Chapter 37: Yang Feng's Pirate Base

  There was such a powerful bodyguard, Ye Anping naturally welcomed him with open arms. The two ships continued to sail northeast, one in front of the other. Cai Yimei, who understood his dark psychology very well, enthusiastically invited Ye Zi to visit the Parrot Shell and take a bath, comb her hair, and then change into more fashionable clothes. A dirty little girl covered in oil stains and blood suddenly transformed into a white swan... or perhaps a black swan.

  Wheat-colored healthy skin, stunning long legs that catch the eye, plus the visual effect caused by the obviously smaller clothes of Caiyi sister, anyway, Yang boss took a big bite of an apple.

  Watching him covering his mouth and screaming miserably, a pair of little beauties laughed with joy.

  But soon, Yang Da Boss couldn't take it anymore. The speed of the small fire wheel was so slow that it was infuriating. He simply threw down the rope tied to it and had the Parrot Shell tow it instead. It was just a small boat with a displacement of less than 300 tons, but even with such a burden, the Parrot Shell, which was only running at half power, still managed to run at 25 knots, leaving Ye Anping and his sailors on board staring in amazement.

  The rest of the journey took less than twenty-four hours to complete, and by the second morning, the emerald green coastline could already be seen in the distance. Ye Zi immediately excitedly pulled her out of the room, pointing and gesturing, but Yang Feng didn't understand a word of the rapid-fire dialect, guessing it was an invitation for her to visit his home as a guest.

  The little tugboat cast off its moorings and moved forward, leading the way for the Nautilus as it slowly entered Keelung Harbor. The strange beast immediately dropped the jaws of everyone on shore, including those on a British merchant ship and an American merchant ship in the harbor, who all let out cries of amazement.

  They were well aware of what the black monster, famous on both the New and Old Continents, meant. The Parrot hadn't even docked yet when the British consul here rushed to the pier with a group of devils to welcome it.

  Yang Feng was quite surprised by this, he didn't expect that such a small broken port would have a British consulate, which shows how pervasive these foreigners are. Under the humble and welcoming welcome of the British consul, amidst the stunned gaze of the surrounding Chinese people, Yang Da Boss swaggered off the ship with Caiyi sister, and then directly checked into the British Consul's residence. This scene shocked Ye Anping to the point of being dumbfounded, knowing that the British Consul was like an emperor here, and even the county magistrate of Fengshan didn't dare stand up straight in front of him. As a result, such a big shot was almost licking Yang Feng's toes.

  "Didn't you ask who this Mr. Yang is?" he asked his daughter in a low voice.

  "Cai Yi sister said, Mr. Yang in the UK and their crown prince, as well as many lords are good friends, and in the US and UK, there is also a country called Sweden have a large industry, so big that it's scary, she is just a maid, in the UK many noblewomen see her are very polite." Ye Zi said, obviously Cai Yi sister's publicity work is done well.

  Ye Anping took a deep breath of cold air.

  At that time, Dagougang was under the jurisdiction of Fengshan County, Tainan Prefecture. On the evening of Yang Fong's arrival, he met Li Gan, the county magistrate of Fengshan, at a welcome banquet hosted by the British consul. Of course, he wanted to build a dedicated dock and military base here, but it was something that a small county magistrate would not dare to agree to. Not to mention agreeing, just hearing that Yang Fong wanted to moor armed merchant ships here and station a team of no less than 200 bodyguards for his own safety had already scared the county magistrate so much that his legs were trembling.

  Not to mention him, even the Tainan Prefect Bao Rong's legs were trembling when he heard this news. He knew what kind of unthinkable things these foreign devils could do. Although this guy was just a fake foreign devil, according to intelligence from various sources, he seemed even more terrifying than the real thing. If he really were to station 200 bodyguards in Dagou Harbor, who knows what would happen next?

  Of course, it was not necessary for him to take on this headache, and he could have just reported directly to the Taiwan Governor Shao Youlian. Shao Youlian also found it a headache when he heard about it, as he knew nothing about Yang Fengke. The rise of Boss Yang had only been two years ago, and during those two years, he had been at home mourning his mother, and had only just arrived in Taiwan, so he was not very well-informed about external news, let alone distant Europe. Therefore, he chose the most effective way for a Qing official to handle such matters: drag it out.

  "After explaining to the superior and waiting for two days, Yang Dalao received such a reply and looked at Fengshan County Magistrate in astonishment."

  "Yang Gongzi, this matter is of great importance, and I, a humble official, do not have the authority to respond. I must report to His Excellency, the Magistrate, and I dare not agree to this matter before obtaining his approval." Li Gan said with a smile.

