50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 498 The Leopard's Indiscriminate Killing
Now that he was back on his island, Sun Zhiwei felt much more relaxed.

After the Melbourne was anchored, he arranged for the captain to stay in a newly built hotel on the island.

The hotel staff were found for him by Saipan Mayor Quincy Stephens, whom he had asked to help him find.

He hasn't assessed the hotel's managers and staff yet; he's just using them for now. If they meet his requirements, then keeping them wouldn't be a bad idea.

This hotel has been open for quite some time now, and initially, it was mostly occupied by engineers from the construction team. Now that most of the engineers have left, the crew members have moved in.

Two days later, the first mate led the ocean-going tugboat into Anatahan Port. Their safe escape relieved Sun Zhiwei's tension considerably.

This at least proves that only the captain of that destroyer wanted to seize the Melbourne; no one else had that intention.

Most of the crew of that destroyer are now gone, and the Melbourne is safe for the time being.

It's simply unrealistic to completely conceal the fact that the Melbourne was docked on Anatahan Island; far too many people already knew about it.

He believes that information about the Melbourne will be released in Australia soon.

On the very day the Melbourne docked, the finance officer who remained in Canberra sent him a message saying that the $9000 million grant from the Australian Parliament had arrived.

Sun Zhiwei instructed the finance department to transfer 35%, or $3150 million, to a bank in Saipan, while the remainder was gradually transferred to the various beneficiaries according to the original plan.

This is the protection fee he has to pay; otherwise, he wouldn't be able to transfer that 35% of the funds.

He stayed in Australia for more than a month and earned more than 3000 million plus an old aircraft carrier with only a small amount of money. He made a fortune.

Unfortunately, such good things don't happen every day. After sighing for a while, Sun Zhiwei saw off the captain of the ocean tugboat and began to refurbish the Melbourne.

His reason for buying the Melbourne was to build a cultural attraction, and this wasn't just talk; it had to be put into practice.

We need to speed things up. Old M will send someone to check sooner or later, and we can't give them an excuse to interfere.

Starting the following day, Sun Zhiwei hired a new construction team from Saipan to begin building a separate small pier, specifically for berthing the Melbourne.

During this period, he will be stationed at the port to monitor the situation of the Melbourne at all times.

Although he didn't believe in the Melbourne curse at all, he was always just in case, given the many bloody lessons learned in the past few decades.

If the Melbourne capsizes another passenger ship while it's with him, then this ship will have to be dismantled anyway.

In addition to building a new dock, he also hired hundreds of people to do surface renovation work on the ship, mainly to remove rust and paint the entire aircraft carrier, which was a huge project.

After arranging all the urgently needed work, he finally found time to send a telegram home.

Now that the aircraft carrier is in hand, his family can send people over. This time, he left behind most of the equipment from the HMAS Melbourne.

These include a 2-horsepower Parsons steam turbine, a carrier-based aircraft takeoff and landing lighting control system, a hydraulic catapult, and landing arresting cables, among others.

In particular, the Type 277Q air search radar and the Type 293Q surface search radar are the latest models that were replaced during the last major overhaul of the HMAS Melbourne.

They were originally supposed to be dismantled and replaced on other ships, but since Sun Zhiwei paid so much, he figured he might as well add some US dollars to his own pocket rather than save the navy that much money.

Therefore, the council scrapped both radars, and Sun Zhiwei ended up keeping them on the ship. To put it simply, if the necessary ammunition, carrier-based aircraft, and crew were replenished, the Melbourne would still be a formidable fighting force.

If the carrier-based aircraft or missiles were more powerful, it would be perfectly capable of striking small and medium-sized countries.

Currently, our country's aircraft carrier research is almost a blank slate. We don't even know what structures and systems an aircraft carrier should include.

Now, a complete aircraft carrier is right here. As long as the technicians can figure out how to build the Melbourne, we will have the basic foundation to build a light aircraft carrier.

Building upon this foundation, further research and improvements to various equipment and materials will allow us to design our own medium and large aircraft carriers, which will no longer be a dream.

While he was making preparations, Xu Yimin at home also received his telegram and was shocked by its contents.

Although Xu Yimin had great confidence in Sun Zhiwei and had supported him when Australia was preparing to sell its aircraft carrier, he strongly supported Sun Zhiwei's opinion of not participating or making a bid.

But he never expected that Sun Zhiwei would be able to acquire the entire Melbourne intact.

Actually, when the price was originally set at 3000 million, there was a gamble involved. Even if we could only acquire one or two key technologies, it would greatly accelerate our progress in developing our own aircraft carrier.

However, if we give up completely, there will be no chance at all. Therefore, when Sun Zhiwei's suggestion was sent back, many people still opposed it, especially the technical staff.

They don't understand political maneuvering, and they lack social skills; all they want is technology.

Ultimately, the reason why Sun Zhiwei's opinion prevailed was because the name "Di Ting" played a role.

Listening to past achievements gave the leaders more confidence.

Another point is that the older generation of leaders are used to taking the initiative and are unwilling to gamble the outcome on the enemy showing mercy.

Rather than gambling that the Australian Navy will remove fewer key pieces of equipment and leaving it to fate, it's better to take a big gamble and place all your hopes on your own people.

Even if "listening" fails under this option, it can still serve as experience for the next operation.

As it turned out, the leaders won this gamble, and won big, making a fortune by betting on all three winning combinations.

Xu Yimin quickly grabbed the telegram and rushed out of the office. This was a big deal and needed to be kept strictly confidential.

That island is under the name of James, the person Sun Zhiwei is using as a cover for. If someone is exposed, Sun Zhiwei's disguised identity will be questioned, putting him in danger.

Xu Yimin went directly to his old superior to report the situation, and this time the selection of personnel to be sent should be more strictly screened, and no one with even the slightest flaw could pass the test.

Sun Zhiwei had also made preparations in advance; the domestic technicians would have to undergo a second review by him.

He had already decided that the review would not take place on Anatahan Island; he planned to take them to Washington first once they were all gathered.

He wanted to create an open environment to get them moving.

He had already decided on his accommodation: a residential area not far from the FBI headquarters, the kind where you could walk to the FBI headquarters in 5 minutes.

(End of this chapter)