What the hell is a private enterprise?

Chapter 282 Shifting the Focus
"Renowned military expert sends letter to Atlantic Fleet"

Geng Bing: We should actively promote an investigation into the origins of the Second Fleet.

"Prism Building reveals key evidence: it suffered a radioactive attack."

"The Second Fleet on the High Seas is suspected of using a nuclear-powered system."

The open letter about Tang Wen's plagiarism came from a public intellectual in the original timeline. It was so moving and influential that he still remembered a lot of it.

After submitting the open letter, even Zhao Hande wondered if he had misjudged the person.

Fortunately, Tang Wen had no intention of signing his name, so the burden ultimately fell on Geng Bing.

Geng Bing, a scholar known for his hawkish stance, suddenly published such an open letter, which immediately caused a huge public reaction.

Public intellectuals and scholars across the country were overjoyed and reprinted the article with their names attached, resulting in more than 300 new publicly signed articles published in newspapers within a single day.

And coincidentally, Prism Building disclosed another key piece of information:
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The fact that the Second Fleet used depleted uranium shells confirms that their power far surpasses that of historical ships of the same class;
According to publicly available information, the Second Fleet sailed more than 7000 nautical miles at an average speed of over 30 knots, a feat impossible with conventional power, confirming that it uses a nuclear power plant.

The moment these two pieces of news came out, the international attitude toward the Second Fleet reversed.

If they can manufacture depleted uranium shells and reactors, then they have the capability to produce nuclear weapons.

If they can secretly build warships weighing tens of thousands of tons, accumulating dozens of nuclear bombs would be a piece of cake.

Zhang Siyuan's international support plummeted, while at the same time, influenced by an open letter from within China, many public intellectuals overwhelmingly supported the deployment of the US Navy to Antarctica.

The Second Fleet may now possess nuclear weapons, which would be a threat to all of humanity. How can a force for justice be stopped?

Amidst widespread criticism, Zhang Siyuan returned to China two days after the publication of his open letter to conduct normal work handover.

Meanwhile, the open letter, which had already collected thousands of signatures, was also spreading in the United States.

With these two forces pushing forward, the Senate's opposition to the formation of the Antarctic fleet has diminished considerably.

On January 9, ten days after the Battle of Antigua, Chinese state media published an official article arguing that the Second Fleet had violated the principle of nuclear non-proliferation and posed a huge potential threat to the world, and supporting the United Nations in launching a strong investigation and crackdown on it.

On this day, the United Nations passed a special act that transformed the original Gulf of Aden investigation mission into a temporary organization responsible for the two mysterious warship incidents. The act authorized the investigation members to use weapons during their Antarctic investigations, but prohibited them from building permanent military bases, thus upholding the spirit of Antarctica as a public domain.

Following the passage of the special bill, Powell immediately returned to office, and Johnson announced that an expeditionary fleet would be formed with the Enterprise as its core, with departure expected in April.

Amid the outcry, Hans and Argentina were caught in the crossfire.

Given that an organization possesses nuclear capabilities and warship manufacturing capabilities, no one would believe it could exist without the support of certain powerful forces.

Although Hans did not have a nuclear industry, no one doubted their precision industry and technological prowess.

Argentina, having received a large number of Han elites after the war, has a vast territory rich in resources, is near Antarctica, and is far from the center of the world, making it convenient to do things secretly.

Thus, a plausible guess emerged: Hans, still harboring ulterior motives, was secretly developing a nuclear industry in South Mei!

Furthermore, there is evidence that within Hans, the long-standing public opinion has led many young citizens and older stormtroopers to hope that the Second Fleet is a fact. Upon hearing the news of the defeat, they spontaneously organized large-scale mourning events to commemorate the fallen heroes.

Argentina did nothing during the Second Fleet’s northward march, neither monitoring nor obstructing it, which is highly suspicious!
Although both official bodies tried their best to refute the rumors, it was to no avail.

