Chapter 497 Preparing for Mediation
Just as Ernst thought, the Portuguese army was dragged in three directions, and East Africa unbridledly engulfed Mozambique's territory in the north.
At this time, Portugal felt bad. This time, its troops were not small, and East Africa could still use its hands to deal with it from different directions. Britain and France also thought so, so how many troops did East Africa have?
Due to the outbreak of the East-Portuguese War, East Africa has successively expanded its army to more than 300,000, of which more than 70,000 are black.
Because East Africa deliberately let the black legions die, the black legions were not very careful in fighting, and those with the same mentality were the blacks in the opposite Mozambican army. In this way, the two **** armies were evenly matched.
Clément was quite irritable: "These idiots can't defeat East Africa with weapons that are more advanced than East Africa?"
He also saw that black people were paddling. East Africa did not care about black people paddling, but Clement could not do it, because apart from the black army, Mozambique had no other force to rely on, unless Portugal mobilized troops from the mainland, but Portugal had that ability, so it would not There will be something going on in East Africa.
As Mozambique was gradually being eaten away by East Africa, the western front was not peaceful either. Like Mozambique, Angola also joined the war in East Africa.
Angola was not as lucky as Mozambique, because it encountered regular troops from East Africa, the 411th Division and the 412th Division.
So unlike the two sides on the Eastern Front who were just fighting with each other, the two East African infantry divisions on the Western Front showed the Angolan colony what modern warfare is.
Mauser rifles are more advanced than the rifles used by Britain and France to support Portugal, and artillery, machine guns, and grenades can be arranged for the Portuguese, and the two infantry divisions are squandering them.
So the Angolan army, which received support from Britain and France, was immediately stunned after entering East Africa. Is this the level that African countries should have? Don't talk about martial ethics!
"How about we contact the locals? Have they responded?" the governor of Angola said angrily.
"Your Excellency, Governor, as far as I know, the Germans are probably coming to Luanda. It's too late for us to seek help from the mainland now!"
"Asshole, only Mozambique is their biological son? Angola is obviously much more important to the mainland than Mozambique."
This is not to blame for the slow response of messages from Portugal, but rather that the west coast of Africa is too backward and still relies on ships to send letters. The east coast, because of the submarine cables laid in East Africa, can send messages directly back to Europe. Foreigners can also use this route. It is paid for use in Dar es Salaam and Mombasa, so although East Africa is at war with Mozambique, Mozambique can also use East Africa's telegraph to contact Portugal and report the war situation to Portugal at any time.
Mozambique is currently on the defensive, but most of the messages they send to the mainland are more showy and have an advantage in my taste. Maybe they have slowly regained their confidence after fighting many black legions.
The East African Black Legion and the Mozambican Army are incompatible, but the East African Black Legion's battle loss rate is higher than that of the Mozambican Army.
Angola encountered regular East African troops when they came up, so they were treated differently. The East African Army was in an uninhabited territory.
The UK and France don't know why they pay more attention to Angola than Mozambique, but one thing is certain, that is, the British must have done it on purpose.
The French may feel that they are relatively strong in West Africa, and the core of East Africa is in eastern Africa, so weakening East Africa is France's purpose. As for Southwest Africa on the west coast, it is not attractive to the French. Of course, this is what East Africa used to be. The deceptiveness of country names.
The land area of East Africa actually breaks through the geographical limitation of East Africa. South Africa, Central Africa, and Southwest Africa all have some. East Africa is not exclusive to East Africa. There are still several forces in the northeast. As for the southeast, Mozambique is the only eyesore.
In the past, Mozambique could help East Africa conceal its inland expansion, but since East Africa broke through to the west coast, the approximate size of East Africa is no longer a secret, so leaving Mozambique is of no value. However, East Africa is very insulated from Mozambique, and the British naturally know this, so they want to keep Mozambique as a fishbone stuck in the throat of East Africa.
Britain and France are interested in Mozambique. In the final analysis, it is because Mozambique has a great containment effect on East Africa, while Angola in the west cannot. The economic center of East Africa is located in the east, so Britain and France believe that Angola will not be able to occupy the land in the west of East Africa. weaken the power of East Africa.
Hence, East Africa is not polite to Angola at all, and the differential treatment is obvious. If the governor of Angola knew that he was targeted for this reason, he would probably be angry to death.
Just when the Governor of Angola was depressed, he suddenly heard gunshots coming from outside the city. He hurriedly asked: "What's going on?"
"Report to the Governor, the Germans are coming, what should we do now?"
"Secure Luanda first, don't let the Germans enter the city, prepare ships, let's go north!"
With the cooperation of two army divisions in East Africa, Luanda, the capital of Angola, was captured on the same day. In fact, Luanda, as the political center of Angola, should have good defense. However, as a coastal fortress, Luanda made a fatal mistake, that is, for a long time they The enemies are all from the Atlantic, so artillery and other artillery are concentrated on the western coast, but the east of the city lacks defensive means. After all, the era of inland natives holding spears and bows and arrows has passed. Now the eastern part of Angola is German, not primitive.
The occupation of Luanda meant that the Angolan colony was basically abandoned, but the governor of Angola had fled to Cabinda by boat to continue the resistance.
The loss of the colony of Angola was a major blow to Portugal, but the situation in Mozambique was slightly better.
After East Africa occupied northern Mozambique, the Portuguese were flanked by the East African army between Lake Malawi and the Tete region.
However, Mozambique had already expected this, because they voluntarily gave up the northern area. Although Mozambique is smaller than East Africa, it still has more than 600,000 square kilometers, while Portugal itself is only about 90,000 square kilometers.
So Mozambique is also sparsely populated, with fewer white people, and the undeveloped northern area is basically white land. If it hadn't been for the rise of East Africa, Mozambique wouldn't even want to send more than 300 troops to the north.
So now East Africa occupies the north. This was thought of by the Portuguese before the war started, and they didn't feel much about it.
However, the problem that worries the Mozambican government now is that the number of troops is too small. East Africa is exerting pressure on Mozambique from all directions, and even the troops in South Africa have begun to mobilize. This makes Governor Lyford very worried.
Portugal will definitely not be able to win, but the British are not worried at all. Instead, they begin to sum up the strength of East Africa.
"We still underestimate the strength of East Africa. So far, we can confirm that the number of people participating in the war in East Africa is at least 70,000. It is possible that East Africa mobilized close to 100,000 people for this war this time. This figure is higher than the last time East Africa invaded South Africa. Twice as many, and we have observed that the East African Army is not all white and yellow, there are also many blacks."
"If the Western Front is included, they will definitely have to fight Angola, and the number of troops participating in the battle in East Africa will definitely exceed 100,000."
"If we want Cape Town to expand northward, we will need at least 100,000 combat troops. This is not difficult, but we don't know which one has higher combat effectiveness, Indians or Africans."
"Let's mediate the war first! Portugal is bound to lose. We must keep Portugal's strength in Africa. If East Africa swallows up Angola and Mozambique, and then wants to make the Germans spit it out through negotiations, the price will be high. "
(End of this chapter)