Chapter 1566 Cooperation
East Africa extended its hand into Afghanistan mainly through Persia, so the agents supported by East Africa in Afghanistan were mainly its northwestern forces. The British were happy to see this because the first to be threatened by East Africa's intervention in the local area was the Soviet Union.
Of course, East Africa can also be connected with Afghanistan through the Gwadar Port, but the Gwadar Port is in southern Afghanistan, and the surrounding area is regarded as its core interest by Britain. It is also a connecting channel between British India and southern Persia.
In addition to the Soviet Union, Britain and East Africa, Afghanistan also actively introduced Germany, the United States and the Ottoman Empire to implement political balance and ensure its own security.
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The plane landed in Dihua, and it was then that Hoffman finally got a glimpse of the "largest city" in the Western Regions. Dihua County was not large, with a population of less than 100,000, and its economy and industry were relatively backward. Therefore, in 1934, the Jinling government did not approve its upgrade to a city.
However, this did not prevent Dihua County from becoming the political and economic center of the Western Regions and the seat of the provincial government, because the towns outside Dihua County were even more underdeveloped. Currently, there may be less than three towns in the Western Regions Province with a population of more than 50,000.
The Dihua County Airport is very simple and completely unpaved. The runway is dusty and there is some gravel, but at this airport, Hoffman met some unexpected people.
Browne said to Hoffman, "Consul, judging by their appearance, they should be Soviet, and this plane should be a Soviet military aircraft."
Hoffman said with a grim expression, "What bad luck! It seems the relationship between the Soviet Union and the Western Regions is closer than we thought. I'm afraid they will interfere with our negotiations with the Western Region government."
Regarding Hoffman's thoughts, Brownie said comfortingly, "That's not necessarily true. After all, the Germans can operate here, so the Soviets shouldn't care too much about us entering here."
German pilot Durutte, who was standing nearby, overheard the conversation and said, "The Soviets are very active in Dihua. However, as Mr. Browne said, it's not easy for the Soviets to interfere with you. Although this place is relatively remote, the Far Eastern Empire Government can still control it."
The relationship between the Jinling government and the current Western Regions Provincial Government is very complicated, but on the surface they still obey the Jinling government. After all, the Western Regions Provincial Government also needs the Jinling government to endorse its legitimacy. At the same time, it is also wary of foreign forces such as the Soviet Union. This is a lesson learned from the past.
Hoffman said, "I hope so! I hope that Governor Sheng won't be influenced by the Soviet Union in the future."
The Governor is currently the highest military commander in the Western Region Province and is basically the local decision-maker. After all, in the current Far Eastern Empire, whoever has the gun has the right to speak, and the administrative power in many places is controlled by local warlords.
Afterwards, Hoffman and his team rushed to Dihua City, preparing to contact the Western Region Provincial Government to discuss the issue of airport usage rights in Dihua and other regions.
The Soviets also discovered Hoffman and his group, but they simply mistook them for Germans. However, the Soviets did not deliberately make things difficult for them.
Even though the relationship between the Soviet Union and Germany is not good now, there has been no conflict between the two countries, so the Soviets in Dihua do not want to contact them.
As for what the "Germans" were doing in the Western Regions, they were not very interested. This was mainly because Germany was restricted by geography and it was difficult for it to play a role in the northwest of the Far East Empire. This made the Soviet Union miss an opportunity to target East Africa.
In Dihua County, the provincial capital of the Western Regions, Governor Sheng warmly welcomed Hoffman and his party.
"Consul Hoffman, I've been looking forward to your arrival. Dihua County is small and a cold place, so I apologize for my poor hospitality. I hope you can understand..."
Hoffman was very satisfied with Director Sheng's attitude. He also responded politely, and then both sides began to get to the point.
"Your Excellency, we are here to discuss the construction of the Northwest Route. I believe your Ministry of Transportation has already informed you of this matter."
Supervisor Sheng said, "Of course. I wouldn't object to something as good as improving transportation in the Western Regions. On the contrary, I welcome it and will actively cooperate with your efforts."
Generally speaking, Governor Sheng was wary of the Jinling government, but he saw an opportunity in the matter of international routes dominated by East Africa.
"Consul Hoffman, I am happy to cooperate with your country on the Northwest International Route. Of course, it would be even better if this route could serve as a window for communication and trade between our Western Province and East Africa."
"East Africa is the world's most powerful industrial nation, while our Western Region's economy is very backward. However, the Western Region is vast and rich in resources and specialties, so the two sides are highly complementary."
