Chapter 668 It all takes time
Ernst: "Try not to interfere with Matabele Province militarily. The railway department must make preparations in advance, especially the war preparations for the two Portuguese colonies. If a war breaks out, Mozambique and Angola will be completely wiped off the map, and the land passage between the east and west oceans of East Africa will be completely opened."
In the final analysis, for East Africa, there are two Portuguese colonies. It is more important than the current Cape Town. With these two colonies, more than half of East Africa's defense and security problems will be solved. At the same time, the economy, transportation, industry, etc. will be better deployed nationwide.
“Regardless of when the enemy starts the war, we must set a time point. After this time point arrives, we must completely solve the Portuguese problem. By then, just like when we attacked the Transvaal Republic, we must take the initiative. Attack," Ernst continued.
"When will this time node be chosen?" Felix asked.
After thinking for a while, Ernst said: "At present, we in East Africa are vigorously developing the economy, so the war cannot have a great impact on the production work across the country, especially now, against the backdrop of the foundation of East Africa's industry and infrastructure."
Now the economic development of East Africa has transitioned from chaos and disorder to reasonable and orderly, because East Africa is a new country, and unlike the systems of most countries in the world, there is no target for reference.
Coupled with the fact that East Africa’s own talent training started relatively late, the bureaucratic group in East Africa has less experience in governing the country than other regions in the world. It can even be said that there is no governance experience.
So the early industrialization process in East Africa was very chaotic and needed to be adjusted. This actually caused huge damage to the economic development of East Africa throughout the 1970s. However, this is also a stage of social development that East Africa must go through. .
At present, the East African government has been able to slightly catch up with the world average in terms of economic development after more than ten years of hard work. It is precisely because of this that East Africa has not been rash and radical.
For example, in the 1970s, if East Africa had a good foundation, Ernst could directly launch a large number of projects to completely industrialize East Africa.
Because during the economic crisis of 1873, technology, industry, machinery, and other elements for developing industry could all be obtained from Europe.
The reality is that East Africa simply could not do this at that time. The reason was the lack of talents and sound systems.
This is just like the industrialization of the Far Eastern Empire in the previous life. Soviet experts taught them step by step. At that time, the illiteracy rate in the Far Eastern Empire was so high that Ernst could imagine how tired the Soviet people were. Even highly educated intellectuals needed to When learning Russian alone, how many misunderstandings will be caused by translation problems?
The situation in East Africa is slightly better, that is, the popularization of compulsory education in Germany is relatively good. Therefore, the German immigrants to East Africa basically have primary school literacy. In addition, due to the promotion of German education in East Africa and literacy, currently Even older Far Eastern immigrants or Slavic immigrants can write a few German words. As for speaking and listening, there is no problem at all. After all, it is basically difficult to get along in East Africa without knowing German. This is a survival skill that must be mastered.
Moreover, being able to speak German has nothing to do with cultural level. It is closely related to the language environment. If you stay in East Africa for a long time, you will naturally lean toward German and eventually be assimilated.
The achievements of German compulsory education have spilled over to East Africa, so that basic exchanges between East Africa and the German region are unimpeded. This is also an important reason why East Africa was able to connect some German industries in the 1970s. Of course, this also has a lot to do with the fact that East Africa accepted many mature industrial workers from Germany, Austria-Hungary and the United States at that time. This is especially reflected in the development of the steel and railway industries.
But the upper limit of East Africa was there at that time. Now East Africa is making up for these shortcomings, especially the development of education. Although the level of compulsory education in East Africa is low, the amount is large, and people go abroad every year. There are many students studying abroad, and they have returned to China several times in recent years, which provides a foundation for the development of the automobile and electric power industries in East Africa.
In addition to these, the most important thing is the infrastructure construction work in East Africa. Railways, roads, bridges, and national water conservancy projects are all progressing steadily.
In other words, East Africa is now in an important period of economic transition. It is transforming from an agricultural country to an industrial country and is laying a solid foundation for industrial development.
Ernst said: "The major projects in East Africa now are the Hessian railway and the national water conservancy project. The progress of the national water conservancy project is not bad, but the project volume is large and the construction period is slow. We have to wait for a while. In four to five years, the Hessian Railway project volume is not small, but the most important thing is the difficulty of the project. "
The Hessian Railway is a tropical railway, but many areas it passes through are tropical rainforests and are built in tropical rainforests. East Africa has already seen the difficulty of railways. The main problem is natural disasters caused by rain. Even more than ten tons of steel can be directly washed away by floods.
So the first priority of the Hessian railway construction is "water control". For this reason, the Hessian railway needs to build three times more railway bridges, culverts and drainage channels than all previous railways in East Africa combined. Coupled with the Mitumba Mountains and the construction of tunnels on some sections, the construction difficulty of the Hessian Railway is unique in the history of East Africa.
Of course, the Hessian Railway is more difficult than the Siberian Railway, because there is only one Siberian Railway, and there are many railways built in tropical rainforest areas, but the Hessian Railway in East Africa is the most difficult. long, but only less than one-fifth of the Siberian Railway.
"These two projects should be completed at about the same time. After they are completed, we will be able to liberate most of the manpower, force and financial resources, so it is best to start a war at that time. It is now 1884, and the national water conservancy project should be completed by It can be completed before 1890, and the Hessian Railway should be completed earlier, so we set the time in 1890."
Ernst continued: "There will be at least five years in between. Mozambique and Angola cannot remain unchanged. As far as I know, the reconstruction of Maputo Port should have been completed. The Portuguese should also build other defense projects later. Considering their shortage of manpower, they should focus on deploying defense centered on the city. . ”
“So you must understand the Portuguese’s military deployment and fortification system in their two colonies in the next few years.”
“And we also need it. Time is needed to complete the military adjustment. This time will take at least two or three years. The Portuguese will not act alone. If they want to take the initiative, they must at least be consistent with the British. Therefore, when judging the time for the Portuguese to send troops, the main thing is to be careful. Military changes of the British in South Africa"
"The British now have an army of more than 20,000 people in South Africa, and the rest are mainly Transvaal people. The Transvaal Restoration Army has absorbed many Orans. The troops that govern people must also be integrated, so the British also need preparation time.”
"We mainly pay attention to whether the British will mobilize troops from outside the region to enter Cape Town. If a large number of troops enter Cape Town, it means that the British cannot wait any longer."
(End of Chapter)