Chapter 3451
Although he knew that Penang Island was still in the development stage before coming here, Qian Shaobao was still quite touched after seeing the real scene here.
Penang has not yet built a decent port. It has only built two trestle piers on the east coast near the Malay Peninsula. This is the narrowest place in the strait between Penang and the peninsula. Qian Shaobao visually estimated that it is only six or seven miles wide. He chose to build the port here to facilitate the future freight exchanges between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait as much as possible.
After all, according to the plan, a tin ore smelting and processing center will be built on the island in the future, which means that a large amount of ore will be imported here through strait shipping, and the freight terminal and corresponding port facilities must meet certain standards.
But if we judge it by the port infrastructure standards of Hainan Island, the so-called port in front of us is at most the level of a fishing village wharf. Li Yuande's small cargo fleet is going to dock here, and the berths at the trestle pier are obviously not enough.
As a result, the two warships accompanying the fleet on escort missions were unable to dock. They had to temporarily anchor near the shore and then use small boats to transfer the personnel and materials on board.
After Qian Shaobao and others landed, they were received by the commander of the troops stationed on the island, a major battalion commander affiliated with the special operations division.
According to him, there are currently more than 600 soldiers stationed on the island, including an infantry battalion of the Special Operations Division and an engineer company affiliated with the Xingdao Region.
In addition to soldiers, there are more than 30 managers on the island from civil affairs, transportation, industry, construction, medical and health departments. These people are basically technicians, responsible for organizing and directing various construction projects on the island.
In addition, there were more than 2,000 immigrants sent to the island one after another during this year, most of whom were arranged to work as laborers on the construction sites of various infrastructure projects.
Although officials are also organizing land reclamation on the island to plant various crops, due to the limited number of labor inputs, the progress of farmland reclamation here is not very fast so far, and the various foods required mainly come from outside the island. input.
This time Li Yuande's fleet brought a large amount of daily necessities to Penang Island, including weapons and ammunition, clothing and bedding, grains, oils, vegetables and fruits, oil, salt, soy and vinegar, various farm tools and cooking utensils, and medical equipment, etc., which amounted to a whole ship.
In addition, about a hundred of the immigrants transported from Xingdao will be resettled here to participate in the development and construction of the island.
At present, after a year of hard work, various basic living facilities on the island are almost complete. The main projects next year will be the freight port and smelting plant. As long as the local tin ore smelting industry can be put into operation as soon as possible and start generating profits, subsequent project construction can enter a virtuous cycle.
Of course, this process is easy to say, but not so simple in practice.
Since there are no Han Chinese settlements in the nearby area, it is extremely difficult to obtain a large number of suitable labor forces in a short period of time. As for those other ethnic groups who were sent here through various channels, language communication alone is quite troublesome, and they are not easy to obey discipline and arrangements. Obviously, they cannot be used as Han laborers.
When visiting a construction site near the port, Qian Shaobao noticed that the number of Han immigrants here seemed to be less than half. Without the strong support provided by Xingdao, the proportion of Han people would probably be much lower.
If we rely on such a group of immigrants to complete the development and construction of the island, the progress will inevitably be much slower than similar domestic projects. Moreover, with this diverse ethnic composition, Qian Shaobao is worried about whether these overseas enclaves far from the mainland will have a tendency to split in the future.
While the fleet was docked, foreign envoys visited Penang Island.
The envoy sent by Sultan Zafar Shah of Perak came specifically to inspect the construction of the smelting project on the island to confirm whether Haihan was promoting the implementation of the cooperation project in accordance with the agreement between the two countries.
According to the results of previous negotiations between the two countries, Perak will provide Haihan with the qualification to mine tin ore within its territory, and Haihan will complete the smelting of the tin ore, and then process it in the tin products workshop jointly opened by the two countries.
In addition to the economic benefits being shared between the two countries, as part of the exchange, Haihan will also provide military assistance and security guarantees to Perak to help it resist coercion from Aceh, Siam and Portugal - fancying Perak tin Haihan's family is not alone in mining resources.
Accompanying the envoy to the island were five officer cadets sent by Perak. They will receive a fifty-day short-term training on the island, mainly on the use of muskets and related tactics.
After Qian Shaobao inquired, he learned that Haihan's training of officers for the Perak Kingdom did not start at this time. Long before Qian Tiandun led his troops south, the Perak Kingdom had sent people to Star Island for relevant training.
However, the military training conducted in Sing Tao used to be paid for classes and settled on a daily basis, but now it has become part of the cooperation project between the two countries. Students in Perak only need to pay for their own food and accommodation, and there is no need to pay for training courses. . This can also save a lot of money for a small country like Perak.
Qian Shaobao watched with great interest the first training session of the trainees after entering the camp, and found that their military level was far from the military officers from North Korea, Annan and other countries he had contacted in the past.
This is not because Xingdao deliberately concealed his secrets in past military training, but because a small country like Perak does not have the financial resources to install large-scale muskets and artillery, and it dare not take the initiative to launch wars. The military skills learned are often limited to theory. But it is difficult to have the opportunity to practice it.
However, now that Haihan has embraced Haihan, these problems are not difficult to solve. Haihan also has a very mature operating mode for this.
First, provide a special military loan to the other party, order weapons produced by Haihan, and then build an elite force fully equipped with firearms. After they have formed combat effectiveness, the Haihan Army can bring auxiliary troops with them in certain low-intensity military operations and command them to participate in actual combat to gain experience.
In this field, Haihan already has quite a few successful examples, and it is estimated that he has arranged for Perak to send personnel to relevant countries to inspect before this. The plan provided by Haihan must be very complete, and it is probably difficult for Perak to resist the temptation to improve its military strength.
The fleet stayed in Penang for a day and night. After completing the transportation task, they continued their journey north.
The next stop, Langkawi Island, is not far away, with a voyage of just over two hundred miles. The fleet departed in the morning and arrived at its destination in the afternoon.
Compared to Penang, there is at least a decent bay where a port can be built. However, there are no industrial projects planned here, the urgency of development is not as high as that of Penang, and the resources invested are relatively small, so the construction progress is actually slower.