50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 690 The First Batch of Business for the Branch Company

What's special is that the islands in that area are mostly mountains and forests, with very little flat land suitable for cultivation. The economy is extremely underdeveloped, and it has historically been a breeding ground for pirates.

There is also the Tammelin Islands to the southwest, which is a small archipelago of 17 islands.

In addition to these relatively concentrated archipelagos, there are also some scattered islands throughout the southern part of the South China Sea and the area south of the Gulf of Thailand.

Since Dong Haoyang said the speedboats came from the West, considering the range of a speedboat, the pirates' hideouts should be within this area.

Sun Zhiwei roughly drew a circle on the map, and then let them start discussing how to deal with it.

"The first thing is reconnaissance; we must find out where they came from."

"Strike at the heart of the problem. Only by raiding their stronghold can we solve the problem once and for all. There's no point in getting entangled with their speedboats at sea."

"But we only have a few passenger ships. Although they can carry a lot of people, they are very slow and we can't catch up with them at all."

"Don't worry about that. I've already sent people to allocate speedboats. By the way, is the shipyard on the Tamsui River ready yet?"

"It's already built, but it's completely empty there now, not a single ship in sight, so I haven't assigned anyone to stand guard there."

"A batch of speedboats will arrive tomorrow as reinforcements. Let them anchor there. When the pirates' speedboats arrive, have the scouts secretly follow them and find their hideout."

"Dong Haoyang, you will be in charge of this operation. Resolve the problem completely. There can be no such hidden dangers around our base."

"Understood, promise to complete the task."

That evening, Sun Zhiwei went to the dock on the other side of the Danshui River.

He first cleaned out the clutter from the dozens of speedboats he had brought from New York, and then painted over all the original names and hull numbers.

After doing all this, he put all the speedboats into the dock's berths and filled the dock's oil depot with gasoline and diesel.

An army marches on its stomach; these speedboats and fuel supplies are the provisions needed for the operation to come.

The next day, the reconnaissance soldiers were on high alert in their speedboats at the dock on the other side of the Tamsui River.

Around noon, the pirates' speedboats came again, constantly approaching Subi Island to scout it. Everyone refrained from firing immediately.

An hour later, the pirates began to retreat. Dong Haoyang immediately contacted the scouts via walkie-talkie, and several of our speedboats immediately set off from the upper reaches of the Danshui River, following the pirates at a distance.

In the afternoon, the scouts returned and found the pirates' lair on a small island off the outskirts of the Riau Islands.

The command team, composed of captains like Dong Haoyang, began analyzing the terrain, formulating plans, and assigning tasks.

Sun Zhiwei just watched without interfering with their command.

That night, 500 fully armed soldiers set out in droves, with speedboats in front and passenger ships behind, and quickly disappeared into the night.

Only Sun Zhiwei and a small number of clerical staff remained on Subi Island. Sun Zhiwei waited anxiously, and even asked the island's doctor to prepare for the rescue.

They returned at 4 a.m.

Sun Zhiwei breathed a sigh of relief when he saw their happy faces and the weapons and equipment they had captured.

Sun Zhiwei was always worried about this and that, but in fact, many of them had been on the battlefield before they retired. There was no need to worry about dealing with an unorganized and undisciplined mob.

But this was, after all, the first armed force under his command. He was responsible not only to his soldiers but also to the country.

Now that he had managed to wipe out a pirate group without suffering any losses on his first expedition, he was finally relieved. But that wasn't all. The soldiers couldn't rest immediately upon their return; instead, they had to conduct a post-mortem analysis to identify the shortcomings of the operation and improve their tactics for the next mission.

Sun Zhiwei listened as they recounted the entire battle.

After approaching the pirates' lair, they first anchored the passenger ship, which was carrying a large number of people and equipment, at a distance.

Then, using several speedboats as the vanguard, they quietly landed on the other side of the island at minimal speed.

Once some people were on the island, they surrounded the pirate base in the middle from the jungle, and finally attacked from both the land and sea.

In the soldiers' words, the battle was over without them even putting in their full strength. Compared to the monkeys of the southwest, these pirates were much easier to defeat.

After the debriefing was completed, each squad summarized the problems encountered during the operation, and only then did all the soldiers go back to catch up on sleep.

However, Sun Zhiwei gathered the unit's command team at this time and led them to analyze the subsequent impact of this operation.

“Piracy is rampant in the Malacca area, and it’s not just the one we wiped out today.”

"Most of them were poorly equipped and untrained. Individual pirates were few in number, but the total number was large, and many pirates were in contact with each other."

"Many pirates were originally villagers. When they were busy, they were farmers and fishermen, and when they were free, they would take speedboats to rob ships along the shipping route."

"It can be said that as long as the poverty here is not changed, the pirates in the vicinity will never be completely wiped out."

"I hope you will make better use of the new equipment and expand the defensive perimeter of Subi Island so that pirates can never come to our doorstep again."

"You need to learn how to use many of the devices on the island."

"For example, airport radar can detect ships on the sea within 200 kilometers, and can provide early warning of approaching aircraft and ships."

"And I brought back ten helicopters, which have a lot of equipment with different functions. You need to learn how to use them as soon as possible."

The Black Hawk helicopters he got from Lieutenant Colonel Page last time came in three different models.

These consist of two medical rescue aircraft, two fire support aircraft, and six extended-range aircraft equipped with auxiliary fuel tanks.

If used properly, they can fully demonstrate their ability to quickly strike surrounding islands.

After small-scale battles, they can practice against nearby pirates to learn how to build defensive perimeters to protect personnel and facilities, which is also part of their training.

Sun Zhiwei has already planned the first business for Pinkerton's Asian branch: escorting cargo ships on the waterways.

Their base happened to be located on the Malacca Strait, where escorting ships could both earn them money and train their troops.

This time, he brought over speedboats of various sizes from New York. The smaller ones have a range of over 500 kilometers, while the largest can reach 2000 kilometers.

These speedboats can reach speeds of 40-50 knots, and the entire Malacca Channel is their operating range.

After confirming that the soldiers were ready to begin combat readiness, Sun Zhiwei flew back to Hong Kong Island.

For his first business deal, he planned to contact Mr. Bao, the shipping magnate of Hong Kong Island.

In the 70s, Hong Kong Island had four shipping magnates. Unfortunately, due to the global oil crisis, the other three shipping magnates either went bankrupt or were heavily indebted. Now, only the fleet of the shipping magnate Bao is still active at sea.

(End of this chapter)