Chapter 1448 Eavesdropping
Imam Faisal’s three plans are all very meaningful, which completely opened up everyone’s thinking and unified everyone’s consensus.
"Well said! Chief Imam Faisal, if East Africa does not accept our proposal, we will bite them before we die to let them know that we are not to be trifled with."
…
"...He's not someone you can easily mess with!"
In a private house not far from the Ibrahim Palace, the conspiracy of the chiefs of the Hasa region came clearly from the headphones, and the stenographer Wen Lai had to stumble and struggle to record the conversation.
He put down the pencil in his hand, sighed and said: "It seems that we should speed up the training of language experts in various fields. The ethnic groups in the Middle East are complex, and the language regional differences are also relatively large, which greatly affects our work."
Hearing his colleague sigh, the team leader Mars asked, "Why, Wenlai, your Arabic should be pretty good, right? It's also difficult to deal with this kind of work."
Wen Lai looked at Mars helplessly and said, "You should understand dialects. The Arabic I learned before was based on Egyptian Arabic. The Arabic of the Peninsula and Egyptian Arabic are quite different. The two languages can be regarded as two dialects of Arabic."
Mars said: "I don't understand this. I thought all Arab countries spoke the same language!"
"That's impossible," Wen Lai said. "After all, you know that there are many Arab countries and forces, and they are not concentrated, which can easily lead to language differences."
"So, even if they were originally based on one language, it's easy for them to diverge later."
"Take Arabic for example. The major categories include the Maghreb dialect, which is popular in North Africa, such as Morocco, Algeria, Tripoli, etc., the Egyptian dialect, which is popular in Egypt and surrounding areas, the Levantine dialect, which is mainly distributed in the southwest of the Ottoman Empire, that is, Syria and other regions, the Peninsula dialect, which is where we are now, the Mesopotamian dialect, which is in the Mesopotamian region, and so on."
"In addition to these large dialect blocks, there are many smaller dialects, and there is no unified power in the Arab region to complete the language integration, which has led to a mess within Arabic."
Mars interrupted and said, "That's not right! The Ottoman Empire should be considered to have unified the Arab region! Although most of the area is lost now, it hasn't been many years."
Wen Lai had a better understanding of Mars's ignorance. He sneered and said, "Do you know what language the Ottoman Empire speaks? As the most powerful Arab country, they don't even speak Arabic, but mainly Turkish. Turkish is a Turkic language and is more similar to Central Asia and Persia."
"And Persia, the second most powerful Arab country, doesn't speak Arabic either. They speak Persian. Whether it's Persian or Turkish, the difference between them and Arabic is the same as the difference between German and Arabic. They are completely different."
"It is quite ironic that the first and second most powerful Arab countries do not speak Arabic, which is why we chose Egypt as the basic sample for our East African Arabic textbooks."
"Among the real Arabic-speaking countries, only Egypt has the strongest power and influence, but Egypt is also an embarrassing country. They are completely a British colony."
"So, even this strongest Arab country that speaks Arabic is like this, and other Arabic-speaking countries and regions are even worse. For example, the Mesopotamia and Levant regions I mentioned earlier are even just regions under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. Although Egypt is a colony, it can barely be considered a country."
After listening to Wen Lai's introduction, Mars also roughly understood the complex relationship between Arab countries and regions.
He curled his lips and said, "It seems that the so-called Arabic language has little presence now. On the contrary, the Ottomans and Persians who do not speak Arabic are doing better. Of course, this is only compared with Arabic-speaking countries."
Wen Lai countered: "That may not be the case. For example, you know Arabic, which shows that Arabic is still relatively successful, but Arabic-speaking countries are now in decline."
"The ancient Arabic-speaking countries were quite powerful, otherwise Arabic would not be so widely distributed today. Take Egypt for example. Egypt used to have its own civilization and language, but now it has also been assimilated."
"As long as there is a strong and unified Arabic-speaking country in the future, perhaps we can reunify the language, just like we are promoting standard German in East Africa."
Mars disagreed. He did not believe that the Arab-speaking countries could be unified again. Apart from anything else, East Africa itself certainly did not want this to happen.
