Of course, the construction of the East African Navy in the seventies was also a last resort, and Ernst also wanted to develop it step by step, but knowing the world situation, he simply had no reason to hesitate.

At that time, the East African Navy's appeal was to be able to take shape in a short period of time and form a combat force to cope with the severe national defense situation in the eighties.

After all, Ernst knew that the eighties were a peak period for the expansion of the great powers around the world, and the African continent was a key region, so in this case, the East African Navy must have a certain size and strength in order to safeguard the real interests of East Africa, and it is obvious that building a stronger navy in a short period of time will have to pay a price.

Fortunately, however, the East African Navy did a great job of fulfilling its historic mission and withstood the pressure of the British Royal Navy in the South African War.

If it is like the Far Eastern Empire, the United States and Japan only began to expand their navies in the 80s, then the South African War and the Middle East African Navy may be difficult to confront the British Royal Navy, after all, the adaptation of ships and naval training is also a relatively long process.

Now, according to Ernst's judgment, the dangerous period in East Africa has passed, so the disarmament action of the East African Navy and Army is inevitable, in addition to the need to reduce expenditures, there are also considerations for the return of funds.

In particular, a large number of weapons and equipment that were backward or captured in the South African War must be sold as soon as they can still be sold at a good price.

Of course, the East African Navy has a certain ability to localize its own country, and it will continue to import warships from Germany and Austria; apart from political factors, it is more important to draw on the advanced experience and technology of other countries.

And in the field of experience and technology, there is no doubt that the most powerful is the British, and the reason why East Africa did not introduce warships from Britain is more Versailles, that is, East Africa captured two British warships and sank three in the South African War.

After the South African War, East Africa did not return to the British government, after all, six million pounds was not enough for East Africa to recover its capital, and these two British warships were used to make up for the losses in the South African war.

In fact, one of the three warships sunk has been successfully salvaged, which means that the East African Navy has three advanced warships in active service with the British Army, including two ironclads and a cruiser.

Of the three warships, two are badly damaged and are undergoing major repairs, and the ironclad that was salvaged has been dismantled and studied by technicians from the Bagamoyo shipyard.

If you count the two British warships that are about to enter service with the East African Navy, plus the East African government's shipbuilding program in the next few years, in fact, the East African Navy has not suffered much losses, and even completed a small renewal.

It's just that after this update, the East African Navy has changed from Austria-Hungary to Britain, Austria, and Germany, and the East African Navy will fully compare the advantages and disadvantages of the actual combat effects of the three naval warships, and then feed back to Bagamoyo and other shipyards.

Now there is a lack of French warships as a reference, as for Tsarist Russia and the United States is completely negligible, Tsarist Russia and the United States are not too strong in technology and East Africa is at the same level, Tsarist Russia is too poor in industry, low naval investment, and the United States is not concerned about military development, although the United States Navy has also been greatly developed in the eighties, but before that the United States Navy can be said to be "paralyzed" development, since the end of the Civil War, the United States basically has no military investment, The development of the Navy in the 80s was due to the current international environment.

After all, in the 80s, Europe's foreign expansion activities were too frequent and intense, and there was not a single other region and country in the world that was not frightened, but all countries with long eyes were expanding their armaments.

As for the countries and regions that do not have a long eye, the future will be the same as West Africa, the great powers will divide up the places with dinner knives, and there will not even be slag left.

……

First Town City.

At the end of each war, it became almost the norm for Ernst to start disarmament, and in 1890 the East African Defence Forces continued to do so.

Ernst: "In the next ten years, the size of the navy will remain unchanged, and the main task is to slowly replace the current main warships, arrange for retirement according to the construction time and other parameters, and maintain the current naval scale enough to ensure the security of our country's sea areas." ”

"Of course, considering the fact that our country has newly acquired colonies in Angola and Mozambique, so as to obtain more coastlines and ports, the defense pressure on the Navy is even greater, and at this point, my opinion is to develop more small and medium-sized and multi-purpose ships to make up for the shortcomings of the East African Navy in this regard."

The East African Navy has always been relatively backward in the development of small and medium-sized warships and multi-purpose ships, such as torpedo boats, supply ships, troop carriers, and so on.

Therefore, the arrangements for the navy in this disarmament have actually been reduced instead of increasing, and the goal of "disarmament" has not been achieved, but on the contrary, the navy has been strengthened to a certain extent.

Of course, this is also how it should be, after all, East Africa is now a two-ocean country in the true sense of the word, and even a three-ocean country, and the navy cannot be reduced at all, even if the budget is increased, it is not too much.

However, while maintaining the overall size of the navy, the East African Navy is still among the top ten in the world, so there is no need to expand too much, which is also in line with the current economic development level of East Africa.

Investing in naval construction at any cost, as Japan has done, is actually a serious burden on the national economy, and this is also an important reason why Japan is keen on war, and if it does not plunder from elsewhere, the Japanese economy will collapse on its own.

Of course, East Africa has always been more active than the United States in military construction, after all, in Ernst's view, the development of the army is a long-term demand, and it cannot be directly stopped because of short-term interests.

"As for the army, it should be reduced to the pre-war level, after the settlement of Angola and Mozambique, the pressure on China's land defense has been greatly reduced, the national border has been shortened by nearly 3,000 kilometers, and at the same time, the Portuguese are out, and there are less than 100,000 threatening troops deployed around us, and there is no need to deploy a large number of troops on the border in a-for-tat manner."

The incorporation of Angola and Mozambique has completely changed the national defense and security situation in East Africa, and the north has become the focus of East Africa's land defense in the future.

But the threat in northern East Africa pales in comparison to the pre-war South African region, and the strongest of the northern forces is still the British, their colony of Egypt.

However, Egypt and East Africa are separated by the Sahara Desert, which is a natural geographical barrier, and although South Sudan is part of Egypt in history, South Sudan is actually completely semi-independent and can secede from Egypt at any time.

And now East Africa only needs to deploy a little army in the Gezira Plain to completely block the southward route of Egypt (Britain), as for the detour from the Kordofan Plateau, which also faces the tropical rainforest area in the south, it is almost impossible to achieve without a guide and sufficient material supply, and if there is an army that can do it, it is also enough to go down in history as a "military miracle".

As for the other powers in the north, there is no need to worry, the strongest is probably the Abyssinian Empire, which is too backward and has good relations with East Africa.

As for the military strength of the Cape Colony after the destruction of the Southern Boer Republic, East Africa completely mastered the north bank of the Orange River, completely got rid of the military and topographical disadvantages according to the terrain, and only a small number of troops were needed to defend the military strength of the Cape Town colony, and the Cape Town colony was not expected to have such an idea after the South African War.

"Therefore, the final number of the Wehrmacht Army should be maintained at about 200,000, of course, the newly formed cavalry units can continue to be retained in the war, and each military region will cancel or mix some secondary units as appropriate."

In this way, the East African Army will almost reduce half of its strength, but this is also within everyone's psychological expectations, after all, with the experience of the South African war, there are basically zero countries that dare to launch a direct war against East Africa.

(End of chapter)

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