August 20, 1867.
Berlin, Hechingen Arms Factory.
"Clang... clang..."
The workers carefully held the chisels steady, rhythmically striking the rivets at the machine's welded joints with hammers.
With each fall of the iron hammer, the rivets were forcibly knocked loose, yet the machines' surfaces were left with barely any significant marks.
Wielding large wrenches and putting their full strength into it, they removed the screws. Other workers then sorted the extracted rivets and iron filings into wooden barrels.
Experienced master craftsmen placed the dismantled parts into wooden crates according to their designated positions. These machines, acquired not long ago, had honorably retired from the Hechingen Arms Factory.
This batch of dismantled machinery had been part of the outdated facilities that came with the arms factory when it was acquired from the Prussian Royal Family.
When Ernst had acquired the factory, his goal had never been these machines. What he valued were the factory workers and technical personnel.
Thus, the fate of these machines had been decided the moment Ernst acquired them.
Of course, following the principle of using everything to its fullest, these dismantled and obsolete machines would be shipped to the East African colony, where they would be reassembled for repairing and machining parts.
The East African colony had stockpiled and equipped large quantities of old flintlock rifles, and these machines would be just what was needed there.
Those old flintlock rifles could still serve on East African soil for at least another seven or eight years. They were more than enough for dealing with Africa's indigenous tribes.
The old machinery would handle the maintenance of those firearms and the replacement of their parts. Truth be told, there was no other way—once these machines left Berlin and the Prussian military-industrial system, such work was all they could do.
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