Chapter 19 Hechingen Military Academy
In just a few months, Hechingen Military Academy has completed the construction of a grassroots team, and the teachers recruited by Ernst have not yet started teaching.
Because the five-hundred-year-olds recruited from the Far East are too weak and need to rest for a period of time, most of them are sallow, thin, and malnourished.
For the young people who had just arrived in Europe across the sea, Ernst did not dare to let them eat too much. They were already weak and had been drifting on the sea for such a long time. The bumps on the ship were even tolerable to normal people. No, let alone these children.
Moreover, they had been in a state of hunger for a long time in the past. Needless to say, the state of their stomachs and intestines. If they rashly made too much oil and water, I am afraid that the toilet would not be enough for them to waste the next day.
So after they landed, Ernst only prepared some vegetables, bread and potatoes to give them a buffer. Each portion was not much, fearing that they would gobble them up and increase their physical burden. Even so, their eyes were full of light, that was Food cravings.
For the children in the East in this era, they are very happy to have food every day. Some people have even eaten bark and mud. The food prepared by Ernst is suitable for them who are not picky eaters. It is simply a delicacy.
For these poor children, Ernst could still ensure that they had enough to eat, and was even willing to pay for some extra meat for them out of his own pocket.
In recent years, affected by the war, the already decadent Qing government has intensified its exploitation of the bottom class. Indemnities from the great powers and war funds to suppress the rebellion in the south were all withheld from the bottom class. As for Natural disasters occurred frequently in the north, causing countless refugees, but the Qing government turned a blind eye.
This also shows how difficult it is for the people of the ancient Eastern countries to survive. For these farmers who have no land, in addition to paying their own blood and sweat in vain, they will not only receive no reward, but may also be burdened with huge debts.
The landowners are always talking, and the taxes allocated by the court will be doubled to get back from the tenant farmers. Whenever there is a natural or man-made disaster, countless families will go bankrupt. The lucky ones will beg all the way and go to other places, and the unlucky ones will be exposed on the road. wilderness.
So the recruitment of Ernst’s Far East Commercial Liaison Office in the Qing Dynasty was extremely smooth. For these people who have lost hope of survival, whoever can enjoy the food is the reborn parent. It is not difficult to explain why some people Crossed the ocean to build railroads in the United States.
It is also true that the Chinese in later generations can endure hardship the most. You can hardly imagine their poverty a few decades ago. As long as you give them hope, they will be the best workers in the world.
As for countries like India, the entire class is habitually ruined. They learned this thousands of years ago. In Ernst's eyes, they are not even comparable to the native Africans.
Although the indigenous people in Africa do not do good things, they have a positive attitude towards life, while Indians tend to be somewhere between passive coping and "realism".
This "realism" is not a good word, but a vague expression of Indian worldview and values. After all, Indians have developed civilization and have a national character that does not match it.
This is also the reason why Ernst dared to appoint Chinese people. Although there are some emotional tendencies, it is actually driven by interests. To maximize interests, Ernst naturally needs discipline and obedience. Sexual labor force.
In today's era, Europeans are the best labor force in the world, because European education is at the forefront of the world, especially in Germany. Compulsory education allows civilians to get rid of illiteracy and better adapt to industrialized society. .
Even in the Prussian army, ordinary soldiers had a primary school education and were able to enforce orders and prohibitions. Therefore, universal education is the general trend of the times.
Ernst wanted to develop East Africa, and of course he wanted to use such a high-quality labor force, but the enlightened German people are not stupid. One is the American continent where opportunities are everywhere, the standard of living is high, and the level of modernization is high; In Africa, where wild animals and poisonous insects are everywhere and there are no decent roads, everyone knows where to make a living.
If you don't spend money, who is willing to work hard to open up land in East Africa for Ernst? Since you can't choose the best, you will use the second best, and the Chinese are the inevitable choice. First of all, various dynasties in the history of East Asia were best at mobilizing people's power, organizing people through lower-level officials to dig roads, canals, or carry out large-scale projects, so they were generally obedient and easy to manage.
Secondly, the Chinese people in modern times have lived through enough hardships, and the entire society has been extremely involution. It is okay to say that the spirit of hard work and hard work is the best in the world. This has experienced the Black Death. Europeans, whose patient population has plummeted, cannot feel it. Coupled with the impact of Europe's long-standing serfdom, the European people and lords have reached a certain balance. After all, serfs are the lord's assets. If overuse leads to accidental death, wouldn't that be a loss? Yes, after all, labor costs have been driven up due to the Black Death.
Not only that, the Black Death also made people throughout Europe panic, just like drawing lots, maybe one day there would be no more people, so the European nobles indulged themselves in enjoyment, which in turn promoted the development of culture and art. Above The nobles concentrate on enjoying themselves and have less troubles, and the people below live a better life.
So it is difficult for Europeans to understand the current attitude of Chinese people working hard. Without adequate wages and sufficient rest time, they will rebel.
Finally, Ernst does not need a high-end labor force at all, at least not yet. Ernst is a man who has a strong desire for control. As a Chinese without education and without European vision, his pursuits are not high. In other words, it is easier to be satisfied and easier to manage than Europeans.
Ernst is currently only opening up wasteland in East Africa. What is needed is people who can farm. Ernst believes that it is impossible for any region to directly skip agricultural modernization and directly realize industrialization. Now Ernst wants to use companies In the form of organizing Chinese farmers to farm in Africa.
The people hired from the Far East have to make a living, so their wages are naturally gone. Large-scale collaborative production does not require them to pay high-intensity physical labor, and they can also use local indigenous people to Plowing the fields.
That’s right, Ernst is just a profit-driven nobleman, and he is not a holy mother. Those tribesmen, Ernst not only wants to expropriate their land, but also wants to give it to Sango. The slaves that the Sultanate of Bar did not need were temporarily put to use.
The Sultanate of Zanzibar has been selling slaves to various parts of Arabia since the days of the Oman Empire, and they do not need the physically unqualified natives.
At present, Ernst does not have the ability or energy to transport these indigenous people to other countries and regions, so he can only use them as production tools to open up wasteland.
Originally, most of these indigenous people relied on hunting and gathering for a living. It was very difficult for them to farm, and farmers also needed experience.
So Ernst only planned to let these indigenous people undertake simple heavy manual work such as pulling plows and digging ditches.
After all, there are no tractors and excavators now, and even Ernst cannot afford them. The entire land reclamation in East Africa can only be completed by manpower.
As Ernst’s last bit of conscience, if these natives live long enough and survive Ernst’s dependence on manpower, Ernst will find a way to transport them to other countries and regions.
The group of teenagers in front of him are the reserve talents who will assist Ernst in managing the Chinese people in East Africa in the future. It is impossible to provide translators for all the Chinese people. I am afraid that there are not many people in Germany who can speak Chinese.
As for the future, Ernst will not need to do this if he popularizes German in East Africa. The problem is that it will take a long time, at least until the next generation of Chinese.
As an out-and-out German in this life, Ernst will not do anything to destroy his own foundation. Therefore, East Africa in the future must be a German-speaking world. In the early stage, Germans must be the ruling class, and in the later stage, the focus will be on Let the mixed race be allowed until the national integration is complete, and there will not be a trace of future trouble Ernst left.
(End of this chapter)