1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3803

On the third day after Shi Diwen returned to Hangzhou, he arrived at the Executive Committee office building on the north side of West Lake early in the morning. There was an important meeting today, and the content was for him to report the gains of this westward inspection to the Executive Committee and officials in charge of relevant departments.

Therefore, what Shi Diwen saw and heard during the inspection was equivalent to the first-hand information of the Executive Committee, and was of great significance for subsequent decision-making and arrangements.

Of course, the Executive Committee is most concerned about the safety of the places along the route. Only by ensuring the safety of navigation on this maritime trade route can we attract various countries to join the maritime trade system built by Hai Han.

However, judging from Shi Diwen's investigation results, the current situation is not particularly optimistic.

"After years of anti-bandit operations, and with the establishment of maritime patrol mechanisms in various coastal states, pirates have basically been eradicated on the eastern and southern coasts of our country, and the level of safety is relatively high."

"Along the coast of Indochina, the situation is relatively good because Annan and Champa both have Chinese-run ports. In recent years, there have been very few cases of maritime robbery."

"But as we go further south, into the seas where many countries meet, the security situation is not particularly ideal, and pirates still appear from time to time. Moreover, most of these pirates are fishermen from nearby countries. They usually use fishing as a cover, so it is very difficult to catch them in the act. Although we have organized many armed strikes in the area, we have not been able to completely eliminate the pirate problem."

"Once we enter the Strait of Malacca, the situation is much better, especially now that we have military bases on both ends of the Strait. The daily patrol density at sea is enough to make it difficult for pirates to operate."

What Shi Diwen did not mention was that the reason Hai Han entered the northern end of the Strait of Malacca to establish a base was that they claimed that local pirate activities were rampant, and Hai Han volunteered to send troops to suppress the bandits and maintain local security. Moreover, it was the foreign mercenary group under Xingdao who acted as pirates in the Andaman Islands and the Burmese Sea at that time.

Of course, after Hai Han occupied several islands at the northern end of the Strait of Malacca and began to station troops, it also carried out many operations to eliminate pirates, and the maritime environment in the area has indeed become much safer. After all, Hai Han entered the area under the banner of maintaining security, and it must change the local security environment in order to convince the surrounding countries.

Nowadays, there is basically no pirate activity on the sea route from the Strait of Malacca to Hamban Port at the southern tip of Ceylon, and the security situation is relatively good.

But going further west, after entering the Arabian Sea in the western Indian Ocean, the security situation deteriorated again.

"The pirates operating in the Arabian Sea mainly come from the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula and the coast of East Africa. These pirates probably rarely encounter tough opponents before. Not only do they have a large range of activities, but they are also very bold. Even the fleet of the special warfare division has been robbed by local pirates, but of course they failed in the end."

Except for Defense Minister Yan Chujie, who had already received relevant reports, everyone on the Executive Committee was surprised when they heard about this. They did not expect that there would be pirates thousands of miles away who could threaten the safety of the Special Operations Division.

Shi Diwen changed the subject and said that after the establishment of Fubo and Zhenhai ports, the special warfare division has begun to arrange patrol missions in the surrounding waters.
In other words, the Hai Han troops stationed in the region are still far from enough, and only by increasing the number of troops can the smooth progress of the Maritime Silk Road be guaranteed. Shi Diwen motioned to the audience to open a document that had just been distributed: "The document in front of you is the expansion plan submitted by the commander of the Special Warfare Division, Qian Tiandun. He hopes that the Executive Committee will take into account the current situation of the Special Warfare Division's stationed area and increase the size of the Special Warfare Division to the overseas regional level. In particular, the Navy should have the same size as the East China Sea or South China Sea Fleet in the future."

Shi Diwen and Qian Tiandun have already had several rounds of discussions on the expansion plan of the special operations division.

In principle, Shi Diwen also supports the special operations division's plan to expand its forces. After all, having personally experienced it, he also understands how large the special operations division's current defense zone is. The existing size of the troops is far from meeting the special operations division's garrison mission, and expanding the forces is an inevitable measure.

However, he was not optimistic that Qian Tiandun's plan could be implemented in the short term. The reason was that the scale of the military expansion was too large and it was impossible to do it all at once. It would take more than one or two years to upgrade the naval fleet to the size of the East China Sea or South China Sea Fleet.

Shi Diwen once made an estimate based on the shipbuilding capacity of the East China Sea Region. In order to achieve the fleet size expected by Qian Tiandun, the East China Sea Region would have to stop all other shipbuilding tasks and spend at least three years to build military ships exclusively for the Special Warfare Division.

But this is obviously an impossible scenario at the moment. All the shipyards in the East China Sea region are operating at full capacity, and it would be good enough to arrange a few ship construction tasks for the special operations division.

Several other large shipyards in the country are basically in a similar situation, and do not have much spare production capacity to take on the special operations division's shipbuilding orders.

Of course, what is more important is that to build such a large fleet, the number of crew members and sailors required must also increase accordingly, and the training and formation of the navy is much slower than that of the army. It will take at least two or three years for the warships and personnel to enter service before their combat effectiveness can be achieved.

Qian Tiandun's idea comes from another perspective. Precisely because the naval fleet is slow to form, it must be implemented as soon as possible. Otherwise, the special warfare division's future expansion plans in the Indian Ocean region will be forced to be delayed due to the insufficient size of the navy.

As for the gap in equipment and personnel in this process, as well as the approval of the military budget, Qian Tiandun believed that the Executive Committee should step in to solve these problems, rather than expecting the special operations division to fend for itself in a distant overseas country.

Of course, it is not impossible for the Executive Committee to be lazy and push all the problems to the Special Operations Division. In that case, they can only acquiesce to allowing the Special Operations Division to control Hai Han’s various trade activities and natural resources in the Indian Ocean, so as to obtain the military funds needed to expand the army and maintain daily operations.

However, the Executive Committee had already set the tone for the military to engage in business, and in principle, would not recognize the legitimacy of such an operation model. This was because these senior officials had already seen how the military had controlled the country's policies and how the military preparations had been neglected because of this.

Therefore, whether the Executive Committee is willing or not, it must first find a way to solve the actual needs of the Special Operations Division and provide it with all the support it needs, so as not to force Qian Tiandun to engage in some "evil ways".

Providing more military funds is one thing, and on the other hand, the Special Warfare Division must be provided with the necessary personnel and equipment. However, once this loophole is opened, other overseas regions will likely follow the example of the Special Warfare Division and submit similar military expansion applications to the Executive Committee.