Chapter 309 Private Agent Organization
"Richard", whose real name is Augusta, is one of the leaders of the British branch of the Hechingen Foundation's Commercial Intelligence Department's secret organization.
The Hechingen Consortium's Commercial Intelligence Department was established in 1866, and its initial function was indeed only to collect commercial intelligence for Ernst's reference.
Later, with the development of the consortium and the development of the East African colonies, they also began to search for national and regional intelligence. Ernst directly separated a group of people from the Hechingen Consortium's intelligence department to form a secret organization. In name, they were the group's commercial intelligence collectors, but in fact they were Ernst's spy agent organization.
Most of its members are selected from the Hechingen Military Academy, have received professional training, and are relatively loyal. Their disadvantage is that they are generally young, which is why Augusta and others are relatively immature.
The secret organization of the Hechingen Commercial Intelligence Bureau does not currently belong to the East African government, but is an agent organization under Ernst's personal name. It is hosted by the National Audit Department and other departments within East Africa to monitor the status of operations in East African countries. Even Constantine is unaware of the existence of this organization.
Although the secret organization is currently under Ernst's personal leadership, it will inevitably be integrated into the East African national agencies in the future and can be regarded as the predecessor of the East African National Security Department.
Abroad, the Heixingen Commercial Intelligence Bureau's secret organizations mainly exist in countries with democratically elected governments such as the United Kingdom, the United States, and France. After all, the members of the secret organizations have relatively little experience, so it is easier to carry out work in these countries with lax controls and slowly accumulate the work experience of intelligence personnel.
Strong and authoritarian countries like East Africa are not suitable for espionage activities and are prone to being exposed. Of course, this is assuming that the state system has not collapsed. Old countries like the Far East and the Austro-Hungarian Empire can be infiltrated like a sieve.
Fortunately, Ernst's intelligence agency currently has limited capabilities and its main activities are in countries that may pose a threat to East Africa, with Britain, the United States, Portugal and France being the focus.
Among them, Britain, Portugal and France had colonies in Africa, while the United States was looking for trade markets everywhere under the suppression of Britain. Therefore, East Africa was not very welcoming to American businessmen. Just as the United States was actively developing in the Far East, American businessmen also had a clearer understanding of the situation in the Far East and Japan through trade. East Africa is such a big country that it would hide the truth as long as possible. Naturally, it did not want to deal with Americans. Even the actions of American businessmen seeking to set up a trading location in Zanzibar were rejected by East Africa.
In this era, the United States is still the United States, not the American Empire of the previous life. It is just a poor creature under Britain and France, so the character is packaged very well. American businessmen did come to Zanzibar to do business under the banner of fair and free trade, but Ernst chose to refuse.
American businessmen operating in the Indian Ocean region have come to the conclusion that East Africa is a rather closed country. However, this is understandable as a German overseas colony would naturally have to be more cautious without the help of its mother country. In any case, apart from the Austrians, the East African government has not been seen to be friendly to any other country's businessmen.
In fact, there are, and that is the merchants of the Sultanate of Zanzibar. The Sultanate of Zanzibar is the younger brother of East Africa, so East Africa is naturally at ease. At the same time, a large share of East Africa's import and export trade is conducted through the Sultanate of Zanzibar, and the markets along the Middle East and the Indian Ocean coast also rely on the Sultanate of Zanzibar to open up.
…
Dar es Salaam city.
Three Hechingen ocean-going ships began to unload the Dreiser gun production machines that had been eliminated from the Hechingen Arsenal in Berlin. East African organizations mobilized a large number of carriages and manpower to receive the goods at the port.
"These machines are relatively new, having been used only four or five years ago. Compared with those in the East African Arsenal, they are very advanced and more complete. The parts are sealed in boxes. Do not remove the seals before arriving at the destination, and do not let rain penetrate into the parts in the boxes." Wilson, a technician on board the ship, said to Bryce, an East African government official who came to take over the machines.
Bryce: "Don't worry, we have prepared enough rainproof sheets and hemp ropes to ensure that these machines will not be exposed to rain before they reach their destination."
Vicente: "Also, it's better not to have a bumpy ride. Although these machines are not that valuable, it would be bad if they were damaged during transportation."
Bryce: "No problem. We have had experience in transporting a batch of mining equipment to Mbeya before. Currently, we send people to maintain the road from Dar es Salaam to Mbeya every month. Unless there is extreme weather, the general road condition can be guaranteed."
Wisent: "These are not the main points. I want to know how the factory construction is going?"
Bryce: "I don't know about this, but there shouldn't be a problem. After all, the government will definitely consider the factory problem. At least they can build it on the way you are coming. Mbeya City has no shortage of manpower, and they still have the ability to build a few factories. There is telegraph contact, so they must have received the news two months ago."
The infrastructure level in East Africa is still good, especially the large projects. There are about 10 million indigenous people living in East Africa. The number is so large that East Africa is too lazy to count it now. At least the low-level labor force is in an overflowing state.
Excluding the old, weak, sick and disabled, there are still millions of laborers, but the life expectancy of the indigenous people is very short, and there is basically no one who is too old.
Ernst was lucky. The planning of the Mbeya Arsenal came at a good time. The Prussian government intended to phase out the outdated Dreiser rifle. In addition, with the unification of Germany, military products would naturally have to be unified into Prussian standards. As a result, many German military enterprises were faced with the problem of changing careers. Those with good luck were incorporated into Prussia, while those with bad luck had to go bankrupt. Many of the German states, in particular, had their own military industries. Although they were mainly small workshops, some of their equipment was still good, albeit on a relatively small scale.
So he could buy a bunch of machinery and equipment at almost the price of scrap metal, and by piecing together things, Ernst was able to put together a complete weapons production chain.
Although the Berlin Hechingen Arsenal produces guns, it mainly purchases parts, and these states have complete gun parts and accessories production workshops.
After acquiring a large number of various weapons production machines and equipment, as long as they are reassembled and produced in East Africa, basically most of the weapons that Europe can currently produce, combined with the steel in Mbeya City, can be produced independently by East Africa.
Weapons that East Africa cannot produce, including pistols, bayonets, daggers, small artillery, etc., were all equipped by East Africa in this procurement.
Although the output may not be satisfactory due to the low production efficiency of manual workshops and the large gap in steel production capacity, it is an important step towards the independence of East African weapons and equipment.
(End of this chapter)
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