Chapter 220
"His Excellency Archduke Ferdinand!"
A row of young Austrian naval officers stood upright in front of Ferdinand, and Ferdinand looked at the "young talents" in front of him with satisfaction.
"Your Excellency the Archduke, this is the East African Advisory Group formed by the Imperial Navy. They will serve under you from now on!" Blair introduced to Ferdinand.
Ferdinand nodded and said affirmatively: "Okay, when you arrive in East Africa, just do your work peacefully. Don't have any complaints about coming to East Africa. The current conditions in East Africa are a little worse, but with the leadership of me, the former commander-in-chief of the Imperial Navy, it won't be considered a waste of your talents. Just treat East Africa as your home in the future."
Ferdinand and Blair characterized these people in a few words. Ferdinand certainly knew that these people might be troublemakers or came from poor backgrounds. After all, under the system of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it was difficult for commoners to make a name for themselves.
But the more this is the case, the more it proves that these guys have real abilities. East Africa is short of talent anyway, so Ferdinand will continue to use them.
With this group of people in hand, the 800 sailors in East Africa now have a real leader. Ferdinand can't have to do everything himself.
Although their number is small, they can share the knowledge they have learned and some of the experience of the Austro-Hungarian Navy with the sailors from the Inland Lake Forces. This is the most valuable asset.
…
January 7, 1870.
Central District, First Town City, Kivit Palace.
"Your Majesty, Mozambique has sent an envoy, saying they want to cooperate with us! Now their people have arrived at the port of Dar es Salaam."
Von der Leyen came to the Kiev Palace to report to Prince Constantine with a telegram from Dar es Salaam.
"Cooperation! What does Portugal want to do?"
"After some indirect inquiries, our people learned that they probably wanted to divide the Malawi Kingdom with us."
"Oh, this is really rare. I thought they were here to protest our actions in the Kingdom of Kazembe?"
Prince Constantine took the telegram and began to read it with great interest.
"Your Majesty, why do you think the Mozambique colony wants to discuss this matter with us? With their strength, they should be able to deal with those natives alone!" asked von der Leyen.
"It's simple. They themselves are not strong enough to swallow up the entire Kingdom of Malawi, so they need a foreign country to help them share the pressure." Constantine said after putting down the telegram in his hand.
"I guess they have been interested in the Kingdom of Malawi for a long time, but the resistance of the locals was too fierce, so they have not succeeded. Before I came, the Kingdom of Malawi was almost disintegrated and divided by the Portuguese. The central government existed in name only, but they did not swallow up the tribes below."
"Your Majesty, what should we do? Should we ask them to come to the First Town to talk?"
"Just let the Dar es Salaam City Government negotiate with them. There is no need to let them go inland, as this may expose some intelligence. Just agree to cooperate with them first. We can take this opportunity to occupy more strategic locations and consolidate the land of the Kingdom of Malawi that we have encroached on over the years."
"But I feel that this is too easy for the Portuguese, Your Majesty. In this way, we actually did not take much land, but instead handed over the southern part of the Kingdom of Malawi to the Portuguese."
"We are now waging war against the Sultanate of Geledi. At the same time, we are also deploying troops in the southwest, which involves a large number of troops. We don't have the energy to open another front. Let the Portuguese try to touch the Kingdom of Malawi. As for whether they can control it, it depends on their own luck. However, for so many years, the Portuguese have been unable to do anything about the Kingdom of Malawi, so it is still unknown whether the Kingdom of Portugal can succeed. So no matter how they play, we should do our own thing first."
"Your Majesty, I understand. But in my opinion, we will have a war with the Portuguese sooner or later. There are still many blank areas in Africa, so there is no need for the two sides to engage in fierce competition. But after the benefits of this area are divided up, it is hard to say what will happen."
"I know this, of course. It is better to stabilize the Portuguese as much as possible. As long as we maintain the current development speed, it will not be a problem to face the entire Kingdom of Portugal in the future."
At that time, the native population of the Kingdom of Portugal was only more than 4 million, but Portugal was a traditional naval power with considerable influence in the Indian Ocean.
East Africa's current population is actually comparable to that of countries such as Sweden, the Netherlands, Portugal, Belgium, Switzerland and Greece.
But again, East Africa's history is too short and its accumulation is insufficient, so it is much better than Greece, a country that barely survives by borrowing money.
"Your Majesty, there is one more thing I must explain to you. If it is not resolved, it is likely to hinder the development of East Africa."
"What's up?"
"When we compiled the statistics last year, lower-level governments told us that East Africa might see a baby boom this year, which would be a huge challenge for us."
"Baby boom? Wasn't last year's 200,000 births enough? Can we break through this year?"
"Your Majesty, I was also shocked when I heard this, but when I think about it carefully, it is indeed true. Immigrants who arrived in East Africa, in addition to those who have already started families, those single immigrants have also been getting married in recent years. Through our efforts in recent years, the number of families formed in East Africa has exceeded one million. In addition, East Africa is becoming more and more stable, and the people's desire to have children is very strong. Some families have even started to have second and third children, so this year's birth rate is probably very alarming."
Prince Constantine fell into deep thought, then looked at von der Leyen and asked: "Will they have a fourth or fifth child..."
Von der Leyen nodded and said, "Conservatively speaking, it's at least five children. If nothing unexpected happens, it may not be uncommon for families to have more than ten children!"
The majority of East African immigrants are farmers from various countries, and the population structure is very young. Coupled with East Africa's special land and distribution system, the fertility rate is indeed terrifying.
At the same time, East Africans do not go out at night and do not have much nightlife, so they can only stay at home and make babies. Naturally, the fertility rate in East Africa is not low.
The current population of 2.5 million may become more than 10 million or even more in 20 years. When Prince Constantine thought of this, he suddenly felt that Ernst's immigration policy was still too radical.
It’s not that East Africa cannot afford to feed so many people, but that there are too many newborns, and that the outbreak in such a short period of time will definitely cause shortages of manpower and food pressure. After all, taking care of young children is very energy-consuming. At the same time, they are born together, which means hundreds of thousands of extra mouths at once. According to the traditional age of adulthood in East Africa, it will take at least 14 years for them to support themselves.
"For this matter, you should first clarify the situation in various places and report all the data. I will discuss this issue with Ernst."
"Yes, your Majesty," von der Leyen replied.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
