Chapter 36: Coastal District
"Everyone, pay attention. The five-kilometer weighted cross-country race is about to begin!"
The new East African colonial army formed by Chinese immigrants marched forward in the rain.
It was rainy and cloudy in East Africa in April, but the new recruits in the colonies still had to receive training. As time passed, the East African colonies had begun to layout the entire inland.
After the advance group set off, the development of this area originally close to Dar es Salaam naturally did not stagnate. This was the first place the immigrants came to. As the name of the First Town suggests, every Chinese immigrant who came to East Africa had to stay here and be sent to various new bases after being redistributed.
Recently, the East African colonies have begun planning new villages and towns, mainly developing the first town to the north. The plains there are relatively vast and are the core area of the Tanzanian coastal plains.
Dar es Salaam belongs to the Sultanate of Zanzibar, with it as the core, spreading across the entire East African coast from north to south. However, the plain part to the west of the coast close to the inland has few people. The main body of the Sultanate of Zanzibar is still on Zanzibar Island and Dar es Salaam opposite it. Other areas have small populations.
This gave the East African Colony an opportunity. In order to expand the land as much as possible, the East African Colony did not plan to set up strongholds around the first town, but to build three new towns at a slightly farther distance: Msorwa, Pongwe and Manda.
In this way, starting from the first town (Mlandizi), a huge circle was formed through Msorwa, Pongwe, Mandaga and the second town (Ruvo). Including the third town (Kitonga), the entire area of almost 3,500 square kilometers was included. For such a large area, the East African Colony decided to establish the East African Colony Coastal Zone.
The Maritime District temporarily had six towns under its jurisdiction, with its seat in the First Town, making it the first sizable district in the colony.
Land cannot appear out of thin air, so it becomes important to drive out the indigenous people of this land. After nearly a year of development, the number of Chinese immigrants in this area has reached more than 18,000, and they are concentrated around three completed towns.
Therefore, the East African colony decided to send out an army of 2,000 people to conduct a sweep of the indigenous tribes in the coastal area.
The weapons have been prepared in the warehouse for a long time. Now they can be distributed to the soldiers after a short training and then set out to eliminate the indigenous tribes.
April is the rainy season, so colonial soldiers often encounter heavy rain during training, but the German instructors don't care about that, and everyone must complete the training on time every day.
The recruits climbed forward painfully in the mud, with the sound of gunfire ringing in their ears from time to time, training their courage.
The natives that the new recruits had to face were not difficult opponents. They were mainly small tribes living in the mountains and forests. The larger tribes were all in the west. Those with tough brains had already been captured by the Sultanate of Zanzibar and sold to Arab countries.
It's okay for the Sultanate of Zanzibar to bully the natives, but the East African colonies armed with guns are not to be trifled with, so the two sides have lived in peace until now.
The stolen goods from the East African colonies were usually sold through the Sultanate of Zanzibar. Now the Sultanate of Zanzibar has begun to lie low, sitting at home waiting for the East African colonies to deliver slaves and ivory to their doorstep.
The Sultanate of Zanzibar was responsible for selling these goods overseas through Arab merchants, so the early East African colonies actually promoted the abnormal prosperity of the Sultanate of Zanzibar.
…
A few days later.
Manda, the northernmost part of the coastal area.
"Chase them quickly. Even if we can't catch them, we can't let them run back. Shoot!"
Bang…bang…bang…
The panicked natives could only flee to the north for their lives. It must be said that these natives ran really fast and disappeared in a short while.
"Okay, let's just chase them here! The north is not our target right now. Everyone take a break for now."
"Captain, how could that gang of black men run so fast? They disappeared in a flash!"
"That's because these natives make their living by hunting. Every day they have to chase various animals or be chased by animals. Imagine how fast lions, cheetahs and wildebeests run. If these natives can't catch up or escape, they will starve to death or be eaten! We are different. In the Far East, we have mainly been farming for generations, and we put all our energy into the fields. So we can't run as fast as those natives who compete with wild animals every day to see who can run faster."
…
The German commander Rorschach was studying the map. Currently, Alman was in charge of the entire military affairs of the East African colony, while Rorschach was in charge of the military affairs of the coastal area. Therefore, he could be considered the second in command in the colonial military force.
This time, Rorschach was the leader of the mission to drive out the indigenous tribes in the coastal area. These recruits were led by German veterans with rich war experience, and some students from the Hechingen Military Academy were mixed in to act as translators.
This coastal area operation was the first large-scale coordinated operation, with a total of 2,321 people mobilized.
The completion of the operation means that the plan to use Chinese people for large-scale military purposes is feasible, and the Hechingen Military Academy played an important connecting role in this.
But this aroused Ernst's vigilance. Although the students of the Hechingen Military Academy had been brainwashed and were very loyal to the Hohenzollern family, he still had to be careful about them forming groups and splitting against other Germans.
After all, these students of the Hechingen Military Academy could communicate directly with the soldiers of the colonial army, while the German commanders had to rely on the students of the Hechingen Military Academy to act as translators.
This shows how much influence the students of the Hechingen Military Academy had on the lower-level soldiers in the colony.
For Ernst, any uncontrollable cause must be eliminated in the bud. After thinking for a long time, Ernst came up with a good idea.
The Hechingen Military Academy should not only have Chinese students, but also white students. Ernst planned to find some orphans in Europe, especially in Germany, and let them learn German and Chinese, and finally develop together with the Chinese students in the colonial army.
In this way, the two can supervise and restrain each other, and studying in the same school can also allow them to communicate and integrate.
The future colonial army will have white people who can understand the Chinese immigrants' language. They can understand the immigrants' true thoughts and report to Ernst at all times.
This was a delaying tactic. What really needed to be done was to start German education in the colony. Once the entire colony spoke German, Ernst could feel a little more at ease.
Fortunately, the scale of the colony is not large now, and Ernst does not have to worry about anyone trying to cause trouble. The colony is heavily dependent on the Hexingen Consortium, which is why Ernst can remotely command the East African colony.
At the same time, he continued to send his confidants to the East African colonies to hold important positions in order to divide the colonial high-level officials. These measures that were beneficial to his centralization of power were not implemented.
(End of this chapter)
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