Chapter 396 Speculation
Aware of this, Johnson no longer dwells on the small matter of East Africa's invasion of Grigualand. Grigualand is just a small place with a poor economy. He was originally captured by Cape Town. When the colonial government was sent here, it felt like an exile, and now it just happened to be back in Cape Town.
"Your Excellency Merk, let this matter be put on hold for now. I must return to Cape Town to report the situation. How to deal with the issue of Grigualand's ownership in the end depends on the Cape Town government. How do big people make decisions, so I won’t argue with you here anymore,” Johnson said to Merk.
Merkel: "Of course, nothing is absolute. Sometimes a misunderstanding only requires both parties to sit down and have a frank talk, and maybe the crisis can be resolved invisible."< br>
"Yes, there is nothing we can't talk about. It will be beneficial to both of us, so I hope you can make it easier and not embarrass us on the way home." Johnson responded.
"This is natural." Merk said to his adjutant: "Assign a team of troops to Mr. Johnson and escort them to the other side of the Orange River."
"Yes, Commander."
Then Merk said to Johnson: "By the way, Mr. Johnson, I want to explain in advance that our people can only escort you and your team to the Orange River. You can't go beyond the Orange River. It will no longer be managed by us.”
"Haha, thank you for the reminder, General, but the other side of the Orange River is definitely a safer place. I feel confident about my own people."
Johnson vaccinated Merkel in advance , all this is for the sake of his own safety. Of course, Merk will not do anything to Johnson. After all, he is an official of the British Empire. If something happens to him on East African soil, it will really be a provocation to the face of the British Empire.
Johnson was eager to return to Cape Town to report the news. In fact, the Cape Colony knew the situation better than Johnson. Even a blind man could hear the large-scale military operations launched by the East African Kingdom in South Africa.
The Portuguese are even more nervous than the British. Among the white forces, Portugal’s Mozambique colony knows the most about the East African Kingdom.
The sudden appearance of the army led by Felix in the Kingdom of Swaziland shocked the colony of Mozambique.
As the capital of the Mozambique colony, Maputo is right next to the Kingdom of Swaziland. Naturally, any troubles in the Kingdom of Swaziland cannot be hidden from the Mozambique colony.
The colonial government of Mozambique also knew that East Africa had been causing trouble in the interior, but after all, there were several indigenous countries in between, so it only understood the general situation, such as the destruction of the Kingdom of Matabele by East Africa. .
However, the Kingdom of Matabele is still some distance away from the Mozambique colony, especially the several countries formed after the split of the Kingdom of Monomotapa, which are separated between East Africa and Mozambique and act as a buffer zone, which gives Mozambique a sense of security.
However, after the East African Kingdom occupied Swaziland, it meant that Mozambique and East Africa were directly bordered in the south, and the East African Kingdom formed a three-sided encirclement of the Mozambique colony.
However, the Governor of Mozambique, who had some knowledge of the military strength of East Africa during this period, already knew that the military strength of the East African Kingdom was not comparable to that of Mozambique, but even Portugal itself might not be able to do much against the Germans, so he chose to lie down. , as long as the East African Kingdom does not attack Mozambique, then he will pretend not to see it.
The military strength of East Africa has always been a mystery to Mozambique, but it is very strong. Mozambique can roughly infer the war strength of the East African Kingdom through the establishment of military strongholds on the borders of the two sides. Northern East Africa has deployed approximately several thousand to tens of thousands of troops on the border of East Africa. This is only part of the troops deployed by the East African Kingdom to guard against Mozambique, so it is completely unknown how many troops there are in East Africa. ……
Cape Town.
“According to the feedback from our businessmen back in the Transvaal, the number of troops dispatched by the East African Kingdom this time should be in the tens of thousands. Not only that, there is also news from the Natal Colony that new forces are coming. They were not the Boers who fought against the Zulu Kingdom. Their uniforms looked very similar to the armies of the German regional countries, and their scale should not be small. If Not surprisingly, the enemy the Zulu faced was also the army of the East African Kingdom. If calculated together, the number of troops dispatched by the East African Kingdom this time is likely to be around 20,000 to 30,000. "
Cape Town Colony Governor Henry. After hearing the report from his men, Buckley said solemnly: "As far as I know, this East African kingdom should be in the Portuguese colony of Mozambique. The Tanganyika region in the north covers the Sultanate of Zanzibar and part of the interior, but it seems that we know too little about the East African kingdom."
Henry Buckley came to one. In front of a very abstract map of Africa, he said: "Look, here is Tanganyika, and here is Mozambique. This time the army of the East African Kingdom came from the interior. Those who have reached South Africa, that is to say, they have bypassed Mozambique and at least occupied a lot of land in the hinterland of Africa, so that they can reach South Africa directly from East Africa on land. ”
A panoramic view of Africa in the hands of the Cape Colony. The picture is very rough, with only the general outline of Africa and detailed information on the coastal areas, and a large blank area in the middle.
Originally, according to the normal historical trajectory, many European explorers should have gone deep into the interior of Africa in this era, exploring African mountains and rivers to fill the empty parts in the middle. However, this process was interrupted by the East African Kingdom.
The Kingdom of East Africa has banned European explorers from entering since the colonial period. As for those who are not afraid of death, East Africa will satisfy them and let them disappear passively. After all, Africa is a dangerous place. The little accident was not unexpected at all.
So the map in Henry Buckley's hand basically couldn't provide him with any useful information. He could only speculate that the East African Kingdom occupied a lot of land next to the Mozambique colony.
Although Henry Buckley did not know how much land East Africa occupied and how they conquered it, he did know how long Mozambique was.
The coastline of Mozambique is about 2,600 kilometers, and the distance it would take for East Africa to bypass Mozambique and reach South Africa should be similar to this amount.
However, Henry Buckley preferred that the East African Kingdom expanded from East Africa to South Africa with the help of waterways.
“It is very likely that there is a north-south river between East Africa and South Africa, which allows the Germans to use ships to achieve rapid military mobilization and material replenishment. Otherwise, I don’t believe they can quickly move from the East African coast to Expand to South Africa”
Henry Buckley didn’t say it all. Yes, there is indeed a river in East Africa that satisfies Henry Buckley's guess, and that is the Luangwa River. However, the Luangwa River is only a tributary of the Zambezi River. It can at most reach the Zambezi River, but not directly to South Africa. And although East Africa also Shipping is carried out on the Luangwa River, but the routes on the Luangwa River are not continuous, but exist independently in sections.
(End of this chapter)