African Entrepreneurship Record

Therefore, it can be seen that Europe is currently too "competitive," and due to being overly fragmented, many countries have no choice but to heavily invest in their military.

Of course, this may not necessarily be a bad thing. After all, without such a fragmented state, the Renaissance and the Enlightenment might have struggled to be born in Europe.

Moreover, this further encouraged the various European countries to expand overseas, such as the old Portuguese Empire. One reason the Portuguese were able to become pioneers of the Age of Exploration is the lack of room for maneuver in Europe.

Not to mention, the reason Ernst headed to Africa for development follows this logic as well. Back in the small place of Hexionggen Principality, even if Ernst gave his all, his final outcome would likely just be mixing as a high-level military officer or civil servant in Prussia.

After all, in a previous life, Prince Constantine served as a general in the Prussian army and eventually died lonely in what is now Green Mountain City, Poland, of the previous life.

"Captain Rorlingen, when will we be able to dock?" At this time, Kari, the head of the East African Child Trade Company, inquired.

The Child Trade Company is just a small trading company in Mombasa City, East Africa. This time, the cargo on the Rogan was managed by this small trading company.

Rorlingen dared not be neglectful of Kari, as Kari represented the boss behind this shipment of goods.

He said to Kari, "Mr. Kari, please don’t worry. There are too many cargo ships in Odessa now, so waiting is unavoidable. Based on my experience, if nothing unexpected happens, we still have to wait around six more hours. We are already in a relatively forward position."

The biggest difficulty in maritime trade during this era is cargo handling. After all, to completely load and unload a ship’s cargo takes quite some time, especially before the widespread use of containers. The handling of much loose cargo could drive people crazy, as sorting alone is a major issue.

This also makes dockworkers a severely scarce profession in this era, not because few people do the job, but because even if more people are hired, it seems never enough to handle the large scale of goods. In fact, the dockworker community is quite extensive, just like the largest port in the Far East Empire, Shanghai Port, which alone has nearly thirty thousand dockworkers.

This is also why East Africa is strongly promoting containers and renovating ports and railway systems, to save as much as possible on intermediary handling stages.

Of course, the effect of containers in East Africa is mainly reflected domestically, particularly in the cargo exchanges between the East and West coasts of East Africa.

This is because the ports on both coasts of East Africa are updating the fastest, and the basic equipment like cranes, hooks, and conveyance devices is the most complete.

Meanwhile, other countries and regions, due to a lack of large-scale handling equipment, find it hard to improve efficiency even if they want to.

Take East Africa’s trade with Germany, for example: besides important strategic goods like medicines, rubber, chemicals, and urgently needed front-line supplies, containers are rarely used.

And Germany is already a country relatively open to accepting this new invention of containers, considering its basic transportation, especially its rail and water transport, and ports are all very developed.

In comparison, a country like Russia, where there isn’t much change in cargo transportation, for instance, the Rogan is carrying mainly coffee, tobacco, tea, and other loose goods, mostly stored in boxes instead of containers.

The boxes used to carry these goods aren’t containers because Russians don’t have the spare resources to learn from Germany and keep East African containers domestically. Many East African merchant ships, upon reaching Germany, simply leave containers with goods for Germany.

This trick doesn’t work in Russia. After all, container manufacturing itself must consider technical and material issues, which makes containers quite expensive.

East African merchants have no doubt that if they shipped goods in containers, Russians would smash and sell them as scrap metal, especially since Russian steel production is only a few million tons, and post-war steel demand has caused Russian steel prices to skyrocket.

Kari complained, "This is really a killer. Six hours, and we can only wait on this ship, with the port right in front of our eyes."

Rorlingen comforted, "This is the current situation of cargo transport in Europe; almost every port encounters this problem, especially large ports like Odessa."

"To be honest, there are probably very few ports busier than Odessa in all of Europe right now. Since Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria launched an offensive against Moldova last month, Russia has lost much territory, indirectly posing threats to Odessa and Kyiv."

"Therefore, to resist the offensive of the Austria-Hungary and Bulgarian Allies, Russia must ensure front-line supply of materials. It’s rumored that in at least a few battles, numerous strategic reserves and positions were seized by the Austria-Hungary and Bulgarian Allies."

Kari sneered, "Who knows if they really were taken by the enemy, or if it’s just the Russian’s bookkeeping excuse? After all, such things are not uncommon within the Russian army."

This is the impression the Russian army has left on many countries worldwide: severe corruption within the military, hence why Kari would say so.

Of course, this issue certainly exists in other countries as well, or rather, any country with a military can’t avoid it; East Africa is no exception, though Russia’s case is more pronounced.

Captain Rorlingen not only did not doubt Kari’s speculation, but rather laughed and said, "Mr. Kari, to be honest, we also think so."

"Only those of us who run the Black Sea route know how many goods Russia has imported these two years. Yet, based on the newspapers, it seems many military supplies haven’t reached the front-line Russian troops."

"I remember seeing news in Constantinople’s newspapers that many Russian front-line soldiers couldn’t even gather rifles, which is hard to believe, considering Russia is not some small country like Serbia or Bulgaria without industry."

Kari, on the other hand, was rather calm, saying, "This is normal. Our newspapers in East Africa also reported that the current shortfall of rifles in the Russian army is about three million, while Russia’s annual military production capacity is only over eight hundred thousand. This means nearly a quarter of Russian soldiers do not have decent weapons."

"Before the war broke out, the Russian army was only over a million strong, but now it has swelled to over six million. Furthermore, before the war, Russia hoped to purchase large amounts of military equipment from abroad, hindering the development of its domestic military industry."

Up to this point, Russia’s mobilized numbers have exceeded ten million, which also reflects Russia’s dire state in war.

But this is understandable, given the greater military pressure Russia faces in the current era compared to the past.

Rorlingen: "Isn’t that right! Without guaranteeing even the basic weapons for soldiers, it is understandable that Russia’s current military situation has deteriorated to such an extent. However, gray animals are not worth much, yet Russia manages to withstand simultaneous offensives from the Three Kingdoms, which is impressive."

Kari said, "If Russia’s situation further deteriorates, the next challenge might not be just the Three Kingdoms. After all, the Ottoman Empire and Russia are long-standing foes. If Russia shows weakness during this period, I fear the Ottoman Empire won’t hold back any longer."

Although the Ottoman Empire joined the Allies, it has remained inactive, instead accumulating power. After Germany became engulfed in war, Germany’s military aid to the Ottomans also halted.

However, the Ottoman Empire has one more option than before—the East Africa. The weapons from East Africa share some similarities with those of Germany and Austria-Hungary.

This allows the Ottoman Empire to arm its troops more patiently, fully aware of the army’s weakness before reforms. If it were still in the same state as during the Balkan Wars, forget confronting Russia, even small countries like Greece might have been able to fight toe to toe with its original army.

So currently, the Ottoman Empire’s army continues to gather strength, including expanding its forces, hiring East African instructors, purchasing weapons, etc. When an opportunity arises, the Ottoman Empire certainly won’t remain indifferent.