  "So when can you give me an answer?" Yang Feng asked in a bad tone.

  "This, I also don't know!"

  "Damn it!" Yang shouted in anger, while Li Gan pretended he hadn't heard anything.

  Yang Feng naturally knew that waiting for their consent would be a long shot, so he returned to the British Consulate with a gloomy face. After hearing about his encounter, the British Consul smiled and said: "Mr. Yang, you don't need to get their approval. You may not be used to the way officials work in this country yet. If you make legitimate demands on them, they won't take it seriously. But if you use illegitimate means, it's easy to achieve your goals."

  For example, you can give the county magistrate a thousand silver dollars and the prefectural magistrate a thousand silver dollars. Then you can directly buy land at the port and build whatever you want. The county magistrate will turn a blind eye, the prefectural magistrate will also turn a blind eye, and as for the governor, if he is an official who knows how to do his job, he will also turn a blind eye. If something really happens, he can only dismiss the Fengshan County Magistrate at most.

  "Wait until the dock, warehouse and company are all built, then have your bodyguards come over directly to station here. They don't have the guts to drive them away. And with your relationship with the Royal Navy, you can call two warships from Hong Kong to escort them over. Don't mention stationing 200 bodyguards, even if you station 2,000 they won't have a problem."

  Okay, so Mr. Yang discovered that this was indeed the most effective method, and that night he invited Ye Anping over. Old Ye was a local and had some status, and naturally wouldn't be unfamiliar with the Magistrate of Fengshan County. After understanding Yang's intentions, he was more than happy to help out. Before long, a 2,000 yuan draft from Hui Feng Bank was sent out, and the Yang Shipping Base in Gaoxiong Harbor officially began construction.

  With the help of the British Consul and Ye Anping, plus the employees of Jin Yuan Company from Hong Kong and the professionals from Bofors in Shanghai, everything went smoothly. Of course, he didn't need to take care of these trivial matters personally. As a big boss, he could just drink tea, flirt with girls, and occasionally visit the construction site to show his face.

  However, the scale of his construction in Dagang Port still left many people stunned. He dredged the navigation channel, built two large deep-water berths that could dock 5,000-ton ships, ten medium-sized berths that could dock 3,000-ton ships, and a large dry dock that could accommodate 5,000-ton ships for repairs. On land, he built a massive warehouse complex that was astonishing in scale. If people lived in these warehouses, it would be easy to accommodate 5,000 people.

  This construction scale made Li Gan and Bao Rong look at each other in shock, this thousand silver dollars was indeed a hot potato, but it's too late to regret now. Under the invitation of Yang Da Boss, two gunboats from the British Far East Fleet sailed from Hong Kong and then stationed in Dagou Harbor. Considering their mental torture, Yang Feng let Old Ye send them another 2,000, and this time the two big men were relieved.

  Standing on the top of the mountain beside the port, Mr. Yang looked at the busy bay below with a heroic and ambitious expression. Later, this would be his naval base. After it was built, he could directly bring over cruisers and destroyers, making all preparations to take advantage of the chaos during the First Sino-Japanese War. It was worth looking forward to running to Japan to burn, kill and loot at that time under the pretext of participating in the war.

  An armored cruiser, four high-speed destroyers, and six large landing ships would be best. These can directly capture the beachhead with the current shipbuilding technology, which is not difficult at all. It's just an iron can with an engine, equipped with a high-power diesel engine and several guns, such as 130mm cannons, which can carry a 5,000-strong amphibious combat force.

  Escorted by cruisers and destroyers, these five thousand people would specialize in raiding Japan's coastal areas at times, finding cities with beaches, using landing ships to rush ashore and implement the scorched earth policy, withdrawing quickly back to sea before the Japanese could react.

  If the Combined Fleet sent warships to intercept, apart from Yoshino and Naniwa, none of their warships could keep up with the speed of their own fleet. The flat-bottomed amphibious assault ships, equipped with high-power diesel engines, would not have a top speed of less than 20 knots, which was already faster than the vast majority of protected cruisers.

  As for Yoshino and Naniwa, if they dare to come, then use armored cruisers to pin down their firepower, and high-speed destroyers will annihilate them with steam-powered torpedoes.

  He seemed to have already seen the towering flames in Tokyo, and the scene where the Emperor was being manipulated by Roulin into a state of confusion, what a intoxicating sight.

  This guy is there daydreaming about the future, enjoying the sound of Japanese people crying, when he sees two warships with yellow dragon flags slowly approaching from the mouth of the harbor below. They are not very large in size, at most they can be considered as large gunboats, and their shapes are almost identical, all with a single smokestack and three masts, looking extremely ugly.