In the Indian Ocean, a fleet sails south along the east coast of Africa, and a German eagle-headed flag flutters in the sea breeze, and this flag is the famous Prussian Black Hawk, which of course dates back to the Frankish Kingdom and the ancient Roman period.

Later, with the strength of Germany, the Black Eagle flag spread very highly, and almost became one of the representative symbols of the German Empire.

However, the Black Eagle Flag is not unique to Prussia, for example, the flag of the Heshingen Princely Kingdom is also the Black Eagle Flag, and the fleet flying the flag of the Heixingen Princely Kingdom is the East African Navy under the leadership of Archduke Ferdinand.

The East African Navy's daily training and outings are all hoisted with the East African flag, but today is a relatively special day, so the East African royal family turned over the flag of the Hexingen Kingdom and hung it on the East African Navy, mainly because they were afraid that a world power would break its defenses.

On deck, Archduke Ferdinand was talking with a young man, Captain Bromel of the Prussian Navy, who had been commissioned by the Prussian government to go to East Africa to help East Africa receive the French colony of Mayotte.

Archduke Ferdinand: "Bromel, Prussia's unification of Germany is now a foregone conclusion, and I think your Prussian navy will definitely usher in a big development in the future, and your naval department probably plans to build a few warships." ”

Bromel: "Your Excellency, don't make fun of me, our naval department has always been unvalued in the kingdom, even if it is unified, I am afraid that it will be suppressed by the army later, in comparison, I still envy the East African Navy led by Ling, although the hardware is not very good, but the status is much higher than ours." ”

So far, the Federal Navy (Prussian Navy) is still subordinate to the Federal Army (Prussian Army) and has not become independent from the Army, and the East African Navy has been on an equal footing with the East African Army since its inception, although the East African Navy led by Archduke Ferdinand is not even a fraction of the Army.

Archduke Ferdinand Versailles said: "It is just a name, and this does not make His Majesty arrange for us more funds and ships. ”

Bromel: "At least the East African Navy has a much higher starting point than the Prussian Navy, and the future potential is good. ”

The Prussian navy originated in 1815, when Sweden ceded West Pomerania to Prussia after the victory of the anti-French alliance. Prussia then took over West Pomerania, as well as the Pomeranian Navy left by Sweden, a naval force consisting of militia with six unusable 65-ton dhow gunboats and two naval officers, and Prussia selected a lieutenant named Dietrich Johann Lange among the two naval officers left behind, making him the first naval officer in Prussia.

Archduke Ferdinand: "Hahaha, that's all in the past, the development of any big country can't avoid the navy, and a rookie like Prussia can't avoid the problem of the navy, you at least have more potential than Austria-Hungary." ”

Bromel shook his head and said, "Not necessarily! The Austro-Hungarian Empire regained Venice, and its naval power was bound to rise to a higher level. ”

Archduke Ferdinand: "Although Venice is important, the Austro-Hungarian navy is still trapped in the Adriatic Sea, and it is only unknown whether it can expand further in the Mediterranean, and the unified Germany can still work the Atlantic side." ”

Bromel nodded and said: "Prussia does have an advantage in this regard, but it is only compared with Austria-Hungary, the navies of both countries are limited by the terrain, on the other hand, East Africa has no defects in this regard." ”

Archduke Ferdinand shook his head and said: "Although the coastline of East Africa has some advantages compared with Germany and Austria-Hungary, our naval strength is limited by national strength, which is much worse than yours. ”

Bromer: "But no country would travel thousands of miles to the Indian Ocean to attack East Africa!" There are no naval powers around the Indian Ocean, so your self-protection ability is still sufficient, and this is especially true when the East African Navy slowly develops. ”

Ferdinand: "Although there are no powerful countries around, but there are powerful colonies, and even the Egyptian navy is much stronger than ours. ”

Although Constantine and Ernst were originally painting a big pie, this pie was not vain, just half a month ago Ernst had promised that after the completion of the Bagamoyo shipyard, the Venetian shipyard would give priority to the construction of two new steam warships for the navy, not that the Bagamoyo shipyard did not trust the Bagamoyo shipyard, but that the Venetian shipyard had more advantages in this regard.

Although the Bagamoyo shipyard is built by copying the Venetian shipyard, it cannot copy the complete industrial chain of the Venice area, the Venetian shipyard cannot get rid of the Venetian counterparts alone, and the Bagamoyo shipyard is even more impossible, many parts and core technologies need to be imported from Europe, so the East African Navy warships are not as good as being built in Venice, and the cost is lower, as for the Bagamoyo shipyard first accumulated experience in the field of civilian ships.

……

"Commander-in-Chief! With Mayotte ahead and we are at our destination. The guard reported to Archduke Ferdinand.

"Arrival!" Ferdinand ordered.

At this time, the people of the French colony of Mayotte also saw the flag of the East African naval fleet.

"It's the Prussian Navy."

The Black Eagle Banner played a role at this time, and the French did not know much about the Heshingen Princely Kingdom, so they decided that the fleet in front of them was the Prussian Navy that had come to hand over the battle.

In a short time, Archduke Ferdinand and Colonel Bromel landed on Mayotte, and the French government of Mayotte had been waiting for a long time.

Two months ago they received an order from the republican government, Mayotte was ceded to Prussia because of the defeat of France, although very reluctantly, but there was no way, Mayotte was of little value to France, and even when Prussia mentioned Mayotte, most of the officials of the republican government had never heard of the name of this colony, and finally after figuring out that it was only a small island near Madagascar, the French government simply ceded the ownership of the island to Prussia.

The main thing is that Mayotte is too remote, especially after the opening of the Suez Canal, the value is basically equal to zero, and there is Madagascar next to it, and it doesn't matter if Prussia takes it.

"I'm the head of Mayotte, Arthur."

"Prussian Admiral, Bromel." Bromel stepped forward and said.

Arthur: "Colonel Bromel, all the officials of Mayotte are here, and at the request of the French Central Government, we will transfer Mayotte to your country, but according to the agreement between the two countries, your country must guarantee the safety of our personnel and at the same time our property, and shall not prevent the transfer of our personnel and assets during the evacuation. ”

Bromel: "Of course! ”

After a simple handover ceremony, Mayotte completely fell into the hands of the Royal Navy of East Africa, and Ferdinand found that the French had evacuated very cleanly, except for the fact that the premises were too late to destroy, there was no hair left for East Africa, including the blacks on the island, which were taken away by the French.

In order to develop Mayotte, France also deliberately introduced a large number of blacks from Réunion, so the blacks on Mayotte Island are an important labor force and asset of the French, and the French do not want to cheapen the Prussians. But that's fine, and it saves East Africa a lot of trouble.

The handover ceremony was between France and Prussia, which is why Colonel Bromel crossed the ocean to make a formality, and then, according to the agreement between the Prussian royal family and the royal family of Heishingen, the ownership of the island fell into the hands of East Africa.

The significance of Colonel Bromel's existence is to let the French know that the island was taken by Prussia, and as for the subsequent treatment of Mayotte, it is Prussia's own business, even if it is bombed, it has nothing to do with France itself.

And the East African kingdom did not hand over in person, because it took into account the face of France, after all, if France lost to Prussia, can it still consider itself unlucky, and its strength is not as good as others! But the nature of East Africa to take Mayotte directly is different, and you, a "colony", dare to come and humiliate France.

Mayotte was a trophy, so it could not be handed over directly to East Africa, but to Prussia for a while.

(End of chapter)