Chapter 685: Making the Best Use of People
Ernst said to Weimar: "Blacks are important soldiers, especially now that our East African population structure is too young. And now there is an important feature, that is, our East African territory has expanded more than six or seven times than before. In the past, our core territory was only in the east, but now it has to be added to the central and southern regions. These two regions will be threatened by war."
The main force of East Africa's new population has actually shifted from immigration to childbirth, so East Africa is also facing population pressure, which is a happy trouble.
On the contrary, if a country is facing an aging population, it probably won't be able to laugh. In Ernst's opinion, such countries are on the decline. Of course, this is also the inevitable path for East Africa in the future, unless East Africa does not make any progress and stays in the third country for many years like the African countries in the past.
Before the new generation grows up, the cost of raising children in East Africa is quite high. However, in the future, when the new generation who have received compulsory education grows up, East Africa's national strength will surely explode at a certain time period, probably in the next 20 to 30 years.
"Your Highness, we have registered all the workers and updated the data. If there is a conflict, we can ensure that we can draw manpower from them at any time," said Weimar.
The frequency of updates on the black population in East Africa is relatively high, especially in recent years of large-scale infrastructure construction, which causes hundreds of thousands of injuries and deaths every year, so the data is updated very quickly, which is a very distressing thing for the East African statistics departments.
But some things had to be done. If the blacks accidentally turned the tables, Ernst would have no place to cry.
"As for black people, we can only allow them to join the military system when we have no other choice. Otherwise, let them work as migrant workers. We will never be able to stage a Mamluk-style counterattack in East Africa," Ernst emphasized.
Mamluks were slaves introduced to ancient Egypt from the Arab region, or more accurately, "slave soldiers". Therefore, the fact that these Mamluks rose to power and became the ruling class in Egypt was the result of allowing slaves to enter the military system.
The army is a place where people are tempered, and unsurprisingly, it is also the easiest place to "turn over". After all, the army values military merit more. The Mamluks achieved a counterattack by relying on their control of military power.
The blacks in East Africa may take this path. After all, it is impossible for East Africa to provide the black vassal army with only "inferior weapons". Cannon fodder also needs "suitable" weapons.
In fact, in the previous battles with African natives in East Africa, there were many "captures". Even the indigenous tribes armed with stone spears and bows and arrows could cause heavy damage to the careless East African army. It's just that the continuous influx of immigrants in the rear of East Africa made this rare battle situation impossible to become a common phenomenon.
For example, in the previous life, there were only a few thousand Germans in German East Africa, and some black tribes were able to fight back and forth with the Germans.
The most famous was the Maji-Maji uprising in 1905, which broke out in German East Africa under the leadership of Kingikitile Nguale, a large-scale uprising against colonial rule that quickly swept across the southern part of German East Africa.
Subsequently, in 1907, Germany suppressed the uprising through brutal means such as famine, but the Maji Uprising dealt a severe blow to Germany's colonial rule, forcing Germany to adopt moderate means to manage German East Africa.
Therefore, strict defense against blacks is the political correctness in East Africa and an important policy for Ernst to govern the country.
Weimar said, "Yes, Your Highness, we have never relaxed our surveillance of black people. After all, black riots are not uncommon in East Africa. There are dozens of them every year, but they are not a big deal."
No matter how well black people are treated in East Africa, they are still slaves. Even among civilians there are people who are dissatisfied with the government. What's more, slaves are not even the lowest level of society. After all, there are cattle and horses above slaves. The fact that cattle and horses are ranked before slaves is also a major feature of slave society.
"Very good, small-scale riots are acceptable to us, but acceptable only means acceptable in terms of objective facts. Such mistakes cannot be avoided, but we must be tough on the subsequent procedures. Those who should be held accountable must be held accountable, and those who should be punished must be punished. In addition, the relevant personnel and departments must conduct self-examination, and the information must be recorded in the files as a reference for assessment." Ernst emphasized.
This is the same as the fact that in theory all plane accidents are man-made disasters. Even the Far Eastern Empire in the 21st century cannot avoid it, let alone backward countries like East Africa. However, in this era, East Africa's administrative efficiency is much higher than that of ordinary countries.
"Of course, the division of labor must be clear. We don't need black people to join the army yet, so we need them to continue to stick to their posts and stabilize production order, especially in the two major areas of agriculture and engineering."
What Ernst had to do was to ensure the stability of national production during the war. After all, war was very expensive. When many countries with poor financial conditions faced war, the future of the entire country was basically at stake. Therefore, it was very difficult for a country to rise from the ruins of war, especially for those defeated countries.
This brings us to Germany's heritage. After experiencing two world wars, Germany was able to become one of the decision-makers in Europe. Therefore, Germany's unification and accumulated wealth are unimaginable, and more importantly, its accumulation of talent.
Ernst went on to say: "We want war, not only to cope with the changes in the world since the Berlin Conference in 1884, but also to solve the geographical disadvantages of East Africa, especially the coastlines of the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. The incomplete coastline will not only cause trouble to the economic layout and development of East Africa, but also increase the difficulty of our national defense."
"Without a complete coastline, many railways and ports cannot be directly connected, just like when the Austro-Hungarian Empire lost the Venice region, it had to concentrate its resources in Trieste. Southwest Africa obviously does not have such population and industrial carrying capacity, which is not conducive to our trade with the Americas and West Africa."
"In the Indian Ocean, Mozambique has many excellent ports, and the coastal plains in southern Mozambique can be said to be one of the best lands for agriculture in Africa. Its fertility and terrain are not inferior to those of the Great Lakes region, and it has excellent ports as a support. It has more advantages in developing export-oriented economic agriculture than Somalia. Somalia only has an advantage in distance, but in the future, with technological advances, the speed of ships will become faster and faster, so that Mozambique's agricultural advantages can be fully utilized. In addition, the southern territory of Mozambique already has a subtropical climate, which is the most important point."
"Of course, all of this is based on a premise, that is, we must be prepared for a large-scale war. Once a war breaks out, we will face the risk of being surrounded on all sides. Although East Africa is the most populous country in Africa, our land area is also small, so our population density is not as high as many countries. Under this national condition of vast land and sparse population, if the enemy engages in mobile warfare with us with the goal of destroying East Africa's infrastructure and industrial production capacity, then our accumulation over the years will be wasted."
"And our enemies are not weak. If they try their best and mobilize a million troops, this is possible. So our troops and frontline residents must prepare for war and not be caught off guard."
Of course, there is one more thing Ernst didn’t say, which is that East Africa has been carrying out large-scale infrastructure since the 1970s, all for the purpose of realizing the “Industrial Development Plan” in the future, so that East Africa, like the Soviet Union in the past, can seize the opportunity and become an industrial country in a short period of time.
Industrialization requires capital, so the war must never be allowed to interrupt East Africa's production order. Therefore, as an important labor resource, black people maintain East Africa's industrial production order and ensure the stable growth of East African countries' fiscal revenue during the war, which is an important means for East Africa to accumulate original capital.
(End of this chapter)
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