Even without considering all of Togoland, Dapang Town's level of development alone surpassed that of most inland settlements in West Africa. It had clean drinking water, electricity, and all manner of modern facilities. The first two alone were rare sights in West Africa.
Even so, developing Dapang Town was a task beset by a thousand hardships and ten thousand difficulties. Archduke Ferdinand sighed. "For now, we can only take one step and look at the next."
In Archduke Ferdinand's mind, as the capital of the New Austria Kingdom, it need not have been vast, but it should at least have been a city. Yet the Dapang Town before him was smaller even than a large medieval estate.
December 3, 1935.
Far East Empire, Xuzhou.
To provide immigrants for the Habsburg Monarchy and the New Austria Kingdom, under instructions from the East African government at year's end, local consulates began recruiting immigrants.
Will, the consul general of the Xuzhou Consulate, held a discussion with personnel from several local East African offices and the Immigration Office.
"This round's immigration quota is fifty thousand people allocated by the homeland. In other words, from now through all of 1936, the homeland requires us to recruit fifty thousand immigrants locally. These immigrants are meant to advance the Empire's strategy in West Africa. West Africa's importance to the Empire speaks for itself, so we need a great deal of manpower for our deployments. The best method is to bring in immigrants and cultivate forces we can trust."
"At the same time, the homeland has designated several key areas. The places circled on this map will be the priority regions for immigration."
Several relatively populous areas had been specially marked in red on the map behind Will. Pointing at those red areas, he said, "This time,