Chapter 3457
After all, Qian Shaobao is a soldier and has a far deeper understanding of military operations than Li Yuande. He knows that even if the opponent is weak, the special operations division still needs to be fully prepared.
For special operations divisions, winning is just a basic skill, but if they lose a battle, it will be a loss of their own reputation. Neither Qian Tiandun nor the soldiers of the special warfare division could accept such a result.
As the ace unit of the Haihan Army and the ever-victorious army respected by all people, the special operations division must be carefully prepared for every military operation it participates in, formulate careful combat plans, and adopt the attitude of a lion fighting a rabbit to ensure that every battle is successful. can end with victory.
Preparations before a war can often be more arduous than the combat operation itself. In particular, various heavy weapons and equipment, as well as ships, vehicles and other transportation vehicles, require professionals to spend a lot of energy to maintain them.
The current conditions in Phuket are still far from a fully functional island military base. For example, the shipyard responsible for the repair and maintenance of combat ships is still in the construction stage.
"If a warship is damaged in action and the local shipyard in Phuket has not been built, does it have to be sent to the shipyard in Star Island for repair?"
Qian Shaobao directly expressed his concerns. He believed that this was an issue that special warfare divisions must consider before going into battle. Damage to warships does not necessarily only occur during combat. Lack of maintenance of the ship, encountering bad weather, and a moment of carelessness on the part of the sailors may cause damage that needs to be repaired at any time.
Li Yuande said: "Although the shipyard has not yet been built, simple repairs and maintenance are not difficult... I will take you to have a look."
Li Yuande then took Qian Shaobao to the Phuket Shipyard, which was under construction.
The shipyard is located in the bay southeast of Phuket, only a mile or two away from the dock where the fleet docked yesterday. However, Qian Shaobao's attention was focused on his father yesterday and he did not notice the construction site near the port at all.
At present, there is only one dry dock that has been completed here, which can be used to repair ships with a displacement of about 500 tons.
Qian Shaobao noticed that although there were obvious signs of rushed work in this dock, the dock room was still hardened with concrete, and the construction process was not designed to save money and trouble.
The dock door of the shipyard is a floating box structure. The injection and discharge of seawater into the box-type dock door are used to control the floating, opening and closing of the dock door.
The device used for dock drainage is a centrifugal pump driven by a steam engine. The shipyard engineer who accompanied the visit said that it only takes half a day at the fastest to use this water pump to drain the water in the dock.
In addition to this already built dock, there are two other dry docks under construction not far away. Hundreds of migrant workers are wielding tools to dig into the large hole on the coast. The shape of the dock has begun to appear, and its size seems to be comparable to the already built dock.
Although the construction cost of such a dry dock is high and the construction period is long, its functions after completion are more comprehensive. It can be used to repair damaged ships or directly lay the keels to build new ships in the dry dock.
Engineers said that this is not the full picture of the shipyard. According to the plan, the shipyard will build at least four dry docks and five land slipways, striving to allow Phuket to build its own small and medium-sized military ships within two to three years. ability. "General Qian said that Phuket and the surrounding areas are rich in teak. Building a shipyard here will provide inexhaustible materials in the future. The row of low buildings in the north is the storage yard used to store wood."
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Qian Shaobao looked in the direction pointed by the engineer and saw a row of familiar buildings.
Storage yards with this appearance can be seen in any shipyard in Haihan. The wood used in shipbuilding needs to be dried in these low houses for a long time.
Qian Shaobao didn't know much about shipbuilding, but he happened to have visited the Xingdao shipyard before. At that time, Tan Tianlei also introduced him to teak, a shipbuilding wood produced in the tropics.
Teak is a fast-growing tree species. In a suitable tropical environment, it will grow extremely tall. There are many giant trees with a height of more than ten feet and a diameter of six or seven feet. This wood is extremely durable, not only resistant to seawater erosion, but also naturally resistant to termites and shipworms.
This kind of wood is mainly produced in South Asia and Southeast Asia and cannot be grown anywhere else. According to records from the Roman Empire, the shipbuilding industry in the Arab region of the Middle East relied on teak imported from the Indian Peninsula since the first century AD.
"The shipyard has currently reserved more than a thousand tons of wood. Once the drying process is completed, it can start building new ships. But what we lack most now is not the wood for shipbuilding, but skilled craftsmen."
Hearing the engineer's complaints, Qian Shaobao and Li Yuande couldn't help but smile bitterly on their faces.
Regarding the fact that there were too few shipbuilders, Li Yuande communicated with him on the way.
The engineers and craftsmen in charge here are basically people seconded from several major government-owned shipyards by the Ministry of National Defense. They come here to preside over the construction of the shipyard to perform their official duties, and after completing their tasks, they will leave one after another. With only a limited number of construction aids, it is of course difficult for the Phuket shipyard to operate at full capacity.
Although Li Yuande is also using Fu Ruifeng's influence to recruit shipbuilders with high salaries from the Fu Guang area, in remote areas like Phuket far away from the empire's mainland, it is obvious that not many people are willing to work here for a long time, so the recruitment progress is slow. Not ideal.
Judging from the current progress, the recruitment of technical personnel even lags behind the construction progress of the shipyard.
This means that after the shipyard is completed and put into operation, it is likely to be in the dilemma of insufficient technical personnel for a period of time. The Special Warfare Division's demand for new warships will probably depend on Xingdao and other domestic shipyards.
Qian Shaobao sighed secretly, but on the surface he still had to care passionately about the living conditions of engineers and other technical personnel in the local area and asked them if they had any needs.
Now we can only hope to appease the emotions of these employees and try to get them to contribute more locally. Even if we can bring out a few apprentices in Phuket, it will help the future operation of the shipyard.
After coming out of the shipyard, Li Yuande noticed that Qian Shaobao seemed to be in a low mood, so he comforted him and said, "Brother Qian, do you feel a little frustrated? In fact, there is no need for it. When we landed on the island a year ago, it was still desolate. Now the base on the island has begun to take shape, and the construction of the shipyard is also proceeding smoothly. Over time, General Qian’s plan will be realized here and it will become the bridgehead for the special operations division to enter the Indian Ocean.”