African Entrepreneurship Record

June 17, 1870 (half a month ago).

"Kuang Ji, Kuang Ji..."

In the sweltering boiler room, workers were shirtless and began to add coal to the boiler. As the temperature continued to rise, the wheels and huge crankshafts began to operate, 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.

Along with crawlers and rotating shafts, steam engines drive more than 1,500 machines to operate rapidly.

Jiaozhou Textile Factory is the only textile factory of the Hechingen Daily Necessities Company. Unlike the Berlin Textile Factory, it has a full set of textile machines imported from the UK.

The Berlin Textile Factory, also known as the Hechingen Textile Factory, was rebuilt from a textile company acquired in Berlin. Therefore, it uses equipment manufactured independently by Prussia. The scale is not large, with only about a hundred or so machines. The construction of the Jiaozhou Textile Factory was completed. Previously, it had been the largest manufacturer of "Prussian" military uniforms in East Africa.

During the colonial period in East Africa, Prussian military uniforms were not only military uniforms, but also civilian clothing. Men, women, and children, unless they were European immigrants, basically only wore Prussian military uniforms.

Now that the East African Kingdom has been established, naturally it cannot continue like this, otherwise it will really become a "Prussian Army" kingdom.

Moreover, recently Ernst was preparing for the Franco-Prussian War and began to produce Prussian military uniforms, preparing to stockpile a batch to supply the Prussian army. Therefore, the Berlin Textile Factory simply gave up its East African business and sold the finished products directly in the German region.

The Jiaozhou Textile Factory in the Far East began to take over its operations. The Jiaozhou Textile Factory was reintegrated from three original small factories, mainly to facilitate management, improve production efficiency, and to support related infrastructure, such as the private firefighting facility owned by the Jiaozhou factory. Bureau and employee family buildings, roads from the factory to the dock, factory-owned power plants (mainly providing lighting power), factory-owned repair shops, etc.

The reason why we use British equipment for textile machines is also very simple. It is cost-effective. Britain is the largest textile country in the world. It has a much higher accumulation of relevant technologies than Prussia. The machine failure rate is low. Machine failure is not a problem in Europe. Maintenance personnel It is easy to replace parts and components, which is really fatal in the Far East. If you don't stock up on a bunch of parts in advance, the machine will dare to stop working until the parts are shipped from Europe. At the same time, the technicians are also professionals hired with high salaries.

The Jiaozhou Textile Factory has more than 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 excellent port conditions, the main reason is sufficient labor. There is also low wage expenditure, no shortage of raw materials, and it is close to markets (Far East, North Korea, Japan).

…

Jiaozhou Textile Factory is next door to Jiaozhou Garment Factory. The Jiaozhou garment factory and the textile factory are actually connected and share the factory infrastructure.

"What kind of clothes are these? They look really weird!"

"This is a Western dress worn by Westerners,"

"I've seen this before. They're called suits. Usually only high-ranking Western officials can wear them. Look at our factory, only the director and technicians wear them."

"But I've never seen this thing next to me, but it looks similar to what the factory guards wear, but it looks better than theirs. Look, there's a strip on this hat... what is this?" I originally wanted to say dog, but look. It doesn't look like it.

"It looks a bit like the stone lion at the door of a wealthy family."

"No way! It doesn't look like anything at all. This thing has something on its head, and it's standing. I've seen those stone lions before. They're very good-looking, and they're squatting. The two front legs of the thing are stretched out in front, and the color doesn’t look festive at all.”

"Whatever it is! It's not what we wear anyway."

In front of you, the finished product is the Type 70 military uniform (1870) designed independently by East Africa, with a strong European style. As for the animal in question on the hat, it is actually the hat badge, the lion on the royal coat of arms of Hechingen. There is naturally a crown on the head. This kind of lion is too common in Europe. Many noble families and kingdoms have this element, just like the double-headed eagle.

There are two types of Type 70 military uniforms, grassland and desert. The only difference is the color. The grassland type is light blue, while the desert type is brown.

