Chapter 515 The storm is coming
In the Kra Isthmus Canal, the Sakura Kunihiro Shinmaru sailed outside the canal. Captain Junpei Ishioka looked at the pilot who climbed up from under the ship with a depressed look. By coincidence, this pilot was the same one he met last time.
"Hey, aren't you the one from Sakura Country? I remember you. Didn't you say you would never use our canal again in the future? Why are you back now?"
When the pilot saw Junpei Ishioka, he taunted him without hesitation.
"Baga."
Junpei Ishioka cursed in his heart. He had left the Kra Isthmus Canal, passed through the Strait of Malacca, and pulled the goods to the Persian Gulf, and then returned with a full shipload of goods from the Persian Gulf.
But who would have known that the Strait of Malacca was fine when we went there, but when we came back, the Strait of Malacca was blocked by kelp and became unnavigable, so Junpei Ishioka had to choose to take the Kra Isthmus Canal.
Because besides this canal route, taking other routes is too time-consuming and costly. Just for the extra miles, I don’t know how much it will cost in fuel.
Faced with reality, Ishioka Junpei could only run to the Kra Isthmus Canal, even though the navigation fee was twice as high as that of ships from other countries.
"Sir, I was offended a lot last time. Please give me your advice in the future."
Ishioka Junpei put on a smile and acted like a fool. Even if he was ridiculed, he had to endure it. Who would let others control the shipping chokepoint of the Eurasian continent?
"I don't have time to advise you. Just hand over the money and let you go. The navigation fee for your ship, the Koshin Maru, is 2.45 million U.S. dollars. Plus other expenses, the total is 2.58 million U.S. dollars. Just pay it."
The pilot handed a payment list directly to Ishioka Junpei, with the seal of Jieke Group printed on it.
"Wait a minute, this price is wrong, isn't it? Wasn't the navigation fee previously US$1,630,000? Why did it suddenly become so high? You must have calculated it wrong."
Ishioka Junpei's expression suddenly changed, this number was too high.
"You haven't read the book. Now the supply exceeds the demand. Our prices adjust according to the market. Is it strange that the price increases?"
The pilot said gloatingly, making Ishioka Junpei very angry.
Ishioka Junpei's face turned red and he said: "How can the canal fees be increased at any time? Aren't you afraid of causing public outrage?"
"Is our Jieke Group still afraid of this? Do you want to pay this money or not? If you don't pay it, don't use our Kra Isthmus Canal. Our canal is not built for you to use for free."
The pilot pointed arrogantly at Junpei Ishioka's nose. This arrogant attitude made Junpei Ishioka's face turn blue and purple.
But in the end, Ishioka Junpei could only stretch out his hand tremblingly, took the payment list, and said angrily: "Okay, we pay."
Although Junpei Ishioka really wanted to shout that he was being bullied, and then turn around and leave.
But if they do not use the Kra Isthmus Canal, their losses in shipping costs will be even greater.
Moreover, the delivery time was too long, and the failure to deliver the goods within the contracted time would lead to a breach of contract. The consequences would be disastrous. His work as a captain had been in vain for several years, and he did not know how much his salary would be deducted.
"It would be great to know each other sooner."
The pilot sneered, not having any good impressions of Ishioka Junpei.
Who makes the Sakura Kingdom always oppose the Jieke Group? During the civil war in Zen, it even sent troops to help the Zen government forces. No employee of the Jieke Group will have a good impression of the Sakura Kingdom.
After paying by swiping his card, Ishioka Junpei could only feel depressed. He obediently invited the pilot to the bridge and asked him to direct the ship through the Kra Isthmus Canal.
The Koshin Maru is traveling on a wide canal. The average width of the Kra Isthmus Canal is more than 700 meters, which is much wider than the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal. The water depth is more than 60 meters, even if a supertanker of 300,000 to 400,000 tons comes. , this canal is also large enough to carry.
On the shores of the Kra Isthmus Canal, which spans hundreds of kilometers, Ishioka Junpei saw three military bases and a warship supply port. There were armed helicopters and offshore patrol speedboats belonging to the Jacko Group, and occasionally he could hear High in the sky, the silhouette of a fighter jet passed by.
Ishioka Junpei guessed that there should be an air force base deployed near the canal.
The Kra Isthmus Canal is located at the southern end of the Indochina Peninsula. The air force base is deployed here. Johor, Java, and Temasek may have trouble sleeping and eating.
Because once a war breaks out, within a few moments, most of their land will be within the strike range of the Jieko Group Air Force.
Ishioka Junpei travels to various countries and knows that countries like Temasek that are close to the Jieko Group are very afraid of this behemoth moving south.
"It would be terrible if the Jieko Group is allowed to continue to expand!"
Ishioka Junpei murmured in his heart that Jieko Group now dares to rip off customers so hard in the Kra Isthmus Canal. If the other party controls the island countries in Southeast Asia again, the price of the canal will probably increase further.
