Chapter 561 The Navy Arrives
The press conference was very unpleasant. Of course, this unpleasantness was only for Japan. The reporters were very excited about digging up a lot of news materials, especially since this diplomatic incident was an international one. event.
The Japanese originally wanted to plot against East Africa and gain international sympathy, but they suddenly got themselves involved. However, Tsarist Russia is a country that is naturally at odds with Japan, especially in Northeast Asia where the two countries still have disputes. under the premise.
This made one of Japan's two strategies against East Africa fail. It could only rely on its own strength to confront East Africa and force East Africa out of the Southern Ryukyu Islands. Now the Japanese even regret that they were with the Far Eastern Empire on the Ryukyu Islands. dispute, the Southern Ryukyu Islands might as well be in the hands of the Far Eastern Empire to reassure Japan!
Zhuhai Commercial District.
"There will be warships docking here in the past few days. Our port should be used as a pre-war command post to fully cooperate with the country in attacking the Japanese invaders in the eastern seas and safeguard the national interests of East Africa."
Because the development of the Southern Ryukyu Islands is backward, Due to its sparse population and backward infrastructure, it does not have the ability to support large-scale wars.
So the Zhuhai Trade Zone, which is backed by the Far East Empire, has become a temporary command base for the East African Navy. Here the East African Navy can fully mobilize the resources that can be utilized in the Far East. Compared with the Huaihai Economic Zone, the strength of the Zhuhai Trade Zone is inferior A lot, but this location is closest to the Southern Ryukyu Islands and can support the frontline battlefield at any time.
And the areas around the Zhuhai Commercial District are areas with developed commerce, where most material problems can be solved as long as you have money.
Of course, another reason is that local telegraphs can contact the East African mainland at any time, which plays a significant role in East Africa's ability to grasp the war situation.
3pm.
The East African small fleet officially arrived in Zhuhai, with a total of three ironclads, two wooden sailing steamships, five armored gunboats, and other twelve ships carrying supplies.
The gunboat is called a mosquito ship in the current Beiyang Navy. It is the main combat ship of the Beiyang Navy. In the East African Navy, it can only serve as an auxiliary combat ship. It is said to be a mosquito ship, but in fact its displacement can reach thousands. About a ton, much smaller than an armored ship, it is called a small ironclad ship.
So this kind of small ironclad ship is definitely not as powerful as a real ironclad ship, but it is still a level stronger than a traditional wooden sail warship.
The strength of such a fleet in the Far East cannot be underestimated. Except for the Far East and Japan, other countries are not even qualified to compare, and this fleet is about a quarter of the strength of the East African Navy. This That is the strength of the top ten navies in the world.
"General Glaish! Welcome to the Zhuhai Trade Zone. In accordance with local requirements, we will fully cooperate with the navy in the next period of time."
"How is the waters of the Southern Ryukyu Islands now? Is the project construction going smoothly?" Grace asked directly.
"General, the current progress of the construction project in the Southern Ryukyu Islands is still relatively slow. It can even be said that it has just started, and the situation is not very good!"
Glaish asked: "Why? What happened to you? What difficulties have you encountered?”
“General, it’s like this. The area of the Southern Ryukyu Islands is not small, and the distance between the main islands in the archipelago is quite large, so it is difficult to communicate with each other. , which also means that the construction project is twice as difficult. If there is only one island, we can use equipment and fortifications together. However, the decentralized nature of the Southern Ryukyu Islands means that we must set up the same configuration on each island. ”
Glaish was right after thinking about it carefully. East Africa's demand for the Southern Ryukyu Islands is to occupy all of them. No island is left to other forces. Each of these isolated islands requires a set of facilities. The person in charge of Zhuhai Commercial Zone continued: "The shortage of labor is also a big factor, and it can even be said to be the main factor. Although the Southern Ryukyu Islands are also lacking in other things, we can ship there from the mainland and the Far East, but the population is No, we count more than 17,300 people in the entire Southern Ryukyu Islands. These people , even the number of black people in any project in Africa is not comparable, and this does not include the old, weak, women, children and malnourished people.” The islanders in the Pacific are much richer. On the one hand, they have a small population, and on the other hand, they are rich in products. They live by hunting and have plenty of meat.
Like Japan, even having enough rice is a luxury. Many people have no choice but to join the army in order to eat polished rice. However, the people of the Southern Ryukyu Islands are poorer than Japan. In this way, every year they have to pay tribute to the Ryukyu Kingdom. Paying heavy taxes, a large part of which was handed over to Japan, so the islanders of the Southern Ryukyu Islands hate Japan quite much. This is also an important reason why Japan annexed the Ryukyu Kingdom but did not take over the Southern Ryukyu Islands.
In comparison, the Far Eastern Empire seems amiable. After all, as the nominal suzerainty, the Far Eastern Empire pays more attention to face than Japan. Japan even exploits extremely poor places like the Southern Ryukyu Islands, so naturally it cannot be tolerated. People's hearts.
East Africa naturally has other plans to rule Ryukyu, which is to immigrate all the local people to East Africa and completely turn the Southern Ryukyu Islands into a solid military fortress in the Pacific.
As for farming in the Southern Ryukyu Islands, if it is to provide convenience for the troops such as vegetables and fruits, it is okay to say that food crops are not going to be planted anyway. They will all be turned into vegetable fields, orchards and small pastures to solve the problem of local problems. To meet the diverse needs of the garrison, food can be brought directly from the mainland.
East Africa needs immigrants, and every island country in the Pacific is not the poorest, only poorer. Keeping them there, not to mention occupying resources, will make it difficult to create value. Of course, Nauru Island This kind of island where God rewards food is an exception.
Islands generally have little economic value, which is why colonial countries avoid many islands in the Pacific. In the previous life, Germany occupied a bunch of islands in the Pacific as colonies, which was basically no different from "poverty alleviation."
For example, the German colony in Papua New Guinea is still using the airports, farms, roads and other infrastructure left by Germany in the last century into the 21st century.
The mineral resources of Nauru Island itself are also the result of hundreds of millions of years of accumulation by those birds. In the industrial era, they could not withstand more than ten years of development, and the resources were increasingly depleted.
"General Glaish, in addition to these objective reasons, the factor that hinders us from developing the Southern Ryukyu Islands is the sabotage of the Japanese."
"Well! The Japanese navy was dispatched?"
“That’s not true, but Japan dispatched many fishing boats to attack our transport ships in the waters of the Southern Ryukyu Islands. For more than ten days before you came, they had been blocking our ships from landing in the relevant waters. Fortunately, we had left enough materials and supplies on the island. If you had come a month later, the garrison on the island would only be They can compromise and withdraw."
"How many ships do they have?"
"About a hundred ships pass through the Miyako Strait from the Northern Ryukyu Islands every day, and then compete with our ships in the name of fishing. Although we have more big ships, if there are too many ants, they can kill an elephant. They can't afford to lose those Small sampans, but our fleet cannot stay on the sea.”
"Well, don't worry. When my troops get familiar with the environment, we will cut off the Miyako Strait. If the Japanese persist in their evil intentions, then we will counterattack Japanese merchant ships in the Far East waters. Let's see who can't hold on first! ”
(End of this chapter)