African Entrepreneurship Records

  Chapter 243 Type 70

   June 17, 1870 (half a month ago).

 kuang  "kuangji, kuangji..."

  In the sweltering boiler room, the workers were shirtless and began to add coal to the boiler. As the temperature continued to rise, the wheels began to operate with a huge crankshaft, making harsh noises.

  The pointer of the pressure gauge rose rapidly, and finally stabilized within a reasonable range. The steam engine continuously delivered power to the entire factory.

   With the crawlers and rotating shafts, the steam engines drive more than 1,500 machines to run at high speed.

  Jiaozhou Textile Factory, the only textile factory of Heixingen Daily Necessities Company, is different from Berlin Textile Factory, here is a full set of textile machines imported from the UK.

The Berlin Textile Factory, also known as the Hexingen Textile Factory, was rebuilt after the purchase of a textile company in Berlin. Therefore, it uses equipment independently manufactured by Prussia. The scale is not large, and the number of machines is only about a hundred. The construction of the Jiaozhou Textile Factory was completed In the past, it has been the largest "Prussian" military uniform manufacturer in East Africa.

  During the East African colonial period, Prussian military uniforms were not only military uniforms, but also civilian clothing. Men, women and children, unless they were European immigrants, basically only had the Prussian army as clothing.

   Now that the Kingdom of East Africa has been established, it is natural that this cannot continue, otherwise it will really become a "Prussian" kingdom.

  And recently, Ernst prepared for the Franco-Prussian War and began to produce Prussian-style military uniforms, preparing to stockpile a batch to supply the Prussian army. Therefore, the Berlin Textile Factory simply gave up its East African business and sold the finished products directly in the German region.

The Jiaozhou Textile Factory in the Far East began to replace it. The Jiaozhou Textile Factory was re-integrated from the original three small factories, mainly for the convenience of management and improvement of production efficiency. Bureau and employees' family buildings, the road from the factory to the wharf, the factory-owned power plant (mainly providing lighting power), the factory-owned repair shop, etc.

The reason why British equipment is used for textile machines is simple and cost-effective. Britain is the largest textile country in the world. The accumulation of related technologies is indeed much higher than that of Prussia. The failure rate of machines is low, and machine failures are easy to say in Europe. Maintenance personnel It is easy to replace parts and parts, and it is indeed fatal in the Far East. If you don’t hoard a bunch of parts in advance, the machine will dare to go on strike until the parts are shipped from Europe. At the same time, the technicians are also professionals hired with high salaries.

  The Jiaozhou textile factory has more than 7,000 workers, with an output of up to 700,000 bolts of cloth. Apart from supplying East Africa, the rest is mainly sold in the entire East Asia region.

  The benefits of building a factory here are also obvious. In addition to the excellent port conditions, the main reason is the abundance of labor, low wages, no shortage of raw materials, and proximity to markets (Far East, North Korea, Japan).

  …

  Jiaozhou Garment Factory next door to Jiaozhou Textile Factory. The Jiaozhou Garment Factory and the Textile Factory are actually connected and share the infrastructure of the factory.

   "What kind of clothes is this? It looks so strange!"

   "This is the Western clothes worn by Westerners,"

   "I've seen this before. They are called suits. Generally, only those high-ranking officials among Westerners can wear them. Look at our factory, only the factory director and technicians wear them."

"But I haven't seen the thing next to it, but it looks a bit like the factory guard's, but it looks better than theirs. Look, there is a strip on the hat... What is this?" Originally, I wanted to say a dog, but looked Not like it.

   "I look a bit like a stone lion at the door of a rich family."

"No way! It doesn't look like it at all. It has something on its head, and it's standing up. I've seen that stone lion before. It looks good, and it's squatting. The two front legs of the thing are stretched out in front, and the color doesn't look festive at all."

   "Whatever it is! It's not what we wear anyway."

At present, the finished product is the 70-style military uniform (1870) independently designed by East Africa, with a strong European style. As for the animal in question on the hat, it is actually a cap badge, the lion on the coat of arms of the royal family of Hechingen, The crown is naturally on the head. This kind of lion is too common in Europe. Many noble families and kingdoms have the same element as the double-headed eagle.

   There are two types of 70-style military uniforms, the grassland type and the desert type. The only difference is the color. The grassland type is light blue in color, and the desert type is brownish yellow.