Because unless they want to go around to the southern hemisphere, they have to pass through the Jieko Group's sphere of influence, and they have to pay the toll.
But Junpei Ishioka didn't even think about it. Now that the Jieko Group has grown bigger, it's not easy to restrict its development.
Like Ishioka Junpei, there are many shipping ships that have to accept blackmail from the Jieko Group because the Malacca Strait is blocked and cannot be navigated.
Even though they knew that the Jieko Group was robbing them, they still had to offer the money in tears.
With a large number of shipping vessels diverted to the Kra Isthmus Canal, Jieke Group has been reluctant to collect tolls.
Huge amounts of money are brought in every day. In addition to navigation fees, these ships plying the Kra Isthmus Canal also bring huge profits by docking at the canal terminal, maintaining and repairing the ships, replenishing resources, spending on crews, etc. In the past, several ships in Malacca This is how a country makes a lot of money.
Temasek is a small country with a population of several million, and its per capita GDP reaches US$90,000, which is higher than many developed countries. This is why.
But now that Malacca is congested, all this money has been made by Jieke Group.
Without the income from shipping, the three countries surrounding the Strait of Malacca, Johor and Java, are still okay. After all, one has a population of more than 30 million, the other has a population of more than 200 million, and the land area is tens of millions of square kilometers. They do not completely rely on the Strait of Malacca for life. There is also a lot of industrial income within the territory.
But Temasek is different. They only have a population of a few million, and their industries are relatively weak. The resources within the territory are scarce. Even fresh water cannot be self-sufficient and needs supply from Johor. It is a small island country.
The prosperity of Temasek's most important industries of oil refining, transit trade, and cargo warehousing all depend on the Strait of Malacca. Now that the Strait of Malacca is blocked, they have immediately lost most of their economic income, and it is difficult to import external resources.
Because they are an island country, the import of resources basically relies on sea transportation. Many cargo ships dare not approach it for fear of getting kelp tangled in the propellers. Without sea transportation, Temasek's domestic supplies immediately became in short supply, and food supplies began to be cut off. Temasek's small and barren land cannot afford to support millions of citizens. The limited land is not enough to build houses and open factories. In previous years, it relied on land reclamation to expand its territory, and all food depended on external imports.
As a result, after the Strait of Malacca was blocked for ten days, Temasek's domestic prices of food and other daily necessities began to skyrocket. The price of food increased dozens of times, all relying on the supply of Johor in the north.
Temasek is at the southernmost tip of Johor. The two countries are separated by water. There is a long lift in the middle. It was built directly from the seabed and is only one kilometer long. Materials from Johor are transported to Temasek through this long lift.
However, Johor did not take into account that Temasek was its neighbor and a member of the Thousand Islands Strategic Alliance. It was merciless in raising prices. If the prices of various daily necessities were not sold at more than ten times, it would be a disservice to the capitalists in Johor.
The rise in commodity prices and the blockage of the Strait of Malacca made millions of citizens in Temasek extremely dissatisfied with the incompetence and cowardice of the government. Massive protest marches began to appear on the streets, and soon swept the entire Temasek.
Under the control of thoughtful people, this demonstration soon turned into atrocities. Not only the civilians, but also the army began to rebel.
In just a few days, the original Temasek government collapsed. After the new Temasek leadership came to power, it immediately began to fully support the beautiful country.
Politically, economically and militarily, it is highly dependent on the beautiful country, and as if it is following its lead, it generously invites the beautiful country's troops to enter the country and build military bases.
At the same time, public opinion in Temasek that had been suppressed began to rise.
It had been intimidated by the Jieco Group before. At that time, the Temasek government directly issued a ban and was not allowed to point the finger at the Jieco Group for blocking the Strait of Malacca.
But now that the new government has come to power, all those controls have been lifted. Temasek officials have also taken the initiative to step down and publicly accuse the Jieco Group. The newly-appointed president shouted to the media: "In order to control the international golden waterway, they will not hesitate to maliciously release genetically mutated kelp. As a result of the paralysis of navigation in the Strait of Malacca, Jieke Group must give us justice.”
Temasek dares to speak so loudly, which is definitely not the courage that a small country should have.
What really gives Temasek the courage is the backer behind him, the beautiful country.
Almost at the same time, the beautiful country also announced that it would hold a large-scale military exercise with the Thousand Islands Strategic Alliance. Two aircraft carrier battle groups began to set sail and began to move towards the Indian Ocean.
The military exercise has not yet begun. International accusations against the Jieco Group have begun to surge, attacking the Jieco Group's political system, economy and practices from all aspects.
Anyone with a discerning eye can see that the beautiful country cannot accept the loss of the strategically important Strait of Malacca, and they have begun to take action.
