African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 875 Naval After-sales Service

Of course, East Africa will not stop the "fraudulent" behavior of Germany and Belgium. After all, in Ernst's view, as long as the non-black population in the buffer zone between East Africa and West Africa can be increased, it will be beneficial to the future of East Africa.

 …

While the Jiaozhou Consulate was promoting the royal territory of Sigmaringen, the "East African" warships on Jiaozhou Bay were also conducting military training.

After receiving the East African warships, the scale of the Far Northeast Navy was further expanded, and two of the ironclads were deployed in Jiaozhou.

 In the original history, the Beiyang Navy only had two naval bases, namely Weihai and Lushun. Now, with the increasingly important status of Jiaozhou, it was positioned as the third largest base a few years ago.

Especially after the replenishment of decommissioned warships in East Africa, this third base, which was originally "merely superficial", was directly used to make up for its shortcomings. Of course, there is still a certain gap compared to the first two.

East Africa has sold three ironclad ships and seven gunboats. The scale is relatively large, and it naturally provides after-sales service. Therefore, it also sent a military advisory group to conduct drills, daily maintenance and other training for the sailors of its three ironclad ships.

"If we take an island country in the east as our imaginary enemy, although you are stronger than it in terms of naval size, there is not much difference in overall quality and performance, especially the few warships we exported from East Africa, there are even old guys from more than ten years ago, so The maintenance of ships must be more careful.”

 The warships are cheap but not good, especially the warships sold at discounts in East Africa, but the price is indeed an ultra-low price that the Far Eastern Empire cannot refuse.

Moreover, the warships sold in East Africa are enough to form a combat system, and their combat effectiveness has been proven in the East African naval battle. Technically, they cannot be compared with British warships, but they are still capable of fighting if they are properly operated. If they are properly maintained, they can be used for twenty or thirty years. There is no big problem in the year.

After all, in Liu Fulong's mind, Japan is just a small island country. How could it have the guts to have a large-scale military conflict with the Far East Empire? Although Japan and the Far East Empire had a lot of friction at sea before, in his view, a small country "took advantage" Behavior.

As for some "minor problems", even today's most advanced warships cannot avoid them. Overcoming difficulties still depends on the specific operations of the Far Eastern Empire sailors.

 Thanks to Ernst's "eccentricity", these warships were overhauled in East African shipyards before departure, and some equipment was upgraded at the same time, so there were basically no major problems.

“Lieutenant Claire, why do you use Japan as our imaginary enemy in every exercise?” Liu Fulong, the commander of the Wuwei ship, couldn’t help but ask.

Claire: "I never said it was Japan, I just said a certain eastern island country, and in the Far East, only you and Japan have a decent navy, but Japan is so small, but its naval development is on par with yours. Shouldn’t it be something to be wary of?”

  In other words, the Far Eastern Empire does not care, otherwise it will definitely defeat the Japanese pirates with a "thundering force". After all, Japanese pirates are a historical problem that has existed since the Ming Dynasty. No one dares to imagine that the island country of Japan has the huge ambition of "snake swallowing an elephant".

Liu Fulong shook his head and said: "Maybe Japan is weak, so it can only rely on strong ships and cannons to maintain a sense of security."

Claire denied: "I don't think so. The development of Japan's navy has seriously dragged down the country's economy. No matter how unsafe it is, it has to ensure its own economic problems. I have searched all over the world. The only country that is as aggressive as Japan is Prussia. They have such high military expenditures. Expenditure is bound to be unsustainable, so we can only relieve the pressure through external expansion. As expected, their first target must be North Korea, and as North Korea is your client, will you save it or not? "

Of course, although Claire's words have some truth, Liu Fulong still insisted on his opinion: "Our navy is much more powerful than Japan. Even if they are ambitious, they cannot defeat us." Regarding Liu Fulong's stubbornness, Claire said: "What do you think about the Lisa naval battle?" You should also have some understanding. At that time, the Austro-Hungarian Navy defeated the strong with the weak. In the more recent East African naval battle, our country's military strength was far inferior to that of the United Kingdom, but the two sides also had a tie. The gap between the Japanese Navy and the Far East Imperial Navy was obviously even greater. It’s small, so as the old saying of your Far Eastern Empire goes, it’s better to sail with caution.”

“Furthermore, as the main military force of the contemporary era, the navy must be taken seriously no matter what, so the necessary training must be provided.”

“We in the East African Navy have a saying that we should care for our warships like we treat our family members. All the members of the East African Navy come from domestic talents who have received at least a secondary education level, and there are also many talents who have received higher education.”

“Under such circumstances, only the East African navy can perform well in the East African naval battle, but our navy’s problem is obviously bigger, especially the quality of its soldiers is far from that of East Africa.”

“As far as I know, Japan is also a country that attaches great importance to education. They have implemented compulsory education. Although it is not as good as East Africa and Germany, in the Far Eastern Empire, Japan’s level is definitely first-rate.”

"In terms of cultural knowledge, I am not very optimistic about you. After all, it is difficult to become talented in a short period of time without receiving scientific and systematic education. However, there is a saying that practice makes perfect, so the amount of training in the Navy cannot be less at all, and at the same time it must be Master the necessary ship knowledge, and members of our military advisory group will fully cooperate with you on this point."

It is impossible to hide something private. For the Far East Navy, the East African Military Advisory Group almost teaches everything. After all, warship technology continued to advance in the 19th century. What may be popular now will be outdated in a few days, so the East African Navy itself has Keep learning and exploring.

Of course, for the East African Navy, if East African ships can perform well in the Far Eastern Empire in the future, it will also be good for the country’s warship sales business. The UK has a clear understanding of this.

If it weren’t for the Royal Navy’s prestigious reputation, then who would buy British warships? The Far Eastern Empire also wanted to buy British warships with all its strength at the beginning, but the British were too cautious and were finally stopped by Germany.

Liu Fulong was deeply touched by what Claire said. He actually didn’t know much about the actual level of these military instructors in East Africa compared to the world.

But in his own opinion, they are all talented and learned, and there is a saying that "a strict teacher produces a good apprentice". The training volume and workload of the entire Jiaozhou military base are the highest among the Far Eastern Empire Navy.

  In fact, this is also the result of the competition between East African instructors and German instructors. East Africa is a German country, so East African citizens always want to compare with Germany, the country ranked first in national power among German countries.

 Especially after the end of the South African War, the self-confidence of East African people has been further improved, and the comparison mentality has become even more intense.

 Especially the navy. The East African navy used to rank first among the three major German countries (East Africa, Germany, and Austria). However, since the 1980s, the German navy has developed rapidly, especially after William II came to power.

This makes the East African Navy feel somewhat unbalanced. Of course, the current East African Navy is no longer rapidly expanding in size, which has important reasons for the economic development of East Africa, whether it is the adjustment of the agricultural industry structure, the development of new territories, the upgrading of industrial technology, the construction of national infrastructure, etc. It costs money to wait.

 The proportion of funds received by the military has naturally decreased. Of course, the overall military expenditure of the East African military has increased steadily.

 (End of this chapter)