Chapter 156 Burning (Content may cause discomfort)
Bang...bang...bang...
In northern Kenya, gunfire breaks out.
Fallen with the sound of gunfire are the wild animals of Africa. In order to free up pasture, the bison, lions, warthogs, hyenas, leopards, zebras on the African grasslands...
All animals that could be seen suffered. In the East African colonies, a fire first set fire to the grasslands.
The animals were driven around by the fire, and the unlucky ones who couldn't escape were buried in the sea of fire, while some lay half-dead on the burned land and groaned in pain.
There are still some areas that cannot be covered by the fire, and it is up to the East African immigrants to deal with them themselves.
At present, the life of East African immigrants in East Africa can be summarized as three things: farming, fighting, and setting fires have become normalized.
Farming is naturally the first priority in East Africa, and it is not difficult to understand.
War was fought in response to the acquisition of land. East Africa often had conflicts with indigenous forces, so it was strange that the East African colonies did not go to war.
Setting fires is more bizarre. Setting fires is necessary to clear up land, set fires to open up residential areas, and set fires to destroy the living environment of animals.
There is nothing more time-saving and labor-saving than setting a fire in the African grasslands during the dry season. The whole of East Africa presents the primitive wild beauty of slash-and-burn farming.
The establishment of the East African colonies can be said to be in conflict with black people and wild animals. Regardless of humans or animals, as long as they are the local indigenous people of East Africa, they can be eliminated without any reason.
Ernst would like to emphasize that he has no prejudice against the indigenous people, and it is entirely due to conflicts of interest.
The owners of this land in Africa are not black people, but these hordes of wild animals, which are evenly distributed throughout the entire sub-Saharan Desert from south to north.
Except for the tropical rainforest, which is truly a forbidden land for humans, no one knows what is hidden in it.
What you can basically see on the African grasslands are regular visitors. Typical ones are lions, wildebeests, elephants, zebras, hyenas, wild dogs, warthogs...
The entire African grassland, which covers more than eight million square kilometers, from West Africa to East Africa to South Africa, is basically filled with these guys.
Ernst didn't feel any pain at all when he killed them, because they couldn't be killed at all, let alone exterminated.
Ernst actually had no respect for the extinction of species. There were countless species that were extinct in the news in his past life, but the earth still keeps turning.
Moreover, it’s not that Ernst didn’t give these animals a way to survive, he just blamed them for being born in the wrong place.
The East African colonies pursued a policy of destroying everything wherever immigrants went.
Nowadays, East Africa is a vast land with sparsely populated areas. Immigrants only choose good places to live. They don’t even bother to go to the ravines, primeval forests, and deserts.
For example, the Serengeti grassland is a large area (approximately more than 30,000 square kilometers) that Ernst has no plans to develop and is considered a nature reserve.
To develop Africa, thunderous means must be used, and a large number of grasslands and forests will inevitably be destroyed.
In fact, Ernst’s practice of slash-and-burn cultivation also had another purpose, which was to disrupt the local ecosystem.
Africa is a hotbed of various diseases, not just for humans, but for animals as well.
What impressed Ernst most deeply in his previous life was African swine fever and African horse fever.
African swine fever is simply "AIDS" among pigs. For more than a hundred years after it was first discovered in Kenya in 1927, it was an incurable disease. Until Ernst's time travel, no effective vaccine was heard of. developed.
Moreover, African swine fever spreads widely. While raging throughout Africa, it has also established a foothold in Europe. The Americas and Asia are not immune. Even the cold zone of Russia has African swine fever.
In areas where African swine fever is found, the problem can only be solved by large-scale disinfecting. Basically, no live pigs within a few kilometers of the area where African swine fever is found are spared.
African swine fever is highly contagious, with a mortality rate as high as 100%. Once discovered, infected pigs can only be eliminated through blockade, culling, disinfection, and harmless treatment. There are no effective means of prevention and control.
The initial vector of transmission of African swine fever is parasites such as soft ticks. As for African horse fever, it is also a disease transmitted by parasites such as Culicoides.
Africa has been suffering from parasites for a long time, so East African colonies faced the same problem if they wanted to engage in animal husbandry.
Of course, these two diseases did not exist in this era, but Ernst did not dare to gamble.
Burning wasteland is the most economical and trouble-free method. One size fits all. This is the condition of this era.
Ernst's first cut was on the heads of East African animals, which are hosts for various diseases and parasites and also pose a threat to livestock themselves.
Therefore, it is necessary to clean up the animals in the pasture. With a fire, the living environment of those parasites can also be destroyed.
When the rainy season comes, new grass will grow on the pastures. It will be much safer in East Africa to put cattle and horses on pastures.
…
"Andre! This pork is roasted and I can smell the aroma. What a pity!" Porter Young said while looking at the warthog affected by the fire.
"Haha, don't even think about it. The higher-ups have ordered that all animal carcasses will be cremated. Although game is good, it must be alive to be able to afford it." Andre said.
"I can't see any harm in this thing. Isn't it just a pig!" Porter Young retorted.
“This is not Eurasia. Just because you see something that is not threatening doesn’t mean you are safe.
Especially these wild animals. When they first arrived in East Africa, they could survive without food. Now they have no shortage of food, so why risk their lives.
Don’t be dissatisfied when I say this. These are the experiences accumulated by local indigenous people through bloody lessons. There are a lot of parasites and diseases in animals in tropical areas, and eating them hastily may cause serious consequences.
Back then, I saw a native, a good guy. Not a single piece of his body was intact, it was all parasites, and I didn't have a good meal for three days. "Andre educated.
The natives Andre met were not actually infected with parasites by eating wild animals. The unlucky guy was infected by drinking unclean water, but that didn't stop Andre from using this incident as a negative lesson.
There are many examples of African indigenous people being infected with various parasites. Unlike the immigrants, the indigenous people don't even wear clothes, and they don't pay attention to food and drink. Therefore, the old immigrants are well-informed, and coupled with the popular science in the colonies, they don't dare to violate the regulations.
Porter Yang obviously had some bad memories triggered by the incident Andre said, and hurriedly said: "You said that, I really didn't pay much attention to it before. I also saw an aborigine who didn't wear shoes. Then I don’t know what was chewing on my feet (sand fleas) so badly that I couldn’t even walk. It’s really scary to think about it now.”
"That's right! So let's just obey the orders honestly. The gentlemen above are more knowledgeable than us. They said this is science." Andre said.
"You are right, this science is indeed a good thing. Those who did not listen to the advice at the beginning were prone to illness, but later they became more honest. I will pay more attention in the future." Porter Yang agreed.
…
In the evening, the immigrants piled the collected animal carcasses on firewood.
The person in charge poured kerosene on them and ignited them with a lighter. In the raging fire, these animal carcasses also returned to dust and dust to dust.
The grassland burned by the fire was scorched black. When the rainy season came, it became green again. However, at that time, there were no original wild animals on the grassland. Only livestock raised in East Africa were active on the grassland.
