African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1440 Uninvited Guests in Dar es Salaam

April 1926.

A war broke out between the Hungarian Labor Party and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Komárno. In order to fight for this small town, both sides assembled nearly 200,000 troops, and Komárno instantly became a living hell.

The sound of artillery fire continued from day to night, and the banks of the Danube River in the middle of the night were as bright as day under the baptism of artillery fire.

Under the cover of artillery fire, the Austrian army launched a general offensive against Komarno along the Rhine and Wach rivers.

Komarno City Defense Command.

An officer rushed to the headquarters of the Hungarian garrison in Komarno. His face was stained with black ashes and blood, his hair was messy, and his eyes were filled with anxiety.

The so-called Komarno City Defense Command Center was just an inconspicuous residential building in the city of Komarno, with only two guards at the door.

"Comrade Flabre!" the guard greeted the visitor.

However, Flable was in no mood to deal with them at the moment. He nodded habitually as a greeting, and then walked quickly into the command center without any hesitation.

"Comrade Shulani, the enemy's artillery fire is too fierce. Our hastily built fortifications and bunkers are simply unable to effectively stop the destruction of the Austrian artillery fire. The outer positions have been completely ineffective!" Flable said anxiously as soon as he entered the command post.

Shulani frowned and asked, "The position was lost?"

Frable said: "I have ordered everyone to retreat back to the city. The fortifications we built in a short period of time are completely useless and can only cause casualties in vain."

Shurani was very angry that Vrabl had voluntarily given up the outer positions, but he also understood that it was almost impossible to stop the Austro-Hungarian army by relying on the outer positions, because Hungary's control over Komarno was not strong, and they arrived in Komarno too soon.

The reason is very simple. Although Komarno's geographical location is important, it is actually more conducive to the attack of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Austro-Hungarian army can go downstream along the river, and the terrain is flat and basically there is no strategic location to defend.

As for using rivers as natural barriers, Hungary's focus was on the Komarom Fortress on the south bank of the Rhine. As for the north bank, only a small number of troops were deployed. From the beginning, the Hungarian government had no intention of defending the north bank.

In the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, the Komárom Fortress on the south bank played an important role. Now, the Hungarian Labor Party also wants to replicate Hungary's original operation against Austria.

This also means that the Shurani group on the north bank was the part that the Hungarian Labor Party was prepared to abandon at any time from the very beginning.

Of course, Shurani understood this long before the war began, and even volunteered to be stationed on the north bank in an attempt to cause trouble for the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Shulani asked, “What is the specific situation on the front line now?”

Flabre said without further ado: "The Austrians have the advantage in numbers, their weapons and ammunition are several times more than ours, and the most important thing is that they have the cover of ships!"

"We have no countermeasures against these surface ships. They are scattered across the Rhine and Wach rivers, causing great interference to us and preventing us from fully focusing on dealing with the Austro-Hungarian army on land."

The shipping conditions on the Rhine and Wach rivers are very developed. The local shipyard in Komarno, where the two rivers meet, can even receive orders to build merchant ships for the Black Sea, which is enough to prove the superiority of local water transportation conditions. Therefore, the Austro-Hungarian army can use the two natural rivers to suppress the Hungarian army along the coast with firepower through inland water vessels.

The upper reaches of the Rhine are in Austria, while the Wach River is a tributary of the Rhine, mainly in Slovakia. The Austro-Hungarian troops in these two directions gathered in Komarno with the help of water transportation.

Upon hearing this, Shulani sighed and said, "It seems that we can no longer defend the northern shore of Komarno!"

Hearing Shulani's sigh, Vrabl said to him: "No, Comrade Shulani, we may still have a chance. Since the enemy has an obvious firepower advantage, we can hide in the city and engage in street fighting with the Austro-Hungarians."

"Our main task is to delay the Austro-Hungarian army, as long as they cannot occupy this place safely. The longer the delay, the better for our workers' regime."

"I am willing to lead the soldiers to defend Komarno until the entire city is reduced to ruins. I will never surrender until the last soldier!"

Shulani felt very relieved when he saw the young man who was ready to die.

