African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1133 Final preparations
Serbia had little chance of winning against the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This was not only the opinion of Archduke Ferdinand (Maximilian I), but also the view of most European countries.

But Ernst retorted: "Father-in-law, there is indeed nothing wrong with what you said. If it is just Serbia, Austria-Hungary can indeed gain an advantage by relying on its national strength, but isn't this the same as what most countries thought of the Ottoman Empire before the First Balkan War?"

Archduke Ferdinand said: "How can the Ottoman Empire be compared with the Austro-Hungarian Empire!"

Ernst explained slowly: "Although the Ottoman Empire was not as powerful as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it was still a huge threat to the Balkan League. However, the Balkan League won the final victory."

"One of the key reasons is the support of other European countries behind the Balkan Alliance, which enables the Balkan Alliance to arm its own army. Otherwise, they would not even have the start-up funds."

"Similarly, the relationship between Serbia and Russia is quite good now. If a war breaks out between Serbia and Austria-Hungary, is it possible that Russia will stand idly by?"

Of course not. As early as when Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia, Russia was very dissatisfied with Austria-Hungary. After all, Russia gained nothing at that time, which made Russia depressed for a long time.

The importance of the Balkan Peninsula to Russia is in no way inferior to that to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

There are a large number of Yugoslavs living in several countries on the Balkan Peninsula, especially Serbia, which completely regards itself as a Slavic nation. If Russia can make good use of this, it will be able to establish a Greater Slavic country covering the Balkan Peninsula and break through the blockade between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.

Moreover, the location of the Balkans originally belonged to the former Eastern Roman Empire, and Russia has always regarded itself as the successor of the Eastern Roman Empire. If Russia can acquire the Balkan Peninsula, its self-proclaimed "Third Rome" will basically be realized.

From this point of view, Russia is worthy of East Africa's envy. After all, Russia can continue to pursue further claims, while East Africa has reached its peak.

East Africa's official name today is the "Rhine Empire", and this Rhine Empire is already the most powerful country in the history of the African continent.

Before East Africa, there was almost no civilization worth mentioning on the entire African continent except ancient Egypt. As for the present-day Egypt, it has long become a secondary civilization of Arab civilization.

Moreover, even ancient Egypt's activities were limited to a corner of North Africa and could not represent the whole of Africa at all. East Africa is different. It occupies the best land on the African continent and its area is close to half of the continent. Data on other levels have brought Africa to a height that it should not exist.

Back to the relationship between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, Ernst's inference did make his father-in-law feel depressed.

"Russia is indeed a big problem. I just hope that Russia will not turn against Serbia and Austria-Hungary next."

It was almost impossible not to fall out. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was already strong enough. If it conquered Serbia, Russia would be completely at a disadvantage in the competition in the Balkan Peninsula.

This is the Russian side's idea, but Ernst certainly does not think so. As long as the Austro-Hungarian Empire cannot solve the national problem, even if it takes Serbia, it will be carrying a huge burden. Putting himself in the shoes of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Ernst himself will definitely not be willing to carry such a burden.

……

After chatting with his family, Ernst was not idle. At present, the possibility of war breaking out in Europe is very high, and East Africa naturally has to make final preparations for a possible full-scale war in Europe.

Once a war breaks out, the large amount of materials stored in East Africa will be continuously transported to Europe, such as arms, medicines, food, cotton, rubber and other strategic materials. "Since three years ago, we have stockpiled a large amount of war reserve materials in various ports. As long as a large-scale war breaks out in Europe, we can guarantee the shipment to Europe in the shortest possible time." Siwei Te introduced to Ernst.

Under the guidance of Ernst, the East African government had long judged that war would inevitably break out in Europe. Therefore, starting from the Third Five-Year Plan, led by the government, state-owned enterprises and other units in East Africa increased their production efforts and stockpiled large quantities of military and civilian supplies.

The stockpiling of materials will inevitably lead to a scarcity of products in the East African market. This is also one of the important reasons why East Africa opened up its market. This method can be used to offset the commodity gap in the domestic market of East Africa. At the same time, it is an important supplement to the production of materials for export to Europe in East Africa after the outbreak of World War I.

"At present, in the pharmaceutical field alone, we have stockpiled a large number of sanitary napkins, hemostatic cloths, anti-inflammatory drugs, vaccines and other products for battlefield environments, and have produced a batch of gas masks for possible chemical warfare."

Gas masks were a product that quickly became popular during the First World War in the previous life. The Central Powers and the Allied Powers used various chemical agents to produce poison gas, which had a significant impact on the war. Therefore, under the guidance of Ernst, many pig head gas masks were produced in East Africa.

Although European countries have a good industrial base, it is difficult to produce a large number of gas masks in a short period of time to meet the demand for sudden chemical weapons. In this way, East Africa can make a fortune. In addition to the finished products that have already been manufactured, East Africa now has the world's largest gas mask production line. As long as the two major camps are willing to pay, these production lines can produce continuously and deliver them to Europe.

In fact, in terms of medicines, there is still a lot that Siwei Te has not mentioned in detail, such as controlled drugs, of which East Africa also has huge reserves.

The so-called controlled drugs are some illegal drugs circulating on the European market today. Of course, these drugs are legal in Europe, the United States and other regions, but they are controlled products in East Africa.

In the past, the so-called German superman, Slavic superman, and Anglo-Saxon soldiers all suffered from drug addiction, which stimulated the soldiers' fighting power. The number of people participating in the war in the two major camps reached tens of millions. How could East Africa give up such a huge market?

The current production of these controlled drugs in East Africa can be said to be debt-driven production. After all, due to legal reasons, the market for such drugs in East Africa is narrow, so if they want to expand the production line, they must endure the unprofitable situation in the early stages.

In this case, the East African government can only advance funds to entrust enterprises to expand production lines and carry out large-scale production. Therefore, a large number of pharmaceutical companies in East Africa are now producing with debt. If they want to eliminate this debt, European and American soldiers will naturally need to shed blood.

This is also an important reason why East Africa is eager for war to break out. Many companies in East Africa are carrying out production activities under the pressure of debt. At present, the foreign debt owed by East Africa has reached a huge amount of 15 billion Rhines, which is almost more than 500 million pounds.

East Africa has become the world's second largest debtor country after the United States. The difference between East Africa and the United States is that these debts have been accumulated rapidly in just a few years.

In addition to private debts, the East African governments have borrowed heavily from European countries, using their country's railways, roads, factories and other large amounts of state-owned assets as collateral. If these debts cannot be repaid, the savings of the East African people over the years will be lost.

This is also the main reason why Ernst was so emotional after Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated. After all, although Ernst was not familiar with Archduke Ferdinand (Austria-Hungary), they were still relatives.

The assassination of Ferdinand meant that Austria-Hungary would inevitably respond, and if Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Russia would certainly not remain indifferent. If a war broke out between Russia and Austria-Hungary, it would inevitably trigger a chain reaction throughout Europe, and Germany and France would inevitably take the next step.

After all, the military competition in Europe has been going on for so long, and it was originally intended to prepare for a war. If the war was not launched, it would be very uncomfortable.

For example, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was the first to provoke the war in the previous life. Even if it had not launched the war, the Habsburg royal family would have had to bear the pressure of the country's economic crisis. At least the American economic crisis had already spread to Europe, which was one of the causes of the previous Balkan War. A large number of companies in the Near East went bankrupt, forcing the Balkan regimes to launch wars to shift the contradictions, just like the pig farming industry, one of Serbia's pillar industries, went bankrupt because of this economic crisis.

(End of this chapter)