African Entrepreneurship Records

  Chapter 95 Armory Upgrade

   August 20, 1867.

  Berlin, Hechingen Arsenal.

  Bang Bang   "Kuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu..."

  The worker holds the chisel carefully, and beats the rivets on the welding part of the machine rhythmically with the hammer.

  As the hammer fell again and again, the rivets were forcibly knocked off, but there were not too many marks left on the surface of the machine.

  Holding a large wrench in his hand, he used force to remove the screws, and then other workers sorted the removed rivets and iron filings into wooden barrels.

  Professional master craftsmen put the disassembled parts in a fixed position and put them into wooden boxes. These machines, which were not long in hand, were honorably retired from the Hexingen Arsenal.

  The disassembled machines were originally obtained from the Prussian royal family, along with the old facilities of the arsenal.

  When Ernst bought this arsenal, his purpose was not for these machines, but mainly for the workers and technicians in the factory.

  So the fate of this batch of machines was decided the moment they were acquired by Ernst.

  Of course, in line with the principle of making the best use of everything, this batch of dismantled and outdated machines will be sent to the East African colonies for re-arming to repair and process parts.

  Now the East African colonies are hoarding and equipping a large number of old-style flintlock guns, just in need of these machines to come in handy.

  Those old-style flintlock guns can still be used in East Africa for at least seven or eight years, which is enough to deal with the natives of Africa.

  The old machines are just responsible for the maintenance and parts replacement of these firearms. To be honest, there is no way. These machines can only do these jobs after leaving Berlin and the Prussian military industry system.

  The Hechingen Arsenal itself is a semi-finished product processing factory, and many parts have to be ordered in other factories in Prussia.

  So even if this batch of old equipment is reassembled in East Africa, there is no way to put it back into production, but it is more than enough to complete the maintenance of firearms and correct these small tasks.

It’s not that Ernst never thought of selling these machines, but unfortunately there are no good buyers. Needless to say, Europe, with the Prussian-Austrian War as a demonstration, countries are trying to improve their equipment, and are also facing the elimination of a large number of backward production machines The problem.

  So it can’t be sold at a high price at all. The Far East, South America and other backward areas have no contact with the official, and the freight alone is not a small sum.

  As for the most backward area in Africa, the indigenous tribes and small countries in West Africa may need it, but they have no money! In the era of the black slave trade, they could trade black slaves for weapons from European colonists. Now that slavery is banned in Europe and America, slaves are worthless.

  So, it is better to let these machines go to the East African colonies to continue to shine, and they can also be sent to East Africa with the help of immigrant ships instead of sending them alone.

   While dismantling the old equipment, new machines have been installed.

  These new machines will be used to produce the Dreiser rifles that the Prussian army is equipping. During the Prussian-Austro-Prussian War, Prussia completed the equipment replacement.

  After the war ended, the control over the military industry was naturally relaxed, so Ernst could easily get new machines.

  The new rifle, in addition to being provided to the Prussian Army, the rest will be used to equip the standing armed forces of the East African colonies.

  As part of the Prussian military industry system, the main service target of the Hechingen Arsenal is still the Prussian Army.

   After all, the components and some technologies needed by the Hechingen arsenal cannot be separated from the support of Prussia, and if the arsenal wants to make a profit, at least not lose money, it must serve the entire market.

   And under the premise of ensuring that no loss will be made, the armies of the East African colonies will be replenished with weapons.

  In East Africa, there have always been two kinds of military forces: standing armed forces and militia armed forces.

  The former are off-duty soldiers who are ready to respond to various crises, while the latter are militiamen who receive military training during the slack season and will only be mobilized when large-scale operations are required.

  Before, both were equipped with old-style flintlock guns. Of course, most of the weapons in the East African colonies were second-hand goods eliminated from the Prussian Army, and a small amount was produced by the Hechingen Arsenal itself.

  The difference between the two equipped with the same type of weapon is that the former is a regular army, and the daily military training is very intensive, and it mainly uses live ammunition. The latter has very little live ammunition experience, and empty gun aiming is the mainstream of training. Only when they are temporarily recruited to clean up the local aborigines can they have enough gunpowder to enjoy themselves.

  As for the Hechingen Arsenal, the newly produced Dresser rifles will be used to arm the standing armed forces of the East African colonies, that is, the out-of-production regular army. As for the old-style flintlocks, they will all be issued to the militias in the East African colonies.

  While the Hechingen Arsenal in Berlin is undergoing equipment upgrades, a branch of the Hechingen Arsenal is also under construction in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

  Different from Berlin's Hechingen Arsenal, which mainly produces rifles, the Hechingen Arsenal in the Austro-Hungarian Empire focuses on imitation and production of light artillery.

  Currently, the scale of the branch factory is very small, belonging to the experimental stage, which is better than some manual workshops, but it is mainly to provide experience for artillery production in the East African colonies.

Moreover, traditional arsenals have fixed partners, such as the Hechingen arsenal in Berlin, which was originally an industry under the Prussian government, but Ernst acquired and mastered the management rights, so after upgrading the equipment, it can continue to take To the order of the Prussian army.

  The branch factories in the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not have this treatment. The Hechingen Arsenal branch factory was located in Trieste. The purpose of this location is self-evident.

  It is to facilitate the supply to the East African colonies. East Africa currently does not have the ability to produce weapons and equipment, let alone artillery.

  The branch factory is to borrow Trieste's convenient shipping conditions (the Suez Canal will be opened in the future) to provide artillery power to the East African colonies.

  Currently, the East African colonial armed forces still use the most basic firearms, and the only slightly more powerful weapons are grenades and explosive packs.

  As for why light artillery is needed, it is to deal with potential threats to Portuguese colonies and the sea.

   Even the Sultanate of Zanzibar actually has more than a dozen artillery pieces, mainly inherited from the Oman Empire.

   Most of them are in the seaport of the Sultanate of Zanzibar, and after the East African colonies robbed the territory of the mainland part of Zanzibar, they also confiscated several old artillery pieces in Dar es Salaam and Mombasa respectively.

  The Sultanate of Zanzibar still has artillery that can be used, let alone Portugal and other sea colonists next door. This guy is indispensable on their ships.

  So it is better for the East African colonies to equip some artillery. As for the artillery of the Sultanate of Zanzibar, they are not only in disrepair and serious corruption, but also too small in number to be used by the East African colonies.

   Therefore, the establishment of a branch factory is necessary. As for why not directly buy a batch from Europe, the main reason is that the East African colonies are not used yet. Now the East African colonies are mainly digesting the territory and will not take the initiative to cause trouble.

  There will be no conflicts with the surrounding forces, and it is a short-sighted behavior to buy rather than buy. Buying is not as good as making, which is the long-term solution.

  (end of this chapter)