Chapter 1 – Time Travel
February 24, 1862, Germany.
Late at night, the faint stars gave off a dim glow in the cold, black sky.
Looking toward the south of Germany, the early winter wind blew fiercely, rustling the branches and leaves of the old city of Hechingen. The trees whispered in the wind.
The dim yellow street lamps lined up, casting scattered light and shadows over the dark bluish stone-paved streets. The streets were nearly empty, and eerie sounds echoed from the dark alleys.
Through the windows of the houses lining the street, one could almost hear people whispering.
It was dinner time in Hechingen. Candlelight flickered in the dark wooden window frames, dancing like natural-born performers.
Following the road out of the neighborhood, a path leading out of the city gradually opened up. A luxuriously decorated carriage slowly left the city and headed toward the distant hills, where an ancient and solemn castle stood.
Soon, the carriage arrived at the castle gates. The armed guards recognized the visitor and opened the gates. The carriage slowly entered.
Inside the carriage sat no one other than the ruler of the Hechingen area, Prince Constantine of the Kingdom of Prussia.
Hechingen had once been a small state in southeastern Germany, the birthplace of the Hohenzollern family. Now, it was part of Prussia's Hohenzollern Province.
The one who pushed for Hechingen to join the Kingdom of Prussia was this same Prince Constantine, whose full name was Constantine von Hohenzollern.
After a long, tiring day, Prince Constantine was finally home and ready to rest in his room.
Suddenly, urgent footsteps echoed down the hallway. It was the old butler, Keno.
"Master, something terrible has happened!" Keno reported in a panic.
"What's going on, Keno? Calm down and speak slowly," said Constantine, keeping his composure.
"Today, while riding, His Highness the Prince suddenly fainted. The doctor is checking him right now, sir, please come quickly!" Keno explained hastily.
Hearing that his son was involved, Constantine could no longer keep his usual calm and authoritative expression. Ignoring his exhaustion, he rushed with the butler to his son's bedroom.
The servants stood silently outside the door, barely daring to breathe, nervously waiting for the master's arrival.
Without saying a word, Constantine opened the door and walked in. On the bed lay his son, Ernst.
Seeing that Ernst had already "woken up" and looked unharmed, Constantine finally felt some relief. He turned to the doctor and asked, "Doctor, how is he?"
The doctor quickly replied with respect, "Your Highness, the prince seems fine for now. We haven't figured out why he fainted yet. Most likely it was due to exhaustion. It would be best to ask him later."
Constantine carefully approached the bed, held his son's young hand, and gently asked, "Ernst, how are you feeling?"
…
Ernst felt confused and dizzy, with a strange heaviness in his heart. When he heard someone speak, he tried not to act suspicious and softly replied, "Uh… my head feels a little fuzzy. I'm still not completely clear."
"Do you still remember who I am?" Prince Constantine asked anxiously.
"Of course, Father. Maybe it's just aftereffects from fainting. I don't think it's anything serious."
Constantine turned to the doctor again, who quickly reassured him: "Your Highness, there's no need to worry. We checked all of the prince's vitals before. He's very healthy. Let him rest for a while, and we'll keep an eye on him. If anything changes, I'll start treatment right away."
Seeing that it was already dark outside, Prince Constantine thought for a moment and then said, "Alright, everyone leave. Let the prince get some rest."
Everyone quietly left the room. As the old butler closed the door behind him, Constantine finally realized he was drenched in cold sweat. He placed a hand on his chest and whispered with gratitude, "Thank the Lord for His protection."
Prince Ernst, the only child of the Hechingen branch of the Hohenzollern family, was Constantine's precious treasure.
Constantine was already 50 years old when he finally had this son. Shortly after Ernst was born, his wife Eugénie de Beauharnais died of a cold. This made Constantine treasure Ernst even more.
Of course, in real history, Constantine had no children. From the moment Ernst was born, history had changed. A new branch had grown from the main trunk.
Right now, Ernst lay in bed without making a sound, pretending to be a turtle hiding in its shell—because only he knew the truth: he was a time traveler. Today, he suddenly remembered his past life, which caused him to faint. In his previous life, he was just an ordinary guy from his homeland. Not heroic, but he had done his part and passed away. He used to read novels for fun and vented emotions in chat groups.
Actually, Ernst had been in this world for twelve years already. But only today did he fully realize that he had transmigrated. Was this like living a second life? It felt a bit like Zhuangzi dreaming he was a butterfly.
