August 20, 1867.

Berlin, Heshingen Arsenal.

"Bang...... Boom ......"

The worker carefully holds the chisel and rhythmically strikes the rivets at the welds of the machine with a hammer.

As the hammer fell again and again, the rivets were knocked off, but the surface of the machine did not leave much trace.

Holding a large wrench in his hand, he used great force to remove the screws, and then the other workers sorted the dismantled rivets and iron filings into the wooden barrels.

The professional master put the disassembled parts into wooden boxes according to the fixed position, and these machines, which were not used for a long time, were honorably retired from the Heixingen Arsenal.

These dismantled machines were originally obtained from the Prussian royal family, along with the old facilities of the arsenal.

When Ernst bought the arsenal, it was not for the machines, but mainly for the workers and technicians in the factory.

So the fate of these machines was decided the moment Ernst got his hands on them.

Of course, in the spirit of making the best use of what is needed, these dismantled and outdated machines will be sent to the East African colonies to be rearmed and used to repair and machine parts.

Now that the East African colonies were stockpiling and equipping large quantities of old flintlock pistols, these machines were needed to come in handy.

Those old flintlock pistols will last at least seven or eight years in East Africa, enough to deal with the indigenous people of Africa.

And the old machines were responsible for the maintenance and replacement of parts for these guns, and to be honest, there was no way, these machines left Berlin, and left the Prussian military-industrial system to do these jobs.

The Hexingen Arsenal was itself a semi-finished product processing plant, and many parts and components had to be ordered from other factories in Prussia.

Therefore, even if this batch of old equipment is reassembled in East Africa, there is no way to put it back into production, but it is more than enough to complete the small tasks of gun maintenance and correction.

Ernst did not think about selling these machines, but unfortunately there were no good buyers, needless to say in Europe, with the Austro-Prussian war as a demonstration, countries are trying to improve their equipment, and they are also facing the problem of eliminating a large number of backward production machines.

Therefore, it cannot be sold at a high price, and backward regions such as the Far East and South America have no connection with the government, and the freight alone is not a small amount.

As for the most backward region of Africa, the indigenous tribes and small countries of West Africa may need it, but they don't have the money! In the past, during the slave trade, they could also exchange black slaves for weapons from European colonists, but now that slaves are banned in Europe and the Americas, slaves are worthless.

Therefore, it is better to let these machines continue to shine in the East African colonies, and they can also be sent to East Africa with the help of migrant ships, without having to send ships separately.

While the old equipment was being dismantled, the new machines were installed.

These new machines will be used to produce the Dresser rifles, which the Prussian army is equipping, and Prussia completed the replacement of equipment during the Austro-Prussian War.

At the end of the war, the control of the military industry was naturally relaxed, so it was easy for Ernst to get new machines.

In addition to the new rifles, which were supplied to the Prussian Army, the rest were to be used to equip the standing armed forces of the East African colonies.

As part of the Prussian military-industrial system, the Hexingen Arsenal was primarily served by the Prussian Army.

After all, the parts and technologies needed by the Hexingen Arsenal were inseparable from the support of Prussia, and if the Arsenal wanted to make a profit, at least not lose money, it had to serve the entire market.

On the premise of ensuring that there is no loss, the armies of the East African colonies will be replenished with weapons.

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

The former are soldiers who are out of work and ready to respond to various crises, while the latter are militias who are trained in military affairs during the off-season and are only mobilized when large-scale operations are needed.

Previously, both were armed with old flintlock pistols, and of course, most of the weapons in the East African colonies were second-hand goods that had been eliminated from the Prussian Army, and a small amount was produced by the Hexingen Arsenal itself, after all, second-hand quantities were large and cheap.

The difference between the two equipped with the same type of weapon is that the former is a regular army, and the daily military training intensity is very high, and it mainly uses live ammunition. The latter had little experience with live ammunition, and empty guns were the main stream of training, and it was only during the temporary call-up for the clean-up of the local natives that there was sufficient gunpowder to get past it.

At the Heshingen Arsenal, the newly produced Dreisai rifles were to be used to arm the standing armed forces of the East African colonies, that is, the regular army that had been out of production, and the old flintlock muskets were all issued to the militias of the East African colonies.

At the same time as the equipment upgrade of the Hexingen Arsenal in Berlin, a branch of the Hexingen Arsenal was under construction on the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Unlike the Berlin Hexingen Arsenal, which mainly produced rifles, the Hexingen Arsenal in the Austro-Hungarian Empire focused on the imitation and production of light artillery.

At present, the branch is very small, it is in the experimental stage, and it is better than some handicraft workshops, but it is mainly intended to provide experience for the East African colonies for artillery production.

Moreover, traditional arsenals have fixed partners, such as the Hexingen Arsenal in Berlin, which was originally an industry under the Prussian government, but Ernst acquired and mastered the management rights, so it could continue to get orders from the Prussian army after upgrading the equipment.

The branch factories in the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not have this treatment, and the Hexingen Arsenal branch was located in Trieste, and the purpose of this location is self-evident.

It is to facilitate the supply to the colonies of East Africa, which currently does not have the capacity to produce weapons and equipment, let alone artillery.

The branch was to borrow the convenient shipping conditions of Trieste (the future opening of the Suez Canal) to provide artillery power to the East African colonies.

At present, the armed forces of the East African colonies still use the most basic firearms, and the only weapons that are slightly more powerful are grenades and explosive packs.

As for why light artillery was needed, it was to counter the potential threat of the Portuguese colonies and the sea.

Even the Sultanate of Zanzibar, in fact, had more than a dozen artillery pieces, mainly inherited from the time of the Omani Empire.

Most of them were in the seaports of the Sultanate of Zanzibar, while the East African colonies, having seized territory over the mainland part of Zanzibar, also seized several old artillery pieces in Dar es Salaam and Mombasa, respectively.

The Sultanate of Zanzibar still had artillery at its disposal, not to mention the Portuguese and other maritime colonists next door, who were indispensable on their ships.

Therefore, it is better for the East African colonies to be equipped with some artillery, as for the artillery pieces of the Sultanate of Zanzibar, they are not only in disrepair and badly decayed, but also too few in number to be used by the East African colonies.

Therefore, it is necessary to establish a branch factory, as for why not buy a batch directly from Europe, the main reason is that the current East African colonies are not yet needed, and now the East African colonies are mainly digesting the territory and will not take the initiative to cause trouble.

There will be no conflict with the surrounding forces, and it is better to buy than to build, but it is a short-sighted behavior, and it is better to buy than to build, which is a long-term solution.