Chapter 309: Private Special Agent Organization
"Richard," whose real name is Augusta, is actually one of the heads of the British branch of the hidden-line group under the Hechingen Consortium's commercial intelligence department.
The Hechingen Consortium's commercial intelligence department was established in 1866. At first, its job really was only to gather commercial intelligence for Ernst to reference. Later, as the consortium grew and the East African colony developed, it also started gathering national and regional intelligence. Ernst then took part of the staff from the Hechingen Consortium's commercial intelligence department and formed a hidden-line group—officially, they are commercial intelligence collectors for the consortium, but in reality they are Ernst's secret agent organization.
Most members are selected from the Hechingen Military Academy. They have received professional training and are generally quite loyal, but the downside is they are mostly quite young. This is why Augusta and the others seem inexperienced.
Currently, the hidden-line group of the Hechingen commercial intelligence department does not belong to the East African government. Rather, it is Ernst's private special agent organization. Within East Africa itself, they are placed under departments like the national auditing office, acting as a watchdog over the functioning of East African national affairs. Even Constantinoo doesn't know of this group's existence.
Although the hidden-line group is now led by Ernst personally, in the future it will inevitably be integrated into East African government agencies, effectively serving as a precursor to East Africa's national security department.
Abroad, the Hechingen commercial intelligence department's hidden-line group is mainly based in Britain, the United States, and in countries like France that have elected governments. Since the group members are relatively inexperienced, it is easier for them to operate in places with weaker regulations. This way, they can slowly gain experience in intelligence work.
Countries with strong central governments like East Africa are not suited for espionage activities, as agents can easily slip up—assuming that the national administrative system hasn't collapsed. Even established nations like those in the Far East or the Austro-Hungarian Empire can be infiltrated until they're full of holes.
For now, Ernst's intelligence agency has limited capabilities and is mostly active in countries that might pose a threat to East Africa—namely Britain, the United States, Portugal, and especially France.
Among these, Britain, Portugal, and France all have colonies in Africa, while the United States, under British pressure, is always looking for new markets. As a result, East Africa is not very welcoming to American merchants. Just as America is actively expanding in the Far East, American merchants learn a lot about the Far East and Japan through their trade. East Africa, being so large, wants to stay hidden as long as possible and naturally does not want to deal with Americans. Even efforts by American merchants to set up a trading post in Zanzibar have been rejected by East Africa.
At this point in history, the United States is still just the United States, not the "American Empire" of later times. In a sense, it is overshadowed by Britain and France. So the image the Americans put forward—that they are advocates of free and fair trade—did not help them gain business access to Zanzibar, and Ernst chose to refuse them.
From the perspective of the American merchants active around the Indian Ocean, East Africa seems very closed off. It's understandable: this is a German overseas colony with no help from the mother country, so of course it stays vigilant. Besides the Austrians, they haven't seen East Africa treat any nation's merchants kindly.
In reality, there is an exception—merchants from the Sultanate of Zanzibar. That country is a sort of younger partner to East Africa, so East Africa is naturally at ease with it. A large portion of East Africa's imports and exports go through the Sultanate of Zanzibar. Its trading connections also help open markets in the Middle East and along the coasts of the Indian Ocean.
…
Dar es Salaam City.
Three Hechingen ocean-going ships are unloading outdated Dreyse gun and cannon manufacturing machines from the Berlin Hechingen Armory. The East African government has sent a large number of carts and workers to the port to receive these shipments.
"These machines are still quite new—only about four or five years old. Compared with the ones in the East African armory, they are much more advanced and also more complete. Their parts are sealed in boxes, so don't break the seals or let rainwater seep in before they reach their destination," explains Vicente, a technician who traveled with the cargo, as he speaks to Bryce, the East African government representative in charge of receiving the goods.
Bryce says, "Don't worry. We've prepared plenty of rain covers and ropes to protect these machines from getting wet before they arrive."
Vicente adds, "Also, try not to let them bounce around too much on the road. These machines aren't exactly fragile, but if they get damaged during transport, that'll be a real problem."
Bryce replies, "No problem. We've had experience transporting mining equipment to Mbeya City before. We send out people every month to maintain the road between Dar es Salaam and Mbeya City. Unless there's extreme weather, the road conditions should be fine."
Vicente asks, "That's not my main concern. I want to know how the factory buildings are coming along."
Bryce answers, "I'm not sure, but I assume there won't be any issues. After all, the government would definitely take the factory requirements into account. At the very least, they could have finished constructing them by the time you arrived. Mbeya City isn't short on manpower, so building a few more factories quickly is well within their ability. We also have telegraph lines, so I'm sure they got the news two months ago."
East Africa's infrastructure is actually quite decent, especially for big projects. About ten million indigenous people live in East Africa, and their numbers are so large that the authorities have more or less stopped keeping track. In any event, there is no shortage of unskilled labor. Even if you exclude the elderly, the infirm, and children, you still have a workforce of several million. The only drawback is that the local people have very short life expectancies; there are almost no truly old individuals.
Ernst is in luck: the plan to build an armory in Mbeya came at a good time. The Prussian government intends to phase out its now-obsolete Dreyse rifles. Plus, with the unification of Germany, the country's military production standards will unify under those of Prussia. Because of that, many German military factories are facing the need to switch industries. The lucky ones get absorbed by Prussia; the unlucky ones shut down. Many German states also had their own military industries—mostly small workshops—but some of the equipment they produced was still quite good, only on a small scale.
As a result, you can basically buy a huge stock of machinery and equipment at the price of scrap metal. Putting all these parts together really did let Ernst assemble a complete production chain for various weapons.
Although the Berlin Hechingen Armory manufactures guns, most of the parts are purchased from outside sources. It turns out there are small workshops under those German states that produce all kinds of firearm parts and components.
By purchasing a large batch of assorted weapons-manufacturing equipment, East Africa can reassemble it for production. This means that most of the weapons currently produced in Europe can also be made independently in East Africa, especially in combination with the steel produced in Mbeya City.
That includes pistols, bayonets, daggers, and small artillery—previously beyond East Africa's production capacity—all of which have been acquired in this procurement effort.
Because of the low efficiency of the workshop-style production method and the shortage of steel output, the final production numbers might not be impressive. Still, East Africa has taken an important step toward independent weapons manufacturing.
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