Chapter 561 Navy Arrives
The press conference was very unpleasant. Of course, this unpleasantness was only towards Japan. The reporters were very excited about having dug up a lot of news materials, especially since this diplomatic incident was an international event.
The Japanese originally wanted to plot against East Africa to gain international sympathy, but ended up getting themselves involved. Tsarist Russia and Japan were naturally incompatible, especially given the disputes between the two countries in Northeast Asia.
This caused one of Japan's two strategies towards East Africa to fail. Japan could only rely on its own strength to confront East Africa and force it out of the South Ryukyu Islands. Now the Japanese even regretted the dispute with the Far Eastern Empire over the Ryukyu Islands. It would be better for Japan to let the South Ryukyu Islands be in the hands of the Far Eastern Empire!
Zhuhai Trade Zone.
"There will be warships docking here in the next few days. Our port should serve as a pre-war command post and fully cooperate with the country to fight against the Japanese invaders in the eastern waters and safeguard the interests of East African countries."
Because the South Ryukyu Islands are underdeveloped, sparsely populated, and have backward infrastructure, they do not have the ability to support a large-scale war.
Therefore, the Zhuhai Trade Zone, backed by the Far East Empire, became the temporary command base of the East African Navy, where the East African Navy can fully mobilize the resources available in the Far East. Compared with the Huaihai Economic Zone, the strength of the Zhuhai Trade Zone is much weaker, but this location is closest to the South Ryukyu Islands and can support the front battlefield at any time.
Moreover, the commercial areas around Zhuhai Trade Zone are all developed areas, where most material problems can be solved as long as you have money.
Of course, another reason is that the local telegraph can communicate with East Africa at any time, which plays a significant role in East Africa's grasp of the war situation.
3:00 p.m.
The East African fleet officially arrived in Zhuhai, with a total of three ironclad ships, two wooden sailing steam ships, five armored gunboats, and twelve other ships carrying supplies.
Gunboats are called mosquito boats in the current Beiyang Navy. They are the main combat ships of the Beiyang Navy. In the East African Navy, they can only serve as auxiliary combat ships. Although they are called mosquito boats, their actual displacement can reach about one thousand tons. They are much smaller than ironclad ships and are called small ironclad ships.
Therefore, the strength of this small ironclad ship is definitely not as good as that of a real ironclad ship, but it is still a level stronger than the traditional wooden sailing warship.
The strength of such a fleet cannot be underestimated in the Far East. Except for the Far East and Japan, other countries are not even qualified to compare. This fleet is about a quarter of the strength of the East African Navy. This is the strength of the top ten navies in the world.
"General Glaze! Welcome to the Zhuhai Trade Zone. We will fully cooperate with the navy in the next period of time in accordance with local requirements."
"What's the situation in the waters of the South Ryukyu Islands like now? Is the construction project going smoothly?" Grace asked directly.
"General, the construction project in the South Ryukyu Islands is still progressing slowly. It can even be said that it is just getting started and the situation is not very good!"
Gresh asked, "Why? What difficulties did you encounter?"
"General, it's like this. The area of the South Ryukyu Islands is not small, and the distances between the main islands are quite large, so it's difficult to connect them. This also means that the construction project is twice as difficult. If it were just one island, we could use the equipment and fortifications together, but the scattered nature of the South Ryukyu Islands means we have to set up the same configuration on each island."
When Grace thought about it carefully, it was true. East Africa's demand for the South Ryukyu Islands was to occupy the entire island, leaving no island to other forces, and each of these isolated islands required a set of equipment and facilities.
The head of Zhuhai Trade Zone went on to say, "The labor shortage is also a big factor, and it can even be said to be the main factor. Although the South Ryukyu Islands are also short of other things, we can ship them from the mainland and the Far East, but the population is not enough. We counted more than 17,300 people in the entire South Ryukyu Islands. These people are not even as many as the number of black people in any project in Africa, and this does not include the elderly, women, children, and malnourished people."
Although the blacks in East Africa are backward, they are much richer than the islanders in the Pacific Ocean. Firstly, they have a small population, and secondly, they have abundant resources. They live on hunting and have plenty of meat.
In a country like Japan, even being able to eat enough rice is a luxury. Many people have no choice but to join the army in order to eat refined rice. The people of the South Ryukyu Islands are poorer than Japan, but even so, they have to pay heavy taxes to the Ryukyu Kingdom every year, a large part of which is handed over to Japan. Therefore, the islanders of the South Ryukyu Islands hate Japan very much. This is also an important reason why Japan annexed the Ryukyu Kingdom but did not take over the South Ryukyu Islands.
In comparison, the Far Eastern Empire seemed amiable. After all, as the nominal suzerain, the Far Eastern Empire cared more about face than Japan. Japan even exploited the poorest place like the South Ryukyu Islands, so it was naturally unpopular.
East Africa naturally had other plans for ruling Ryukyu, which was to immigrate all the local people to East Africa and completely turn the South Ryukyu Islands into a solid military fortress in the Pacific.
As for farming in the South Ryukyu Islands, it would be fine if it was to grow vegetables and fruits to provide convenience to the troops, but they don't plan to grow grain crops anyway. All of them will be turned into vegetable fields, orchards and small ranches to meet the diverse needs of the local garrison, and food can be directly brought in from the mainland.
East Africa needs immigrants, and every island country in the Pacific Ocean is getting poorer. If they are kept there, not only will they occupy resources, but it will also be difficult to create value. Of course, islands like Nauru, which are blessed by God, are exceptions.
Islands generally have no economic value, which is why countries avoid colonizing many islands in the Pacific. In the past, Germany occupied a bunch of islands in the Pacific as colonies, which was basically no different from "poverty alleviation."
For example, the German colony on the island of Papua New Guinea is still using the airports, farms, roads and other infrastructure left by Germany in the last century into the 21st century.
The mineral resources of Nauru Island itself are the result of hundreds of millions of years of accumulation by birds. In the industrial age, after more than ten years of development, the resources are becoming increasingly depleted.
"General Glaze, in addition to these objective reasons, the factor that hinders us from developing the South Ryukyu Islands is the sabotage of the Japanese."
"Hmm! The Japanese Navy has been dispatched?"
"That's not the case, but Japan sent out many fishing boats to harass our transport ships in the waters of the South Ryukyu Islands. Ten days before you came, they had been blocking our ships from landing in the relevant waters. Fortunately, we had left enough supplies on the island. If you had come a month later, the garrison on the island would have had no choice but to compromise and withdraw."
"How many ships do they have? What's their strength?"
"About a hundred ships pass through the Miyako Strait from the Northern Ryukyu Islands every day, and compete with our ships in the name of fishing. Although we have more large ships, a large number of ants can kill an elephant. They can afford to lose those small sampans, but our fleet cannot drift on the sea forever."
"Well, don't worry. Once my troops are familiar with the environment, we will cut off the Miyako Strait. If the Japanese are still determined, we will counterattack Japanese merchant ships in the Far East. We will see who can't hold on first!"
(End of this chapter)
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