1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3745

In addition to a fully equipped armed fleet, Annan also prepared more than a dozen cargo ships loaded with various supplies in accordance with Hai Han's requirements. These supplies were not prepared for the Hai Han fleet, but for its own consumption during this voyage.

After all, the place they are heading to this time is outside of Hai Han’s traditional sphere of influence, and there are not many places for the Annan fleet to dock and resupply. Therefore, compared with the two countries’ naval coordinated operations in the South China Sea and East China Sea in the past, there are more requirements for the supplies to be carried this time.

For Annan, this was another considerable expense, and it was an initial investment that had to be made before participating in the operation. However, Zheng Zao still gritted his teeth and took it on, which shows how high Annan's expectations were for this operation.

After gathering in Sanya, many teams from all sides set off again, heading south along the Indochina Peninsula to the Strait of Malacca.

At the same time, the special operations division has returned to Phuket and Hamban Port separately and completed initial rest and recuperation.

Although this Indian Ocean exploration trip, which took nearly half a year, yielded huge gains, it also almost exhausted all the various resources stored by the special operations division during the years when it moved south to the Strait of Malacca, and military expenditures also far exceeded the annual budget.

But the end of the exploration operation does not mean that Qian Tiandun can relax. On the contrary, the real problems that give him a headache are just beginning to come.

Qian Shaobao walked into the office with a stack of documents. Looking at his father who was busy reviewing the documents, he suddenly hesitated whether he should hand these things to his father immediately.

Qian Tiandun noticed his arrival, looked up and saw him standing at the door, so he took the initiative to ask, "Any news?"

Qian Shaobao nodded and said, "These are the documents that were delivered yesterday. They were all sent by the Architectural Design Institute of the Ministry of Construction. I took a general look at them, and it's up to you, father, to make the final decision."

Qian Tiandun saw that he still didn't move after he finished speaking, as if the pile of documents in his hand weighed a thousand pounds. He roughly guessed what his son was thinking and said with a smile: "Every difficulty will be overcome. There is no way around it. You still have to face it in the end... Bring it here, I'll see what price the design institute offers."

Qian Tiandun took the document handed over by Qian Shaobao and started to look through it immediately.

This was about the infrastructure planning and engineering plans for the two ports of Zhenhai and Fubo. During his return trip in March, Qian Tiandun sent people to bring back relevant information on the topography, geology, hydrology, etc. of the two ports, together with the engineering personnel responsible for the field survey, to Sanya, asking the design institute of the Ministry of Construction to come up with a planning and construction plan in the shortest possible time.

The design institute did not disappoint him. It took only two months from the time they received the task to the time they delivered the plan to Qian Tiandun.

Although the special operations division has its own engineering personnel, they can basically only deal with the design and construction of some military facilities. For highly professional projects such as large ports, they still have to be taken over by specialized design institutes.

Prior to this, the Ministry of Construction's design institute was also responsible for preparing construction plans for related infrastructure projects in Phuket and Hamban Port in Ceylon.

Although Fubo and Zhenhai ports are only two small garrisons at present, in Qian Tiandun's plan, these two ports may play an extremely important role in the next hundred years or even longer, and have a great influence on geopolitics. However, these two places are quite far from the current base. Qian Tiandun is worried that there will be variables if it is delayed too long, so he specially requested the design institute to work overtime to produce the engineering plan.

The plan put forward by the design institute basically complied with the requirements put forward by Qian Tiandun. The port was built according to the standards of a dual-use military and civilian port. A special military zone was demarcated in the plan and it was constructed as the first phase of the project.

The military zone is roughly divided into port areas for berthing naval ships, coastal defense areas for guarding against sea invasions, warehouse areas for storing military supplies, ammunition and fuel, and barracks for garrison troops.

The design of the civilian area is relatively simple, because there is unlikely to be much trade volume in the area at this stage. Merchant ships and cargo ships can temporarily dock at the temporary wharf currently under construction, and then be improved as part of the second and third phase expansion projects of the port.

Considering the lack of labor and special building materials such as cement required for construction, the design institute estimated that the construction period would be longer than that of domestic projects of the same level. Based on this condition, the budget would of course be higher than that of domestic projects. For both Qian Shaobao and Qian Tiandun, it was a very eye-catching amount.

Qian Tiandun turned to the last page and saw the project budget listed. He couldn't help but remain silent for a long time.

If the special warfare division were to bear these construction costs solely on its own, it would inevitably affect the military budget for the next few years. Even if Qian Tiandun paid out of his own pocket again to subsidize it, it would probably be difficult to fill such a large gap.

For large overseas base projects like this one far away from Hai Han’s homeland, it is generally more appropriate to launch one in a region every two to three years, and the financial pressure will be relatively lighter.

In the past two or three years, the Special Operations Division has built bases and ports in Phuket and Ceylon, and has also stationed troops in Penang and Langkawi, south of Phuket. Now, when the infrastructure projects in Phuket and Hamban Port are far from completed, the construction of Fubo and Zhenhai ports has to be started at the same time. This is indeed far beyond the Special Operations Division's ability to bear.

Of course, since the two port projects have been approved by the Executive Committee, the corresponding construction funds will certainly be allocated from the finance department. However, according to the Executive Committee's usual practice, such overseas infrastructure projects are generally not funded all at once, but are allocated in installments to facilitate the supervision of project progress.

Moreover, the design institute's budget is actually relatively conservative, and does not take into account the possibility of extending the construction period due to certain unplanned circumstances. The overspending in actual operations will most likely have to be borne by the special operations division itself.

Qian Tiandun put down the proposal in his hand and asked Qian Shaobao in a casual manner, "Besides this, is there any other news?"

Qian Shaobao said: "We received a call from Sanya saying that the survey fleet led by Shi Diwen has departed from Shengli Port on June 1st and is expected to pass through the Strait of Malacca before the end of the month."

However, the telegram did not mention the size of this so-called survey fleet. If Qian and his son knew the actual situation, their concerns about these two port projects would probably be reduced a lot.

Qian Tiandun only knew that Shi Diwen came here with a mission, and the Executive Committee should send someone to personally confirm whether the progress made by the Special Operations Division in the Middle East is true, and only then will they actually allocate more resources here.

But what he didn't expect was that Shi Diwen had brought a large amount of resources including immigrants on this trip, and with the participation of chambers of commerce from all over the coastal areas, this will undoubtedly greatly alleviate the resource dilemma currently faced by the special operations division.