1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3760

After hearing the translation, little Abdullah was stunned. He could hardly believe his ears and even confirmed it again, fearing that the translation was wrong.

The Xihu family has lived in the surrounding area for thousands of years, but it has only been a few generations since they really prospered and established the Xihu tribe.

Today, the scale of the tribe has reached its historical peak. Both the current chief Abdullah and little Abdullah who is in talks with Takahashi Minami believe that this is the limit of what the Xihu family can do.

If you want to take another step forward, you might attract the covetousness of the big tribes, or even the attention of the Ottoman Empire, which would not be a good thing.

The Shihu tribe only had a few thousand soldiers capable of fighting, which was nothing compared to the armed forces of the large tribes in the western Persian Gulf. If the Ottoman Empire sent troops in person, defeating the Shihu tribe would be as easy as crushing a bug.

Even though the Hai Han people had previously claimed that they would provide military assistance to the Xihu tribe, if a war really broke out, who knows how much they could do. It is not impossible that they would just stand by and watch after adding fuel to the fire, but that would be a disaster for the Xihu tribe.

Therefore, before rushing to Fubo Port to meet with the Hai Han generals, the Xihu tribe did not have too many ambitions for cooperation. The chief's plan was still to focus on trade cooperation, and it was more realistic to make more money using the high-end goods provided by Hai Han.

As for military cooperation, the chief thought that as long as it could effectively strengthen the tribe's self-defense capabilities, it would be fine. After all, the tribe's population base and economic strength were limited, and it was impossible to engage in military expansion.

But Gao Qiaonan's words obviously far exceeded the level of assistance Hai Han had promised before. Upgrading the tribe into a country was beyond the scope of cooperation that Abdullah and his son had expected.

But the titles of "king" and "prince" really made little Abdullah blush and feel hot. If he could really have the chance to become the king of a country, what an honor it would be!

Little Abdullah licked his dry lips and carefully asked Takahashi Minami whether there were any more detailed plans and arrangements regarding the founding of the country.

Since the other party asked such a question, Takahashi Minami naturally knew that he was already somewhat tempted, and immediately told him part of the action plan.

The nation-building plan formulated by the Special Operations Division for the Xihu tribe is divided into three steps. The first step is to assist the Xihu tribe in building the power department structure needed to manage the country.

After all, managing a tribe is completely different from governing a country. If the Xihu tribe does not upgrade, the existing makeshift team will find it difficult to adapt to the governance requirements after the upgrade.

The second step is to assist the Xihu tribe in expanding its military strength, sending troops to conquer surrounding areas, and expanding the actual control area and population size.

These two are also necessary conditions for establishing a country. Only when the territory and population reach a certain size can a country have the foundation it should have. Otherwise, even if you declare your own country, it will only add to the laughter.

As for the expansion of military power, the Xihu tribe's own capabilities alone obviously cannot meet the requirements of establishing a country, so Gaoqiao Nan directly proposed that the special warfare division should send people to pretend to be tribal armed forces to carry out combat missions on behalf of the Xihu tribe. After the Xihu tribe's ruling area has expanded to a certain extent, the third step can be implemented, which is to publicly announce the establishment of the Xihu country.

Even if one has the strength to establish a nation, there is usually an unnoticed threshold, which is recognition from the international community.

If no other country recognizes the legitimacy of the Xihu Kingdom, then the so-called founding of the country is just a trick to deceive itself.

Even Hai Han itself only gained recognition from the Kingdom of Annan in the early days of its founding, and its situation was once rather embarrassing.

The current Xihu tribe is much stronger than the original Hai Han in its initial stage, because once Xihu declares the establishment of a nation, the countries that will recognize its legitimacy will not only be Hai Han, its partner, but also Annan, Korea, Ryukyu, Portugal, the Netherlands, and a number of small Southeast Asian countries.

Although many of these countries have never had any dealings with the Xihu tribe and are not located in the Middle East, this does not prevent Hai Han from exerting influence on these countries and making them recognize a new country supported by Hai Han.

Only after being recognized by many countries can the Kingdom of Xihu legitimately possess an international status and then carry out diplomatic activities with other neighboring countries.

When little Abdullah heard this, he felt itchy and at the same time realized that Hai Han was taking this matter very seriously and it was not a joke.

But he still had doubts about Gao Qiaonan's suggestion to replace the tribal armed forces with the Hai Han army. "Dear General, your army and the warriors of my Xihu tribe are completely different in appearance and fighting style. How can we disguise ourselves? Won't we be exposed?"

Gao Qiaonan smiled and said, “If you put on your tribe’s traditional clothing and a headscarf to cover your face, wouldn’t it be difficult to tell them apart? As for your fighting style, as long as you claim to be a tribal armed force trained by our country, wouldn’t it be reasonable for them to be similar to the Hai Han Army?”

Little Abdullah knew that Gaoqiao Nan's statement had many loopholes, but he felt he couldn't open his mouth to refute it. In addition to the huge temptation of establishing a country, he was also a little worried that if he rejected the proposal of the Hai Han people, would they still be willing to continue to cooperate with the Xihu tribe.

It would be fine if the cooperation was simply interrupted, but if Hai Han chose other partners because of this, the Xihu tribe might become the sacrifice for another tribe to establish its own country.

This possibility does exist. There are at least seven or eight tribes in the eastern part of the Arabian Peninsula that are as powerful as the Xihu. The reason why Hai Han chose to cooperate with the Xihu tribe in the beginning was simply because the location of its Fubo Port was located on the territory of the Xihu tribe.

Abdullah and his son were both very clear about this. Their cooperative relationship with Hai Han was not unbreakable. The chief's idea was not to rush into anything, but to observe Hai Han's development trends in the local area and understand the other party's goals before considering the next step of cooperation.

But now it seems that the Hai Han people do not seem to have much patience to slowly deepen the cooperation between the two sides, but have explicitly asked the Xihu tribe to cooperate with their plan. Although little Abdullah was tempted, he was not stupid. He knew that Hai Han would never be so kind as to help the Xihu tribe establish a country for free.

There must be some conspiracy behind such a grand plan, but young Abdullah could not understand what Hai Han’s real goal was, and he did not dare to agree to it rashly.