An emergency order!?
At those words, everyone, Aaron included, grew tense. Had something bad happened?
They all turned their eyes toward the signalman relaying the company commander's message.
The signalman continued:
"We've just received word that the National Liberation Alliance is in full retreat. The battalion commander has ordered our company to attack immediately and seize the enemy's forward positions. Accordingly, the company commander orders your unit to take over our company's current positions at once and consolidate the defensive line."
"???"
"!!!"
Everyone was stunned by the signalman's words.
Retreat?
How had the National Liberation Alliance gone into full retreat?
Most importantly,
How could they go into full retreat!
We'd only just taken over this position! We hadn't even fired a single shot! You bastards could at least wait until we'd fired a few shots before running away!
A few seconds later,
Blondin recovered his wits and hurriedly replied:
"Yes, sir! Our platoon will carry out the company commander's orders without fail!"
Meanwhile.
Dugagu, the presidential palace.
The conference hall.
Dozens of officials from the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Transport, and the Ministry of Construction, including the three ministers, sat in their respective seats, talking quietly.
"What is the president planning this time?"
"If even you don't know, how would I?"
"Good grief, all the middle and senior officials from three ministries are here!"
"It should be something to do with construction projects, right?"
"Should be? Isn't that obvious!"
The conference hall buzzed. It was not particularly loud, but it sounded as though hundreds or thousands of mosquitoes were flying around.
About ten minutes passed.
Creak-
Two soldiers in dress uniforms slowly pushed open the conference hall doors.
Then Sankara, Meyev, and several officials from the President's Office entered one after another.
When Sankara took his seat on the dais,
"Good day, Mr. President!"
All the officials rose to their feet and greeted him loudly.
"Uh..."
Even though he had experienced this several times already, Sankara still felt somewhat awkward.
It always gave him a sense of déjà vu from his school days, when a teacher would enter the classroom and announce the start of class, and a group of students would stand up and greet the teacher.
"Please, sit down."
Sankara waved a hand, signaling for everyone to sit.
Then he turned and spoke quietly to Meyev, who was sitting behind him:
"You can start taking the meeting minutes now!"
"Yes, Mr. President."
Only after finishing the preparations did Sankara open the documents he had brought. At the same time, he began scanning the officials seated directly in front of him.
In Sankara's field of vision.
Name: Adede Eric Nationality: Republic of Burkina Age: 44 Position: Ministry of Urban, Rural, and Housing Construction Management Rank: Ministerial Loyalty: 79
Name: Adolf Fernand Nationality: Republic of Burkina Age: 47 Position: Ministry of Transport Planning, Construction, and Safety Management Rank: Ministerial Loyalty: 82
After a few cursory glances.
"Ahem..."
Sankara cleared his throat and said:
"All right, this meeting is now officially in session!
"I called you here today because I intend to invest one trillion North African francs in our nation's infrastructure over the next five years!
"This includes, but is not limited to, roads, railways, power grids, and urban sewers... To better accomplish this goal, I've given it a name-
"The Five-Year Infrastructure Plan!"
As the saying went, if you wanted to get rich, build roads first!
But large-scale infrastructure development was a national undertaking that demanded an enormous investment and yielded returns very slowly!
Originally, Sankara had not considered undertaking large-scale infrastructure development.
Although he had fleeced the Soviet Union for an interest-free loan of ten billion rubles, which sounded like a lot, if he actually poured it into infrastructure, it would probably barely cover the bottom of the pit.
Because,
At the exchange rate, one trillion North African francs amounted to roughly 9.1 billion rubles!
How much would remain after subtracting 9.1 billion rubles from ten billion?
Not to mention that all sorts of other areas currently needed money more urgently than infrastructure did!
So,
There was no way Sankara could spend those ten billion rubles on infrastructure. He could only let the people's legs suffer a little longer and have them keep walking on muddy roads for a while.
However, after deciding to mine the gold deposits,
Sankara had both the confidence and the funds to pour money into the gold-devouring pit of infrastructure development!
Finance Minister Compaoré had already estimated next year's gold output.
Since mining was only just beginning, the workers were inexperienced, and equipment was in short supply, next year's output might be somewhat low. But even that would be worth 180 to 250 billion North African francs!
If they could reclaim all the areas controlled by anti-government forces before June of next year,
Then that figure could rise to between 250 and 350 billion!
And for total gold-mining revenue over the next five years, Compaoré's most conservative estimate was-
1.4 trillion North African francs!
If even the most conservative estimate was 1.4 trillion North African francs, what was the less conservative estimate?
The answer was 2.2 trillion North African francs!
The one trillion North African francs needed for large-scale infrastructure development was not even half that figure!
Of course, this was also because the Republic of Burkina covered only 274,000 square kilometers, merely the size of a medium-sized province in a certain great Eastern nation from his previous life.
Moreover, the large-scale infrastructure plan Sankara had proposed was actually only a preliminary plan.
If they truly wanted nationwide infrastructure coverage within five years, then one trillion North African francs would probably fall far short of what was needed!
Once the current Five-Year Infrastructure Plan was completed,
There would be another Five-Year Infrastructure Plan to follow, and yet another Five-Year Infrastructure Plan after that.
When the time came, Sankara intended to call those subsequent Five-Year Infrastructure Plans the "Second Five-Year Plan" and the "Third Five-Year Plan."
And by then, they would no longer be mere infrastructure plans!
"???"
"!!!"
Apart from Compaoré, who had known about it in advance, every official in the conference hall had their jaw knocked loose by Sankara's "Five-Year Infrastructure Plan."
After a brief moment of shock, the conference hall erupted!
"One trillion North African francs over five years???"
"Is this for real? How come I never knew our Ministry of Finance had that much money!?"
"One trillion to build roads, railways... Just thinking about it gets me excited!"
"Where has the president swindled money out of this time?"
"One trillion North African francs! In our country, President Sankara is probably the only person willing to put that much into infrastructure!"
"But did he call us to this meeting just to inform us? Issuing a document would have done the same thing!"
"Will our Ministry of Transport have full control over this trillion-franc infrastructure program?"
As the officials reacted with shock, excitement, confusion, and curiosity,
Sankara raised a hand to signal for everyone to quiet down, then continued:
"Of course I didn't call you here simply to inform you. I want you to speak freely at this meeting and share all your thoughts on this matter.
"Whether you're right or wrong, as long as you say it inside this conference hall, neither I nor your respective ministers will criticize or punish you! Good suggestions will be rewarded instead!
"If any of you have a distinctive insight, then after an investigation confirms that you are of good character and sufficiently capable, I could even appoint you directly as commander-in-chief of the Five-Year Infrastructure Plan!"
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