African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 752: Soft Persimmon

 East Africa’s actions in the west are bottoming out, but at this time, Count Roberts, who is far away in Mozambique, has not yet received the news.

The command between the coalition forces was divided into three parts in East Africa. When the Boer Republic was defeated, the results of the war could be sent to Mozambique in time through the communication line in Cape Town.

Angola does not have this opportunity at all. After all, without the consent of East Africa, the land telegraph line cannot be built at all, and the coast must pass through the Skeleton Coast of Southwest Africa, and laying such a telegraph line is bound to lose money, so no capital is willing to invest here.

 The reason why Mozambique is special is entirely due to the needs of the British army before the war. There is only a small port city of New Hamburg between the Natal colony and Mozambique, and the distance is not long.

 Hence the incoherence in intelligence further gave East Africa an advantage in the war.

 …

 The first town.

 The intelligence returned from various fronts made Ernst feel a lot happier. At present, except for the Boer Republic, where the Boers are still resisting stubbornly, the counterattack in the other two key places can be said to be very smooth.

In comparison, the Portuguese's performance was the "worst", which is very consistent with Ernst's impression of the Portuguese army. Portugal's combat effectiveness, like its national destiny, has been in a state of decline, so you never know the Portuguese's Bottom line.

Of course, Sweet's superior strength does not only refer to quantity, but also quality. Since the beginning of the war, East Africa has been dealing with the three countries with only half the strength of the coalition forces, and the reserve forces are receiving military training in the rear.

The war did bring some troubles to East Africa. To sum up, there are pros and cons. On the one hand, the military industry in East Africa was integrated and further optimized during the war. At the same time, the railways, communication systems, and logistics systems were tested. At the same time, the war also brought As demand increased, the production capacity of various factories in East Africa more than doubled compared to before the war.

Of course, various factories in East Africa had already begun to increase production capacity before the war began. After all, this war was the result of the two-way rush of East African and coalition forces, and everyone was prepared before the war.

However, this kind of demand during the war was only short-term. The main difficulty in East Africa's economy was foreign economic exchanges. Nowadays, the merchant ships flying the East African flag no longer exist, and they can only swim around the ocean under the flags of various countries.

Sweet thought so too. He said: "The current situation on the battlefield is developing in our favor, especially with the end of reserve training. We can now replenish or even expand the frontline troops and win the war in one fell swoop with superior strength. victory."

At the same time, the war is uncertain. Now that the strength of the coalition has been determined, it is not suitable to delay it any longer. The longer the time goes, the more likely things will happen.

At this time, von der Leyen suggested to the Crown Prince: "The current situation shows that the situation has developed in a good direction, so we should participate more proactively and resolve the negative impact of the war on East Africa as soon as possible."

 At the same time, people die on the battlefield. Although the current population in East Africa is not as scarce as it was before, it is still a precious asset, especially the young and strong labor force joining the army.

Now East Africa is not only better than the coalition in terms of quality, but also in quantity. Although it may not be able to mobilize as many troops as the coalition, the gap between the two sides should not be too big. At this time, investing another 200,000 yuan is still within the tolerance of East Africa. within.

Ernst asked: "Does the staff have a detailed plan?"

Sweet said: "We plan to invest 50,000 troops on the Western Front. The Portuguese's combat effectiveness is the weakest among the three countries, so it is easiest to deal with the Portuguese army in Angola first. As long as the Portuguese army in Angola is dealt with, we can also threaten supply line to the British Army in the South Atlantic." "At the same time, the Nile Military District will also cooperate with the operations of the Western Military District. At present, Belgium should not participate in the South African battlefield. In this case, we can let the troops of the Nile Military District in the northwest, along the The Ubangi River flows southward, supporting Kinshasa and posing a threat to northeastern Angola.”

"In this way, we can launch a large-scale battle of 100,000 people in the west, annihilate the Portuguese colony of Angola in one fell swoop, and relieve the military pressure in the western region. The new soldiers on the battlefield, after being tempered by the Portuguese, can once again join the main force in the east. The battlefield, coupled with our current geographical advantages, can further reduce the enemy’s living space.”

  Pick the weak first. This is the plan of the East African National Defense Force. Based on the current war data held by the National Defense Force, the Portuguese have lived up to expectations and become the "weakest link" of the coalition.

As for the Boers, although they were defeated by East Africa on the front line, their fighting will and ability to resist exceeded East Africa's expectations.

During the civil war, various facilities established for the war between the Transvaal and the Orange began to function, effectively delaying the march of the East African army and causing considerable trouble to East Africa.

So that the current main force of the Wehrmacht in the south is unable to escape and is forced to play "clearance and counter-suppression" with the Transvaal people.

In order to ensure that no accidents occurred, Ernst did not order the Wehrmacht to reduce its manpower and support the eastern battlefield. Instead, he ordered the troops to fight steadily and eliminate the Boer resistance step by step.

Of course, this is related to East Africa's national policy of annexing the Boer Republic. East Africa's demand is to "want the land but not the people." After all, the Boers and East Africa are now at odds with each other.

 Not to mention the Transvaal people, even the Orange people have a strong resistance mentality, so to keep this land in East Africa, all hidden dangers must be eliminated.

 War is a very effective method. When the Boers went north, they were trying to escape the British. Now East Africa is just doing what the British did again.

 This requires a huge amount of energy and time, and if there are fewer people, it may overturn. East Africa's application of 50,000 main troops to the Boer Republic with a population of only more than 300,000 is already a recognition of the strength of this small country.

"In the Boer Republic, according to your request, Crown Prince, we mainly focus on consumption, and we implement decentralized processing of the Boers. At present, we have moved more than 4,000 people from the Boer Republic, plus more than 20,000 prisoners, this is almost One-fortieth of the population were Boers, and a large number of Boers fled in the direction of Cape Town to escape the fighting.”

“The soil for the enemy to carry out guerrilla tactics is also being rapidly compressed. At this pace, the Boers may only exist in the UK in the future.”

The purpose of targeting the Boers was mainly to deal with the Transvaal guerrillas. This time, the Transvaal were not as prepared as last time. After being heavily armed by the British, coupled with years of sufficient war experience, and Familiar with the terrain and other advantages.

 The frontline soldiers in East Africa suffered a lot, and the effective way to deal with them in East Africa was to physically exterminate the local population.

Of course, East Africa is not going to engage in massacres. On the one hand, it plunders the Boer population, and on the other hand, it destroys the Boer villages and forces them to migrate.

 With this two-pronged approach, the Boer guerrillas lost the ground for resistance. Of course, if the British could provide effective support, they should be able to solve the Boer's plight.

But it is a pity that Britain has now fallen into the situation of sweeping the snow in front of itself and not caring about the frost on other people's tiles.

 (End of this chapter)