1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3783

Even though Qian Tiandun said he could provide services such as installment payments and train sailors on his behalf, Bhatia still tried hard to resist the urge to spend and did not place an order immediately.

The cost of ordering a new ship from the Hai Han Shipyard is not a small amount, so he must think about it carefully.

It's not that he doesn't trust Hai Han, but he needs to think clearly about some issues before ordering a ship, such as on which route the new ship should be deployed to maximize profits, what requirements this route has for cargo volume and speed, and whether he has enough high-quality sailors to drive the new ship.

Any problem in any of these links will affect Bhatia's return on investment. As a shrewd businessman, he does not want to make such a low-level mistake.

As for warships, that was not something Batia could consider. But he knew his superiors would be interested in the Hai Han proposal, so he asked Qian Tiandun for some information on warships for export, which he planned to bring back to Bandar Abbas and let his superiors decide whether to cooperate with Hai Han.

After seeing off the guests from nearby areas, Qian Tiandun and Shi Diwen began to prepare for the next military operation.

Shi Diwen came here specially from the eastern Indian Ocean, one of his purposes was to personally observe the special warfare division's combat operations in the Middle East.

In Shi Diwen's own words, watching the battle was not only for the Executive Committee, but also his personal wish as a senior military commander. After all, he also wanted to see with his own eyes what changes would happen to the combat methods of the special warfare division after it moved from the north to the tropics.

Before the ceremony site in the port area was dismantled, Qian Tiandun gathered people and established a combat command.

What is different from previous military operations is that in addition to personnel from the special operations division and the East China Sea Fleet, this headquarters also specially absorbed several Arabs represented by little Abdullah.

These Arabs, like little Abdullah, are natives of the Xihu Kingdom and are more or less related to Abdullah's family. In the future, they will inevitably hold some official position in the Xihu Kingdom.

The Special Operations Division's next actions must be assisted by these indigenous people who are familiar with the local conditions in order to achieve the desired goals.

In order to facilitate the formulation of action plans, Qian Tiandun temporarily appointed these Arabs as combat staff so that they could participate in a suitable capacity.

After determining the personnel composition of the headquarters, Qian Tiandun immediately convened the first meeting.

Currently, the garrison base is still under construction and there is no conference room that can accommodate dozens of people, so the venue can only be set up in a warehouse that has just been completed in the port area.

A few days ago, this place was used as a sheepfold to temporarily house hundreds of sheep bought from Persia. Although it has been cleaned and washed, there is still a bit of mutton smell in the air.

However, people who walked into the venue did not pay much attention to the smell here. Their attraction was quickly attracted by the huge map hanging on the wall.

This is one of a batch of military maps drawn in China according to Qian Tiandun's request. The area drawn in this batch of military maps is the Arabian Peninsula, as well as the surrounding Persian Gulf and Red Sea areas. Its accuracy is far better than any map of the same period.

The map currently on display in front of everyone covers an area of ​​hundreds of miles south of the Strait of Hormuz. This is also the target area that will be included in the joint jurisdiction of Hai Han and Xihu.

After everyone sat down, Qian Tiandun walked to the map and began to introduce the general framework of the military operation. "Please look, everyone, the area marked on the map is our future target. This is Fubo Port, and this is Xihu City."

Judging from the map, the distance between Fubo Port and Xihu City is not far, but only those who have personally traveled to these two places know that it takes several days to cross the vast desert between the two places, and one must rely on camels and horses to carry supplies.

The area currently controlled by the Xihu Kingdom only occupies a small corner on this huge map of ten feet square. And around it, there are territories of several tribes, large and small.

However, perhaps because Hai Han had limited knowledge of the surrounding tribes, these tribes did not mark out detailed areas of actual control, but simply marked a name at the approximate location.

But for these Arabs, it was the first time they had ever seen a map of this proportion, and they were shocked. This also gave them a more real understanding of the "bigness of the world" that the Hai Han instructors often mentioned.

Qian Tiandun ignored the astonishment of the Arab staff officers and continued to introduce the details on the map.

Due to language problems, the Arabs present had to listen to the translation before they could understand what Qian Tiandun said, so there was a large delay in communication, and Qian Tiandun would not stop to communicate with them at this time.

Qian Tiandun wanted those present to understand what goals the next military operation needed to achieve, and then formulate a corresponding action plan based on that.

The way he presented his goals was simple and easy to understand. Even the Arab staff officers who could not understand Hai Han dialect could almost understand what he meant.

Qian Tiandun drew a line from left to right five hundred miles south of Fubo Port, dividing the protrusion of the northern tip of the Arabian Peninsula that pierces the Strait of Hormuz, which happens to be a huge isosceles triangle.

He patted the marked area with his hand and said calmly: "This is the area we are going to occupy next!"

Even Shi Diwen, who was attending the meeting, was slightly shocked when he heard this, thinking that Qian Tiandun's goal was indeed a bit too big.

If what he said is true, the area of ​​this region will far exceed the total area of ​​all the areas under the special operations division since it entered the Indian Ocean, and it will be almost the size of fifty Phuket islands.

With the special warfare division's current forces deployed in Fubo Port, it is obviously difficult to achieve real control over such a vast area. Either it has to be handed over to an indigenous regime like Xihu for governance, or a large number of troops have to be sent here.

But no matter which option is chosen, it will not be easy, and post-war governance will be even more difficult than defeating opponents in the region.

The Arab staff officers looked as shocked as they had been when they first saw the Zhoushan a few days ago. However, the Hai Han officers, led by Gao Qiaomin, were eager to try and were extremely excited.

It was obvious that they were tired of the day-to-day infrastructure tasks in Fubo Port and hoped to return to the battlefield as soon as possible to engage in what they were most familiar with.

Qian Tiandun looked around at everyone and said slowly: "The action period I set for this stage is... one year!"