African Entrepreneurship Record

”The relevant industries in Jisan City should also be considered in advance. The entire Hessen Province mainly revolves around rubber and mining, while Jisan City also has cotton cultivation and primary textile industries.”

In fact, a lot of crops can be grown near Jisan City. The annual rainfall here reaches 1,700 millimeters, sitting at the edge of a rainforest, with excellent water and heat conditions; otherwise, the provincial capital wouldn’t have been chosen here.

However, Ernst’s choice of the provincial capital must have been based on experience from the past life. In the previous life, Jisan City served as the temporary capital of Congo Gold, with a population of 680,000, and the entire district population exceeded 1.6 million. Being in the center of the entire African continent, it was called ”the most isolated large city in the world.”

This indirectly indicates that in the past life, Kisangani had poor external communication, mainly reflected in transportation issues. However, the fact that Kisangani could develop into a city with more than 600,000 people, especially in the impoverished Congo Gold, shows a solid foundation because it served as a temporary capital with many universities and institutions.

Under East African rule, Jisan City is naturally not as glorious as in the past life, but transportation is much better than that of the past Kisangani, thanks to East Africa’s vigorous road construction in Hessen Province.

East Africa’s obsession with infrastructure is incomparable to African countries of the past life. The pavement hardening project currently being implemented in Hessen Province has benefited Jisan City.

Bamiel: ”The entire Hessen Province has a very weak industrial base, which is quite different from our previous planned railway routes. The difficulty along the line increases significantly, so it’s necessary to make as much use of the resources within Hessen Province. This way, a lot of time and workload can be saved.”

East Africa has built quite a few railways, but most of these are constructed in the plateau regions. In East Africa’s plateau areas, setting aside the comfortable and mild plateau climate, the construction difficulty isn’t too high. Apart from the high altitude, the plateaus are otherwise flat, and because of the savanna, it is actually more suitable for development. So, the Hessen Railway is quite a challenging task for Bamiel.

”This matter should be discussed with the Hessen Province government. After our blueprints are handed over to them, they should plan quarries and logging sites based on the railway route. Cement plants can also be expanded. Jisan City has three cement plants, and Hessen Province is currently increasing its cement production capacity on a large scale. I heard it’s for the pavement hardening project, which facilitates railway construction,” Christian analyzed.

Bamiel: ”Yes, there’s also the issue of steel. Fortunately, the steel production capacity of Matebel Province is quite sufficient. It’s not far from Mbeya City, and through the Central Railway, steel can be transported to Lubumbashi for local processing and then laid along the line northward.”

Hessen Province can handle the cement issue on its own, but steel must rely on support from other provinces because the iron mine distribution in East Africa is very limited. This doesn’t mean there are no iron mines in Hessen Province, but there are few in number, small in scale, and have low development value. Future technological advancements might allow for consideration.

Christian: ”Raw materials are not a worry. The real problem to solve is the railway construction issue. This railway will pass through rainforest areas, and the casualty rate might be astronomical, especially dealing with malaria and other diseases. Quinine should be prepared in advance, and mosquito repellent products should be purchased in large quantities.”

In the past life, someone researched the legendary miasma in the southern parts of the Far East Empire, which was actually malaria, the greatest obstacle in southern development, mainly transmitted by mosquitoes.

Human activities can effectively suppress the habitat of mosquitoes, snakes, and ants. This is particularly evident in cities, and East Africa is actually the same as the Far East south; in already developed areas, there’s not much difference from other parts of the world.

However, in places like Hessen Province, caution is still required, so more relevant preparations must be made.

Regarding the potential casualties of this Hessen Railway project, Ernst has an expectation. In the past life, the famous Death Railway, the Thailand-Burma Railway, was constructed at the cost of human lives, with a death toll of no less than 250,000 and completed in just 15 months, which was originally planned for six years. On average, over 600 people per kilometer lost their lives.”

The construction of the Thailand-Burma Railway was done by the Japanese, so it’s not an exception. Survivor Roy Armstrong recalled this experience, saying: I didn’t know how to build a railway, but never thought I’d have to use a basket and a shovel.

Sometimes, we could only rest for 2 hours a day, and as the workload increased, the mortality rate of prisoners and laborers also kept rising, and the workload for each person continued to grow, with some working continuously for 133 days.

Every day, we could only eat a standard portion of rice, which had maggots and worms. Occasionally, the Japanese army would bring a water buffalo, giving the best meat to Japanese officers and guards. The remaining bones couldn’t satisfy the need of thousands of mouths. They would occasionally put some meat in the soup based on their mood. To fill our stomachs, we tried everything. If an unlucky python wandered into the prisoner camp, it was destined not to escape.

East Africa would never be as insane as Japan, at least the food for East African slaves is better than in some Far Eastern countries, and the diet is relatively reasonable.

Simultaneously, East Africa implements militarized management of slaves, with sanitary conditions better than those of workers and prisoners building the Thailand-Burma Railway.

There’s a saying that harming others ultimately harms oneself. If slaves neglect hygiene, infections could easily spread to East Africa’s management personnel, threatening national epidemic prevention efforts.

Bamiel: ”More steam pumps should be prepared, and the fuel issue also needs solving. The entire Hessen Province, especially the north, has many swamps with severe water retention. In addition to upgrading tools, engineering should consider drainage, especially ditches, culverts, and material load bearing.”

Christian: ”This further involves specific sections where consideration of mudslides and landslides caused by heavy rain or floods is necessary. Road protection facilities should be considered, and some sections require preemptive risk elimination, so more explosives should be requested.”

East Africa, even though still using many slaves, must bear the risks involved in their use, and sooner or later will transition to a normal country. Eventually, the slavery system will be abolished, and replacing slaves means greatly improving East Africa’s technological level and productivity.

East Africa’s current gunpowder production capacity has already increased, thanks to the development of its defense industry. In terms of gunpowder use, they have become more generous. Ten years ago, East Africa still needed to import significant amounts, but now they can produce it independently.

Similarly, East Africa can now also produce steam engines. The first domestic steam engine in East Africa was produced after introducing full technical sets from Germany in 1870.

We are still in the steam engine era, and steam pumps are being widely produced in East Africa, used in many mining and irrigation projects. Of course, more advanced internal combustion engine pumps are also used, but they are still in the popularization stage.

Additionally, many tools have been localized, and under the support of East Africa’s excess steel capacity, production efficiency has significantly increased.

All these provide the conditions for the Hessen Province railway construction, but for now, the railway construction still relies heavily on human labor. Ernst believes that keeping the casualty number below 50,000 is a reasonable range.