African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1509 Two Strategic Rear Areas
To be honest, Ernst also remained skeptical about the Jinling government's ability to develop industry, especially heavy industry and defense industry. During the golden decade, the Far Eastern Empire's light industry did develop well, while heavy industry and defense industry regressed. In the words of some people, "it is better to buy than to make, and it is better to rent than to buy."

This is also the mainstream thinking of the Nanjing government today. In this respect, they are not as good as the former monarchical government and the Beiyang faction government.

After all, the Far Eastern Empire is not India in later generations. Especially if a war might break out in the future, the Far Eastern Empire’s channels for purchasing weapons from abroad might be cut off.

This is not alarmist talk, but something that actually happened in previous history. After all, their enemies had occupied almost all of the coastal areas of the Far East Empire, and important ports were basically in the hands of the enemy.

If this were not the case, the Americans would not have risked their lives to open up the "Hump Route". If sea and land transportation were possible, the limited capacity and huge cost of air routes would not have made it a priority, not to mention that air transportation itself was not safe.

Rhine City.

Ernst made some special arrangements for this aid.

"According to the intelligence from the security department, it can be judged that the Japanese government will most likely launch a war and invade the Far East Empire. Otherwise, the current economic crisis in Japan alone is enough to cause the government to collapse, and war will become their inevitable choice."

"Although the Far Eastern Empire has always been an important trading partner of the Empire, and we also have huge practical interests in the Far Eastern Empire, the Far Eastern Empire is still too far away from the Empire and is beyond our reach."

"Although Japan's national strength is not ranked high among the great powers, when there is no tiger in the mountain, the monkey becomes king. In the Far East, Japan is the most powerful country. Even the United States cannot shake Japan's advantage in the northwest Pacific. This is one of the reasons why we have been shrinking our sphere of influence in the Far East over the years."

In the early 20th century, Japan was the overlord of the northwest Pacific. This is an objective fact. Although the East African Navy and the US Navy were stronger, the focus of the two countries was not in the Pacific region.

Take the US Navy as an example. Although the US Pacific Fleet is luxuriously equipped, it is only the second largest naval force in the Pacific region after the Japanese Navy. Whether in terms of the number of battleships, aircraft carriers, or other ships, Japan is slightly better than the US Pacific Fleet.

Therefore, if the two navies go to war, Japan has a chance to destroy the US Pacific Fleet, and it will be difficult for the United States to withdraw some of its Atlantic Fleet for support. If it does not want to take a long detour, it can only go through the Panama Canal or take huge risks through the Strait of Magellan and the Drake Passage.

The situation in East Africa is even worse. The Seventh Fleet under the East African Pacific Fleet is known as the third largest naval force in the Pacific region, second only to the Japanese Navy and the US Pacific Fleet, but it is not on the same level as the former two.

The Seventh Fleet in the East African Navy is itself a "retirement fleet" with outdated equipment and scattered forces. It is unable to take care of many areas in the South Pacific, North Hawaii, Alaska, and a bunch of South Pacific islands.

The only area where East Africa has a complete advantage is the South China Sea, but it is only capable of defending the existing area and is unable to take care of other places.

Therefore, Ernst said: "If Japan invades other areas of the Far East in the future, we will not be able to prevent this situation from happening in the early stage. Even if the United States declares war on Japan first, it will not play a big role."

"We can't mobilize military forces from other waters to the Far East just for the Far East situation."

Even if East Africa had such capabilities, Ernst would not have done so. After all, Ernst himself also had the idea of ​​using the Japanese to disrupt the situation in South Pacific and Oceania. What if the Japanese navy was frightened and they dared not attack Australia and other places?

Although the Japanese government is not likely to be frightened given their character, pointing the finger at East Africa would not be worth the cost. Even if East Africa were to be destroyed, it would have to wait until Japan was exhausted.

Crown Prince Friedrich asked: "Then father means that we completely abandon our interests in the Far Eastern Empire. Isn't this too pessimistic?"

It is no wonder that Friedrich was skeptical, because in his opinion, although the Far Eastern Empire was poor and weak, the gap between the two was not that big compared to the powerful country Japan.

According to his thinking, it is impossible for the Far Eastern Empire to win by relying on manpower like Tsarist Russia did before. Although the strength of the Far Eastern Empire is far inferior to that of Tsarist Russia, Japan is not Germany or the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Ernst sneered, "Under normal circumstances, this is true, but the Nanjing government is not the Tsarist Russian government. Although the Tsarist Russian government is not good at this and that, their toughness in foreign policy is far beyond the reach of the Nanjing government."

