Chapter 407 Military Reform
Constantine only stayed in the third town for half a day before choosing to go back. The third town was very close to the first town, so Constantine returned to the first town that night. Not much time was wasted.
At this time, Ernst had also returned to the First Town from Nairobi and made a small fortune in America, which made Ernst plan to give the East African Army a small upgrade.
The first step is to eliminate the Dresser rifle in the army. The Dresser rifle has been proven to be completely backward in performance during the Franco-Prussian War. Prussia began to look for new guns after the war.
Similar to history, this time the Mauser rifle also participated in the bidding. The sample gun and bullet system provided by the Mauser 1871 rifle competed with the Bavarian M1869 Ward rifle, the Swiss Martini rifle and the Vitelli rifle. The rifle won the comparative test selection.
On December 2, 1871, Prussia ordered 2,500 for trial use. On March 22, 1872, King William I approved the start of mass production of the M1871 rifle. But the order was not given to Mauser, but to other manufacturers with good equipment capabilities.
Although we did not get a big order, there is no need to worry. We can just build a new production line in East Africa to first meet the needs of the East African Army.
The second is the issue of disarmament. This time Ernst plans to further reduce the number of troops. At present, Ernst has no idea of continuing to use troops externally, so there is no need to retain as many troops as before.
The East African Army currently has more than 200,000 people. After discussions between Ernst and the Ministry of Defense, it is believed that the current military threat to the East African Kingdom on land is not great, and it only needs to be maintained at around 150,000. , which can not only respond to sudden wars from all directions at any time, but also quickly complete military mobilization within the kingdom to prevent black riots everywhere.
Before Ernst arrived in East Africa, the East African Army had already completed an expansion, mainly to place graduates of the Hechingen Military Academy at that time, and the military system was changed at that time.
Because East Africa expanded too fast, the old military regions were no longer suitable for East Africa. After annexing the Zimbabwe region, East Africa divided East Africa into five new military regions according to regions to deal with potential enemies from different directions on the land.
In the previous life, Tanzania was the Central Military District; the former Kenya and Ethiopia; the Somali region was the Northern Military District; the former South Sudan and the Central African Republic were the Nile Military District; the west of Lake Tanganyika included Congo, Zambia, Angola, and Namibia It is the Western Military District; and finally there is the Southern Military District of Zimbabwe. Because East Africa occupies a large area of South Africa, the Southern Military District needs to expand its scope, while other military districts remain unchanged.
The number of the East African Army after disarmament is as follows:
▼Central Military Region:
101st Guards Division: 30,000 (stationed in the Central Province, the division headquarters is located in the first town and city )
111th Division: 12,000 (the division headquarters is located in Mbeya City)
112th Division: 10,020 (deployed along the Rufuma River to deal with the Portuguese in Mozambique, with the division headquarters in Songgai A city)
121 Cavalry Division: 5,000 (the division headquarters is located in the first town)
122 Cavalry Division: 5,000 (the division headquarters is located in Dodoma City)
123 Cavalry Division: 5,000 (the division headquarters is located in Mu Bea)
Three of the cavalry divisions and the 111th Division belong to mobile and field forces.
▼Northern Military Region:
211th Division: 12,000 (Turkana Province, to guard against the Abyssinian Empire and the Italians in the southeastern part of the Abyssinian Empire)
212th Division: 12,000 (Northern Province, mainly dealing with the British, French and Italian colonies in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait)
▼Nile Military Region:
311th Division: 8,000 (Nile Basin, mainly dealing with the Sudanese region of Egypt)
331st Mountain Division: 12,000 (Azande Plateau, controlling the gateway from West Africa to East Africa, preventing West African indigenous forces and colonists from entering East Africa)
▼Western Army District:
411th Division: 5000 (Hesse and Mitumba Provinces)
412th Division: 5000 (Zambia area) 413th Division: 8000 (southern Congo Basin, guard against the Portuguese colony of Angola and the Congo Kingdom)
414th Division: 8000 (eastern Angola, guarding against the Portuguese colony of Angola)
415th Division: 5000 (Okavango River Basin, the northeastern territory of Namibia in the previous life)
▼ Southern Military District:
511th Division: 8000 (Transvaal Republic, against Orange Free State, Cape Colony, Kingdom of Lesotho.)
512th Division: 8000 (Kingdom of Zulu, guard against Naingtal Colony, Kingdom of Lesotho)
513th Division: 5000 (Zimbabwe region)
514th Division: 5000 (previously British Bay Area) Na Colony, Guard against the Orange Free State, Cape Colony)
a total of 170,000 people.
……
The divisions of the East African Army are divided into three levels. The Guards Division is still the only one, guarding the important areas of the capital, with a full strength of 30,000 people.
The first-level division has a full strength of 12,000 and is mainly deployed in areas with high defense pressure, or in Tanzania. For example, the two divisions in the Northern Military Region are both first-level divisions to deal with the Abyssinian Empire. The power of Britain, France, Italy and other countries in the Red Sea.
The second-level division is full of 8,000 people. It is generally deployed in border areas and is relatively weak when facing enemies. For example, Cape Town in South Africa is rated as having relatively weak war strength by East Africa.
The third-level division has a total strength of 5,000 men and is generally deployed in areas that are less important or have less military pressure.
However, the number of cavalry divisions is also 5,000, but as a special arm, the cavalry division also belongs to the first-level division. Currently, the three cavalry divisions in East Africa are located in the Tanganyika region. The 111th Division is also quite special. There is not much national defense pressure in its position. It is mainly used as a mobile unit. Like the cavalry division, it can support other areas in a timely manner at any time.
After the above units are reorganized, the number of East African Army will be reduced to about 2% of the total population (excluding indigenous people).
Two percent is not very low. For example, Germany's current standing army is maintained at about 1.6% of the total population, so in theory the East African Kingdom is more militarized than Prussia.
After disarmament, Ernst also planned to replenish the equipment of the East African Army, such as various artillery, machine guns, etc.... to achieve complete Prussianization of the army's equipment.
In addition to changes in equipment and the military, Ernst plans to further strengthen the East African defense industry and ensure that military logistics can be self-produced and sold.
The first is to poach people from Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and even other countries, hire a group of experts with high salaries, and continuously improve and upgrade the existing arsenal manufacturing technology in East Africa. The second step is to integrate the arsenal of the East African Kingdom, expand its scale, further increase production capacity, and finally achieve autonomous weapons and equipment that can even be exported.
As for the Dresser rifle production line that is about to be eliminated, Ernst plans to retain only a small part and find buyers for the rest. After all, it will only take a few years. It would be a pity to abandon it directly.
Ernst’s first plan is to sell to the Far East, because the Far East currently has no independent production capacity and mainly relies on buying. It happens that there are iron plants and coal mines invested by East Africa in the Huaihai Economic Zone, which has a certain foundation. It’s not a big problem to support this production line.
(End of this chapter)