The helicopter followed the coastline, entered Swansea, and flew northwest along the suburbs of Swansea.
The entourage who followed the helicopter to London to receive Prince Hussein patted Hussein's shoulder gently, pointed to the west and said loudly: "Your Highness, we still have about ten minutes to reach our destination. His Excellency is waiting for you on the yacht!"
Looking out the window, there were vast mountains and dense forests below the helicopter. Hussein was very envious of the scenery.
Due to its geographical location, Jordan does not often have an environment like that in Wales. When Hussein thought of the earl living in such a place, which was called a "remote countryside" by some people in London, he asked himself, what is Jordan compared to Wales?
A barren land?
A few minutes later, as the helicopter flew over the Gower Peninsula, it finally entered the "inland sea" belonging to Llanelli.
The extended terrain of the Gower Peninsula and Llanelli is like a giant crab with its arms outstretched. The position of the crab claws cuts off the ocean currents of Bristol Bay, making the small bay in front of Llanelli Port a bit like the Bohai Bay, with calm seas and cloudless skies!
Arriving here, they have officially entered the territory of Carmarthen County. Hussein listened with great effort to the loud introductions of his entourage and looked at the small town that was gradually growing bigger under his feet.
…
With a permanent population of about 50,000, the Port of Llanelli is the largest city in Carmarthenshire and the seventh largest "big city" in Wales.
In this introduction, Hussein briefly compared Jordan...
Well, there is no comparison in terms of population. There are millions of refugees from surrounding countries in Jordan now, while the whole of Wales has less than two million people in total. If we do a careful statistics, the population of Wales may not be as large as the number of refugees adopted by Jordan.
Jordan's economy is not as good as Wales', and the geographical environment...
It was completely reduced to ashes in seconds.
After flying over Llanelli Harbour and heading northwest for a few kilometres, we saw a smaller and better port in the distance. This was the small village of Kidwelly, where Alan was going to host a banquet for Hussein today.
…
This used to be a very ordinary fishing village, but the surrounding seaport conditions are very convenient and can accommodate large ships. The reason why the economy is underdeveloped, in addition to the small population, is that although this small seaport is conveniently located, its capacity is not large. If too many large ships are accommodated, the port will have to be expanded.
It doesn't have much trade volume, and there is a larger port called Llanelli nearby, so there is no need to expand here, and it has existed in a half-dead state all along.
Anyway, the surrounding villagers won’t starve to death, they have long been used to it.
And now...
This small port is different. The original land around the best dock has been expropriated by the biggest local tyrant in the area.
It was converted into a row of simple houses, used as a temporary resting place for yacht crew members on shore.
The port is still under repair, but it is no longer affected by the use.
The entire Kidwelly Harbor gave Hussein the impression of a small construction site, and a bit like a holiday villa with a port.
In the harbor in the distance, a slender yacht painted blue is parked here. Black smoke is coming out of the chimney of the boat, and it can be seen that it is in the starting stage.
The slender hull and the distance made it difficult to see clearly, but the yacht gave people the feeling that it was like a machete, lying flat on the sea. Looking left and right, it seemed to have a murderous aura. From a certain angle, it even had a bit of sci-fi feel.
…
When the helicopter descended and got closer, Hussein could see clearly that the bow of the yacht seemed to have been modified in some way. A circle of wave-breaking plates was installed at the bow, making the bow look very tall.
But if you get closer, you can see that no matter how this thing is painted, you can vaguely see that this is a yacht converted from a warship, and it is directly converted from an active warship of the United Kingdom!
Hussein's heart warmed even more when he thought about how Earl Allen was so powerful that he could directly get an active warship and convert it into his own private yacht.
Although this warship's model, compared with other navies in the world, can only be considered upper, middle or lower level in terms of firepower and protection level, but... it has now been converted into a civilian yacht. Its hull is definitely the most defensive in the yacht world. Although it may sacrifice some of the comfort and layout of special yachts, Hussein fell in love with this yacht when he first saw it when it was about to land.
