50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 697 Support for Yongshu Island
The ship's maintenance workers welded staircases, passageways, and railings onto the container walls, transforming the Nanxun Reef guard post into a steel fortress centered on the boundary marker.

In this way, the soldiers can easily go up and down each level of the container, and also patrol and stand guard on the top wall.

Despite having a ship with hundreds of people helping, they still stayed here for three days before completing the steel structure made of shipping containers.

At this point, all the joints of the containers had been firmly welded together. When the wind and waves hit them, all that could be heard was the sound of the waves breaking, but they were powerless against this steel fortress.

The containers on the same level were cut apart at close intervals to create a continuous passageway inside the containers.

The top-floor container, facing the sea, has many windows, allowing soldiers to observe enemy activity without patrolling outside when the weather is bad.

Squad Leader Jiang is now both happy and worried. He's happy because the guard post now has significantly more room to maneuver and is much safer.

The problem is that the building area of ​​the Nanxun Reef garrison has suddenly expanded dozens of times, and they are clearly short-handed.

After working alongside them for three days, Sun Zhiwei finally had a chance to catch his breath. Seeing Squad Leader Jiang's worried expression, he quickly asked him what was wrong.

It turned out that Squad Leader Jiang wanted to report the changes at the Nanxun Reef garrison to his superiors, but he was still unable to contact the regiment.

The Nanxun Reef outpost only has one battery-powered telegraph machine with very low power, making it impossible to contact the Yongshu Island outpost, which is 160 kilometers away.

This telegraph machine can only be used once a time when a supply ship comes.

Upon hearing about Squad Leader Jiang's difficulties, Sun Zhiwei waved his hand and said, "It's alright, we have a more powerful telegraph machine on our ship, we'll give it to you."

The Sea Sands certainly didn't have a spare telegraph machine on board, but it had one in its cargo compartment.

Over the years, he has won many battles, both big and small. As telegraph machines are valuable electrical appliances, he has captured quite a few, but they have all been left to gather dust in his storage space.

Sun Zhiwei quickly returned to the Hai Sha ship for a quick look around. When he came back, he brought back a high-powered radio, which he had seized from the Annamese monkeys years ago.

He didn't hide the origin of the radio from Squad Leader Jiang, saying directly that it was a spoil of war obtained from Monkey. Squad Leader Jiang kept praising him for his ability.

Hehe, none of the soldiers guarding the South China Sea have a good impression of the Annamese monkeys. If we encounter them, we should deal with them.

Having obtained the high-powered radio, Squad Leader Jiang quickly contacted the regimental headquarters stationed on Yongshu Island.

When the regimental headquarters heard about the situation at Nanxun Reef, they thought Squad Leader Jiang had gone mad. They simply sent a message to reassure him and said they would send people over to provide support first thing the next morning.

Squad Leader Jiang failed to grasp the regimental headquarters' intentions, but Sun Zhiwei understood their hidden meaning and decided not to leave early the next morning, but to stay and watch the excitement unfold.

The next day, just as dawn was breaking, the radar of the Hai Sha detected two ships approaching from the west.

Sun Zhiwei alerted the crew on board and went outside to observe from a distance using binoculars.

Soon, he noticed two fishing boats, each about 100 tons in size, approaching, with national flags flying on them.

He realized that this support must have come from the Yongshu Island headquarters.

The two fishing boats spotted the massive Hai Sha from a distance and immediately slowed down.

Meanwhile, the radio on Squad Leader Jiang's side of Nanxun Reef crackled to life. Only after communicating with Squad Leader Jiang did the fishing boat approach with some skepticism. When they saw the container wall on Nanxun Reef, they were all speechless, their mouths agape. It turned out Squad Leader Jiang was telling the truth.

Their regimental commander, Fang Haitao, also came with the ship this time. Squad Leader Jiang quickly called Sun Zhiwei over, and the three met in a container room.

After they got to know each other, Sun Zhiwei told them about his situation: he was an overseas Chinese from the United States who had bought the nearby Subi Island in Java and built a security company that specialized in escorting ships in Malacca.

When the regimental commander, Fang Haitao, heard him say that he had recruited 500 veterans in China, his pupils contracted slightly.

How could he not know the situation in our country? No foreign company can recruit veterans; this clearly shows he has strong connections in China.

Who knows, this overseas Chinese named James might be a front man for some organization.

However, he quickly dismissed this possibility from his mind; he didn't want to get involved in such confidential information.

When Sun Zhiwei later explained that he had promised his elders back home to send some supplies to the soldiers guarding the border, which was why he was passing through here on his way back to China, Commander Fang became even more certain of his suspicions.

Why did it sound so awkward to say "Comrade James"? Sun Zhiwei felt awkward too, so he quickly added, "Commander Fang, please just call me by my Chinese name: Sun Wei."

"Alright, Comrade Sun Wei, thank you for your support," Commander Fang quickly corrected himself.

"It's nothing, it's what we should do. The soldiers guard the border and protect our country. Although we are no longer in the army, we can still do our part and support them as much as we can."

"By the way, Commander Fang, we brought a lot of New Year's supplies on board this time, all of which are for the soldiers on the island."

“But we’re not familiar with the various guard posts, so how about we just put them all with you and you take charge of the arrangements? Is that alright?”

If the supplies were given by the masses, Commander Fang would definitely not accept them. The Three Main Rules of Discipline and the Eight Points for Attention are engraved in the soldiers' bones; they are not just empty words.

But the supplies that Sun Zhiwei sent were different. First, they were all veterans, comrades-in-arms, and one of their own. Second, they knew that Sun Zhiwei was rich.

In the army, whenever a comrade has money, he has to treat everyone to a meal, and other soldiers will also come over to take advantage of the rich and powerful.

This military tradition is so prevalent that even high-ranking officers like fathers-in-law can't avoid it; it's also a way for comrades to connect and strengthen their bonds.

Sun Zhiwei delivered supplies today, so Fang Haitao is taking advantage of the situation. However, if Sun Zhiwei needs any help in the future, he will naturally not stand idly by.

"I'm so sorry, you know the winds have been strong in the South China Sea lately, and our supply ships can't get here easily. We're short of supplies for the New Year."

The two agreed that once they finished up all the work on the corners of Nanxun Reef today, they would sail the Haisha ship to Yongshu Reef to deliver supplies tomorrow.

Upon understanding the situation, Commander Fang immediately expanded the number of soldiers stationed on Nanxun Reef from a squad to a platoon.

With 12 containers per floor and a total of 36 containers across three floors, this area is enough to house a company.

It's just unnecessary, since this is just a small island reef, mainly serving as an early warning system.

(End of this chapter)