Chapter 694 Lawrence of Arabia
At the busy port of Kuwait, John Connor watched the military supplies on the fleet being shipped off. He held the list in his hand and nodded from time to time. He turned around and saw the man getting off the ship. He said, "Jackson, I can understand a thousand motorcycles, three hundred trucks, guns and ammunition, but one of them is loaded with wood? Now it's a war, what are you shipping wood for?"
The manager of the shipping department of Black Gold Company scratched his head and said, "I heard from Jesla that it is prepared for potential enemies. According to the news from the Portuguese in Goa, 500,000 Indians have joined the expeditionary force. Most of them are heading to the Middle East, mainly to Egypt, but there are also nearly 100,000 British and Indian troops in Oman. The boss means that if a war breaks out, the first battle must be ruthless, using the most brutal means to shock the Indians."
"How to deter?" John Connor didn't understand and smiled bitterly, "Make coffins for the Indians? Just throw them into the sea."
"The boss is a slave owner. He is not interested in simple death. He kills people to intimidate the living. This ship of wood is used to make crosses. This is in line with the beliefs of the Eighth Army." Jackson shook his finger and said, "Once you defeat the British colonial army, you will erect a cross every ten meters for all the prisoners. Nail the prisoners from the Oman border to Kuwait City. This ship of wood may not be enough, so you better use it sparingly."
"Will this cause protests from various countries?" John Connor said with a slight change of expression, "Do we really have to do this?"
"Jesla means that the boss must do this. These Middle Eastern Christian armed forces must be made to do something that will be criticized, otherwise it will be difficult to control them. You can't do this to the British, but if you want to intimidate them, you can only use it on Arabs and Indians. And because of their identity as Christians, I guess the Allies will go easy on them." Jackson replied helplessly, "British India has too much manpower. Even if all the Christians in the Middle East listen to us, the boss will be very annoyed if Britain keeps sending troops from India. So you must inflict as much pain on the Indian Corps as possible after the conflict. Deter the Indian Corps from invading the Persian Gulf."
"By the way, we saw British troop transports in the Arabian Sea." Jackson recounted the manpower advantage of British India. "The Persian Gulf is not far from British India. How many attacks can you withstand without making the Indians feel that there is no way back?"
"But killing prisoners? You know, in today's world, if you do it on the first day, the whole world will know about it on the second day. What's more, you nailed crosses along the coastline all the way to Kuwait City. Doesn't the British Navy want to intercept you?" John Connor sighed with a wry smile.
"You can announce to the public that the Indian Legion is extremely powerful and would rather die than surrender. There are no prisoners. You are just nailing corpses to the cross. Isn't that enough?" Jackson said in a low voice. "Oh, by the way, when I took a look at the canned food ship, it was beef jerky from the Civil War. That stuff is harder than wood. Don't eat it. As for the British fleet, they can use their century-old naval tradition to see if they can use colonial frigates to do something to our battleships."
"After unloading the cargo, I'm going back. Be careful with the shells on Ship No. 9. They are mustard gas shells tested in Guantanamo Bay. The boss said it's best not to use them. Ship No. 10 has gas masks. Find a place to seal them up as well. It's best not to use them."
"Got it!" John Connor nodded. "Under the current situation, we don't know whether sea transportation will continue to be smooth. If these things were shipped to Europe, they might have been intercepted by the British fleet long ago."
"So we can't ship it to Europe!" Jackson raised his eyebrows and patted John Connor's shoulder. "Take me to relax. The Pacific Ocean is much more boring than the Atlantic Ocean. Although the wind and waves are a little smaller, it is much wider."
"I don't have time to waste time again and again in a place where hundreds of thousands of people died without even a splash." Sheffield said to Jessla, "Tell John Connor that it was my idea. If the number of Christians in the Middle East was ten times larger, I might not do it."
The slave owner remembered that Britain had deployed 1.3 million Indian soldiers to fight in World War I. Of the one million Allied troops in the Middle East, 70% were Indian troops, which meant that at least 700,000 Indian soldiers were in the Middle East. Even if most of them were in Egypt, he couldn't stand the rest.
The population of British India was also a daunting place. Sheffield had no idea how many people there were in British India, and probably even the British didn’t know, but it was certainly more than the population of Imperial Russia.
"Tell John Connor and Brown that they must be ruthless in the first battle. Kill as many as possible! As long as we win, I can talk to the British through channels. If they can't guarantee the safety of my territory, I will use the name of the Caliph to incite the peace believers in India. The Ottoman Empire doesn't have the money, so I took it." Sheffield urged Jesra to call back quickly.