The earl's aesthetic taste is very much to his liking!
…
"Hahahaha... My friend, welcome to the Earl of Carmarthen's yacht. Thank you for your hard work on the journey."
At the stern of the ship, after the helicopter propeller slowed down, Alan walked out leisurely to greet Prince Hussein in person.
Seeing this sturdy but short prince, Alan always felt that he was a bit like Wu Dalang from some angles, both in appearance and in the experiences that would happen in the future...but Master Alan was not going to be Ximen Qing.
"Haha, thank you for sending someone to pick me up. I didn't introduce myself to you last time. This is my sister Haya. She is only eighteen years old and is still studying in London. I am usually busy and don't have much time to visit her. I even missed her birthday this time. I finally took a few days off to come to London to see her. I didn't expect to have the honor of meeting you."
Hussein held Allen's right hand with both hands and shook it vigorously, then turned sideways and introduced her sister, Princess Haya, who had followed her out to see the world.
After the three of them had greeted each other, Hussein inadvertently glanced behind Alan and frowned slightly. The young secretary he had his eyes on seemed to be away today.
Hussein pretended to ask casually, "Sir...My compatriot who followed you that day, is she not here today?"
…
There was no fluctuation on Alan's smiling face; the little fish had taken the bait.
"Oh... you mean Yasin. Her work here has been completed. I transferred her to work somewhere else. What's wrong? What does His Royal Highness want to see her about?"
Hussein quietly observed Allen's expression and was slightly disappointed to see that he didn't care when he mentioned Yassin, but he was secretly happy in his heart.
I was disappointed because I couldn't see the beauty today and missed the chance to spend time with her. But I was secretly happy because... this gentleman really had no interest in that secretary. This way, I could pursue her without any worries.
Thinking of this, Hussein nodded, and imitated Allen, pretending to be indifferent, and began to look at the yacht under his feet.
…
When it was on the helicopter, it didn't seem to be very big, but it looked very slender.
But it was not until we landed that we realized that the ship, which is more than 100 meters long, is really not small at all. Not to mention the helipad with an elevator at the stern, just a few dozen steps out of the stern and forward is a huge swimming pool!
Don’t ask why a yacht should be designed with a swimming pool since it is sailing on the sea?
Who swims in the sea for no reason? Wouldn’t it hurt your skin if you swim for a long time?
What we want is this kind of yacht sailing on the sea, where people can swim, bask in the sun and enjoy the scenery.
Some yachts don’t have swimming pools. Does that mean they don’t need them?
No, it’s simply because the boat is too small to have a large swimming pool. If we just put a small swimming pool of two or three meters, it will look out of place, so we didn’t do it. Which high-end private yacht doesn’t have a large swimming pool?
…
Alan walked in front, personally leading Hussein on a tour. This was his second time on board the yacht after it was built. To be honest, even Alan himself hadn't had a good look around. He just roughly knew the location of each area.
Walking past the large swimming pool, next to the pool is a medium-sized dance floor. In front of the dance floor is a standard large banquet hall. There is also a long bar on one side of the banquet hall. If a banquet is held here in the future, it will not be a problem to accommodate thirty or forty guests.
Because it is a private yacht, those who can be invited must at least be familiar friends. For a banquet among friends, the atmosphere does not need to be too serious.
The layout of the upper floor of a ship like this, with a banquet hall and a dance floor, are all convenient for guests to communicate. When you are tired of chatting, you can sit in the surrounding rest area and chat, or dance on the dance floor. If you are interested and there are fewer people, you can change clothes, swim in the swimming pool and sunbathe. At this time, the dance floor area can serve as a rest area.
And at the forefront of the ballroom is the staircase leading to the second floor, as well as the partition between the chimney and the front cab.
The cab here is the same as the previous combat command room, with only some interior decoration and optimized functions.