"And I have an idea. That is to build a communication platform between our Western Region provincial government and your country, to liaise with you and accelerate the formation of northwest international routes."
Here, Governor Sheng specifically emphasized that direct contact should be established between the Western Regions Province and East Africa, which would make it easier for him to bypass the Nanjing government.
Hoffman didn't care much about his little thoughts. As long as the Northwest Route could be built and the air corridor between East Africa and the Far East Empire could be opened up, he didn't care whether to cooperate with the Western Region Province or the Far East Empire Central Government.
Since Governor Sheng wanted to establish direct contact with East Africa, the worst that could happen was to establish a separate liaison agency between the two sides, while maintaining contact between Jinling and Dihua. Even if Jinling knew about it, they wouldn't care too much. So, Hoffman readily agreed to his request.
Then, Governor Sheng began to reveal the reason for his actions: "Consul Hoffman, because Western Province is close to the border and has a serious bandit problem, we are concerned about whether it will be possible to import weapons from your country through the Northwest Passage in the future to maintain local security and national defense."
Governor Sheng’s real plan is to obtain ways to purchase weapons from East Africa and seek support from East Africa.
Now, the army under Governor Sheng is very dependent on the support of the Soviet Union. However, Governor Sheng is obviously not at ease with the Soviet Union. He urgently needs to find new forces to balance the influence of the Soviet Union in the Western Regions.
Therefore, East Africa became his target. If he could establish good relations with East Africa, then in the future as Governor Sheng, he would not have to worry about being strangled by the Soviet Union.
Hoffman responded to Governor Sheng's suggestion, "East Africa welcomes cooperation with the Western Regions. As for the arms deal, I need to contact China, but I believe the mainland won't care about this simple request."
East Africa certainly wouldn't care. As for the arms trade with the Western Regions, even if East Africa didn't do it, the Soviet Union would do it. Therefore, if Governor Sheng wanted to find a way to import weapons from East Africa, East Africa would certainly not refuse.
In fact, Governor Sheng had asked the Jinling government for help before. He was not without enemies in the Western Regions, but the Jinling government itself was in financial difficulty and had no time to care about the Western Regions.
Everyone knows the Soviet Union's intentions. Governor Sheng had no choice but to cooperate with the Soviet Union before. He did not want to become a puppet of the Soviet Union.
Now that East Africans had come to Dihua, he seized the opportunity and took the initiative to propose cooperation, thus creating competition between East Africa and the Soviet Union, so that his power and status would be more secure.
The Soviet Union's support for Governor Sheng was not free, but was secured by the minerals and agricultural and pastoral resources of the Western Regions. For example, the gold in the Western Regions was developed in large quantities by the Soviet Union for nearly ten years in the previous life.
Now, with the addition of East Africa, the Western Region Province has another way out. If the Soviet Union does not sell weapons, they can turn to East Africa. At the same time, the development of local resources and industry can also introduce East Africans to compete with the Soviet Union.
For example, some minerals that they are unable to develop were only developed by the Soviets in the past. They have no other choice and cannot sell them at a high price.
Now, East Africa and the Soviet Union can bid, and the highest bidder will get the right to develop resources.
Hoffman promised, "After the Northwest International Route opens, the Empire will certainly increase its investment in the region. If you need it, you can also import industrial equipment and goods from East Africa."
"East Africa is the world's leading industrial power. Our strength is far beyond the reach of backward industrial countries like the Soviet Union, and the quality of our products is even higher than that of the Soviet Union."
In Hoffman's words, the Soviet Union has become a backward industrial country. However, at this stage, the Soviet industry is indeed relatively backward compared with East Africa. Whether in terms of development quality or industrial production capacity, there is a big gap between the two countries.
To put it bluntly, there is probably no possibility that the Soviet Union will surpass East Africa in the future. After all, even in terms of industrial scale and size, which the Soviet Union is best at, it is difficult to surpass a major power of the same level like East Africa.
The Soviet Union is only slightly larger in area and has more resources than East Africa, but East Africa has overseas markets and raw materials to guarantee its own production. If only East Africa's overseas territories are added, East Africa's overall resource endowment and territorial area are not much worse than the Soviet Union.
East Africa indirectly controls more areas, such as most of South America, which can provide East Africa with raw materials and markets, while the Soviet Union's overseas influence is weak.
