Chapter 797
Port Edward.
"The mountain roads in South Africa are really difficult to travel on, and it seems that the British troops in Cape Town are not completely powerless." Merk said to his subordinates.
With the military advance in East Africa, the Southern Military Region has also penetrated into the hinterland east of Cape Town, but is affected by the Drakensberg Mountains. In addition to the rugged terrain, river swamps greatly slowed down the advance of East Africa.
Moreover, the British army can effectively use the advantage of the narrow and long terrain to hinder the offensive of the East African Defense Force. Port Edward is about 150 kilometers away from Durban in a straight line.
It was originally the territory of Tongrigawaland, which was also one of the regimes established by the Boers. It was stuck between the Natal Colony and the Cape Colony and was occupied by the British army in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
So this place was originally very desolate. Port Edward was established not long ago. It was just a small town on the seaside with a small population.
"Commander, military advancement still depends on the inland areas. The western troops should have crossed the Orange River by now. After all, the inland plateau area is convenient for marching and the population is relatively sparse. The eastern part is the Cape Town with a relatively dense population, so the British army is stronger."
South Africa's population is distributed in clusters, with Cape Town and its surrounding areas in the south, and then East London and Port Elizabeth in the east, both of which are core areas of the United Kingdom.
Further north is the Natal Colony and several former Boer republics, which are densely populated, while the plateau area between the western Boer republics and Cape Town is a population vacuum area.
The same was true between the Port of Durban and East London in the eastern Natal colony, except that there were more British people here than in the west, and the main force of the British army from the former Natal colony moved south, so the Merk unit encountered greater resistance.
Merk said: "Port Edward was built by the British only a few years ago. The core area of East Grigwaland was originally in Kokstad, not the coastal area, so Port Edward is now the last obstacle for us to reach East London."
"But we still have more than 300 kilometers to go. It's too slow to continue to fight the enemy. Send a message to the rear to see if the navy can help our army break through the enemy's blockade faster."
One of the main reasons why the British army was able to withdraw safely from Durban was that they used the sea route to achieve an orderly retreat.
Previously, the East African Navy mainly cooperated with the Northern East African forces to attack the coast of Mozambique. Now the war in Mozambique has ended.
So Merk planned to use the power of the navy to achieve his goal. Of course, if he used merchant ships from the New Hamburg Port, he could also achieve his goal, but the risk was greater.
The Cape Town Navy is still strong. Although it cannot go north to actively attack the East African Navy, it is still useful in preventing the East African Navy from moving south within the region.
Therefore, if Merkel wants to go by sea, he must have naval escort. As for the British troops on land, they can just leave a small part of the troops to fight with them.
Because the population of the Cape Colony was mainly concentrated around the city, as long as East London and Port Elizabeth were captured, the British troops in the east would basically have no ability to resist.
East London and Port Elizabeth are both the rear areas of the British army. By cutting off the connection between these two places, East Africa can strangle the British army in terms of logistics alone, thus achieving the goal of forcing the enemy to surrender without a fight.
…
While Merk's troops were moving south.
The East African troops that had just participated in the Mozambique War also began to move south to reinforce the southern battlefield in accordance with the instructions of the General Staff.
The New Hamburg (Port Richard) to Otto (Pretoria) section of the Central Railway has also become busy since East Africa recaptured the eastern part of the Southern Frontier Province.
The Central Railway that was destroyed by the British was also thoroughly repaired, but the army's move south was also very difficult. In addition to maintaining stability in Mozambique, a large number of personnel needed to be left behind to maintain order, and there were also hundreds of thousands of prisoners to guard.
The current plan in East Africa is to house these prisoners in Mozambique’s port areas, such as Maputo, and then transport supplies and rations by land and sea.
Of course, feeding hundreds of thousands of mouths is not the East African style. After identifying valuable captives, a large number of blacks were directly assigned to East Africa as "slaves" to maintain the plantations in Mozambique.
The people who give East Africa the most headaches are actually the Indians. First of all, Indians are not indigenous people. After all, India is such a large British colony located in the Indian Ocean. However, Indians do not belong to the British.
What East Africa fears most now is that the British government will simply abandon these Indians. You must know that up to now in the South African War, East Africa has captured more than 170,000 Indian soldiers.
If we learn from the Boers, it will be enough to establish a country in South Africa, so dealing with the Indians will be a big trouble.
Of course, this trouble was directed at Ernst. In the eyes of East African officials, it was a small problem. Ernst had a bad impression of Indians, but in the eyes of East African officials, there was no difference between Indians and blacks. Anyway, they had no human rights, so it didn't matter if they were directly used as slaves.
However, if so many Indians are allowed to take root in East Africa, it will definitely be a source of trouble in the future. After all, judging from the situation in Africa in the past, as long as a place is colonized by Britain, it is easy for Indian clusters to form. And with the future reproduction speed of Indians and the distance between India and East Africa, it is easy for Indians to bring their families to East Africa to make a living.
So in order to deal with the possibility of the emergence of these "inferior" immigrants, Ernst's idea was to pack up the Indian prisoners in East Africa and send them back to India. Even if the British were really shameless and kept the Indians in East Africa after the war, the worst that could happen was that East Africa would have to pay more for the shipping fee.
Of course, Ernst did not have the intention of discriminating against Indians by doing this. In fact, there were quite a few Indian businessmen engaged in commercial trade in the coastal areas of East Africa.
But these people are definitely different from the captured Indian soldiers. Indian soldiers are basically at the bottom of society. Apart from their brute force, they are of no use at all. Although they are strong, they have many bad habits. As people from tropical countries, Indians and Southeast Asian natives are very lazy. Ernst is most afraid that these Indians will lead the East Africans into a ditch.
The "hard work" of the people has always been something Ernst cares about. Don't think this is an exaggeration, because East Africa is a suitable place to lie down, and the black people here have been lying down for thousands of years.
Like the homeless people in the United States and Russia in previous lives, some may be threatened by the severe cold and food shortage and have to engage in some labor.
To be honest, a place like East Africa, where "the four seasons are like spring and the resources are abundant", would be a paradise for homeless people if the infrastructure was completed.
Therefore, in order to avoid this situation, we can only start from the social atmosphere, and the East African governments should guide the East African citizens to "involve internally".
The "lazy" state of India has very negative educational significance. Of course, in the 19th century, this was the case in many places, and Indians were not an exception.
However, the population of East Africa is mainly composed of German immigrants and immigrants from the Far East Empire. It can be said without hesitation that the residents of these two regions are the "most hardworking" people in the world today.
Of course, this was also the case with Britain and France before the 19th century. However, with the advancement of the Industrial Revolution, Britain had passed the era of treating humans like animals (in fact, worse than animals), while the French liked to enjoy themselves, so in the 19th century, the two countries faced competition from Germany and the gap was quickly narrowed.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
