What else can the Army optimize? Ernst's first thought was the food for East African soldiers. While fighting in South Africa, Ernst noticed that the East African army still used to bury the pot for cooking, and it was quite common to carry the pot on his back to set off with the troops.

Of course, this method cannot be said to be bad, but it has considerable limitations, after all, it is indeed convenient to rely on only one marching pot, but there must be compromises in the dishes.

When war broke out, the quality of food could affect morale at any time, and the ancients all knew the truth of feasting soldiers before the war and defeating the enemy army. Giving soldiers a good meal before a war can significantly calm the soldiers' fear of war and boost their morale.

After discussing some details with Archduke Ferdinand, Ernst began to investigate the East African army's kitchen, and he approached the army top brass and the head of the army's logistics department to discuss the matter.

Ernst said bluntly: "I would like to know what problems our troops have exposed in the soldiers' kitchens in all the wars, and I can bring up some of the problems that your soldiers complain about in their daily lives. ”

"Your Highness, in terms of army food, our East African army as a whole should not have much of a problem! We are not the world leader in terms of material supplies, but we are definitely the best among them, other countries do not know much about it, at least stronger than Austria and Prussia. Said the Minister of Logistics.

Ernst: "Of course I know this, after all, the standards are all formulated by me, but nothing can be perfect, especially in the face of emergencies, such as this South African battlefield, I am also on the front line, our supplies are abundant, but because of the transportation problem may not be able to be distributed to the hands of various troops in time, this shows that our work is not better, this problem exists, and other problems are the same, so we can't turn a blind eye to this." ”

The food standards of the Royal East African Army were benchmarked against Prussia, which was stronger than Prussia, on the same level as France, and lower than that of Great Britain. Of course, this is only in terms of food spending, and if we look at the development of various countries, East Africa is completely exceeded.

For example, in Prussia before, the monthly salary of Prussian soldiers was about forty-eight groschen (two taylors), but it should be noted that Prussian soldiers did not eat for free, but had to pay for food and accommodation, and at the same time needed to pay taxes when buying supplies.

Of course, the army had special characteristics, so Prussian soldiers would enjoy the privilege of tax exemption when buying bread, but only bread, but in addition to this, the indispensable meat, vegetables, salt and tobacco had to be handled by the soldiers themselves, and the drinks could also be considered coffee made from water, cold milk, light beer and substitutes, and hot drinks such as tea and chocolate were completely fantastical.

Now the level of the Prussian army has improved considerably, but with the size of the Prussian army, this improvement is also limited.

And this kind of improvement, Ernst is a great effort, in which the price of tobacco in Germany is Ernst down, the German army has been inseparable from cigarettes, with the large-scale cultivation of tobacco in East Africa, a large number of cheap tobacco has also poured into the German region, breaking the monopoly of foreign countries, and at the same time, because the Heixingen consortium actively developed ocean trade, many things that are rare to see, or do not produce at all, are becoming more and more common.

For example, after the luxury food banana was put into production in East Africa, a batch was sent to the Prussian and Austrian armies free of charge by clipper.

This has always been the tradition of the Heixingen Foundation, the army is not only a good customer, but also the best propaganda tool, just soldiers from all over the world, worthy of the Heixinggen Foundation's strong support.

In this era, there is no television, radio, the Internet, and population movements are infrequent, and the army and newspapers are the best platforms for civilians to learn new things.

Taking the Prussian Army as an example, the size of the Prussian Army is about 600,000, and each person will receive one, and 600,000 people will know about the high-quality product of Somali bananas, and these 600,000 people will inevitably introduce to their hometowns the delicious food they enjoy in the army.

Speaking of the army's meals, compared with the armies of the great powers, the East African Army's soldiers' salaries are not high, but their food, clothing, housing and transportation are free.

At the same time, because East Africa is located in a tropical region, this means that the East African Army is destined to have no shortage of vegetables and fruits, and in fact, when East Africa animal husbandry develops, the same is true for meat and dairy products, and eggs. And East Africa is a big tobacco producer, so cigarettes are almost the standard configuration of the East African army, so the food of the East African army will not be too bad at all.

However, this is only theoretical, not in practice, first of all, East Africa is too large, the transportation lines are extremely long, and the transportation conditions are very backward.

In addition, the initially exploited areas of the Kingdom of East Africa were concentrated in the east, which made it possible for the troops of the Central Military Region and the Northern Military Region to meet the dietary standards set by Ernst for the East African Army in peacetime, while the other three Military Regions did not enjoy this treatment. There is certainly no way to reverse this situation in a short period of time, so Ernst has to use his brains more in other aspects.

Ernst: "Let's not talk about anything else, just take hot food as an example, there is a lot of room for improvement in our army, when I was on the front line in South Africa, the soldiers still used a cauldron to make all kinds of paste, and every time they had to build a makeshift stove, which wasted a lot of time, I know that the Prussian army now has a special cooking car, this thing I think is very good, we should use it, this has a great advantage for the army to march in the field. ”

In 1853, Kanter Lambford of Bavaria, Germany, put boilers and the like on horse-drawn carriages. Since then, the army has had cooking carts on its equipment.

However, at present, the cooking car can only be regarded as a new thing, and it has not been popularized, and it will not be around the 20th century that countries begin to develop and distribute cooking cars.

Felix said: "Your Highness, the cooking truck you mentioned, in fact, we have not seen it, I have served in the Prussian Army for many years, and I have always used a cauldron to cook rice. ”

Ernst: "That's normal, it's very simple, it's a stove mounted on a carriage and can be pulled around at any time, but I think there's a lot of room for retrofitting this kind of thing." ”

As he spoke, Ernst instantly became interested in being a good teacher, and he simply asked people to find pen and paper and began to design it himself.

"First of all, this kind of military dining vehicle should take into account convenience, so two wheels should be added, considering the road conditions in East Africa, this kind of wheel is larger, but not too bulky, and the frame must also be lightweight, so it will be suitable to use a wooden frame, of course, for firmness, it can withstand bumps, reinforced with iron sheets and iron fixings."

"Ahem, ahem...... Your Highness, will there be no problems with wooden frames! It's a thing that is used to light a fire. ”

"Hehe, you think I'm going to make such a low-level mistake! The frame is made of wood, not to mention that the part that comes into contact with the stove is also wooden, and we can use the sealing soil as an insulation material. ”

As the drawings gradually took shape, it became clear that Ernst's drawings were plagiarized from a simple earthen stove in the Far East, which was generally made of iron barrels.

(Picture)

"Your Highness, why did you design the middle to be round?"

According to Felix's idea, the stove was of course square, because now the main fuel was firewood and loose coal, and after burning, the ashes had to be extracted.

Ernst: "This is specially designed to place something called honeycomb coal, which can greatly improve the combustion efficiency of coal, and at the same time can continue to burn for half a day, when you use it, open the pull-out vent below, you can strengthen the flame above, it is used to heat the meal, when not in use, put a kettle, you can continuously produce hot water, and you can also use other fuels......"

What exactly is honeycomb coal, Ernst did not elaborate, after all, many of his subordinates are from the big head soldiers who have not studied well in elementary school, and they can't understand the scientific principles when they talk about them, as long as the finished product is completed, just let them try it directly.

(End of chapter)