1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3659

Due to his limited vision and knowledge, Dong Shangyi certainly could not truly understand how important Qian Tiandun's plan was to Hai Han's long-term development. But he was certain of one thing: if the Special Warfare Division wanted to realize Qian Tiandun's plan, it would need to purchase a large number of sea vessels.

To establish a sea route of more than 10,000 miles between the east and west ends of the Indian Ocean, a large cargo fleet and an armed fleet are indispensable.

The Special Warfare Division's own shipbuilding capacity is obviously unlikely to achieve such a goal, and the need for external assistance will be very great. Even the current shipbuilding capacity in Fujian may not be able to meet the future needs of the Special Warfare Division.

Dong Shangyi asked tentatively: "General, if we want to start the next step of the plan, I'm afraid you will have to buy hundreds more ships, right?"

Qian Tiandun laughed and said, "Hundreds of ships? That's probably not enough! You see, to cover such a vast sea area, there must be at least thousands of ships!"

Qian Tiandun was so excited that he didn't plan to keep any military secrets from Dong Shangyi. He just compared it with the sea chart and said, "The area from Ceylon to the Strait of Malacca will require at least a fully equipped and manned fleet. The area west of Ceylon is even larger, and there are many bays along the mainland coast, so the fleet must be even larger!"

"As for the number of civilian and merchant ships, it must be at least dozens of times that of the armed fleet to meet the trade volume that will be created after we control these areas!"

"In this process, how many shipbuilding orders Fujian can receive from us depends on your own performance!"

Dong Shangyi also understood that Qian Tiandun was painting a big pie for him. If he wanted to get his hands on it, there would probably be many more conditions that needed to be negotiated slowly. However, this piece of cake was too big, so big that he could not refuse it.

Besides, the expansion plan Qian Tiandun mentioned was indeed a great undertaking that would create history. Once it was accomplished, it would truly go down in history. Even though Dong Shangyi was just an outsider, he couldn't help but feel excited and eager to participate.

"General, after I return to Fujian, I will do my best to build more ships for the Special Warfare Division!"

Hearing Dong Shangyi's somewhat excited statement, Qian Tiandun smiled calmly, as if this was completely within his expectations.

Gao Qiaonan, who was standing beside him, understood what Qian Tiandun meant and responded on behalf of Qian Tiandun: "Mr. Dong, we also hope to cooperate with Fujian Duoduo, but we must first see how the first batch of orders are executed before making arrangements for subsequent orders."

What this means is that we still have to look at Fujian’s performance before deciding whether to cooperate in this field for a long time.

However, this is reasonable. After all, the special warfare division may receive a terrifying number of shipbuilding orders in the future. If Fujian cannot provide a satisfactory price, production capacity and construction quality, Qian Tiandun will definitely not act until he sees the rabbit.

If Qian Tiandun had said these words in Phuket, Dong Shangyi might not have believed it. But when he came to Ceylon and saw with his own eyes that the special operations division was carrying out large-scale infrastructure construction on this remote island, this was enough to prove that Qian Tiandun was implementing his expansion plan step by step.

So he now has only one idea, no matter what, he can't let this big pie fly away. Qian Tiandun needs Fujian to show sincerity, so he will show enough sincerity.

"Please rest assured, as long as the Special Warfare Division needs it, whether it is supplies, personnel or other needs, I will advise Lord Xu to arrange it as soon as possible. As for the price, I will also persuade Lord Xu to give as much discount as possible, and I will ensure that I will not let you down."

With Dong Shangyi's authority, he could only say this much. After all, he was not the one who made the final decision in Fujian, and he could only make the final decision after he went back to consult Xu Yuzhuo. But Qian Tiandun obviously wanted to finalize the matter as soon as possible. He gave a slight wink, and Gao Qiaonan said, "Master Dong may not know that there is also a radio station in Hambantota Port, and we don't need to go back to Fujian to contact Master Xu. If there is no bad weather, the news can be transmitted to Fujian within a day."

When sending a telegram from Ceylon to Fujian, due to the long distance and the limited power of the radio station, the signal could not cover such a large area, so it had to be forwarded three or four times. It was considered quite efficient to deliver it within one day.

In fact, Dong Shangyi had thought of this, but sending a telegram from here back to Fujian had to go through the hands of others, so there would be no secrets at all, which made him somewhat concerned.

But he also understood the urging meaning in Takahashi Nan's words. If he refused at that moment, the other party might doubt his sincerity, so he had no choice but to agree.

So Dong Shangyi drafted a long telegram and asked Gaoqiao Nan to send it back to Fujian. Out of caution, Dong Shangyi still used some code words in the telegram that were not easy for outsiders to detect so that Xu Yuzhuo could confirm the authenticity of the content of the telegram.

In order to receive a reply as soon as possible, Takahashi Minami specially sent this telegram at the level of "urgent military intelligence", so that Xu Yuzhuo's subordinates did not dare to delay after receiving the telegram in the middle of the night, and knocked on the door to wake up Xu Yuzhuo who was sleeping.

When Xu Yuzhuo heard that it was urgent military intelligence sent from the special operations division base thousands of miles away, he thought that Dong Shangyi had caused a big disaster and was being pursued to Fujian.

He quickly asked his concubine to light the oil lamp to check the contents of the telegram. After a moment, his nervous expression was slowly replaced by a grin.

The concubine asked curiously, "Master is laughing so happily, must there be good news?"

Xu Yuzhuo was in a good mood. He pinched his concubine's face and said, "God bless our Xu family. We are going to be prosperous now!"

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Xu Yuzhuo was so excited that he forgot about his sleepiness. He asked his concubine to get some hot water for washing, and then asked his guards to summon his staff and capable men to report to the mansion for a meeting immediately, without caring that it was still pitch black in the middle of the night.

The meeting at the Xu Mansion lasted until the morning. Although Xu Yuzhuo was physically tired after staying up all night, his spirit was still extremely excited.

Xu Yuzhuo confirmed several things at the meeting. One was that Fujian needed to immediately set up a permanent agency at the Special Operations Division’s base to ensure the smooth implementation of many cooperation projects with Hai Han.

Second, the capacity expansion of Fujian shipyards needs to be further expanded, otherwise it will not be able to complete the shipbuilding orders that are pouring in from all over the country. At least in the next three to five years, shipyards, whether state-owned or private, must not stop expansion projects and recruiting staff.

Third, we must immediately begin recruiting and organizing immigrants specifically for the special operations division, and select specialized managers to accompany the immigrants to the colonial settlements to assist the special operations division in completing resettlement work.

Originally, Xu Yuzhuo prioritized this item after Luzon and Xingdao, but after hearing about Qian Tiandun's expansion plan, he realized that the special operations division should not be neglected in the slightest.

For the Special Operations Division, which has a very limited population base, the introduction of a large number of Fujian immigrants will greatly increase Fujian's influence on the Special Operations Division. Moreover, Qian Tiandun has already made it clear that after the two sides establish a cooperative relationship, the Xu family's children will also have the opportunity to join the Special Operations Division.