Chapter 487 Tete City
Franz: "So you East Africans think you can deal with Portugal, or even the UK and France behind it, with your own strength?"
The number of troops does not represent combat effectiveness, especially in this era. The battle records of populous countries such as the Ottoman Empire, the Far East, and India show that human wave tactics may not be useful. Of course, Prussia has also proved with facts that piling up the number of troops does have some effect, but the premise is a modern army.
"Your Majesty, in short, Portugal is definitely not a match for East Africa. Of course, we also hope that the Austro-Hungarian Empire can give us some diplomatic support." said the East African ambassador.
"Then how do you want us to support you diplomatically?"
"We hope that your country can exert some diplomatic pressure on Britain and France. We can fight, but the other side cannot send out the navy to support the Portuguese. If Britain and France do so, we will also retaliate."
This aroused Franz's interest: "You are fighting against two world-class powers, so what chips do you have in hand?"
Ambassador of East Africa: "The British and French colonies in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the British Cape Colony, and the French colony in Madagascar are all next to the Kingdom of East Africa. We are capable of entering the above three areas at any time and causing great losses to Britain and France."
Franz's eyelids twitched, and he said excitedly: "If you do this, I believe Britain and France will go crazy, and they will probably fight you to the death."
If the East African plan is successfully implemented, it will instantly cut off the connection between Europe and Asia. Unless Britain and France take a long detour through North America or take the traditional trade routes across Eurasia, it will only benefit the United States and Russia.
Of course, if East Africa can really do it, other major powers in the world will certainly not sit idle. Germany, Tsarist Russia, and the United States all have their own plans for Britain and France. Only the Austro-Hungarian Empire is in a rather awkward situation now, with poor geographical conditions, weak national cohesion, and the inability to fully exert its national strength.
Franz: "If you really succeed, the world situation may face unpredictable risks, so we will complete the communication with Britain and France. Everyone has a bottom line and will not lose face."
Franz was more worried about the turbulent international situation, especially when the Austro-Hungarian Empire was not fully prepared. The plan for East Africa was indeed too bold, but it was better not to do it now, so Britain, France and East Africa could not really fight, and the intensity of the war had to be controlled. Moreover, Franz did not think that the plan for East Africa was fantastic, and it might be of great use in the future, so it was better not to use it directly. Maybe the Austro-Hungarian Empire could use it next time.
"Your Majesty, I'm afraid you alone cannot attract the attention of Britain and France. It would be better to drag Germany and Russia into the water," suggested the East African ambassador.
"Of course we will consider Germany, but what about Russia? Russia is still at war. What they are most worried about now is probably that the Austro-Hungarian Empire has some plans for the Balkan Peninsula. Therefore, our relationship with the Russians is very complicated."
"If there are only Austria-Hungary and Germany, that would be enough. It would be two against two. We can balance the power between Britain and France. The rest depends on you in East Africa and Portugal!" Franz said.
Whether East Africa is worth supporting depends on whether the country has united front value, and everything depends on its military strength.
If they can defeat Portugal this time, East Africa will have some status in the international community, and at least its popularity will reach the level of countries like Mexico and Brazil. If they can't even defeat Portugal, then it's just a colony and it won't have the face to show up in the international community.
…
In May 1878, Austria-Hungary, Germany, France and Britain exchanged views in Paris on the issues of East Africa and Portugal. That is, the scale of the war must be controlled, third countries must not intervene personally, and the final result will depend entirely on the performance of the East and Portugal sides in the war.
East Africa still did not participate in this meeting, or it could be said that it was a closed-door meeting of the four major powers. However, the most nervous was Tsarist Russia, which thought that the other four countries wanted to join forces to trick it. After all, Tsarist Russia had achieved good results in the Russo-Turkish War.
What Tsarist Russia thought was not wrong. In fact, the attitude of the four countries towards the Russo-Turkish War could be ended. The Balkan Peninsula has become independent, and Tsarist Russia has also occupied part of the Ottoman territory in the Caucasus region, so the other four gangsters believe that the Russians can stop now.
No one wanted Tsarist Russia to strike too hard at the Ottoman Empire, as that would be detrimental to regional stability. The Ottoman Empire maintaining a certain level of strength would help Britain and France balance Germany, Austria and Russia.
…
The meeting was held, but Britain and France did not give any definite information about when the war would start, and they could not let Portugal declare war on East Africa first.
Portugal was inherently weaker than East Africa, and it would be foolish to fight East Africa head-on. Therefore, Portugal could only seize the initiative in the war by declaring war without warning.
Soon, according to the previous plan, the Portuguese troops in Angola and Mozambique were mobilized, and East African intelligence personnel also stepped up their efforts to find possible breakthrough points for Portugal.
Soon, through analysis of anomalies in Portuguese coastal ship data, East Africa discovered that the most likely military front for the Portuguese was the Zambezi River, especially the city of Tete on the right bank of the Zambezi River, where a large number of troops and supplies gathered.
Tete is an important city of Portugal in Mozambique. It was the capital of Tete Province in Mozambique in its former life. Tete was built in 1531. It was once a stronghold for Portuguese colonists to expand into the interior of Africa, an industrial, mining and transportation center. Before the Portuguese colonial era, Tete was the center of commercial activities for the Swahili people.
The city of Tete is located on the banks of the Zambezi River. It was once the gold and ivory trade center of Mozambique. However, this center began to decline as the inland trade routes were cut off after the rise of East Africa.
The rise of Tete is mainly due to shipping. It is the starting point of the lower Zambezi River route. The lower Zambezi River starts sailing from here and reaches the Indian Ocean after more than 200 kilometers. The convenience of water and land transportation makes this place naturally conducive to commercial development.
The convenient transportation also made Mozambique pay more attention to Tete. Especially after Clement’s plan was proposed, Tete became a strategic fulcrum of Mozambique.
"If we want to defeat East Africa from the center, we must not miss the natural barrier of the Zambezi River. If we control the southern line of the Zambia River, we can separate East Africa into north and south. The next step is to cut off the land route north of Lake Malawi, and then we can divide East Africa into three parts."
"Tete is the forward station of our army. We are ready to move westward from here at any time. But are you sure there is no problem with your map?" asked Clement.
The Portuguese map of the interior of Africa was actually a map of inland trading routes developed by some caravans in the past. It also marked the tribes along the route, which were all former clients of the Portuguese merchants.
However, these maps are of very poor quality and were not made professionally. After all, since the rise of East Africa, the Portuguese commercial activities in the inland have been banned and local survey work has been forced to terminate. Many of these maps are old products from more than ten years ago. If nothing unexpected happens, many of them may be invalid because East Africa has been too harsh on the indigenous people in the inland, especially in Zimbabwe.
As the trade routes in East Africa were closed, Portuguese merchants turned to trade at designated trade ports of the East African Kingdom. However, the trading location was at the mouth of the Rovuma River, so Portugal now had no idea about the situation in inland Africa.
(End of this chapter)
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