Chapter 724 Temporary Adjustments
While East Africa was preparing for war, the Triple Alliance was not bad at all, but at the critical moment, Earl Roberts suddenly changed his mind.
He had a new plan. Although he accepted the command of the Allied forces in the entire South Africa region, he came relatively late after all, so he had his own views on the war.
Roberts convened an Allied military conference and put forward his decision at the meeting: "As the main battlefield, we must strengthen Mozambique's military strength, because Mozambique faces the risk of three-front war, and East Africa has local combat advantages and a small population. If we want to quickly open up the situation on the battlefield, we must distribute our forces reasonably." Earl Roberts said about his plan.
For this point, Mozambique's military commanders naturally support it with both hands. After all, Mozambique is their own territory and they are more attentive to defense.
Count Roberts is well aware of the subtle changes of the Portuguese, but as an experienced military commander, he will not disrupt his deployment because of this. It is difficult for any narrow-minded military commander to achieve success on the battlefield. victory.
From the very beginning, his goal was to defeat East Africa, not to argue with this group of people for the sake of profit, and to care about the details of gains and losses. Everything was strategically the first goal, even if this might cause some losses to the British Empire.
"Commander-in-Chief! I am opposed to concentrating military forces in Mozambique. There is no problem if it is to support part of the troops, but there is no need to do so." Wilson, the military commander of the Natal colony, said.
"Hmm? What do you think differently?" He was not surprised that the first person to speak out against him was Britain's own commander.
Wilson: "The distance between the Natal colony and Maputo is very short, and there is only one East African port city. We do not need to make large-scale military adjustments to disrupt the initial deployment. We will first unplug New Hamburg as planned. With the port city, we can open up the northward channel and connect Natal and Mozambique."
"And this has been a strategy that has been determined before. Even if Mozambique's military strength is strengthened, our next step will still be to cooperate on both sides at the same time to attack the New Hamburg Port City."
"At the same time, large-scale military mobilization will definitely attract the attention of East Africans. I think East Africa has a lot of intelligence spies in Maputo. They will definitely pass this information back to East Africa quickly. Then our strategic deployment may be exposed. !"
Roberts waited until Wilson finished speaking and did not deny his words immediately. Instead, he said: "Of course I have considered these, but I don't think New Hamburg Port City is a city that can be manipulated at will. After all, the location of New Hamburg Port is too special. The East Africans are not going to just let us take it."
"And one thing we have to understand is that the location of the Natal colony is not a threat to East Africa. If we cannot successfully capture the New Hamburg Port City, it is likely to limit the performance of the army. With the Tugela River and the The Drakensberg Mountains only require a small number of troops to hold our army in the small area of the Natal colony."
"If we can't open up the situation, won't we allow so much military power to be wasted? At that time, will we go west across the Drakensberg Mountains to support the Boer battlefield? It will take a long time, and I'm afraid it will happen several times on the battlefield. Big changes!"
This is also Earl Roberts's view of the situation in South Africa. If it were just a unilateral war between Britain and East Africa, the importance of the Natal colony would indeed be very important, but with Mozambique, this gives Earl Roberts more choices.
"As for military mobilization, this is exposed. We are only responsible for putting the main force in Mozambique, but in which direction they will take the initiative to attack is not something East Africans can predict."
The long border between Mozambique and East Africa gave Earl Roberts the confidence to take risks and mobilize military forces.
You can choose to go south to attack the New Hamburg Port City, go west to attack the central area of East Africa, or go north to threaten the core area of eastern East Africa.
"Of course, all this requires the cooperation of the Mozambique colony, His Excellency Governor Bougival." Count Roberts said looking at Bougival. Bougival expressed his position: "Commander-in-Chief, of course we in the Kingdom of Portugal will fully support your decision, but please give us your instructions on how to cooperate."
Earl Roberts was very satisfied with Bougival's attitude. Although the Portuguese were not very reliable, they only needed to be obedient in front of the British.
He said to the senior officials of the Portuguese colony of Mozambique: "The first is the issue of East African spies that Wilson mentioned before. I think we really need to take precautions in this regard, because this matter is really annoying. Our intelligence with East Africa is It is not reciprocal. It is easy for East Africa to plant spies in our territory, but we cannot use the same methods against East Africa."
"In East Africa, there are currently only a few port cities on the east coast where we can understand East Africa. However, the information we obtain is fragmented and it is difficult to analyze something truly useful. There is really no good way to solve this problem, because East Africa Too closed."
"If we can't solve this problem, then we can only interrupt the East African intelligence system in South Africa, at least on our territory, especially at the ports. When the war starts, the military can basically take over the investigation of personnel. , we must cut off the ears and eyes of East Africans."
This was Earl Roberts's intuition. He was not at ease with the Portuguese, so he had to enforce it himself. Anyway, the Portuguese businessmen doing business in East Africa were not in a position to cause trouble for him as an Englishman.
"In addition to intelligence work, there is also the issue of reception and placement of the troops. I think you should be prepared?"
Bougival frowned: "This is no problem. Before we use the black troops, we can let our people share various facilities and camps in Mozambique."
As for the black servant army, it is just a number for Portugal. Obviously the British Army is more reassuring, so it is reasonable to suffer the black people first.
"However, the environment may not be very good. After all, our conditions in Mozambique are limited, and it is very difficult to maintain an army."
Roberts is indifferent to this, because soldiers are not blessed to begin with. He was once in Abyssinia, and the conditions in Afghanistan are much more difficult than in Mozambique.
"In this way, the main force of the five brigades of British troops in the Natal colony will be mobilized to Mozambique. Such a small distance should be completed within a week, leaving only one brigade in Natal."
This is 20,000 British troops, and in Mozambique there are already more than 30,000 people brought by Roberts from India, which brings the main force of the British army in Mozambique to more than 50,000 people.
With these 50,000 British troops, Earl Roberts feels that he can be invincible. Although the British Army makes a lot of jokes, it is also one of the armies of the five top powers in the world (Britain, France, Germany, Austria, and Russia), and it is not the same as other countries. One level.
As for the United States, just like East Africa, the world does not know much about the war capabilities of the two countries. After all, the history is short and there is no effective record. Even after World War I and World War II in the previous life, the capabilities of the U.S. Army could not convince the public. On the contrary, It was the navy and air force that really established their prestige after World War II.
(End of this chapter)