Chapter 243 70 Style
June 17, 1870 (half a month ago).
"Clang, clang..."
In the stuffy boiler room, workers with bare upper bodies began to add coal to the boiler. As the temperature continued to rise, the machine wheel driving the huge crankshaft began to move, making a harsh noise.
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 tracks and rotating shafts, steam engines drove more than 1,500 machines to operate at high speed.
Jiaozhou Textile Factory is the only textile factory of Hexingen Daily Necessities Company. Unlike the Berlin Textile Factory, it has a full set of textile machines imported from Britain.
The Berlin Textile Factory, also known as the Hechingen Textile Factory, was rebuilt after a textile enterprise was acquired by Berlin. Therefore, it used equipment independently manufactured by Prussia. It was not large in scale, with only about a hundred machines. Before the construction of the Jiaozhou Textile Factory was completed, it had 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, young and old, unless they were European immigrants, basically only wore Prussian military uniforms.
Now that the East African Kingdom has been established, we naturally cannot continue in this way, otherwise it will truly become a "Prussian Army" kingdom.
Moreover, Ernst had recently begun producing standard Prussian military uniforms in preparation for the Franco-Prussian War, intending to stockpile a batch for supplying the Prussian army. Therefore, the Berlin Textile Factory simply gave up its East African business and sold the finished products directly in Germany.
The Jiaozhou Textile Factory in the Far East began to replace it in operation. The Jiaozhou Textile Factory was a reintegration of the original three small factories, mainly for the convenience of management and to improve production efficiency. At the same time, it was to provide supporting infrastructure, such as the Jiaozhou factory's private fire station and employee family buildings, the road from the factory to the dock, the factory's power plant (mainly providing lighting power), and the factory's repair shop.
The reason why British equipment was used in textile machines was very simple. It was cost-effective. Britain was the world's largest textile country and its accumulation of relevant technologies was indeed much higher than that of Prussia. The machine failure rate was low. Machine failure was not a big deal in Europe, as maintenance personnel and parts replacement were convenient. However, it was fatal in the Far East. If a bunch of parts were not stockpiled in advance, the machine would continue to strike until the parts were shipped from Europe. At the same time, the technicians were also highly paid professionals.
The Jiaozhou Textile Factory has about 7,000 workers and produces 700,000 pieces of cloth. In addition to supplying East Africa, the rest is mainly sold throughout East Asia.
The benefits of building a factory here are also obvious. In addition to the excellent port conditions, the sufficient labor force is the main reason. In addition, the wage expenditure is low, there is no shortage of raw materials, and it is close to the market (Far East, North Korea, Japan).
…
Next to Jiaozhou Textile Factory is Jiaozhou Garment Factory. Jiaozhou Garment Factory and Textile Factory are actually connected and share the factory infrastructure.
"What kind of dress is this? It looks so weird!"
"This is the Western suit that Westerners wear,"
"I've seen this. They call it a suit. Usually only high-ranking Western officials can wear it. Look at our factory. Only the factory director and technicians wear it."
"But I have definitely never seen this thing next to it, but it's somewhat similar to what the factory guards wear, but it looks better than theirs. Look, there's a stripe on the hat... What is this thing?" I originally wanted to say dog, but it didn't look like a dog.
"It looks a bit like the stone lions at the gates of wealthy families' houses."
"No way! It doesn't look like it at all. This thing has something on its head, and it's standing. I've seen stone lions before, they all look pretty, and they were squatting. This thing has its two front legs stretched out in front, and the color doesn't look festive at all."
"Who cares what it is? It's not what we wear anyway."
The finished product in front of us is the Type 70 military uniform (1870) designed independently in 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 Hechingen royal coat of arms, with a crown on its head. This kind of lion is too common in Europe, and many noble families and kingdoms have this element, just like the double-headed eagle.
There are two types of Type 70 military uniforms, grassland type and desert type. The only difference is the color. The grassland type is light blue, and the desert type is brown-yellow.
