Via the First Railway, it did not take long to reach Soga. Ernst and his party arrived before nightfall. Soga was still under construction; the southern part of the city had already been completed, while the National Library was being built slightly south of the city center.
The Soga National Library was even larger in scale than the Habsburg Royal Library in Austria, the largest library in the German territories. It too was mainly Baroque in style, covering five hectares with a total floor area of 39,500 square meters. The thirty thousand sets of books Ernst had brought this time would not even be enough to fill a tooth gap.
Ernst attached great importance to Soga's planning. At present, Central Province's three cities—First Town City, Dar es Salaam city, and Bagamoyo city—formed a triangular formation. Yet Dar es Salaam city lay geographically farther south than Bagamoyo city and First Town City, so when looking at it on a map, its due west always seemed empty.
First Town City was East Africa's political and cultural center, Dar es Salaam city was Central Province's economic center, and Bagamoyo city was East Africa's shipbuilding center. Each had its own strengths. Thus, Ernst felt that Central Province still lacked a scientific research center, which was the fundamental reason Soga City was being built.
Although Soga City was not needed yet, building it in advance would prevent them from being caught flat-footed when East Africa needed to recruit talent in the future. East African education had not caught up yet, but the economic crisis was close at hand. Ernst believed that East Africa could recruit some talented people to develop their careers there during the crisis.
Soga's role was to settle such talent. As for science and technology, Ernst believed they could only exert greater