Chapter 482: The Boer Republic

  Chapter 471 The Boer Republic

South Africa, all the way across the British army finally encountered trouble. Deep into the Transvaal region, was prepared for the Austrian noble private army head-on attack, the vanguard forces suffered heavy losses.

This is also the British arrogance, successive victories, so that they became proud, ignoring the early victory was carried out with the help of the Beltway Party, otherwise it would not be divided and ventured.

In fact, news was provided to the British after the outbreak of the war, only that it did not attract the attention of the British.

The district caravan is nothing, who runs a business in Africa in this day and age does not have a few lives in his hands? Noble private army in the concept of the British, is the merchant escort.

After hearing that there are only two to three thousand people, also divided into a dozen or so, it is completely relieved. In their opinion, when it comes to this kind of thing, of course, the first time to run away.

This news was not reported at all, although the Boers defected to the past, but their status is not high, they are not qualified to contact the British high level.

Governor Delphi to the end, did not receive the relevant information. Of course received may not pay attention, after all, the number of both sides of the gap is too large, not a threat.

Until the front line suffered a defeat, Governor Delphi only received information. By this time, it was no longer two or three thousand people.

Under the threat of the British, Viscount Fikeni smoothly took over the military and political power of the Boer Republic, and by the way, sent the top of the Boer Republic to the rear of the Central and South African region (Zimbabwe region).

After taking over the power, the first time is naturally to expand the army. The Boer Republic is also a universal army, although in recent years the training has been abandoned, the framework of the militia system is still there.

Waiting for the British to fight all the way over, the number of troops in the hands of Viscount Fikeni has exceeded 15,000, although the difference in numbers between the two sides is still huge, but the contrast in strength has changed.

Fighting the front five thousand British troops, it became the first victims of the information mismatch. These losses Delphi Governor did not care, the deaths were mostly indigenous cannon fodder.

What makes his headache is how to fight the next battle, with the participation of the Austrian nobility, he has to face the enemy is no longer a turd Boer Republic, but the European army power Austria.

The spirited Major General Friedman, now also lowered his head. Don’t look at his men there are still nearly 26,000 troops, in fact, white soldiers are less than eight thousand, the rest are indigenous troops.

The training of these indigenous troops was initially intended to be used to cause trouble for the Austrians, in retaliation for their expulsion of the indigenous tribes into South Africa.

To realize that the South African colony has not been able to expand for so many years, in addition to the London government did not pay enough attention to the investment is too little, the main thing is that the Austrians expelled over the indigenous tribes.

The number of white people in Cape Town in the mid-19th century exceeded 100,000, however, by now, the number of white people in Cape Town is still so much, almost no growth.

In addition to the opening of the Suez Canal, which weakened the economic value of the port of the Cape of Good Hope, it was the loss brought about by the influx of indigenous tribes back then.

In order to stabilize the situation, the colonial government of Cape Town has always teased the indigenous tribes into civil war, and occasionally took it upon itself to suppress the larger tribes, taking years to resolve the problem.

This is also the reason why the South African colonizers hated Austria, when a big event directly made them lose a lot of money, and many colonial teams were forced to shift the direction of development.

The island of Madagascar, which fell into the hands of the British against this background, is considered one of the few achievements of the British in the African continent in recent years.

But this result has nothing to do with the Governor of Cape Town, the British also set up a colonial government on the island of Madagascar, which was not incorporated into the Cape Town colony.

Governor Delphi said with a grim face, “Major General, I would like to know if you will fight? If you won’t fight, I can apply to the London government to replace your command with someone capable.”

No wonder he was angry, this battle was fought in a confused manner. Without even knowing the enemy’s situation, he divided his troops and launched an attack. It’s not even if you win, but you lose on the side.

Major General Friedman didn’t say anything, saying anything after losing a battle was wrong. Purely from the point of view of military deployment, his performance was also moderate.

The front line suffered a defeat, not just a problem of command, but also more of the troops fighting strength is not good.

After all, in the hands of Viscount Fikeni, most of the new recruits are in the friction period. If the British army combat strength is strong enough, it may still be a great victory.

Venting a depressed mood, Governor Delphi tone eased: “Major General Friedman, how are you going to fight next?

The enemy is not the natives encountered in the past, this war will be very difficult to fight. It can be said to be the hardest battle since the opening of the Cape Town colony, but you must achieve victory!”

Governor Delphi did want to replace someone, he had long looked at Major General Friedman with displeasure, usually bullish, but when it came to the battlefield, he was actually a silver spearhead.

However, the replacement must also find a replacement, the colonial troops were not strong, and the colonial officers were mostly defective.

That kind of ability is super strong, because of unruly and unruly offend people, and then exiled to the colonies of the officer, only exists in the novel.

In reality, if you really offend someone, you will be directly driven back home, how can you leave you a chance to rise again.

Although the conditions in the colonies are not good, they are a good place to earn military honors. There are a lot of noble children who come here specifically for gold plating, so how could they give the opportunity to their enemies?

In the original time and space, Napoleon IV and the British royal marriage, before the marriage to the colonies to gild the process of bad luck received a box lunch.

Capable of commanding tens of thousands of troops are high-level talent, in Britain that is also a treasure, mixed no matter how bad, it is not possible to condescend to Cape Town as a colonial service.

