Chapter 320: Chapter 3 Private Special Agent Organization
"Richard," whose real name is Augusta, is one of the heads of the British division of the Heixinggen Consortium’s Commercial Intelligence Branch’s covert organization.
The Heixinggen Consortium’s Commercial Intelligence Branch was established in 1866, initially tasked only with gathering commercial intelligence for Ernst’s reference.
Later, as the consortium and the East African colony developed, it also began to collect national and regional intelligence. Ernst directly separated a part of the people within the Heixinggen Consortium’s Intelligence Branch to form a covert organization, nominally the group’s commercial intelligence collection personnel, but actually a spy organization under Ernst’s control.
Most of its members are selected from the Heixinggen Military Academy, having received professional training with relatively high loyalty. However, they are generally quite young, which is why Augusta and others seem rather inexperienced.
Currently, the Heixinggen Commercial Intelligence Covert Organization does not belong to the East African government but is a private spy organization under Ernst’s name. Within East Africa, it is placed in departments like the national audit, used to oversee the operating state of the East African nation, and even Constantine is unaware of its existence.
Although the covert organization is now under Ernst’s private leadership, it will inevitably merge into the East African national agencies in the future, serving as a precursor to East Africa’s national security department.
Abroad, the Heixinggen Commercial Intelligence Covert Organization mainly operates in countries with elected governments, such as the UK, USA, and France. After all, the covert organization members lack experience, so it’s easier to work in these less regulated countries, gradually accumulating work experience for intelligence personnel.
Countries with strong authoritarian governments, like East Africa, are not suitable for espionage activity as they’re prone to exposure, provided the national agency system hasn’t collapsed. Older nations like the Far East and Austria-Hungary have been infiltrated like sieves.
Fortunately, Ernst’s intelligence agency is currently limited in capability, mainly active in countries that could threaten East Africa, with the UK, USA, Portugal, and France as key focuses.
Among them, the UK, Portugal, and France have colonies in Africa, while the USA, under British pressure, is looking everywhere for trade markets. Thus, East Africa is not very welcoming to American merchants, just as the USA vigorously expands in the Far East. American merchants have already grasped a better understanding of the Far East and Japan’s situation through trade. East Africa is such a large country; it aims to conceal its affairs as long as possible and naturally does not want to interact with Americans, even rejecting their attempts to establish trade points in Zanzibar.
At this time, America is still America, not the great empire of history, only a poor wretch under Britain and France. Hence, the image is packaged well. American merchants are indeed coming to Zanzibar in the name of fair and free trade, but Ernst chooses to refuse.
American merchants operating within the Indian Ocean also concluded that East Africa is quite closed, which is understandable. As a German overseas colony without the mother country’s assistance, it naturally has to be cautious. After all, aside from the Austrians, the East African government doesn’t seem particularly cordial to any foreign merchants.
In reality, there are exceptions, like traders from the Sultanate of Zanzibar. The Sultanate of Zanzibar is East Africa’s ally, so East Africa is naturally trusting, with a significant share of its import and export trade conducted through the Sultanate of Zanzibar, and the Middle Eastern and Indian Ocean markets also rely on the Sultanate of Zanzibar to open up.
...
Dar es Salaam City.
Three Heixinggen ocean ships began unloading the machinery from the Berlin Heixinggen Arsenal, which had been phased out for Dreiser rifles and cannons, with the East African government organizing numerous carts and personnel to receive the goods at the port.
"These machines are relatively new, having been used for only four or five years. Compared to the ones in the East African Arsenal, they are very advanced and also more complete, with parts sealed in boxes. Do not unseal them or let rain penetrate the parts in the boxes before reaching the destination," said the accompanying technician Vincent to the East African government personnel, Blaise, who came for the handover.
Blaise: "Rest assured, we have prepared enough tarpaulins and ropes to ensure these machines won’t get rained on before reaching their destination."
Vincent: "Also, try not to allow too much jolting during the journey. Although these machines aren’t that delicate, any damage caused by transport would be unfortunate."
Blaise: "No problem. Previously, for the transportation of mining equipment to Mbeya City, we gained experience. Currently, the road from Dar es Salaam to Mbeya City is maintained monthly by our personnel, barring extreme weather conditions; generally, the road condition can be assured."
Vincent: "These aren’t the main concerns. What I want to know is how the factory construction is progressing?"
Blaise: "I’m not certain, but there should be no problem. After all, the government would surely consider the factory issue. At the very least, the construction capability should have been ready by the time you arrived. Mbeya City lacks no manpower and is capable of a few factory builds, and with telegraph communication, they must have received the message two months ago."
East African infrastructure levels are pretty good, especially for large projects. Around ten million indigenous people live in East Africa, so overwhelmed by numbers that they don’t even bother to conduct statistics now, with at least a surplus of low-level labor available.
Excluding the old, weak, sick, and disabled, there are still several million in labor force, though the indigenous lifespan is extremely short, with hardly any older individuals.
Ernst was lucky; the timing couldn’t be better for planning the Mbeya Arsenal. The Prussian government intends to phase out the outdated Dreyse rifles. With German unification, military products will naturally be standardized to Prussian standards, leading many German military industrial enterprises to face the challenge of transformation. The lucky ones are absorbed by Prussia, while the unfortunate ones can only close down, notably in the smaller states under Germany, many having their own military industries. Though mostly small workshops, some of their equipment is still quite good, just operating on a smaller scale.
Thus, for almost the price of scrap iron, one can purchase a heap of machinery and equipment, patching together a complete weapon production chain, thanks to Ernst’s diligent efforts.
The Berlin Heixinggen Arsenal, though producing firearms, mainly relies on purchased parts. Yet these small states have complete production workshops for firearm parts and accessories.
After acquiring a heap of various weapon production machines and equipment, to reassemble them for production in East Africa would mean practically the full range of current European weapons could be manufactured, with the steel from Mbeya City, achieving independence in East Africa.
Including pistols, bayonets, knives, small artillery, and other weapons East Africa could not previously produce, all were equipped in this purchase.
Although the low efficiency of workshop production and a shortfall in steel capacity may result in unsatisfactory output, East Africa has indeed made a significant stride toward self-sufficient armament production.