This is not Ernst slandering the Jinling government. If nothing unexpected happens, the Jinling government will most likely continue with its previous idiotic operations and hand over the Northeast to others.

This is also the main reason why East Africa has never invested in Northeast China over the years. In fact, Zhang Yuting from East Africa once sought cooperation with East Africa to invest in arsenals in Northeast China to get rid of Japanese control, but was declined by East Africa.

This is not difficult to understand. Compared with the ambitious Tsarist Russia and Japan, East Africa is obviously more reliable in Zhang Yuting's eyes. After seeking help from East Africa to no avail, he had to continue to cooperate with Japan.

However, although Zhang Yuting continued to cooperate with Japan, he was always wary of Japan and was eventually murdered by the Japanese. As for his son, it is better not to mention him. Although he is not a bad person, he is too soft-hearted and has no opinion of his own.

After all, according to common logic, Japan and he had a paternal murder enemy, and a normal person in this situation should retaliate against Japan.

To be honest, if Zhang Yuting's son could seek help from East Africa and raise the anti-Japanese banner at this time, Ernst would most likely support him. Unfortunately, he had neither his father's vision and wisdom, nor the courage.

And it was precisely because of this person's actions that Ernst became more determined to shrink East Africa's influence in the Far East.

In Ernst's view, the Northeast is now almost in the hands of Japan, and the coastal areas of the Far East Empire are also unsafe, so East Africa's investment in the Far East should also change direction.

Ernst said to his son: "Now, the development of the empire in the Far East should focus on two areas. One is the Guanzhong Plain, and the other is the Sichuan-Chongqing Basin, which is also the core hinterland of the Far East Empire."

"Our companies in the Far East Empire should give priority to investing in these two regions. This time, places like Xuzhou happened to be severely affected by the disaster, especially the coal and iron factories in Huaibei. They can be appropriately transferred to the northwest, especially Xi'an and Shenmu."

"Some companies in the south can also speed up their investment in the Sichuan and Chongqing regions, with the mountain cities and Chengdu as the core."

East Africa has invested in coal mines and iron factories in Huaihai. This time, due to the flood in the Far East Empire, these places were basically severely affected, which also facilitated the westward migration of these factories and workers. As long as the Longhai Railway is restored, it will not be difficult to do so. Of course, in response to these problems, Friedrich raised new questions: "Father, the Guanzhong Plain and the Sichuan Basin are not actually under the jurisdiction of the Jinling government. Will our actions cause displeasure to the Jinling government?"

In 1931, the Guanzhong Plain and Sichuan and Chongqing regions were still controlled by warlords, especially the latter. Warlords were numerous and basically obeyed orders from the Nanjing government but not its decrees.

Ernst didn't care about this at all. He said, "We are an imperialist country in East Africa. How can we care about the Nanjing government supported by Britain and France? Moreover, the investment and industrial transfer to these two places are commercial activities in themselves. The Nanjing government has no reason and no power to control us."

Moreover, Ernst had something else to say. What was the power of the warlords? There were also Labor Party activities in Sichuan, Chongqing, Shaanxi and Gansu regions!

For example, Shenmu, which Ernst just mentioned, was one of the core control areas of the Far East Labor Party in the future.

It was Ernst who mentioned this now inconspicuous place just now, otherwise Friedrich might never have known about this remote corner of the Far Eastern Empire in his entire life.

Of course, it was not surprising that Friedrich could tell about many places in the Far East that his father, a famous sinologist in East Africa, knew nothing about. For example, Friedrich also didn't know the place Chengdu.

Friedrich had some knowledge of the mountain city because East Africa was going to set up a consulate here some time ago.

Of these four places, he knew Xi'an best, after all, it was one of the seven ancient capitals of the world.

The so-called seven ancient capitals of the world are a term used by the East African academic community. From west to east, they are Rome, Constantinople (Istanbul), Baghdad, Xi'an, Luoyang, Beiping and Nanjing.

There is no way around this. The basic activity area of ​​early human civilization was in Eurasia, and other continents were not even eligible for the selection.

Needless to say, Rome was the capital of the ancient Roman Empire, while Constantinople (Istanbul) was the capital of two powerful empires, the Eastern Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire.

