1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3797

Rui had never expected that although the Hai Han envoy had already left Basra, there were still Hai Han spies in the area secretly monitoring his every move. The Portuguese's movements in Basra were basically telegraphed back to Fubo Port as soon as possible.

After Qian Tiandun read the telegram sent back, the heavy stone hanging in his heart fell to the ground.

The telegram said that Rui only had a brief meeting with Galar on the day he arrived in Basra. When he went to see Galar again the next day, he didn't even enter the door. It was obvious that no substantive agreement was reached.

Whether it is Portugal or Ottoman, they should not be the opponent of the special warfare division alone, but if the two join forces, they may really cause some trouble for Fubo Port. Now it can be basically confirmed that the two parties have not been able to reach an agreement, so there is nothing for Qian Tiandun to worry about.

If nothing unexpected happens, Rui, who has come all the way here only to be disappointed, will probably leave Basra and return to Hormuz Island soon.

However, Qian Tiandun did not intend to settle accounts with him. Whether Hormuz Island existed or not, the impact on Fubo Port would only become smaller and smaller. When Portugal's trade share in the Persian Gulf was almost squeezed out, Hormuz Island would naturally degenerate into a colonial outpost with little output.

By then, the Portuguese might close it down on their own to save costs and no longer retain this stronghold.

Qian Tiandun was now able to focus his main attention back on the changing situation on the Arabian Peninsula.

The support for the Hijrah Kingdom has achieved some success. This small Persian Gulf country, which was established only half a year ago, has now expanded its actual controlled territory by more than ten times, and its population has increased by at least four or five times. Its strength is already comparable to that of the largest tribes on the Arabian Peninsula.

Of course, the most important thing is that the Shi'u Kingdom now has a paramilitary force, which has put it ahead of its neighbors on the peninsula. The military strength of other Arab tribes will not be able to catch up with the Shi'u for a while.

The reason why it is called paramilitary is that the size and combat level of this army cannot yet meet Hai Han’s requirements for combat forces. At present, it is more like a militia organization.

After all, during their training at Fubo Port, these Xihu soldiers had to act as laborers from time to time and move bricks at the port construction site in the name of physical training, and even officers were no exception.

Qian Tiandun didn't want to give them a chance to perform, but the current size of the Xihu army was still too small, and the family resources were too thin to withstand the losses in combat. Even though the strength was stronger than other tribes, Qian Tiandun still didn't dare to take the risk of letting them be the main force in combat.

Qian Tiandun could only use the limited "good steel" of the Xihu Army on the "cutting edge", such as stationing them in the newly occupied areas and taking on the task of maintaining local public order.

This kind of job requires frequent dealings with local Arabs. The indigenous Hizb-i-Khazr Army is obviously more suitable than the special operations division that does not speak the language, and it is also easier for them to discover and deal with various problems that may arise locally.

Although the expansion has been going smoothly so far, and even exceeded Qian Tiandun's expectations when he made the plan, he is still not satisfied with the current progress. The Persian Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula are too large. To establish a strong enough influence in this region, the current territory of the Xihu is far from enough. It is necessary to continue to annex small and medium-sized tribes to obtain more land and population, and this process must be fast. Qian Tiandun does not want to spend the rest of his precious life in this small Strait of Hormuz.

Currently, the main factor limiting the speed of expansion is insufficient manpower. Not only is the special operations division's manpower deployed to the Arabian Peninsula insufficient, but even the Hizb-i-Islami Army, which serves as the security force, is in a state where its expansion cannot keep up with the expansion.

Qian Tiandun called little Abdullah and asked him if there was any way to speed up the expansion of the current Xihu army.

Little Abdullah had been working under Qian Tiandun for several months and had gotten to know his boss's temperament to some extent. He knew that when the other party asked such a question, he must have had a preliminary plan, but for some reason, he needed to ask for his opinion first.

He bowed and said, "Sir, there are not many young and strong men available in Xihu at present. If we want to expand the scale of conscription, there are only two ways. One is to adjust the upper and lower limits of age and expand the scope of conscription; the other is to draw labor from other places, but this will inevitably affect the normal operation of other institutions."

What little Abdullah said was true. From the initial conscription of the chief's guards to the later conscription of young and strong men from the entire tribe, and then setting the conscription age between eighteen and thirty-five, the scale of conscription became larger and larger. At least half of the young and strong men in Xihu entered the military camp one after another.

If the age range of conscription is further adjusted, or young and middle-aged men are transferred from other positions, many places in Xihu may be semi-paralyzed due to lack of manpower. And because of well-known religious beliefs, many positions cannot be filled by Xihu women.

Qian Tiandun continued to ask: "What you said makes sense... Then what do you think about relaxing the threshold and recruiting soldiers from these recently occupied areas?"

Little Abdullah said: "This is feasible, but the new soldiers need to undergo a hundred days of training before they can officially join the army. Will it not be able to keep up with the adults' needs for troops?"

Qian Tiandun nodded and said, "In fact, I also intend to reduce the training time and increase the number of training batches so that the Xihu Army can be expanded as quickly as possible in a short period of time."

From his tone, little Abdullah guessed that this was the measure he really wanted to take, and quickly responded, "Your Excellency has a good idea! We do have a large number of young and strong men that can be recruited in the newly occupied areas, but I don't know how to adjust the training plan?"

Qian Tiandun had obviously thought about the specific implementation plan, and responded without hesitation: "Reduce the part related to the use of firearms, and cut the training Sundays from 100 days to 30 days."

"Ah?" Little Abdullah did not expect that Qian Tiandun's adjustment would be so big. He directly cut off the training part of muskets and artillery. This means that the subsequent batches of Xihu recruits will no longer be troops equipped with firearms.

Think about it, at the founding ceremony a few months ago, they excitedly announced that the Hijra Army would be the first army in the Persian Gulf region to be fully equipped with firearms. How come it’s only been a short while and they are going back on their word?
Qian Tiandun should have anticipated little Abdullah's reaction and comforted him, "This is just a temporary stopgap measure. These new recruits will be deployed to the existing occupied areas to serve as security forces. They don't need to have strong combat effectiveness for the time being. When the situation stabilizes, we will gradually arrange for these troops to complete their training and replenish their equipment."

Little Abdullah nodded his head and agreed quickly, but in his heart he was thinking that maybe the troops were sent too quickly and Hai Han's equipment supply could not keep up. But this thought only flashed through his mind and he did not dare to speak it out in front of Qian Tiandun.