Chapter 632 Heading to Europe

After arranging the affairs in East Africa, Ernst prepared to go to Europe. Before that, he also specifically investigated the unstable factors. Now all internal affairs in East Africa are stable and orderly. The only thing worth paying attention to is the civil war in the Orange Free State.

Although the civil war in the Orange Free State did not spread to East Africa, the Orange Free State was, after all, a neighboring country of East Africa. Adhering to the ideas of the previous life, neighbor relations were a very difficult issue, just like a group of countries surrounding the Far East Empire, who would tear down the houses and tiles if there was no fighting for three days. Although they would not cause any losses, their disgusting means would emerge in an endless stream.

The same goes for Russia, but Russia has never been good at dealing with neighbor relations, or is good at dealing with neighbor relations violently. The use of force is indeed the simplest and most effective means, but Russia is prone to capsizing in the gutter. Fortunately, its size as a big country prevents it from suffering too much loss. If Russia showed a little weakness, I am afraid that its neighbors would have joined forces to eat it alive.

East Africa deals with neighborhood relations mainly in two aspects, one is the north and the other is the south.

The northern neighbors get along relatively well with East Africa. The three colonial regimes (the Belgian colony of Congo-Brazzaville, the Italian East African colonies, namely parts of Ethiopia and Eritrea, and the Sigmaringen royal territory) all have East Africa's support behind the scenes, as well as the two traditional regimes (Egypt and the Abyssinian Empire).

Although Egypt was a semi-colony of Britain, it still had some autonomy. At least it did not dare to take advantage of Britain's fire, because East Africa really had the ability to snatch the Sudan region away from Egypt.

The south consists of the British and Boer forces, and except for the Orangemen, the others are basically in a hostile state.

As for the east and west directions, that is, the remaining Portuguese colonies whose large tracts of land were cut off by East Africa are now completely ignored by East Africa and are the ones that East Africa is ready to eat up at any time.

As for the Portuguese government's large-scale military investment in Mozambique and Angola in recent years, Ernst is not worried. On the contrary, he is happy to see it happen, because the East African Army also needs a whetstone to stay sharp, especially since the army needs to be baptized by actual combat in order to maintain its combat effectiveness and not expand blindly.

"Ernst, when you go to Europe this time, please be sure to call me and take good care of my granddaughter." Constantine said while hugging Princess Jena reluctantly.

Little Friedrich stood beside his grandfather, neither crying nor making a fuss, unaware that his parents were about to leave him for a country thousands of miles away.

Austria is really far away from East Africa. Even the straight-line distance is more than 3,000 kilometers, and the nearest East African territory to Austria is the New Bavaria Province (eastern part of the Azande Plateau).

If we consider the sea routes, the European country closest to East Africa is Greece. As for Cyprus, it was the territory of the Ottoman Empire, but it had been leased to Britain by the Ottoman Empire as a base. It was an important node for maintaining the main sea route between Britain and India.

"Father, when I get to Austria, you can tell me any questions over the phone. Information transmission in Europe is very advanced now. Besides, this trip to Europe is mainly to visit Queen Mother Sophie and visit friendly countries. We will be back soon."

Ernst didn't plan to stay in Europe for long. After all, he had to deal with so many things in East Africa by himself, and it would not be good to leave for too long.

"Okay, I won't say any more. When you go to Europe this time, you can take a look at the situation in Hexingen. After all, that is our base."

Constantine still has great feelings for the Principality of Hechingen. After all, he spent most of his life in Hechingen, and Hechingen is also the birthplace of the entire Hohenzollern family. After the Prussian royal family became prosperous, they would also invest in the renovation of Hohenzollern Castle, so the Hechingen lineage would naturally attach more importance to it.

"Father, let's go!"

"Go ahead."

Karina took the sleeping Princess Jena from Constantine's arms. Ernst squatted down and said to his son, "Friedrich, stay at home and listen to your grandfather."

It was not known whether the silly boy understood or not, but Ernst enjoyed the communication between father and son very much. However, the thought of leaving his father and son temporarily made his nose sore.

"Go, I will take care of East Africa and Friedrich for you!" Constantine said.

"Goodbye, father. Take care of yourself."

Ernst then took Karina and Jena on board the ship, this time heading from the First Town Port (Little Rhine River Port) to Bagamoyo City, and then directly transferred to a navy-arranged warship in Bagamoyo City to head to Europe.

There is another detail here, that is, the Little Rhine River belongs to the defense zone of the Guards Division, and the Guards Division is mainly composed of the army, so after arriving in Bagamoyo, the safety of Ernst and his party will be taken over by the navy, but the naval forces under the Guards Division will also send people on board the ship.

The advantage of this arrangement is also obvious, that is, it adds a safety valve to the first town and city. There are many examples of mutiny in history, most of which are in the army. However, after the rise of the ocean, the naval strength of some countries has also expanded.

Especially countries like Britain, Tsarist Russia, and Japan that built their capitals on the coast.

The capital of East Africa is not far from the sea and is connected to the Little Rhine waterway, so the control of the Little Rhine belongs neither to the army nor the navy.

Although the Guards Division is organized under the Army, it is actually a self-contained royal army. After all, the Guards Division is fully equipped with navy and army, and has an independent command system and logistics system.

In this way, the defense of the central provinces was prevented from being interfered with by the navy and the army, and a stable balance was formed between them and the Guards Division.

…

"Your Highness, your ship this time is the Friedrich, and you will be escorted by the Otto, Archduke Ferdinand and others."

"Where is my father-in-law?" Ernst asked. This time Ferdinand also returned to Europe with Princess Charlotte.

"Archduke Ferdinand and his wife are on the Archduke Ferdinand. Archduke Ferdinand usually likes to use the Archduke Ferdinand as his command ship, and this time is no exception."

Compared with the last time from Europe to East Africa, Ernst's fleet this time is much smaller, but the quality is incomparable. Last time, Ernst's fleet also had many armed merchant ships, but this time returning to Europe directly with ironclad ships as escort formations, the safety has been greatly improved, and it also shows the development of East Africa's national strength.

"Karina, please pay more attention to temperature changes. Our East African waters are in the tropics, so it will be relatively hot. But winter in Europe is just about to end, so it will definitely still be very cold. Europe is also in a state of changing seasons. The temperature there will change after we go there." Ernst reminded his wife.

"Okay, I understand. This time we brought a complete set of clothes, which will be enough for all four seasons." Karina said.

This is the difference between East Africa and Eurasia. If it is summer in the northern hemisphere, it is not too bad. It is easy to adapt to traveling from East Africa to Eurasia. On the contrary, if it is winter, it will be a bit painful. The temperature in the First Town is still over 20 degrees, close to 30 degrees, while the temperature in Vienna may be only in single digits.

(End of this chapter)