He said, "These things have nothing to do with our work anyway. You should report the intelligence you just intercepted! I just hope that there won't be any misjudgment due to language differences."
Wen Lai nodded and said, "Don't worry. Although I can't know the content of their conversation completely accurately due to the dialect, I still have the general information."
After saying that, Wen Lai picked up his notebook and his expression became a little serious.
"Team leader, these Arabs have absolutely no intention of giving up, and they are determined to fight the Empire to the end."
"Through their conversations, I learned that the chief of the Khalid tribe and other chiefs in the Hasa region now have roughly three plans to deal with our takeover of the local area."
"The first thing is to send some core personnel to the Ottoman Empire, the Negev Kingdom and other regions so that they can better fight us to the end."
"In this way, even if we completely wipe them out, their family will not be completely wiped out, and if things go as expected, they will also use this opportunity to transfer their wealth to other places."
To be honest, East Africa itself is not very interested in the wealth of local Arabs, because at that time the Hassa region itself was one of the poorest places in the world. Of course, if oil resources were exploited, the situation would be reversed, but East Africa obviously would not give them this opportunity.
"Secondly, they are preparing to send people to negotiate with the empire in an attempt to retain their own rule over the local area. I think they probably want to strive for a large degree of autonomy like they did during the Ottoman Empire."
Mars frowned and said, "This is wishful thinking. The Empire has always wanted to take the land but not the people, especially the Arabs and blacks."
Wen Lai also agreed, "They want to be the king of the mountain under the rule of the empire, which the empire will definitely not agree to. Of course, they may also be doing this to delay time."
"Because their third plan is to win the support of external forces, especially the Neizhi Kingdom and the British."
"It's obvious that they want to take advantage of this gap to hook up with external forces and then fight us to the death."
"Haha!" Mars sneered and said, "They have a good idea, but unfortunately they don't know the existence of our Military Intelligence Department. Now that we know their general plan, we can't give them this opportunity."
Mars and Winlai were both MI6 officers, and they were able to install eavesdropping equipment in Ibrahim Palace, where the chiefs of the Hasa region gathered, thanks to a little help from the Ottomans.
The so-called Ibrahim Palace is actually a fortress with military attributes in the Arab region, similar to the Hohenzollern Castle, the ancestral home of the Hohenzollern family.
This palace was previously one of the offices of the Ottoman Empire's local government, so before the Ottoman Empire withdrew, personnel from the East African Military Intelligence Office had already installed eavesdropping equipment in advance.
After the Ottoman Empire completely left, the most powerful local Khalid family took over the palace which had been pre-planned by the East Africans, and they had no idea about the equipment installed in the palace by the East Africans.
Mars instructed Wen Lai, "You continue to monitor their plans, especially their possible military deployments. We must do our best to ensure that the imperial army will not be ambushed before it enters here."
"I will report the intelligence first. I believe that with advance response, the imperial garrison will be able to make more wise deployments."
The intelligence obtained by Mars' intelligence team was quickly transferred to the Governor's Office of the North Gulf Territory in East Africa.
At this time, the Beibu Gulf Territory had not yet been officially designated as a province, so a governor was sent by the East African government to manage the military and civil affairs of the Beibu Gulf Territory.
Of course, the number of people under the jurisdiction of the so-called Governor's Office is pitifully small. There are only a few oases in the entire Beibu Gulf territory that can feed a part of the population. The only troops that the Governor's Office can mobilize are the local army, and the navy is not under its jurisdiction.
The reason why the governor is given relatively greater power is that overseas is not East Africa after all, and emergencies may occur at any time. In this case, it is natural to give the local chief executive some privileges.
However, this situation will end once East Africa completely stabilizes the Hasa region, that is, the northern coast of the Persian Gulf. At that time, the North Gulf Province in East Africa will officially replace the original Beibu Gulf territory and be included in the core territory of the empire.
Inside the Governor's Mansion of Beibu Gulf Territory.
"General Cleveland, take a look at this intelligence. This is the minutes of the meeting of tribal chiefs in the Hasa region obtained by the intelligence department from Hasa." Governor Soler handed a telegram to General Cleveland and said.
