African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 99: Chapter 94 Armory Upgrade

August 20, 1867.

Berlin, Heixinggen Weapons Factory.

”Clang... Clang...”

The workers carefully held the chisel, rhythmically striking the rivets at the welding points of the machine with a hammer.

As the hammer repeatedly fell, the rivets were forcibly knocked out, but the surface of the machine barely showed any marks.

With a large wrench in hand, they exerted great effort to remove the screws, followed by other workers who sorted the removed rivets and iron filings into wooden buckets.

Experienced craftsmen placed the dismantled parts into designated positions in wooden boxes; these machines, which had just been acquired, were now honorably retired from the Heixinggen Weapons Factory.

This batch of dismantled machines were originally obtained from the Prussian royal family, alongside the factory’s outdated facilities.

When Ernst acquired this weapons factory, his intention was not for these machines but mainly for the workers and technicians in the factory.

Thus, the fate of these machines was decided the moment they came into Ernst’s possession.

Of course, following the principle of making the best use of things, these dismantled and outdated machines were to be sent to the East African colony for rearmament, to be used for repairing and processing parts.

Currently, the East African colony was stockpiling and equipping a large number of old flintlock guns, which just needed these machines to be put to use.

Those old flintlock guns could still serve for another seven or eight years on African soil, sufficient for dealing with the local natives.

And the old machines would be responsible for the maintenance of these firearms and the replacement of parts; frankly, there was no alternative; having left Berlin and the Prussian military industry, these machines could only perform such tasks.

The Heixinggen Weapons Factory itself was a semi-finished processing factory; many components had to be ordered from other Prussian factories.

Therefore, even if these old machines were reassembled in East Africa, they could not be reintegrated into production, but completing tasks like weapon maintenance and corrections was more than manageable.

Ernst considered selling these machines, but unfortunately, there were no suitable buyers. In Europe, with the Prussia and Austria war setting a precedent, countries were working on upgrading their equipment and facing the challenge of eliminating a significant amount of outdated production machinery.

So they couldn’t be sold for much, and the Far East, South America, and other underdeveloped regions had little official contact, plus the shipping costs alone were significant.

As for Africa, the most underdeveloped region, the indigenous tribes and small nations in West Africa might need them, but they had no money! During the era of black slave trade, they could exchange black slaves with European colonizers for weapons. Now, with slavery banned in Europe and America, slaves had lost their value.

Therefore, it was better to let these machines continue to shine in the East African colony, plus they could be shipped on immigrant vessels going to East Africa without needing a separate ship.

While dismantling this batch of old equipment, new machines had already been installed.

These new machines would be used to produce the Dreyse Rifle currently equipped by the Prussian army, which completed its equipment upgrade during the Prussia and Austria war.

With the war concluded, restrictions on the military industry naturally relaxed, allowing Ernst easy access to the new machines.

The new rifles, aside from being supplied to the Prussian army, would be used to arm the regular forces in the East African colony.

As part of the Prussian military industry, the main service target of the Heixinggen Weapons Factory remained the Prussian army.

After all, Heixinggen Weapons Factory relied heavily on Prussia for necessary components and technology, and to at least break even, it had to cater to the overall market.

And on the premise of not losing money, it could then supply weapons to the East African colonial forces.

In East Africa, there had always been two types of military forces: regular armed forces and militia forces.

The former consisted of full-time soldiers ready to respond to various crises, while the latter involved militias who received military training during their off-farming seasons, only mobilized for large-scale operations when needed.

Previously, both forces were equipped with old flintlock guns. Of course, most weapons in the East African colony were second-hand goods discarded by the Prussian army, with a few produced by the Heixinggen Weapons Factory, as second-hand ones were in large quantity and cheaper.

Both equipped with the same weapons, the distinction lay in that the former were regular troops undergoing intense daily military training, primarily using live ammunition. The latter had limited live-round experience, with most training involving aiming with empty guns, only enjoying plenty of gunpowder during temporary call-ups for tasks against local natives.

And the newly produced Dreyse Rifles from the Heixinggen Weapons Factory would be used to arm the regular armed forces of the East African colony, the full-time regular troops, while all the old flintlock guns would be distributed to the militia forces in the East African colony.

As the Heixinggen Weapons Factory in Berlin upgraded its equipment, a branch of Heixinggen Weapons Factory was also under construction within the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Unlike the Berlin Heixinggen Weapons Factory, which focused on rifle production, the branch within the Austro-Hungarian Empire prioritized the imitation and production of light artillery.

Currently, the branch was small-scale, in an experimental stage, barely better than some workshops, but primarily aimed at providing artillery production experience for the East African colony.

Traditionally, weapons factories had established fixed partners, much like Berlin’s Heixinggen Weapons Factory, which was originally an industry under the Prussian government until Ernst acquired and managed it, allowing equipment upgrades to continue securing Prussian military orders.

However, the branch within the Austro-Hungarian Empire had no such advantages. The branch of Heixinggen Weapons Factory was located in Trieste, a location with obvious intentions.

Its purpose was to facilitate supply to the East African colony, which currently lacked the capability to produce weapons, let alone artillery.

The branch, poised to leverage Trieste’s convenient maritime conditions (with the future opening of the Suez Canal), aimed to provide artillery power to the East African colony.

Currently, the armed forces of the East African colony used only the most basic firearms, with the most powerful weapons being grenades and packets of explosives.

The need for light artillery arose to address potential threats from Portuguese colonies and sea-based dangers.

Even Zanzibar Sultanate had a dozen or so cannons, mainly inherited from the Omani Empire period.

Most were positioned in the ports of the Zanzibar Sultanate. After the East African colony seized territories on the Zanzibar mainland, they captured several old cannons in Dar es Salaam and Mombasa.

If even the Zanzibar Sultanate had cannons, not to mention Portugal and other maritime colonizers nearby, whose ships are never without these things.

Thus, it was better for the East African colony to equip with some artillery. As for the few cannons from the Zanzibar Sultanate, they were not only outdated and severely corroded but also insufficient in number for the East African colony’s needs.

Therefore, establishing the branch was essential. As to why not directly buy a batch from Europe, it’s mainly because the East African colony didn’t need them yet. The East African colony was currently more focused on digesting territories and would not proactively provoke conflicts.

There would not be any confrontations with surrounding powers, and manufacturing rather than buying was shortsighted; buying rather than manufacturing was the long-term strategy.