Chapter 25 Junior Ticket to the Military Industry

As a supplement to the agreement, Ernst deliberately obtained admission to the arms industry from Prussia to first solve the problem of creating something from scratch.

This time Ernst stated the purpose in advance, which was to provide weapons and equipment for the East African colonies under the management of the Hechingen royal family.

After all, there is nothing wrong with the development of weapons and equipment in Europe, but if you set up a production line, it will be difficult. Even if it is a relatively backward technology, we will try our best to avoid proliferation.

Since Ernst emphasized that the purpose was to colonize East Africa, the Prussian government did not need to worry too much about its purpose. It only needed to send people to check the accounts and pay taxes reasonably.

This time the Prussian royal family and government were very generous. In addition to a small arsenal, there were also several production lines of original flintlocks that were about to be retired, as well as bullet production lines. At the same time, Ernst was promised that he could order other needed supplies from Krupp and other Prussian military industrial companies in the future. Of course, he had to pay for them and they could not be used in Europe.

At this time, Prussia was affected by the Second Schleswig War and retired its front-loading flintlock muskets in favor of producing breech-loading rifled guns, so it generously gave the production line of front-loading flintlock muskets to Ernst. Just in time to make room for the new production line.

Ernst was very satisfied with the fact that he could obtain these old weapons production lines. Ernst planned to equip the East African colonies with these weapons that were about to fall behind at first sight.

There are more and more Chinese immigrants in the East African colonies, and the number of strongholds will also increase in the future. However, Ernst's only armed forces in East Africa are hired Germans, and the number is only more than 2,000, while the number of Chinese immigrants is now almost 3,000.

In fact, more than two thousand people are quite a lot. On the eve of the First World War, the military strength of German East Africa included 68 white officers, 60 white non-commissioned officers, 132 white medical officers and administrative staff, 2 black officers, 184 black officers, and 2,286 black soldiers.

Such a small army suppresses a land area of ​​more than 900,000 square kilometers. Ernst's current investment in the East African colonies is unmatched by Germany in his previous life.

At the military level alone, there are two thousand white and ethnic troops, and a Chinese army will be organized in the future.

In the previous life, German East Africa was the most valuable colony of Germany, but its value was not that high in the eyes of Germany. Germany mainly planted cash crops such as cotton, rubber and sisal here.

Germany's main hope is to dominate the European continent. As long as it wins the European continent, it can divide the world's dominance at will. By then, it will have all kinds of colonies.

Therefore, during World War I, Germany voluntarily gave up its overseas colonies and concentrated on fighting the Allies in Europe.

Ernst regarded East Africa as his retreat, so he was more focused on population, agriculture, and industry.

The current increase in immigration is to avoid a situation like South Africa in the future, where the cage is vacated and the bird is replaced. This can be regarded as learning from the Americans, but Ernst will not do it so crudely. Massacre is impossible, and there is a high probability that he will choose to send it elsewhere by ship.

Agriculture, this is what Ernst is currently doing in East Africa. In addition to planting cash crops, Ernst has retained the main position of food crops. He cannot postpone the colonial development plan just because of the small immediate benefits. Only food is enough. , the immigrants can be resettled in place.

Industry is a bit far away. The current basic conditions in East Africa are too poor and there is no room for industrial development. Mainly basic industries such as mining, Ernst does not intend to carry out them.

Before he had complete control over East Africa, if a huge mineral was discovered, he might get burned, so Ernst acted cautiously.

Controlling East Africa requires a sizable army, and few Germans are willing to go to East Africa to develop, so Ernst plans to organize a small number of Chinese to establish a Chinese army.

Used to control the land in East Africa, the future expansion of the colonial scope will inevitably collide with those tribes and other colonists.

Ernst did not want to repeat the experience of German East Africa being attacked by surrounding colonies during the First World War. Even if a war broke out, his side should have several times the strength of the opponent. Compared with a fair duel, group fighting was the way to go. .

It is definitely unreliable to use indigenous people to form an army. In its previous life, Britain led various colonies in Africa to form a full 250,000 indigenous army to deal with German East Africa. In the early days, it was treated like a monkey by thousands of colonists in German East Africa.

Therefore, the fighting power and desire of the indigenous people can be imagined. Maybe they also knew that they were going to die, so they just showed up, but Ernst was more willing to believe that this was their daily state.

If we want to change the lazy and coping character of these indigenous people, it is not impossible. As long as we provide good education and start from the next generation, we should be able to correct it.

But who can bear the cost of money and time? Moreover, the colonists are here to make a fortune, not to alleviate poverty. Social wealth is rationed. If you expect to take money from the colonists, it is better to let them work hard.

Of course, this is not the case in all colonies. For example, in the colonies of the United States and Canada that have completed their "cleaning up", the remaining colonies are "our own people" and cannot be treated like indigenous peoples.

So we turned to the status of a normal country. At present, the East African colonies have not achieved this goal, and there is no way to package and send out all the indigenous people.

Constrained by population size, Ernst planned to establish a 50,000-strong Chinese army in East Africa in the next three years.

In order to prevent this army from falling out of control, all officers were appointed by Germans, and students from the Hechingen Military Academy served as staff officers and other deputy positions to assist in management.

Ernst also wants to expand the German population in East Africa, but there is currently no good way. Who wants to develop in such a "barbaric" place.

Only when the infrastructure construction of the East African colonies was completed, and Europe was in great chaos, and under the threat of war, could Ernst reach into Europe to attract ordinary people.

As the first Chinese army to be formed in the East African colonies, its weapons problem was naturally solved by these old front-loading flintlock production lines.

This expected force is not a standing army, but a special force similar to the peasant army that participates in production and construction on a daily basis.

After all, the current opponents faced by the East African colonies are only uncivilized indigenous tribes, most of which are still in the stage of using stones and trees to make spears, bows and arrows with a small amount of iron tools.

Such an opponent is not worth setting up a professionally trained standing army to deal with. As long as the Chinese immigrants learn to fire and aim with flintlock guns retired from Europe, it will be a dimensionality-reducing attack on the indigenous tribes.