The reason why Baghdad became one of the seven ancient capitals of the world is because of the influence of the ancient Babylonian Kingdom and the Arab Empire, especially the latter, whose historical status must be acknowledged. Of course, there was more than one capital of the ancient Arab Empire, Baghdad, and the reason why Baghdad was selected and stood out was because of the bonus of the ancient Babylonian Kingdom. The capital of the ancient Babylonian Kingdom, Babylon, was very close to Baghdad.

Therefore, East African scholars believe that the two have a certain inheritance relationship, which led to the fact that Damascus and Medina, the two famous capitals of the Arab Empire, were not selected.

East African scholars are also reluctant to include them. After all, the ranking of the seven ancient capitals of the world was made based on the seven wonders of the world, so it must be seven, not any other number.

At the same time, in the eyes of East African scholars, it is a great honor for the Arab region to be given a title of ancient capital. In addition, Constantinople can now be regarded as an ancient capital of half of the Arab region, after all, it has been renamed Istanbul.

From this perspective, it is Europe that suffers the most, as only Rome is listed as one of the seven ancient capitals of the world by East Africa. Of course, it is not that East African scholars do not want to add more, but that Europe does not have the conditions to do so.

Apart from ancient Rome, up to now, only Napoleon may have briefly ruled most of Europe, and the Napoleonic Empire did not last many years, so it is impossible to include Paris among the seven ancient capitals of the world.

The standard used by East African academic circles to judge an ancient capital is that it should at least have an area of ​​millions of square kilometers and be a powerful imperial political center that was very powerful at the time and had a strong influence on its surrounding areas and a far-reaching impact on later generations. This is why four cities from the Far Eastern Empire were selected.

And this is why Friedrich knew Xi'an, the imperial city in the Far East.

Of course, Ernst's arrangement this time obviously has nothing to do with Xi'an's history, but because Xi'an in the previous life had always been the stable rear base of the Far Eastern Empire during World War II. Whether emotionally or rationally, Ernst had to speed up the development of this city, especially in heavy industry.

In 1931, Xi'an was inconspicuous in the economic map of the Far Eastern Empire, especially in the industrial field. It is no exaggeration to say that its industry was basically non-existent.

Take the textile industry, the most basic industry, for example. There is no modern textile factory in Xi'an today. The first textile factory in Xi'an in history, Dahua Spinning Mill, was only built in 1935. It was also the first enterprise to enter the modern national industrial stage in the northwest region of the Far East Empire.

Don't underestimate the textile industry. Although it is a typical light industry, it is obviously of great significance to the military, especially for operations in high-latitude areas. For example, the textile industry provides cotton clothes and bedding. The climate in the north of the Far Eastern Empire is very cold in winter.

The only military industry in Xi'an at present may be an ordnance factory invested and built during the Westernization Movement. However, this ordnance factory is small in scale and can only repair some weapons and produce a small amount of ammunition.

Of course, in Ernst's view, the biggest regret of the Guanzhong Plain and the Loess Plateau to its north is that the coal and steel industries did not develop during this period. Coal and steel are the foundation of the First Industrial Revolution, and these resources are not scarce in the local area.

Ernst didn't know much about iron mines, but he had heard of the famous Shenmu City when it came to coal. Of course, Shenmu is still just a backward agricultural county now, but in the past, Shenmu's coal occupied an important position in the national economy. For example, the famous Shenhua Railway, a dedicated coal transportation line, started from here.

The coal reserves in this area alone exceed tens of billions of tons. In the early 21st century alone, the amount of coal mined exceeded 5 billion tons.

If it were in today's East Africa, relying on this resource advantage, it would undoubtedly be able to develop into a steel industry base like Tete City. However, the coal reserves of the entire province of Tete are far less than that of this county. The only advantage of Tete City may be its transportation.

Shenmu is only a part of the coal resources of the Loess Plateau. There are also many large mines around it. Even if a little bit of it can be developed, it will greatly change the industrial situation in the northwest region of the Far Eastern Empire, especially in the next period of time, when the Far Eastern Empire's industry may be severely damaged due to the war.

Ernst said: "Our goal is to strengthen the Far Eastern Empire and thus weaken Japan. This will also further promote Japan's southward movement in the future and help the Empire achieve its goal of reshaping the geopolitical pattern of the South Seas and the South Pacific."

Although this was just an excuse made by Ernst, it was not without reason. After all, Japan was involved in disputes over land and sea. If the war in the Far East Empire was not going well, the Japanese Navy's southward strategy would gain more support and endorsement.

(End of this chapter)