Chapter 3699
Although what Li Yuande said was just a joke, the group of pirates who sneaked into the Haihan fleet yesterday must have done many evil deeds of selling captured sailors and crew as slaves in the past. Now they are not lucky enough to kick them to the iron plate, and it is considered a crime to be buried at the gun of Haihan.
Qian Tiandun visited the local consul as usual and then promoted the weapons and equipment produced by Hai Han. However, the consul of Aden obviously does not have much authority in this regard, and only says that this matter needs to be consulted with Constantinople first.
Although this response is similar to Garral in Basra City, Aden is located four thousand miles south of Basra. This place is actually the frontier in the Ottoman country. The consul here will only wait for the approval of Constantinople after reporting the demand, and it will take longer than that of Basra.
However, Qian Tiandun did not have much expectations for this. According to what he saw at the port and when entering the city, the military level of the port of Aden can only be considered ordinary, which can be said to be far less than that of Basra, which shows that the military budget of the local garrison troops should be quite limited.
The warships from the cold weapon era docked in the port could only be around a hundred miles away, so it was no wonder that the pirates in the Gulf of Aden were so rampant.
But the consul's mansion was built magnificently, like a palace. I believe that many of the funds that should have been allocated to the army have turned into beautiful glazed tiles on the roof of the official residence. Even if the big man from Constantinople agreed to let Aden spend money on arms purchases, this budget might not be able to be exchanged for the guns and warships produced by Haihan.
The Portuguese came to Aden much earlier than Haihan, so there are actually many Portuguese industries running in this place.
However, as far as Qian Tiandun knows, the area that Portugal really controls is the African coast on the south side of the Gulf of Aden, where some small colonial settlements were built.
But there is no big port like the Port of Aden, and the trade atmosphere is not ideal, so some Portuguese businessmen are more willing to take root in the prosperous Port of Aden.
After staying in Port Aden for three days, he had basically figured out the situation here, so Qian Tiandun led his troops to set off to the next destination.
Qian Tiandun selected two inspection targets in the Gulf of Aden, one is the Port of Aden, and the other is a certain place on the coast of Africa, located five hundred miles west of Aden.
The second inspection target chosen by Qian Tiandun is the port of Djibouti in later generations. The port conditions in this place are not as good as those of Aden Port, but the location is quite good. It is located at the westernmost end of the Gulf of Aden, only 200 miles from the Mande Strait in the north, and also guards the key waterways entering and leaving the Red Sea.
And Djibouti also has an advantage that is that it is still a homeless land, neither sovereign state jurisdiction nor occupied and developed by foreign colonial armed forces.
This place should have been developed hundreds of years later, and because of its opening of military garrison rights, it has become the first choice for major military powers around the world to set up military bases in the Gulf of Aden.
However, when the Haihan fleet arrived here, there was still a desert near the coast, and there was almost no people at first sight.
After the vanguard of the Special Forces Division landed, they immediately sent cavalry to investigate more than ten miles of surrounding areas. As Qian Tiandun expected, no one was found living here.
There may have been some indigenous people here, but the few houses have been abandoned for a long time. It seems that they moved away from this place for some reason at least many years ago. "Sir, isn't there something strange about this place that makes the local people give up their homes and move away from this place collectively!"
Hearing Dong Shangyi's suspicion, Qian Tiandun gave a reasonable explanation: "The reason why the indigenous people here are gone is perhaps just because the slave traders are too ruthless in this area. In order to protect themselves, the people who have not been arrested can only leave here." Dong Shangyi suddenly said, "I forgot that there is still this... Sir!"
Compared with the Arabian Peninsula, which is covered with yellow sand on the other side of the Gulf of Aden, the natural environment on the coast of East Africa is much more comfortable. The area where Djibouti is located is an alluvial plain formed by the mouth of several rivers. Although it is not as lush as the Mesopotamian plains, there are quite a lot of vegetation, and there are even large patches of woods near the river.
For the Han people who have been passed down from farming, as long as there is water and land, it means that this place can reclaim wasteland and farmland and produce self-sufficient food. Having land and food is the most basic requirement for many people who are willing to move overseas.
So although this seems to be an undeveloped barren land, the public's optimistic view of this place is greater than that of Fubo Port, which Qian Tiandun personally selected.
After all, the oasis in Fubo Port is active and limited. Even if some farmland can be reclaimed in the future, the output will not support too much of the population, and most of them will have to rely on external supplies. It won’t take too long to achieve self-sufficiency in food, and the difficulty of development and construction will be less.
Of course, the problems faced by developing this place were actually the same as those in the early days of other overseas colonies, which was that there was not enough population base to provide the required labor and had to rely on the introduction of immigration from the outside world.
Although Qian Tiandun has always been not very interested in the migration and naturalization of alien immigrants, this place is far away from the Haihan local area. Even if there are mountains of gold and silver, it is unlikely that it will attract a large number of domestic immigrants in a short period of time.
So for this place, the more realistic population source is probably still located in the slave market in the Port of Aden and nearby areas.
Although the special forces division is large in the nearby reconnaissance area, the only place that is truly suitable for building a port is to reach north into a small peninsula in the Gulf of Aden. The peninsula curled westward, forming a natural safe haven. Although it is not as good as the port of Aden, it is also rare in the area near the Mande Strait.
After two days of short investigation, Qian Tiandun has basically demarcated the future ports, military camps and urban areas, but the next development and construction may take several years to achieve.
No mistakes, one song, one content, one in 6, one book, one bar, one reading!
Previously in Fubo Port, Qian Tiandun left only one engineer company and a small number of combat troops, but in this newly selected landing place, he appointed a battalion commander as the person in charge of the site.
This means that this place will have greater autonomy and more manpower, which shows that Qian Tiandun has high hopes for the development prospects here.
Same as in Fubo Port, Qian Tiandun also held a simple groundbreaking ceremony again and ordered people to carve stone tablets to record the deeds of Hai Han coming here.
As for the name of this new port, Qian Tiandun had already prepared it and named it "Zhenhai Port".
"Zhenhai Port? What a name!" Dong Shangyi shook his head and savored: "Zhenhai Fubo, echoing from afar, just in time to control the Arabian Peninsula in the middle. I am really far-sighted!"
Li Yuande also answered: "The Red Sea is three hundred miles north of this place. The so-called Zhenhai should mean polite the Red Sea! Sir, it seems that we are going to the Red Sea next?"
Qian Tiandun smiled and nodded, "That's right."