Chapter 658 Policy
“The Danube Province has always been in an awkward position, neither above nor below. In fact, the climate conditions of the Danube Province are among the best among the entire East African provinces.”
“There is the main channel of the Congo River, as well as large tributaries of the Congo River such as the Kuango River. The terrain is flat and there are luxuriant aquatic plants and forests. The ancient Kingdom of Congo has been active in this area.”
“Actually, the Portuguese also knew this, but they took action too late, so that the entire basin east of the Kuango River was occupied by us.”
“The biggest problem in the Danube Province now is that it is in the west, and it is also the border, so the number of immigrants allocated is very small, which is better than in Southwest Africa. However, our development level in the Danube Province is not high.”
Ernst talked a lot one after another, focusing on the importance of the Danube Province. However, the importance of the Danube Province also hides high risks. If the risks are not eliminated, there will be no way to develop the Danube Province in East Africa.
"The Portuguese in the Angola colony are definitely not busy in the past few years, so it will not be easy for our army to enter the Angola colony next time. The same is probably true for Mozambique. After all, there are British people supervising them. Mozambique's The Portuguese don’t dare to be perfunctory.”
Sweet said: "Your Highness, the situation in Mozambique is indeed what you said. The British actually used us as an objective threat to forcibly tie the Portuguese colony of Mozambique onto their tanks. According to the intelligence personnel, With the news, the British essentially gained military command of the Portuguese colony of Mozambique.”
“Moreover, most of the weapons currently used by Mozambique’s armed forces are provided by the United Kingdom. The performance of the Portuguese in terms of weapons and equipment is not as good as ours in East Africa.”
“As for Angola, unlike Mozambique, Angola is more independent than Mozambique and is basically not under the control of the British. It uses local civilian forces and the Portuguese army to jointly build Angola’s military defense system.”
“However, the results of our analysis show that these Angolan civil organizations may be more difficult to deal with than the Portuguese regular army.”
“First of all, in terms of weapons and equipment, these large planters and mine owners are richer than the last. They invest heavily in weapons and equipment, and they are even better than the Portuguese local troops.”
“Secondly, these local forces that have taken root in Angola are even more hostile to East Africa than Portugal itself, because our last action in South Angola also made our next attempt to win over these civil forces in vain.”
Throughout each time, East Africa's external expansion meant that the original local forces were crushed into pieces. The most important thing was that land ownership was deprived of East Africa, and the original local forces were purged and left home.
So the attitude of the large planters and mine owners in South Angola towards East Africa can be said to be that they wanted to eat its meat raw, and the Portuguese in the north were also frightened by East Africa's policies.
Of course, Ernst would not dare to use people who have come over like this. They are not in business. These guys choose to surrender temporarily for the sake of profit, and they will rebel at any time for the sake of profit in the future.
And in accordance with the commonality of regions with obvious ethnic differences, they are naturally hostile to the policies of the central government. Even if they are beneficial to them, they may not appreciate them and will even fabricate conspiracy theories. This is most obvious in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Don’t look at Hungary’s constant claims that Austria is squeezing itself. In fact, Hungary has been a relatively fast-developing region in Europe over the years. The speed of railway and industrial development is not slower than that of other regions, and it can also enjoy the benefits of great powers abroad. However, Hungary did not appreciate the treatment, and Austria could only be dumb and unable to express its sufferings.
Looking at it this way, Habsburg is really a model of benevolence, and Ernst is obviously not suitable for taking this path, so his purpose is to force against these foreigners who want to rely on the "East African soil".
Moreover, this group of people in Angola have no escape route and must fight to the end with East Africa. The last time they took over South Angola proved this.
Like this kind of colony with a suzerain state, they are different from the Africans. The Africans have no retreat, and the Portuguese in Angola can still return to the Portuguese mainland.
"Finally, there is the Portuguese local army, whose combat effectiveness is very doubtful. The political situation in Portugal is chaotic, between capitalists and aristocrats, local forces and the central government, people and the government, etc. It can be said that various contradictions are superimposed, which has also kept the Portuguese economy in a state of chaos. On the verge of collapse, it is impossible for the Portuguese local army to form combat effectiveness."
The last point that Sweet said actually means that Portugal's military expenditure is too low. After all, as a former great power, it cannot produce even a single ironclad ship and has to buy it from the United Kingdom. This is in sharp contrast to the Portuguese navy a hundred years ago. The navy is still like this Shabby, not to mention the Army.
And military expenditures are already low and management is poor, so you can imagine the current situation of the Portuguese army.
Of course, Ernst did not doubt the fighting ability of the Portuguese. If the fighting ability was not good, Spain would have swallowed Portugal long ago.
This has to mention the Portuguese aristocratic group. According to the European aristocratic tradition, their private armed forces are likely to be the mainstay of Portugal's military power.
Ernst said: "So next time a war breaks out, we must provide adequate support for the troops in terms of firepower. These local forces don't care about others, but they will definitely build their own sphere of influence into an impregnable one, so the army may encounter There are a large number of private fortifications, as well as passes built by the Portuguese army in dangerous places."
"Also, try not to let this group of people fight head-on with the army. Even if they are like turtles and rely on bunkers and cities for defense, we are not afraid. Only guerrilla tactics are the most troublesome, so the troops should be stable Advance and uproot local forces without leaving any future troubles.”
The enemy cannot hold out, which is really a headache for East Africa, but East Africa has time and energy to spend with the enemy, and coupled with the heavy fire support of artillery, it can eat up the enemy bit by bit, and the arrogance of the enemy behind will also be worn away.
Ernst's biggest worry was that the war would start too fast, but these local forces would not accept it. After all, the war would start too fast, and the East African government would not have time to send officials to take over the grassroots, control and operate the local areas, which may cause turmoil in the rear.
The most important thing is to prevent the enemies in these areas from having the idea of guerrilla warfare. If they engage in guerrilla tactics, it will cause headaches for the armies of all countries in the world. They must work slowly and carefully, and the initiative has always been in East Africa, so East Africa has always been on the Diaoyutai.
(End of this chapter)