Chapter 607 Detour
"We can provide assistance to the Orange people, but we can't rush forward. Instead, we have to negotiate conditions with them. Of course, considering the industries the Orange people are engaged in, we can have symbolic cooperation in agriculture and animal husbandry." Ernst said to Constantine.
"You are right. Now the Orange people are trapped inland and have offended the British. They cannot contact the outside world. Related trade will definitely be affected. Only we can provide them with relevant help." Constantine said in agreement.
This may be the sorrow of landlocked countries. Ernst thought of the Abyssinian Empire in the north. Like in his previous life, the Abyssinian Empire has now become a landlocked country.
The three neighboring countries of the Abyssinian Empire, Italy and Egypt, had very bad relations with the Abyssinian Empire, so the trade of the Abyssinian Empire could only be completed through cooperation with East Africa.
Although some tribes in part of the Egyptian Sudan had good relations with the Abyssinian Empire, their traditional trade routes mostly passed through the Sahara Desert and headed west, so they could not solve the problems of the Abyssinian Empire.
After all, the Abyssinian Empire was a country with a population of tens of millions, and such a large economic scale could not be solved by North African trade, especially since its relations with Egypt were very poor.
As for the traditional trade routes, the Red Sea has been completely blocked by Egypt and Italy, and can only cooperate with the East African Kingdom in the south.
East Africa can profit from it by acting as a middleman. Although East Africa had some interests in the past with the Abyssinian Empire, especially the annexation of some subordinate forces in the south of the Abyssinian Empire, compared with Egypt and Italy that threatened the core areas of the Abyssinian Empire, East Africa looked much more promising.
After all, subordinate forces are not completely one family, just like the relationship between the Far Eastern Empire and its vassal states. Moreover, the relationship between the Abyssinian Empire and its subordinate forces is not as close as that between vassal states.
There is a sense of cultural identity among the vassal states, but the relationship between the Abyssinian Empire and its subordinate forces is more about military conquest, without much emotional investment.
"For the Orange people, we should provide some neutral weapons as much as possible, without strong East African colors. At the same time, trade with the Orange people should be mainly in kind. We should focus on providing more support to the Orange people in terms of food and military supplies." Ernst continued.
The Boers are mainly engaged in animal husbandry, which is convenient, labor-saving and profitable. As for farming, which is a hard job, they are not very enthusiastic.
Moreover, the Orange Free State is now in a state of civil unrest, and production will certainly be significantly affected, so support for the Orangemen should not be limited to weapons and ammunition.
Of course, East Africa is more concerned about the fact that it does not have so many weapons to support the Orange people. As for the active weapons and equipment of the East African army, they cannot be used for export, especially to its neighboring countries, because East Africa is not only coveting the market of the Orange Free State, but is more targeting Orange itself.
"So which country's equipment are you going to provide to the Orangemen, Britain or France?" Constantine asked.
As for Germany, Constantine did not mention it, because German weapons are not exactly the same as those in East Africa, but they can be said to be from the same mother. If German weapons are provided, it would be better to directly export East Africa's own weapons.
Ernst gave Constantine an unexpected answer: "We provide the Orangemen with Austro-Hungarian weapons."
"Why?"
"We provided weapons to the Orangemen. No matter what the result was, the British knew it was us. After all, no one else had the ability to do so. In addition, we had frequent military cooperation with the Austro-Hungarian Empire. We had many suppliers in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, so it was convenient to get the goods.
Moreover, we in East Africa can produce part of the weapons and ammunition of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and provide free maintenance services to the Orangemen, but the majority still needs to be imported from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
In this way, the import and export of weapons by the Orangemen will be completely in our hands, unless they replace all the weapons of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the future, but they do not have the financial resources to do so. "Ernst explained.
But Constantine raised a new question: "In this case, why don't we directly export domestically produced weapons to East Africa?"
Ernst: "Because the Orangemen will definitely not fight with a guerilla force when fighting against the British and Transvaal people. They will use more guerrilla tactics. Now the Orangemen's enemy is first the British and German coalition forces, and in the future it is likely to be us. One feature of guerrilla warfare is that it is difficult to defend against. Attacking the enemy's supply lines makes it easier for the enemy to seize supplies from the enemy. If the Orangemen and us clash in the future, we must avoid this. However, we don't have to worry about this when using Austro-Hungarian weapons."
The process of how Austro-Hungarian weapons were exported to the Orange Free State was completely controlled by East Africa. In this way, if the Orangemen survived the offensive of the British and German coalition forces in the future, they would have to continue to rely on this supply channel from East Africa.
In this way, it would be almost the same as using East African weapons, and it would also allow the Orange people to let down their guard a little. After all, directly using East African weapons would be no different from becoming a military vassal of East Africa.
After all, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was a third-party country, which at least made the Orange people feel more at ease on the surface. Of course, it was only on the surface. Once the Orange people really relied on Austro-Hungarian weapons, they would find that they could not avoid East Africa, and even the bullets had to be provided by East Africa.
As for East Africa, it can completely rely on intermediary channels to control the Orange people's military. After all, whether to cut off the Orange people's weapons supply is entirely in the hands of East Africa.
In this way, even if East Africa becomes an enemy of the Orangemen in the future, its weapons supply can be cut off at any time, and it can defeat the enemy without fighting a war.
Unless the Orangemen reconcile with Britain and continue to supply goods through Britain, the Austro-Hungarian Empire is in cahoots with East Africa after all, and East Africa can easily interfere.
If Britain provided the Orangemen with its own weapons to replace those of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, this would involve the Orangemen's entire military system, including usage experience, maintenance systems, etc. In short, it would not be so easy. This is the same as India's inability to directly get rid of its dependence on Russian-made weapons in the past.
Moreover, according to the current relationship between the Orangemen and the British, there is basically no possibility of reconciliation between the two. Unless East Africa really annexes the Orange Free State, the enemy of the three parties will instantly become East Africa.
This is also the reason why Ernst is not in a hurry to take action against the Orange Free State. He wants to let the three parties fight each other first, and it is best to raise the hatred value to the maximum. Then the difficulty of East Africa's invasion of the Orange Free State in the future will be greatly reduced.
After all, after this lesson, the Boers will definitely be divided in the future and will not be able to work together, and the gap in their hearts will widen over time.
Moreover, in the eyes of the Orange people, this civil unrest was entirely caused by the betrayal of the Transvaal people. There is a saying that traitors are more hateful than enemies. By then, the Orange people's impression of the Transvaal people will definitely be worse than that of Britain and East Africa.
In this way, it will be easier for East Africa to assimilate the region in the future. Of course, East Africa will definitely have to take other measures to further erase the Boers, a community that once existed.
(End of this chapter)
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