From arms dealer to king of war

The Princess has a displacement of 3,600 tons, a length of 115 meters, a width of 13 meters, and a draft of 5 meters. It is an old ship produced in the United States in the 1960s and has served in the United States Coast Guard for a long time...

Although the Hamilton-class patrol ships are particularly old, the strength of the hull, propulsion system, and electronic system are not too bad.

In 2013, the United States said it would send two Hamilton-class patrol ships to the Philippines, but in fact the castrated patrol ships cost the Philippines nearly US$200 million to put them into operation again.

In this way, the Philippines immediately designated one of them as the flagship of its navy.

Boss Qiao only spent 45 million US dollars, and then signed a document that required the approval of the U.S. Department of Trade for a secondary transfer, and got this basically uncastrated decommissioned ship.

Later, Boss Qiao sent the ship to Italy and spent nearly 60 million US dollars to complete the final transformation of the old ship.

I only spent so little money and it was thanks to the blessing of the U.S. Coast Guard...

Because when the uncastrated Princess was handed over to Boss Qiao, the ship's fire control system, radar system, including the propulsion system were all modified in 2003.

These gadgets are considered relatively advanced models nowadays, so they save a lot of money during modification.

The relatively old anti-submarine system of the original ship was removed, and the bow of the ship was replaced with an Italian-made Otto Melera 76mm naval gun.

Compared with the early 127mm large-caliber naval guns, the current naval guns seem to be less powerful, but the level of automation and intelligence and the ammunition load have increased exponentially.

In addition, there is an Alto 25mm naval gun and two 12.7mm machine gun weapon stations at the rear of the ship.

There are also two sets of Avengers air defense systems and two sets of Hellfire anti-tank launchers on the platform below the ship's bow and the platform below the plane search radar.

Compared with other 3,600-ton warships, the combat effectiveness of the 'Princess' is not worth mentioning, and at best it can only meet the maritime patrol mission.

However, this kind of modification provides ample space for the 120 crew members on the ship, and frees up a lot of storage space to store supplies, extending the working time of the Princess at sea, and sometimes it can even be used to transport some important items. of goods.

For more than a year, the Princess has made 2 to 3 round trips in the Gulf of Aden every month in order to earn escort fees to support itself.

But now they are relaxed. With supplies nearby in Djibouti, not only can the crew go ashore to rest every week, but the consumption of the ship has also been reduced by more than half.

In the future, as long as Mukalla and Bossosa get on the right track, the Princess will even save port docking fees.

Now the 'Princess' is in the outer waters of the Gulf of Aden, driving slowly around a maritime battlefield 5 kilometers away...

A 40,000-ton cargo ship was surrounded by dozens of pirate speedboats...

These pirate speedboats are like wolves on the sea. They disperse and circle around the freighter. Whenever the defensive firepower on the freighter is mobilized, several speedboats will rush towards the freighter.

When these pirates approached the cargo ship, they would also launch RPGs on the deck of the cargo ship to cover other people trying to board the ship.

Under normal circumstances, let alone encountering such a large-scale pirates on a freighter, if more than a dozen pirate speedboats approach and launch RPGs, the crew on the freighter should surrender.

But at this time, the people on the freighter were still resisting tenaciously, and the firepower tended to become more intense.

From the automatic rifle at the beginning, it has developed into a 12.7mm heavy machine gun...

Theoretically, even for humanitarian reasons, the Princess should help disperse the pirates. However, when the Princess tried to approach, the people on the freighter actually used the radio to signal it not to approach.

The Princess does not have maritime law enforcement powers. According to international law, the Princess Maritime Security Company can only open fire if it is attacked or the ship it is escorting is attacked.

Now that the other party has not purchased maritime security services, this sea area still belongs to Somali waters, so for a while, the Princess did not dare to mess around.

When Qiao Jia arrived, the firepower on the freighter had evolved to RPGs and mortars, and it was continuing to evolve...

The 'Eros' took the initiative to approach the 'Princess', and the two sides formed a formation 500 meters apart...

Gioga used the radio to say hello to the Italian Cristiano, the captain of the Princess, and then asked curiously: "Why haven't the pirates retreated after so long?

What are the origins of these pirates? "

Cristiano, a sixty-three-year-old man, replied with a rich voice: "Boss, I saw a ship flying the flag of Al-Shabaab before, and those pirates should be people hired by Al-Shabaab.

They should have come specifically for the freighter named 'Hansen'..."

Qiao Jia held up his binoculars and looked at the fierce battle at sea in the distance. He watched several small boats bravely rush to the rear of the freighter and attack the freighter's propeller with their RPGs...

"Are these people crazy? They stopped the boat. How can they get the boat away?"

When Qiao Jia was talking, Dorian, who was also holding a telescope, suddenly shouted: "Oh shit, the pirates have boarded the ship, oh, they have been beaten down..."

After hearing this, Qiao Jia quickly turned his eyes away, and then saw two groups of people at the front and rear of the freighter trying to board the ship by force...

They used a hanging ladder with a hook to hook onto the deck, and then several people with guns climbed up under the cover of their companions in the rear.

But at a height of more than ten meters and operating at sea, they were quickly killed and fell into the sea in the face of fierce counterattacks from the crew and mercenaries on the ship.

