Ernst and Prince Karl revealed their opinions on the construction of the Hesse Railway, but this idea is still not possible to implement, do not look at the Hesse Railway only through Hesse and then connect to Swabian Province, but its engineering difficulty is definitely the highest encountered in East Africa.

Because the area it passes through is the most rainicity in East Africa, and the transition from the Katanga Plateau to the Congo Basin, the terrain difference is large, which also adds to the difficulty of building the railway, and the dense wetlands and forests in the area make it more difficult to overcome.

So Ernst said to Prince Karl: "To build this railway, the difficulties encountered are definitely the most serious in the history of the construction of the East African railway, I estimate that there are no tens of thousands of casualties, it is estimated that it will be difficult to complete, so the planning and construction of this railway should be carefully considered." ”

Prince Karl also agrees with this, there is no precedent for such a long railway to be built in the rainforest in this era, of course, Hesse is on the eastern edge of the Congo Basin, and its environment is not similar to the hinterland of the Congo rainforest, because Hesse still has the lower half of the mountains and plateaus, so the difficulties to overcome for the Hesse railway are mainly topography and terrain.

Ernst continued: "There is also the extension of the Northern Railway that you mentioned, I also have this intention, but I will definitely not consider it in the next few years, and it will definitely be connected to the Central Railway in the future." ”

Ernst thought very simply, after the completion of the Hesse Provincial Railway, the Central Railway would have completed the "Four Links" in all directions, but before that the Central Railway and the Northern Railway were completely two independent parts.

After the construction of the Hesse Provincial Railway, the Northern Railway can be connected to the Hesse Provincial Railway to the west, so that the Central Railway and the Northern Railway can realize the intersection and networking, which is conducive to strengthening the connection between East Africa.

However, Ernst did not think about this, the Northern Railway is very similar to the Uganda Railway built by the British in the previous life, but it is not as long as the Uganda Railway, and the Northern Railway will be connected to the Hesse Provincial Railway in the future.

It would have been possible to open a northern branch to the north, the Azande Plateau, which would later be used to integrate the Central African Republic with East Africa.

In this way, the so-called Northern Railway can also be more worthy of its name, and it is understandable to call it the Northern Railway when East Africa did not have the same land area as it is today.

Now the Northern Railway has become the "Northeast" Railway in the huge territory of East Africa, and the Northern Railway seems to be somewhat unworthy of the name.

Of course, this is only Ernst's personal thoughts, but Prince Karl also has his own thoughts, and he said to Ernst: "What you just said is indeed very reasonable, it seems that there is not much demand for the construction of the Northern Railway in East Africa at present, and I am not good at forcing it, but Sigmaringen is now colonized in Chad, and it can only pass through the territory of East Africa, and you also know this." ”

When Prince Karl said this, his intentions were almost apparent.

East Africa did not pay much attention to the Northern Railway, but Sigmaringen needed it to contribute to Sigmaringen's colonial cause.

Because Sigmaringen had no access to the sea on the Atlantic coast, all the people and goods had to be transported to Chad through East Africa, and the Northern Railway was now only half a section, which greatly increased the colonial cost of Sigmaringen.

The distance from Mombasa to Chad is more than 2,000 kilometers, and it takes almost three months for people and goods to come and go, and all three months of eating, drinking, and Lazar are in East Africa.

This is a practical factor, and Sigmaringen also has to consider the future development factors, unlike in Europe, Europe's biggest reliance on Sigmaringen is naturally Germany, and Africa, an acre of land, there is simply no power beyond East Africa.

Therefore, the future of Sigmalingen must be tied to East Africa, and if the Northern Railway can be extended to Chad, then Sigmalingen and East Africa will naturally be more closely linked.

"Of course, I know that this is a bit difficult, after all, railway construction, especially the construction of thousands of kilometers of railways, is not a small project for any country, but the Northern Railway is really important to Sigmaringen, you should know this very well, so if East Africa is willing to build the Northern Railway, we must be notified in advance, and we will contribute." Prince Karl said with some regret.

In fact, Prince Karl also knew in his heart that Ernst would definitely further build the Northern Railway, after all, the Azande Plateau, the Great Lakes Region, and the Nile Basin all needed this railway to drive the economic development of the northern East African region, and of course, to consolidate national security.

That's why I mentioned the Northern Railway this time, to find out Ernst's tone, if it was before, Prince Karl certainly did not have such ambitions.

But he had been in East Africa for more than half a year, and the more he learned about it, the more it sparked his passion for colonization.

The more he was shocked in East Africa, the more he had high hopes for the Chad colony, not to mention becoming like East Africa, even if it developed into only one-twentieth of East Africa's national strength, it would have much greater potential than Romania's one-third of an acre.

Prince Karl's biggest trip in East Africa this year was to take a train along the Central Railway to inspect the construction of East Africa.

Leaving aside how East Africa is developing, the journey of more than 3,000 kilometres alone was an eye-opener, and it took him two weeks to reach the port of New Hamburg, the southernmost port in East Africa, from the port of Dar es Salaam.

In the middle of the city of Mbeya, Harare and other cities, now the development of the inland area has been comparable to some backward areas in Europe, of course, the backward area referred to is Romania, the only thing that Romania can be stronger than the interior of East Africa is nothing more than high population density.

This is true of the interior of East Africa, not to mention the eastern region, which can already be compared with the vast majority of European countries, except for its vast expanse and sparse population.

If you count blacks, East Africa has a population of 50 million, while Tsarist Russia has a population of more than 100 million, and its territory is twice that of East Africa, and its population is just twice that of East Africa, so the population density of East Africa and Tsarist Russia is comparable, and the effective territory of East Africa is obviously much larger than that of Tsarist Russia.

The population of the United States is slightly smaller than that of East Africa, and the land area is slightly smaller than that of East Africa, although East Africa is nearly 3 million square kilometers more than the United States, but the removal of tropical rainforests is almost the same, because East Africa has not yet made the Congo Basin clear as East African territory, which can only be regarded as a territory, or a sphere of influence.

So the population density of East Africa today is actually about the same as that of the United States and Russia, the only difference is that these two countries developed hundreds of years before East Africa.

The gap between these hundreds of years is naturally not so easy to surpass, just talking about the road, East Africa cannot expect to catch up with the accumulation of hundreds of years in just a dozen years.

However, East Africa is not without the opportunity to catch up, for example, hardened highways are the development trend of the future road, now the world and East Africa are on the same starting line, and after the rise of the automobile industry, the road development of East Africa will also be at the same starting point with other countries.

The same is true for industry, now is the time for the rise of the second industrial revolution, although East Africa is more than a decade behind other countries, but it is also considered to be halfway through, and it is on the same starting line as emerging countries such as Japan.

All in all, this is a time of change, and East Africa can soar in the future if it seizes the opportunity, and Ernst has laid a good foundation for East Africa's fundamentals.

(End of chapter)