Chapter 698 Bait
Ernst's good mood did not last long because of the birth of the first oil well, because a piece of "weird" news came from the south in East Africa, which made the East African government and military a little confused. At this time, the British and Boer What kind of "mono moth" do people have?
"According to our news in February 1877, the Orange Free State regained its independence. The Orange Free State was officially renamed the Boer Republic, and a new coalition government came into power. However, this coalition government was the original Provisional Transvaal Republic. The government has changed its shell and continues to control the politics of the entire Orange Free State."
"Will the British just watch the Transvaal re-establish the Boer Republic?" Ernst asked.
"There was indeed no reaction from the British side. We even found that they withdrew part of their troops to Cape Town, which shows that the British acquiesced to the independence of the Orange Free State."
"This is a conspiracy. Even something as bad as colonial independence can be accepted by the UK. This only shows that the British have great intentions. Apart from us, I can't think of a reason for the UK to do this."
"That's right. If colonial independence is not well controlled, it is likely to cause a chain reaction. After all, the spread of this kind of news will have certain negative effects on any country."
Ernst said: "The Boer Republic was reorganized, which shows that the Orange Free State did regain its independence from the Cape Colony this time, but we got this news through our spies in Bloemfontein, which shows that this Word didn't spread.
So the British and the Transvaal must have reached some kind of deal. Do you think that the Orange Free State's separation from the Cape Colony is just a bait, and the fish they want to catch is our East Africa. "
After all, East Africa itself has to admit that it has "indecent" thoughts towards the Orange Free State. Naturally, the Transvaal and the British also know this.
However, for so many years in East Africa, the Chen Bing Border Force has not taken action against the Orange Free State.
Especially during the last civil war in the Orange Free State, it can be said that the entire Orange Free State was at its most vulnerable. East Africa did not take the opportunity to send troops to capture the Orange Free State.
This is the speculation of the East African high-level people about the psychology of the British. If you think about it from another perspective, East Africans will think the same way.
"So the British just played a double act with the Transvaal people, and the independence was fake, attracting us to initiate a war of aggression against the Orange people, thereby dragging us into the quagmire of war?" someone asked.
Then what makes this "hungry wolf" in East Africa keep his face calm despite the fat in front of him?
Of course it was the Cape Colony standing behind the Orange Free State, and behind the Cape Colony was the British Empire.
If East Africa annexes the Orange Free State, it is almost the same as going to war against the British Empire, so the British must also doubt whether East Africa is intimidated by its "mother country" and does not dare to act rashly.
"This possibility cannot be ruled out. After all, it is indeed in the interest of the British to let the Orange Free State, which is today's Boer Republic, contain us and consume our strength, but they are not afraid that we will turn the Boer Republic into the original state. Will the Transvaal Republic be wiped out like that?"
"The Boer Republic is just a chess piece. It has a certain value for us and the United Kingdom, but it is not indispensable. If I were a British person, I would also want to sacrifice the Boer Republic to test the strength of East Africa, even if I lose Okay, we can pass the blame to the Boers without causing embarrassment." Count Arman put forward a more constructive suggestion.
"In recent years, the military strength of the Transvaal people has definitely increased. Although they have been disarming in the past year, the weapons have not been recovered. Instead, they continue to be held by civilian armed forces, while still retaining more than 10,000 people. regular military armed force, so there is only one reason for their disarmament, and that is financial problems. According to the size of the Orange Free State, it is a bit excessive to maintain so many modern troops!" "We all know, Delan The name of the Transvaal armed force is the Transvaal Restoration Army. It can be seen from this name that the Transvaal people have never given up their goal of regaining their lost land and retaking Hechingen from our East African hands. Province and part of the Southern Frontier Province, rebuilding the Transvaal Republic, even including the current Orange Free State, and reshaping a great Boer Republic is the ultimate goal."
"So this time, the independence of the Boer Republic means that war is one step closer to us!"
Someone asked Arman: "Your Excellency, are you a little alarmist? In the past, the Transvaal people had their backs to the British, and they did not dare to go to war with us. But now they are out of British control. Unless their brains are broken, they will They will 'declare war' on us!"
Count Arman said: "Don't believe what you see with your eyes and what you hear with your ears, but look through the appearances to see the essence. It is just a statement of independence. Can the Transvaal people really get rid of the shackles of the British?" ."
"In the past, the Orange Free State may have been able to obtain more security guarantees as a British colony. After all, few countries dared to tease the British Empire. However, this also limited the UK's own ability to act, because we in East Africa are not Weak countries like Myanmar and Afghanistan."
Contrary to what happened in East Africa are the weak countries in Central Asia and Southeast Asia. They are close to Britain's most powerful Indian colony, including the "hegemon" in East Asia, the Far Eastern Empire. They are all targets of bullying.
East Africa is special. The British colony in East Africa is the Cape Town Colony. However, the Cape Town Colony cannot form a crushing deterrent to surrounding forces like India in any aspect.
If Egypt in the north can act as a pawn. There may be some hope, but unfortunately Egypt is only a semi-colony, and the Khedive dynasty still has some autonomy.
Of course, the main reason is that imperialist hawks like the Khedive are the most bully and afraid of force. Otherwise, they would not betray Egypt's national interests and let Britain exploit them.
Egypt cannot defeat Britain and France, and it also has a fear of East Africa in the south, or in other words, Egypt has a fear of "white Europeans".
As to the question of whether East Africa has strength, East Africa's territory and army are the most convincing. It is not that East Africa has never fought against the Sudanese in the past. The Sudanese local army in Egypt was basically crushed.
Therefore, it is basically impossible for the British to mobilize Egypt to fight in East Africa. Even if the Egyptians can be mobilized, the East African garrison in Jezira can intercept them in the Sahara Desert.
Count Arman continued: "The establishment of the Boer Republic may be the first chess piece played by the British against us. Even if this chess piece is eaten by us, it will not be able to implicate the British Cape Town. On the contrary, this chess piece will not be implicated in the British Cape Town." If we are really held back, I'm afraid Britain and Portugal will also end up at the same time."
"Count Arman, your analysis is very reasonable. Now we should think about whether we want to eat the Boer Republic's bait. If we want to eat it, how to eat it. Finally, what benefits can we get from it? What benefits can we get from it?" What could possibly be lost?" Ernst asked them.
(End of this chapter)