African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 420: Chapter 97: Military Reform

Constantine stayed at the Third Town for only half a day before choosing to return. The Third Town is very close to the First Town, so Constantine returned to First Town City that evening without wasting much time.

At this time, Ernst had already returned to First Town from Nairobi, having made a small profit in the Americas, which led Ernst to decide on a little upgrade for the East African Army.

First, he plans to phase out the Dreyse Rifle from the army. The Dreyse Rifle had already been proven to be completely outdated in the Prussian-French War, and Prussia began scouting for a new rifle after the war.

Similar to historical events, the Mauser rifle was once again involved in the bidding this time. The Mauser 1871 rifle, with its sample gun and ammunition system, won the competition through comparative testing with Bavaria’s M1869 Werder rifle, the Swiss Martini rifle, and the Vetterli rifle.

On December 2, 1871, Prussia ordered 2,500 units for trial use. On March 22, 1872, William I approved the mass production of the M1871 rifle. However, the order was not given to Mauser Company but to other manufacturers with better equipment capabilities.

Although Mauser did not get the big contract, there is no need to rush. It’s just the right time to establish a new production line in East Africa, primarily to meet the needs of the East African Army.

Next is the issue of disarmament. This time, Ernst intends to slightly reduce the size of the army. Currently, Ernst has no plans for external military campaigns, so there is no need to maintain as large an army as before.

The East African Army currently exceeds 200,000 personnel. After discussions between Ernst and the Ministry of Defense, it was concluded that the Kingdom of East Africa currently faces no significant military threats on land. It only needs to maintain around 150,000 troops, which can respond to sudden outbreaks of war from any direction and quickly complete military deployments within the kingdom to prevent uprisings of Black people across regions.

Before Ernst arrived in East Africa, the East African Army had already undergone one expansion, primarily to accommodate graduates from the Heixinggen Military Academy at the time, which also prompted a slight reform of the military system.

Due to the rapid expansion of East Africa, the old military districts were no longer suitable for East Africa. After annexing the Zimbabwe region, East Africa divided itself into five new major military districts based on territories to potentially address enemies from different directions on land.

The Central Military Region was located within Tanzania; the original Kenya and Ethiopia; Somali region was designated as the Northern Military Region; the original Southern Sudan and Central African Republic area became the Nile River Military Region; west of Tanganyika Lake, including Congo, Zambia, Angola, and Namibia, became the Western Military Region; finally, the Southern Military Region was formed in response to East Africa’s occupation of large land areas in South Africa, requiring expansion, while other military districts remained unchanged.

After the disarmament, the East African Army’s numbers are as follows:

▼ Central Military Region:

101st Guard Division: 30,000 (stationed in Central Province, headquarters established in First Town City)

111th Division: 12,000 (headquarters established in Mbeya City)

112th Division: 12,000 (deployed along the Lufuma River line to respond to the Portuguese in Mozambique, headquarters established in Songea City.)

121st Cavalry Division: 5,000 (headquarters established in First Town City)

122nd Cavalry Division: 5,000 (headquarters established in Dodoma City)

123rd Cavalry Division: 5,000 (headquarters established in Mbeya)

Among them, the three cavalry divisions and the 111th Division belong to mobile and field forces.

▼ Northern Military Region:

211th Division: 12,000 (Turkana Province, defense against the Abysinnia Empire and the Italians in the southeastern Abysinnia Empire)

212th Division: 12,000 (Northern Province, primarily addressing the British, French, and Italian colonies in the Mand Strait)

▼ Nile River Military Region:

311th Division: 8,000 (Nile River Basin, mainly addressing the Egyptian Sultanate area)

331st Mountain Division: 12,000 (Azande Plateau, controlling the gateway from West Africa to East Africa, preventing native forces and colonizers from entering East Africa)

▼ Western Military Region:

411th Division: 5,000 (Hesse and Mitomba Province)

412th Division: 5,000 (Zambia region)

413th Division: 8,000 (southern Congo Basin, defense against the Portuguese colonial Angola and the Kingdom of Congo)

414th Division: 8,000 (eastern Angola, defense against Portuguese colonial Angola)

415th Division: 5,000 (Okavango River Basin, previously northeastern Namibia national territory)

▼ Southern Military Region:

511th Division: 8,000 (Transvaal Republic, defense against the Orange Free State, Cape Town colonies, Lesotho Kingdom.)

512th Division: 8,000 (Zulu Kingdom, defense against British colonial Natal, Lesotho Kingdom)

513th Division: 5,000 (Zimbabwe region)

514th Division: 5,000 (previously British-ruled Bechuanaland colony, defense against Orange Free State, Cape Town colonies)

Totaling 170,000 personnel.

...

Divisions of the East African Army are divided into three tiers, with the Guard Division remaining uniquely positioned to protect essential locations, fully staffed at 30,000 personnel.

First-tier divisions are fully staffed at 12,000 personnel, primarily deployed in regions with higher national defense pressures or within Tanzania, such as the two first-tier divisions in the Northern Military Region, in response to the Abysinnia Empire, and the forces of the British, French, and Italians in the Red Sea.

Second-tier divisions are fully staffed at 8,000 personnel, generally deployed at borders, facing weaker enemies, such as Cape Town in South Africa, rated by East Africa as having relatively weak military strength.

Third-tier divisions are fully staffed at 5,000 personnel, generally deployed in less critical or regions with lower military pressure.

However, the cavalry divisions also have 5,000 personnel, but as special forces, they are also classified as first-tier divisions. Currently, all three cavalry divisions in East Africa are located in Tanganyika. The 111th Division is also quite special, as its position does not face significant national defense pressure and mainly serves as a mobile force, ready to provide timely support to other regions like cavalry divisions.

After the reorganization, the East African Army size will be reduced to about 2% of the total population (excluding natives).

Two percent is not particularly low, for example, Germany currently maintains its standing army at approximately 1.6% of its total population, so theoretically, the Kingdom of East Africa is even more militaristic than Prussia.

After the disarmament, Ernst also plans to complete the equipment of the East African Army, including various artillery, machine guns, and so on... to achieve a comprehensive Prussianization of the army’s equipment.

Besides equipment, changes in the army, Ernst intends to further strengthen the East African defense industry to ensure military logistics can be self-sufficient.

Firstly, he plans to recruit experts from Germany, Austria-Hungary, and even other countries at high salaries to continuously improve and enhance the production processes of East Africa’s existing arms factories. Secondly, he aims to integrate the East African Kingdom’s arms factories, expand their scale, further increase production capacity, and eventually achieve weapon equipment independence, potentially even exporting.

As for the Dreiser Rifle production line, which is about to be phased out, Ernst plans to retain only a small portion, while seeking buyers for the rest. After all, it has been used for only a few years, and directly scrapping it would be too much of a waste.

Ernst’s initial plan is to sell it to the Far East, since the Far East currently lacks the capability to produce independently and relies mainly on purchases. Fortunately, within the Huaihai Economic Zone, there are iron and coal factories invested by East Africa, providing an adequate foundation to support this production line without major issues.