Chapter 175 Support

After waiting for several more days in Hengbo Port, Ye Tao felt that something was wrong. Grandpa Qi had received the news and immediately tried to get away from the naval battle and return to Hengbo Port. Calculating the time and distance, he should have arrived by now. Unconsciously, Ye Tao had been in Hengbo Port for a month. He had already finalized the factory design for the Nanyang branch of the Ye Corporation and the list of factories that would be built here successively. He had even completed the preliminary design drawings and initial construction plan for the reconstruction of Hengbo Port and had begun working on the budget with Tan Weixin's assistance. Furthermore, someone in Chunnan from the Samir family who had more influence than Assad had received Assad's contact and came to meet with Ye Tao and Tan Weixin to negotiate the sale of the Samir family's businesses with the Seven Seas Trading Company. The comprehensive management of Hengbo Port had already made some progress under the enthusiastic care of Liu Yi and Yu Yanhai... But Grandpa Qi still hadn't managed to return to participate in the Seven Seas Trading Company's executive meeting.

Not only Ye Tao, but the senior executives of the Seven Seas Trading Company who had successively arrived at Hengbo Port also felt that something was wrong. The escort fleet stationed in Hengbo Port had already set off, and those escort ships brought by the senior executives to Hengbo Port had also been organized in preparation for any eventuality. The reason why the Seven Seas Trading Company's naval power was so strong was not only because of the excellent quality of its warships, mainly the Tiger Tooth ships, and the powerful weaponry equipped for both long and short ranges, but also because the Seven Seas Trading Company could form fleets of various sizes from all escort ships and warships at any time if needed, and the communication and coordination between them were seamless. When the shipyard was established on Crescent Island, the Seven Seas Trading Company's seafarer training system began to operate quietly. With a little coordination, the transmission of instructions between them could be very smooth.

Two more days passed, and news finally arrived that Qi Zhentao and his escort fleet had encountered a large fleet led by the Bosa Kingdom, which was preparing to launch a surprise attack on the allied forces of the Samir family and the Seven Seas Trading Company from this direction, when they were withdrawing from the Montoya Islands, the main battlefield of the decisive naval battle. The old man relied on the complex terrain and current conditions of the easternmost islands of the Montoya Islands to play hide-and-seek with the enemy, stubbornly holding back this raiding fleet and constantly inflicting losses on the opponent with the excellent Tiger Tooth ships. In other words, Qi Zhentao's luck wasn't very good, but the luck of the entire allied forces of the Samir family and the Seven Seas Trading Company was very good. If this fleet had suddenly appeared on the battlefield, the impact would have been quite serious. The Samir family's naval management strategy and the Seven Seas Trading Company's were similar, both emphasizing single-ship combat capabilities and fleet tactical organization, but they suffered greatly in terms of numbers. Faced with a large number of enemies in sight, no matter who it was, even if they were confident in themselves, they would probably feel a little apprehensive. With Qi's escort fleet getting involved, the entire battle situation became confusing. The Bosa Kingdom had several other countries as barriers on land, so it didn't directly clash with the Samir family, and its strength was the most preserved. This was also the first time the powerful Bosa Kingdom had fought against the Samir family. After this encounter, both sides began to work hard to adjust their combat posture, adjust their strategies against the enemy, and strive to disrupt each other's strategies against the enemy. Qi Zhentao's fleet almost held back five times its number of enemies and was dragged back into the core of the operation, becoming a crucial link in the entire operation.

Now that there was news, Hengbo Port immediately organized a powerful fleet, preparing to rush to support the Montoya Islands, striving to sweep away the last obstacles to the Samir family's founding of the country in one fell swoop. At this moment, when the Seven Seas Trading Company was seeking deeper cooperation with the Samir family and taking over part of the Samir family's business, this move also had a strong bargaining chip meaning.

"Who will lead the fleet?" At first, Ye Tao didn't intend to interfere in the Seven Seas Trading Company's military preparations. He only summoned all the shooting instruction chiefs on the warships to answer some questions about the use of the new shooting rangefinders. He also introduced the Ye Corporation's new research progress in naval weapons and firearms. And, he briefly introduced some of the air-ground integrated attack methods that the airship team in Yunzhou was conducting. For these warship commanders of the Seven Seas Trading Company who were proficient in semaphore and had begun to consider airship carriers and other ships, this was easy to understand. These things couldn't immediately improve the fleet's combat capabilities, but they could greatly increase their confidence. In addition to this, Ye Tao was only concerned about who would lead this powerful fleet, which included one hundred and nineteen Tiger Tooth ships. In his mind, Assad and Qi Zhu were already on the sea, and now Hengbo Port couldn't find anyone with enough prestige and status to lead this fleet.

