1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3688

The deal with the Khalid family was a good start for the arms trade in this trip to the Persian Gulf. There were no sharp conflicts between these Arab tribes and Portugal, so Qian Tiandun did not have to worry about selling all kinds of weapons to them as he did with Persia.

Five hundred guns and four cannons are just a tiny fraction of the amount of arms exported by Hai Han every year. However, Qian Tiandun is well aware that the potential for arms sales in the Middle East is huge, no less than that in East Asia.

There are at least eighty tribes and families, big and small, on the Arabian Peninsula. If any of them start purchasing advanced weapons produced by Hai Han, others will soon follow suit. Once the Khalid family, the first to try, reaps the benefits, they won’t have to worry about a shortage of buyers in the future.

That is why Qian Tiandun took the initiative to provide personnel training services to the Khalid family, allowing the Khalid family to select a group of young soldiers to go to the special operations division base in Phuket for three months of combat training.

Based on past experience, Qian Tiandun can be sure that these Arabs who have been tempered in the Hai Han army will not only have military qualities far superior to their colleagues, but will also be likely to become supporters of Hai Han’s military power. Perhaps the best among them will become the military commanders of the Khalid family in the future.

Similar plots have been repeated countless times in East Asian countries over the past thirty years. Many of the middle and senior generals in East Asian countries who hold military power have studied at the Hai Han Military Academy. Imitating the Hai Han military system and equipping themselves with Hai Han weapons has become the norm in many East Asian countries.

The Khalid family was obviously not a group of people who were honest and simple-minded. They showed great enthusiasm for the plan proposed by Qian Tiandun. They completed the personnel selection on the second day of the meeting and hoped to allow these young people to immediately join the Hai Han fleet and act with them.

Whether the Khalid family wants to deal with other surrounding tribes or still resists the rule of the Ottoman Empire, it is not important to Hai Han for the time being. The important thing is to establish a cooperative relationship first and open up channels for arms sales.

Qian Tiandun was hoping that the other party would invest more resources in military cooperation. He could also take advantage of this opportunity to let these Arabs see the strength of the Hai Han fleet. So he readily agreed to the other party's request and divided the personnel selected by the other party into several groups and deployed them to various warships of the fleet.

This kind of personnel training is also a piece of cake for the Special Warfare Division. Every year, personnel from other units of the Hai Han Army come to the Special Warfare Division for further study. Therefore, the Special Warfare Division also has some temporary positions specially set up to accommodate these short-term trainees.

Although the Arabs have different languages ​​and cultures, as long as they learn to follow orders in the Hai Han Army, everything else will be a minor problem. After a few months, these military trainees will naturally transform themselves from Arab warriors into qualified soldiers.

Although everything seemed to be going very smoothly, Qian Tiandun still had a hidden worry in his heart. So far, the fleet has traveled half of the Persian Gulf, but as the nominal ruler of the Arabian Peninsula, the Ottoman Empire has not yet sent officials to contact the fleet.

The Ottoman Empire had a vast territory, and the speed of information transmission might be slow, but it was not so slow that it turned a blind eye to the Hai Han fleet that came from afar.

Gao Qiaomin had a different opinion on this: "From the map, the Ottoman Empire is located between the three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa, connecting the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. It is exactly the place of four wars mentioned in military books. Maybe during the time we came to the Persian Gulf, the Ottoman Empire was at war with a neighboring country and had no time to pay attention to our arrival."

Qian Tiandun nodded slightly and said, "What you said makes sense, but it would be a shame if we come all the way here and don't contact the Ottoman Empire. If the Ottoman officials don't show up, we can only go to them ourselves."

Gao Qiaonan said, "What do you mean, sir?" Qian Tiandun said, "More than 200 miles north of Kuwait Bay, there is a big city on the Two Rivers Plain. It is a region directly ruled by the Ottoman Empire. There should be real government offices and senior officials there."

The big city that Qian Tiandun mentioned is the famous city of Basra in the Middle East.

In the Persian Gulf region, Basra can be regarded as a truly traditional city. It was built thousands of years ago. Its location is exactly where the Euphrates River and the Tiglas River meet. It is one of the oldest water ports in the Middle East.

Of course, like other areas in the Persian Gulf, Basra was once part of Portugal's sphere of influence. It was not until the end of the last century that the Ottoman Empire annexed this area and drove the Portuguese back to the eastern Persian Gulf.

However, at the beginning of this century, Persia rose rapidly under the leadership of Abbas I, and even snatched most of the Mesopotamian Plain from the Ottoman Empire.

In order to preserve Basra, an important access to the sea, the Ottoman Empire even cooperated with its former rival Portugal and fought against the expeditionary Persian army in the city of Basra.

In September 1624, the Ottoman-Portuguese coalition defeated the invading Persian army. In return, the Ottoman Empire granted Portuguese merchants various privileges in Basra, and this treatment has continued to this day.

But visiting Basra is not an easy goal. Although the straight-line distance between Basra and the coastline is only 200 miles, the navigation conditions are not ideal. Most of the rivers are only a few dozen feet wide. It is extremely difficult for large ships to turn around in such rivers. Therefore, Kuwait Port has become the main sea trade port in this area.

If they want to travel to Basra by water, it would be impossible for the entire fleet to enter the inland waterway, and they can only take smaller warships.

Qian Tiandun finally selected two exploration-class warships and two comprehensive supply ships carrying various commodities to form a small fleet to Basra. The remaining troops, led by Gaoqiao Nan, continued to stay in Kuwait Port as a support.

The Khalid family once again played a role at this time. Among the personnel selected to receive training in the Hai Han army, there were people who could serve as guides. Moreover, the Khalid family also had businesses in Basra and could arrange various chores after their arrival.

After completing the preparations, Qian Tiandun quickly embarked on his journey and arrived at the estuary where the two rivers meet that same day.

Going upstream from here and seeing the endless green on both sides of the river, Qian Tiandun couldn't help but sigh at the unique natural environment here.

Precisely because of this rare environment, the Mesopotamian Plain has been a region that has been repeatedly fought over by neighboring countries throughout history, and this will continue for a long time in the future.

Qian Tiandun still remembered that in the time and space before he traveled through time, the section of the river where he was located was exactly the border between Iraq and Iran. Even hundreds of years later, the Persians still failed to realize their long-cherished wish of occupying the Mesopotamian plain.