African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 774 Relocation

 “Boom boom boom…”

On the Indian Ocean, East African ironclads and gunboats began shelling the city of Maputo. The shells left mottled marks on the fortress wall made of black boulders, which shows the solidity of Maputo as a fortress.

"Maputo is no longer safe now. In addition to facing the eager gaze of the East African army in New Hamburg Port City, the East African warships in the Indian Ocean have also become a serious threat to the city of Maputo." Bougival said to Count Roberts with a heavy face.

 In fact, the coalition forces had long expected that East Africa would attack Maputo from the sea, but when this day actually came, the coalition forces still felt tremendous pressure.

“The sea is controlled by East Africa, and Maputo has actually become an isolated city. Except for the north, Maputo is very close to other East African troops, so I suggest that the command post should be moved inland or north.”

 What Bougival said naturally also includes the Mozambique Governor's Palace. Now Maputo can no longer bring a sense of security to everyone.

To the south of Maputo is the Southern Frontier Province of East Africa, and to the west is the former Kingdom of Swaziland, now part of Hechingen Province. The Indian Ocean is also threatened by East African warships. In this way, East Africa has formed a threat to Maputo. Deployment of superior forces in semi-encirclement.

 In this semi-encirclement, every point is less than 200 kilometers away from Maputo. If East Africa were to cut off the north, Maputo would be completely surrounded.

Earl Roberts: "What you said makes sense. In fact, Maputo was more suitable as our headquarters from the beginning. However, the war situation changed too quickly and was different from what we expected before the war. Therefore, it caused Now the dilemma in Maputo.”

At the beginning, the British army was quite arrogant. At that time, Earl Roberts himself aimed to quickly penetrate the defenses of East Africa, open up the new port of Hamburg, and then occupy Swaziland, and then march eastward to the former Republic of Transvaal. area, or directly rush into Matabele Province in central East Africa with superior troops and firepower.

What's even worse is that East Africa has a natural geographical advantage over Mozambique. East Africa has a high terrain and is dominated by plateaus. In contrast, Mozambique is dominated by plains. This kind of high-defying low naturally has advantages, especially in the era of thermal weapons. , so even if the British army continues to increase its troops, East Africa is still confident of holding the eastern defense line.

 At the same time, there is a central railway, and materials and personnel can be quickly transferred between the two provinces and then transported to the front line by road.

The underestimation of the combat effectiveness of the East African army and the war potential of East Africa caused Count Roberts' strategy to be directly troubled by the small New Hamburg Port City in the first step, and it was delayed. The eastern defense line of East Africa was even more impregnable. With the provinces of South Salzburg and Matabele as the basis, even if the German army came to East Africa, they would have the confidence to deal with the British army.

South Salzburg Province and Matabele Province, centered on the cities of Mbeya and Harare respectively, have concentrated the core strength of heavy industry and military industry in East Africa. They are two industrial bases in East Africa with heavy industry as the core.

"If East Africa uses the Indian Ocean as a breakthrough point and lands in the north of Maputo, it is really possible to cut off the communication between our army and the northern troops. This is the most fatal. Without the command of Maputo, the various forces that are already at a disadvantage will The morale of the troops may be further reduced, causing irreparable losses." Bougival expressed his views from the perspective of command.

During the siege of New Hamburg by the British army, the defenders of New Hamburg in East Africa could communicate with East Africa through the backup defense telegraph lines buried underground and by land and sea.

Mozambique does not have this condition. Except for telegraph lines in Maputo and several coastal cities, Mozambique's telegraph penetration rate is very low, and it can only be used for regional internal communications. If you want to connect with the mainland, you must Stopover in Dar es Salaam, East Africa.

This is the industrial era, the advantage of industrial countries over agricultural countries. Of course, East Africa is also an agricultural country now, but this is compared with other powers. As a Portuguese colony, Mozambique is obviously more backward than East Africa, especially after being blocked by East Africa in the offshore area, Mozambique It has even fallen into a state of backward development. The negligible "industry" was also forced to stagnate because it was unable to import mechanical parts and raw materials from the country.

 This is especially true in the military. The coalition's main weapons and ammunition now all rely on pre-war stocks. Although there are occasional smuggling ships that can transport supplies, it is a drop in the bucket.

 Shipping in the West Indian Ocean has not completely stagnated. Although more ships chose the Suez Canal to pay tolls due to the South African War, there are still many bold ships choosing the Cape Town route.

East Africa has its own reasons for not prohibiting this behavior. After all, East Africa also needs foreign trade, so it can only turn a blind eye to maritime trade. The same is true for the United Kingdom, but now the ships of both countries are disguised as foreign trade. Merchant ships, sailing in the Western Indian Ocean.

This situation is very common in history. After all, the Indian Ocean route is an international shipping lane, and neither East Africa nor the East African coastal countries have the right to monopolize it, unless one country occupies both the mainland part of East Africa and the island of Madagascar.

Even so, there is no reason for East Africa to do this, which may cause dissatisfaction from the international community. Just like the Red Sea region, the Suez Canal is related to global trade. If any country cuts off the Red Sea route, it will definitely trigger condemnation from the international community.

Of course, if East Africa turns a blind eye, it does not mean that it does not care about anything. It is still possible to board the ship and inspect the cargo, and the British do the same.

It’s just that most of East Africa’s military industry can be self-sufficient, and only a small amount needs to be imported from other regions. This means that the British cannot detect any “contraband”.

The UK has no reason to cut off the free commercial trade between Germany, France and other countries and East Africa. As great powers, it will naturally not let the British violent law enforcement, especially France, which has a colony on the island of Madagascar.

Unless Britain can come up with interests that make countries such as France excited, France will naturally not offend countries like East Africa that can compete militarily with Britain.

  If the war in East Africa went poorly, France would definitely end up getting a share of the pie. But now that East Africa is getting stronger and stronger, it obviously has the military strength of a big country, so even if the British are willing to share some of the benefits, it can only be a blank check.

This is the benefit of the military strength displayed by East Africa. If it is vulnerable, even Germany and Austria, which have friendly relations, will be hurt.

Of course, Germany might not have had this attitude just a few years after William II came to power. After all, William II's target was Britain, and allies were needed to fight against Britain. Even a group of small and weak countries in Eastern Europe were the targets of Britain and Germany. For a country with the strength of East Africa, a weaker military has great win-win value.

  After all, what Germany liked most in its previous life was to provide military assistance to its allies and support its younger brothers, including the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Austro-Hungarian Empire’s military had already begun to obey the Germans in the late World War I.

"If you move north, you must choose a military location that can fight against East Africa for a long time. The most important thing is to facilitate the command of various troops, and the role of Maputo cannot be ignored, even if Maputo is no longer the headquarters. , still retains important military functions." Earl Roberts said.

 (End of this chapter)