Chapter 3442
Qian Shaobao thought about it again and again, but finally did not express his speculation.
His knowledge of the unowned continent was limited to the extremely confidential world map. There was no evidence that Roger would be interested in that place thousands of miles away from Star Island, and would not hesitate to change the agreement with Qian Tiandun. plan to enter the Indian Ocean.
If you rashly express such an opinion, it is unlikely that you will get the approval of these people here, and they may even regard it as a whim.
And he is not sure now. He wants to know whether it is the group of people in front of him or the person behind them that he wants to know.
Qian Shaobao took the initiative to avoid the topic immediately and said that when he set off from Sanya, he took the Xingdao warship that had not completed the outfitting work. He wondered whether the two ships had successfully arrived at Xingdao.
Tan Tianlei responded: "The two ships have entered the local shipyard, and the cannons on the ships are being installed in the past few days. If you have nothing to do this afternoon, I will take you over to have a look."
Qian Shaobao said: "If I have time, I would also like to visit the local immigrant camps."
"Okay, no problem, let's arrange it!" Tan Tianlei readily agreed.
Even if Qian Shaobao did not take the initiative to go to these two places, Tan Tianlei had plans to arrange for him and Li Dechang to visit various official facilities on Star Island. This is not only the best way for them to learn about Star Island, but it is also an effective way to show their strength.
Although the Xingdao Region and the special forces division led by Qian Tiandun are in a cooperative partnership, there will still be competition between the two sides secretly as to who is in charge and who is the deputy, and who has a greater say.
The special operations division is obviously more powerful in amphibious operations, but when it comes to its foundation in the South China Sea, of course the Star Island Region has the upper hand.
For industries such as immigration, shipbuilding, and ports that require long-term operations to reach a certain scale, Xingdao's advantages make it difficult for latecomers to catch up. It is necessary for newly arrived local officials like Qian Shaobao to realize this situation. This is also one of the main reasons why Roger asked Tan Tianlei to arrange the visit.
The discussions that took place during this drinking party did not produce any substantive results. Due to the lack of supporting evidence, neither host nor guest could deduce the real reason for the delay in announcing the action plan.
But there is one thing that both sides agree on, and that is that the South China Sea Coalition's original plan to enter the Indian Ocean may be changed.
After the banquet, the attendees, including the Luo brothers, left one after another. In the end, only Tan Tianlei was left to accompany Qian Shaobao and Li Dechang.
Tan Tianlei asked the store owner to clear the banquet, served hot tea, and rested here for a while. Fortunately, the nature of the banquet at noon was for discussion and exchange. Everyone didn't drink much. They could recover after a short rest and it would not affect the afternoon schedule.
The three of them then took a carriage and headed to the Xingdao Shipyard not far away.
Compared with several old shipyards on Hainan Island that Qian Shaobao is familiar with, as well as the Camlan Port Shipyard that he had visited before on the way, the shipyard in Xingdao obviously has a much shorter history and its technical strength is inevitably slightly weaker. . On Xingdao, which has an extremely limited area, nearly 10,000 acres of land have been designated as shipyard land. Although only about half of the area has been developed and used so far, it can be seen that the Singdao authorities clearly have high hopes for the development prospects of this institution.
All the shipyards that Qian Shaobao saw in his field of vision were occupied by new ships with different progress, and most of the ships whose outlines were beginning to appear were warships.
The new ship they took when heading south did not enter the shipyard, but docked directly at the shipyard dock to complete the final outfitting process.
Tan Tianlei also specially took them on board the ship to have a look. Although they arrived at Xingdao only a few days later, most of the artillery on the warship had already been installed. It can be seen that the original request for Sanya Shipyard to deliver these two ships in advance was indeed Has extremely sufficient confidence.
But like most overseas shipyards, Singtao Shipyard is not qualified to build Majesty-class warships, so it can only place orders and queue up at domestic shipyards.
Tan Tianlei vaguely revealed his resentment about this policy in his words, believing that this rule has greatly slowed down the expansion of the Xingdao Navy.
But Qian Shaobao knew very well that the purpose of establishing this rule by the Executive Committee and the Ministry of National Defense was to limit the expansion speed of overseas troops and prevent overseas autonomous regions far away from the center of power from having too large a military force and spawning uncontrolled military forces. ambition.
However, this restriction mainly starts from the original drawings and the supply of key parts, but there are no corresponding regulations on shipyard conditions, such as construction machinery, dock size, etc. Therefore, even the Xingdao Shipyard with corresponding shipbuilding capabilities also has two large shipyards that can accommodate Majesty-class warships.
This is also done to facilitate the maintenance and repair of Majesty-class warships in overseas shipyards. In real critical moments, the shipyard's production capacity can be temporarily increased according to actual needs.
Like most shipyards in Haihan, the chief engineer of Xingdao Shipyard is also Zhang Tiangui's protégé, and his disciples and disciples occupy more than half of the technical positions in the shipyard.
"In previous years, the Sing Tao Navy's warships were rotated between new and old ones. In fact, there was no need to ask domestic shipyards for help. The production capacity of the local shipyards could meet the needs of the troops. However, after the military operations at the beginning of the year, the Sing Tao Navy needed to quickly expand the size of the fleet, and there was still money. The general’s shipbuilding demand has far exceeded the production capacity of local shipyards, so shipbuilding orders have been transferred to China.”
Listening to Tan Tianlei's introduction, Qian Shaobao was thinking about the situation on his father's side.
In the past, when stationed in the Northern Region, there were Zhifu Island Shipyard, Lushun Shipyard, and the later-completed Qingdao Port Shipyard available, so there was basically no need to worry about the production capacity of military ships. But after coming to the south, the conditions in this regard were not so satisfactory.
The Xingdao Region still has its own shipyards that can meet some of the needs, but the special warfare division has no foundation in the South China Sea. All shipbuilding orders can only be completed by others, and there is no priority treatment at all.
This is not good news for a force known for its amphibious operations. And if there is some kind of disagreement between Qian Tiandun and Roger, then shipbuilding is likely to become a sore point for Xingdao to control the special warfare division.
If this problem is to be solved, there must be shipyards with a certain level of technology in areas controlled by special operations divisions.
Qian Shaobao still doesn't know how his father Qian Tiandun plans to solve this problem, but he feels that with his father's foresight, he should have realized this a long time ago, and maybe he was already making preparations for the shipyard when he decided to go south. .