African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1168 French Front
The essence of the East African Canal project lies in the use of black "labor". Of course, no East African would mention this in front of Francis IV, a foreigner.

Moreover, Francis IV himself did not realize that the East African country, which developed from a colony, was missing something, yes, black people.

In a large African country like East Africa, almost all black people had disappeared, but Francis IV, who was surrounded by the people, did not notice this.

At least in most parts of East Africa now, blacks have become a rare race and population. Even the "surviving" black laborers have been organized into various labor groups by the East African government and concentrated in various parts of East Africa to build large-scale projects.

At present, 80 percent of the black survivors have been invested in the canal project by the East African government. It is difficult to see them unless you go to the canal construction site. Such canal construction sites are generally located in the wilderness, which is rarely seen by East Africans themselves, not to mention that most foreigners are mainly concentrated in East African cities.

……

Time flies and 1915 years have passed.

The smoke of war on the European battlefield did not dissipate, but instead intensified. On the Western Front, the Battle of the Marne, which began in September last year, began to become increasingly bloody.

"The German offensive has in fact been contained, but Britain and France have also suffered heavy losses. If they cannot withstand the powerful fire support from Germany, France will suffer a devastating disaster," said Rohrward, a representative of the East African Military Observation Group, as he stepped on the charred soil from artillery fire.

East African Army Colonel Kabril also agreed: "At present, although Britain and France have successfully prevented Germany's quick victory plan from failing, this does not mean that the overall situation has been determined. Instead, the war has been pushed into a more difficult stage of national strength consumption. From now on, the casualties between the two major groups will completely become cold numbers."

Rohrward agreed with the cold numbers and added, "Combining the previous statistics from all parties, the casualties on both sides in just the last few months may have exceeded 500,000. If the war continues to last longer, there will be millions or even tens of millions of casualties, and a large number of civilians will be affected. The Western Front has become a meat grinder."

In fact, in the Battle of the Marne alone, both sides lost more than 500,000 troops last year, not including other battlefields on the Western Front. Rohrward was too conservative after all. Of course, most of the lost troops were wounded. If it was just the number of deaths, it would be too horrific.

The vast majority of the wounded only temporarily lost their combat effectiveness. After resting in the rear for a period of time, they had to take up their weapons again until they died in battle.

The result of this is that East Africa makes a fortune just by exporting medicines to the two major military groups. However, the increase in effective medicines and the rapid recovery of the wounded further intensify the intensity of the war.

In the commodity trade between the Allies and the Central Powers, medicines produced in East Africa have become a necessity, because only East Africa's pharmaceutical industry has the production capacity to meet the orders of the two major military groups at the same time.

The pharmaceutical industry is an important part of the defense industry in East Africa's Third Five-Year Plan. In fact, it is a massive expansion of the pharmaceutical industry under the name of developing the defense industry.

After all, the domestic market in East Africa at that time did not need such a large-scale pharmaceutical industry production capacity to meet domestic needs. It was entirely prepared for large-scale wars.

Although Ernst could not predict the exact time of the outbreak of the war, he firmly believed that the European war was inevitable. After all, contradictions could not be eliminated, and European countries had no fear of war, so it would never go wrong to prepare in advance.

While Roalward, Gabriel and others were analyzing the situation on the Western Front, they heard a loud explosion suddenly less than a thousand meters away from the East African observation group.

"The German artillery has started again, retreat to the bunker quickly!" Gabriel shouted to everyone.

Yes, this East African military observation group is now on the side of the Anglo-French coalition forces. After the war broke out, East Africa sent similar non-military organizations to many countries, and France was naturally no exception.

Although the French frontline troops did not welcome these neutral personnel from a third country who spoke fluent German, they still provided shelter for the East Africans. A French soldier ran to the observation group and said in German mixed with French words: "Everyone, Germany has launched a new offensive. Please retreat to the rear as soon as possible."

"Thank you, Bruno!" said Gabriel.

Although many French people had a bad attitude towards East Africans, they did not treat the members of the East African Military Observation Group differently because of their identity as East African Germans.

Therefore, the members of the East African Military Observation Group were very polite to the service and security personnel arranged by the French government. As for their disgust towards the Germans, they did not take it to heart.

After all, the Germans fighting the French were not East African citizens, but they were of the same nationality! Therefore, the East Africans fully understood the mentality of the French officers and soldiers.

The group retreated in a panic to a bunker in the rear. Because it was close to the front line, the environment here was naturally not much better, but it was much better than the treatment of the French officers and soldiers crowded in the trenches on the front line.

The dim lights in the bunker were shaking due to the vibrations caused by the exploding shells. The tables and beds were covered with dust, and various military maps and labels were posted on the walls.

This is the living environment of the East African Military Observation Group. They hurriedly fled back to the bunker from the front, making the whole bunker look even more chaotic.

Major General Kuinman sat at the table with a calm face and scolded them: "Look at what you are like now. This is not the front line. You are all panicking. Stand still!"

No one dared to stab Major General Kuhnmann. After all, Major General Kuhnmann was an old man who had experienced the South African War. Although he was less than fifty years old, he had fought against the British and Portuguese forces with real swords and guns on the battlefield in South Africa.

"When I was your age, I had already fought in many wars. The army was not like this back then. It seems that peace has lasted too long, which is not good for the development of the army. You are the future of the National Defense Force, so you should not be afraid of war. Now that you are on the front line of the Franco-German War, you should take the initiative to learn from the two important military powers in the world."

In fact, it has been less than 30 years since the South African War, and there are still many veterans with rich combat experience in the East African Army. This time, Major General Kuinman brought this group of young people to experience the real battlefield environment to avoid being caught off guard when they encounter war in the future when they really take over the army.

"The war between the two major military groups is a rare opportunity. Even if you come here to observe the war forms and combat thinking of the two world-class armies of Germany and France, it will be a valuable asset for you in the future, so you must cherish this opportunity. If you want to be a parasite, then submit an application report to me and I can let you return home early."

Naturally, no one is stupid enough to talk to them. East Africa is still a relatively martial country. Peace has only come in the last twenty years or so. Due to the influence of the fathers, the social atmosphere in East Africa is still relatively strong.

Moreover, the East African Army has always taken Germany as its role model and has a lot of experience in educating soldiers. The quality of the entire East African National Defense Force has not declined on a large scale. Coupled with the older generation's words and deeds, if they were placed on the Western Front today, their performance would not necessarily be worse than that of German and French officers.

After all, the Franco-Prussian War took place much earlier than the South African War, which means that Germany and France have not fought a major war for decades. To exaggerate a little, the two countries have not fought a major war for half a century.

As for the colonial wars, they certainly cannot be included. After all, there were many colonies in East Africa, so East Africa was exposed to a lot of small-scale wars such as colonial wars, even more than Germany.

However, colonial wars were of limited help to wars between great powers. For example, in the war between Germany and Britain and France, Britain and France had many more opportunities overseas, yet they were still badly beaten by Germany after the war broke out.

(End of this chapter)