"You don't know? The leaders of those escort fleets are arguing endlessly, and no one is convinced by anyone. Then, someone said, isn't Executive Ye in Hengbo Port? Can't Executive Ye lead us?" Tan Weixin answered Ye Tao's question with a chuckle. Two or three clerks from the Seven Seas Trading Company who came to cooperate with Tan Weixin's work were snickering there. Because Tan Weixin had been communicating with these well-informed people from the Seven Seas Trading Company about financial issues, her understanding of these situations was a little faster than Ye Tao's. Many people in the Seven Seas Trading Company knew that Ye Tao would never come out with any unprofessional opinions on naval warfare, a field he was not familiar with. However, from all aspects, Ye Tao was a first-class shooting instruction chief, even if he was only doing it part-time. In terms of status and prestige, those who could suppress those leaders must be laymen. Among all the laymen, Ye Tao was considered an expert. The big shots of the Seven Seas Trading Company, including Liu Yi, just didn't know how to tell Ye Tao about this for a while. After all, if Ye Tao led the fleet to attack, he would probably have to attend the founding ceremony of the Samir Kingdom before he could return.

"Me?" Ye Tao was stunned. "Why me?" Ye Tao asked, only to realize that this was too obvious. He sighed and said, "If you really can't find anyone, I'll go."

"I'll go too," Tan Weixin said firmly. "It's rare for me to catch up with this kind of thing. You don't know how much I envy Dai Yun. At least, I don't get seasick. You have to take me with you."

Ye Tao frowned, thought for a while, and said, "Okay. Let's go. It doesn't matter as long as we're together. I don't care about anything else."

Their unscrupulous conversation left the several people from the Seven Seas Trading Company present standing there dumbfounded, not knowing how to react. Watching these two people, who held high positions and whose words and deeds could affect so many people, affect a city, a state, or even a country, easily settle a rather important matter. Ye Tao must know the danger of naval warfare, and Tan Weixin was not such a naive person either. Although the casualty rate of the Seven Seas Trading Company has been very low in recent years, that doesn't mean the danger doesn't exist. And in this super battle where the number of ships invested by both sides exceeds a thousand, anything could happen. Ye Tao might have to consider the overall situation, but what about Tan Weixin? What was the reason for this persistence? The meaning revealed in Ye Tao's sentence "It doesn't matter as long as we're together" was very worthy of these people's recollection.

"Zhang Shijun, go tell Master Liu to convene a military meeting. I'll prepare and go to the club right away." Ye Tao looked at the surprised expressions of those people and instructed them as a matter of course. From the moment he felt that he could and was willing to lead this fleet to attack, he naturally became the commander-in-chief of the fleet.

When Ye Tao arrived at the Seven Seas Trading Company's club in the port, he unexpectedly saw an old acquaintance. He saw a large group of people warmly welcoming this unexpected guest in the club—Min Yue.

"General Min, why are you here at this time?" Ye Tao quickly greeted him. Min Yue was an old friend from Yicheng, and he had even bought Ji'ao Manor from Ye Tao. Ye Tao had never interrupted his correspondence with Min Yue over the years. And the Min family, as the first family in Dongping in terms of the navy, had also been receiving a lot of news and technical support from Ye Tao and the Seven Seas Trading Company. Although the Min family had not become members of the Seven Seas Trading Company because of their status, they had always cooperated closely. The Min family's fleet is now the largest independently operated maritime merchant fleet in Dongping.

"Hehe, the message was sent to Yicheng, saying that you actually ran to Nanyang and wanted us to send a Tiger Tooth ship to pick you up. I thought that I didn't have anything to do recently, and Nanyang was lively, so I quickly took this opportunity to run over. This was approved by His Majesty, and I also brought the First Fleet of the Yazhou Navy, fourteen Tiger Tooth ships, and twenty-four improved Lanshui ships... I heard that I just caught up with a big battle?" Min Yue's eyes were very eager. Min Yue was a general who had fought his way through naval battles, and he had extremely rich naval battle experience. However, with the rise of the Seven Seas Trading Company in recent years, he had been doing more of the work of incorporating pirates and cleaning up wealth. It was also quite cruel to make a general do the work of a farmer. He had been holding back for a long time, and when he heard that there was a battle, or even a thousand-ship battle, he naturally couldn't hold back.

"Hey, General Min, you're leading the Dongping Navy. Did His Majesty let you come over to play and authorize you to make decisions on the spot and intervene in the Middle East situation in an official capacity as Dongping?" Ye Tao said unhappily.

"I can't, but you can." Min Yue smiled slyly and said, "Come, take a look at His Majesty's handwritten edict."

After glancing at the edict that seemed to say nothing but gave Ye Tao all the decision-making power, Ye Tao shrugged. There was nothing wrong with Dongping's intervention. Treating the Samir family as a country to a country, or rather, the current Samir Kingdom, just this attitude would win itself a solid ally.

"Okay, General Min... Let's not talk too much nonsense. The Seven Seas Trading Company's support fleet is about to set off soon. Let the First Fleet of Yazhou prepare and set off with the Seven Seas Trading Company's fleet early tomorrow morning. And you, be the deputy commander of the fleet and the combat instruction chief." Ye Tao sighed.

"This subordinate obeys!" Min Yue responded excitedly, and then laughed loudly.