Chapter 3502
Chapter 3502
Chapter 3502
The vision is beautiful, but the reality is not so smooth. Any country that hopes to become the next Annan or North Korea by revitalizing navigation must first face a series of difficult problems, which are what the kings of the two countries deliberately did not elaborate on in their speeches.
For example, the huge amount of funds needed to build a navy and ocean-going fleet, as well as the large number of professionals required, are difficult for countries to solve on their own.
Even if there really is someone who is wealthy enough to directly transport a whole truckload of gold bricks to Victory Fort to show his sincerity, just like when the Kingdom of Matalan came to buy arms, he still has to face the current situation of Hai Han's limited supply capacity.
Whether it is shipbuilding capacity or the quota for training foreign maritime talents and naval officers, they are extremely valuable and special resources that can only be obtained through fierce competition.
If it is a country that has a less close relationship with Hai Han, it will have to wait in line. After all, limited resources must be provided to allies first, and forming an alliance with Hai Han is by no means an easy goal to achieve.
Of course, if you take the initiative to lower your requirements, there are other ways to think about it.
During the forum, there were a wide variety of exhibitions and promotional activities on Zhoushan Island, including some unofficial solutions prepared for various countries.
A large-scale ship and marine equipment exhibition is being held at Pier No. 3 in the civil port area of Dinghai Port.
The exhibitors and even the organizers of this exhibition were not from Hai Han officials, but were jointly organized by several private shipyards.
Leading the effort are seven shipyards from Zhangzhou, Quanzhou and Fuzhou in Fujian, as well as more than 20 large and small workshops including ironwork, woodworking, paint making and rope making that produce various marine equipment for them.
Some businessmen engaged in related industries in Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions were also invited to participate in the exhibition.
Being able to hold such a professional exhibition at this time and place and compete with the state-owned shipyards for business is certainly not something that an ordinary private businessman with no background can do.
In fact, most of these exhibitors from Fujian have overt or covert relationships with the Xu family in Fujian. There are even several shipyards whose operators are descendants of the Xu family.
Although Xu Xinsu, the backbone of the Xu family, has passed away, the special treatment given to the Xu family by the Hai Han Executive Committee still continues to this day. Including the shipbuilding industry, a considerable number of local industries in Fujian are still controlled by the Xu family.
Of course, while the Xu family enjoys special treatment, they are also subject to restrictions in some areas by the Executive Committee. For example, all military equipment, including weapons, armor, warships, gunpowder, etc., cannot be manufactured within the Xu family's sphere of influence.
This is of course also to prevent the Xu family's ambitions from expanding and using their own equipment to fight against the Executive Committee, re-enacting the drama of Xu Xinsu's separatist rule under the Meiji era.
The Xu family started out as a maritime trader, and shipbuilding is one of the family's traditional industries. Although they are now restricted from building warships, they cannot abandon their family's core business. In addition to undertaking orders from Fujian, these shipyards are also slowly expanding their business. The Xu family naturally did not want to miss out on an event with a huge international influence like the Zhoushan Forum, and they mobilized a lot of resources to finally secure the opportunity to host such an exhibition.
Liang Quan, who was in charge of the exhibition, was the old shopkeeper of Fumao Trading Company, one of the main businesses of the Xu family, and also an old subordinate of Xu Xinsu. It was thanks to his good personal relationships with many senior officials of the Haihan Ministry of Commerce that he was able to complete the relevant procedures.
Of course, if this kind of activity has no official endorsement at all, its credibility will definitely be questioned. Therefore, Xu Xinsu's fourth son Xu Yuzhuo attended the ship exhibition while coming to Zhoushan to participate in the forum activities, demonstrating the full support of the Fujian local government for the exhibitors.
As the current military and political chief of Fujian, Xu Yuzhuo is also a well-known figure in Hai Han's political arena. Last year, he participated in the Executive Committee's election as a candidate.
Of course, he did not participate in the election with the real purpose of becoming a member of the executive committee. Even though he knew that he was running alongside big names like Chen Yixin and Shi Diwen, it was a great honor for the Xu family and himself that he could be nominated as a candidate.
Xu Yuzhuo has high expectations for the results of this ship exhibition, because the purpose of this exhibition is to address many of the topics that will be announced at the Zhoushan Forum. Customers who cannot get satisfactory answers at the Haihan official shipyard will find another low-cost solution here.
In order to expand the influence of this ship exhibition, the organizers also specially arranged people to distribute flyers outside the forum venue and put up eye-catching large display boards, trying every means to attract traffic to the ship exhibition.
Although these leaflets could not be delivered directly to the heavily guarded politicians of various countries, it was not difficult to hand them to the entourage outside the venue, and then promise them that they would be rewarded as long as they could bring people to the exhibition. This attracted many people to cooperate actively.
After the forum ended that day, some foreigners came to the ship exhibition one after another to see if there was anything they needed there.
Although these civilian shipyards participating in the exhibition are not nominally allowed to build warships, the exploration-class and other levels of warships equipped by the Hai Han Navy, as well as the Barracuda-class troop transports, the Yugong-class comprehensive supply ships, etc., actually all have civilian versions, and their appearance and structure are not too different from the military models.
The differences between these civilian models and military models are mainly the hull thickness, protection capabilities, special structures designed for installing weapons and equipment such as artillery, and steam power systems.
If it is to be converted for military use, that is not impossible, but its performance will be somewhat inferior to military models designed specifically for combat.
However, if we take into account that there is a big gap in construction period and cost between civilian and military models, then purchasing civilian models to form an armed fleet can indeed save a lot of expenses and is a cost-effective option.
Of course, some people will question the legality of this plan. What if the Executive Committee closes this road one day, then wouldn’t all the prepaid funds be wasted?
At this time, Xu Yuzhuo's important role was demonstrated. As long as he came forward to reveal his identity, he could basically dispel the other party's concerns. After all, his statement represented the official attitude. With Hai Han's consistent credibility, as long as the official promised to do something, there would be no need to worry about reversals.
The most important thing is that the delivery cycle of these private shipyards will be much faster than that of the state-owned shipyards whose orders have long been full, which is obviously very attractive to those impatient customers.