African Entrepreneurship Records

  Chapter 19 Hechingen Military Academy

  In just a few months, the Hechingen Military Academy has completed the construction of the grass-roots team, and the teachers recruited by Ernst have not yet started teaching.

  Because the five hundred or so years recruited from the Far East were too weak, they needed to recuperate for a period of time. Most of them were yellow and emaciated and malnourished.

For the teenagers who just came to Europe across the sea, Ernst didn’t dare to let them eat too much. They were already weak and drifted on the sea for such a long time. The turbulence on the boat could not be tolerated by normal people, let alone these children .

  Besides, they were in a state of famine for a long time before, needless to say about the state of their stomachs, if they used too much oil and water rashly, they might not have enough toilets for them to waste the next day.

So after they went ashore, Ernst only prepared some vegetables, bread and potatoes to buffer them, and the portion was not too much each time, for fear that they would gobble up and increase the burden on their bodies. Even so, their eyes were full of light, that is food cravings.

  For children in the East in this era, they are very happy to be able to eat every day. Some even eat bark and mud. The food prepared by Ernst is simply a delicacy for them who are not picky eaters.

  For these poor children, Ernst can still ensure that they have enough to eat, and is even willing to add some meat to them at his own expense.

In recent years, affected by the war, the already corrupt Qing government has intensified its exploitation of the lower classes. The indemnities paid by the great powers and the war funds for suppressing the rebellion in the south were all deducted from the lower classes. As for the frequent natural disasters in the north, countless The refugees, the Qing government turned a blind eye.

   From this, we can also know how difficult it is for the people of the ancient eastern countries to survive. For farmers who do not have these lands, in addition to paying their blood and sweat in vain, not only will they not get rewards, but they may also be burdened with huge debts.

Landlords and lords use their mouths, and the taxes apportioned by the court will be doubled to get back from the tenant farmers. Once natural disasters and man-made disasters occur, countless families will go bankrupt. wilderness.

Therefore, the recruitment of Ernst's Far East Commercial Liaison Office in the Qing Dynasty was extremely smooth. For these people who have lost hope of survival, whoever can enjoy a meal is a reborn parent. This is not difficult to explain why some people travel across the ocean to the United States. Repair the railway.

  The same is true for Chinese people in later generations who are the most able to endure hardship. You can hardly imagine their poverty decades ago. As long as you give them hope, they are the best workers in the world.

  As for countries like India, the whole class is habitually bad. They have learned it thousands of years ago. In Ernst's eyes, they are not even comparable to African natives.

  Although the indigenous people in Africa do not do good things, their attitude towards life is positive, while the Indians tend to be between passive coping and "realism".

  This "realism" is not a good word, but a kind of world view of Indians, a vague expression of values. After all, Indians have developed civilization and have a national character that does not match it.

   This is also the reason why Ernst dared to hire Chinese. Although there are some emotional inclinations, it is actually driven by interests. To maximize interests, Ernst naturally needs a disciplined and obedient labor force.

  In today's era, Europeans are the best-quality labor force in the world, because European education is at the forefront of the world, especially in Germany. Compulsory education has helped civilians get rid of illiteracy and better adapt to industrialized society.

  Even in the Prussian army, ordinary soldiers have elementary school education and can do orders and prohibitions. Therefore, popularizing education is the general trend of the times.

Ernst wants to develop East Africa, of course he also wants to use such a high-quality labor force, but the wise German people are not stupid. One is the American continent where opportunities are everywhere, with a high standard of living and a high level of modernization. In Africa, where there are no decent roads, everyone knows where to go to make a living.

  If you don’t spend money, who is willing to work hard for Ernst to open up land in East Africa? Since you can’t choose the best, use the second best, then the Chinese are the inevitable choice.

  First of all, the various dynasties in the history of East Asia are best at mobilizing people's power, organizing the people through the lower-level government to dig roads and canals, or to carry out large-scale projects, so they are generally obedient and easy to manage.

Secondly, the Chinese in modern times have lived enough suffering, and the whole society is extremely introverted. It is no problem to say that the spirit of hard work and hard work is the best in the world. Under the influence of the long serfdom in Europe, the European people and the lords have reached a certain level of balance. After all, serfs are the assets of the lords. If they are overused and lead to accidental deaths, it is not a loss. After all, the human cost is affected by the Black Death. Taller.

Not only that, the Black Death also made the whole of Europe panic, just like a lottery, maybe one day there will be no people, so the European nobles enjoy it to their heart's content, which promotes the development of culture and art. There will be less, and the people below will live better.

  So it is difficult for Europeans to understand the attitude of the current Chinese working hard. Without enough wages and enough rest time, they will rebel.

In the end, Ernst doesn't need a high-end labor force at all, at least not at the moment. Ernst is a person with a strong desire for control. He is an uneducated Chinese and has no European vision, so his pursuit is not high. It is easier to satisfy and manage better than Europeans.

Ernst is currently only opening up wasteland in East Africa, and what is needed is people who can farm. Ernst believes that it is impossible for any region to skip agricultural modernization and directly realize industrialization. Now Ernst is going to organize Chinese farmers in the form of a company. Get up and farm in Africa.

  The people hired from the Far East were meant to earn a living, so their wages would naturally be gone, and large-scale collaborative production did not require them to pay high-intensity physical labor, and they could also use local aborigines to cultivate the fields.

That's right, Ernst is just an aristocrat who is obsessed with interests, and he is not a virgin. Ernst not only wants to confiscate the natives of the tribe, but also expropriate the land that the Zanzibar Sultanate does not need. Slaves are temporarily used.

  The Sultanate of Zanzibar began to sell slaves to various parts of Arabia from the Oman Empire era, and they did not need natives with unqualified physique.

  At present, Ernst does not have the ability and energy to transport these indigenous people to other countries and regions, so he can only use them as production tools to open up wasteland.

  Originally, most of these aborigines lived by hunting and gathering. It would be very difficult to get them to farm, and farmers also needed experience.

  So Ernst only intends to let these natives undertake simple heavy physical work such as pulling plows and digging ditches.

   After all, there are no tractors and excavators now, even if there is Ernst, they can’t afford them. The whole East Africa can only be completed by manpower.

  As Ernst’s last conscience, these natives lived long enough to survive Ernst’s dependence on manpower, and Ernst would find a way to transport them to other countries and regions.

  The group of teenagers in front of them are the reserve talents who will assist Ernst in managing the Chinese in East Africa in the future. They cannot be equipped with translators for all the Chinese. I am afraid that there are not many Chinese-speaking people in Germany.

   As for the future, Ernst will not need to do this when he popularizes German in East Africa. The problem is that it will take a long time, at least until the next generation of Chinese.

As an out-and-out German in this life, Ernst will not do things that destroy his foundation, so the future of East Africa must be German-speaking world, the Germans must be the ruling class in the early stage, and the focus will be on the appointment of mixed blood until the national integration After the end, Ernst will not leave a trace of future troubles.

  (end of this chapter)