Chapter 296 - 296: Strategic Direction

That evening.

Li Qingye had already left Thonburi and appeared several hundred kilometers away in the southern Tannantawong Mountains.

With the jurisdictions of the regional branches redefined, the regional managers and other senior executives needed to be reshuffled.

During an internal video conference.

Li Qingye glanced at everyone present. "Complete your handovers as soon as possible. Next, we need to deal with the pressure from the major world powers."

"Yes, Chairman."

After the reorganization, the heads of the regional branches were as follows:

Carmen Lopez was appointed Manager of the Luzon Branch.

St. was appointed Manager of the Ceylon Branch.

Wunan was appointed Manager of the Siam Branch.

Wu Yebao was appointed Manager of the Malacca Branch.

Harry Fernando was appointed Manager of the Spice Islands Branch.

Long Yuanzhi was appointed Manager of the Borneo Branch.

Mang Wenshan was appointed Manager of the Java Branch.

Ma Chi was appointed Manager of the Hongsawaddy Branch.

Wu Gang was appointed Manager of the Assam Branch.

Additionally, for the five special city-level branches: Li Gu Ming would continue to manage the Xingdao Branch, Bawei would be responsible for the Thonburi Branch, Mao An for the Yangon Branch, Xu Yingjie for the Divine Island Branch, and Zhang Wei for the Manila Branch.

Qiu Yingle, Gafei Fernando, Fang Xincheng, Xu Yingming, and Liu Zhifan were all transferred to serve as department heads at the Homo Sapiens Company headquarters.

Among them, Fang Xincheng was in charge of the Supervision Division, Liu Zhifan was in charge of the Internal Affairs Division, Xu Yingming was in charge of the Commerce Division, Gafei was in charge of the Internal Security Division, and Qiu Yingle was in charge of the Entertainment Division.

Chen Jianxiong remained head of the Foreign Affairs Division, while the Internal Affairs Division was taken over by Bagheera, the former leader of the Blood Blade Special Team.

After arranging the managers for the various regional branches and the heads of the headquarters' departments, Li Qingye kept the department heads behind to discuss some upcoming strategic issues.

"The three-way stalemate in Asia and the Western Pacific will be difficult to break for the time being. What are your thoughts?"

Everyone looked at the holographic map projected before them. It would be very difficult to continue expanding in Eastern Asia and the western Pacific Ocean.

Otherwise, it wouldn't just be America that would get desperate; the other major powers would also join forces with them.

Qiu Yingle put down her pen and suggested, "What about cultural infiltration and information warfare? We have a huge advantage in this area and are already in an invincible position. I feel there's a lot we can do."

"I agree with Ms. Ying Le's idea, but I'd like to add one point," Liu Zhifan continued. "We should use our mineral and energy resources to influence the entire East Asia Region, making them highly dependent on our company for energy and minerals."

Baron Dutte, who was in charge of the Mining Division, pulled up a file of the company's internal mineral reserve data and shared it with everyone. Pointing to the data list, he explained:

"These are the company's current mineral reserves."

Oil reserves: 16.3 billion tons (including 2.4 billion tons of conventional oil and 13.9 billion tons of shale oil).

Natural gas reserves: 24 trillion cubic meters (including 11 trillion cubic meters of conventional natural gas and 13 trillion cubic meters of shale gas).

Annual fermented methane production: 167.3 billion cubic meters.

In terms of energy reserves alone, Homo Sapiens Company was not lacking in energy, and there were still many undeveloped and unexplored areas of the seabed.

In addition, Homo Sapiens Company's development of hydropower, geothermal, and nuclear power has been very rapid.

For example, the potential power generation from volcanic geothermal energy on the Luzon Islands, Java Island, and Sumatra Island could reach 8 to 12 million megawatts.

The combined hydropower potential of Assam, Hongsawaddy, and Siam could reach 210,000 megawatts.

Liu Zhifan got straight to the point. "In terms of energy, we can use the Malacca Strait, Lombok Strait, and Kra Canal to choke off East Asia's energy import channels from West Asia. We don't need to waste our own precious reserves."

"Then let's look at other minerals," Baron Dutte said, pointing at the list of mineral reserves.