In terms of population, East Africa surpassed the Soviet Union, and with this population advantage, it would be difficult for the Soviet Union to surpass East Africa. Unless the Soviet Union returned to the Tsarist era and reduced the population growth rate, it would be difficult for the Soviet Union to surpass East Africa in terms of the size of its educated industrial population.
Governor Sheng had no doubt about Hoffman's words. He was familiar with the development of the world's major powers. Many people now said that East Africa's comprehensive national strength ranked first in the world, while the Soviet Union was only in the top five.
But even the Soviet Union, which was among the top five, was a behemoth for him, suffocating the entire Far Eastern Empire, and this "monster" was lying on the Western Regions.
In comparison, East Africa, the world's number one, has a much better sense of security. Unfortunately, he had no connection with East Africa in the past. Now that he has the opportunity to contact and cooperate with East Africa, he will naturally not let it go easily.
Afterwards, he began to communicate in depth with Consul Hoffman on the details of the Northwest International Route, and with this as the core, he also discussed issues such as economic cooperation and military cooperation. The negotiation process between the two sides went very smoothly.
In this way, the Northwest International Route was quickly built with the support of the Western Region Provincial Government. A year later, this route became the fastest transportation route from East Africa to the Far East Empire.
Starting from Bossaso (Gulf of Aden) in East Africa, and then passing through Gwadar, only these two cities in East Africa can reach the Western Region Province of the Far East Empire, and then through Dihua, you can finally reach Xi'an and the mountain city.
The total flight distance is more than 7,000 kilometers. If you use the most advanced transport aircraft in East Africa, you only need to stop at one station to reach the mountain city or Xi'an from East Africa.
Of course, Bosaso is still a bit remote for East Africa. It is just a military town in the Gulf of Aden. If it is for material transportation, it is not very convenient to transit through Bosaso.
However, compared with the later Hump Route, the Northwest International Route still has more advantages. The biggest advantage of this route is its safety, especially its lack of vulnerability to war threats.
The first province to reap the benefits of the Northwest International Route was the Western Regions Province. A year later, in 1935, with the opening of the Northwest Route, East Africa realized direct trade with the Western Regions Province for the first time.
High value-added products such as arms and medicines entered the Western Region Province along this route, which to a certain extent weakened the Soviet Union's influence on the local area. At the same time, East African companies also followed this route to facilitate investment in the northwest of the Far East Empire.
Previously, East Africa's investment in the Far East Empire had already shifted to its two rear areas, namely the two major areas centered on Xi'an and Shancheng.
Now that the Northwest Route has been opened, the process of personnel traveling back and forth from East Africa has been further accelerated. For example, if the East African technicians and management of the Shenmu Coal Mine wanted to return to China, they had to go east first, reach the coast of the Far East Empire, and then go through the South Seas and cross the Indian Ocean to return home.
Now, as long as you arrive in Xi'an first, you can take a flight back to East Africa via Northwest International Airlines.
At this time, there were no civilian air routes from Southeast Asia to the mainland of East Africa. The most advanced aircraft equipped by the East African military had a range of only 4,000 kilometers, and only a dozen or so aircraft had been initially produced, and they had not yet been widely promoted.
Among them, most are used for flights between East Africa and the Sunda Strait, and they need to stop at the Chagos Archipelago. The distance from Mombasa to the Chagos Archipelago is more than 3,500 kilometers, and from the Chagos Archipelago to the Sunda Strait is more than 3,500 kilometers, which together is nearly 7,000 kilometers.
Therefore, there is no civilian route from East Africa to the South Pacific, and the only route with the Chagos Archipelago as a transit point is only used by the East African military.
In other words, the only way for ordinary people to travel from Southeast Asia to East Africa is to take a ship, but the ship is not fast, which wastes a lot of time.
The emergence of the Northwest International Route solved the problem of personnel exchanges between East Africa and the Far East Empire. It only took five or six days to fly from the central and western parts of the Far East Empire to the mainland of East Africa.
This is based on the highly developed aviation industry in East Africa. Other countries, such as Germany, which ranks second in the world in aviation technology, cannot do this. Otherwise, the Eurasian route would not have been delayed in being fully connected.
In addition to technical problems, there are also political issues. For example, why has the Southwest Route not been formed? The key factor is that East Africa lacks a corresponding fulcrum in India, and the conditions in Sikkim are not very good.
This is based on the fact that East Africa is a colonial power, and Germany lacks overseas colonies and spheres of influence. Without major technological breakthroughs, it would be even more difficult for Germany to rely on aviation to break free from the blockade.
(End of this chapter)
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