Chapter 3988
Chapter 3988
Chapter 3988
The saying "a higher rank can crush a lower one" applies to Fubo Port as well. Qin Xiangqian tried to persuade them with all his heart but to no avail. When Qian Shaobao arrived, he didn't give them a kind look at all. He scolded them sternly, and none of the Persian ship owners dared to utter a word in rebuttal. They all obediently followed his orders and immediately had their men untie the mooring lines, raise the sails, and move the ship to the designated berth at Pier No. 2.
After seeing off the Persian ship owners, Qin Xiangqian quickly apologized to Qian Shaobao: "This humble servant is incompetent and has made the young marshal laugh at me!"
Qian Shaobao said, "You're being too polite to them. Kindness gets you bullied! If you ask me, since these Persian barbarians like to refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit, next time something like this happens, you should give them a good scolding first!"
Qin Xiangqian nodded repeatedly in agreement, but in his heart he was thinking, "Just because you can use this method doesn't mean others can. If I treat the Persians this way and they complain to the division headquarters, the higher-ups might not protect me. I'll end up pleasing neither side, which will only cause more trouble."
However, Qin Xiangqian kept these thoughts to himself. As someone who could manage a place as chaotic as the port, he was certainly not without shrewdness. He showed no dissatisfaction on his face and even reminded Qian Shaobao not to forget to inform the Arab foreman at Pier No. 2 to avoid any conflict with the Persian merchant ships that had been moved there.
Qian Shaobao replied with a smile, "A company has already been sent to Pier 2 to help maintain order, and troops will also be stationed at Pier 3 later, so there shouldn't be any major problems."
Fubo Port currently has three operational piers. Pier 1 is a military pier, and the staff are almost all Haihan citizens, so security is not a concern. Pier 2 is for ordinary civilian use, and most ships, except for Persian merchant ships, can dock there.
Although Pier No. 3 was nominally designated for Persian merchant ships, its original design also allowed for temporary military use in times of crisis. This is why Qian Shaobao showed no consideration for the Persian ship owners. If the conflict between the Persians and Arabs hadn't been irreconcilable, Fubo Port wouldn't have needed to designate a dedicated pier for Persian merchant ships.
Although Fubo Port has a general plan, due to limited infrastructure capacity, the three wharves are still not completed. It is expected that the number of berths can be expanded by about double in the future.
The bad news is that the expansion plan is limited to the existing three wharves, and the port area will not change much because there is not much flat coastline available in the vicinity.
About seven or eight miles east of the port area, there is another winding harbor that stretches for twenty or thirty miles, large enough to accommodate hundreds of ships. However, the coastal terrain of this harbor is rugged and unsuitable for building a port or wharf, so it can only be used as a temporary anchorage.
There are actually several similar natural harbors along the eastern coastline of Fubo Port, but without exception, they can only be used as sheltered anchorages because the terrain is unsuitable for building port terminals.
If it weren't for the fact that Fubo Port is strategically located at the narrowest point of the Strait of Hormuz, the natural conditions here wouldn't actually be suitable for building a large port. But for the special forces division that came from afar, there are very few such "unclaimed territories" in the Strait of Hormuz; it can be said that there were no better alternatives.
With Qian Shaobao personally overseeing the operation, the clearing process at Pier No. 3 became significantly faster. However, Qin Xiangqian did not relax his efforts and continued to pressure the foremen, instructing them to constantly supervise their workers and prevent them from slacking off.
Around noon, the cargo yard at Pier 3 was finally almost empty, allowing the Persian laborers to stop and rest. However, their rest was short-lived; just after lunch, a string of sails appeared on the sea to the north, which must have been Li Yuande's fleet arriving.
As several large ships led the way into the harbor, and the sailors at the bow threw mooring lines onto the dock, new sails continued to appear on the sea, stretching for at least a dozen miles, demonstrating the sheer size of the fleet.
The Persian ship owners who had previously complained about not wanting to move now finally understood why the government had specifically cleared Pier 3 in advance—such a large fleet, if crammed in haphazardly, would definitely cause chaos. Qin Xiangqian couldn't help but marvel at the fleet. He had been here for over a year and had never seen a fleet of this size before. Only last year, when Executive Committee official Shi Diwen inspected Fubo Port, did the fleet have a similar size. Could it be that some important figure had come to inspect this time?
Qin Xiangqian turned his head and saw several Persian laborers staring blankly at the large ship entering the port. He immediately went up and kicked each of them, telling them to quickly carry the gangplank over and put it on.
Seeing the men huffing and puffing as they carried the plank away, Qin Xiangqian muttered to himself, "I'll have to be ruthless when dealing with these lazy Persians!"
The first ship to dock was an exploration-class warship. Li Yuande, Chen Pingliao, and Sun Zhen were all on board. Once the gangplank was set up, the three of them disembarked and went to the dock.
“We’re all acquaintances, so I don’t need to introduce you, right?” Li Yuande said to Qian Shaobao, who came up to greet him, as he walked a few steps ahead.
Qian Shaobao smiled, patted Li Yuande on the shoulder and said "Thank you for your hard work," then raised his hand to salute Chen Pingliao and Sun Zhen who were following behind.
Chen Pingliao first stood at attention and returned the salute, then stepped forward with a big smile and gave Qian Shaobao a warm hug.
"You've gotten quite a tan here! If it weren't for your outfit, I wouldn't have recognized you!"
Chen Pingliao's very first words revealed the close personal relationship between the two.
Qian Shaobao didn't seem to care. He touched his face and said, "Is it much darker? I guess everyone around me has gotten darker, so without any comparison, I haven't really noticed."
Sun Zhen laughed and replied, "He really has gotten much darker. From a distance, he looks almost like a native from the South China Sea."
Qian Shaobao stretched out his arm to compare skin tone with Chen Pingliao's, then shook his head helplessly and said, "There's nothing we can do about it. I've been out here for three years, and I've been in the sun for three whole years. It's hard not to get tanned!"
Qian Shaobao left the Northern Region in 1657 and arrived in Phuket at the end of the same year, which is exactly three years ago.
Qian Shaobao had previously stayed in Phuket and Ceylon, both located at similar latitudes, in tropical regions close to the equator, where temperatures are around 30 degrees Celsius year-round and the sunshine is naturally very strong.
Although Fubo Port is located at a higher latitude, roughly equivalent to Fuzhou Prefecture in Fujian Province within the Haihan Kingdom, it has a tropical desert climate unlike anything found within the Haihan Kingdom. It is hot and dry with little rain throughout the year, making the living environment even harsher than that of a tropical island.
Living here long-term, unless you wrap yourself up tightly in robes and headscarves like Arabs to minimize direct sunlight, it's only a matter of time before you get a tan.