"Comrade Flabre, you have a good consciousness, but I will not allow you to sacrifice yourself here so easily!"

"But..." Flabley said anxiously.

Before he could finish, Shulani interrupted him with a wave of his hand: "No buts, I have a more important task for you. This task is even related to the success or failure of the entire battle, so don't rush to refuse."

Hearing this, Flable calmed down and waited for Shulani's next words.

"Comrade Vrabre, I'm sure you know that the reason why our government attaches great importance to Komarno is that it is a hub for railway and water transportation."

“The Rhine and the Wach meet here, and less than a hundred kilometers downstream is Budapest, the capital of our workers’ government.”

"Therefore, we cannot tolerate the enemy's easy occupation of Komarno. If Komarno is lost, then we may directly fast-forward to the Battle of Budapest! This is also the situation we least want to see."

"For a regime, the capital represents confidence. Once it falls into the hands of the enemy, the regime's situation will become more dangerous."

"That was the case when Prussia occupied Paris. Of course, our government is obviously not the ugly French capitalist government of the time, but a great regime like the Paris Commune."

"But precisely because of this, we must cherish the hard-won Hungarian workers' regime today. Therefore, in order to reduce the pressure on Budapest, all transportation in Komarno, especially the railways and shipyards, must not be handed over to the Austro-Hungarian army. We would rather destroy them completely."

"And Comrade Vrablé, your mission is to blow up the Komarno shipyard and the railway bridge tonight."

"As for how to blow up the railway bridge, while you retreat to the Komarom Fortress on the other side of the river, set up the explosives and fuses, and detonate them when you reach the other side."

"By the way, when you retreat, please take away the heavy weapons and some important equipment. We who stay behind probably won't need them. These supplies may be able to help our comrades in Komarom Fortress defend against the Austro-Hungarian army from crossing the river."

Flable said excitedly: "What about you! Comrade Shulani, won't you retreat with us?" Shulani smiled, and wrinkles appeared at the corners of his eyes with traces of time.

"An old fellow like me will naturally stay here and live and die with Komarno. As I said before, someone has to stay here to deal with the enemy."

"The longer we can hold the enemy back, the better it will be for us. In this situation where death is inevitable, we old guys will naturally have to stay and execute it. You are still young, so you should help us look after the future of Hungary."

Frable's eyes moistened instantly: "Comrade Shulani, please let me stay! You are not old at all, and your value is much greater than ours. You old comrades have more experience in struggle, which is what our party needs."

Shulani's tone became a little stern: "Comrade Flabre, I am the commander-in-chief. This is my order. You must carry it out resolutely. As for the so-called struggle experience, it is insignificant compared to you, the sparks. After all, as long as the sparks can be preserved, even if we fail in the future, we can make a comeback."

Flabley wanted to refute, but Shulani stopped arguing with him and waved his hand firmly, saying: "Follow the order!"

Two o'clock in the morning.

There was a loud noise at the Komarno shipyard, which was then engulfed in flames. About three hours later, the Komarno railway bridge sank into the Rhine River amid an explosion. The bridge did not completely sink to the bottom of the river, but was hung on the bridge, with part of it exposed above the river.

This also means that the Rhine River is temporarily unnavigable unless the wreckage of the iron bridge is cleared.

The Austro-Hungarian army also noticed the changes in Komarno, so at dawn, the Austro-Hungarian army launched a general attack on Komarno.

They entered the city without encountering much obstruction, but at this time, Komarno's main force had already been taken away by Flabre at night.

There were only Shurani and hundreds of workers lurking in the city, preparing to engage in street fighting with the Austro-Hungarian army in Komarno.

However, due to the disparity in numbers, it was obvious that Shulani and his men had no choice but to die. After three days of fierce fighting and a city-wide manhunt, the Labor Party on the north bank of Cormano was completely wiped out.

However, the Austro-Hungarian commander was not happy. The destruction of infrastructure such as shipyards meant that the value of Komarno dropped significantly, and it also caused trouble for the Austro-Hungarian army's subsequent actions.

On the south bank of the Rhine, the Komarom Fortress was even more difficult to capture. Even if a huge price was paid to capture the Komarom Fortress, it would certainly not be as convenient as when the railway bridge and shipyard were still there to restore local transportation. It would take a lot of time and effort just to build a new railway bridge.

