"Yes, you guys are professionals at this. Unlike individual players like me, who only need tank landing ships, the Hedamen Shipbuilding Group has a shipyard in our country that has received a contract to build LST-100 tank landing ships for Niriliya. I plan to co-invest in one."
Old Ha said that he had already played with second-hand warships, and this time he wanted to try a brand new ship.
However, the question of how to "convert a tank landing ship into a yacht" is still very challenging, but the German company Lösson can solve this problem.
The same goes for Hedamen. In addition to building warships, they are also very good at building yachts. Their global exploration yachts can easily handle the ice floes in the North and South Poles.
Based on the tank landing ship, the bow sill was reinforced to meet the standard of an icebreaking bow, so that the ship can break through the ice on its own and escape even if it is frozen.
"Impressive, Your Highness lives a much more carefree life than us businessmen."
Xia Yu gave a thumbs up and offered a sincere compliment.
In terms of money and enjoyment, the princes completely outclassed him, a small business owner. Only his personal collection could surpass them.
"Let's explore Antarctica together sometime."
Old Ha, who had been praised for his comfort, extended an invitation.
"Definitely, definitely. When I was a kid, I saw on TV that a trip to Antarctica was quite expensive. 100,000 RMB was equivalent to our house in the city."
Xia Yu said with emotion.
This amount of money is just a string of numbers to him now; the daily interest on his account is more than that. However, this kind of superficial exploration—following the group, only watching the penguins from the outside—is also far from him now.
Putting aside everything else, you have to drive tracked vehicles at breakneck speed across the ice sheet, plant a flag at the South Pole, and...
Xia Yu pulled his wandering thoughts back; those were things for later. Right now, they had to fight pirates in Southeast Asia.
On the waterway close to the coastline of Malay, a blue sailboat with the marks of time on its hull moves slowly forward, propelled by the wind.
"Boss, what do you think of this sailboat?"
On a fishing boat less than two nautical miles from the sailboat, a crew member asked Shahjuan, the captain, in the wheelhouse.
"Are you kidding me? How much money can you squeeze out of a poor wretch like this old sailboat that's only worth three or four hundred thousand euros?"
Shahjuan, having put down his binoculars, said dismissively.
As a rare intellectual in the organization, the leader entrusted the group to him for this long "hunting" trip because he valued his sensitivity to money.
Those who sail these old sailboats are people who have sold their houses and cars to pursue their dreams at sea. They only have tens of thousands of dollars in cash on their boats, making them perfect targets for thieves, but it's far from enough to satisfy the appetites of large organizations like this.
Even if it's not a luxury yacht that's tens or hundreds of meters long, you can't extort as much as by directly robbing a merchant ship.
Only those with the financial strength to spend tens or hundreds of millions of dollars on yachting can afford to pay a ransom of over ten million dollars, making it worthwhile for them to pull off such a heist.
"How about that one?"
The guy who was scolded wasn't angry. He looked further into the distance and pointed.
Shahjuan followed the direction of his finger and saw a long, slender warship.
He was almost startled, but thankfully he realized at a second glance that it was just a yacht that looked like a warship.
"This boat must be almost 150 meters long! It would cost at least 100 million to take it. We've hit a big fish."
The joy of catching the fish welled up in Shahjuan's heart.
Taking over this yacht and demanding a ransom of forty million US dollars from the owner isn't unreasonable, is it?
Old Ha said it wasn't an exaggeration at all; compared to the 30 billion yuan increase in his assets over the past few years, this amount of money was only enough for two or three months of his expenses.
But why give that money to pirates? Why not just buy 40 expiring harpoons and send them to them?
Haman wanted everyone to know his generosity, but even looking out the porthole from the wheelhouse at the seven or eight fishing boats in the distance, he couldn't tell which were pirates and which were real fishermen.
We must wait until nightfall to launch a surprise attack; if the enemy doesn't move during the day, neither will we.
"Zaxi, go back and get more people immediately. We'll take over tracking this yacht. We absolutely cannot let it get away."
Shahjuan picked up the walkie-talkie and contacted another fishing boat nearby.
Wealthy people's yachts may have bodyguards, and bodyguards may have guns. In order to avoid being caught off guard, Abusayev's entourage for this overseas work trip is very luxurious.
A total of four armed fishing boats, five high-powered speedboats, and three small boats were deployed, with 150 people directly engaged at sea, and about 100 people stationed at the temporary camp on shore.
