Chapter 215 Negotiation

It can be said that Santos made a misjudgment this time. He never thought that the Germans would take action against the Kingdom of Kazembe so soon, or he never thought that the Germans would dare to take action in the Kingdom of Kazembe.

He even mistook the East African operation as a Portuguese colonial operation, and his failure to obtain clear information deepened his judgment.

However, there was one thing he analyzed correctly. The Portuguese in the Kingdom of Kazembe did not regard him as one of their own. After all, it was unreasonable for Santos to want to occupy one-third of the land here with a group of "stray dogs".

East Africa sent envoys to Cazembe to demand the "criminals" and land. The Portuguese Cazembe Chamber of Commerce did get the news, but they did not inform Santos and his team.

In fact, the Cazembe Chamber of Commerce of Portugal was also shocked by the efficiency of the East Africans. According to the Portuguese colonial routine, they generally tried to avoid conflicts with local forces.

The Portuguese have always liked to use both soft and hard tactics, and will only resort to tough measures when they fail to deceive, as can be seen from their two colonies of Mozambique and Angola.

The Kingdom of Portugal encouraged intermarriage between the Portuguese and indigenous high-ranking officials because the Portuguese believed that Portugal's management of the colonies could be strengthened through indigenous high-ranking officials with Portuguese blood.

When Portugal first started its colonial activities in Africa, it was actually cooperating with the indigenous chiefs. That was when the slave trade was still prevalent.

The chiefs were equivalent to the Portuguese "suppliers". Later, when the Portuguese became powerful in the local area, they turned these chieftain tribes and kingdoms into their own vassal states, and only later did the colonies of Mozambique and Angola come into being.

In fact, Portuguese colonization is the most formal way of colonization. It is gradual and will change with the times. In addition, the Portuguese colonial history is early, making it a living "textbook" of colonization.

Later, without any moral principles, Britain took action in one go and snatched the ready-made things from other colonists. Now the East Africans have let the Portuguese experience a simpler and more brutal way of colonization. They start fighting at the slightest disagreement, which is worthy of the style of the Prussian barbarians. The British will at least test the quality of their enemy first.

East Africa has long been clear about the quality of the natives, and beating the natives is now just a game for East Africa.

East Africa's confidence comes from two million immigrants. If the international situation is not taken into consideration, these two million people can easily conquer half of Africa.

Other colonists will consider the cost when colonizing, so some are stingy. Their purpose is to make money, not to do charity. It is generally difficult for them to make decisions on long-term investments. After all, if they get the most out of it, they will have no place to cry.

The British did build some infrastructure in India, but India's population base is too large and it is destined to become independent in the future.

…

"I am Yaris, the president of the Portuguese Chamber of Commerce in Kazembe. What is your name?"

Yaris, President of the Portuguese Chamber of Commerce of Cazembe, arrived late.

“Andrew.”

"Mr. Andrew! Why did you launch this war against the Kingdom of Kazembe without even saying hello?" President Yaris asked.

"This is a matter between our East African government and the Kingdom of Kazembe, humph!"

Just as Yaris was about to explode, he was stopped by Rolls.

"Mr. Yaris, right? Hello, I'm the staff officer of the 1st Cavalry Battalion in East Africa. You can just call me Rawls.

Captain Andrew is not good at communicating with others and has a rather withdrawn personality. If you have any questions, just tell me. "

Yaris carefully looked at Rolls, the young man with an oriental face, and asked, "Can you represent the East African government?"

Rawls shook his head and said, "I can't represent the East African government, but I can represent the army in front of you."

Yaris did not ask about the war first, but instead said, "Mr. Rawls! Are you German?"

"certainly!"

"Where in Germany are you from?"

"The Principality of Hechingen, Prussia."

"Your face is rare in Europe. I thought you were from Italy!"

Rolls did not respond, and Yaris turned his attention back to the war.

"I wonder why you want to wage war against the Kingdom of Kazembe?"

Regardless of whether this matter has anything to do with the Portuguese, Yalis must first make clear the Portuguese attitude. The East African government is too unreasonable. Even if you want to annex the Kingdom of Kazembe, you should inform us! They attacked Kazembe without making any noise, causing Yalis to not dare to go out in the morning.

"Mr. Yalis, we made a deal with King Musiri of the Yek Kingdom in the north and obtained ownership of the Yek Kingdom. However, the Kazembe Kingdom took advantage of the time when we took over the Yek Kingdom to invade our East African territory. We failed to get it back a few days ago, so we resorted to this desperate measure."

Rawls seemed to be explaining, but in fact he was informing that it was legal for East Africa to attack the Kingdom of Kazembe, and the Kingdom of Kazembe would naturally have to pay a price. It was that simple. As for what the price was, he had no way of telling us.