Hats have changed the most. The military caps in German countries and Europe have the same length as a tube or a big-brimmed hat. The East African military hat combines the characteristics of the two hats. Unlike the big-brimmed hat, it does not have such an exaggerated top. It is similar to the cylinder hat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but it is not so regular, but rather loose. At the same time, 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 cap badge in the center. Like the national flag, the colors are black, red and yellow, and made of brass.

In addition to saving fabric, this hat focuses on sun protection, which can better prevent the sun from affecting your vision.

Military uniform jackets are not much different from those in Europe. They have five pockets. In addition to the four large outer pockets, there is also an inner pocket inside. It is also paired with a belt, but it is produced in Tanga City, East Africa. The material is canvas. At the same time, this belt has many holes reserved for future pendants.

The shape of military uniform trousers is no different from that in Europe, so there is no need to change it.

The military uniforms designed in East Africa seem to have not changed much from the previous Prussian military uniforms. This is not a copy of Prussia, but is almost the same throughout Germany, such as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Bavaria, including Hechingen in the previous independent era. The shapes are almost the same.

In addition to producing suits and military uniforms, the Jiaozhou Garment Factory also produces work clothes and women's clothing. Now East Africa is trying to change the original situation where Prussian military uniforms were popular.

Of course, for mass production, there must be very few styles. There are only four types in total that ordinary people in East Africa can choose from. They can be purchased from specialized stores with Hechingen Bank vouchers.

This time East Africa will expand its army by 100,000, so a large number of military uniforms are produced, all of which are Type 70 military uniforms. In the following years, East Africa will gradually replace the uniforms already equipped with Prussian military uniforms with Type 70 military uniforms.

…

Heixingen.

"Cousin Leopold, these people of mine will be handed over to you in the next few months. You can help me take good care of them." Ernst said to Leopold who came back to reorganize the Hechingen Military Academy.

"Don't worry, I won't assign harsh tasks to them. How about letting them handle logistics?" Leopold said blatantly.

"That's not necessary. The reason why I hand over these students to you is to prevent them from being unfairly treated. You also know that many people here are from the Far East. If they are placed in the hands of other generals, they will probably just be used. Be cannon fodder. These are high-quality soldiers who have undergone long-term formal military training. Most of them will be taken to East Africa by me in the future. I also want to take advantage of this war to train them. You can treat them as ordinary people under my command. It’s fine as long as they are not treated differently from other troops,” Ernst said.

"So that's what you said, but if you ask like this, I can't just agree. I want to see what their military level is first, so that I can assign tasks on the future battlefield based on their level." Leopold said frankly. .

"No problem. Although they have never been on the battlefield, they have never failed in military training and exercises. They all have good German skills and can communicate normally. They are also capable of writing and are familiar with various military regulations and orders of the Prussian army. ." Ernst said confidently.

"It's empty talk. Let them gather first and let me see how it is." Leopold said.

Soon, the entire Hechingen Military Academy students were urgently summoned, a total of 2,247 people (third grade), and they gathered neatly on the playground in square formations.

"It's really good in terms of reaction speed and assembly speed! It's better than the average kingdom army and can be compared with some elites, but I don't know what the implementation capabilities are like?" Leopold commented.

"This is easy to handle. I have a military exercise ground in the west of Hechingen. We can organize an exercise today for you to use as a reference."

"That's great? But you're playing too big, right? There's even a training ground?"

…

In the evening, the exercise ended.

Leopold said with satisfaction: "It's very good. This group of students has strong organizational skills and application of firearms, and their physical fitness is also top-notch. Judging from the exercise process, there are no problems. I have a feeling that as long as they are on the battlefield, After baptism, they can definitely compare with the elite troops of Prussia."

"So, you have to have a good sword on the blade and lead them to make achievements. This is what I have cultivated for many years."

"Don't worry. Originally, I thought you appointed me to lead the team, Ernst, because you wanted to take care of them through the back door. Now it seems that I misunderstood you."

"It can't be said to be a misunderstanding. Originally, this was considered a backdoor, otherwise the future Prussian marshal would have led the army as soon as it was established, hahaha!" Ernst joked.

"There will be a day." Leopold said, if his father can achieve the position of commander-in-chief, he will not be too bad.