African Entrepreneurship Records

  Chapter 275 Southern Limit

Hearing what Buckhausen said, Vincent also had to calm down. Thinking about it now, it’s really a loss. He should have included the land on the other side of the river as his own farm. Wait until the farm has enough manpower before going to develop it, but this so-called "Kingdom of East Africa" ​​took advantage of the loophole.

As for the Khoisan and other indigenous people living on the west bank of the Limpopo River, they are not counted as "people" in the Transvaal Republic. Most of the labor force in the Boer farms is composed of black slaves. Although slaves are also used in East Africa, there are no such people in East Africa. It is expressly stipulated that in the official documents of East Africa, the aborigines are laborers of "unknown nationality", and this is also the case. Most African aborigines have no concept of a country, and they only remember which tribe they once belonged to.

  Slaves exist in both East Africa and the Transvaal Republic, but there are differences in their use. In order to rule, ordinary people in East Africa still have to work, but the Boers are different. If there are slaves, who will farm the land by themselves! The same is true of Vincent's farm. The white people are in charge of the force and can suppress the slaves at any time.

   "Well, Barkhausen, since the opposite side is the Germans, they don't appear here because they want to attack our Transvaal Republic!" After calming down, Vincent became worried instead.

   "Well, boss, I'm afraid it's hard to say, but according to what they said, if we don't cross the border, that is, if we don't cross the river, they won't trouble us."

   "Is that so! That's okay." Vincent breathed a sigh of relief. Vincent was mainly afraid that these Germans, like the British, wanted to wipe out the Boers.

  Actually, the Boers at this time were very afraid of Britain, otherwise they would not have fled directly from the Cape Town colony and crossed the Orange River and the Drakens Mountains to re-establish the country.

  In 1834, the British promulgated regulations in Cape Town to abolish slavery, which had a great impact on the Boers whose main business was the slave farm economy. In order to avoid the high pressure of the British policy, the Boers left the Cape Town colony and migrated deep into the interior of South Africa.

  This is also the reason why the Boers can go deep into the interior of Africa even though they came later than the Portuguese in Mozambique. To put it bluntly, they were forced by the British.

  The British only used policy pressure to make the Boers leave the Cape Colony willingly.

Until later, in the Battle of the Bronkhorst Dry River, 77 of the 247 British troops were killed and 157 were injured, but only 2 of the Boer militiamen were killed and 4 were injured. This war directly caused the Boers to watch Knowing the reality of the British colonists, the Boers began to dare to directly confront the British, and later the Second Boer War broke out.

  To be honest, if the East African Kingdom was not named after this name, but a colony of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Boers would probably be afraid too.

In fact, the East African Kingdom is far more threatening to the Boers than the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire is a great power, it is not as good as the Hexingen royal family overseas. Even the time to establish diplomatic relations with the Far Eastern powers is almost the same as that of East Africa. At the same time, and now the Minister of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the Far East also serves as the Minister of Japan and the Minister of Siam, and their offices are located in Tokyo, Japan.

  However, the Boers didn't know this. If it wasn't for Buckhausen being a German, Vincent might have regarded the East African Army that suddenly appeared as British.

"Boss, it's better to inform the government of this matter. Don't think about those who have nothing but rely on our strength alone. I am afraid that the entire Transvaal Republic will be difficult to deal with the cavalry on the opposite side. What's more, they still say that in the There are tens of thousands of troops on the other side of the river." Barkhausen reminded.

  Backhausen's words are not an exaggeration at all. Just looking at the uniform uniforms and weapons of the Army of the East African Kingdom, it looks like a standing army, and the standing army of the Transvaal Republic is only a few thousand people.

  The population of the entire Transvaal Republic is just over 200,000, and with other Boer countries, it is only close to 400,000, and the number of troops in East Africa alone has reached 30,000.

Of course, the data cannot be counted like this. Although the Boers have a small army, ordinary people also have guns. For example, on Vincent’s farm, all male whites are issued with guns. These are the source of militia during wars. As for the combat effectiveness of the militia , the British have long given the answer.

  This is also the reason why Ernst does not plan to attack the Boers. If the Boers play guerrilla warfare with East Africa, they will not get the land in South Africa, and they may disrupt Zimbabwe and Botswana under the control of East Africa.

  The Transvaal Republic is vast and sparsely populated, and the Boers all have horses. In a short time, they may even disappear. Therefore, if you want to attack the Boers, you have to learn from Britain and send more people.

  Of course, this person refers to armed immigrants, not the simple army of the United Kingdom. Every stronghold opened up by immigrants will erode their living space, and finally solving the Boers will not be a problem.

As for the 450,000 troops sent by the British during the Second Boer War, although the number was large enough to exceed the number of the Boers, the 450,000 full-time troops played hide-and-seek with the Boers in the interior of South Africa. Well, the military expenditure alone is an astronomical figure, and the British can afford it.

"You are right. Since we can meet the army of the East African Kingdom here, there must be more in the north. Therefore, the tens of thousands of troops mentioned by the Germans in East Africa are likely to exist." Vincent analyzed. .

The Limpopo River is more than 1,000 kilometers long. Excluding the Portuguese colony, there are still nearly 600 to 700 kilometers. If the East African Kingdom deploys defenses along the Limpopo River, more people should be deployed in the north, because they are already here. Very close to the source of the Limpopo River.

   (Picture: Vincent Farm—Location of Red Font)

   Soon, Vincent reported the news of the appearance of the East African Army on the west bank of the Crocodile River (Limpopo River) to the government.

   Not only Vincent, but also other Boers whose farms are close to the Limpopo River. The strange force of the East African Kingdom entered the eyes of the Transvaal Republic for the first time.

The Transvaal Republic can only analyze the information of this new force through the few words of the reporter. The conclusion is very pessimistic. The Transvaal Republic was not interested.

  The garrison of the Limpopo River in East Africa is basically completed. The total number of troops stationed on the Limpopo River is more than 15,000, and there are more than 10,000 troops on the border of Mozambique.

  East Africa used the army to completely block any possibility of the Portuguese and Boers continuing to expand into the interior of Africa unless they declared war on the East African Kingdom.

  As for whether they will declare war on East Africa beyond their limits, it is really hard to say, especially Mozambique, which has no clear geographical boundaries with East Africa, and the possibility of conflict between the two sides in the future is very high.

  (end of this chapter)