50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 649 There are policies from above and countermeasures from below

Sun Zhiwei's learning journey was made difficult by Ivan from the very beginning. Although he had a pilot's license, Ivan still wanted to dissuade him from flying a plane.

In Ivan's mind, this Mr. James was a very nice person and paid him a generous salary. He just hoped that Mr. James wouldn't lose his life while flying a plane.

So, Ivan immediately handed him a thick driver's manual.

"Boss, you'll probably need to learn a lot more to pilot this little guy. Otherwise, I wouldn't dare let you operate it."

His real thought was, 'You'd better not understand it, then I'll save myself the trouble.' In that case, you'll be happy, I'll be happy, and everyone will be happy.

Sun Zhiwei noticed that the flight manual was almost as thick as a Xinhua Dictionary, so he curiously flipped through the table of contents.

It turned out that the first half of the book was about flight basics, which he had already learned when he was taking his license test.

The second half was about maintenance knowledge, which he basically didn't need, but he had memorized it before.

The actual driving knowledge related to this Gulfstream 3 was only a dozen pages long, which he glanced at and memorized.

So, 10 minutes later, he tossed the manual he had just glanced at back to Ivan and said, "I've learned all of this. Let's get right to the computer and start training."

To reassure Ivan, the bearded man, he agreed to let the crew organize an assessment for him.

This assessment was actually to verify Sun Zhiwei's mastery of driving knowledge.

So there's no need to prepare any exam papers; the entire crew can take the test together.

The Gulfstream III has only four crew members: the captain is responsible for piloting, the first officer assists piloting and also serves as the mechanic, and two flight attendants are responsible for cabin service. The questions they can come up with are limited.

Sun Zhiwei experienced two flight training sessions, one with an Air Force instructor and the other with a Civil Aviation instructor.

Therefore, whether it's military or civilian flight knowledge, as long as he has learned it, it won't stump him. So, despite the four of them racking their brains, they ultimately couldn't stump Sun Zhiwei.

Just one day later, Sun Zhiwei took to the skies with the crew. On the first day, he was still sitting in the co-pilot's seat, but on the second day, he was able to take off and land directly with Ivan's assistance.

He stopped learning after three days. His explanation to the public was that his interest in flying had been satisfied.

The truth is, there's no need to learn anymore. This Gulfstream III isn't much different from other aircraft; he can fly it whenever he encounters one, so there's no need to waste any more time.

On April 6, the Ivan crew piloted a Gulfstream III aircraft and successfully delivered Sun Zhiwei to Pontianak Airport in Borneo, completing the crew's first long-haul flight.

While the crew stayed at Pontianak Airport to summarize their experience and resupply, he went to the Huang family to find Huang Huizhong and inquire about purchasing the island.

Huang Huizhong actually knew something about this matter.

Over the years, the brothers' Central Asia Bank (BCA) has grown to a considerable size. Although it is not yet comparable to Cathay Bank, it is already one of the leading banks in Java.

With money comes the desire to spend it, and buying an island is a question that almost every wealthy person has considered.

After accumulating a large amount of wealth, businessmen all want to gain power in order to protect their wealth.

However, the larger the country, the more difficult it is to achieve this goal, especially in Java, a place that is not friendly to Chinese businesses.

Therefore, the two brothers also considered buying an island to be in charge of themselves, which would naturally be the best option.

"Mr. James, how big of an island would you like to buy? What is its intended use?"

Buying an island is not a big problem; many high-ranking officials in Java own their own private islands.

Although there are regulations prohibiting foreigners from buying islands, in a corrupt country like Java, these regulations are practically nonexistent. Especially now, with two major factions clashing within Java and both desperately seeking external support.

If you can give them the right benefits, they'd be willing to give up an island for free; they wouldn't care at all.

In other countries, an island may involve many maritime interests.

According to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the maritime interests of islands include:
Jurisdiction over a 12-nautical-mile territorial sea, a 24-nautical-mile contiguous zone, a 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone, and a 350-nautical-mile continental shelf.

The last one was proposed by Truman in 1945.

This broke with the traditional principles of high seas recognition, represented America's maritime power, and other countries subsequently accepted this new rule.

But all of this is utterly insignificant to Java, the island nation with over 17,000 islands.

Or perhaps Javanese politicians haven't realized this problem yet, because there are simply too many islands for them to manage.

If they could exchange a small, useless island for some tangible benefits, neither side in the current conflict would be unhappy.

Having figured out Java's true attitude towards private purchases of islands, Sun Zhiwei understood what he needed to do.

The first priority is to acquire some resources. What's most important in war? Weapons and men.

Java has no shortage of people, but in terms of weaponry, apart from a small number of light weapons, most of its heavy equipment is imported.

Since the armistice between India and the Netherlands in 49, they have not fought a war for more than 30 years.

In recent years, Java has mainly purchased large equipment such as warships and submarines from abroad, and has imported very few small arms.

As everyone knows, in the tropics, even with diligent maintenance, weapons and equipment will rust quickly.

Moreover, the Javanese army is not an excellent force. Most of them still use firearms and ammunition from World War II, so it is unrealistic to expect them to maintain these old weapons every few days.

Therefore, when Colonel Latif and Prabowo were fighting each other, they discovered that most of the weapons of their infantry were outdated.

This is the main reason why the intensity of the fighting between the two sides has remained low.

Sun Zhiwei felt that this was a good opportunity for him to add fuel to the fire on both sides and also get the island purchase done.

When it comes to which countries in the world have the largest stockpiles of weapons, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council are naturally among them, and at this point in time, America is undoubtedly the easiest to acquire.

Deep in the Nevada desert lies a massive ammunition depot, equivalent in size to 3.7 football fields—the Hawthorne Army Depot.

This place stores all kinds of ammunition, from bullets and shells to missiles, with a total storage capacity of over 7000 million tons.

Its scale is so large that it is the largest weapons storage base in human history, with more than 400 billion bullets alone.

The establishment of this ammunition depot also has historical reasons.

During the Normandy landings in 1944, each American soldier was issued only 50 rounds of ammunition, and artillery shells were also in short supply.

The American soldiers, who had always been wealthy, had never experienced such a predicament, so they complained to their superiors about the lack of weapons and ammunition.

This incident led America to decide after World War II that it would "never let the army lack ammunition again." As a result, starting in 46, the American army began to stockpile weapons like crazy.

(End of this chapter)