Binjiang Police Affairs

Discussing these matters, Captain Wu suddenly shifted the conversation: "Salted Fish, our new ship is about to be launched. It's bigger than our current one and has more advanced electronic equipment. Did Director Zhou ask you if you'd like to transfer and become the captain of the new ship?"

Han Yu laughed: "I'm the Chief Officer, where would I get the qualifications to be a captain?"

"You are the Chief Officer of an oceangoing vessel, you have experienced more storms and waves than I have. As long as you are willing to transfer, you will be a captain after at most a year of training. Besides, if you really transfer, they won't just make you a captain, the agency's leadership will definitely let you become a Branch Captain."

"Who wouldn't want to command a new ship, but what about the river if I transfer? Moreover, we are also building a new ship, the blueprint is already designed, we are about to organize a bidding, probably the keel will be laid in another two months."

"How big is the ship?"

"Two hundred tons, designed according to the standards of a Coastal Harbor Tug and will also be built according to those standards."

Captain Wu asked: "That must cost quite a bit of money, right?"

Han Yu chuckled: "The total budget is ten million, but our department currently only has just over five million. For the part that's not enough, we will owe it first and pay it back slowly."

Ming Yuan, clearly the Chief Officer of an unlimited navigation area ship, preferred staying on the river operating a smaller boat.

Captain Wu felt quite regretful and couldn't help but sigh: "Our new ship is about to be launched, and the crew is still not in place. Especially the captain and chief engineer, it's useless to recruit without a Certificate of Competence, and those who have it find the salary and benefits too low to consider coming."

This is a very practical problem.

It's not easy for someone to accumulate enough service qualifications on an oceangoing ship and get a Competence Certificate, naturally, they would want to earn more money. The salary offered by the Fishery Station is very average, even becoming a captain doesn't earn as much as an ordinary sailor on a foreign trade ship.

Moreover, with a captain's certificate, one can completely go to the Port Supervision Bureau or Marine Supervision Bureau, although the salaries there aren't very high either, the social status is higher than Fishery Administration.

Han Yu didn't know what to say, when Xu Mingyuan walked over: "Salted Fish, a telegram."

"Oh."

Han Yu got his mind together, quickly took the telegram, walked over and lifted the curtain, turned on the light, pulled the curtain properly, and carefully started reading.

There was a helmsman steering, Captain Wu followed into the curtain, and asked in a low voice: "What does the telegram say?"

"This one was forwarded by the Fishery Radio Station from my father-in-law. He says combining the latest satellite cloud maps and data analyses like air pressure and airflow, the likelihood of the typhoon turning towards us is slim, continuing to move steadily in the northwest-by-west direction just like half an hour ago."

"Where is it now?"

Han Yu pulled out a sea chart, pointed at the chart and said, "Here. If it keeps its course, it will make landfall in the coastal region of Jiangzhan City in East Guang Province."

Captain Wu asked, "What about the wind force?"

"According to the East Guang meteorological department, the maximum wind force near the center is twelfth level, with a wind radius of between one hundred eighty to three hundred kilometers."

"Such strong winds, luckily it's not heading towards us."

"It's hard to say if it will change direction now, even if it doesn't, our area will still be affected."

Captain Wu had confidence in his ship and crew; as long as the wind force was below level eight, they could handle it, and since the typhoon center was so far from the Binjiang Sea Area, even if affected, it wouldn't be too severe.

He touched his mouth corner, looked at the sea chart and asked, "What about the other one?"

Han Yu spoke gravely, "This one was forwarded by the Fishery Radio Station, requested by Director Zhou and Political Commissioner Jiang. Director Jiang and Director Jiang reported fifteen minutes ago that they were tracking smuggled personnel who were picked up by a van in Lu Port in the East Sea, a place thinly populated by the seaside. They didn't dare to follow too closely late at night and ended up losing them."

"I've been to Lu Port, there's a fish port there."

"Therefore, several agency leaders unanimously believe that Snake Head will likely organize to have smuggled personnel board from Lu Port using a fishing boat to take them out to sea."

Captain Wu realized the seriousness of the situation, looked at the sea chart with knitted brows and said, "We are too far from there, even at the fastest we could only reach there by tomorrow noon, and the smuggling boat won't wait for us to arrive before sailing."

