Chapter 1276: Adding fuel to the fire, adding fuel to the fire again (3rd update, please subscribe)
Accompanied by the roar of the train and the smoke puffing out of the train, a train from Bechuanaland Special District pulled into the Pretoria Railway Station. On the platform, in addition to the black laborers and Transvaal officers unloading goods, there were also two foreign officers in green uniforms. They were Zhao Wenyu and Song Xueqian from the military attaché office of the Ming Empire's Embassy in Transvaal.
The chief officer of the Military Attaché Office personally went out to receive the goods, which shows that this shipment was of no ordinary magnitude.
After the train stopped, Zhao Wenyu took the list handed over by the conductor, checked it first, and then led his subordinates and General Smuts to inspect it together.
The list clearly lists various weapons and ammunition:
1,500 Type 2 9mm revolvers.
500 boxes of 7.5mm rifles (10,000 rifles in total)
160 Type 10 7.5mm machine guns
60 105mm mortars per year
18 Type 12 7.5cm field guns (with a full set of gun carriage saddles)
25 boxes of 9mm bullets (100,000 rounds)
5,000 boxes of 7.5mm bullets (7.5 million rounds)
…
"Major, thank you very much for delivering the weapons we need so quickly."
General Smuts nodded with satisfaction. It only took half a month from the time they submitted the order to the time the first batch of arms arrived.
It only took half a month.
"General, as promised before, the Ming Empire is your country's closest friend at all times. Just like we fully supported you in getting rid of British rule, we also support you in fighting to defend your independence now!"
Zhao Wenyu's answer made Shi Mozhi nod.
"Major, please believe us. We will never compromise like we did in 1877. We will do everything we can to defend the independence of the Republic!"
The year 1877 mentioned by Smuts refers to the year when the British went to the Transvaal Republic to lobby it to accept British rule. Due to financial difficulties and facing a large-scale conflict with the Zulu Kingdom in the east, the Transvaal Republic accepted the British request to annex.
During the three years of British rule in Transvaal, the British neither took steps to improve the living conditions of the middle and lower class Boers, nor increased investment or improved local financial, economic and political life. Instead, they allowed British businessmen to speculate in land and collect taxes previously owed to the Transvaal Republic from the Boers, causing widespread dissatisfaction among the Boers.
This eventually led to the Boer uprising at the end of 1880. Although the war lasted only three months, the Ming Empire, while remaining neutral, did not stand idly by - it provided the Boers with a large amount of weapons through merchants.
It was also from that time that a special friendship was established between Ming Dynasty and Transvaal, which also contributed to the construction of the Bechuanaland-Transvaal Railway.
"General, I believe that the Boers will never accept British slavery because of their free will!"
As Zhao Wenyu watched the Boers counting the mountains of munitions on the platform, he felt a sense of uneasiness that war was about to break out.
When will the war break out?
Shi Muzhi happened to be there, so Zhao Wenyu asked.
"What's going on with the negotiations between you and the British?"
"Negotiations... I hope everything goes well!"
Smuts stared at the munitions on the platform. These munitions would be their last bargaining chip for survival.
…
“There is no way that there will be progress in the negotiations.”
In the military attaché's office, Zhao Wenyu spoke first:
"Although we haven't obtained more intelligence these days, we can be sure that the Transvaal officials will not make any concessions on issues such as tariffs and explosives monopoly. Once they make concessions, they will lose everything!"
"That's true. Although the Rand gold mine is in Transvaal, the Boers are conservative and prefer to buy land, so they invest very little in the gold mine. Therefore, most of the investment in the Rand gold mine is from the British. Therefore, the Transvaal government can impose heavy direct taxes and profit taxes on the Rand gold mine. At present, the tax revenue from the gold mine accounts for seven-eighths of Transvaal's annual revenue. In addition, Transvaal also issues various franchises, monopolizes the explosives business, and arbitrarily increases the tariff rate on goods imported or re-exported from the Cape Colony to Transvaal. The import tax alone earns more than 1 million pounds a year. The monopoly on explosives makes the government profit 600,000 pounds a year. These 1.6 million pounds are simply the lifeblood of the country. Under such circumstances, how could they give up!"
Sun Huatao, who looked tired, emphasized again while speaking.
"In addition, the Boers are even more worried that the influx of British expatriates will seize their power with their votes in the next few years, so they introduced a discriminatory bill against foreign countries. This is obviously unacceptable to Britain, and the Boers will not give in. The positions of both sides are fundamentally inconsistent, so how can the negotiations succeed? The only question now is when the war will break out!"
"war……"
Zhao Wenyu nodded and said:
"It seems that war is inevitable."
"Indeed, according to our intelligence, the British are moving troops to Cape Town from India and the UK. Although this intelligence needs further verification, the negotiations they are conducting now should only be to buy more time for reinforcements and deployment. Once the reinforcements are in place, they will definitely declare war."
Sun Huatao thought about it and then said.
“So, I think we have to be prepared for that.”
"Um!"
Zhao Wenyu nodded:
"I understand. War is inevitable no matter what. All we need to do is to help the Boers resist the British invasion as much as possible."
At this moment, the door was pushed open, and Song Xueqian walked in and said in a low voice:
"There's a secret message from home..."
"how?"
Zhao Wenyu asked.
"The domestic judgment is that the war will probably break out between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. The domestic demand is that we must do our best to help the Boers resist the British invasion before the war breaks out. If possible, we can take all possible means."
"In other words, the country has decided to stand on the side of Transvaal?"
"Yes, it is very likely that a preliminary consensus has been reached in the country. We may not necessarily send troops to help them, but our policy of supporting them will not change. It is very likely that the country hopes to use them to weaken the power of the United Kingdom."
Zhao Wenyu frowned, thought for a while, and then said:
"Killing someone with a borrowed knife... This method is good, but the problem is that the population in Transvaal is insufficient, which makes it impossible for them to take the initiative to attack. As for setting up a wait-and-see strategy on the homeland to lure the enemy deep into our territory and then attack them... It seems that we have to find a way to help them and resist as long as possible."
(End of this chapter)
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