Hechingen Military Academy

In just a few short months, Hechingen Military Academy had completed the construction of its bare-bones framework, while the teachers Ernst had recruited had yet to begin teaching.

The more than five hundred youths recruited from the Far East were too physically weak and needed time to recuperate. Most of them were sallow-faced, emaciated, and malnourished.

For boys who had just crossed the sea and arrived in Europe, Ernst did not dare let them eat too much. They had already been frail, and after drifting upon the sea for so long, even ordinary people could not endure the ship's rocking, much less these children.

Moreover, they had spent so long in famine that there was no need to mention the state of their stomachs. If he rashly fed them too much rich food, the toilets would probably not be enough for them to ruin the next day.

Thus, after they came ashore, Ernst only prepared some vegetables, bread, and potatoes to ease them in. Each portion was small as well, for fear they would wolf it down and burden their bodies further. Even so, their eyes shone with light—the light of hunger for food.

For children in the East during this era, being able to eat every day was already a great blessing. Some had even eaten tree bark and mud. To those who did not fuss over food, what Ernst prepared was practically delicacies from mountain and sea.

For these pitiful children, Ernst could at least guarantee that they would eat their fill. He was even willing to pay out of his own pocket to give them a little meat.

In recent years, affected by war, the already rotten Qing China government had intensified its exploitation of the lower classes. Reparations to the great powers and military expenses for suppressing the southern rebellion were all squeezed from the hands of the common people. As for the frequent natural disasters in the north and the countless refugees, the Qing China government turned a blind eye.

From this, one could see just how difficult life was for the people of that ancient Eastern nation. For farmers without even a scrap of land, aside from shedding blood and sweat for nothing, they not only received no return, but could also end up burdened by enormous debts.

With a mere twitch of their lips, the landlord masters could force the taxes apportioned by the Imperial Court to be collected twofold from tenant farmers. Once calamities struck, countless families went bankrupt. The fortunate begged all the way as they fled to distant lands; the unfortunate left their corpses exposed in the wilderness along the road.

Therefore, the Far East Commercial Liaison Office recruited workers in Qing China with extraordinary ease. To those who had lost all hope of survival, anyone who gave them a mouthful of food was like a parent who had given them life anew. It was not hard to understand why some crossed vast oceans to build railroads in the United States.

The Chinese of later generations were so able to endure hardship for the same reason. It was difficult to imagine their poverty only a few decades earlier. So long as they were given hope, they would become the best workers in the world.

As for countries like India, the entire social hierarchy had become habitually rotten to the core. They had learned it thousands of years ago. In Ernst's eyes, they were not even a match for African natives.

Though those African natives might not be good at getting things done, their attitude toward life was positive and upward-looking. Indians tended instead toward passive coping and "realism."

This "realism" was by no means a complimentary term. Rather, it was a vague expression of the Indian worldview and values. After all, Indians had developed civilization, yet possessed a national character that did not match it.

That was also why Ernst dared to employ Chinese workers. Though there was some emotional inclination involved, the true reason was profit. Ernst wanted to maximize his gains, and naturally needed laborers with discipline and obedience.

In the present age, Europeans were the finest labor force in the world, because European education stood at the forefront of the world. Especially in the German territories, compulsory education had freed commoners from illiteracy and allowed them to better adapt to industrial society.

Even in Prussia's army, ordinary soldiers had elementary school educations and could obey orders as if they were commands carved in stone. Thus, universal education was the great current of the age.

Ernst wished to develop East Africa, and naturally wanted to use such high-quality labor. But awakened Germans were no fools. One was the American continent, where opportunities lay everywhere, living standards were high, and modernization was advanced. The other was Africa, where beasts and venomous insects were everywhere and not even a decent road could be found. Everyone knew where they ought to go to make a living.

Without throwing money at the problem, who would be willing to risk their lives opening up East Africa for Ernst? Since he could not choose the best, he would use the second best. Chinese workers were therefore the inevitable choice.

First, every dynasty in East Asian history had excelled at mobilizing the populace, organizing people through local officials to dig roads, repair canals, and undertake massive projects. Thus, they were generally obedient and easy to manage.

Second, modern Chinese had already suffered enough bitter days, while their entire society was caught in fierce internal competition. Calling their spirit of hardship and diligence the greatest in the world would not be wrong. Europeans, whose populations had sharply declined during the Black Death, could not understand this. Added to that was the long influence of serfdom in Europe, which had instead created a certain balance between commoners and lords. After all, serfs were assets of their lords. If they were overworked and died unexpectedly, would that not be a loss? Human labor costs had risen because of the Black Death.

Not only that, the Black Death had plunged all of Europe into panic. It was like drawing lots—who knew whether a person might simply be gone one day? Thus, European nobles indulged themselves in pleasure, which instead promoted the development of culture and art. The nobles above focused on enjoyment and caused less trouble, while the common people below actually lived better.

That was why Europeans found it difficult to understand the current Chinese attitude of working as if their lives depended on it. Without sufficient wages and ample rest, they would rebel.

Lastly, Ernst simply had no need for overly advanced laborers, at least not for the moment. He was a man with an extremely strong desire for control. Uneducated Chinese had none of the Europeans' broader horizons, so their aspirations were lower. They were easier to satisfy than Europeans and easier to manage.

At present, Ernst was only reclaiming wilderness in East Africa. What he needed were people who knew how to farm. Ernst believed that no region could skip agricultural modernization and directly achieve industrialization. Now, he intended to organize Chinese farmers through a company and have them farm in Africa.

The people hired from the Far East had come merely to earn a mouthful of food, so naturally there would be no wages. Large-scale cooperative production did not require them to perform high-intensity physical labor either, and they could also use local natives to till the fields.

That was right. Ernst was merely a noble blinded by profit, not some saintly savior. As for the natives in those tribes, Ernst not only intended to seize their land, but also to temporarily make use of the slaves the Sultanate of Zanzibar did not need.

The Sultanate of Zanzibar had sold slaves throughout Arabia since the era of the Omani Empire, and they had no need for local natives who did not meet physical standards.

At present, Ernst lacked both the ability and energy to transport these natives to other countries and regions, so he could only use them as tools of production to reclaim the wilderness.

Most of these natives had originally lived by hunting and gathering. Making them farm would be difficult, for farmers required experience as well.

Therefore, Ernst only intended for these natives to handle simple heavy labor, such as pulling plows and digging irrigation channels.

After all, there were no tractors or excavators now. Even if there had been, Ernst could not afford them. All of East Africa's land reclamation could only be accomplished through human labor.

As the last shred of Ernst's conscience, if these natives lived long enough to endure the stage when he depended on manpower, Ernst would find a way to send them to other countries and regions.

And the youths before him were reserve talent who would one day assist Ernst in managing the Chinese in East Africa. He could hardly assign translators to every Chinese worker; there were probably not many people in all of Germany who could speak Chinese.

Later on, once Ernst had spread German throughout East Africa, he would no longer need to do this. The problem was that it would take a long time—at the very least, until the next generation of Chinese.

As a genuine German in this life, Ernst would not do anything that destroyed his own foundation. Therefore, East Africa in the future had to be a German-speaking world. In the early stage, German descendants would inevitably form the ruling class; later, he would focus on employing mixed-blood people, until ethnic integration was complete. Ernst would not leave behind even the slightest future trouble.