Chapter 19 Hexingen Military Academy

In just a few months, the Hechingen Military Academy completed the establishment of a makeshift team, and the teachers recruited by Ernst had not yet started teaching.

Because the five hundred or so soldiers recruited from the Far East were too weak and needed to rest for a period of time, most of them were pale and thin and malnourished.

Ernst didn't dare let the teenagers who had just arrived in Europe across the sea eat too much. They were already weak and had been drifting on the sea for such a long time. A normal person would not be able to withstand the bumps on the boat, let alone these children.

Moreover, they had been in a state of famine for a long time, so their stomachs were in bad condition. If they rashly added too much oil and water, I'm afraid there wouldn't even be enough space in the toilet for them to use the next day.

So after they got ashore, Ernst only prepared some vegetables, bread and potatoes to buffer them, and each portion was not much, for fear that they would wolf down the food and increase the burden on their bodies. Even so, their eyes were filled with light, which was the desire for food.

For the children in the East at that time, being able to eat every day was a blessing. Some people even ate tree bark and mud. The food prepared by Ernst was simply delicacies from the mountains and the sea for them who were not picky eaters.

For these poor children, Ernst was able to ensure that they had enough food to eat, and was even willing to pay for some meat for them out of his own pocket.

In recent years, affected by the war, the already corrupt Qing government has intensified its exploitation of the lower classes. The indemnities from 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 and the countless refugees, the Qing government turned a blind eye.

From this we can see how difficult it was for the people of the ancient Eastern countries to survive. For these farmers who didn't even have any land, not only did they get nothing in return for their hard work, they might even end up in huge debt.

The landlords only needed to make a few words to get the imperial court to double the taxes levied on the tenant farmers. Once natural disasters or man-made calamities occurred, countless families went bankrupt. The lucky ones had to beg for food and move far away, while the unfortunate ones died on the road.

Therefore, Ernst's Far East Commercial Liaison Office had extremely smooth recruitment in the Qing Dynasty. For these people who had lost hope of survival, whoever could give them food was like a second parent. This also explains why some people traveled across the ocean to build railways in the United States.

The same is true for the Chinese in later generations who are the most able to endure hardships. It is hard to imagine how poor they were decades ago. As long as you give them hope, they will be the best workers in the world.

As for a country like India, the entire class is accustomed to being bad, and they learned it thousands of years ago. In Ernst's eyes, they are not even as good as the African natives.

Although the natives of Africa don't do good things, their attitude towards life is positive. Indians tend to be between passive coping and "realism".

This "realism" is not a nice word, but a vague expression of the Indians' worldview and values. After all, Indians have developed a civilization with a national character that does not match it.

This is also the reason why Ernst dared to employ Chinese people. Although there were some emotional inclinations, it was actually driven by interests. If Ernst wanted to maximize interests, he naturally needed a disciplined and obedient workforce.

Nowadays, Europeans are the world's most qualified workforce because European education is at the forefront of the world, especially in Germany. Compulsory education has freed civilians from illiteracy and enabled them to better adapt to industrialized society.

Even in the Prussian army, ordinary soldiers had primary school education and were able to obey orders, so universal education was the general trend of the times.

Ernst wanted to develop East Africa and of course wanted to use such high-quality labor, but the enlightened German people were not stupid. One was the American continent, which was full of opportunities, with a high standard of living and a high level of modernization, and the other was Africa, which was full of wild beasts and poisonous insects and did not even have a decent road. Everyone knew where to go to make a living.

If it doesn't cost money, who would be willing to work for Ernst to open up land in East Africa? Since the best one is not available, the second best one can be used, and the Chinese are the inevitable choice.

First, the dynasties in East Asian history were best at mobilizing the people's power. They organized the people through lower-level government agencies to dig roads, repair canals, or undertake large-scale projects. Therefore, the people were generally obedient and easy to manage.

Secondly, modern Chinese people have had enough of the hard times, and the entire society is extremely inward-looking. It is no problem to say that their spirit of hard work and perseverance is the best in the world. This is something that Europeans who experienced a sharp drop in population due to the Black Death cannot feel. In addition, due to the influence of the long serfdom in Europe, the European people and the lords have reached a certain degree of balance. After all, serfs are the assets of the lords, and if excessive use leads to accidental death, wouldn’t that be a loss? After all, labor costs have been raised due to the Black Death.

Not only that, the Black Death also made the whole of Europe panic. It was like drawing lots, who knows where they would die at any time, so the European nobles indulged themselves in enjoyment, which in turn promoted the development of culture and art. The nobles at the top focused on enjoying themselves and had less trouble, so the people at the bottom lived a better life.

Therefore, it is difficult for Europeans to understand the current Chinese people’s attitude of working so hard. Without sufficient wages and adequate rest time, they will rebel.

Finally, Ernst does not need too high-end labor at all, at least not at the moment. Ernst is a person with a strong desire for control. As an uneducated Chinese, he does not have the vision of Europeans, so his pursuits are not high. He is easier to satisfy and manage than Europeans.

Ernst is currently only opening up wasteland in East Africa, and what he needs are people who know how to farm. Ernst believes that it is impossible for any region to skip agricultural modernization and directly achieve industrialization. Now Ernst wants to organize Chinese farmers in the form of a company to farm in Africa.

The people hired from the Far East were originally hired to make a living, so naturally they didn't receive any wages. Large-scale collaborative production did not require them to do intensive physical labor, and they could also use local indigenous people to farm the fields.

That's right, Ernst was just a nobleman who was blinded by profit, not a saint. Ernst not only wanted to seize the land of the natives in the tribe, but also temporarily use the slaves that the Sultanate of Zanzibar didn't need.

The Sultanate of Zanzibar had been trading slaves to all parts of Arabia since the days of the Omani Empire, and they had no need for natives with unfit physical qualities.

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

Originally, most of these indigenous people made their living by hunting and gathering, so it was difficult to ask them to farm, and farmers also needed experience.

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

After all, there are no tractors and excavators now, and even if Ernst had them, he couldn't afford them. The entire East African land reclamation can only be completed by manpower.

Ernst's last bit of conscience is that if these natives live long enough and survive the stage of Ernst's dependence on manpower, Ernst will find a way to transport them to other countries and regions.

The group of young people in front of him are the reserve talents who will assist Ernst in managing the Chinese in East Africa in the future. It is impossible to provide translators for all the Chinese. There are probably not many people in Germany who can speak Chinese.

As for the future, Ernst will not need to do this after 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 a true German in this life, Ernst will not do anything that will destroy his foundation, so the future East Africa must be dominated by the German language. In the early stage, Germans will definitely be the ruling class, and in the later stage, the focus will be on employing mixed-race people. Until the national integration is completed, Ernst will not leave any trace of trouble.

(End of this chapter)