The biggest change in hats is that the military caps of German countries and Europe are the same as the tube or have a large brim. It is similar to the cylinder hat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but it is not so regular, but rather loose, and at the same time from top to bottom, it is close to a trapezoid when viewed from the front.

  The East African military cap is equipped with a shield-shaped cap badge in the center, which is the same as the national flag. The colors are black, red and yellow, and they are made of brass.

  In addition to saving fabric, this hat focuses on sunshade, which can better prevent sunlight from affecting sight.

  Military uniform jackets are not much different from those in Europe. They have five pockets. In addition to the four outer pockets, there is also an inner pocket. It is matched with a belt, but it is produced in the local city of Tanga in East Africa, and the material is canvas. At the same time, this belt has added many holes reserved for future pendants.

  Military trousers have the same shape as those in Europe, and there is no need to change them.

The military uniforms designed in East Africa do not seem to have changed much from the previous Prussian military uniforms. This is not plagiarizing Prussia, but the whole of Germany is almost the same, such as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Bavaria, including Hechingen in the previous independent era, The shapes are almost the same.

  In addition to producing suits and military uniforms, Jiaozhou Garment Factory also produces work clothes and women's clothing. Now East Africa is trying to change the situation where Prussian military uniforms were popular.

  Of course, due to mass production, there must be very few styles. There are only four types for ordinary people in East Africa to choose from, and they can be purchased from specialized stores with vouchers from Hehingen Bank.

  This time, East Africa will expand its army by 100,000, so a large number of military uniforms will be produced, all of which are 70-style military uniforms. In the next few years, East Africa will gradually replace the uniforms that have been equipped with Prussian military uniforms with 70-style military uniforms.

  …

  Heixingen.

   "Cousin Leopold, these people of mine will be handed over to you in the next few months, and you can help me take good care of them." Ernst said to Leopold who came back to reorganize the Hechingen Military Academy.

   "Don't worry, I won't assign harsh tasks to them, how about letting them handle the logistics?" Leopold said blatantly.

"That's not necessary. The reason why I chose these students to you is to prevent them from being unfairly treated. You also know that there are many people here from the Far East. If they were placed in the hands of other generals, they would probably only be used by others. As cannon fodder. These are high-quality soldiers who have undergone long-term formal military training. In the future, most of them will be taken to East Africa by me. I also want to take advantage of this war to train them. You can treat them as ordinary soldiers The troops are fine, as long as they are not treated differently from other troops," Ernst said.

"So that's what you said, but if you ask for it, I can't just agree to it. I have to see how their military skills are, so that the future battlefield can assign tasks according to their skills." Leopold said frankly .

"No problem. Although they have never been on the battlefield, they have never failed in military training and exercises, and their German skills are good, they can communicate normally, and they all have writing skills. They are also familiar with the various military regulations and orders of the Prussian army. " Ernst said confidently.

   "It's empty talk, let them gather first, and I'll see how it looks." Leopold said.

   Soon the entire Hechingen Military Academy students were summoned urgently, a total of 2247 people (third grade), and they assembled on the playground in a uniform order according to the square team.

   "It's really good in terms of reaction speed and assembly speed! It's better than the general army of the kingdom, and it can be compared with some elites, but I don't know how to realize it?" Leopold commented.

   "This is easy to handle. I have a military exercise field in the west of Hechingen. We can organize an exercise today for you to use as a reference."

   "That's great? But you're too big to play! Even have a practice place?"

  …

  In the evening, the exercise ended.

Leopold said with satisfaction: "It's very good. This group of students have strong organizational skills and the application of firearms, and their physical fitness is also top-notch. Judging from the exercise process, there is no problem. I have a feeling that as long as they are on the battlefield After baptism, they can definitely be compared with the elite troops of Prussia."

   "So, you have to be good at making good use of steel, and lead them to make great achievements. This is my painstaking effort cultivated over the years."

   "Don't worry, I thought Ernst you appointed me to lead the team because you wanted to go through the back door and let me take care of them. Now it seems that I misunderstood you."

   "It's not a misunderstanding. Originally, this was considered a back door, otherwise the unit would be led by the future Prussian Marshal as soon as it was established, hahaha!" Ernst joked.

   "There will be such a day." Leopold said, his father can be the commander-in-chief, and he will not be too bad.

  (end of this chapter)