The biggest change has been in hats. The military caps of German and European countries are as long as a tube or a wide-brimmed hat, while the East African military cap combines the characteristics of both hats. Unlike the wide-brimmed hat, it does not have such an exaggerated bulge on the top, but is similar to the cylindrical hat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but not as regular, but rather loose, and 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 badge in the center. Like the national flag, it is made of brass in black, red and yellow.
In addition to saving fabric, this hat focuses on sun protection and can better prevent the sun from affecting vision.
The military jacket is not much different from the European one, with five pockets, four large pockets on the outside and an inner pocket on the inside. It is also matched with a belt, but it is made in Tanga, East Africa, and is made of canvas. At the same time, the belt has many holes reserved for future accessories.
The shape of military trousers is no different from that in Europe, so there is no need to change them.
The military uniforms designed by East Africa seem to have not changed much from the previous Prussian military uniforms. This is not because they were copied from Prussia, but because the whole of Germany was almost like this. For example, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Bavaria, and Hechingen in the previous independent era, all had similar shapes.
In addition to producing western suits and military uniforms, Jiaozhou Garment Factory also produces work clothes and women's clothing. Now East Africa is striving to change the situation where Prussian military uniforms are popular.
Of course, with mass production, there must be very few styles, a total of only four for ordinary people in East Africa to choose from, and they can be purchased from specialized stores using vouchers from the Hexingen Bank.
This time, East Africa is going to expand its military by 100,000, so a large number of military uniforms have been produced, all of which are Type 70 uniforms. In the next few years, East Africa will gradually replace the uniforms of the troops already equipped with Prussian uniforms with Type 70 uniforms.
…
Heixingen.
"Cousin Leopold, I will leave these people to you for the next few months. You can help me take good care of them." Ernst said to Leopold who had returned to reorganize the Hechingen Military Academy.
"Don't worry, I won't assign them any harsh tasks. How about letting them take care of logistics?" Leopold said blatantly.
"That's not necessary. The reason why I chose to hand these students over to you is to prevent them from being treated unfairly. You also know that many people here are from the Far East. If they were in the hands of other generals, they would probably just be used as cannon fodder. These are all 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 just need to treat them as ordinary troops under your command. Just don't treat them differently from other troops." Ernst said.
"So that's what you mean. But if you ask me like this, I can't just agree to it. I have to see their military level first so that I can assign tasks according to their level on the future battlefield." Leopold said frankly.
"No problem. Although they have never been to the battlefield, they have never missed military training and exercises. Moreover, they all have a good command of German and can communicate normally. They also have writing skills and are familiar with the military regulations and orders of the Prussian army." Ernst said confidently.
"Words are not enough. Let them gather first and I'll see what they are like," said Leopold.
Soon, all the students of the Heixingen Military Academy were urgently called together. A total of 2,247 people (third grade) gathered in the playground in an orderly formation.
"From the perspective of reaction speed and assembly speed, it is indeed good! It is better than that of the average kingdom army and can be compared with some elite troops. I just don't know how capable it is in implementation?" Leopold commented.
"That's easy. 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 your game is a little too big! You even have a practice area?"
…
The exercise ended in the evening.
Leopold said with satisfaction: "Very good. This group of students has strong organizational skills and the application of firearms. Their physical fitness is also top-notch. Judging from the exercise process alone, there is no problem. I have a feeling that as long as they are baptized on the battlefield, they can definitely be compared with the elite troops of Prussia."
"So, you must use your talents wisely and guide them to achieve success. This is the result of my years of hard work."
"Don't worry, Ernst, I originally thought that you appointed me to lead the team because you wanted to use the back door to let me take care of them. Now it seems that I misunderstood you."
"It's not really a misunderstanding. This could be considered a backdoor move. Otherwise, the future Prussian marshal would have led that unit as soon as it was established. Hahaha!" Ernst joked.
"That day will come." Leopold said. If his father could become the commander-in-chief, he would not be too bad either.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