The entire first floor is lined with a large number of steel structure frames on both sides, equipped with thick tempered glass. Being in any corner of the first floor will not affect the view outside the ship, and the surrounding sea is in full view.
The configuration of the second floor is slightly simpler than that of the first floor. In front of the side of the swimming pool on the first floor, there is a temporary helipad No. 2, which is not used normally and will only be used in emergencies.
Usually it can serve as a viewing platform with a wider view, and it can also serve as a diving platform, from which you can dive directly into the swimming pool below.
The entire second floor has only more than half the space of the first floor. The front end of the second floor is connected to the front cockpit, which is an area more suitable for conversation, communication, and viewing.
The entire deck only has two floors, and the rest of the place is kept extremely tidy. Hussein followed behind Alan, and as the functions of each place were introduced, he nodded with a look of approval and envy on his face.
…
Although there are some places on the ship where you can still see signs of demolition of old buildings, this does not affect its functionality at all.
Even at the partition at the front of the first and second floors, Hussein saw something that excited him the most.
Hidden close-in weapon system!
This thing is located at the top of the partition between the cockpit and the rear functional area, right next to the staircase area, and is a little bit camouflaged, so many people will not pay attention to this place. But in such a hidden place, there are two of these powerful weapons stored. This is a civilian ship!
Standing by the fence of the second-floor observation deck of the yacht, Hussein looked at the buildings on the shore not far away and felt a little envious.
The total strength of Jordan’s entire naval force is only five or six hundred people!
You read that right, there are only five or six hundred people, and all the naval equipment combined is not even as heavy as the tonnage of the Earl of Carmarthen under your feet!
There are only a few tiny missile boats in the whole of Jordan, and they are the kind with very old technology. Although they nominally carry a few missiles, they can only attack ordinary civilian ships, cargo ships, pirates, etc. They have a short range, average power, and poor accuracy.
The reason why the Jordanian Navy is so miserable is entirely because they are basically a landlocked country. The entire country's coastline is only a pitiful 26 kilometers.
That's it... 19 kilometers of it were obtained in exchange for large tracts of land from the old Saudi landlords next door decades ago. Otherwise... Jordan used to have only a pitiful 7 kilometers of coastline. With such a small coastline, there was really nothing to protect, and there was no naval force.
In this comparison, Allen's private yacht is stronger than the naval force of their entire country.
Although this yacht may not have good attack power, it has strong defensive capabilities. Even with these two Phalanx missile boats and all of Jordan's missile boats combined, they can't do anything to it.
The more Hussein looked at this super private yacht, the more envious he became.
…
Alan looked at Hussein's envious eyes and curled the corners of his mouth slightly.
For a friend who you just met and are not particularly familiar with, but whose identity is a little unusual, it is not appropriate to invite him/her directly to your home.
But if you hold a banquet outside, it will seem a little bit disrespectful.
So... Alan decided to hold the banquet on his own yacht. This way, he could show his strength to the other party without appearing to be disrespecting them.
The home, that is, the castle, is a symbol of a noble's financial, material and status.
The more luxurious the decoration of the castle is and the more antiques and cultural relics it contains, the more powerful the owner is. Most nobles are accustomed to inviting friends to their homes, showing off by taking them on tours, talking about the history of the home, introducing various collections, etc. Sometimes, a yacht, if built well, can also play this role.
…
The temporary helipad on the second-floor observation deck and the smoke from the barbecue on the bonfire grill filled the entire upper platform, making Hussein feel a little bit at home.
Alan specially invited a barbecue chef from the Middle East to entertain him, and the main dish today was barbecue.
Hussein walked slowly to Allen's side, holding a glass of beer, and pretended not to care and asked tentatively, "Are you from the navy?"
"Well...I retired in 1986 because of some unexpected incident at home."
Alan smiled and pushed the glass in his hand next to Hussein's glass, clinked it lightly, and drank a sip of beer with him.
"Haha... I used to serve in the Army, in the Royal Hussars."
Hussein used his military service experience to try to get closer to Allen.