March 11, 1869.

The Mediterranean and the Red Sea have once again appeared professional cable-laying vessels, for people on the Mediterranean coast, it is no wonder, in recent years, as countries have paid more and more attention to the role of telegraphy, countries and companies that have the ability to lay telegraph lines on the bottom of the sea.

And this time the ships for laying cables at sea, one from Austria-Hungary and the other from Germany, started work in the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.

From Trieste in the Austro-Hungarian Empire to Egypt and from Egypt to the seas of East Africa, another cable-laying work began.

This time it was a double-track work, after all, it was not safe for a single cable to maintain the connection between East Africa and Europe.

The plan to lay the double line had long been lying in Ernst's desk, and it had been planned when laying the first cable from East Africa to Europe, but it was not implemented together due to financial constraints at the time.

Later, the first cable has also been kept in good working condition, after all, the whole line is not used for civil use, it belongs to the government line in East Africa, the workload is not large, and the second line has not started for a long time, or Ernst has almost forgotten this plan.

Now that Dad was leaving for East Africa, the contact between father and son was indispensable, and in order to prevent accidents, Ernst decided to restart the cable laying work.

Submarine cables are a relatively fragile thing, so laying double lines is equivalent to installing insurance, even if there is an accident on the commonly used line, the backup line can be activated immediately.

East Africa, First Town.

"This is a document from His Highness, now go and send a letter to the government along the inland in advance, so that they can get ready." Von der Leyen handed the paper on the laying of the telegraph line in East Africa to the people in the room.

"That's a lot of work!" The officials in the conference room said after reading the documents.

"It's not too difficult, although the entire project line is more than 4,000 kilometers, but we only need to erect power poles along both sides of the highway, and the local governments along the way only need to be responsible for the work in their own jurisdiction." Von der Leyen said.

"That's right, the poles can be made of local materials, and the machine room must be prepared in advance to facilitate the installation of subsequent generators."

It is the land part of the telegraph line that is being discussed, and the East African colonies have set up a land telegraph line from Mombasa to Dar es Salaam to the first town as early as last year.

Therefore, the telegraph is not unfamiliar to the officials of the first town, after all, the submarine cable only goes to Mombasa, and it is some distance from Dar es Salaam and the first town, and it is impossible to rely on stagecoaches to deliver the news.

At present, in East Africa, horses are the main means of transmitting information, post offices are set up in various cities, and a communication network is formed through post offices, and telegraphs are only available in the first towns, Dar es Salaam and Mombasa.

"The telegraph line will be divided into two main lines and a branch line, one originating in Mombasa and the other originating in the first town.

The Mombasa route passes through Nairobi, then Kisumu and finally to Kampala, the new city of Kampala, and a branch line in Nairobi goes north to the town of Omolat above Lake Turkana, so that any disturbances in the north can be communicated to us in time.

The First Town Line, which ends in the city of Mbeya in the south, passes through Mwanza in the north and then reaches Bujumbura on the northern shore of Lake Soren (Tanganyika) in the west, so that the government can keep abreast of the news from the west. Technical Director Kane summed it up.

At this time, the Mbeya government sent Merk and Becker to the Yek Kingdom to negotiate not long ago, and they had not yet returned, so everyone did not know that the Yek Kingdom had been sold to the East African colonies by Msiri, so the first town line planned by the telegraph line this time only reached Mbeya in the west.

The above, the East Africa-Europe Haiti cable line, the First Town line, and the Mombasa line are the latest communication projects in East Africa designed by ERNST, and are also named by ERNST as the "Three Lines" plan.

It basically covers the main directions of East Africa, only the south has no line construction plan, because the south and the Portuguese are separated by the Rufuma River, the defensive pressure is less, and the Portuguese side lives mainly indigenous tribes, and the two colonies are not really bordering.

East Africa's inclusion of these indigenous tribes in the sphere of influence of the Portuguese can be regarded as a gesture of goodwill to the Portuguese.

So far, the expansion of the East African colonies has been quite smooth, and naturally it was not won by Becker's method of peace negotiations.

And Becker's success also depends on the strength of East Africa, Mrsiri, a slave trader, is not a good man and a woman, and the reason why he sold the Yeke Kingdom to East Africa at a very low price is that he knows that East Africa is really insatiable and is the same kind of person as himself.

But he can't beat the other party, and since the slave trade has become a unilateral claim in East Africa, Mrsiri can't get anything, and the interest group of the Yeke Kingdom has begun to falter, so it's better to sell it to East Africans.

The deal with the Yeke Kingdom is a reflection of the imperialist style of East Africa, placing East Africa in Europe, and other countries are estimated to be happy, but it is an insurmountable mountain in front of the African natives.

At present, the main direction of expansion in East Africa is Central and South Africa, so it is necessary to lay a telegraph line to Mbeya.

The Bujumbura region is responsible for the liaison between the Mitumba Mountains region, which is being infiltrated in East Africa.

Kampala is responsible for the exchange of information in the north-west of the Great Lakes region.

The town of Omorat, on the other hand, is in charge of the Omo River Valley, which is very close to the Abyssinian Empire, so it is important to be vigilant and monitor the movements of the Sultan region of Egypt.

Through the "three-line" plan, the above key areas of East Africa can be directly connected with the central government of East Africa, and HNST can also keep abreast of the trends in East Africa at any time.

In addition to the above areas, only Mozambique in the south and Somalia in the north are not covered by this plan, as the Portuguese have already said, and Somalia is not worth mentioning at all.

The border between Somalia and East Africa is dominated by deserts, which is a natural geographical barrier, and the Gredi Sultanate in the direction of Somalia is too weak and the population is not large, so East Africa will be thankful that it will not trouble him.

Soon, the first town and the Mombasa government to get the news began to organize personnel to erect the poles needed for the telegraph line.

Telephone poles are all made of local materials, the forest cover of East Africa is quite terrifying in this era, reaching more than 40 percent, wood is quite cheap, basically no cost, so few people in East Africa, the speed of cutting can not keep up with its growth rate.

After the simple processing of these woods, it is enough to add a wooden wedge on top to act as a fulcrum for the subsequent fixing of the wires.

In the future, as long as the European wires, generators, wires and other materials are transported, the line can be fixed on the top, and a small maintenance and inspection point will be built at intervals to facilitate workers to find problems early and maintain the smooth line.

Some of the buildings are computer rooms that are used to supply power to the entire telegraph line system, and the generators are high-power DC generators imported from Siemens, and a large part of the cost of the "three-line" plan is spent on generators and other equipment.

Taking advantage of Prince Constantine's trip to East Africa, Ernst directly put the East African land telegraph line in place along with the submarine line.

(End of chapter)