Chapter 352 Sea Coachman in the East Indian Ocean
Although the enemy is only aboriginal, Samuel still takes a serious attitude, knows his enemy and himself, and can fight through a hundred battles. Samuel knows his troops well, but for the enemy We don’t know the whole picture yet, so it’s important to start with intelligence to understand your opponent.
But before preparing to inquire about the intelligence of the Abyssinian Empire, Samuel now has two things to do.
One is to solve the problem of housing the troops. This is not difficult. Although the city of Assab is small, it can still accommodate one of its divisions if it is squeezed. The first batch of the Kingdom of Italy Expeditionary Force The First Division only had a total of 3,000 men and was small in scale.
Using the existing infrastructure of Assab Port and building some houses can still solve the housing problem. Where can we find the building materials?
Samuel looked at the barren desert outside the city. Forget about wood, there were not even a few grass roots to be seen. Most of the buildings in Assab City were mud houses. In the tropical desert climate, there was no need to worry about rain.
If the strategic value next to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait is excluded, the Port of Assab has only a little commercial value. It is one of the commercial strongholds of the Arabs, but the Arab merchants only use this place as a resting place. The place and the number of people are a big problem.
Fortunately, this place is close to the Ethiopian Plateau. Although the rainwater from the Ethiopian Plateau cannot flow here, it can replenish the groundwater here along the terrain, so the groundwater resources are quite abundant, but more wells need to be drilled.
"Mr. Sarpeto, how do you and your company employees usually solve the supply problem?" Samuel asked. This is the second problem Samuel has to face.
The population of Eritrea is mainly concentrated in the mountains and hilly areas in the north, where some rainwater can be blocked due to the terrain. Even some areas have the same rainfall as the Ethiopian plateau, but the coastal plain is drier than Somalia.
The eastern lowlands of southern Eritrea, where Assab Port is located, are even more severely affected. Opposite is the arid Arabian Peninsula. The dry monsoons of the Arabian Desert are blown by the northeast trade winds, and the southwest monsoons (the southeast trade wind belt) blowing from the Indian Ocean. After crossing the equator, most of the sailors were intercepted by the uplifted Ethiopian Plateau.
Coupled with the terrain of the lowlands in the east of Assab, even the remaining water vapor cannot be retained, making the surroundings of Assab a truly barren land.
Barren is an exaggerated adjective, but it is an objective description of Assab and its surroundings. There are savannahs in the Somali region, the driest part of the East African Kingdom, and two large rivers pass through it. Assab The region has nothing.
Sapeto: “The most important thing about Assab Port is its strategic position. It is one of the excellent ports near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, but it is far behind compared with the Somali region in the south. The climate in the south is It’s much better than here, especially the British protectorate in Somaliland, which can still produce some food. Assab can only obtain food through external trade.”
Samu. Er: "Then you usually buy food?"
Sarpeto: "Yes, especially when we first arrived, our company always purchased food from the Yemeni Arab caravans. The Suez Canal was opened not long ago. Although there were European ships passing through, most of them would not stop here. Instead, we headed directly towards the Far East."
Samuel: "If we rely on buying food, the burden will be heavy. The Kingdom asked me to think of ways to raise food locally to reduce the pressure on local supply. , I haven’t even touched the edge of the Abyssinian Empire, how to solve this problem.”
Zarpeto: “General Samuel, I have a solution, but it only treats the symptoms, not the root cause. It can greatly alleviate the army's food supply problem in the early stage."
Samuel quickly asked: "What is the solution?"
Sapeto: "You can get it from the Sultanate of Zanzibar. Order food.”
Samuel: "The Sultanate of Zanzibar?" Sarpeto: "Yes, you may not have heard of this country in Europe, but it is still relatively well-known in the Indian Ocean. It was originally the former overlord of the Indian Ocean after the split of the Oman Empire. , an independent country formed on the island of Zanzibar east of Tanganyika in East Africa. , when its national power was at its strongest, it radiated throughout the western Indian Ocean. Later, its continental territory was occupied by the German Kingdom. "
Samuel: "What does this have to do with us! The purpose is to spend less or even no money to solve the army's food supply problem , if you still have to spend money to buy it, it is better to spend the money locally and let the farmers of the kingdom have more income."
