Chapter 646: Situation in the South
At the end of the year, Ernst ended his visit to Europe and returned to East Africa. During this visit, East Africa was actually very popular, especially Germany was the most active.
This is the same as the welcoming attitude of European and American countries towards the Far Eastern Empire during the financial crisis in 2008. In the 1970s, the importance of East Africa to Germany undoubtedly rose to several levels. It played an important role in stabilizing the German economy and made Germany realize some of the strength of East Africa.
In the past, there was an Italy that was wooed by various parties. Now Italy is divided into three countries, and one part of it is occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, so there is one less powerful country in mainland Europe. In this way, East Africa has entered the scope of Germany's sight. However, East Africa is in Africa after all, so its importance is not as great as that of the Ottoman Empire.
East Africa does not need to take sides so early, so its approach to Germany's solicitation is rather ambiguous, but in essence it is still more inclined towards Germany or the German camp.
After all, East Africa is also a country under the German system, and is naturally close to the German region in terms of politics, economy, culture, and military. However, East Africa's geographical location and strength allow it to remain neutral.
"Ernst, you are finally back. Friedrich missed you very much!" Constantine said in surprise when he saw his son.
"Dad, Mom!" Friedrich came up and threw himself into her arms. After not seeing the little guy for half a year, he didn't feel strange at all.
Ernst hugged the little guy and said to his father: "Father, now that I am back, you can leave the rest to me."
Constantine said unhappily, "I don't want to bother with this old thing any more. It's good that you're back. I wanted to go out and walk around more!"
Before Ernst went abroad, Constantine had stopped caring about government affairs and instead traveled around East Africa to relax. Now that Ernst is back, it is natural for Constantine to want to continue his retirement life. As for the hard work of governing the country, it is better to leave it to young people like Ernst.
Karina also pinched her son's chubby face, feeling distressed. Originally, they only planned to stay in Europe for a few months, but the popularity of East Africa obviously delayed the family's schedule. There were countless banquets and cocktail parties, which made Karina, who was used to the freedom in East Africa, a little uncomfortable.
So in the second half of the trip, Karina kept complaining that she would try to come to Europe less often next time, mainly because she was too tired from socializing and her facial muscles were stiff from fake smiles every day.
The family returned to the first town happily, but after being away for so long, a lot of things had accumulated. Ernst had no time to rest and started to workaholic again.
East Africa is highly centralized, which also means that Ernst has greater pressure and responsibility. So after handing over affairs to his father, Ernst began to look at the problems accumulated in East Africa over the past year.
The first is the Orange Free State, an issue that had been a focus of East Africa’s attention before Ernst left the country.
Army Chief of Staff Sir Thomas Witt has been in charge of this matter, so he reported: "This year, large-scale wars broke out between the Orangemen and the Transvaal three times. The first two ended with a slight advantage for the Orangemen, but the third time, in September this year, the Transvaalmen, with the assistance of the British, reversed the situation in one fell swoop and severely damaged the main force of the Orangemen coalition in Dillsville."
Although it was known that the Transvaal people would gain the upper hand, it was only a matter of time. After all, East Africa could not provide unconditional assistance to the Orangemen like the British did, but had to pay for it.
But Ernst still wanted to know the details of what happened, especially why the Orangemen won the first two times.
Siewert said: "According to the information sent back by our intelligence personnel and military advisers, the Transvaal Restoration Army had a low level of combat effectiveness at the beginning. After all, the Boers did not have a need for standing armed forces at the beginning, so they lacked experience and were not as good as the traditional Boer armed forces of the Orangemen.
However, as time went by, the Transvaal people had accumulated enough relevant experience, their combat effectiveness improved, and with the guidance of the British, the Transvaal people made rapid progress. "
"The first war took place in the northern part of the Orange Free State. A large-scale battle broke out between the Bertfontein garrison of Excelsior and Transvaal and the Russell Division of the Orange Allied Forces. This time, the Transvaal people took the initiative to attack, but Russell ambushed them with the help of the terrain. The Bertfontein garrison suffered heavy losses, which instantly turned the situation in the north in favor of the Orange people. The Transvaal people could only withdraw their troops back to Bertfontein."
"An important reason for the Transvaal defeat in this war was that they underestimated the enemy. Russell was the strongest Orangeman in the north, and the northwest was basically under his control. As a result, the Transvaal dared to march over without even getting the intelligence, which led to a disastrous defeat."
Of course, there is no need to mention the reason why Russell was in the northwest of Orange, which enabled his troops to better contact East Africa and gain support from East Africa. The important reason why the Transvaal people wanted to attack Russell was to cut off the northern communication channel between the Orangemen and East Africa.
"In May, the Orangemen and the Transvaal people had their second large-scale conflict, this time mainly in the southwest. The Transvaal people had been actively squeezing the Orangemen's living space, so they built fortifications and strongholds around Bloemfontein.
So in order to break the deadlock, the Orangemen in the southwest cleared out the Transvaal Restoration Army in their territory. This was a local battle for the Orangemen, so they easily won the victory over the Transvaal. "
"The third large-scale conflict was also initiated by the Orangemen. The Orangemen became somewhat arrogant after the first two major victories, so they gathered a large force in the west, preparing to inflict heavy damage on the Transvaal people again, and even preparing to retake Bloemfontein in one fell swoop."
"However, the Orangemen have obviously forgotten the advantages of their own province. Although the Transvaal Restoration Army's combat effectiveness is not high, it still has clear responsibilities and powers and a detailed command system framework. The Orangemen are fighting on their own and are not united internally.
Therefore, in this head-on war, the Transvaal people achieved an unprecedented victory against the scattered Orange people, and the British also began to take the initiative and sent troops from near Kimberley, making the Orange people attacked from both sides. With the confluence of the two forces, the Orange people's forces in the southwest were severely damaged, and now most of them are invincible.
Although the northern forces still exist for various reasons, they also participated in the third large-scale conflict and could not cause any trouble in a short period of time, so the Transvaal and the British took advantage of the situation to expand their victory. At present, the main battlefield has shifted to the north. There have even been several battles between the two sides on the south bank of the Fetter River, which were observed by our army. "
"Does that mean the Orangemen are now at the end of their rope?"
"Almost. Now in the Orange Free State, only the north is still resisting because of us. In other areas, the Transvaal and the British have almost solved the problem. Especially the Orange forces in the southwest, which were the strongest at the time, many have chosen to surrender to the new government."
"A new government?"
"The Transvaal Provisional Government officially abolished the original Orange Free State government. Now the Orange Free State can be said to be just a name, and it still belongs to the Orange people. Everything else has been taken over by the Transvaal people."
(End of this chapter)
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