"Even if Kazembe is doing something wrong, you shouldn't resort to direct military force! And Kazembe should have invaded your border territory. You only need to take back the territory that Kazembe has invaded. Why do you have to go deep into this place and capture the palace of Kazembe? This is too barbaric and not what a civilized world does!"

"Mr. Yaris, this is wrong. East Africa is of course part of the civilized world, but Kazembe does not belong to the civilized world. We in East Africa naturally have an obligation to help the Kingdom of Kazembe enter the civilized world."

Seeing that Rolls was not convinced, Yaris said such shameless words when he was young, so he did not intend to dwell on it and simply asked: "How does your country plan to deal with the Kingdom of Kazembe?"

"Of course, this is not something that a small soldier like me can decide. It depends on how the central government decides. If you want to know the answer, you can go to Dar es Salaam and ask government officials."

Rawls obviously knew the answer, but pretended not to know. Unable to figure out East Africa's true purpose, Yaris changed his statement.

"Since your country has not made a decision yet, I will not ask these questions. I want to know when you plan to leave? You are one of the officers of this army. I think you know the answer, right?"

"Until we receive orders from our superiors, we naturally have no right to mobilize the troops to leave," Rawls said tactfully.

At this moment, Rawls felt a chill in his heart. It was so disgusting! However, Rawls finally knew that East Africa had ill intentions towards Kazembe. It was a lie that he had no right to transfer, but it was true that he refused to leave.

However, the Portuguese Kazembe Chamber of Commerce was too weak to interfere in the decision-making of the East African government, so Yaris turned to ask about East Africa's attitude towards the Portuguese Kazembe Chamber of Commerce.

"Don't worry, your Chamber of Commerce. You can continue to stay here and carry on business as usual."

Before East Africa completely controls this place, there is really nothing we can do to them. We can't just kill them to silence them, so we just maintain the status quo for now.

"By the way, is this person yours?" Rawls asked, pointing at Santos in the distance.

Santos was lying on the ground, his eyes were dazed and he was muttering something under his breath.

Yaris hurried forward to confirm: "Santos! Santos?"

Yaris looked at the mentally disturbed Santos, who kept saying something like friendly forces, and he also slapped Santos.

"Pah, Santos, wake up!"

Although Yaris usually dislikes Santos, he is one of them after all, so he still wants to know what happened that caused Santos, who was still full of energy some time ago, to become like this.

"What did you do to our people?" Seeing that he could not wake Santos up, Yaris asked the East African soldiers.

"Are you sure he's your man? This guy attacked us with weapons yesterday, and became like this after we captured him alive! Can I understand that your Chamber of Commerce organized this sneak attack?" Rawls asked back.

Hearing the East African's accusation, Yaris quickly pushed Santos away and said, "Misunderstanding, I don't know this person at all. He just looks a little like an old friend of mine. After repeated confirmation, I am sure that he just looks a little similar. He is definitely not my old friend!"

"That's good. These guys launched a surprise attack on us yesterday when we were cleaning up the battlefield. There were eighty-eight of them in total, and each of them carried a gun. Several of our people were injured by them," Rawls said.

"These guys must be bandits from the African grasslands. They have nothing to do with our Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Rolls." Yaris insisted.

"After all, it's a human life. We don't intend to execute him. If it's not too much trouble, just take him away!" Rawls suggested.

"Mr. Rawls, you are such a joke. The bandit has brought this upon himself. Let him perish on his own. But you are truly a benevolent and righteous army. You have shown leniency to this kind of person."

Looking at Santos who was of no use at all, Yaris said with a wry smile, cursing Santos in his heart as a waste. With so many people, and a sneak attack, he only caused such a little damage to the Germans!

But this is also good. At least it shows that these Prussian barbarians in front of him are really capable. With this set of equipment, Yaris even doubts whether they are the regular Prussian army.

As for taking him back, Yaris was already certain that Santos was crazy, and since he hadn't reacted to the hint he had just given to Santos (referring to the slap), he was probably useless.

Moreover, these Germans probably have some conspiracy in their minds, Yalis maliciously speculated. After all, the excuse of these Prussian barbarians for the war against the Kingdom of Kazembe was to shelter the rebels of the Kingdom of Yek and occupy the territory of East Africa. If Yalis really took Santos back, wouldn't it be confirmed that Santos' personal behavior yesterday was instigated by the Kazembe Chamber of Commerce?

Thinking of this, Yaris cursed Santos's family again in his heart. Although Yaris had no good feelings towards the Germans, the situation was stronger than the people. This place was far away from the Portuguese colony, and the Kazembe Chamber of Commerce was weak, so he could only vent his anger on Santos.

(End of this chapter)