Thankfully, the knowledge and common sense he had learned in his past life couldn't fool him. He could even match it with history: the death of Napoleon, the loose German Confederation, the rising Prussia, the still-mighty Austrian Empire, and his own identity as a Hohenzollern.
Speaking of the Hohenzollerns, they were indeed famous. But Ernst's family was different from the famous Brandenburg-Prussian Hohenzollerns. His branch was a cadet line, located in the southwest of what was formerly Germany. Nearby was another cadet branch, the Hohenzollerns of Sigmaringen. Both belonged to the Swabian branch. Ernst happened to know a bit about them.
That Sigmaringen branch had once tried to claim the Spanish throne and would later produce a King of Romania. Compared to them, Ernst's own branch wasn't as well known.
Why was there nothing about the Hechingen branch in the history books? Well… because it died out. But Ernst's arrival had changed that.
While Ernst was still trying to organize his thoughts and memories, Constantine had already recovered his calm and asked, "Feeling better now, Ernst?"
"Yes, Father. I think I'll be full of energy again after a good sleep," Ernst replied in a relaxed tone.
"That's good. You're meant to inherit the title in the future. Don't put too much pressure on yourself. Even if you just live an ordinary life, that's okay. I don't expect you to achieve great things, but you must stay healthy. Rest more, eat well. Don't learn from those spoiled and reckless nobles…"
Constantine went on and on, finally tucking Ernst in and telling him to rest. If anything happened, he could call the servants. Then he quietly left the room.
The candlelight flickered weakly, lighting the dim walls. The room became silent.
Ernst curled up under the blanket to stay warm and began to sort through his thoughts.
In his past life, he had a promising job. His company had sent him to Africa as an engineering consultant. Life in Africa was boring, and he often had to move with the construction sites.
The places he worked were usually remote and cut off from the world, with frequent power and internet outages and occasional shortages of supplies. But at least the pay was decent.
Living in Africa greatly changed Ernst's worldview. He had worked in Tanzania, a faraway African country.
His time in Tanzania made him see Africa in a new way. Before going, influenced by media and news, he had thought of Africa as backward, poor, with harsh natural conditions and lots of unrest.
But living and working there, Ernst realized how wrong those ideas were. Most of what was said online was biased or exaggerated.
For example, Tanzania had much better weather and rainfall than his old home on the North China Plain.
He used to think Africa was unbearably hot, filled with vast rainforests, endless grasslands, and huge deserts like the Sahara. But when he got to Tanzania, he found the temperature stayed between the teens and 30 degrees Celsius—neither too hot nor too cold. And the rainy season brought plenty of rain and warmth.
Tanzania is a small and little-known country. Because of his job, Ernst became familiar with it. By researching online and comparing things in real life, he found this country surprisingly different from what people usually think.
Although it's in the tropics, the highland geography makes it a comfortable place to live—much like the Brazilian Plateau.
The land is mostly flat, full of vegetation, and covered in savannas with scattered trees. This changed Ernst's old ideas, because the African grasslands were not what he had imagined.
Before seeing a savanna with his own eyes, Ernst had naturally assumed all the grasslands in the world looked like the Mongolian steppes.
But in Africa, Ernst saw a very different scene. The savanna, with its trees mixed among the grass, was a beautiful and unique landscape. It had far better water and heat conditions than the dry, cold Mongolian grasslands, which in history were always described as a harsh place in the north. The African savannas, by contrast, were like a true natural paradise.
The local farmers usually got decent harvests, even using rough farming methods. Their biggest problem was the difficulty of getting water for irrigation. They lacked water engineering and basic farmland irrigation systems.
Even so, people here didn't live too poorly. Their rough lifestyles still allowed poor Africans to live happily.
Because of the tropical climate, they had access to fruit and meat, which helped improve their diet. Their small-scale farming economy gave them a higher living standard than East Asian peasants during the fall of ancient dynasties.
Of course, people's attitudes toward life also mattered. In the past hundred years of colonization, Westerners had dragged Africans from their primitive hunting lives into the modern world.
But African thinking didn't change fast enough. The complicated, fine-tuned, and well-structured survival model of East Asians didn't really exist here in Africa.
There's another thing about Africa—its industrial conditions. Many think African countries are rich in natural resources, but that's not entirely true. Take Tanzania for example.
It is a country that exports minerals, but most of its resources aren't as abundant as people think. It has coal, iron, copper, and oil, but not in large quantities compared to countries that are truly rich in resources.