With nearly 300 men on the sea and on land, they could easily withstand the first wave of attacks from the Malay military. Then, they could break up into smaller groups and evacuate back to the Philippines with the hostages, thus ensuring that neither people nor valuables were lost.
Shahjuan's considerations were very comprehensive, but it was a pity that he encountered concentrated fire defense.
Far behind the Yas, on a fishing boat that was pretending to cast its nets, he was unaware that he was being entrapped by law enforcement; all he could see was the 40 million he was carrying.
"Stop, let boat number 2 pass."
After following for eight or nine nautical miles, Shah Juan decisively stopped the ship and had the No. 2 armed fishing boat ahead of the Yas take over the tracking of the target.
Vehicle tracking is something experienced security personnel can detect in traffic, let alone on the open sea. Changing the tracking vessel and reducing the target's vigilance is essential.
In critical moments, technology can also be used. For example, after nightfall, a fishing boat launched an Inspire-2 drone equipped with an infrared camera.
This equipment was purchased by Shah Juan against all odds after he came to power. Although it has not yet been developed to have bombing and self-destruct capabilities, it has managed to evade several attacks by the Philippine military by relying on the reconnaissance capabilities of drones, and even ambushed them a few times.
The same principle applies to visibility at night at sea; consumer drones can act as their eyes, preventing them from losing track of their target and allowing them to detect potential dangers in advance.
However, the devil is always one step ahead. At an altitude of 1,000 meters above the Inspire-2, a ScanEagle is patrolling at an altitude of 4,000 meters.
Its thermal imaging channel also detected the consumer drone with its battery overheating.
"Boss, we've discovered something!"
The drone crew immediately reported to their superiors.
It's not surprising to see drones at sea; many yacht promotional videos and blue-water sailboat social media accounts need aerial footage. But it's strange to see drones taking off in the dead of night in complete darkness. Who are you trying to track with thermal imaging?
"Calling Camel, this is Weasel. We have detected an anomaly. Please proceed to the nearest anchorage immediately."
Xia Yu turned on the radio and called Lao Hadao.
When they were shopping at the museum, Hamandan was the captain of the regiment; now that they're fighting pirates together, he's teammate Camel.
"The camel understands!"
Old Ha replied excitedly from the Yas.
The man was getting old, and his beauty had lost its appeal, but everyone needs some hobbies and interests to live a good life.
His Highness's hobby is clearly using cool military equipment to fight pirates and enjoying this special and niche "hunting".
The liberal left might find it cruel, but even if they don't win the Nobel Peace Prize for maintaining maritime safety at their own expense, the sailors' words of gratitude are still worthwhile.
The yacht accelerated towards the anchorage, until the footage transmitted back by the Inspire-2 showed it releasing its anchor chain to officially moor overnight. "I understand, it's the first half of the night now, we'll make our move in the second half."
Upon hearing his subordinate's report, Shahjuan immediately replied.
If they sleep soundly, it will be easier for them to make their move. It would be best if they could avoid using guns.
There are other ships anchored in the anchorage, and the gunshots at night will be very noticeable, so anyone who hears them will contact the coast guard immediately.
Those few dilapidated coast guard ships from Malai aren't a big deal, the real concern is that it might be a naval frigate coming.
So as long as they don't fire, they still have time to ransack the entire luxury yacht, deck by deck.
The ransom extorted later had to be handed over to the public, but the valuables looted during the kidnapping were their spoils to be distributed freely. Shah Juan estimated that such a luxurious yacht would have at least a million worth of valuables that could be taken away.
He, as the leader, was entitled to half of it, and he didn't know what to do with the more than 500,000 US dollars.
Bringing his wandering thoughts back, Shahjuan continued assigning tasks.
The personnel at the shore outpost were on standby at all times, while two armed fishing boats and two speedboats were responsible for patrolling and providing support along the way. Only two armed fishing boats and three speedboats actually took action.
The more comprehensive the plan, the higher the probability of success.
However, these three moves were still not enough in Xia Yu's eyes. The fishing boat that had run out of power to recover the drone was the first to be marked, followed by another fishing boat and two speedboats that met them.
Because he was planning to wipe out all the target's outposts on the shore, he certainly wouldn't want to alert them.
"This is Huang You. Get Chief Wang back here."
Xia Yu is trying to communicate with Malaya through Koh County to obtain entry permits for their fighter jets.
Marley would certainly be unwilling to fight ordinary pirates, saying they could handle it themselves. But their opponent was the infamous Abu Sayyaf, and they were completely clueless and had no idea what to do.
At this point, allowing them to focus on fire defense and reap the benefits is perfectly reasonable.
