1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3965

Chen Pingliao and Qian Shaobao were both born in the north and were sent to Sanya for education when they reached school age.

When they were children, the Qian and Chen families would gather at Majiazhuang in Fushan, Dengzhou, or Daying in Jinzhou, Liaodong, on important occasions such as festivals. While their fathers were drinking and exchanging toasts at the table, Chen Pingliao and Qian Shaobao, who was a year older than him, would take their precious toy guns and sneak out of the house. Then the two little guys would lead a group of little followers to play war games.

When the various military units went south for rotational training in winter, the two little ones would sometimes accompany the troops to Zhoushan. However, during the military training, they would go to play on the nearby islands and even simulate commanding fleets and fighting battles using nautical charts.

The two had already made a pact that when they grew up, they would join the Haihan Army and become powerful generals like their fathers.

Later, the two studied in Sanya. Every year or two, they would take advantage of the holidays to return to the north to visit their relatives. After that, they would go south together before the start of the new semester. This was basically the longest time they spent at sea during their youth.

As they wished, both of them later entered military academies and then returned to the north to join the army, serving under their respective fathers.

It wasn't until a few years ago, when Qian Tiandun led his troops to develop overseas, and Qian Shaobao followed his father and left the north a year later, that the frequency of their contact gradually decreased.

Chen Pingliao had no objection to the arrangement of leaving his hometown and going overseas, largely because Qian Shaobao, his childhood friend, was there. The two hadn't seen each other for three or four years, and Chen Pingliao was eager to get to his destination as soon as possible to see how his brother was doing in that legendary barren land.

Several years later, Chen Pingliao returned to Sanya. The bustling scene at Shengli Port remained unchanged, seemingly unaffected by the relocation of the national capital to Hangzhou.

Although Sanya is no longer the capital of the Han Dynasty, it has been the regional political, economic and cultural center for many years. Many affairs cannot be separated from Sanya, so it still effectively performs the functions of a secondary capital and is in charge of affairs in the South China Sea region.

Moreover, the departments that moved to Hangzhou with the Executive Committee were mainly government agencies, but many production units and important institutions that were not easy to relocate have remained in Sanya.

Most of the factories and research institutions in the Tiandu Industrial Zone have not relocated. For these entities, a long-distance relocation across regions would mean a prolonged shutdown, which is unacceptable to the Executive Committee. Therefore, even if a relocation is necessary, a new foothold must first be established in Hangzhou, and the relocation can proceed gradually once sufficient conditions are met.

There are also some special institutions that are simply impossible to relocate, such as large databases hidden deep in the mountains and unknown to outsiders. They have reached the point where even the slightest movement could render them unusable. Therefore, the executive committee decided not to make any further attempts to relocate them, so as not to waste the limited lifespan of these servers.

In fact, less than a third of the servers there are still operational; most are slowly becoming scrap metal. Even so, the amount of usable data remaining is still enormous, and the paper transfer is a long way off. It seems unlikely that all the remaining data can be entered into writing before the servers reach the end of their lifespan. We can only try to select some of the most practical content and copy down as much as we can.

The only certainty is the arrangement after the big data database completely shuts down. The executive committee has decided that the site will be strictly sealed and protected as a memorial site for the "Haihan Civilization." The decision on whether to open it to the public will be made by the next generation after all the time travelers have passed away.

The former headquarters of the Ministry of State Security, now the South China Sea branch, remains a permanent institution. The internal and external situation in the South China Sea region changes daily, requiring the Ministry of State Security to respond quickly. It's impossible to rely on remote command from Hangzhou for everything; the Sanya headquarters still needs to coordinate and handle various matters. Many higher education institutions that have been operating in Sanya for two or three decades, as well as military academies of the Army and Navy, have long been rooted in the city. They won't move away from Sanya just because the capital is being relocated; they will simply establish teaching branches in Hangzhou, or even create a new institution like the "National Defense University."

The Sanya Shipyard, with its factory area stretching for miles along the coast, is the largest shipbuilding base in the entire South China Sea. The coastal factory area and dozens of large and small docks are priceless and immovable real estate. Moreover, the shipping industry has been booming in recent years, and these docks have almost never been vacant for long periods, constantly generating considerable wealth.

The railway system connecting Tiandu Industrial Zone, Sanya's main urban area, and the entire port area, as one of the most important infrastructure projects in the area and a base for training railway talents for the country, will naturally not be moved.

In order to complete the western section of the planned island-loop railway, the relevant railway engineering design institutes and railway equipment manufacturing departments will naturally have to remain in the local area to provide services for the subsequent construction.

The units and departments that did not relocate alone employ tens of thousands of people in Sanya. Combined with the already highly developed commerce, service industry, and manufacturing industry in the area, this has basically maintained Sanya's prosperity.

Li Yuande succinctly explained to Chen Pingliao what he knew, giving him a general understanding of the current situation in Sanya.

Chen Pingliao sighed, "Although there are some decent seaports in the north, in terms of the level of development of maritime trade, it is indeed far behind the south!"

In Chen Pingliao's view, although ports like Dengzhou Zhifu Port and Jinzhou Lushun Port have good natural conditions and decent infrastructure, they have never been able to develop to the same level of prosperity as southern ports.

Not to mention compared to the trading ports of the Pearl River Estuary and Sanya, it is far inferior even to Dinghai Port in Zhoushan, which is relatively close.

Li Yuande said, "I think the main problem in the North is that the scale of inland waterway shipping is too small, far from being comparable to that in the South. Without inland waterway shipping, the role of seaports as cargo distribution hubs is greatly reduced, and naturally, maritime trade is not as prosperous."

After listening, Chen Pingliao found it quite reasonable and nodded, saying, "Brother Li's insights are profound; I have learned a great deal!"

Li Yuande waved his hand and said, "This is not my opinion, but something I heard from my father and uncles. They have traveled all over the country and have a lot of experience, much better than me, a half-baked person."

The reasons for the flourishing maritime trade in the south, as Li Yuande described, are only one aspect; the actual situation is, of course, far more complex. For instance, the coastal areas south of Hangzhou Bay are mostly mountainous, making agricultural conditions far less suitable than in the flatter north. Consequently, people had no choice but to seek a living at sea, and maritime trade naturally became an important part of the local economy and people's livelihoods.

Since its founding, Haihan has been based on maritime trade and has vigorously developed shipping-related industries along the coast. The continuous investment over the past thirty years has naturally allowed the southern region, which has more natural conditions suitable for maritime trade, to develop faster.