African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 40: Chapter 36 Marine District

”Attention everyone, the five-kilometer weighted cross-country begins!”

The new immigrant military of the East African colony, formed by Chinese immigrants, trudges through the rain.

In April, East Africa is shrouded in continuous rain, but the new recruits of the colony must still undergo training. As time passes, the East African colony has now begun to plan throughout the interior.

After the advance party set out, this area near Dar es Salaam naturally hasn’t stalled in development. It is the first place immigrants arrive, and as the name suggests, every Chinese immigrant arriving in East Africa must stop here and, after redistribution, is sent to various new outposts.

Recently, the East African colony has begun planning new villages and towns, primarily developing northward from First Town, where the plains are more expansive, a prime area of the Tanzanian coastal plains.

Dar es Salaam belongs to the Zanzibar Sultanate, serving as its core, extending along the entire East African coast north and south, but the inland plain areas to the west towards the interior are sparsely populated. The main land of the Zanzibar Sultanate is still on the island of Zanzibar and the opposite Dar es Salaam; other areas have few people.

This gives the East African colony an opportunity. To expand the land as much as possible, the East African colony does not plan to set up outposts around First Town but instead establishes three new towns further away at Msolowa, Pongui, and Manda.

Thus, with First Town (Mlandizi) as a starting point, passing through Msolowa, Pongui, and Manda, along with Second Town (Ruvu), forms a huge circle, including Third Town (Kitong’a), encompassing nearly 3,500 square kilometers of land, which will be enclosed. For such a large area, the East African colony has decided to establish the Marine District of the East African colony.

The Marine District temporarily governs six towns, headquartered at First Town, the colony’s first substantial subdistrict.

Land cannot appear out of thin air, so driving out the indigenous people becomes essential. Now, Chinese immigrants in this area have grown to over 18,000 people after nearly a year of development, gathered around three completed towns.

Therefore, the East African colony decided to deploy a force of two thousand to conduct a sweeping operation against indigenous tribes in the Marine District.

Weapons have long been prepared in the warehouse; now, after brief training, they can be distributed to soldiers, who will then set off to eliminate indigenous tribes.

April is the rainy season, so the colony’s soldiers often face heavy rains during training, but the German instructors are indifferent, requiring everyone to complete training on time daily.

The new recruits painfully crawl forward in the mud, with gunshots occasionally ringing in their ears, strengthening their courage.

The indigenous people the new recruits face are not a tough opponent, mainly small tribes hiding in the mountains and forests. Larger tribes are located in the west, and those with harder skulls were long captured and sold to Arab countries by the Zanzibar Sultanate.

The Zanzibar Sultanate can bully the indigenous people, but the East African colony, equipped with guns and ammunition, is not easy to provoke, so both sides have been at peace so far.

The East African colony also typically fences goods through the Zanzibar Sultanate; now the Zanzibar Sultanate has begun to lie flat, sitting at home waiting for the East African colony to deliver slaves and ivory to the door.

The Zanzibar Sultanate is responsible for selling these goods overseas through Arab traders, so initially, the East African colony inadvertently promoted the abnormal prosperity of the Zanzibar Sultanate.

...

A few days later.

Manda, the northernmost part of the Marine District.

”Chase them quickly; even if we can’t catch them, we can’t let them return. Fire!”

Bam... bam... bam...

The panicked indigenous people can only flee desperately to the north, and it’s undeniable that these indigenous people run fast, disappearing without a trace in no time.

”Alright, let’s chase to here! The north is not our target for now. Everyone takes a temporary break.”

”Captain, how come those black things run so fast, vanished in a blink!”

”It’s because these indigenous people rely on hunting for a living; they have to chase various animals daily or be chased by animals. Think about how fast lions, cheetahs, and wildebeests run; if these indigenous people can’t catch up or escape, they’d starve or be eaten! We’re different; in the Far East, we’ve mainly farmed for generations, putting all our strength into the fields, so we can’t outpace those who compete with wild animals daily on who’s faster.”

...

German commander Roshach is studying the map. Currently, Arman is in charge of the entire East African colony’s military affairs, while Roshach is responsible for the Marine District’s military affairs, making him second-in-command in the colony’s military forces.

The task of driving indigenous tribes out of the Marine District is led by Roshach this time. These recruits are led by experienced German veterans, mixed in with some Heixinggen Military Academy students serving as translators.

This operation in the Marine District is the first large-scale coordinated action, mobilizing a total of 2,321 people.

The completion of the action indicates that the plan to use Chinese immigrants for large-scale military purposes is feasible, with the Heixinggen Military Academy playing a crucial connection role in this.

However, this has aroused Ernst’s vigilance. Although students from the Heixinggen Military Academy are brainwashed and very loyal to the Hohenzollern family, it’s still necessary to be cautious about them banding together and alienating from other Germans.

After all, these students from the Heixinggen Military Academy can directly communicate and interact with the colony’s soldiers, whereas German commanders must rely on Heixinggen Military Academy students as translators.

Thus, it can be seen how significant the influence of Heixinggen Military Academy students is on the grassroots soldiers of the colony.

For Ernst, any uncontrollable factors must be nipped in the bud. After much thought, Ernst came up with a good solution.

The Heixinggen Military Academy should not only have Chinese students but also white students. Ernst plans to find some orphans from Europe, especially the German region, let them learn German and Chinese, and eventually develop together with Chinese students in the colonial military.

This way, they can supervise and restrict each other while learning in the same school, allowing for interaction and integration.

In the future, the colonial army will have whites who understand the language of Chinese immigrants, capable of grasping the immigrants’ real thoughts and reporting to Ernst at all times.

This is a temporary measure; really, the thing to do is to run German education in the colony. Once the entire colony speaks German, Ernst can be slightly at ease.

Fortunately, the current colony is not large, so Ernst does not worry about anyone trying to stir trouble. The colony relies heavily on the Heixinggen consortium, which is also why Ernst can remotely control the command of the East African colony.

Meanwhile, keep dispatching Ernst’s confidants to the East African colony to assume important positions, dividing the high ranks of the colony; these measures beneficial for Ernst’s consolidation of power are never abandoned.