The world's golden waterways have too many interests. In addition to economic interests, what is more important is the strategic effect brought by geopolitics.
In July 1956, Egypt announced that it would take back the Suez Canal Company, which was actually controlled by Britain and France. In October of the same year, Britain and France launched a military war against Egypt.
In 1989, when the time for the Panamanian authorities to take back the Panama Canal was about to come, the United States invaded Panama under the guise of human rights and anti-drugs, launched a blitzkrieg called Just Cause, and defeated the Panamanian army in only 15 hours. The defenders overthrew the Panamanian government and achieved the goal of occupying the canal, even if their own American justice was shattered.
It can be seen that the canal, a golden waterway, is a strategic location that big countries will not hesitate to use force to compete for.
The Strait of Malacca is the largest and busiest golden waterway in the world. Now it is blocked and replaced by the Kra Isthmus Canal. This maritime lifeline is controlled by the Jieco Group. This is unacceptable to beautiful countries.
To this end, the beautiful country began to actively mobilize troops. Two aircraft carrier battle groups came over, and a large number of soldiers were stationed in Luzon, Java, Johor and other countries through sea and air transport.
When answering reporters' questions, the new president of the United States, Jesmin, bluntly stated that the Kra Isthmus Canal is becoming a strategic waterway under the control of the Jieko Group, which will have a major impact on the national defense and security situation of the entire region.
Seeing that the beautiful country began to send troops to settle in, the countries in Southeast Asia also began to tremble.
With the support of the beautiful country, they began to speak out and accuse the Jieko Group of building the Kra Isthmus Canal.
However, what everyone did not expect was that before the beautiful country's aircraft carrier battle group arrived and the military exercises had not started, the Asan Kingdom took the lead in launching an attack because it was jealous of the interests of the Kra Isthmus Canal.
"The construction of the Kra Isthmus Canal forced free-navigating ships to pay high navigation fees. Many Chinese merchant ships were forced to pay fees. This behavior is suspected of violating my country's anti-monopoly law. This is an unfair monopolistic competition. Jieke Group is required to pay a fine of US$7.823 billion to my country within ten days. 》
On February 18, 2029, the three countries wanted to fine Jieco Group US$7.823 billion on the grounds that the Kra Isthmus Canal interfered with the natural resources of their Amanda Islands.
If the fine is not paid, the western entrance to the Kra Isthmus Canal will be blocked, making it impossible for any ship to pass through, let alone get out.
This sudden news shocked the whole world. Although Asan Kingdom often claimed that it wanted to be a "powerful and powerful country that leads the development of the world."
But no one would have expected to directly provoke the hot-tempered Jieko Group.
Including Meiliguo themselves, they did not expect that Asanguo would launch an attack so quickly, disrupting their original plan.
Ah Sanguo dared to say this, and naturally they had the confidence.
From the map, the Andaman Islands is an overseas enclave of the three countries. Its location is very important. The Strait of Malacca is located not far east of the Andaman Islands, and it is only a few hundred kilometers away from the Kra Isthmus Canal. A natural gate of the canal.
In addition, because the Andaman Islands have a deep-water port, the Andaman Islands have continuously strengthened the construction of military bases on the Andaman Islands over the years, established a Far East naval fleet, established the first tri-service joint command in the history of the Andaman Islands, and deployed 48 naval ships on the island. ship.
These ships include patrol boats, missile speedboats, landing craft, etc. There are also three infantry brigades, a military airport and other military facilities on the island.
With the existence of this enclave of Asan State adjacent to the Malacca and Kra Isthmus Canal, Asan State has doubled its confidence and feels that the Jieko Group is very likely to agree to their request.
If the Kra Isthmus Canal is a choke point on the sea, then their Amanda Islands are a sharp sword at the throat.
The Jieke Group blackmailed passing ships, and they, Ah San, blackmailed the Jieke Group and became rich together.
Before this, Asan Kingdom had done this kind of thing a lot. Large companies such as Apple, Xiaomi, Huawei, Qualcomm, Samsung, Google, Coca-Cola, etc. had all been fined by Asan Kingdom, and these companies were fined through extortion. , Ah Sanguo made a lot of money, and his mouth was full of food.
Now they have set their sights on the Jieke Group, because they are jealous of the astonishing profits from the Kra Isthmus Canal.
However, Ah Sanguo may have forgotten one thing. Although the Jieko Group is called a group, it is the overlord of the Indochina Peninsula with powerful military power.
Other companies will pay the money honestly to settle the matter, but there is no such thing as "honest duty" in the business competition of Jieke Group.
Because of the sudden disruption in the Asan Kingdom and the approach of the two aircraft carrier battle groups, the whole world has turned its attention to the area between the Amanda Islands and the Kra Isthmus Canal. Some people speculate that the Jieco Group will relent, or it is possible that the Jieco Group will choose to use force.
(End of chapter)