In doing business, the most important thing is to understand human nature; if you can address the root cause, you can achieve your goals.
On the other end of the radio, Chief Executive Wang immediately said that he would take care of the matter and fly to Kuala Lumpur to facilitate this special cooperation in person.
After ending the call, Xia Yu finally had a short time to eat.
Inside the hangar, the fruit bat had already taken its seat in the sea harrier's cockpit, awaiting its boss's order to launch.
A short, rapid advance of tens of nautical miles is impossible with the speed of an attack helicopter, and the AS550's payload capacity is also insufficient. Therefore, fixed-wing fighter jets must be deployed for this strike.
Faced with Abu Sayyaf's large-scale operation, unmanned combat boats, hovercraft landing craft, and even the mother ship "Jihuo" had to be deployed.
Of course, Lao Ha's YAS account was also a main force this time.
The boss shouldn't waste a frigate; Ha Mandan, who came all this way, wouldn't stand for it either. Xia Yu must grant him unlimited firing rights.
What else can we do but give it to him?
Xia Yu quickly filled his stomach by placing the vegetables on top of the rice, then confirmed the location of the launched unmanned combat boats and hovercraft landing craft. Immediately afterwards, he gave orders to launch the second and third ScanEagle drones.
The YAS, which was being used as bait, did not need drones for this operation, so their ScanEagle drones and crew members were temporarily deployed to the Focus Fire.
All three drones have now been launched and are being controlled from a control station to monitor the anchorage, mark the direction of ships, and search for information about the coast of Malaya.
"Calling Huangyou, your fighter jets have been cleared for combat entry. For the next 12 hours, the airspace along the coast of Malay is completely open to you."
At 10:04 PM local time, Chief of Staff Wang brought good news: the Malays had agreed.
"Huang You understands, and thanks Chief of Staff Wang for everything he has done."
Xia Yu expressed his gratitude over the radio.
"We are the ones who should be thanking you. It would be best if the anti-government forces in the Philippines just stayed in the Philippines. Letting them enter Natuna and even Malacca is something that neither we, Malay, nor Indonesia want to see. Please, your company, completely wipe out this pirate group. Thank you."
"I'm still in Kuala Lumpur," said Chief Wang solemnly.
Abu Sayyaf's shift from anti-government armed groups to extremist organizations to piracy can be seen as a game-changer, and these countries along the shipping lanes cannot afford to ignore it.
"Then please get a good night's sleep, Chief of Staff Wang. You'll hear good news as soon as you wake up tomorrow morning."
Xia Yu confidently issued the order.
"Haha, I'll stay in Kuala Lumpur tonight, whatever you say, and wait for good news tomorrow morning."
Chief of Staff Wang smiled and ended the call, expressing his confidence in Xia Yu and Ji Huo Defense's capabilities.
"Calling Camel, how's the situation on your end?"
It was getting late, and Xia Yu contacted Lao Ha again.
"Everything is normal. It looks like these guys won't board the ship to kidnap me until after midnight."
Ha Mandan, who usually goes to sleep at this time, picked up her fifth cup of coffee of the day, took a sip, and said.
He's almost fifty, and he can't deny getting old, but he's determined to stay up all night.
"Your deduction is correct. They probably made their move between 1 and 2 a.m., which is the time most pirates prefer."
Xia Yu glanced at his watch and said.
"There are still seven or eight merchant ships here. I'm afraid no one will get any sleep tonight."
Old Ha said chuckled, "There are plenty of people who will stay up with me."
Less than 5 nautical miles from the anchorage, Shahjuan, looking somewhat tired, stared wide-eyed.
The fishing boat he was on was the main force of tonight's operation, and the crew members were all his trusted men.
He trusted their fighting ability, and it was least controversial for them to collect and keep the spoils.
"Calling Zaxi, you didn't run into the coast guard over there, did you?"
Shah Juan contacted his men who were on patrol to confirm that nothing unexpected had happened.
"No, we monitored them for a whole week last month. These guys go home on time, and they only come out when someone calls them on the radio."
Tashi didn't take the Malay Coast Guard seriously; they were only worried about the Malay Navy.
Warships on maritime radar don't have little signs saying "I am a warship." They only reveal their identity when called by radio; otherwise, they look like merchant ships.
A certain merchant ship, Jihuohao, said your concerns are valid, as they were acting out a scenario involving a bulk carrier passing through the Strait of Malacca and heading north along the shipping route.
"We still need to be careful. We'll officially start our operation in an hour."
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