50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 817 The Bear's Golden Bay Base
Although Sun Zhiwei was prepared to fight the monkeys at sea, he was not blindly confident that he would win.

There are some things we must be wary of, namely, the reason why the monkey family can be so arrogant is mainly because they have someone backing them up.

Since 76, the Russian bear has been giving the monkeys a subsidy of $20 billion every year, of which $10 billion is in cash and the other $10 billion is in equipment.

That's a huge sum of money. The Monkey family's economy was almost destroyed by us, but they still stand strong because of this 20 billion yuan every year.

When they first received the money, the monkeys truly treated the bears like their own fathers. For this reason, they even leased Cam Ranh Bay, their largest port in the south, to the bears as a base.

This delighted the Russian bear, as it marked the first time in its history that it had acquired a naval base in South Asia, a move of extraordinary historical significance.

It's no wonder the Russians are happy. Their home is located at the northernmost tip of Eurasia. Although their territory seems vast and their coastline is long, most of their coastline is within the Arctic Circle.

Can the coastline of the Arctic Circle even be called a coastline? It's just a block of ice that's frozen all year round. You can't even tell the difference between land and sea. It's practically the same as not having it at all.

In the early years, when Russia was under Tsarist rule, it was a landlocked country. It took more than 200 years of expansion and development for them to gradually gain access to the sea.

For example, St. Petersburg in the west, Crimea in the southwest, and Vladivostok in the east.

But the Russians are not satisfied with this, because their existing outlets to the sea are all geographically remote.

Among them, St. Petersburg is located in the innermost part of the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea; Crimea is located in the Sea of ​​Azov in the Black Sea; and Vladivostok is located in the Sea of ​​Japan in northern East Asia.

It can be said that each of these three outlets to the sea is located at the very end of the shipping route.

Such ports can only be said to be able to navigate, but they cannot enjoy any of the benefits of the world's busy maritime trade.

The Indian Ocean, bearing the heavy responsibility of maritime trade between East and West, is the core sea area of ​​world maritime trade. Only by having access to the Indian Ocean could Russia successfully transform from a land power to a maritime power.

Therefore, the Russian bear has always been resentful of its ambition to advance into the Indian Ocean.

However, this task is extremely difficult. After all, Russia is a country in the northern part of Eurasia. If they were to enter the Indian Ocean, they would have to conquer a series of countries in the south.

The Russians in the 19th century were full of fantasies about this, and the Tsar at the time planned at least three routes to the Indian Ocean.

First, it enters Iran from the South Caucasus region, thus reaching the Indian Ocean.

Second, it enters Afghanistan from Central Asia, then from Afghanistan into Iran, and finally reaches the Indian Ocean.

Third, from New J to West Z, then from West Z into Myanmar, and finally to the Indian Ocean.

These three routes were all increasingly difficult, especially the third one, which had extremely complex road conditions. Tsarist Russia's advance was halted at West Z and never resumed.

Moreover, to make any of these three paths feasible, one must ask the British for their permission.

Because at that time, Britain had already occupied southern Iran, most of the Indian subcontinent, and even Burma, effectively blocking all of Tsarist Russia's southward expansion routes.

Unable to access the Indian Ocean, Tsarist Russia decided to settle for second best and gradually cultivate the land in Northeast China in order to gain access to the coastline of East Asia.

But then they encountered a newly emerging small-time economy, and after a major battle, they were once again thwarted.

Thus, all of Tsarist Russia's plans to expand into East Asia, South Asia, and even Southeast Asia were completely thwarted. Even after the establishment of the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union did not abandon its ambitions to advance into the Indian Ocean or South Asia.

Even though they have become a superpower, they cannot easily accomplish this task.

At the time, Saudi Arabia and Iran were both staunch allies of America, so it was practically impossible for Russia to enter the Indian Ocean through Iran.

Let alone entering the Indian Ocean, since Türkiye joined NATO, Russia has had to consider Turkey's attitude if it wants to enter the Mediterranean.

In the East, Russia had also planned to build a long-wave radio station in China and jointly build a fleet, but China refused, and Russia's plan failed again.

Unable to get through to China, the Russians turned to India. Therefore, when India and China were at odds, Russia firmly sided with India.

Unfortunately, the Russians completely underestimated the depth of the Ganges River. The Indians, with skin thicker than a city wall, took the benefits but did absolutely nothing.

India had originally promised Russia a port base, but after receiving the benefits, they reneged on their promise. Russia, because of America's influence, was unable to do anything about India.

Finally, the Russians began to support the monkeys, and eventually got their wish and acquired the Cam Ranh Bay naval base.

Cam Ranh Bay is wonderful; its geographical location is exceptionally advantageous. With the military strength of the Russians, Cam Ranh Bay alone can radiate influence throughout the South China Sea.

It can be said that having the Jinlan Bay base is like the Russians realizing a dream that has lasted for hundreds of years. How could they not be excited?

To this end, Russia has decided to develop Cam Ranh Bay into its largest overseas base.

From then on, starting in the 1980s, Russian warships began to move back and forth between Vladivostok and Cam Ranh Bay year-round.

Sometimes two aircraft carriers would arrive at Cam Ranh Bay for rest and replenishment. Over the years, Russia has stationed more than 30 warships in Cam Ranh Bay.

At its peak, the number of Russian naval personnel and their families at Cam Ranh Bay base exceeded 1, enough to rival the American military base in the Philippines.

The existence of this Cam Ranh Bay base, eighty years later, has become one of the biggest factors influencing the regional situation, and it is also a problem that Sun Zhiwei must now face.

If it were just the monkeys themselves coming to cause trouble, Sun Zhiwei wouldn't be afraid.

Although the navy of the Monkey Kingdom has been strengthened twice, through the capture of America's evacuated ships and the assistance of ships from the Bear, it is still not considered powerful.

The Monkey Kingdom's navy currently has more than 300 ships, but the vast majority of them are small vessels such as landing craft, torpedo boats, and missile boats.

Only five Russian-made Petya-class corvettes have a displacement of over 5 tons.

Although the displacement of the "Bejia"-class corvette is less than that of the Van Speck-class corvette under Sun Zhiwei's command, at only 1180 tons, it has naval guns and torpedoes, making it capable of both anti-ship and anti-submarine warfare.

If Sun Zhiwei wanted to deal with them, he could only take the "Enterprise" H submarine, get close to them and then launch a sneak attack, or simply infiltrate the monkeys' military base and sink it before they set off.

Only the USS Enterprise is capable of carrying out such a combat plan; conventional diesel-electric submarines are too noisy and cannot effectively avoid risks.

(End of this chapter)