The continuous deaths seemed to anger the pirates, who began to concentrate their fire on the ship's deck with RPGs, and the pirates behind the cargo ship opened fire again...

As a series of rockets exploded, a bit of thick smoke came out of the rear of the freighter that had been accelerating in an attempt to get away from the pirates, and then slowly stopped.

The strange behavior of the cargo ship seemed to anger the people on board. Faced with the pirates' attack, the people on board launched a ferocious counterattack...

Several RPG rounds and a series of mortars hit the pirate fleet, and one of the RPG rounds accurately hit a speedboat.

Unfortunately, these people still underestimated the determination of the pirates. The silence of a ship did not dispel the pirates' desire to attack, but made them act particularly crazy. More RPGs hit the freighter.

Completely different volumes create completely different effects...

The people on the boat are like using cannons to fight mosquitoes. It is difficult for RPGs and mortars to hit the high-speed speedboat.

Pirates are different. The bullets and RPGs they fire may not hit people, but they can definitely hit the ship, and most of them hit the containers on the deck.

As the cargo ship's power system was damaged and the containers on the ship were hit one after another, the people on board seemed to have changed their minds. They no longer tried to stop the pirates, but began to shrink their front, seeming to want to put the pirates on board...

The funniest thing about the whole thing is that both sides are probably not good at it, and both are familiar with international law...

The cargo ship refused to ask for help, and the pirates pretended that the Princess did not exist.

With a guy as big as the Princess on the side, they beat themselves up and resolutely refused to allow the Princess to come near.

It is impossible for the Princess to directly intervene, because it is engaged in escort business, not anti-piracy business.

And this is not the high seas, but Somali waters.

Once the video of their firing is spread, the maritime security companies that have been robbed of a lot of business will immediately take action, and the escort business of the warlord princess will immediately be investigated.

This has nothing to do with your connections. As a legal maritime security company, if someone catches you with a braid, you will have to face a series of investigations.

Even if Boss Qiao can settle it, it will still take a long time!

As a last resort, an experienced captain can choose to rush in and threaten the opponent with a collision posture, but he must not be the first to open fire.

Only if the opponent attacks first can the Princess get the authority to counterattack.

For the government navy, this standard can be relaxed a little, because it is nothing more than a verbal war.

But for private companies, this sequence must not be mistaken.

But the freighter didn't ask for help, so Boss Qiao certainly wouldn't cause trouble for himself...

He was just curious and wanted to know why the two sides were fighting?

The telescope could only see one direction. After thinking about it, Qiao Jia turned to Ronnie beside him and said, "Activate the drone. I want to see what their final result will be..."

Ronnie put down the telescope in his hand, patted the doctor bird, and pulled him into the cabin. A few minutes later, the two of them carried a large box onto the apron of the rear deck.

The Mistral missile system is built-in, and it does not prevent Ronnie and the others from releasing a drone with a width of about 2 meters before activation.

As the drone took off, Boss Qiao, who was in the cab, finally saw the full picture of the naval battle...

There were a large number of pirates hovering around the stopped cargo ship. These guys seemed to be on stimulants. They kept shrinking the encirclement while firing bullets at the cargo ship.

The defense personnel on the deck of the cargo ship could only lie down on the hot deck, unable to lift their heads from being suppressed.

When the drone photographed the side of the cargo ship, Qiao Jia raised his mobile phone to take a photo and sent it. Then he motioned for Dorian to keep a closer look, walked up to the front deck, took out his satellite phone and called Aaron. phone number...

"I'm very busy now, what do you have to do?"

Hearing Aaron's impatient tone on the phone, Boss Qiao said unhappily: "What can you do as a prisoner? You have a boyfriend in prison?"

Boss Qiao’s ‘vicious’ words made Aaron stunned for a moment, and then the guy seemed to have taken gunpowder and cursed: “Are you an idiot?

Do you know how busy I am lately?

Do you think it’s easy to coordinate cargo channels to send arms to Yemen?

Do you think it’s easy to direct the Edwards Foundation to invest in Yemen?

I also have to fucking monitor the black trade to prevent anything too advanced from getting into the hands of al Qaeda in Yemen.

I even have to take care of your little lover and cheap son because the people from ‘Stairway to Heaven’ are targeting her!

How did you, a fool who only knows how to shoot, get to where you are today?

Apologize to me quickly, otherwise you will get nothing from me..."

Qiao Jia was stunned for a moment and said in a deep voice: "The people from Stairway to Heaven are targeting Grace?

The people from the Edward Foundation stepped on the line! "

Aaron could feel Qiao Jia's gloomy tone through the phone. He softened his tone slightly and said, "It's not clear yet whether it's the Edward Foundation?

Your little lover and cheap son are now large landowners holding 300,000 acres of land, and because they and Monica have mastered a secret fund, they have funded 5 members of Congress!

The most important thing is that Big Mouth Don went to Ohio to meet Grace a few months ago and has been praising her.

Now there are rumors that Grace may become the youngest member of Congress in the United States..."

After Qiao Jia frowned and thought for a while, he said, "Didn't Tom Reed react?"

Aaron listened and said amusedly: "Tom Reed is a big shot, he is a senator, and he does not only have Grace as a child, he also has two sons and an eldest daughter who is married.

And there are other members of the Reed family..."

Qiao Jia instantly understood the meaning of Aaron's words...