Tanzania's mineral wealth doesn't rank high globally. But because its industrial development is so low, it gives the illusion of having more resources than it actually does.
In Ernst's mind, East Asia was resource-poor. But that's mainly because of its high level of industrialization. In fact, if you compare the actual amount of minerals, Tanzania is much poorer.
Just looking at coal, iron, and oil—East Asia has world-class mines. Even for oil, which is the weakest, there are several major oil fields.
Before finding oil off its eastern coast, Tanzania was also seen as oil-poor. But Tanzania isn't really the tiny, insignificant country people imagine.
In terms of land area, it has 940,000 square kilometers—almost one-tenth the size of East Asia. But East Asia includes large deserts in the northwest, high-altitude cold plateaus, and countless mountains. Only the eastern part is good for farming.
Tanzania is mostly highland, but not very high, and the terrain is gently rolling. The equator runs through it, giving it warm temperatures and moderate rainfall. All of this made Tanzania one of Africa's top agricultural countries—perhaps second only to Nigeria in terms of natural farming conditions.
Tanzania also has a large population. It has already passed the 50 million mark and is growing fast. Many areas are still undeveloped, and its fishing resources are far from fully used. Its population potential is much higher.
As for industry, though its resources aren't rich compared to the world's top countries, it still has more than many small and medium-sized European nations. It's enough for basic industrialization. Africa overall isn't the richest in minerals either—most resources are concentrated in South Africa, West Africa, and oil-rich North Africa. Tanzania's resources rank somewhere in the middle.
Tanzania also has decent transportation. It's on the traditional trade routes of the Indian Ocean. Dar es Salaam is one of Africa's few famous large ports. Before the Suez Canal opened, it was a key global trade hub—called the "pearl of the Indian Ocean." Long ago, the Oman Empire once set up a branch here: the Zanzibar Kingdom.
So Tanzania is not poor in natural conditions. Then why is it so underdeveloped?
Before coming to Africa, Ernst believed what traditional media said—that Africa was poor because Africans were lazy and just relied on nature to survive.
But after coming to Africa, Ernst realized that this idea was too simple. That view only looks at the surface.
Many reasons caused Africa's poverty. Even before colonization, the overall level of civilization in Africa was very low. The Sahara Desert acted as a barrier, isolating southern Africa. Most of the region was like a civilization desert, with only West Africa and Ethiopia developing independent civilizations—both greatly influenced by Arab culture.
The Bantu people of West Africa were the first to migrate south. But their technology was very primitive. They had to cross the Congo rainforest and the wild plains of Central Africa full of dangerous animals. Even the Middle Eastern Oman Empire only expanded to Zanzibar and parts of East Africa—their civilization never spread deep into the continent.
In Central and Southern Africa, there were mainly tribal societies based on hunting. Unlike the Mongolian tribes that developed states under Chinese cultural influence, Africa remained a political desert. Locals lived lives constantly fighting against nature and wild animals.
When the Western powers came, they dragged these primitive tribes into the modern world.
From Ernst's experience, this kind of forced transformation makes it hard for native people to adapt. For example, even in the western mountainous areas of East Asia—once considered a "land of plenty"—there were still slave systems in place when the modern republic was founded. Even after a century of integration and support, many old habits remain unchanged.
So what about Africa, which wasn't helped out of poverty, but instead colonized harshly? Compared to tribal life, Western society might not have seemed any better to the locals.
In fact, tribal life was already very advanced for most Africans at the time.
Most parts of Africa back then were still based on family and village groups—kind of like lions on the African plains, who also live in family units.
So the starting point of African civilization was very low—almost the same as prehistoric humans. The entire continent was forced into modern life by Western guns and cannons. That's why so many African countries have struggled with wars after gaining independence.
Tanzania, of course, was an exception. It hasn't had any major wars. In modern times, it's one of the most stable African nations.
But Tanzanians lack experience in running a country. They have no history to learn from. They started from a very low level, and their society is still stuck in old ways. So even though they've developed somewhat, it's still nothing compared to the rest of the world. East Asia and the Middle East have long surpassed Africa.
Still, compared to other African countries, Tanzania is already one of the most successful.
Ernst looked back on his life and sighed. Moving from a place with good infrastructure to one with almost none was like going through a disaster. But later, he got used to it.
Of course, this wasn't the time for nostalgia. He had time-traveled back to modern European history. A new life was calling him, and he was ready to make a place for himself in the great flow of history.
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