1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3664

November 1658, Hambantota Port, Ceylon. Continuous rain for many days shrouded the entire port in a hazy fog. It can be vaguely seen that the docks in the port are almost full of large and small warships, which is a rare busy phenomenon since the opening of the port.

Although it is almost the end of the year, there is no sign of winter in the Hambantota Port near the equator. In fact, this place only has two seasons a year, rainy season and dry season. It is now in the transition period from rainy season to dry season, and the weather conditions are extremely unstable.

Although the weather is not ideal, the preparations for the Special Operations Division's amphibious fleet to depart have entered the countdown stage.

The six ships from Xingdao have also arrived here safely. In addition to bringing a batch of much-needed supplies for the Special Operations Division, Tan Tianlei also brought a document issued by the Executive Committee.

The content of this document officially confirms that the base established by the Special Operations Division on Ceylon Island has become part of Hai Han's overseas territory, and the place was renamed Hamban Port.

All military and political affairs of Hambang Port are temporarily managed by the Special Operations Division, and when the time is right, Hai Han will send civil officials to take over the government affairs.

The attitude expressed by the Executive Committee through this document was basically what Qian Tiandun expected. This place was originally a spoils of war obtained by the Special Warfare Division, and the early construction was completed through self-reliance. The Executive Committee's recognition of this place under the jurisdiction of the Special Warfare Division was also a recognition of this contribution.

As for whether this place will be brought under the jurisdiction of the Executive Committee in the future, it will most likely depend on the expansion speed of the Special Operations Division in the Indian Ocean region.

At present, the special operations division only occupies two small areas in the Indian Ocean. It is difficult for them to maintain themselves, let alone generate much financial revenue. Whoever is in charge will have to invest money to develop them. A shrewd executive committee will certainly not be in a hurry to take back the governing power at this time.

Perhaps in the future there will be more places along the Indian Ocean coast flying the Hai Han flag. At that time, the Executive Committee will plan to establish a special overseas region, and it will be natural to bring these areas under its jurisdiction and start collecting taxes.

Whether it is handed over to Qian Tiandun or the children of the Qian family, or someone else is sought, it will all be a matter of following the trend and coming to fruition naturally, and there is no need to make a decision at this stage.

Qian Tiandun was well aware of this trend. He knew that if he wanted to become the future governor of the Indian Ocean region, he would have to occupy more areas as soon as possible and establish a jurisdiction with a certain territorial scale and population base before he would be eligible to apply to the Executive Committee to establish an overseas region.

During the preparatory meeting before departure, Qian Tiandun also took the initiative to ask Tan Tianlei about the progress of Xingdao in the new southern continent.

Tan Tianlei smiled bitterly and said, "To be honest, uncle, although our construction in the new southern continent is going smoothly, it is still progressing very slowly. The reason is that the place is too far away! The time and materials spent on the round trip are not small. The transportation cost is much higher than sending it to you."

"But this has already begun, so we can only grit our teeth and continue. Fortunately, the area is so remote that there are no competitors or pirates, so we don't need to invest a lot of troops to maintain it, so we can draw warships to join the special operations division's operations."

The difficulties that Tan Tianlei mentioned were actually anticipated by Roger and Tan Juren before they chose the New World as the direction of expansion. However, the actual situation might be more difficult than they expected.

The voyage from Xingdao to Swan Port in the New World is more than 8,000 miles long. It takes an ordinary sailing ship about half a month to complete a one-way trip, and at least more than a month to go back and forth, which is basically the same as the route from Xingdao to Hangzhou. The route that can connect to Hangzhou is a popular trade route. The ships will not run empty both ways, and they can often make considerable profits. However, the route from Xingdao to the New World is simply to transport people and goods. Not only does it have no income, but the return trip is almost empty, and the freight has to be subsidized by the Xingdao authorities.

This situation of occupying valuable transportation capacity for a long time without any immediate benefits is indeed a very difficult situation for Sing Tao, which does not have a particularly rich financial foundation.

Although there are many valuable mineral deposits in the New World, given the current population base, priority must be given to the implementation of infrastructure projects in the colonies and the reclamation of wasteland and the planting of food crops. Only in this way can the local materials achieve self-sufficiency as soon as possible and operate without over-reliance on Star Island.

As for the mining that the Sing Tao authorities are looking forward to, at this stage they can only carry out preliminary exploration work, and formal mining and smelting are still a long way off.

"We know where the mine is, how to mine it, how to smelt it, but we just don't have enough people to realize these plans."

When it comes to mining development in the New World, Tan Tianlei's face showed helplessness.

Mining is an industry that requires a lot of manpower, which is exactly the shortcoming of the New World colonies. Although the movement of immigrants to the region has been ongoing, the number of workers is far from the level required for large-scale mining.

This certainly affected the progress of Xingdao's transportation of immigrants to the Special Operations Division's jurisdiction, but Qian Tiandun did not intend to complain to his nephews and nephews like Tan Tianlei.

He understood that Roger and Tan Tianlei preferred to occupy a region in the southern new continent that was rich in resources and did not need to be shared with others. As long as they could successfully develop it, the long-term benefits would definitely be higher than the Indian Ocean region that needed to be shared in half with the special warfare division.

Moreover, progress in the Indian Ocean seems to be equally far away. After taking over the colonies in the southern New World and then coming back to assist the special operations division, it seems to be a safe plan that benefits both ends.

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What Qian Tiandun needs to do now is to use practical actions to tell Xingdao that the Special Operations Division will not wait there for too long. Even without Xingdao's participation and assistance, the Special Operations Division's westward advance plan will still be implemented resolutely.

Of course, if Xingdao was absent at this time, then Xingdao would have no share in the subsequent achievements of the Special Operations Division.

Three days after Tan Tianlei arrived at Hamban Port, all preparations were completed and Qian Tiandun announced the departure to begin the exploration of the western Indian Ocean.

Qian Tiandun's goal is to establish a direct shipping route from Hamban Port to the Gulf of Aden in the western Indian Ocean. However, when it comes to the exploration phase, it is necessary to take this opportunity to find out the conditions in various coastal areas of this sea area and eliminate external factors that may pose a threat to this route in the future as soon as possible.

Of course, another purpose is to show force to all forces in the region and deter the rogues. The Special Warfare Division's amphibious fleet plus the six ships from Xingdao that came to participate in the operation, a total of more than 30 ships, is already one of the best maritime armed forces in the region.