Chapter 1237 Osman in the corner

It can be seen that the current situation in Europe is too "volume", and because it is too divided, many countries have to invest heavily in the military.

Of course, this is not necessarily a bad thing. After all, without this state of division, it would be difficult for the Renaissance and the Enlightenment to be born in Europe.

And this further encouraged European countries to expand overseas, such as the former Portuguese Empire. One of the reasons why the Portuguese became the vanguard of the Age of Discovery was that there was really no room for maneuver in Europe.

Apart from anything else, this is also the reason why Ernst went to Africa to develop. In the small place of the Prince of Hechingen, even if Ernst tried his best, the final outcome would probably be to become a high-ranking Prussian officer or a civilian.

After all, Prince Constantine served as a general in the Prussian army in his previous life, and finally died alone in Poland in his previous life, now the Green Mountain City in Prussia.

"Captain Rollingen, when can we dock at the dock?" At this time, Cary, the head of the East African Child Trading Company, asked.

Child Trading Company is just a small trading company in Mombasa, East Africa. This small trading company is responsible for the cargo of the Rollingen this time.

Rollingen did not dare to neglect Cary. After all, Cary represented the boss behind this ship of goods.

He said to Cary: "Mr. Cary, don't worry. There are too many cargo ships in Odessa now, so waiting is essential. According to my experience, if nothing else happens, we will still have to wait for the past six months." After an hour, we are already in a relatively advanced position.”

The biggest difficulty in maritime trade in this era is the loading and unloading of goods. After all, it takes a lot of time to load and unload all the goods on a ship. Especially before the popularity of containers, the loading and unloading of many bulk cargoes can almost make people collapse. Classification is a big problem.

This also makes dock workers in this era a very scarce profession. This does not mean that there are few people, but that no matter how many people are recruited, it seems that they are not enough to cope with the huge scale of goods. In fact, the group of dock workers is quite large. It is huge. Take Shanghai Port, the largest port in the Far Eastern Empire, as an example. There are nearly 30,000 dock workers alone.

This is also an important reason why East Africa is vigorously promoting containers and transforming ports and railway systems, in order to save as much as possible the intermediate loading and unloading links.

Of course, the current effect of East African containers is mainly reflected in the country, especially the exchange of goods between the east and west coasts of East Africa.

This is mainly because the ports on both sides of East Africa are updating the fastest and have the most complete basic equipment such as tower cranes, hook machines, and transmission equipment.

In other countries and regions, due to the lack of large-scale loading and unloading equipment, even if they want to improve efficiency, they cannot improve it.

Take the trade between East Africa and Germany. Except for important strategic materials such as medicines, rubber, chemicals or urgently needed materials on the front line, containers are rarely used.

Germany is already a country that is relatively receptive to new products such as containers. After all, Germany's basic transportation, especially railway and water transportation, and ports are very developed.

In countries like Russia, the cargo transportation has basically not changed much. For example, the items carried by the Logan this time are mainly coffee, tobacco, tea and other bulk cargo, which are basically stored in boxes.

The boxes used to hold these goods are not containers, because the Russians do not have the spare money to imitate Germany and directly leave East African containers in their own country. Many merchant ships from East Africa arrive in Germany and almost directly dump the containers with goods to Germany.

This method does not work in Russia. After all, container manufacturing itself requires consideration of technical and material issues, which makes containers relatively expensive.

Businessmen in East Africa have no doubt that if they are loaded in containers, the Russians will smash them and sell them for scrap. After all, Russia's steel production is only a few million tons. The demand for steel after the war has caused Russian steel prices to soar.

Cary complained: "This is really life-threatening. For six hours, we can only stay on this ship, and the dock of the port is right in front of us." Rollingen reassured: "This is the current situation of European freight, almost everyone All ports will encounter this problem, let alone a large port like Odessa.”

"To be honest, there are probably few ports in Europe that are busier than Odessa. Since the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Bulgaria launched their offensive against Moldova last month, Russia has lost a lot of land, which has indirectly affected Odessa and Kiev. threaten."

"So in order to resist the offensive of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Bulgarian coalition, Russia must ensure the supply of materials on the front line. I heard that in at least one battle, many strategic reserves and positions were occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Bulgarian coalition."

Kari said with some disdain: "I don't know if it was really snatched away by the enemy, or if it was an excuse used by the Russians to settle the accounts. After all, this kind of thing is often done within the Russian army."

This is the impression that the Russian military has left on many countries around the world, that is, the military is seriously corrupt, that's why Kari said this.

Of course, this kind of problem will definitely exist in other countries, or as long as it is a country with an army, it is almost impossible to avoid it. The same is true in East Africa, but Russia is more prominent.

Captain Rollingen not only did not question Cary's guess, but said with a smile: "Mr. Cary, to tell you the truth, we actually think so too."

"Only those of us who run the Black Sea route know how many goods Russia has imported in the past two years, but from the news in the newspapers, many military supplies may not have reached the hands of the Russian army on the front line."

"I remember reading in the newspapers in Constantinople that many soldiers on the Russian front line couldn't even get enough rifles. This is hard to believe. After all, Russia is not a small country without industry like Serbia or Bulgaria."

Cary said calmly: "This is normal. Our East African newspapers also said that the current Russian army has a shortage of about three million rifles, and Russia's annual military production capacity is only more than 800,000 rifles, which means that at least nearly a quarter of the Russian army's soldiers don't even have decent weapons."

"Before the outbreak of the war, the Russian army was only more than one million in size, but now it is as high as more than six million, and before the war Russia also hoped to purchase a large number of foreign military equipment, which prevented the development of its own military industry."

Up to now, the number of Russian mobilizations has exceeded 10 million, which can also reflect Russia's tragic state in the war.

But this is understandable, after all, Russia is facing greater military pressure than in the past.

Rolingen: "Who said it wasn't! Even the basic weapons of the soldiers cannot be guaranteed. It is understandable that the current military situation in Russia has deteriorated to this extent. However, gray animals are not worth much. It is also amazing that Russia can withstand the attacks of three countries at the same time."

Cary said: "If the situation in Russia deteriorates further, it may not be three countries next. After all, the Ottoman Empire and Russia are sworn enemies. If Russia is weak during this period, the Ottoman Empire may not wait any longer."

Although the Ottoman Empire joined the Allies, it has not taken any action, but has been accumulating strength. After Germany fell into the war, Germany's military aid to the Ottoman Empire also stagnated.

However, the Ottoman Empire has one more choice than in the past, that is East Africa. The weapons in East Africa are still similar to those of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

This allowed the Ottoman Empire to arm its troops more patiently. The Ottoman Empire was well aware of the weakness of its army before the reform. If it was still in the state of the Balkan War, not to mention a clash with Russia, even a small country like Greece would probably be able to fight back and forth with its original army.

Therefore, the Ottoman Empire's army is still accumulating strength, including expanding the army, hiring East African instructors, purchasing weapons, etc., and when the opportunity arises, the Ottoman Empire will definitely not remain indifferent.