Dominate the Country

Chen Ding secretly sneered in his heart. Whether he was confused or not, that was up to his father/emperor.

"Father, there are probably no less than five million black people in the entire America." This is a huge number. Now, there are only two million people under Chen Han's control, plus the black people in the entire South America, and the black people in the Lighthouse Country. There are really so many. Although this number is not as large as the population of a province in China, I don't know when the Chinese in America will reach this number.

"Such a large number of people will naturally require an astronomical amount of money to be transported back to Africa from America, but no matter how much it costs, it depends on whether it is worth it." Anyway, in Chen Ding's opinion, it is worth it. Because his father would probably think it is worth it, so he dared to take a gamble.

"The African continent is vast and extremely wild and backward, but backwardness does not mean poverty."

The Nile River Basin in Egypt is needless to say, what about the Sudan region? That is a treasure land of resources. Guinea on the west coast of Africa is known as the Gold Coast. Although the Horn of Africa is indeed extremely barren, other places are very profitable.

That place is at least better than the Arabian Peninsula, isn't it?

"If the empire can build a vassal state there, it will not only be able to take the lead in Africa in the future, but also be of great benefit in Egypt and the Suez Canal in the future." In this way, Chen Han's interests in Africa will be protected by a more reliable guarantee in addition to Egypt and the Ottoman Empire.

Chen Ding's definition is "long-term".

From a long-term perspective, this is naturally a worthwhile expense. Moreover, with Chen Han's current national strength, it is not difficult to build a transport fleet of one or two hundred large ships. That ship can carry five or six hundred people, and one or two hundred ships can carry 100,000 people at a time. Chen Han can even hire civilian ships for transportation, which is generally not an impossible task.

Even before that, you can sit down and promise these blacks that they will work honestly in farms and mines in China, and give them a certain living allowance and a small amount of money. Most of the labor value is reflected in the form of points, and you can tell them directly that in the future, in their own land, these points can be exchanged for land.

And the best performers can become nobles in the future.

That would be a huge fortune.

Chen Ding's idea made the whole court silent. No matter how anxious and anxious his little brothers were under their calm expressions, Chen Ming was really lost in thought.

Chen Ding's method... is not bad. It can even be said to be beneficial without spending money. Would the wealth created by millions of blacks not be comparable to the wealth of that huge fleet?

And Chen Han can also establish his own vassal state in Africa-this is a plan he has never thought of, but if you think about it carefully, it may not be impossible. And there will be other wonderful uses that cannot be told now.

That is not just a Suez Canal and an Egypt. In the long run, this can even resist the erosion of the West on Greater Africa.

If Chen Han occupies the south in the future, and another country occupies the central part, such as Tanzania, and Egypt and the Ottoman Empire in the north, the whole Africa cannot be preserved, but the eastern coastline of Africa can be preserved. From another perspective, does this half of black Africa belong to China?

"People's desires are really insatiable. With Nanyang, they want Oceania, and now they want Africa with America!"

Chen Ming's face changed, and he shook his head for a long time, smiling bitterly in his heart. In his initial calculations, Africa was left to Europe as a private land, so that Europeans would not jump to the wall after completely losing the territory of America. Chen Ming only planned to have a certain amount of power in Egypt, and it was not a colony, but a pro-China indigenous dynasty. But a few years ago, he wanted South Africa, and now he wants half of black Africa.

There are many gold mines in South Africa, so where are the gold mines in Zimbabwe?

Thinking about it this way, it can only be said that Chen Ming was greedy, but he could not control his inner greed. He really wanted it. And he felt that he had the ability to get it.

Chen Ding breathed a sigh of relief in his heart. He won this bet - the change in his father's face said it all.

Ever since he had a relationship with the Grand Duke Party, Chen Ding felt that his father's attitude towards him had changed slightly. Later, this guess became a reality, but Chen Ding could no longer get away from the Grand Duke Party. Because he knew very well what kind of person his father was, he must not change his mind with the wind.

And now, he was gambling.

Chen Ding's heart was a little shaken. The glory of the eldest son in these years made him unable to tolerate the result of being "annoyed" by his father. This was not only due to political considerations, but also because of personal emotional issues.

So Chen Ding gambled when he was far from "gambling".

The political tendency was to change his mind with the wind, which Chen Ming did not like, but what about the specific government affairs? Isn't it a means to cater to the preferences of others?

And now Chen Ming's reaction made Chen Ding breathe a sigh of relief. He also felt that his popularity in the court this time would definitely have a great impact on the situation.

…

The 28th year of Chengtian, the third day of the eighth lunar month. In the Orange River Basin in southeastern Africa, in a mountainous area.

Chen Han's expeditionary force had just ended a fierce battle with the local Soto people.

After the war, this nameless mountain was in ruins. A branch tribe of the Sotho tribe, whose native name was ‘Bamokotli’, became history. The wooden fence breast wall of the tribe’s residence was full of purple-brown bloodstains.

The Sotho people used primitive bows and arrows, javelins, a few modern muzzle-loading smoothbore rifles, and a few cannons to resist the attack of the Chen Han expeditionary force, which was armed to the teeth. They were very brave, but it was useless.