Xu Mingyuan felt a chill in his heart, anxiously asking: "Salted Fish, isn't Director He at the East Sea Sea Supervision Bureau? Could you ask the Marine Supervision Bureau to use radar to help us monitor?"

Han Yu helplessly said, "The East Sea has the VTS system, but the coastline of East Sea is very long, and Lu Port doesn't have a deep-water port, the radar station of the VTS system probably won't cover there."

Captain Wu spoke in a low voice, "Even if it covers, it can only cover the nearshore waters."

"What should we do now?"

"Salted Fish, what do you think?"

Han Yu fell silent for a moment, then smiled bitterly, "Right now, contacting anyone is pointless, we can only rely on luck."

Xu Mingyuan asked quietly, "How do we rely on luck?"

Han Yu took a deep breath and pointed at the maritime chart, "We have the most timely meteorological information and know that the likelihood of the typhoon heading our way is slim, but the ship captains might not know that. He might even be too afraid to use the radio, which means he won't venture far from the coastline."

Every closed fishing season, Captain Wu patrolled the sea. He was very familiar with the fishing boats. As he gestured on the maritime chart, he said, "The speed of fishing boats is generally around ten to fifteen knots. If there's no ship in the international waters to meet them, they will sail towards us for safety reasons. Based on the speed, if we're lucky, we could 'encounter' them around 8 AM tomorrow morning."

This 'encounter' is not a real one; it simply means reaching the same latitude.

The radar of the Fishery Administration Ship has a maximum detection range of about twelve nautical miles, but considering blind spots and possible interference, we can only count on ten nautical miles. More importantly, who knows how far into the open sea the ship captain, suspected of aiding in smuggling, would take the fishing boat.

Han Yu racked his brain and started gesturing on the maritime chart, "Uncle Wu, let's keep our course and head towards She Island, as going further south would be entering their jurisdiction."

"And then?"

"We'll dock at She Island for three hours, then sail from west to east, and from east to west in a zigzag pattern, heading north to search. Our speed is faster than theirs; given such a large search front, as long as they dare to pass through this area, we will definitely find them."

Xu Mingyuan, not quite understanding, asked, "What if there is a ship in the international waters to meet them?"

Han Yu confidently said, "Usually that could be possible, but these few days, it's unlikely. They also don't know if the typhoon will hit, so they probably won't risk arranging another ship to meet them, risking both vessel destruction and loss of lives."

"Salted Fish, are you saying that the fishing boats involved in smuggling might plan to take the smuggled persons all the way to the seas near Japan?"

"Precisely."

"Can the fishing boats travel that far?"

"Our Linghai fishing boats go to the South Sea; going to Japan is not considered far."

While they were talking, the Radiotelegraphist pushed aside the curtain and squeezed in, handing over another telegram.

Han Yu took the telegram and looked at it, then looked up and said, "Director Jiang and Director Jiang ran several kilometers along the sea embankment and vaguely saw two fishing boats heading out to sea in the middle of the night. A typhoon is imminent, and it's the closed fishing season, what else could they be doing going out to sea at this hour if not up to something fishy!"

"Two fishing boats?" asked Xu Mingyuan.

"We'll know soon whether it's smuggling or not."

"How will we know soon?"

Han Yu handed over the telegram, his tone light, "Director He is requesting assistance from the East Sea colleagues. Directors Jiang might not catch up with the fishing boats, but they can move onshore, they're looking for that van. If we can find that van with the assistance of the colleagues from East Sea, we'll understand where the smuggled persons are headed, and what those two fishing boats were really up to going out to sea in the middle of the night."

Xu Mingyuan pondered then asked, "Aren't we worried about alerting them now?"

"What's there to worry about now? The smuggled persons are most likely at sea, and even if the ship captain and Snake Head have mobile phones, there's no signal at sea, so there's no worry about someone tipping them off."

Han Yu touched the corner of his mouth, then turned back and said, "Uncle Wu, you're not in good health and shouldn't stay up all night. I'll take the night shift at the helm, you should go rest."

Captain Wu chuckled, "Old Yu is on duty."

"Uncle Yu is not young either; let me take the night shift."

"How about this, you take it until three o'clock, then let Old Yu take over."

"That works."