Chapter 396 Speculation
Realizing this, Johnson no longer dwelled on the trivial matter of East Africa's invasion of Grigualand. Grigualand was just a small place with a poor economy. When he was sent here by the Cape Town colonial government, he felt like Exiled, now just back in Cape Town.
"Your Excellency Merk, let's put this matter on hold for now. I have to go back to Cape Town to report the situation. How to deal with the issue of Grigualand's ownership in the end depends on how the big figures in the Cape Town government make a decision. So I won’t have any useless arguments with you here,” Johnson said to Merk.
Merck: "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 virtually."
"Yes, there is nothing we can't talk about. It will be beneficial to both of us, so I hope you can do it conveniently and not embarrass us on the way back." Johnson responded.
"This is natural." Merk said to his adjutant: "Assign a team of men to Mr. Johnson and **** 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 **** you and your team to the Orange River. They will not return after crossing the Orange River." We managed it.”
“Hehe, thank you for the reminder, General, but the other side of the Orange River is definitely a safer place, so I feel confident about my own people.”
Johnson vaccinated Merk in advance. All this was for his own safety. Of course, Merk would not do anything to Johnson. After all, he was an official of the British Empire. If something happened to him on East African soil, it would be very serious. It is really a provocation to the face of the British Empire, which is at its peak.
Johnson was eager to return to Cape Town to spread 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.
Even more nervous than the British are the Portuguese. Among the white forces, Portugal’s Mozambique colony knows the East African Kingdom best.
The sudden appearance of troops 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 making 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 Matabele Kingdom 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, acting as a buffer zone, which gives Mozambique a sense of security.
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 did not attack. Mozambique, then just pretend you didn’t 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 by the East African Kingdom on the border of both sides. Only northern East Africa is on the border of East Africa. About a few thousand to tens of thousands of troops have been deployed, and 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 who came back from the Transvaal, the number of troops dispatched by the East African Kingdom this time should be in the tens of thousands. Not only that, but the Natal Colony also sent news that new forces are fighting against the Zulu Kingdom. They are not the Boers before. Their uniforms look very similar to the armies of German countries, and their scale should be quite large. If nothing else happens, the enemy the Zulu people face is also the army of the East African Kingdom. If calculated together, this time the East African Kingdom will The number of troops dispatched is likely to be around 20,000 to 30,000."
Henry Buckley, the governor of the Cape Colony, said solemnly after hearing the report from his subordinates: "As far as I know, this East African kingdom should be in the Tanganyika region in the north of the Portuguese colony of Mozambique, and its territory covers the Sudan of Zanzibar. country and parts of the interior, but it seems that we know too little about the East African kingdom."
Henry Buckley walked up to a very abstract map of Africa and said: "Look, here is Tanganyika, and here is Mozambique. This time the army of the East African Kingdom arrived in South Africa from the interior, that is to say. They have bypassed Mozambique and at least occupied a lot of land in the heart of Africa so that they can go directly from East Africa to South Africa on land."
The panorama of Africa in the hands of the Cape Colony was very crude, with only the general outline of Africa and details of the coastal areas, and a large blank area in the middle.
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 between. 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, and a small accident is not surprising at all.
Hence, the map in Henry Buckley's hand basically failed to provide him with any useful information. He could only speculate that the East African Kingdom occupied a lot of land adjacent 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.
Mozambique’s coastline 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 is more inclined to believe 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 do not believe that they can quickly expand from the East African coast to South Africa.”
What Henry Buckley said is not entirely wrong. There is indeed a river in East Africa that meets Henry Buckley's guess, and that is the Luangwa River. However, the Luangwa River is only a tributary of the Zambezi River, and at most it reaches the Zambezi River. , but cannot reach South Africa directly, and although East Africa also engages in shipping on the Luangwa River, the routes on the Luangwa River are not continuous, but exist independently in sections.
(End of this chapter)