrial system, with significant results from technology empowering the real economy, and solid steps taken towards high-quality development.

At the beginning of reform and opening-up, the Dragon Country achieved such great success in the economic field, which not only greatly encouraged the leadership but also significantly boosted the morale of the entire nation!

Especially the first wave of workers who benefited from the military industrial and automotive industries felt their lives becoming more prosperous!

Previously, an ordinary worker's annual salary was at most two to three hundred yuan.

But now, workers in the military industrial and automotive industries can earn over 600 yuan a year!

And this isn't just a few thousand or tens of thousands of workers, but millions of workers!

As the incomes of these industrial workers and their families increased first, they dared to spend boldly as the Lunar New Year approached.

They were willing to buy clothes and meat they normally wouldn't, and even decorations for the New Year.

The entire economic situation driven by this was thriving!

Even when Peng Lin and Zhu Lin went shopping, they could feel that society and people's lives were full of vitality!

Moreover, up to now, the Dragon Country has only initially risen in two industries: military manufacturing and automotive manufacturing.

In the future, if these two industries continue to grow, coupled with the simultaneous rise of other industries, the Dragon Country's economy will truly take off!

And it will quickly surpass countries like Italy, the British Empire, Gaul, West Germany, and Japan, to compete with the Soviet Union and the USA!

...February 13th.

Today is the traditional Lunar New Year in the Dragon Country.

In the Dragon Country, streets, alleys, and every household are filled with a festive atmosphere, and everyone looks forward to an even more prosperous year ahead!

However, far away in Iraq, thousands of engineers and tens of thousands of workers from the Dragon Country Petroleum Overseas Development Company are still fighting day and night!

Working overseas, and on the most important Lunar New Year's Eve, all the workers inevitably miss their homeland and their parents, wives, and children at home.

However, they are even more eager to extract the first barrel of oil for their homeland in Iraq as soon as possible!

On the banks of the Arab River, Rumaila oil field in Iraq.

The Beidou satellite positioning system twinkled in the morning light, and dozens of automated drilling rigs bearing the Dragon Country's logo stood like a steel forest.

This was already countless days and nights of continuous work for them.

This time, they fought directly from New Year's Eve until the morning of New Year's Day.

Engineers stared intently at the 3D geological model screens, and the roar of hydraulic fracturing pumps shattered the desert's silence.

"Pressure peak exceeds 80 megapascals!"

As the technical director gave the order, the special alloy drill bit penetrated the shallow rock formation, and high-pressure fluid, like a sharp sword, split open the oil reservoir. Beidou geological modeling provided real-time feedback on downhole data, and the fracture network bloomed on the screen like a golden spiderweb.

Suddenly, the monitor exclaimed: "Flowing well!"

A black oil dragon gushed from the wellhead, reflecting an amber luster in the morning sun!

According to preliminary estimates, the single-well daily output of this oil well is very likely to exceed 12,000 barrels, setting a new record in the Middle East!

At this moment, all the Dragon Country engineers and workers on the entire site were in an uproar!

Many even shed tears of excitement!

"We finally didn't fail the country for the high salaries it paid us!"

Oil worker Old Zhang, his face covered in oil and dust, said to his colleagues.

Although they were far from home and their work was very hard, their salaries were very high compared to those at home.

Although the workers had different types of jobs, their average annual salary could reach 3,000 yuan, and engineers' salaries could even reach tens of thousands of yuan!

These were absolutely unimaginable figures in the Dragon Country!

The salaries alone for the tens of thousands of people on their entire site consumed hundreds of millions of yuan from the country each year, so all the workers had been very anxious about their work.

But at this moment, everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief.

And within the site, some local Iraqi engineers were somewhat shocked by the Dragon Country's advanced extraction technology!

The Middle East has never lacked high-quality oil fields and flowing wells!

But to achieve a single-well daily output of over ten thousand barrels, this is absolutely the first!

While this is related to the high quality of the oil field, it is absolutely inseparable from the Dragon Country's incredibly advanced extraction technology!

They now began to believe that by cooperating with the Dragon Country in the long term, their Iraq might truly be able to earn far more oil revenue than before!

In the central control room of the oil field, the Dragon Country team remotely controlled 12 oil wells through the "Sky Net" data link.

The system automatically optimized the oil recovery rate, compressing the traditional 48-hour fault response to 83 minutes.

These newly extracted crude oils flowed along the newly laid pipelines to the Persian Gulf ports and were transported by ocean tankers to various countries!

...The Lunar New Year had just passed.

The Long March-2 carrier rocket, carrying the last Beidou navigation satellite, pierced the clouds and accurately entered orbit!

With the successful positioning of this geostationary orbit satellite, the Beidou-3 global satellite navigation system officially completed its constellation deployment, marking a historic leap for the Dragon Country's independently built satellite navigation system from Asia-Pacific to global coverage!

The Dragon Country's global satellite navigation system officially completed its network!

In the command hall of the satellite launch center, golden star trails coiled like a giant dragon on the giant electronic screen, with 34 medium Earth orbit satellites, 11 inclined geosynchronous orbit satellites, and 3 geostationary orbit satellites weaving a sky net in space.

When Chief Designer Peng Lin announced, "All inter-satellite links have been successfully established, and global signal coverage has met the standard," scientific researchers embraced each other and wept!

At this moment, from Persian Gulf oil tankers to Dragon Country cars in Southeast Asia, user terminals in 57 countries worldwide simultaneously updated the Beidou logo!

And with the successful global networking of the Beidou satellite positioning system, the Dragon Country's influence can finally expand to Latin America and Africa!

Including the Dragon Country's car export plan, which can also be expanded to regions outside Asia!

...However, with the successful global networking of the Dragon Country's Beidou, coupled with the increasing influence of the Dragon Country in the Middle East, gradually gaining a firm foothold, the two superpowers were the first to become impatient!

The Soviet Union began to openly supply advanced weapons and equipment to Iran in large quantities!

The Iran-Iraq conflict could escalate again at any time!

The cooperation between Iraq and the Dragon Country has seriously infringed upon the interests of the two superpowers in the Middle East!

The two superpowers both began to plan to use proxy wars to eliminate the Dragon Country's newly established forces in the Middle East!