"Boss, the investment is too big." Jesla looked confused. Even the bodyguard leader who never objected felt that his boss had deviated from the identity of a businessman. Is a place full of sand worth such a huge investment?
"You know what? You have to pay attention to the long-term value." Sheffield grinned, "I'm doing all this for the great United States!" And the Confederacy!
Sheffield now has to ensure that 40,000 tons of supplies are delivered to the Persian Gulf every month, but once Serbia surrenders, the areas controlled by Germany and the Ottoman Empire will all be opened up. At that time, with the influx of German weapons, he, as a slave owner, will be able to relax a lot.
As the German-Austrian coalition launched a counterattack on the Eastern Front, the Russian Empire once again took a defensive stance in the Caucasus direction. In a world war involving multiple countries, it was necessary to make good deployment of troops. Since the British took the initiative to force the Ottoman Empire to withdraw from the war, the Russian Empire could also concentrate on dealing with the German-Austrian coalition that was pressing step by step.
The Mediterranean Sea is undoubtedly the most dangerous sea on earth. Due to their long-standing alliance with the Allies, the Italian Navy and the Austro-Hungarian Navy have also organized exercises similar to the Triple Defense of the Allies. They are very familiar with each other's navies and even master some of each other's code bands. After Italy officially joined the war, the Austrian and Italian navies formulated a plan to disrupt the war.
Because the entire Mediterranean Sea was occupied by the Allied colonies, and the Suez Canal was controlled by Britain, in order to prevent the Allied Powers, which had an advantage in the colonies, from mobilizing colonial troops to return to Europe, the Austro-Italian Navy attacked the Mediterranean shipping routes.
This is not to mention Sheffield's Black Gold Company. Since Italy entered the war, no ship of Black Gold Company has entered the Mediterranean. Currently, there are two routes: one is through the Atlantic Ocean to Europe, and the other is through the Pacific Ocean to the Persian Gulf.
"The cabinet has authorized the Minister of the Navy to make a war plan against the Ottoman Empire, but in order to make the plan go more smoothly, there is another necessary step, which is to instigate the Arabs to resist the Ottoman rule. In this way, if we set out from Egypt, we can also reduce a lot of military pressure. Recently, the British and French fleets will launch an attack on the Austrian and Italian fleets in the Mediterranean. I heard that you are very familiar with the Arabs. If you can convince the Arabs to fight for independence and get rid of Ottoman oppression, it will be a great thing for the entire Allied civilized world!"
William McMahon spoke to the Arab expert Thomas Lawrence in front of him, and his tone was full of sincerity.
"I am willing to complete this mission for the empire and convince the Arabs to fight for independence." Thomas Lawrence nodded after listening, "If we can divide the relationship between the Ottomans and the Arabs, I believe the war in the Middle East will end sooner."
As early as college, Lawrence went to the Near East and walked alone to explore the remains of the Crusader castles in Palestine and Syria. After graduation, Lawrence returned to the Middle East as an archaeologist and participated in the archaeological excavation of the ruins of Kachemys, the capital of the Hittite Kingdom in the Ottoman Empire. Lawrence left Kachemys before the war. After the outbreak of the war, because Lawrence could speak Arabic and understood the customs and folkways of the Near East, he was transferred from the Geographical Intelligence Branch of the General Staff in London to the Army Intelligence Department in Cairo.
Lawrence, who was familiar with the Arab region and traditions, was finally discovered by London because of his expertise, and the task of instigating the Arabs to resist the Ottoman Empire fell on him.
The slave owner, who was still educating his son in the United States, had no idea that his enemy, Lawrence of Arabia, the Ottoman Pasha, had appeared. He was showing William Rockefeller around the steel company, and of course his daughter-in-law, Margaret Carnegie.
As the world war continued, the United States threw away its tepid and stable economy, and factories were busy everywhere, and steel giants were no exception.
"For at least the next fifty years, the steel industry will still be profitable." Sheffield put down the telescope and turned his gaze away from the chimney. He looked at the newlyweds in front of him and exclaimed, "It's great to be young. You will get married next year, and I will give you the shares of the steel company. The transfer agreement has been written, and I will take it out for signature at your wedding."
"Father!" William Rockefeller was speechless for a moment, hesitating, "I want to say something, but it seems that there is no word."
"Then don't say anything. You are just as dumb as Rockefeller Jr. Don't live like the Rockefeller family!" Sheffield paused for a moment, then smiled at Margaret Carnegie, "I didn't expect that the steel company would go through a circle and return to your family. I spent 180 million US dollars back then, which was enough for William Jr. to kill 30,000 people!"
Margaret Carnegie glanced at William Rockefeller, covered her mouth and chuckled, and assured Sheffield, "I won't let him drive himself in the future."
(End of this chapter)
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