Sapeto: "Your Excellency, this is a question of money, the kingdom. The current economy is in dire straits, and what is most lacking is money and food, and Zanzibar businessmen can provide the entire The cheapest food in the Indian Ocean, and they can deliver it to your door, which can save a lot of money."
Samuel: "You just said that the Sultanate of Zanzibar is just an island country! The island nation supplies the cheapest food along the entire Indian Ocean coast? ”
It’s not that Samuel doubted it. He had seen the map of Africa. He knew that the Sultanate of Zanzibar was not big. Now it has lost part of the continent. Unless Zanzibar masters the technology of growing food in the sea and has its own food. Planting bases can reduce food prices to cheaper than in India, but this is obviously impossible.
The price of food in India is not cheap. Although India is the place with the best conditions for growing food along the Indian Ocean, there are too many Indians and the British masters cannot starve them to death directly. In addition, the level of productivity in this era is low. At most, India's grain output is supplied to the British mainland and then exported in small quantities. In order to make money, the British are more keen on planting cash crops in India, such as tea, jute, cotton, etc.
During the rule of the East India Company, tea plantations occupied a large amount of cultivated land. After the American Civil War, the British promoted cotton plantations on a large scale in India to replace the American southern plantations. Therefore, in the past two years, India's food output has declined further.
Zapeto: "Your Majesty General, don't get me wrong. Although the Sultanate of Zanzibar is small in area and has a small food output, the Sultanate of Zanzibar is backed by Germans. German farmers are farming in the East African Kingdom. Good guy, in the past two years, the Sultanate of Zanzibar has been the most active in the grain trade along the Indian Ocean. They mainly rely on ships to transport food. Africa's grain is sold to various parts of the Indian Ocean coast, especially rice in North Africa and the Middle East. Most of it is supplied by the commercial fleet of the Sultanate of Zanzibar. Starting last year, our company also began to purchase grain from merchants in the Sultanate of Zanzibar. "
Samuel: "Rice, but I'm afraid the soldiers won't adapt."
Sarpeto: "Cheap is the truth. Just like my company, in order to make a profit, it is natural to purchase cheap food. Maybe the initial employees are not used to it. Just eat more. Besides, General, you only need to solve the initial food supply problem." Yes, the Abyssinian Empire can produce wheat. Once the kingdom occupies the Abyssinian Empire, it can produce wheat on a large scale. "
Samuel: "What's the price?"
Sapeto: "The price of food plus shipping is cheaper than shipping it from the mainland, and the kingdom is now There is also a shortage of food in the country, and a lot of food from the Hechingen Food Company is also imported. In fact, most of the food from the Hechingen Food Company is also imported from East Africa. Not Germany and Hungary as they advertised. Only I know about this trick. I went back to Italy the year before last and discovered that a ship of a Hechingen Ocean Trading Company entered the Mediterranean Sea from the Suez Canal and landed directly in La La, Italy. Spezia unloading, that cheap flour that is very popular in Italy, but packaged The place of origin is written as Hungary.”
Samuel: “Then we can buy flour directly from the East African kingdom! After all, pasta and pizza are more in line with our taste.”
Sapeto: "Your Excellency General, the price of rice in East Africa is 20% cheaper than flour."
Samuel was silent for a moment and said: "Then let's choose rice! The soldiers will get used to it, but why don't we buy it directly from the East African Kingdom, instead of paying an extra fee from the Zanzibar Sultanate?"
< br>Sapeto: "The reason is very simple. There are not enough ships in East Africa. They can only focus on taking care of the European market, while the Sultanate of Zanzibar gathers There are a large number of Arab merchants. I estimate that the Arab ships registered in the Sultanate of Zanzibar now account for more than 50% of the entire Western Indian Ocean. They all carry out trade under the banner of the Sultanate of Zanzibar. Zanzibar merchants are now called Sea Coachman of the Western Indian Ocean"
(End of this chapter)