Cleveland was the highest military commander of the East African garrison in the Tonkin Gulf Territory. In theory, he was under the command of Governor Soler.
But in fact, all specific military operations of the army in the Tonkin Gulf Territory must be approved by General Cleveland to prevent Governor Sorel from giving blind commands.
Of course, if the two of them reach an agreement, they can mobilize the garrison in the Beibu Gulf territory and launch military operations without the consent of the imperial central government.
However, the East African government is not worried at all that the Beibu Gulf territory will be out of control. Not to mention that the logistics of the Beibu Gulf territory are heavily dependent on the empire's mainland. In the Beibu Gulf territory, the more powerful navy, that is, the Third Fleet under the East African Indian Ocean Fleet, can also play a balancing role.
General Cleveland frowned. After reading the telegram, he said, "Governor, it seems that we need to advance our entry into the Hasa region. Otherwise, if they really get in touch with the British, it may cause some trouble for our next operations."
"I suggest that we immediately control these Hasa tribes, so that even if they want to cause trouble, they won't have the opportunity to do so."
Governor Solaire said with his hands behind his back, "I think so too. These tribes in the Hasa region are still quite powerful. If they really get external support, although it won't completely stop our actions, it will most likely increase our casualties."
The Hasa Oasis itself is surrounded by low mountains, which is one of the important reasons why the Hasa Oasis has relatively abundant groundwater resources. It is precisely because of the basin-bottom terrain that the Hasa Oasis has a good water storage effect, and the groundwater around it is more likely to converge in the middle.
Although these mountains are not high, they make the local terrain quite complex.
If the local Arabs can make full use of this terrain, they can offset some of the advantages of East African weapons, such as the vehicles and heavy weapons of the East African troops stationed in the Beibu Gulf Territory.
Moreover, the local Arab tribes were more familiar with the terrain, and they had relatively excellent riding skills and made good use of horses and camels, so it was easy for them to deal with the East African army.
In contrast, East Africa had to be much more cautious. After all, East Africa was an outsider and relatively unfamiliar with the local area, and the desert along the Persian Gulf could easily cause the army to get lost.
This lesson was learned when East Africa occupied the Pirate Coast. Some East African soldiers died of thirst and starvation because they got lost in the desert.
After all, the Pirate Coast covers an area of more than 100,000 square kilometers, which makes it difficult to pursue the enemy if they enter the heart of the desert.
More than 100,000 square kilometers is almost equivalent to the area of a province of the Far Eastern Empire. Just imagine how difficult it would be to capture a guerrilla group ranging from a few to a hundred people in such a large area.
It took East Africa a lot of time to completely make the resistance fighters give up. The fact that they gave up rather than completely wiped them out is very telling. After all, if they fled to other countries and regions, East Africa would not be able to continue hunting them down.
So General Cleveland learned from previous experience and decided to take the initiative this time to control all the Arab tribes in the Hasa area and then deal with them.
"Your Excellency the Governor, without further delay, I will immediately organize the army to enter the Hasa region. I also ask you to assist with the army's logistics and other work."
Governor Solaire nodded and said, "Very good, General Cleveland, go ahead and I will coordinate the follow-up work."
Therefore, in early 1927, the garrison troops in the Beibu Gulf Territory in East Africa marched into the northern oases such as Hasa, where the Arab tribes were located, according to the markings on the map.
General Cleveland personally led the troops into the city of Hasa and surrounded the Khalid tribe.
The sudden arrival of the East African army caught these tribes and families off guard. Before they had time to contact Britain and other forces, their channels of external communication were completely blocked by East Africa.
Some tribes had direct exchanges of fire with the East African army, but this was tantamount to hitting a rock with an egg. Although these Arab tribes had entered the era of hot weapons, their equipment was limited to rifles. Only tribes of a certain size, such as the Khalid tribe, were equipped with a small number of machine guns and artillery.
However, the Beibu Gulf Territory in East Africa was equipped with a large number of heavy weapons and even armored vehicles. Faced with the iron lumps in East Africa, the Arabs did not even have the ability to break through the defense.
(End of this chapter)
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