Military Industry Junior Ticket

As a supplement to the agreement, Ernst specifically obtained an entry ticket to the arms industry from Prussia, aiming to solve the problem of starting from scratch.

This time, Ernst clearly stated his purpose: to address the weaponry and equipment issues for the East African colony managed by the Hechingen royal family.

After all, there was no issue with producing weapons and equipment in Europe itself, but setting up a production line was another matter. Even with relatively backward technology, they would try to avoid its spread.

Since Ernst emphasized that the purpose was for the colonization of East Africa, the Prussian government didn't need to worry too much about its usage. They only needed to send people to audit the accounts and collect taxes reasonably.

The Prussian royal family and government were quite generous this time. Besides a small arms factory, they also provided several soon-to-be-decommissioned flintlock rifle production lines, as well as bullet production lines. They also promised that Ernst could order other necessary materials from Prussian military enterprises like Krupp in the future, of course, for a price, and they could not be used in Europe.

At this time, Prussia, influenced by the Second Schleswig War, was increasing the decommissioning of muzzle-loading flintlock rifles to produce breech-loading rifled guns. This was why they generously gifted the flintlock rifle production lines to Ernst, making space for new production lines.

Ernst was already very satisfied with being able to obtain these old weapon production lines. He planned to equip the East African colony with these weapons that were on the verge of becoming obsolete.

The number of Chinese immigrants in the East African colony was growing, and outposts would increase in the future. However, Ernst's armed forces in East Africa consisted only of hired Germans, numbering just over two thousand. In contrast, the Chinese immigrants had already surpassed three thousand.

In fact, over two thousand people was not a small number. In the future, on the eve of the First World War, the forces in German East Africa included 68 white officers, 60 white non-commissioned officers, 132 white medical and administrative personnel, 2 black officers, 184 black non-commissioned officers, and 2286 black soldiers.

Such a small army was tasked with suppressing an area of over 900,000 square kilometers. Now, Ernst's investment in the East African colony was incomparable to what Germany did in his previous life.

On the military front alone, there were over two thousand white soldiers of his own ethnicity, and Chinese troops would be organized later.

In his previous life, German East Africa, as Germany's most valuable colony, was not highly valued by Germany. Germany mainly focused on cultivating economic crops such as cotton, rubber, and sisal in this region.

Germany primarily hoped to go all-in on the European continent. As long as they won on the continent, they could arbitrarily divide global dominance, and then they would have all sorts of colonies.

Therefore, during the First World War, Germany voluntarily abandoned its overseas colonies and focused on fighting the Entente powers in Europe.

Ernst, however, viewed East Africa as his fallback, so he was paying close attention to its population, agriculture, and industry.

The current increase in immigration was to prevent a situation like South Africa from occurring later, a process of "emptying the cage to replace the birds." This was somewhat learned from the Americans, but Ernst would not be as crude. Massacre was out of the question; they would most likely be sent elsewhere by ship.

Agriculture was what Ernst was currently doing in East Africa. In addition to cash crops, Ernst maintained the primary position of grain crops. They could not postpone the colonial development plan for a little immediate gain. Only when there was enough food could immigrants be settled properly.

Industry was still a distant prospect. The current basic conditions in East Africa were too poor, leaving no room for industrial development. Ernst did not even plan to engage in basic industries like mining.

Before fully controlling East Africa, if any significant mineral resources were discovered, it might bring disaster upon him, so Ernst proceeded with caution.

To control East Africa, a considerable army was needed. Few Germans were willing to develop in East Africa, so Ernst planned to organize a portion of the Chinese immigrants to establish a Chinese army.

This army would be used to control the land of East Africa. As the colonial territory expanded in the future, collisions with tribes and other colonizers would inevitably occur.

Ernst did not want to repeat the experience of German East Africa being ganged up on by surrounding colonies during World War I. Even if a war broke out, his side should have several times the enemy's troop strength. Compared to a fair fight, a group attack was the way to go.

Recruiting natives to form an army was definitely unreliable. In his previous life, Britain had assembled a native army of 250,000 from various colonies in Africa to deal with German East Africa, only to be toyed with by the few thousand colonists of German East Africa in the early stages.

Therefore, the combat effectiveness and fighting will of the natives were as expected. Perhaps they knew they were going to die, so they simply slacked off. However, Ernst preferred to believe that this was their usual state.

It was not impossible to change the lazy and perfunctory nature of these natives; as long as education was done well, starting with the next generation, they could be corrected.

But who could afford the financial and time costs involved? Colonists came to get rich, not to alleviate poverty. Social wealth was finite. Expecting to extract money from colonists was less effective than making them fight desperately.

Of course, not all colonies were like this. For example, colonies like America and Canada, which had already completed their "cleansing," were left with "their own people" who could not be treated like the natives.

Thus, they shifted towards the state of normal countries. The current East African colony had not reached this goal, and for the time being, there was no way to pack up and send all the natives away.

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

To prevent this army from falling out of control, all officers would be Germans, with students from the Hechingen Military Academy serving as staff officers and other deputy positions to assist in management.

Ernst also wanted to expand the German population in East Africa, but there were currently no good solutions. Who would be willing to develop in such a "barbaric" place?

Only when the infrastructure construction in the East African colony was completed and Europe was in great chaos, threatened by the shadow of war, could Ernst extend his reach into Europe and attract ordinary people.

As the first Chinese army to be formed in the East African colony, its weaponry would naturally be supplied by these old muzzle-loading flintlock rifle production lines.

This envisioned force was not a standing army but a special type of unit, similar to a militia, that would participate in production and construction daily.

After all, the current opponents faced by the East African colony were uncivilized native tribes, most of whom were still in the stage of using spears and arrows made of stone and wood, supplemented by a small amount of ironware.

Such opponents were not worth forming a professionally trained standing army to deal with. As long as the Chinese immigrants learned to fire and aim with the retired European flintlock rifles, it would be a crushing blow to those native tribes.