Chapter 595 Instigation
While the Orange people were slandering the so-called Transvaal Restoration Army, the Transvaal Restoration Army's daily "training" also began.
There was a newly established "Provisional Government of the Transvaal Republic" in Bloemfontein, and the president of the new government was Pretorius the Younger.
Little Pretorius, who had been idle in Cape Town for a long time, was finally invited out by the British again and became the leader of the resistance organization of the original Transvaal Republic.
The first thing Pretorius did after arriving in Bloemfontein was to gather his old troops and hold a dinner in Bloemfontein.
"Everyone, we are all victims of East African aggression. The East Africans deprived us Transvaal people of the most important property, which is land, and East Africa only launched sneak attacks with the help of advanced weapons and numerous troops. , the Transvaal Republic was forced to dissolve.
But we Transvaal people will not be easily defeated. Even in Orange, we can still unite and reunite as a rope to fight against the East African invaders and finally regain our own property. ” announced Pretorius the Younger at dinner.
Pretorius Jr.'s words were of little value, but they still resonated with everyone, because the Provisional Government still included important officials from the original Transvaal Republic, and they were also the biggest victims of East Africa's invasion of the Transvaal Republic. .
They were originally large farmers and landowners. Although East Africa allowed them to transfer their assets, the most important asset to them, namely the land in the Transvaal Republic, was taken away by East Africa.
So there is only resentment in East Africa. Now that the British have provided a platform to bring them back together, the Provisional Government of the Transvaal Republic has become the group that hates East Africa the most in the world.
“Damn East Africans!”
"We must drive East Africa out of the Transvaal, take back the land of our Transvaal people, and regain our country!"
"The Transvaal will never surrender..."
Little Pretorius was very satisfied with everyone's performance, at least on the surface everyone was quite positive.
Little Pretorius stepped onto the podium again, raised his arm, and gestured: "Everyone, be quiet for a moment. I know that you are all loyal patriots, but it is undeniable that the strength of our enemies and our In comparison, it is too powerful.
The East Africans have an army of hundreds of thousands, and all of us Boers add up to only a few hundred thousand people. Therefore, dealing with East Africa cannot be solved by shouting slogans, but requires every one of us Boers to put in all our efforts. "
"President Pretorius, what do you think we should do?"
Pretorius Jr. was very satisfied with this question. He said confidently: "With my efforts, the British Cape Town colonial government is willing to provide support and help for the restoration of the Transvaal, and we have colleagues who are The victimized Portuguese serve as allies, which reverses our unfavorable situation in East Africa. Next, we invite representatives of the British and Portuguese friendly countries to come to the stage to speak."
Subsequently, the British Governor of the Orange Free State Colony and officials of the Portuguese Colony of Mozambique came to the podium amidst the applause of the crowd.
Everyone came together out of their hatred for East Africa, or perhaps because of disputes over interests, so they had great empathy and unanimously denounced the East African militarists.
"East Africa is not an invincible force. Although East Africa has a huge land area, it is precisely because of this that East Africa's power is extremely dispersed. Therefore, if we have a war with East Africa, it will only be regional, not the entire East Africa, so there is no need for everyone to do so. Worried about the paper data in East Africa." The British Governor in Bloemfontein came up and put forward the theory of his own superiority.
As East Africa appears in the international community, some specific data about East Africa cannot be hidden even if it is wanted, such as the central railway that was hidden deep in the heart of East Africa that day, some inland commodity information in East Africa, etc.
The British basically summarized the general strength of East Africa with the help of various information from Dar es Salaam and other areas.
Even a rough map of East Africa was obtained by the British. For example, many cities could not be hidden unless they did not export goods.
Take Harare's tobacco, for example. In Dar es Salaam, you can know that this tobacco mainly comes from Harare, East Africa, and is transported to Dar es Salaam by rail.
In this way, the British knew that there was a city in East Africa called Harare, and that this city's external connections were completed through railways, and it was definitely suitable for tobacco cultivation.
If you want to know more about the specific location of Harare, you have to gather more favorable information from the sidelines.
For example, it is known that Harare is the provincial capital city and is a city along the railway line, then it can be determined with a high probability that Harare City is within the former Kingdom of Matabele.
No matter how specific it is, it is impossible to know, because ordinary people do not have access to detailed railway distribution maps, and even East African railway employees cannot obtain the national railway distribution map of East Africa.
The city of Harare was named entirely by Ernst, and no one knows its specific meaning. There are many cities in East Africa named after Ernst parachuted in, all for the convenience of his own memory.
This makes it more difficult for the UK to obtain intelligence. It is difficult to obtain intelligence directly from East Africa, so it can only extract information about East Africa from other information in a roundabout way, including history, culture, geography, economy and other aspects.
For example, from the coffee export volume in East Africa, we can estimate the minimum area of coffee cultivation in East Africa, but the cultural and historical aspect is more difficult because East Africa has no history and culture.
Moreover, East Africa has not inherited indigenous culture, which is very different from the Portuguese Mozambique. Many place names in Mozambique come from indigenous people, but East Africa does not have this habit, so I took out the original map of the interior of East Africa drawn by the Portuguese and compared it with the current map of East Africa. It can be said that the donkey's head is wrong.
The military strength of East Africa is best judged, because East Africa has stationed troops in the border area between Cape Town and Mozambique in many years, and the number has never been less than 50,000.
After learning that East Africa has railways in the interior, it is necessary to continue to increase the military strength of East Africa, because the railways can mobilize forces in the rear at any time. Therefore, if there is a conflict between the two countries, seizing the East African railways must be a new military goal.
Knowing this, the Governor in Bloemfontein wanted to encourage his allies and conceal the intelligence obtained by the British. If the Boers and Portuguese were frightened, who would act as his thugs.
"East Africa's strength is not terrible. We will continue to provide the British Army's latest weapons and equipment support to the Transvaal and Mozambique. In this way, East Africa's weapons advantage will be offset, and the combat effectiveness of both sides will be at the same level. The test What matters is everyone’s courage, and I believe everyone will be able to deal with the East Africans with the same hatred.”
The Governor in Bloemfontein encouraged the Boers as much as possible, because he knew how much assistance the British could provide to the Boers depended entirely on how much money the Boers could pay. Naturally, the British did not get nothing, after all, they had to give the Boers some sweeteners.
Let the Boers and Portuguese know that they are standing behind the world's most powerful country - Britain. East Africa is just a newly emerging country. It may be a little stronger, but it is nothing to be afraid of.
This is the same as the United States supporting Western Europe to fight against the Soviet Union, or supporting Japan and South Korea to fight against the Far Eastern Empire. It is nothing more than giving some benefits and letting other countries act as pawns.
According to the economic size of the United States in its previous life and its right to allocate global resources, it is natural to support whomever it wants. As long as the puppet government is not too incompetent, the economy can be revived.