As a result, these two unfortunate individuals who were caught in the crossfire were immediately excluded from the investigation and were required to be monitored internally, especially to investigate whether they had any privately stored nuclear weapons!
The two countries naturally refused to accept this, which quickly sparked new team conflicts and verbal battles.

……

While the outside world was embroiled in the Second Fleet's machinations, the real instigators were happily conducting business.

"This is our GPS system, it's linked to each boat. If it loses signal or gets damaged during the rental period, we'll immediately recall it. Let me confirm with you again." "No problem, I understand!"

Three more boats were rented out.

This time, the client was a big man from Shandong who owned a sizable fishing company and was facing the problem of his old boats being too small and in urgent need of replacement.

Originally, their funds were only enough to buy one ocean-going fishing boat, but now they have leased three from Gaijin for three years, and still have a lot of funds left to maintain normal operations.

In fact, even with the super-fast construction speed of one boat every few days and strict review of tenant qualifications and financial status, more than 50 charter orders were still received.

In addition to private demand, even public utility needs have come knocking.

"We'd also like to rent two fishing boats from the Dongjiang River."

Su Weiguo observed the leasing process and suddenly had an idea.

He came because he heard that the Nansha Islands reclamation project had started and came to confirm something with Tang Wen. He happened to arrive at the transaction site.

Tang Wen clicked his tongue in amazement: "The maritime surveillance agencies are so poor, do they also need to fish to supplement their income?"

Su Weiguo was speechless, but surprisingly nodded in agreement:

"If we really have the time, we could catch a few fish to make up for the losses."

There was no other way; the navy was so poor that most of the maritime surveillance fleets only had offices and hardly any subordinates, let alone the means to maintain large ships.

The two maritime surveillance agencies with the highest funding in the country are Fujian Province and Qiongzhou Maritime Surveillance, but upon closer examination, their funding is not that much.

Tang Wen: "Of course you can rent them, but perhaps you can wait a little longer. By then, you'll be able to rent not only patrol boats, but also battleships."

He was referring, of course, to the oil wells in the Spratly Islands. Although the islands and reefs are leased almost for free, taxes still have to be paid for the extraction of resources.

There was no precedent for foreign-funded oil extraction in China, so it was decided to impose a 6% tax on extracted crude oil, while sales would be subject to local tax rates, generally between 15% and 20%.

Once oil is produced in the Nansha Islands, not only can taxes be collected, but a series of oil refining and chemical industries can also be established. Qiongzhou will naturally usher in a new economic growth, and the local government can increase the funding for the maritime surveillance.

Su Weiguo remained noncommittal. On the one hand, domestic experts were confident that mining in that barren land would be extremely difficult, while on the other hand, Gai Jin believed that he could make a lot of money. He could only wait for the facts to speak for themselves.

When will construction of Gongzhen Port begin?

"The land will be ready in about a month."

To save time and effort, Gaijin's land reclamation project is a very hardcore method of direct sandblasting and stacking. In addition, the initial filling depth is as high as 15 meters or more, and the effective filling rate is less than 50%.

It is estimated that in the next two weeks, the four ships will fill an average of about 4000 square meters per day, working day and night.

The main task during this period is to first create the outline of the shoreline of Gongzhen Port, which is expected to be filled to about 5 meters above sea level.

After the first stage of contour filling is completed, it is equivalent to creating a cofferdam, which can increase the effective filling rate to about 75%, while the filling depth is also greatly reduced to 10 meters, and 10000 square meters can be filled in one day.

Meanwhile, two larger Tianjing II dredgers are under construction simultaneously at the shipyard, operating at a speed faster than four Tianjing I dredgers.

It is expected that by February, the land area of ​​Gongzhen Port will reach 0.2 square kilometers, which is enough to accommodate a primary port and a refinery.

Su Weiguo: "No matter what perspective you take, I hope you will succeed."

(End of this chapter)