After half a year of wandering, the expeditionary force stopped and started, and finally landed in Cape Town two months ago. At this time, the British had left, and the rights of the Cape Colony returned to the Dutch, but the Dutch were obviously unable to resist the Chen Han expeditionary force.

But they had received the news early that gold, silver, livestock and other materials had been transferred to the interior of South Africa. While Chen Han left some people to defend Cape Town, the main force sailed back to the east coast of the Cape Colony, landed in Natal Port [Durban Port], defeated the local Mtetwa tribe, and also eliminated a small tribe called "Zulu" with only one or two thousand people.

In the next two months, the expeditionary force successively conquered the Langeni, Endwandwe and Kwab tribes in the Eastern Cape, and advanced hundreds of kilometers inland, entering a plateau mountain area, and encountered the new enemy, the Sotho tribe.

For South Africa, Chen Han's late autumn is summer here, with scorching sun. It was only one day before the bodies were buried, and the stench of corpses had spread all over the nameless mountains.

Under the personal supervision of the expeditionary force, a large number of vassal troops and captured Bamokotli people began to clean up the bodies and build houses at the same time.

Shen Shiying [transferred from America], who led this army, learned from the locals something that made him curious. The Bamokotli tribe was famous among the local indigenous tribes for producing transparent gems.

In Shen Shiying's eyes, this transparent gem should be diamond, that is, diamond. The former was named by the current Emperor Chen. It is said that the emperor has several large diamonds in his hands, which are known as rare treasures.

So Shen Shiying felt that it was necessary for him to establish a semi-permanent base for the expeditionary army in this place.

In the valley on the side, huge pits were filled with corpses, which were of course all from local tribes. The remains of the vassal army were placed on the south slope of the mountain.

Although the expeditionary army won this battle, the number of casualties was more than that of the plain battle, and the casualties of the vassal army reached one-third of its own number.

There was no way. This place was too far from the sea. Shen Shiying underestimated the enemy. If he hadn't underestimated the enemy, he would not have started his expedition against the Sotho people with only one battalion of expeditionary forces and two thousand vassal troops.

The South African expeditionary force was certainly not as numerous as the American ones, but one or two thousand people could be easily gathered. The entire South African expeditionary force had five thousand land forces.

This battle seemed very dangerous. Although the Bamokotli tribe was broken, the Sotho tribe within a hundred miles around was like pigs and sheep to be slaughtered, but Shen Shiying fought very hard in this battle.

If it weren't for the last moment, Shen Shiying used a bayonet to force the vassal army to charge up the mountain continuously, and fought hand-to-hand for a full hour, the mountain stronghold would still be in the hands of the Bamokotli people.

Without cannons, it is really not easy to achieve brilliant results in this mountainous situation. These natives just kept throwing stones down the mountain, which was enough for the attacking troops to bear. These Bamokotli people also had muskets in their hands, and some of them could fire volleys. This was not something that could be achieved overnight. According to the captives, there were Europeans in their tribe, but when Chen Ming cleaned up the battlefield after the war, he did not find a single European corpse.

However, the Bamokotli people were only a branch of the Sutho tribe, and the power in the hands of Moromi II, the great chief of the Sutho tribe, must be stronger than that of the Bamokotli people.

Shen Shiying did not dare to attack the inland of the South African plateau easily. Although he did not know that there was a battle called the "Battle of Isandlwana" in the original time and space Anglo-Zu war, which was the biggest defeat of the European army in Africa in three and a half centuries, as an experienced officer, he wisely stopped his steps. Although he knew very well that he had not completed the task, reason told him that he must stop the attack.

There are no less than two million black Shuli on the South African plateau, which is not a small number.

He had people build offensive positions on the tribal ruins of the Bamokotli people and set up a permanent base for the expeditionary army. This was not entirely for the diamond resources here, but also for the defensive posture.

He had to wait until the follow-up troops were prepared before continuing to sweep the Suto people.

At the same time, he also needed to relax the pressure on the vassal army and let them taste some sweetness. In the previous battle, more than one-third of the two thousand vassal soldiers were killed or injured, and the casualties were too great. In particular, dozens of people who escaped were dealt with by military law and beheaded in public. Although it was military law and military regulations, there was a tendency to not treat the vassal army as human beings. If this was the National Defense Army, it would definitely not be possible to chop off dozens of heads at once.

Even if they were sentenced to death in the military court in the future, it would not be possible to chop off their heads directly on the battlefield.

It was too cruel, and it seemed to be too chilling for the vassal army. These people are also human beings. They also have their own joys, sorrows, anger, and happiness, and they also have hearts.

Shen Shiying was an experienced leader and immediately realized that the morale of the vassal army was somewhat agitated, but he did not use tough measures to suppress it. Instead, he decided to loosen the reins and give the vassal army some benefits.

For example, the benefits promised to the vassal army were immediately fulfilled.

They were given land for their families and cattle and livestock for themselves. Shen Shiying directly used the spoils seized by the Bamokotli tribe as rewards, and the low morale and agitated morale of the vassal army were swept away at once.