Chapter 2971
After reviewing the armed fleet, King Suji held a grand welcome banquet for Qian Tiandun and his party at the palace.
It has to be said that Kelantan seems to be more Haihan-oriented than Pattani. A large number of glassware produced by Haihan were used in the palace banquets, and most of the dishes also used Chinese cooking techniques and seasonings, which are obviously different from this region. More common eating styles.
The service staff at the banquet actually all spoke Chinese, and they had obviously undergone special training and selection.
King Suji proudly stated that more and more Kelantanese are currently studying in Haihan, bringing advanced cultural knowledge back to the country for dissemination. He is also considering fully introducing Haihan’s cultural and educational system so that talents in Kelantan can seamlessly connect to Haihan’s higher education institutions in the future.
"I hope that one day, Kota Bharu can become as prosperous as Sanya!"
This was the second time in just a few days that Qian Tiandun heard the head of a country express his longing and yearning for Sanya face to face.
King Suji also visited Sanya, which shows how much the prosperity of the "Celestial Kingdom" had a great impact on him. In the minds of these small overseas monarchs, Haihan's development model is obviously a successful model. It seems that they can copy this successful model as long as they follow Haihan's guidance.
Even if it cannot become as powerful as Haihan, it will at least have the opportunity to become a regional power and raise its national power to unprecedented heights.
Kelantan has obviously tasted enough sweetness in its long-term cooperation with Haihan. This also prompted King Suji to decide to increase cooperation in military, cultural and other fields and continue to promote the process of Haihanization of the entire country.
At the end of the banquet, King Suji presented Qian Tiandun with a precious gift—an exploration-class warship model carved from ivory. This thing cannot be bought on the market even with money. It is made with meticulous workmanship and has a very high degree of restoration, making it highly collectible.
Although Qian Tiandun has traveled extensively for many years, this was the first time he received such a special gift, and he couldn't put it down at the moment.
The next day, at the warm invitation of King Suji, Qian Tiandun went to visit an iron mine invested and developed by Haihan in Kelantan.
Compared with the Liaodong iron mine, which is being fully developed in the northern region, Kelantan's iron ore is still far behind in terms of production technology and production scale. There are almost no mechanized tools in the quarry, and the entire mining and transportation process is basically relied on manpower.
Fortunately, the veins here can be mined in the open. As long as more manpower is invested, the low mining efficiency can be slightly compensated.
Qian Tiandun noticed that there were many women in the mines. Their task was to transport the crushed ore from the mine pits to the nearby dressing area, and their tools were rattan baskets.
Looking at the size of the backpack, a full basket of ore can weigh about seventy or eighty kilograms. These women, with their bodies hunched over, carried out baskets of ore.
The number of livestock owned by the mine is obviously very limited. After the ore is screened and crushed, the few horse-drawn carriages can be used to transport it to the smelting workshop for further processing.
Although the production efficiency is extremely low, for this small coastal country that has just stepped onto the industrial threshold, this is one of the most economically valuable industries in the country.
"It seems that your country needs to raise more livestock to improve the production efficiency of the mine."
Qian Tiandun is no stranger to such a scene. He personally experienced the development process of local coal mines in Heitu Port more than 20 years ago. In the early days, mining was also carried out by manual labor. Based on the situation in Kelantan, it is obvious that we cannot expect to introduce advanced steam machinery to assist mining in the short term, so animal power is the most realistic option.
King Suji agreed with his suggestion: "There is a large ranch under construction east of Kota Bharu. After it is completed, it is expected to be able to supply about a thousand pack horses every year. By that time, various countries in our country will The mines will also benefit.”
Such a large-scale ranch has certain requirements for animal husbandry technology. Kelantan's own strength alone may be difficult to operate. Qian Tiandun estimates that it is probably an industry that cooperates with Haihan.
Sure enough, Tan Tianlei next to him added: "This ranch project was built with the aid of the Sing Tao Region. Once completed, it will be the largest ranch in the entire Malay Peninsula. In addition to supplying draft horses to the country, it will also supply pack horses to the Sing Tao Region in the future. Export packhorse ”
Qian Tiandun nodded slightly. It seemed that Xingdao not only developed Kelantan as a mine, but also had a more comprehensive long-term plan.
On the way back to the station, Tan Tianlei openly announced Sing Tao's plans to Qian Tiandun: "We will assist Kelantan in developing various resources within the territory, but all development will be based on our country's needs, not Kelantan's." Requirements. Kelantan will become a vassal of our country in the future, but it will not have an industrial system.”
Qian Tiandun reminded: "But they have mines, smelting plants, and professional workers. This is already the prototype of the industrial system."
Tan Tianlei said: "This is also the upper limit of Kelantan. We do not provide refining and processing technology to Kelantan, so for industries like iron ore, they can only master the technology of smelting pig iron and will not have the ability to produce large-scale steel." Ability.”
Qian Tianton said: "What if someone goes to our country to learn related technologies and brings them back to Kelantan?"
Tan Tianlei said with a smile: "It's useless just to learn. Without our permission, there will never be a steel-making blast furnace in Kelantan."
This is equivalent to locking up the possibility of Kelantan's technological upgrading in the industrial field. Without a large amount of steel production capacity, it is impossible for Kelantan to enter the industrial era independently.
Qian Tiandun nodded, expressing his approval of this strategy.
When leaving Kelantan, King Suji specially sent three warships to follow the Haihan fleet southward. The reason he gave is also very good. These three warships will go to Xingdao to receive military training and take this rare opportunity to familiarize themselves with the maritime navigation arrangements of the Haihan Fleet.
Adjacent to Kelantan in the south is Terengganu, which is also a small city-state. However, compared to its two neighbors to the north, the situation of this small country is a bit lackluster.
According to the situation introduced by Li Yuande and Tan Tianlei, Terengganu currently lacks high-value and easy-to-exploit natural resources, and does not have a bay like Pattani to develop maritime trade, so it can only follow the development route of a purely agricultural country.
However, because of its location bordering Johor, most citizens feel closer to Johor. Johor and Sing Tao have a long-standing feud, so Sing Tao is not that interested in developing Terengganu.
In fact, Star Island retains the location of Terengganu partly to create a buffer zone between Johor and Kelantan. After all, the combined territories of these small countries are not as big as Johor. If Johor is overrun by Johor, Sing Tao's initial investment in Kelantan may be in vain.
(End of chapter)