1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 4029

Ilhan was certainly not a fool; he wasn't so easily fooled by Takahashi Minami's empty promises.

Throughout history, many people have tried to change this trade route, attempting to replace the long sea route around the African continent with short-distance land transport. Even Ilhan himself considered building the route when he first took office. However, once it entered the implementation stage, he quickly realized that human power could not overcome the natural environment, and the transport capacity of this trade route was ultimately limited.

Now that the Haihan people have been boasting repeatedly, Ilhan naturally doesn't believe them. However, he is indeed curious about the purpose behind the Haihan people's exaggerated claims.

If all they wanted was to gain goodwill and approval, they had already achieved that goal when they came last time, or more precisely, when they presented a large number of gifts.

As for the idea of ​​using military force to seize Suez, Ilhan felt that the Haihan people would not have such an idea. After all, it was thousands of miles away from the Haihan homeland. Even if they took it, what difference would it make? The limited income here would be far from enough to support the long-term stationing of an armed fleet.

All of Ilhan's inferences were based on the preconceived notion that "Suez has no future prospects." He naturally could not imagine the grand plan that the Haihan leadership had devised for this desolate land.

Seeing that Ilhan didn't take his words seriously, Takahashi Minami wasn't in a hurry to persuade him. If Ilhan could cooperate, it would naturally save the special operations division a lot of trouble, but if he couldn't become part of the Suez Plan, Takahashi Minami wouldn't feel any regret.

The immediate priority for the special operations division was not to win over the local officials appointed by the Ottoman Empire, but to gather as much intelligence as possible about all aspects of the target area through on-site investigations in preparation for the next military operation.

Qian Tiandun would not place all his hopes on the cooperation of the Ottomans. The cooperation proposal he made to them in Basra last year was unlikely to impress the Ottoman rulers, and in the end, the problem would have to be solved by force.

Therefore, Takahashi Minami proposed to Ilhan that he could lead a caravan to Port Said again to investigate the land routes and trade situation.

Ilhan didn't take it seriously. As long as Takahashi Minami didn't openly lead his armed forces into Suez, it wasn't a big deal. If the Haihan caravan could operate on this trade route for a long time, the local government could also collect more taxes.

With a flourish of his pen, Ilhan readily issued a pass to Takahashi Minami, allowing him to lead his caravan into the city of Suez and the northern inland areas to engage in normal trade activities.

In return for his kindness, Takahashi, just like during his last visit to Suez, chose to cooperate with Ilhan's carriage company, hiring a group of camels and camel drivers, and naturally gave Ilhan another sum of money.

This time, Ilhan did not send any so-called professional guides to accompany the Haihan caravan. However, Takahashi Minami understood that the camel drivers sent by the caravan company must also have Ilhan's spies, and the caravan's movements would eventually reach Ilhan's ears.

If the trip to Suez two years ago was primarily focused on familiarizing themselves with the environment, then this time, the team led by Takahashi Minami has a more practical objective: the geological environment. The smooth progress of the canal construction will depend on the preliminary geological mapping and exploration. The reconnaissance units of the special operations division can handle the task of mapping the terrain, producing detailed military maps. However, geological exploration is not a strong suit of reconnaissance soldiers, so it will rely on specialists who are proficient in this field.

Among Takahashi Minami's entourage was a five-man team specifically responsible for this secret mission. These five men were all apprentices and grand-apprentices of Tian Yeyou, a master of geological exploration. They had arrived at Fubo Port with Chen Pingliao last November. Their main tasks, besides exploring underground oil fields in the area surrounding Fubo Port, included preparations for the Suez Canal project.

Geological exploration requires a significant amount of time to collect samples, especially soil samples buried deep underground, the quality of which will likely directly impact the canal project in the future. However, due to environmental limitations, the exploration team obviously cannot openly set up drilling rigs to probe the strata here, and can only rely on some simple tools to manually excavate strata samples.

In order to ensure the depth of the excavation and the sampling density, the caravan traveled for half a day and rested for half a day. Every day after noon, they would stop to set up camp so that the exploration team could secretly excavate from inside the tents.

Sometimes, caravans would inexplicably stop in one place for two or three days without moving. The locals who accompanied them didn't understand why the Haihan people would linger in such desolate wilderness for so long. If they wanted to buy or sell goods, shouldn't they go to a densely populated area as soon as possible?
However, these Haihan people clearly did not mind spending more time on the journey, nor did they care about the cost of food and supplies for the people and horses during the stay. They still paid these hired workers on a daily basis, without shortchanging them by a single penny.

That means the longer the journey, the more money they can earn. As long as they have food and drink every day, no one is in a hurry to get going anymore. For people from the carriage and horse trading industry, this is already considered a rare and easy job.

Some people noticed that the Haihan people in some of the tents were acting suspiciously. When they were seen, they were always covered in dirt and looked like they had just crawled out of the ground. Moreover, when they broke camp, there were always signs of disturbance under a few tents, and no one knew what these people were secretly digging for.

But these things have nothing to do with the carriage and horse trade. If the Haihan people want to dig for treasure here, no one will stop them, because no one has ever dug up any treasures here in history. At most, they have only some abandoned goods left in the desert by ancient caravans.

Even if the Haihan people wanted to dig for treasure, they should have gone hundreds of miles away to explore the tombs of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs, instead of wandering aimlessly in this desert, digging as they went.

Many people felt that the Haihan caravan, which had come from afar, was not doing its proper business and was acting somewhat foolishly. Despite carrying so much cargo, instead of trying to quickly transport it to the next stop to sell it for a good price, it wasted its precious time on these trivial matters that yielded no reward along the way.

But for Takahashi Minami, how much money he could make on this trip, or even whether he would make any money at all, was not something he needed to consider. As long as he completed the task set by Qian Tiandun, any expense would be worthwhile.

The reason they brought so much cargo was twofold: first, to cover their tracks and provide a plausible explanation to outsiders; and second, to sell the cargo once they reached Port Said in the Mediterranean, so that the proceeds could offset some of the expenses of the trip.

Takahashi Minami listens to the exploration team's reports every day and revises the route for the next leg of the journey. Their exploration site selection is not purely random, but based on the canal route planned by Haihan. All the geological sampling locations are basically areas that will need to be excavated in the future.

(End of this chapter)