Chapter 3698
After dealing with these pirates who were seeking death, Qian Tiandun immediately summoned his officers to hold a meeting again. Although these pirates are not enough to pose a threat to the armed fleet, if Haihan wants to open up maritime routes in and out of the Gulf of Aden in the future, merchant ships will inevitably be targeted by pirates, so corresponding defense measures must be prepared in advance.
The safer method is of course to assemble merchant ships in a fleet every time, and then the military will send ships to escort them. Even if there are ten or eight ships like this, it cannot withstand the bombardment of the Haihan warships.
But this is just a method to treat symptoms but not root causes. If you want to completely eliminate hidden dangers, you can only use the practice in the Fuguang Sea that year, that is, sending troops to clear out pirate nests in nearby areas and destroying all pirate gangs.
However, the Gulf of Aden is not as good as the Fuguang area. Hai Han is not familiar with the place and does not understand the language. It is not easy to track down the traces of pirates.
Qian Tiandun also knew that the bandits in this sea area were a long-standing problem. Even the time and space he had traveled through time could not be completely solved. Several naval powers had to deploy warships in this sea area for many years to carry out patrol and escort tasks. They couldn't come at the moment, so they could only formulate an escort plan first and strengthen their vigilance against pirates.
In the inspection plan formulated by Qian Tiandun, there are two predetermined goals in the Gulf of Aden, both of which can be used as alternative locations for future destinations.
The day after the fleet entered the Gulf of Aden, it arrived at its first target location, located in the Port of Aden at the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula.
This place is only more than 300 miles away from the Mande Strait, which connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. As for why you don’t choose a place closer to the strait, and even just find a target for inspection on the coast within the strait, Qian Tiandun also explained to his subordinates.
First of all, there are many reefs and shallows in the strait, with strong offshore winds, and there is no natural bay suitable for building ports. The Mande Strait means "Gate of Tears" in Arabic, which means that the local navigation is difficult, which makes sailors and passengers coming and going here cry due to fear. It can be seen that the local area is not an ideal place to settle down.
Secondly, although the Port of Aden is more than 300 miles away from the Strait of Mande, this place is a rare natural port in the entire Gulf of Aden and even the entire Arabian Peninsula. Its bay is embraced by two peninsulas and has a natural safe haven. The area inside the bay is huge and there is enough space for future development.
Establishing a stronghold in the Gulf of Aden can also control the Strait of Mande.
Of course, this place is not all its advantages. The biggest problem is that this port of Aden is not a borderless place. After all, for such a good place that can be called a Feng Shui treasure land, the local rulers will certainly not let it be abandoned.
The opening of the Port of Aden can be traced back to the reign of the Kingdom of Himuyere in the third century BC. After that, whether it was the Arabs, Romans, Persians, Portuguese, or the Ottomans who had recently taken over the rule of the rule, the successive rulers attached great importance to the Port of Aden and used this place as an important bridge connecting Europe, Asia and Africa.
The actual situation seen after the fleet arrived was as expected. The Port of Aden can be regarded as a prosperous port. Regardless of the size of the port and the number of ships entering and leaving the port, it is much better than the ports that were inspected in the Persian Gulf before.
The population living in the surrounding areas of Port Aden has tens of thousands. In terms of population density of the Arabian Peninsula, this place can be regarded as a medium-sized city.
At present, Port Aden is under the jurisdiction of the Ottoman Empire. During his visit to Basra, Qian Tiandun had already considered the follow-up inspection itinerary and specially consulted a customs clearance document from the consul Garr, which played a role in handling the procedures for the fleet to enter Port Aden. After seeing the customs clearance document signed by the consul of Basra, the local government did not make things difficult for the Haihan fleet, allowed them to enter the port and arranged special anchorages and docks.
The location of the Port of Aden is far more valuable in the maritime trade field than that of Basra, but the surrounding environment is not as good as that of Basra, located in the Mesopotamian plains. The boundless deserts and wastelands have greatly reduced the grain output here, thus limiting the population growth here.
If there were one or two big rivers in this place to ensure sufficient arable land and grain output, coupled with this historical regional port, a Linhai city with a population of one million would have long appeared.
Although Qian Tiandun had some ideas about Aden Port, he gave up when he saw the actual situation here.
Under the existing conditions of Aden Port, if Haihan takes over the operation, it will undoubtedly save a lot of trouble in the early development process, but the Ottomans will definitely not sit idly by. After all, this is not an undeveloped remote place like Haisaib. Fighting for control here will inevitably lead to war, and this is not a situation that Qian Tiandun is happy to see.
The local government also treated the fleet with courtesy, allowing the fleet to dock in the port and obtain supplies, which made Qian Tiandun unable to stand up to find the other party.
The inspection itinerary for the Port of Aden was no longer simply for the purpose of occupation, but instead for the investigation of the people's livelihood and trade situation here.
As for military affairs, although the Ottoman State has troops stationed here, it is definitely not enough to see in front of the special combat division. However, the Ottoman country has the advantage of home court and can continuously obtain reinforcements and supplies from the rear, while Hai Han is currently unable to do so. Once the supplies carried by the fleet are exhausted during the battle, he can only take the initiative to evacuate.
During the inspection, Qian Tiandun could feel the attitude of local Ottoman officials, almost the same as Garral in Basra City. He did not feel any repulsiveness or fear of the arrival of the Hai Han people. He did not know whether this was the confidence brought by the national strength or whether it was determined that a country like Hai Han, which had high mountains and distant waters would not pose a real threat to his country.
Li Yuande and Dong Shangyi praised the trade market in Aden because they can indeed buy some relatively cheap goods, such as some handicrafts produced from Arab tribes. In the past, these gadgets were sold to East Asia for sale at least several times the price of the local market.
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There are also black slaves from Africa. The prices here are much lower than those in Basra, Goa and other places. They can even be purchased in whole ships. It can be seen that the scale of the slave trade is really quite large.
And the management of the slave market is extremely loose. As long as you complete the simple registration procedures and pay transaction tax after the transaction is completed, anyone can sell the "goods" they bring here as a slave owner.
During the special warfare division's stationed in Sing Tao in the past two years, Qian Tiandun also had some knowledge of this special trade. The price here is much cheaper than the quotes made by slave traders to Sing Tao.
After visiting the slave market here, Li Yuande joked: "If I had known, I would have kept the pirates captured the day before yesterday and sold them to the port of Aden. I could also exchange some cattle and sheep for my brothers to have a tooth sacrifice!"