Coastal District

"Attention everyone, the five-kilometer weighted cross-country run begins!"

The new army of the East African colony, formed by Chinese immigrants, marched forward with their loads in the rain.

It was April in East Africa, with continuous rain, but the colony's new recruits still had to undergo training. As time passed, the current East African colony had begun to expand throughout the interior.

After the vanguard departed, the area near Dar es Salaam naturally did not stagnate. This was the first location where immigrants arrived, and First Town was aptly named. Every Chinese immigrant arriving in East Africa had to stop here, and after redistribution, they would be sent to various new strongholds.

Recently, the East African colony had begun planning new towns and villages, mainly developing northward from First Town. The plains there were vast and represented the best of the Tanzanian coastal plains.

Dar es Salaam belonged to the Sultanate of Zanzibar. With it as the core, the entire East African coast stretched north and south. However, the plains west of the coast, closer to the interior, had little population. The main territory of the Sultanate of Zanzibar was on Zanzibar Island and across from Dar es Salaam; other areas had few inhabitants.

This presented an opportunity for the East African colony. To expand its territory as much as possible, the East African colony did not plan to establish strongholds around First Town this time. Instead, they would build three new towns at a slightly greater distance: Msuluwa, Pungwe, and Manda.

Starting from First Town (Mlandizi), passing through Msuluwa, Pungwe, and Manda, and including Second Town (Ruvu), this would form a huge circle. The area in the middle, including Third Town (Kitonga), would encompass nearly 3,500 square kilometers of land. For such a large area, the East African colony decided to establish the East African Colony Coastal District.

The Coastal District would temporarily govern six towns, with its headquarters in First Town. It was the colony's first sizable administrative division.

Land cannot appear out of thin air, so driving out the natives from this land became important. Currently, the Chinese immigrants in this region had grown to over 18,000 after nearly a year of development. They were concentrated around three completed towns.

Therefore, the East African colony decided to deploy an army of two thousand men to conduct a sweep of the native tribes within the Coastal District.

Weapons had been prepared in the warehouse for a long time. Now, after a short period of training, they could be issued to the soldiers before they set out to displace the native tribes.

April was the rainy season, so the colony's soldiers' training was often interrupted by heavy rain. However, the German instructors were relentless; everyone had to complete their training on time every day.

New recruits crawled forward in the mud, with the sound of gunfire occasionally heard, to build their courage.

The natives the new recruits would face were not particularly difficult opponents. They were mainly small tribes hiding in the mountains and forests. The larger tribes were in the west. Those with stubborn heads had long been captured by the Sultanate of Zanzibar and sold to the Arab states.

The Sultanate of Zanzibar could bully the natives, but the well-armed East African colony was not to be trifled with, so the two sides had remained at peace.

The East African colony usually sold its illicit goods through the Sultanate of Zanzibar. Now, the Sultanate of Zanzibar was content to lie back and wait for the East African colony to deliver slaves and ivory to their doorstep.

The Sultanate of Zanzibar was responsible for selling these goods overseas through Arab merchants, so the East African colony had, in its early stages, actually promoted the abnormal prosperity of the Sultanate of Zanzibar.

A few days later.

Manda, the northernmost part of the Coastal District.

"Hurry up and chase them! Even if you can't catch them, don't let them get away! Fire your guns!"

Bang... Bang... Bang...

The panicked natives could only flee northward with all their might. It had to be said that these natives were truly fast runners. In a short while, they disappeared from sight.

"Alright, let's stop chasing here! The north is not our target yet. Everyone take a break for now."

"Captain, why were those black folks running so fast? They vanished in the blink of an eye!"

"That's because these natives live by hunting. They have to chase various animals every day, or be chased by them. Think about how fast lions, leopards, and wildebeests run. If these natives can't keep up, or can't escape, they'll starve or get eaten! We're different. Our ancestors in the Far East were mainly farmers, so all our strength was put into the fields. That's why we can't run as fast as these natives who race against wild beasts every day."

The German commander, Roscher, was studying a map. Currently, Yalman was responsible for all military affairs of the East African colony, while Roscher was in charge of military affairs in the Coastal District. Therefore, he was considered the second-in-command of the colony's military forces.

This mission to drive out native tribes from the Coastal District was led by Roscher. These new recruits were led by experienced German veterans, with some students from Hechingen Military Academy mixed in to serve as translators.

The operation in the Coastal District was the first large-scale coordinated action, involving a total of two thousand three hundred and twenty-one personnel.

The completion of this operation signified that the plan to utilize Chinese people for large-scale military purposes was feasible. Among these, Hechingen Military Academy played a crucial connecting role.

However, this alerted Ernst. Although the students of Hechingen Military Academy had undergone indoctrination and were highly loyal to the House of Hohenzollern, he still had to be wary of them banding together and creating divisions with other Germans.

After all, these students from Hechingen Military Academy could directly communicate with the soldiers of the colonial army, while German commanders had to rely on the Hechingen Military Academy students as translators.

From this, one could see the extent of influence the students from Hechingen Military Academy had over the lower-ranking soldiers of the colony.

For Ernst, any uncontrollable factors had to be nipped in the bud. After much thought, Ernst came up with a good idea.

Hechingen Military Academy should not only have Chinese students but also white students. Ernst planned to find orphans in Europe, especially in Germany, and have them learn German and Chinese, and then develop together with the Chinese students in the colonial army.

This way, the two groups could supervise and restrain each other. Studying in the same school would also allow them to communicate and integrate.

In the future, the colonial army would have white soldiers who could understand the Chinese immigrants and report their true thoughts to Ernst at any time.

This was a delaying tactic. The real solution was to establish German education in the colony. Once everyone in the colony spoke German, Ernst could relax a little.

Fortunately, the colony was not large at the moment, so Ernst did not have to worry about people causing trouble. The colony was heavily dependent on the Hohenzollern Conglomerate, which was why Ernst could remotely command the East African colony.

At the same time, he continued to send his confidants to the East African colony to hold important positions, dividing the colony's high command. These measures to consolidate his power were not neglected.