African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 576: Chapter 254 Warm Heart

In the 19th century, communication was extremely inconvenient, so the citizens of the Far East Empire had a very basic understanding of global affairs. Many people couldn’t differentiate between England, France, Germany, and so on.

Mostly, they just went by hearsay about the world’s powerful countries, categorizing many nations as foreigners. The Western world naturally was Westerners, while the East really just referred to Japan, naturally called Easterners. Of course, due to historical reasons, Japan within the Far East Empire had its own nicknames, like Japan or Fusang.

The Far Eastern workers employed by East Africa naturally couldn’t distinguish all these countries, so they followed the East African troops, calling Japan ”little devils” and such.

The term ”devil” wasn’t exclusively derogatory towards Japan; invaders of the Far East Empire earned this label. Western devils, British devils, French devils, though Japan uniquely earned the title of ”little devils.”

In this era, translations were actually a mess, but East Africa, influenced by Ernst, had a uniform translation guide for external use by its diplomatic personnel.

The workers of the South Ryukyu Islands rarely discussed ”national affairs” during their break time, and today, lunch was ready as well.

Due to insufficient manpower, East Africa treated these Far Eastern workers fairly well, allowing them to share the mess hall with the East African garrison.

Establishing mess halls was a prominent feature of East Africa, playing an important role in their national system, with immigrant mess halls, government mess halls, school mess halls, military mess halls...

After the East African military took over, the South Ryukyu Islands naturally continued this fine tradition, although facilities on the islands were not sufficiently developed.

The mess hall was quite simple; after commandeering several residences, they began construction, demolishing and rebuilding, with a mixture of bricks, stone, and wood. The Miyako Island military mess hall could serve 500 people at once, with its tables uniformly constructed from simple wooden boards.

The buildings of the South Ryukyu Islands were primarily wooden structures, offering excellent earthquake resistance and ease of material access, but East Africa, for military considerations, converted them to primarily brick and stone structures, providing better fire resistance and sturdiness, at the cost of giving up earthquake resilience.

The South Ryukyu Islands likely had frequent earthquakes, but given the times, the East African government believed that the likelihood of the islands facing warfare was higher.

”You’re in luck today because of your excellent performance in engineering. Governor Lu Karl specially ordered a batch of stored military canned food as a treat for you, all top-grade beef stewed with potatoes and braised pork, a treatment usually reserved for the troops.”

Before the meal, Andre, known as Wang by those around Dazhuang, who was a lieutenant in the East African army, revealed to everyone.

It wasn’t strange for Andre to be called Wang; his original name was Wang Sanjin. He had served in the East African army for seven years, counted as a veteran, and had now been transferred back to serve in the Far East.

Upon returning, he almost forgot how to speak Chinese and only remembered his mother tongue after mingling with Dazhuang and other Far Eastern laborers.

Dazhuang said, ”Brother Wang, these military rations must be quite precious, right? Before, I saw that even you guys were reluctant to use them, only taking them out when supplies ran low.”

Andre: ”Oh, these military rations! They’re a kind of wartime food supply, actually no different from regular food, just long-lasting. We have plenty in the East African army, nothing special, and eating too much gets boring. If it weren’t for the Japanese being troublesome, causing current supply shortages, heating a pot like before would be much better than this.”

Andre’s casual words seemed very Versailles-esque to the laborers. In reality, canned food wasn’t cheap, with relatively high costs, but because of the unique position of the South Ryukyu Islands, East Africa had previously stockpiled a large amount of canned food in advance for emergencies.

”Wow, the taste of these cans is pretty good, meaty and oily, even the salt is generous, I’m full, Brother Wang, you soldiers really live well.”

”Hehe, that’s only natural, look at my uniform, life can’t be bad. In the East African army, honor is highly esteemed, and the food is top-notch. Compared to the days you’ve lived through, getting a meal with some fat was good enough. Here, it’s real meat and fish, and the rice is refined, processed in factories, even with fruits to enjoy, life’s not bad at all.”

Though Andre had boasted about this before, it still inevitably aroused envy among everyone. This was the fairy-like life they pursued!

”Brother Wang, I won’t deny it, if you become a general in East Africa, your skills are beyond words!” Dazhuang flattered.

Andre hurriedly said, ”General? Don’t say such things lightly. I’m just a little lieutenant, an insignificant officer managing only a few dozen people. You must remember to call me Lieutenant Andre, okay? Even the entire South Ryukyu Islands has only the governor as a major general; you don’t want to get me into trouble.”

”Brother Wang, how did you manage to become an officer of the Westerners? We see that you have quite a few foreigners under you.”

Andre chuckled: ”Isn’t it simple? I naturally got promoted due to my good performance in the army. You guys call me Brother Wang, so I look out for you as well. As for those foreigners, don’t mention it to others. This term isn’t nice in the Far East, it’s not like East African troops are unaware. Many East Africans were previously from the Far East, so mind your words.”

”So, Brother Wang, for you folks who went to East Africa, didn’t you become East African nationals too?”

”You’re kind of right, this goes back to nationality. Nationality is like a genealogy, a way to identify what family you’re from, and nationality distinguishes which country’s people you are, like me, East African nationality, naturally an East African. As for you, you’re called Far Easterners, and if we go by ethnicity, I’m now a German, while you’re Han people.”

”Brother Wang, be honest, can you really become a German just by going to East Africa? Do they trust you working under them?”

”That’s nonsense. If I weren’t considered one of them, how would I become a lieutenant? In East Africa, everyone is equal, though not the Black people.”

”Brother Wang, what are Black people? Very dark-skinned people?”

”Haha, you haven’t seen much, but you’re right. Black people are indeed very dark-skinned; let’s just say their whole body is black except for their teeth, which are white. In the dark, if they don’t grin, you won’t see them. You’ve seen charcoal, right? Just like that, skin all black,” Andre proudly shared his knowledge with them.

”Uh, Brother Wang, are there really people that dark?”

”That’s nothing strange. Haven’t you seen white people? Some are even blonde and blue-eyed! There are many odd-looking people worldwide. Like in East Africa’s coastal areas, you might see Arabs wrapped in white robes, and South Asians with brown skin looking like they’ve never washed...”

Andre narrated like telling a story, sharing his experiences, knowledge, and foreign tidbits with these workers while portraying East Africa as a utopia, making people’s hearts yearn for it.

”If you had sailed to East Africa back then, by now you’d have made a name for yourself, avoiding these hard days. But now, it’s not too late. Although the threshold to become an East African citizen has risen, as long as you perform well, I, your old brother, can write you a recommendation letter, and you could go to East Africa and enjoy a good life.”

Andre was warm-hearted, yet he couldn’t just indiscriminately bring people to East Africa, so he reminded these fellows to perform well on the projects, giving him a chance to operate.