Chapter 3232: Casablanca

The next day, Ye Chen and Li Yalin used the new identities prepared for them by Helena and flew directly from Northern Europe to Lisbon, the capital of Portugal.

Their destination this time was Casablanca, the largest city and largest port in Morocco.

Many people know this city because of the classic film of the same name; it is also one of the few modernized cities in Africa and can at least rank in the top ten on the continent.

On the plane to Lisbon, Ye Chen sat in a semi-private cabin in first class, covered himself with a blanket, and continuously practiced the hand seals he had learned under the aurora, steadily increasing the spiritual energy within his body.

After arriving in Lisbon, Ye Chen felt that his internal spiritual energy had increased significantly, so he secretly decided that once his spiritual energy rose a bit more, he would begin infusing the ring Lin Wan'er had given him with spiritual energy; since the ring might have further uses, he would simply pour spiritual energy into it until full, to see what would happen.

If it were in the past, Ye Chen might not have been willing to try continuously feeding spiritual energy into this bottomless pit.

But now he had confidence, because that set of hand seals could continuously generate more spiritual energy, giving him an endless source, so he naturally would not begrudge this bit of spiritual energy.

After arriving in Lisbon, to avoid leaving traces for future investigation, Ye Chen and Li Yalin disguised themselves, adopted another false identity, and took a small aircraft from an airline to fly straight across the Strait of Gibraltar, arriving in Casablanca.

Upon arriving in Casablanca, the two posed as Portuguese-Chinese merchants and booked two rooms at the best hotel near the Casablanca port.

What surprised the two was that there were far more Chinese in Casablanca than they had imagined.

Especially at the hotel where they stayed, Chinese made up at least one-third of the guests, and they all appeared to be successful people and elites.

Li Yalin fully utilized his detective skills as a criminal investigator, actively chatting with several Chinese in the hotel lobby for a while, and thus figured out why there were so many Chinese here.

After understanding the situation, he said to Ye Chen: "Mr. Ye, now I understand why there are so many Chinese here—the phosphate ore that Morocco produces abundantly is actually a key raw material for manufacturing lithium iron phosphate batteries; many domestic power battery and new energy vehicle companies have invested and built factories here to produce lithium iron phosphate batteries locally, and it is said to be at least 30% cheaper than shipping raw materials back to China for production."

Ye Chen couldn't help but smile and said: "Let me ask my second uncle later to see if the power battery company they previously acquired had any investments here."

"Probably not," Li Yalin said: "I used to follow your grandfather and others domestically for investment inspections; the power battery company they invested in mainly produces ternary lithium batteries, not much lithium iron phosphate, as they say lithium iron phosphate has low energy density and is cheap, mainly suitable for mid-to-low-end vehicle models."

Ye Chen lightly nodded and said: "But since there are so many Chinese here, it's actually easier for us two to hide our identities; locals seeing us won't find it strange, and no one will pay us too much attention."

He then added: "Once it gets dark, we'll first try to find a way into the port to take a look."

Li Yalin asked him: "Port management is usually quite strict; can we get in easily?"

Ye Chen smiled and said: "Don't worry, I have a way."

After saying that, he told Li Yalin: "Inspector Li, let's go to our rooms first—I booked the highest floor here, so we should be able to get a general view of the port."

The two completed check-in, took their room cards, and arrived at their rooms on the twenty-second floor of the hotel; their rooms faced south and north, with the northern room offering a full view of the entire port.

Upon entering the living room of the northern room, the two stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Casablanca Port; Li Yalin immediately saw at least twenty or more railway tracks in the southern part of the port's rail freight yard, and as he looked east along the tracks, he said to Ye Chen: "As I understand, Casablanca is the economic lifeline of all Morocco; most of the phosphate mined in the country is shipped from here to destinations worldwide, and Duke Mining of the Broken Clear Society also exports its phosphate from here overseas—so it seems phosphate is transported directly by rail to the docks."

Ye Chen asked: "Have you checked their phosphate export situation?"

"I have," Li Yalin replied: "AI checked the import-export data of Moroccan phosphate companies, and Duke Mining does not appear in it; if Duke Mining does not handle exports itself, then their capacity must be assisted by other companies handling their export business."

He continued: "To clarify where Duke Mining's phosphate goes, AI screened all import-export companies operating in Casablanca Port, locked onto one import-export firm whose main business is exporting phosphate to enterprises worldwide, while they themselves own no phosphate mines—essentially acting as an agent for some phosphate companies' export operations; AI analyzed this company's customs data, and its annual export volume exceeds Duke Mining's production, suggesting that besides Duke Mining, it likely also agents exports for some smaller enterprises."

"Besides that, this company also does a small amount of import business, importing various types of mining machinery and equipment, then selling them within Morocco; though they call it sales, they actually only supply equipment to Duke Mining."

Ye Chen curiously asked: "Is this also something AI found out?"

"Yes," Li Yalin said: "This import-export company had previously imported a batch of Liebherr heavy mining equipment from Germany year by year; AI, after restoring the Skyline database, confirmed that this batch of Liebherr heavy equipment was all working in Duke Mining's open-pit mining area—this brand of equipment has not been found in other major enterprises, and for other companies, Liebherr equipment might still be too costly."

He added: "AI also discovered in their customs records many food imports from the United States, mainly beef, wheat, and vegetables; I suspect these foods, after customs clearance, are secretly transported to Duke Mining."

Ye Chen said: "Food can be sourced locally; importing it from the U. S. seems unnecessary unless Duke Mining's consumption far exceeds normal levels, so they don't want to raise suspicion."

"Exactly," Li Yalin said: "They are quite careful in this regard—there are already several local food suppliers, so dispersing demand makes it hard for ordinary people to pinpoint their exact food consumption; combined with a portion of secretly imported food, they can basically achieve seamless operations—only they certainly didn't expect that an AI model with heaven-defying computing power would continuously analyze all their data and information from multiple dimensions."

Ye Chen pointed toward the railway direction and asked: "Inspector Li, since Duke Mining's phosphate is transported in via this railway, if I want to smuggle the Broken Clear Society's death warriors out of Duke Mining, this railway should also be a necessary route; I think we can use this railway line as a breakthrough point and focus our efforts there."

Li Yalin agreed: "AI has analyzed several production segments of Duke Mining—the mining area extracts raw ore, then transports it via trucks and conveyor belts to Duke Mining's refining plant near the mining area; after refining, the phosphate is loaded onto railcars in the refining plant's rail yard and then directly shipped to the port; whenever Duke Mining needs to transport phosphate, it must send empty trains to the loading point; if we can obtain the operational videos of these freight trains, we should be able to figure out the basic process of trains entering Duke Mining, and through the video, we should be able to see if there are any loopholes we can exploit."

Ye Chen nodded and said: "From here, I see the railway does not directly connect to the dock; after these goods are transported by rail to the port, they need to be unloaded first, then go through a series of customs export procedures before entering the port's cargo handling area; we'll sneak in tonight and study this thoroughly—silently moving people from the rail yard unloading zone to the dock unloading zone; if we can achieve this step, we might have a chance to get everyone out."