1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3715

The pirates had some advantage in manpower in their previous two attacks on Fubo Port, and were able to fight back and forth with the defenders. But this time, after the main force of the special warfare division joined the battle, the force comparison was completely reversed, and the pirates' only advantage was gone.

The special operations division was completely overkill for these pirates who had backward equipment and almost no tactics.

The troops guarding the base had not even started using heavy firepower when the battle was declared over. The time spent cleaning up the battlefield after the battle far exceeded the time spent on the battle itself, which showed the huge disparity in strength between the two sides.

It is gratifying that the main force led by Qian Tiandun rushed back to Fubo Port day and night, and their hard work was not in vain. Not only did they resolve the crisis in Fubo Port, but they also basically wiped out the invading pirates. This can be regarded as the first substantial result achieved by the Hai Han army in the Persian Gulf region.

No matter who organized these pirates to launch an attack on Fubo Port behind the scenes, I believe the results of this battle will be enough to form a strong deterrent to them.

But Li Yuande was still somewhat dissatisfied with the course of this battle. The last time he encountered a pirate raid in the Gulf of Aden, the entire battle was almost carried out in darkness. He received instructions to wait in the cabin and could not even go up to the deck, let alone participate in the battle.

This time when he returned to the Persian Gulf to fight pirates, the ship he was on was not among the first to arrive at the battlefield. He only caught the tail end of the ship and fired a few shots at the pirate ships on the coast that had no ability to fight back.

The only thing that was slightly better than the previous battle experience in the Gulf of Aden was that this battle took place in the daytime. He was finally allowed to go up to the deck to watch the battle and witnessed the battle with the pirates with his own eyes.

Li Yuande, who was not satisfied, found Qian Tiandun and volunteered to participate in the interrogation.

"Most of these pirates are Arabs. We don't speak the same language, so it's very difficult to communicate. Are you sure you want to participate in the interrogation?"

Hearing Qian Tiandun's question, Li Yuande immediately responded: "Sir, although I can't speak their language, I will use practical actions to make them understand that if they want to save their lives, they must cooperate well and confess honestly!"

Seeing his resolute attitude, Qian Tiandun agreed to his request and asked Gaoqiao Nan to transfer a translator and several soldiers to him. As for the interrogation target, he would pick someone up from the prisoners himself.

At this time, the post-war inventory had been completed, with a total of more than 600 pirates captured. About 300 pirates died in the battle, and at least 200 to 300 others fled into the nearby desert.

It would be a time-consuming and laborious task to interrogate so many prisoners one by one. However, the Hai Han army had already prepared a plan for this. First, they would identify the prisoners' identities, let them point out each other, and then pick out the leaders as the key interrogation targets.

After this screening, the number of interrogation targets will generally be reduced to less than 20 or 30 people. At this time, these selected people will conduct a second round of identification, and there is a certain probability that the commander of the enemy can be found directly - if this person is still alive, he will inevitably become the exchange condition for other prisoners to seek safe escape.

During his earlier visit to Kuwait Port, Qian Tiandun reached a cooperation agreement with the local ruling Khalid family, not only selling weapons and equipment to them, but also training officers for them. The military students selected by the Khalid family were once again put to great use during the interrogation of the pirates, and all of them temporarily served as interpreters.

During the special operations division's visit to the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, these foreign students learned some Chinese and were able to communicate with simple gestures, which was enough to serve as interpreters. Although the interrogation work was a bit bumpy due to language problems, it soon got on track. Torture methods are universal at any time and anywhere, and the effect will not vary greatly due to different races. As long as some methods are used, these pirates are not particularly stubborn and will soon confess everything they should confess.

After reviewing several interrogation transcripts, Qian Tiandun realized that these pirates were not from the same group, but were a group of several small pirate groups that launched the attack. This was consistent with his previous judgment - judging from their slow assembly speed, it was obviously due to the lack of unified command and dispatch.

Most of these captives were from certain local tribal armed forces in the Persian Gulf. They were not professional pirates but took advantage of any opportunity to make some money.

Almost all of them had received the invitation more than a month ago to attack the Hai Han camp in Khasab. It was said that there was a large amount of money in the camp that Hai Han used to build a base, enough to make some small tribes rise to power overnight and become the local powerhouse.

At the same time, there are some weapons and equipment transported from Hai Han to the Persian Gulf stored here. Troops will be stationed here in the future, and the surrounding areas will inevitably be under their control at that time.

However, the captives could not clearly explain who initiated the invitation and whether the organizers also participated in the attacks on Fubo Port, because the invitation letters were sent to them anonymously.

"I think these people didn't tell the truth. Otherwise, why would they believe an unsigned invitation? This is about going to war, not playing cards. They just follow someone who comes and shouts, how can they be kidding?"

Although Li Yuande personally participated in the interrogation, he did not agree with the conclusion of the confession summary. He believed that there were obvious illogical and strange aspects in this matter, and the confessions of the prisoners could not explain the reason.

Qian Tiandun did not comment on Li Yuande's judgment, but first asked another subordinate for his opinion: "Takahashi Nan, what do you think?"

Gao Qiaonan said: "I think these Arabs are casual, short-sighted, and impulsive. From the process of attacking Fubo Port, we can see that they don't have a complete battle plan at all. With the way these people do things, it is very likely that they really don't care who sent them the invitation."

Li Yuande asked: "General Gaoqiao means that these people are just tools being used by others?"

Gao Qiaonan said: "They may not have encountered any decent opponents in the Persian Gulf, so they think that Fubo Port can be easily captured. From the beginning, they did not consider the risk of failure, so naturally they did not have to worry about other minor issues."

Qian Tiandun then spoke up: "I agree more with Gao Qiaonan's opinion. Perhaps we don't need to think too much about this matter. These pirates are really just tools."

Li Yuande said: "But if this is the case, won't we be able to track down the mastermind behind this?"

Qian Tiandun said: "That may not be the case. There are only a few forces in the Persian Gulf that are capable and willing to compete with us. It is not too difficult to guess who is behind the scenes."