African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 937 Countdown to War

After preparing the relevant materials and documents, Mansk brought Cruise and his party to the military restricted area northwest of Dar es Salaam, accompanied by the Guards Division and security departments throughout the journey.

After all, Dar es Salaam is close to the capital of East Africa, the First Town. Therefore, for the safety of the First Town, not everyone can enter and exit the vicinity of Dar es Salaam at will, especially the military jurisdiction of the Guards Division.

This was also the first time that Cruz and other Spaniards went deep into East Africa. Except for Spanish diplomats who could reach the first town, their usual activities were limited to the urban area of ​​Dar es Salaam.

The weapons drill site is a training base of the Guards Division. Cruz and others got a preliminary glimpse of the East African soldiers here. It is now three o'clock in the afternoon, so there are many troops in the training base organizing regular afternoon training.

"It is worthy of being a powerful army that can defeat Portugal and Britain. Whether from the strictness of the organization or the appearance of the soldiers, it can be seen that this is a force with strong combat effectiveness." Cruz exclaimed without exaggeration.

This made the accompanying Guards Division officer Farkid very comfortable. After all, it was more fulfilling to be praised by a country like Spain, which was also one of the great powers.

Farkid introduced: "Mr. Cruz, our East African Army has always constrained itself with the most stringent requirements, attaches importance to discipline and training, and can achieve this effect day after day."

Cruz continued to admire: "If our Spanish army can be like the East African army, then I believe that even the Americans may not be able to overwhelm us on the battlefield, but unfortunately..."

For Cruz, he was quite familiar with the morality of the Spanish army. The more he knew, the less optimistic he was about the outcome of this war.

Falkid consoled him, "As a veteran power, Spain is not necessarily worse than the United States. The navies of the two countries may have some gaps, but that is caused by the gap in economic strength. The U.S. Army may not be comparable. So with advanced weapons and adequate preparations, I believe Spain will teach the Americans a profound lesson in land combat."

The main battlefield of the colonial war was still the ocean. The Spanish Army had little chance to perform, and there was a huge gap between the colonial army and the Spanish mainland army. However, the opponent of the Spanish colonial army was probably the US Navy.

Mansk said at this time: "As the saying goes, sharpening the knife does not delay the chopping of wood. The advantage in equipment can often change the direction of the war, so you should introduce this rifle in large quantities in the colonies. Of course, no matter how much I brag, it is better to demonstrate it directly."

Soon the group arrived at the rainforest combat terrain simulated by the Guards Division, which basically replicated the rainforest combat environment, with dense jungle, rivers and other wetland types.

The soldiers of the Guards Division operated the M1895C jungle rifles and began various targeted demonstrations, including immersing the guns in water and shooting at targets in the dense forest.

Manske explained: "We have made detailed modifications to the gun grip so that sweat and rain can quickly flow away along the lines, and it has an anti-slip function to ensure that you won't lose your grip."

"When facing an enemy in a dense forest, the surrounding area is full of vegetation, and the enemy can easily blend into the terrain. At this time, it is not easy to lock on the target, so increasing the power of the bullet can effectively increase the damage effect after hitting the target..."

At the same time, Mansk also promoted other products: "Look at this pair of rain boots. We designed them specifically for tropical jungle terrain. East Africa is a major rubber producer, so we have certain advantages in raw materials. If you are interested in buying them, we can give you a certain discount... rainproof cloth... canned food..."

The performance and quality of these military products were mostly recognized by Cruise, after all, many of them were mature products equipped by the active troops in East Africa. After the demonstration, Cruise said to Mansk and others, "Very good, I can decide to increase the purchase volume of rifles to 2,000, but I can only decide the purchase volume of rifles. Although other military products in East Africa are good, I don't have the relevant authority. At the same time, I am more interested in the uniforms of the East African Army. I wonder if you can give me a set?"

Cruz's words surprised Mansk. It was well known that the military uniform style of East Africa was "unique" in the world. In the early days of the South African War, it was even called "vagrant troops" by the British and Portuguese. The main reason was that it was too plain and unpleasant. Of course, as the war progressed, this gray and black military uniform became a nightmare for the British and Portuguese armies.

Of course, the outside world recognizes the combat effectiveness of the East African Defense Force, but other countries are still not interested in East African military uniforms. To put it bluntly, because of the gap in early craftsmanship, the East African military uniforms themselves are rather disliked. However, with the passage of time, the craftsmanship has improved and the details have been improved. Although the East African military uniforms are still mainly "simple", the details are well handled and are no longer as shoddy as in the past.

In addition, as the most well-equipped unit, the Guards Division's uniforms are also the most advanced in the East African army, so they can attract Cruise's attention.

Mansk naturally agreed to Cruise's request. After all, as long as he could complete the sales job and give away a set of military uniforms, it was no big deal.

The weapons sold by East Africa to Spain this time were not limited to the M1895C jungle combat rifles, but also the conventional Mauser rifles equipped by the Spanish army, as well as some machine guns and small-caliber artillery.

The purchase of weapons and equipment was not all. The Spanish government also ordered a large amount of military supplies from East Africa, mainly food, medicine, tobacco, etc.

Most of these goods were sent directly to the Philippines, while Cuba was the responsibility of Spain. After all, East Africa has a distance advantage from the Philippines, and Spain itself is closer to Cuba.

In this way, before the Spanish-American War broke out, East Africa had already made a fortune from Spain. Of course, Spain did not lose out either. After all, the products provided by East Africa were of reliable quality and relatively reasonable price.

While trading with Spain in East Africa, the U.S. government was also busy preparing for war. In addition to using the Maine Incident to further pressure Spain through domestic public opinion, it also intervened in Spain's rule in the Philippines and demanded that the Spanish government carry out democratic reforms in the local area in accordance with its own ideas.

This was actually to support the local resistance forces and let them continue to increase their efforts to fight against the Spanish colonial government. This also further attracted the attention of the Spanish government to the Philippines. After all, Ernst had already laid the groundwork before.

At that time, the Spanish government naturally did not believe Ernst's words. After all, the Philippines is not like Cuba. Cuba is very close to the United States, while the distance between the Philippines and the United States is not that close.

But now the United States is directly interfering with Spain's rule over the Philippines, which confirms what Ernst said before that the United States has evil ambitions towards the Philippines. At least many people within the Spanish government believe this, so the Spanish government has to increase its attention to the Philippines.

At the same time, under the mediation of the international community led by France, the negotiations between the United States and Spain were not going smoothly. For example, the United Kingdom completely stood on the side of the United States in terms of public opinion and had obviously expressed its clear support for the United States. Under such circumstances, it was naturally impossible for the United States to listen to France's advice.

Therefore, the Spanish government already had the idea of ​​going to war. However, at this time, Ernst naturally did not want Spain to go to war too early. At least he had to wait until the Philippines was fully armed. So under the persuasion of East Africa, the Spanish government, which had originally planned to declare war on the United States in April, postponed the time to mid-May and continued to haggle with the United States in negotiations to buy time.

In this tense atmosphere, the East African government fully supported Spain's preparations for war. A large amount of military supplies were transported from Dar es Salaam and Beira to Manila and other Philippines regions. East Africa even donated more than a dozen coastal defense artillery. This was also Ernst's hope that Spain would not be in such an embarrassing situation in Manila as in his previous life.

(End of this chapter)