Chapter 811 Farewell
New Hamburg Port.
Most of the New Hamburg Port City that was damaged by the war has now been repaired. Some black slaves organized by Portugal were captured as labor force. The repair work of the New Hamburg Port City and Maputo in East Africa has been completed quite well.
Today's New Hamburg port city is even busier than before the war, with dozens of British and Portuguese ships docking here every day to pick up prisoners of war stranded in East Africa.
"General Roberts, I hope to come to East Africa as a guest next time. Friends are welcome in East Africa." Merkel joked to the commander-in-chief of the coalition forces who was about to return to the UK.
Earl Roberts smiled bitterly and said: "I'm afraid it's not going to be good for me when I return to China this time. I probably won't be able to work in the army for long. If I have the chance, I will definitely come here to see this land that allows me to try the taste of failure."
As the supreme commander of the allied forces in the South African War, Earl Roberts will definitely face difficulties after returning home, but he will not completely take the blame.
After all, I have previous achievements and rich connections in the UK, so the outcome will not be too bad, but it will be difficult to be in a high position.
Although East Britain and Britain have "reconciled", this is not the result the British government wants to see. In fact, Britain has failed in the South African War, and its suppression of East Africa has completely failed.
However, the integrity of the Cape Colony was preserved through negotiations, which can be regarded as some comfort.
Looking at the groups of cheerful British soldiers, Earl Roberts felt only bitterness in his heart. People's joys and sorrows are not the same.
Now the British prisoners of war know that they can finally leave this hellish place in South Africa and go home. Their memories in South Africa are not good for them.
In fact, they were not dissatisfied with the war, but more dissatisfied with the environment in South Africa. The biggest dilemma many people encountered during the South African War was the painful memory of suffering from malaria, and they even felt that they were going to die in the wild land of South Africa. .
This situation did not improve until East Africa intervened. As a long-term victim of malaria, East Africa has become a medical doctor. In addition to developing specific drugs such as quinine, it has also developed a variety of auxiliary treatment drugs, of course mainly traditional Chinese medicine.
After all, the modern medical and chemical fields in East Africa are relatively backward and lack drug research and development capabilities, so they can only be treated conservatively through traditional Chinese medicine and other methods, but the effect is still good.
The British soldier will definitely never forget the experience of being fed Chinese herbal medicine in the prisoner of war camp. The main reason is that it was so bitter, and he drank a big bowl at a time. Every time he was fed the strange East African medicine, he felt like he had lost his soul.
At first, the prisoners of war even thought that some kind of special "poison" was brewed in East Africa. After all, the taste of traditional Chinese medicine was so unpleasant that it was even more unpleasant to drink in the mouth. It was even difficult to drink it by pinching the nose.
However, the effect was also very significant, and I felt refreshed after relieving the stress, so the strange East African potion became a "refreshing potion" in the mouths of the prisoners of war.
Of course, the British government paid the money in the end, and East Africa will not make a loss-making deal.
Moreover, the fundamental reason for saving lives and healing the wounded was that East Africa was afraid that these British guys would implicate itself. Every war would bring about a major epidemic, so as soon as the war ended, East Africa carried out a large-scale sterilization of the occupied areas.
However, in view of the large area occupied this time, fire attacks were mainly used. Many battlefields were burned directly by East Africa. In towns and villages, the ruins were cleared, water sources were checked, etc.
Count Roberts was one of the witnesses. Looking at the brand-new port city of Hamburg, he sighed: "It is not unfair to lose to you in this war. Your strong mobilization ability and efficient organizational ability are not behind Europe in the slightest." Most countries.”
Of course, Merk also knew this. After all, this time the war in East Africa was at home, and Britain couldn't move faster even if it wanted to. He said: "You are not bad. If it were not for the distance restriction, the South African war would not be possible." It’s easy to say, but this assumption doesn’t make sense.”
While the two were talking, the ships arranged by the British government were already filled to the brim.
"Earl, our ship will leave soon." Count Roberts' subordinates came over and said.
Count Roberts looked at the bustling docks of the New Hamburg Port City, with loneliness and regret in his eyes. He patted Merk on the shoulder and said: "Goodbye, young man!"
Then, this old man, who had fought for Britain for most of his life, walked step by step towards the deck, and the British ship was filled with the afterglow of the setting sun.
Merk smiled and then turned back without turning his head.
This time the British and Portuguese governments were very busy. In addition to the British army, the British government still had a conscience. They did not leave more than 200,000 Indian soldiers alone, while Portugal seemed very unkind. Basically all black people including Portuguese The mixed-race people were left behind.
Even the Portuguese civilians in some colonies did not want to be cared about by the Portuguese government. However, under the strong request of East Africa, the Portuguese government still had to arrange ships to bring these Portuguese residents back to the mainland.
Even because there were so many people, the Portuguese government simply turned to the Brazilian government. Brazil lacked a population, so it was better for the colonial residents to directly defect to Brazil.
Therefore, many Brazilian ships appeared in the Luanda area. In addition to the army, there are hundreds of thousands of Portuguese in Angola. The Brazilian government still welcomes these Portuguese.
Now, Portugal owes a huge debt and it is simply impossible to bring back nearly 300,000 Portuguese civilians in Angola and Mozambique for resettlement.
So I asked Brazil, my former little brother, for help. Even though I had lost all face, I could only do this. East Africa had no feelings for these Portuguese, just like the Boers.
There are hundreds of thousands of Boers in East Africa, but they have been dispersed by East Africa and distributed throughout East Africa. If the Boers could not have some relationship with Germany, East Africa would have repatriated them to Cape Town long ago. In fact, the British They have no interest in these Boers, so even if East Africa wanted to send them to Cape Town, the British Cape Town colonial government would probably not accept them.
The majority of the Boers are mainly Dutch, French and Germans, so they can barely have anything to do with East Africa. This is also the basis for East Africa to accept the Boers.
Of course, in order for these Boers to be completely integrated into East Africa, they cannot be concentrated in one place, and they can no longer stay in the provinces of Orange and Hechingen. They are mainly used to fill Angola and Mozambique, and will subsequently cooperate with East Africa to go to the two places. Immigrants, eventually these Boers will also disappear in the long river of history.
As for the Boers in Cape Town, the future is hard to say. There are too many Boers in Cape Town, and it is very likely that the situation in South Africa in its previous life will be repeated, that is, the Boers returned to power after independence.
Moreover, there is no basis for the so-called dispute between blacks and whites in the Cape Town colony this time. South Africa is originally an area where blacks are less distributed, and the most important black ethnic group, the Zulus, have been wiped out by East Africa. Even if Cape Town becomes independent in the future, There will be no more Mandela figures.
However, it is impossible for Cape Town to regain the glory of the Republic of South Africa in its previous life. All mining areas are basically occupied by East Africa, and at best it will become an agricultural and pastoral country.
The only thing worth mentioning is the value of shipping. In the future, shipping on the east and west coasts of East Africa will have to avoid Cape Town. This is inevitable. However, after the construction of the East African Two-Ocean Railway is completed, dependence on it will be greatly reduced.