……

When the war was raging in Hungary, a Greek passenger ship quietly docked at the port of Dar es Salaam in East Africa.

A group of tourists walked down from the cruise ship and observed the most developed city in East Africa.

One of the tourists, who was wearing glasses and dressed like a scholar, introduced: "This is Dar es Salaam, the largest city in East Africa. It is also one of the earliest developed cities in East Africa. In the last century, this place was the territory of the Sultanate of Zanzibar."

"However, at that time, Dar es Salaam was just a small town of some size, and the entire Sultanate of Zanzibar was mainly located on the island of Zanzibar across the sea."

“And East Africa has carried out a large-scale expansion and modernization of the city of Dar es Salaam based on the former Sultanate of Zanzibar.”

“Dar es Salaam has been one of the most economically developed regions in East Africa since colonial times. It can be compared to Leningrad.”

“As the earliest city in East Africa, Dar es Salaam has witnessed the complete development of East Africa, while Leningrad, as the former political and economic center of the Russian Empire, has also witnessed the history of Russia’s former prosperity.”

“Therefore, Dar es Salaam and Leningrad have many similarities, and our trip to East Africa will also start from here.”

Although it was a Greek passenger ship, some of the passengers on board were not Greeks but Soviets.

This is not surprising, as there are many Greek ships sailing on the Black Sea-Mediterranean-Red Sea-East Africa route, which is itself a major international shipping route.

There is no need to say much about East Africa, which is an active market of giant scale. The Black Sea, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, these three places, involve the super-large country of the Soviet Union, Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and even Central Asia, and intersect with the main trade routes between Europe and Asia. Needless to say, their prosperity is naturally beyond words.

Therefore, this route brings together ships from various countries, and Greece is a country with relatively developed maritime transportation, so Greek ships are very common on the east coast of East Africa.

"As expected of an emerging capitalist power, East Africa's economic prosperity is much higher than that of the Soviet Union. Looking at the situation in Dar es Salaam, it is probably even more prosperous than Leningrad and Moscow." An old Soviet man exclaimed.

"You have to know that the history of East Africa's founding is only about half a century, but there are nearly ten cities like Dar es Salaam with a population of over one million in East Africa."

"In the world, perhaps only the United States can rival East Africa in terms of the size and number of cities. What's more terrifying about East Africa is that it took only a few decades to achieve the economic success that took the United States nearly a hundred years to achieve."

"In the middle of the last century, the situation on the African continent was not much different from that of primitive tribes, so the purpose of our trip is to find the secret of East Africa's rapid rise."

"Comrade Joseph also said that although East Africa is an extremely reactionary and corrupt country politically, some of their practices in developing industry and economy are indeed worth learning from."

Joseph is the current leader of the Soviet Union. For any Soviet, countries like East Africa that still maintain an imperial system are obviously more reactionary and backward in their political system than the United States, the evil empire.

However, the Soviet Union is now secretly arranging a group of experts to go to East Africa to "learn from experience" and learn some techniques for East Africa's economic development. This is enough to show the shock that the rise of East Africa has brought to the world.

In fact, before the Soviet Union, there were countries that were interested in the miracle of East Africa's rapid economic development. However, because East Africa's previous economic development model was too incompatible with today's capitalist world, this became a taboo for many countries.

In mainstream capitalist countries, almost all economists advocate a completely free market, but East Africa is obviously not a country with a free market, which conflicts with their beliefs. Therefore, the East African government has suffered a lot of criticism from the international community.

However, these problems basically disappeared after East Africa's economic transformation in 1910. In the eyes of many people, East Africa's return to a market economy is undoubtedly a progressive move.

The Soviet Union, on the contrary, was very interested in East Africa's economic policies before 1910, which was also the reason why the Soviets secretly entered East Africa this time.

Recently, the Soviet Union has basically confirmed the general direction of its economic development. However, the Soviet government has certain doubts about the economic model they will implement next. After searching for materials and specimens around the world, East Africa's past planned economic model came into their sight.

(End of this chapter)