South Africa, as it is now, has no dazzling aura. Before the discovery of the gold mine, this is an ordinary colony.

Major-General Friedman, though somewhat obnoxious, was passable in ability, at least a little better than the others. There was no way Governor Delphi would replace him with a boozehound up there, that would be punking himself.

Regardless of the ability to send someone from home, time alone was running out. This war is all about time, if it drags on for three to five months, it will end up being a war of attrition.

By then both sides will have to fight manpower, financial resources, fight financial resources, perhaps the British do not wimp, fight manpower that would be difficult to say.

As long as the death of tens of thousands of people, he has no way to explain to the domestic public. To know their enemy is the “Boer Republic”, attacking a small country, pay that kind of price, do not want to go to the court martial are difficult.

Major General Friedman hurriedly replied: “Your Excellency, the situation is beyond expectation, I didn’t expect the Austrians would be so shameless, pretending to be the army of the Boer Republic to fight with us.

No one knows how much they have invested, the enemy in front of us alone is 30,000, it’s very difficult for us to defeat them. If the enemy continues to increase their troops, I’m afraid the end will be unpredictable.”

This answer of shirking responsibility made Governor Delphi very dissatisfied. However, he didn’t say anything, everyone was in the same boat now.

It was always right to exaggerate the enemy’s strength first, if we won the battle everyone’s war credit would be more prominent, if we lost it was because the enemy was too strong, a non-war crime.

Governor Delphi said without changing his color: “That’s right, the Austrians are too shameless, actually pretending to be the Boer Republican army to participate in the war, we must crush their conspiracy.

Cage, immediately send a telegram to London for help, explaining the difficulties we are facing, and have the Foreign Office protest to Austria.”

Governor Delphi wouldn’t mind doubling the number of enemy troops if he wasn’t afraid that the figures were too large and would easily trigger suspicion from the outside world.

As for having the Foreign Ministry protest, it was all a joke. There was no way that the Vienna government would recognize such a thing; the Boer governments had fallen into Austrian hands, and they had taken the initiative to assume full responsibility.

In any case, as long as the Boer republics balked at the idea that it was their own army, the lawsuit would not go on.

Unless a big fish is caught, which is nil. None of the Austrian aristocrats who commanded this war were active officers, nor were they much known internationally.

To the very end, the Vienna government was not involved in this war. As for the fact that there were businessmen providing weapons and ammunition, they were all bought by the Boer Republic.

Austria is a member of the free trade world, selling arms is too normal.

Even the origin of the Boer’s military expenses are clear, the Vienna government has not sponsored a penny, the Boer Republic with land mortgage from the Imperial Bank loan 300 million guilders.

Do not talk about risk, this is usury, the monthly interest rate alone is eighteen percent. Since the interest rate is so high, the risk naturally cannot be small.

All the aftermath of the work, Franz has handled properly, not afraid of someone can pick out the problem.

It is inevitable that the Boer Republic will not be able to pay back the money after the war, without this reason, how can Austria annex the Boer Republic after the war?

As an emperor, Franz did not want a republic in the empire. If he could not pay back the money and took away the collateral, it was only right that the Boer Republic should be dissolved.

It can be said that this Anglo-Boer war, to Austria provides an excellent excuse, even the cost of buying local power elite have dropped dramatically.

If Franz was shameless, he could have chosen to renege on his debt. Since there was no fulfillment of the agreement, the conditions of the original promise were naturally nullified.

It can be said that Viscount Fikeni’s packing of the top brass of the Boer Republic to the rear was simply a stroke of genius, completely cutting off their bargaining chips.

Of course, those who chose to cooperate with Austria in the beginning were certainly not so tragic. Franz, who has always been atmospheric, would not do that skinless thing.

Unlucky is not negotiated conditions, now do not have to negotiate. There are three ways left: either follow Austria; either go to the British; or hurry to run away.

Anyway, Viscount Fikeni is not forced, not to take out a number of interest groups, how to place the meritocracy?

This war is not fought for nothing, the more you invest now, the more you gain after the war. Without enough benefits, there aren’t so many nobles who bring their own dry food over.

The land in South Africa is still very good, not only is the land fertile, but the climate is very livable, and this group of plantation owners have long wanted to come over to circle the land.

Fortunately, they do not know that there are gold mines under the ground, or else they would not only come to so many nearby nobles, it is estimated that the local nobles will not be able to resist participation.

Not to mention these people, think about the horrible gold reserves of the Rand gold mine, even Franz is moved, but he can still hold back.

More money is just a number, the gold mine is too inviting and easy to pull hatred. Even if it is a gold mine, it has to be hidden behind the scenes.

Acquisition of gold is a good business, the money earned may not be less than the mine owners, but also will not attract attention.

On the surface, the profit of acquiring gold doesn’t seem to be very big, just a little bit lower than the market price.

In fact, to the financial market to go rolling round, and then processed into works of art, into the gold consumer market, that profit is completely different.

What’s more, the bank acquisition of gold capital cost is negligible, gold is also a kind of currency, put there as a reserve than any currency is reliable.

Even if there is a run on the crisis, no one will refuse to accept gold payments.

(End of chapter)