Chapter 3449
The Star Island Alliance launched its troops with great fanfare at the beginning of the year. The excuse they used was to eliminate pirates at the northern end of the Malacca Strait and maintain the safety of international waterways.
Although neighboring countries have many doubts about pirate gangs descending from the sky, the frequent local merchant ship crashes make it difficult for countries to express their opposition to Haihan's actions, otherwise they will easily be accused of harboring pirates and complicit in other crimes.
The scale of the Star-Island Alliance's troop deployment made all countries remain silent, and they did not dare to question why Haihan occupied three islands at the northern end of the Strait of Malacca after the war, and stationed special forces who were said to be one of Haihan's strongest combat forces. division.
There is obviously no big country in this area that can compete with Haihan, but Haihan has traveled thousands of miles to mobilize elite troops to station here. Who is he planning to deal with?
No one dared to raise this question without knowledge, because no one wanted to become Haihan’s next target.
Even the original owners of these three islands did not dare to claim that they would take back the islands from Haihan. They could only slowly negotiate through negotiations, hoping to exchange the ownership rights of the islands for some conditions beneficial to themselves.
In the eyes of neighboring countries, any unethical behavior against Haihan's ships may become the reason for Haihan to use force next time.
In order to avoid such a situation, many countries have put forward requirements for their own ships. When encountering Haihan ships at sea, they must maintain a "safe distance" to avoid misjudgment.
That's why Li Yuande could tell Qian Shaobao without any scruples that there was no need to consider safety issues in this area because all foreign ships that saw them would take the initiative to avoid them.
Qian Shaobao didn't expect that just a large-scale military operation could have such a great deterrent effect here.
Since there was no need to consider safety issues along the way, Qian Shaobao calmed down and observed the ships passing by on this waterway.
Before coming here, Qian Shaobao's understanding of the Strait of Malacca mostly came from data recorded in some written materials. For example, the total length of the strait is about two thousand miles, the narrowest point at the southeast end is about 70 miles, and the widest point at the northwest end is more than 700 miles.
The vast majority of merchant ships traveling between the East and the West use the Strait of Malacca. Only a few merchant ships go around the west side of Sumatra Island and enter and exit the South China Sea through the Sunda Strait adjacent to the city of Batavia.
Of course, there were also a very small number of Spanish galleons that sailed from Europe to South America and then crossed the Pacific from South America.
With the decline of Spain in Southeast Asia, many people have gradually forgotten that such a route exists. However, the fleet that took that remote route had to rely on ocean currents and could only go there once a year, which could only meet the Spanish colony's own transportation needs.
Therefore, at least 90% of the freight tasks in East-West sea trade have to pass through the Strait of Malacca. This is the real reason why Qian Tiandun and Roger went to war to gain control of the strait.
After the fleet set off from Star Island, the sea weather was good, and the sea surface twenty miles away could be clearly seen using a telescope.
Qian Shaobao stood on the deck, holding a telescope and observing intermittently for about an hour. During this period of time, he saw more than thirty ships, more than half of which were merchant ships with deep drafts, which shows the development of maritime trade and shipping here.
Li Dechang only watched for a while, then returned to the cabin to convene a meeting with the entourage he brought this time. No matter how dull he was, he had come to his senses after discussing the itinerary with Qian Shaobao yesterday, and knew that these followers were the people his father had arranged for him. As for how to build a team and carry out work after arriving at the destination, he probably has to listen to the opinions of these subordinates.
After all, these people are all elite soldiers and generals under Li Dagui, many of whom have been in the industry for longer than him. Li Dechang can learn a lot from them.
Li Yuande has been standing next to Qian Shaobao, explaining to him how to tell which country the sailboats on the nearby sea are from and how to confirm his position on the sea.
Since Qian Shaobao joined the army, he has served a lot of time in the army and has rarely had the opportunity to go to sea. With a professional like Li Yuande beside him to provide explanations, he quickly learned a lot of professional knowledge about navigation.
Li Yuande's fleet was almost fully loaded, so the speed was not too fast and remained at about six to eight knots throughout the journey. Moreover, the fleet does not sail directly to Phuket, and has to stop at many ports to unload cargo. Although Qian Shaobao is eager to go to Phuket early to meet his father, he can only follow the fleet's itinerary.
Of course, he also understood that his father made such an arrangement, probably because he wanted him to understand the customs and geographical environment along the way, and maybe he would be asked to test himself after meeting. Therefore, we should not be too relaxed along the way, we still have to seize the time to collect information.
The fleet departed from Sing Tao in the morning and arrived at the first port to berth on this trip - the Port of Malacca just before dinner time.
Malacca City, ruled by the Portuguese, was once the most prosperous city in the Strait. However, since Haihan settled in Xingdao, Malacca City's status has been declining year by year. Today, the cargo throughput of the port here is not even one-fifth of that of Star Island.
The fleet does not load and unload much cargo here, so only two ships dock at the port, while the remaining five are waiting near the coast.
Li Yuande consulted Qian Shaobao and Li Dechang for their opinions. Neither of them was interested in going ashore for a visit. This made Li Yuande relieved and avoided the risk of extraneous matters.
However, Qian Shaobao still asked Li Yuande to learn about the current situation of Malacca City, including its population, trade scale, as well as the garrison and city defense situation.
Li Dechang had obviously done his homework before setting off. After Li Yuande explained, he also added some details.
After all, Li Dagui was in charge of the intelligence agency in Sing Tao. Li Dechang could easily access all kinds of information about Malacca City, and most of it was more detailed than the information provided by Li Yuande.
After the docking transaction was completed, the fleet set off immediately, without even planning to spend the night here.
However, the next stop of the fleet is very close to the Port of Malacca, just across the strait, located in the Port of Dumai on the island of Sumatra.
Dumai Port is not a traditional trading port. In fact, before the Haihan people arrived there, it was just a nearly deserted coastal plain with neither a natural harbor nor a superior geographical location.
The reason why Haihan developed Dumai Port was entirely because the local area contained abundant underground oil resources. Its reserves far exceeded those of Taiwan's Chushankeng oil well, which was the main source of oil at that time.
It has been eight years since the Dumai Oilfield was put into production and it has become one of the most important industrial projects in the Sing Tao region. Part of the supplies carried by the fleet are to be sent to Dumai Port, and a batch of kerosene used for lighting is also to be shipped locally to Phuket.