Chapter 936 Arms Sales
East Africa has no way of knowing the attitude of the Spanish government towards the conflict between the United States and Spain, but this does not prevent East Africa from selling various war preparation materials and arms to Spain in advance.
In fact, the arms trade between East Africa and Spain began as early as after the South African War. After the South African War, East African military products, especially army equipment, attracted the attention of many countries.
Spain is among them, because a large part of the Spanish army's weapons procurement comes from Germany, and the East African army equipment has the same origin as Germany, which provides convenience for East Africa.
Before the South African War, Spain might have doubts about the quality of East African weapons, but after the South African War, this doubt disappeared.
From the South African War to the present, East Africa has exported more than 20,000 rifles and hundreds of machine guns to Spain. The performance of machine guns in South Africa is undoubtedly the best, which has attracted some attention.
"Mr. Cruz, this is the m1895c Mauser rifle, a special rifle for tropical jungles produced in East Africa. It also belongs to the Mauser rifle series, but the military R&D team in East Africa has improved it according to regional conditions. According to the tropical jungle area temperature and humidity, targeted material improvements have been made, making it more suitable for shooting in hot and humid areas," Manske, an East African weapons salesman, said to his old friend Cruise.
Since 1886, Spain has begun to field Mauser rifles. The Mauser rifle used in Spain is the m1893 type, which is a variety used by Germany for export. It is specially designed for Spain. East Africa also has production qualifications, but the Mauser rifle used by the East African Defense Forces There are detailed differences between the Mauser rifle and Germany or its exported Mauser rifle, mainly to adapt to the climate and terrain characteristics of East Africa, as well as the requirements of the East African Defense Forces.
In the previous Spanish-American War, the m1893 Mauser rifle used by Spain performed so well that after the Spanish-American War, the m1903 Springfield rifle developed by the United States, which suffered a loss, was actually authorized by the Mauser Rifle Arsenal. The Mauser m1898 rifle was designed as a prototype.
So the Mauser rifles now installed in Spain are destined to shine in the war, and East Africa naturally wants to get involved and test the performance of East Africa's weapons and equipment.
Furthermore, because of the South African War, the Mauser rifles used by the East African Defense Forces had already achieved good results. This also accelerated the Spanish government's determination to replace Mauser rifles. The army introduced Mauser rifles into service on a larger scale than in history.
Therefore, if Spain now wants to meet its needs in the war, it naturally can only go through Germany or East Africa, the two countries in the world that mainly use and produce Mauser series rifles.
In the previous life, Spain ordered more than 500,000 m1893 Mauser rifles, and they were used until 1928. Its domestic Mauser rifles were not officially released until 1916, so now Spain mainly relies on imports of Mauser rifles. This provides export opportunities for the East African defense industry.
"Spain has been one of our partners since 1890. After all, the quality of our Mauser rifles in East Africa is no worse than that of German goods, but the m1893 Mauser rifle you use may be good compared to the local environment. After all, Spain It has a Mediterranean climate with hot and dry summers and mild and rainy winters, but Cuba and the Philippines have a tropical rainforest climate with hot and humid weather and lots of jungles. The shooting environment in this case is different from that in your homeland.”
"Take the jungle environment itself. It is different from the regular on-site environment. Because there is a lot of rain and fog, and the dense trees, shooting conditions are naturally limited. Therefore, strengthening firepower is more important than range and accuracy. Think about it. The tropical jungle is full of trees, so how far can your bullets fly? "
After all, neither Spain nor the United States are natives who are comfortable in the jungles like Vietnam. Their colonial focus is concentrated on coastal and developed areas.
Mansk knew this very well. He said: "Don't be too absolute. Could it be that you gave up when Spain lost the ports and other areas in the war? And it was not just the Americans who were responsible for the suppression of the colonies, but also the local indigenous people. You urgently need a part of the confrontation, and this cannot avoid fighting in the jungle. Nowadays, local popular uprisings are emerging one after another in the Philippines and Cuba. The fundamental reason is that Spain is overly exploited. Of course, there are also the shadows of the Americans behind this, and they have carried out attacks on Spain. Targeted economic sanctions, the most typical of which is increasing tariffs on Cuba's sugar industry, have exacerbated the economic difficulties in Cuba and other regions, and changes in the economic situation have intensified local resistance.
Of course, there are some differences between Cuba and the Philippines. The local resistance forces are actually the local Spaniards. Just like the American independence in the past, they are dissatisfied with the central government's local taxes. When the economic situation is declining, this This contradiction was further intensified.
The armed riots in the colonies were also one of the important reasons for the failure of the Spanish war. They involved a lot of Spanish energy. With internal and external collusion, Spain had no chance of winning.
Of course, East Africa has nothing to do with the situation in Cuba. East Africa still values the Philippines' belonging, so it is more enthusiastic about helping Spain suppress the indigenous Filipinos.
“It may have been easy for your army to deal with the local indigenous people in the past, but with the support of Americans behind them, it will be different. No one knows what weapons there will be in the jungle.” Mansk said meaningfully.
Cruz also said with a heavy face: "Yes, colonial thugs are indeed a key issue. If they hadn't been causing trouble behind the government, the Americans would not have been able to pose a threat to Spain so easily."
In Cruz's view, these indigenous people or some comprador forces in Spain are typical examples of eating in and out. Spain may have gone too far, but when the Americans came, they just changed the soup without changing the medicine.
“Then what do you think of this rifle? Do you want to purchase it? You must know that some of our armies have already installed this rifle, especially in the western region.”
Mansk then deceived: "The prototype of the m1895c rifle is the m1888c tropical jungle rifle. It once participated in the battle with Portugal and was tested in the South African War. At that time, the rifle was equipped with the 331st Mountain Division, the most elite of our country. , this unit has been fighting from the tropical rainforest of Angola to Maputo in the southeast. It can be said that it has made great achievements. The excellent performance of this rifle has been tested by the war,”
"And the m1895c tropical jungle rifle is a new generation of tropical jungle-specific combat rifle that we built on the basis of the m1888c rifle over a five-year period. It can only be said that it is better to learn from the past than to practice in the western part of East Africa, especially in the tropical rainforest areas. The troops basically use this rifle.”
Mansk directly talked about the record. Although the record of the m1895c rifle is mainly inherited from the 1888 model, the relationship between the two is inheritance and development. The East African military industry department has made improvements according to its advantages and disadvantages in actual combat, and its performance will only increase. Even better than before.
At this time, Cruise was already a little excited. He told Mansk that we could first purchase 500 bottles to test the effect. If the performance is good, we can expand the scale.
Mansk shook his head and said: "Five hundred is still too few. How about this? I will take you to simulate the terrain to see the actual combat effect directly, and then you can determine the purchase quantity."
No matter how much I say, it’s better to let Cruz and the Spaniards operate it directly. As weapons purchasers, Cruz and others also know a lot about firearms. Mansk is confident that this East African rifle will excel in their eyes. results.
(End of this chapter)