Chapter 752: Soft Persimmon
East Africa's actions in the west were a rebound, but at this time Earl Roberts, who was far away in Mozambique, had not yet received the news.
The command between the coalition forces was divided into three parts in East Africa. When the Boer Republic was defeated, the results of the battle could be sent to Mozambique in time through the communication line in Cape Town.
Angola simply does not have this opportunity. After all, without East Africa's consent, the land telegraph line cannot be built at all. The coast has to pass through the Skeleton Coast of Southwest Africa, and laying such a telegraph line is doomed to lose money, so no capital is willing to invest here.
The reason why Mozambique was special was entirely due to the needs of the British army before the war. There was only a small port city of New Hamburg between the Natal Colony and Mozambique, and the distance was not long.
Therefore, the inconsistency in intelligence further gave East Africa an advantage in the war.
…
First town city.
The intelligence sent back from various fronts made Ernst feel much happier. Except for the territory of the Boer Republic, where the Boers were still resisting stubbornly, the counterattack in the other two key places could be said to be going very smoothly.
In comparison, the Portuguese performed the "worst", which is very consistent with Ernst's impression of the Portuguese army. Portugal's combat effectiveness, like its national destiny, has been in a declining state, so you never know the bottom line of the Portuguese.
At this time, von der Leyen suggested to the crown prince: "The current situation shows that the situation has developed in a positive direction, so we should participate more actively and resolve the negative impact of the war on East Africa as soon as possible."
The war did bring certain troubles to East Africa. To sum up, there are both advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, East Africa's military industry was integrated and further optimized during the war. At the same time, the railway, communication and logistics systems were tested. At the same time, the war also brought about an increase in demand. The production capacity of factories in East Africa has more than doubled compared to before the war.
Of course, before the war broke out, factories in East Africa had already begun to increase their production capacity. After all, this war was the result of a two-way effort by East Africa and the Allied Forces, and everyone was prepared before the war.
However, this demand during the war is only short-term. The main difficulty of East Africa's economy is still foreign economic exchanges. Today, merchant ships flying the East African flag no longer exist, and they can only travel in the ocean under the flags of various countries.
At the same time, war is uncertain. Now that the strength of the coalition forces has been confirmed, it is not appropriate to delay any further. The longer the time, the more likely it is that something unexpected will happen.
At the same time, people will die on the battlefield. Although the population in East Africa is not as scarce as it was before, it is still a valuable asset, especially the young and strong labor force to join the army, which is relatively scarce.
Siwei Te also thought so. He said: "The current situation on the battlefield is developing in our favor, especially after the reserve training is completed. We can now supplement or even expand the front-line troops and win the war with superior forces."
Of course, Siweite's superior military strength does not only refer to quantity, but also quality. Since the war began, East Africa has been dealing with the three countries with only half the strength of the coalition forces, while the reserve forces are receiving military training in the rear.
Now East Africa is stronger than the coalition forces not only in quality, but also in quantity. Although it may not be able to mobilize as many troops as the coalition forces, the gap between the two sides should not be too big. At this time, investing another 200,000 troops is still within the acceptable range for East Africa.
Ernst asked, "Does the General Staff have a detailed plan?"
Siwei Te introduced: "We plan to deploy 50,000 troops on the Western Front. The Portuguese are the weakest among the three countries, so it is easiest to get rid of the Portuguese troops in Angola first. As long as we get rid of the Portuguese troops in Angola, we can also threaten the British supply lines in the South Atlantic."
"At the same time, the Nile Military Region will also cooperate with the Western Military Region's operations. At present, Belgium is unlikely to participate in the South African battlefield. In this case, we can let the Nile Military Region's troops in the northwest go south along the Ubangi River to support Kinshasa and pose a threat to northeastern Angola."
"In this way, we can launch a large-scale battle of 100,000 people in the west, annihilate the Portuguese colony of Angola in one fell swoop, and resolve the military pressure in the western region. The new recruits on the battlefield can be trained by the Portuguese and then deployed to the main battlefield in the east. Combined with our current geographical advantages, we can further reduce the enemy's living space."
The East African Defense Force plans to pick on the weakest ones first. Based on the war data currently available to the Defense Force, the Portuguese have lived up to expectations and become the "weakest link" in the coalition forces.
As for the Boers, although they were defeated by East Africa on the front line, their fighting will and resistance ability were beyond the expectations of East Africa.
During the civil war, the various facilities built for the war between the Transvaal and the Orange began to play a role, effectively delaying the advance of the East African army and causing considerable trouble to East Africa.
As a result, the main force of the National Defense Force in the south is unable to escape and is forced to play a game of "mopping up and counter-mopping up" with the Transvaal people.
In order to ensure that no accidents occurred, Ernst did not order the Wehrmacht to reduce its manpower to support the eastern battlefield. Instead, he ordered the troops to advance steadily and eliminate the Boer resistance step by step.
Of course, this is related to East Africa’s national policy of wanting to annex the Boer Republic. East Africa’s demand is “land but not people”. After all, the Boers and East Africa are now at loggerheads with each other.
Not to mention the Transvaal people, even the Orange people have a strong resistance mentality, so in order to keep this land in East Africa, all hidden dangers must be eliminated.
War is a very effective means. The Boers went north to escape the British. Now in East Africa they are just doing what the British did.
This requires enormous energy and time, and if there are too few people, there is a possibility of failure. The fact that East Africa used 50,000 main forces against the Boer Republic, which had a population of only more than 300,000, was already a recognition of the strength of this small country.
"In the Boer Republic, according to your request, we mainly use consumption as the main method. We implement a dispersed approach for the Boers. We have relocated more than 4,000 people from the Boer Republic, plus more than 20,000 prisoners, which is almost one-fortieth of the Boer population. There are also a large number of Boers who have fled to Cape Town to avoid the war."
"The soil on which the enemy relies to carry out guerrilla tactics is also being rapidly compressed. At this rate, the Boers may only exist in Britain in the future."
The main purpose of targeting the Boers was to deal with the Transvaal guerrillas. This time, the Transvaal people were not unprepared like last time. After being armed on a large scale by the British, they had sufficient war experience over the years and were familiar with the terrain.
The soldiers on the East African frontlines suffered terribly, and the only effective way East Africa could deal with them was to physically exterminate the local population.
Of course, East Africa did not go as far as to resort to genocide. On the one hand, the Boer population was plundered, and on the other hand, the Boer villages were destroyed, forcing them to migrate.
With this two-pronged approach, the Boer guerrillas lost the ground for their resistance. Of course, if the British could provide effective support, the Boers' predicament should be resolved.
But unfortunately, the UK has now fallen into the situation of minding its own business and not caring about other people's problems.
(End of this chapter)
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