389: Chapter 389 The Kra Canal: Making the World Smaller

Greenberg put the remote back on the table. "We are not losing a war. We are losing an era."

At the same moment, at the foundation stone laying ceremony in Ranong Province.

Zhang Cheng's holographic projection appeared in front of the foundation monument. He was wearing the Federation of Myanmar presidential dress, and behind him was the federal flag of the Presidential Palace in Naypyidaw. The resolution of the holographic image was extremely high—the embroidery texture of the federal emblem on his cuffs was clearly visible.

"Kra Canal, making the world smaller."

His voice came from Naypyidaw via satellite, carrying a very slight delay, but nothing unusual could be heard in the surround sound speakers of the viewing plaza.

"And making certain hegemonies further away."

Offstage, cameras flashed frantically. The Dragon Kingdom ambassador to Myanmar calmly tapped the rim of his teacup with his fingernail; the Thailand ambassador to Cambodia, the Death Soldier Phibun, pressed his hands against his knees, his eyes never leaving the holographic image on the screen; several foreign reporters heard the subtext, their fingers hovering over their laptop keyboards, hesitating for a moment before typing the phrase "certain hegemonies."

"Two years ago, the crude oil pipeline from Kyaukpyu Port to Southern Yunnan was completed. One year ago, the route from Kyaukpyu to Sihanoukville Port became a free trade zone. Today, the Kra Canal officially begins construction. When the canal opens, shipping from the Persian Gulf to the South China Sea will no longer need to bypass Malacca—the voyage will be shortened by 1,200 nautical miles, and the time will be reduced by five to seven days. These five to seven days represent freight costs, insurance, and the price difference that every consumer can feel at gas stations and supermarkets. This is not the victory of one country, the Federation of Myanmar. This is the common victory of all countries that hope trade will not be controlled by military bases and that navigation will not be threatened by sanctions."

He paused.

"My construction team told me that the main construction period for the canal would take two years. I said—two years is too long. They said, the geological conditions are complex. I said—then let the complex geological conditions witness what 'Shuguang Speed' is."

Laughter erupted offstage. Tang Guodong also laughed offstage—he had seen the test videos of those fully automated tunnel boring robots. The tunneling speed of those robots was more than three times that of traditional shield machines, and they did not require tool changes, did not require muck trucks, and the wear-resistant alloy on the cutter head used some material formula he had never seen before. He did not know where the formula came from, but as the Commander-in-Chief of the project, he only needed to know that it "worked."

Zhang Cheng's holographic image raised his right hand, pointing toward the direction of the foundation monument.

"I announce—Kra Canal, construction officially begins."

In the hinterland of the isthmus behind the foundation monument, the first batch of "Titan" class fully automated tunnel boring robots ignited simultaneously. The roar of their diesel engines drowned out the applause in the plaza, and a low, steady tremor came from the ground. At this moment, the first cut began to be made into the narrow Kra Isthmus between the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand.

Sihanoukville Port.

Three months ago, this was still a scene of depression, with all vitality drained by war. Masts of sunken fishing boats floated in the harbor channel, weeds half a person high grew in the container yard on the wharf, and the glass curtain wall of the customs building had one entire side shattered by the shockwave of a shell, patched with plastic sheeting that rattled in the sea breeze. The remnants of the Chen Feng Group—those low-level leaders who had luckily slipped through the net during the "cleansing" operation—had turned the port into their final refuge. They used leftover cash to bribe customs officials and stuffed unrecorded "employees" into refrigerated containers, attempting to smuggle them out of the country, thinking no one would notice.

They were wrong.

3:00 AM, Sihanoukville Port container yard.

Six optical camouflage shadows slid silently past the mountains of containers. The Night Owl personnel had been watching this place for seventy-two hours, recording every transaction, every rendezvous code, and every "ghost container" that left the port in the early morning without reporting to customs. The arrest list contained three hundred and twelve names, corresponding to three hundred and twelve arrest warrants issued by the Ministry of Justice of the new Cambodian government. These arrest warrants were not issued from the Parliament building in Phnom Penh—they were signed by Somsak personally, then audited by foreign consultants (all Death Soldiers) of the "Joint Investigation Committee," and finally executed in one fell swoop during the 3:00 AM raid.

On the fifth floor of the customs building, in the office of the former Port Authority Director.

When Port Authority Director Ying Sonari was hauled out of bed, he was only wearing a pair of pajama pants. Before he could shout "Who are you," his mouth was sealed by a hand wearing a carbon fiber glove. The soldier from the Shadow Blade deputy team, codenamed "Mantis," stuck a copy of the arrest warrant on his face. After waiting for him to clearly see the signature and seal on it, he moved his hand away and began to question: "In the past ten days, you have let out seven undeclared refrigerated containers. How many people were inside?"

"That was—that was legal cargo—"

"Legal cargo does not need to leave the port at 3:00 AM, nor does it need to have its refrigerated container temperature control system turned off." Mantis slapped a stack of printed bills of lading on the table. "Your own signature."

Sonari's eyeballs rolled back and forth between the arrest warrant and the bill of lading. He wanted to say "This is a forgery," but the handwriting characteristics on the bill of lading matched the signature samples he had on file in the customs archives perfectly—which the Night Owl technical team had retrieved directly from the system database for comparison.

"Thirty-one," he finally said, his voice as deflated as a punctured balloon.

Mantis handed Sonari over to the Cambodian National Police behind him. These police officers had also been vetted—some of them were former customs clerks who were willing to cooperate after being rescued from the Chen Feng Group's payroll by the Innovation Party, and others were new recruits hired from the Phnom Penh Police Academy. None of them had ever taken a penny from Chen Feng, but everyone had watched the full version of Chen Feng's interrogation videos in the training camp.

Meanwhile, at the old fishing pier at the southernmost end of the port, another Shadow Blade assault team opened seven refrigerated containers. After the door locks were cut by hydraulic cutters, cold air poured out like white mist. After the mist cleared, it revealed the interior of the containers—packed with people. Their lips were frozen purple, their skin clung to their ribs, and there was no panic in their eyes, only a dullness left after long-term wear and tear. They had been told "You will arrive at your new job in a few days." No one told them where the new job was, nor did anyone tell them what they would do after arriving.

A rotten pineapple canned label was still stuck to the container door, and under that layer of yellowing paper, the corner of an older label was exposed—previously, this container had been loaded with some export goods destined for the Middle East.

Seven human traffickers were captured before dawn, three of whom chose to resist. Resistance meant pulling out imitation pistols hidden in truck toolboxes and firing at the optical camouflage shadows. The bullets hit the container shell, and a ricochet grazed the calf of one of the team members. Subsequently, two electric shock darts pierced through the night, pinning them to the ground one by one. After the gunfire ceased, Mantis reported briefly via encrypted communication: "Zero casualties in armed resistance, all suspects captured."

At daybreak, the Cambodian flag was raised at the main wharf of Sihanoukville Port. Somsak arrived from Phnom Penh, personally announcing that the port was fully under the jurisdiction of the new government, and signed the "Sihanoukville Port 99-Year Joint Management and Development Agreement" with the Federation of Myanmar. The core terms of the agreement were simple: ownership of the port belonged to the Kingdom of Cambodia, and operational rights were taken over by the "Shuguang Port Affairs," a wholly-owned subsidiary of Myanmar's "Shuguang Group"; Shuguang Port Affairs was responsible for investing in the construction of automated container handling systems, intelligent customs clearance platforms, and port security systems; the Cambodian side would receive a fixed percentage of annual rent and a fifteen percent profit share; after the ninety-nine-year lease expired, all fixed assets would be transferred to the Cambodian side free of charge.