Currently, Homo Sapiens Company's mineral reserves are: 75.2 billion tons of iron ore (average grade of 32%), 3.6 billion tons of copper ore, 5.2 billion tons of bauxite...

Reserves of various precious metals, rare metals, noble gases, and rare earth minerals were also substantial.

Liu Zhifan reviewed the intelligence reports.

"Lithium and helium prices have soared recently. The company has discovered several deep lithium deposits in the Assam Region and has also mastered the technology to separate helium from volcanic gases. We can start a price war, artificially create price fluctuations to suppress Western mining companies, and then have our shell corporations find a way to acquire them."

"I will find a way to coordinate on that front," Chen Jianxiong interjected.

Liu Zhifan continued, "Also, we need to prepare for a food war. East Asia is a core region for food imports. As long as we can control their food supply, they won't be able to stand up to us."

Xu Yingming reminded them, "The food supplies from America, Lucia, the South American Redwood Federation, and Kangaroo Country are a major threat."

Everyone was crystal clear on the importance of food.

Li Qingye, of course, had no intention of holding back. He said, "We've already run a test on North American soybeans to deal with various food-exporting regions. All that's left is to draw up a detailed plan."

Trying to blockade Homo Sapiens Company's foreign trade was simply a pipe dream.

Homo Sapiens Company could easily create an artificial food shortage, thereby forcing regions that weren't self-sufficient to obediently "open their doors."

For example, East Japan and South Korea.

Or Xiba, Dongba, Persia, the Suez Republic, and Saudia Arabia.

For these regions, which are highly dependent on food imports, losing the supply from North America, South America, and Lucia would be an absolute catastrophe.

Homo Sapiens Company, firmly established in Southeast Asia, had a massive food production capacity.

The Hongsawaddy Branch alone could produce 100 to 200 million tons of food a year. Including the other regional branches, producing 500 to 600 million tons of food annually was more than achievable.

If Homo Sapiens Company were to activate the Lightless Farms in its various underground base cities, food production could easily reach over a billion tons.

With such a good hand to play, not waging a food war would be a real waste.

Using food crops as a battering ram, they could shatter the major powers' trade blockade.

After all, people have to eat. They can endure lacking other daily necessities, cars, or houses for a while, but no one can endure hunger.

The group discussed for over eight hours.

During that time, they formulated a series of strategic plans.

These plans covered areas such as culture, entertainment, industrial chains, energy, minerals, food, semiconductors, automobiles, shipbuilding, healthcare, and transportation.

They also determined the next direction for expansion.

At this stage, Homo Sapiens Company would face enormous resistance expanding its market northward and eastward. These two directions had to be temporarily set aside in favor of using "soft knives" to gradually destroy the opposition's resistance.

Expansion to the west and south, however, would be relatively easier.

To the west lay South Asia and West Asia; to the south, Oceania. They could also expand southwest toward Africa.

Diego Garcia Island, which Homo sapiens had previously acquired from America, was nominally an island of the Seven Sisters Islands.

To the southwest of the Seven Sisters Islands lay Mad Island, the Moon Islands, the Maxlin Islands, and French Saint-Denis Island.

Before Homo Sapiens Company, these weaklings were not even worth mentioning.

The vast Ceylon Ocean provided Homo Sapiens Company with immense strategic depth to the west.

Even though America had recently been strengthening its military support for Tianzhu and Australia, it would be difficult for them to compete with Homo Sapiens Company in the Ceylon Ocean.

The entire Ring Ceylon Ocean Region was Homo Sapiens Company's next key target for expansion.

Just after Li Qingye concluded the small internal meeting, Sangjibada Laiyal appeared in the room. "Sir, Prince Jipu of Saudia Arabia wants to purchase a batch of drones and missiles. The Military Industry Division is asking for your opinion."

"We can consider selling them a batch of downgraded models."

Sangjibada Laiyal continued, "He also wishes to invite you to Saudia Arabia, Sir."

"Refuse him directly. Decline all similar invitations in the future," Li Qingye said with a wave of his hand.

Sangjibada Laiyal nodded. "Yes, I'll relay the message at once."