African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 225: Chapter 213 Negotiation

Santos made a misjudgment this time; he never expected the Germans would act on the Kazembe Kingdom so quickly, or rather, he didn’t expect the Germans to dare act on the Kazembe Kingdom.

As a result, he mistakenly took this East African action as a move by the Portuguese colony, compounded by the lack of information from his subordinates which deepened his misjudgment.

However, there was one thing he did not misjudge; the Portuguese in the Kazembe Kingdom indeed did not consider him as one of their own, after all, Santos came with a bunch of ”lost dogs” trying to gain a foothold here, which hardly made sense.

East Africa sent envoys to Kazembe to demand ”criminals” and land, the Portuguese Kazembe Chamber of Commerce indeed got the news, but they didn’t inform Santos and his group.

In fact, the Portuguese Kazembe Chamber of Commerce was also shocked by the efficiency of the East Africans, as per the routine of Portuguese colonization, they generally tried to avoid conflict with local forces.

The Portuguese liked to use both soft and hard approaches, and only adopted strong measures when deceit failed, as evidenced in their colonies of Mozambique and Angola.

The Portugal Kingdom encouraged Portuguese to marry into indigenous elites, as they believed it could strengthen Portugal’s control over the colony through indigenous elites of Portuguese blood.

When Portugal first began colonial activities in Africa, they cooperated with local chiefs, in the era when the slave trade flourished.

The chiefs were equivalent to Portugal’s ”suppliers,” and as Portugal grew larger locally, these chiefs’ tribes and kingdoms became Portugal’s vassal states, leading to the existence of Mozambique and Angola colonies.

Actually, Portuguese colonization was the most formal way of colonization, gradual and adaptive, plus a long history, it was a live colonization ”textbook.”

Later, without virtue, Britain directly proceeded to takeover from other colonizers, and now East Africans let the Portuguese experience an even simpler and cruder way of colonization, starting a fight at the slightest grievance - truly the style of Prussian barbarians, at least Brits would test the enemy’s strength first.

The deless of the natives, East Africa was already clear, fighting natives now for East Africa was just child’s play.

East Africa’s assurance came from two million immigrants. Without considering international circumstances, these two million people could conquer half of Africa.

Other colonizers would consider the cost of colonization, hence being stingy, their goal was to earn riches, not charity; long-term investments were hard to decide as having their fruit stolen meant nowhere to cry.

The British did some construction in India, but India’s population base was too large, destined for future independence.

...

”I am Yaris, the Portuguese Kazembe Chamber of Commerce President. May I know your name?”

Yaris, the Portuguese Kazembe Chamber of Commerce President, arrived late.

”Andrew.”

”Mr. Andrew! Why did you launch this war against the Kazembe Kingdom without notifying us?” President Yaris questioned.

”This is a matter between our East African government and the Kazembe Kingdom, hmph!”

Yaris was about to lose his temper but was stopped by Rols.

”Is it Mr. Yaris! Hello, I am Rols, a staff of the East African First Cavalry Regiment, you can call me Rols.

Camp Commander Andrew is not good at communicating with people, he is rather solitary. If you have any questions, just talk to me.”

Yaris carefully scrutinized this young man with an Eastern face, asking: ”Can you represent the East African government?”

Rols shook his head: ”I can’t represent the East African government, but I can represent this army before you.”

Yaris didn’t ask about the war at first, instead said: ”Mr. Rols! Are you German?”

”Of course!”

”May I know which part of Germany you are from?”

”The Prussian Prince’s Kingdom of Heixinggen.”

”Your face is quite rare in Europe, I thought you were from Italy!”

Rols didn’t respond, and Yaris turned his attention back to the subject of war.

”May I know why your side launched a war against the Kazembe Kingdom?”

Regardless of whether this matter has anything to do with the Portuguese, Yaris must first clarify the stance of the Portuguese people. The East African government is too inconsiderate. Even if you want to annex the Kazemb Kingdom, you should notify us first! Attacking the Kazemb capital without any announcement, causing Yaris to not dare to step outside in the morning.

”Mr. Yaris, we have a transaction with King Mwesili of the Northern Yake Kingdom, obtaining ownership of the Yake Kingdom. However, the Kazemb Kingdom took advantage of our takeover of the Yake Kingdom to invade our East African territory. We asked for compensation a few days ago to no avail, hence this drastic measure.”

Rols seems to be explaining, but is actually informing that East Africa has legal justification for attacking the Kazemb Kingdom, and the Kazemb Kingdom must bear the costs, just as simple as that. As for the costs, they’re not open for discussion.

”Even though the Kazemb Kingdom may have done something wrong, it’s not to the extent of using direct force! And the territory Kazemb Kingdom has invaded should be your borderland; you only need to reclaim the territory that the Kazemb Kingdom has encroached upon instead of penetrating deeply here and capturing the Kazemb Kingdom’s palace! That’s too barbaric, not the behavior of the civilized world!”

”Mr. Yaris, you are mistaken. East Africa is certainly part of the civilized world, but Kazemb does not belong to the civilized world. Thus, East Africa naturally has an obligation to help the Kazemb Kingdom enter the civilized world.”

Yaris observed Rols being resilient to both persuasion and force, as he himself had uttered such shameless words when he was young, so he decided not to engage further and straightforwardly asked, ”How does your country plan to handle the Kazemb Kingdom?”

”That’s not something a mere soldier like me can decide; it ultimately depends on the Central Government’s decision. If you want to know the answer, you can go to Dar es Salaam to ask the government officials.”

Clearly, Rols knew the answer but pretended not to. Unable to extract East Africa’s real intentions, Yaris rephrased his inquiry.

”Since your country hasn’t made a decision yet, I’ll let this go. I want to know when you plan to leave? As one of the officers in this army, surely you know the answer to this, right?”

”Without receiving orders from higher-ups, we naturally have no right to move the troops to leave.” Rols replied slickly.

At this moment, a wave of disgust washed over Rols, just revolting! However, Rols ultimately realized that East Africa harbors ill intentions toward Kazemb. Pretending to have no authority to move is false; the true intention is to linger.

But since the Portuguese Kazemb Chamber of Commerce is weak, they naturally cannot interfere with East African government decisions, so Yaris turned to inquire about East Africa’s attitude toward the Portuguese Kazemb Chamber of Commerce.

”Your chamber can rest assured; you can continue to stay here, and commerce can proceed as usual.”

Before East Africa completely controls this place, indeed, there’s nothing to be done with them; they can’t possibly resort to murder, so they maintain the status quo for now.

”By the way, is this man one of yours?” Rols pointed to Santos in the distance and asked.

Santos lay on the ground, his gaze dazed, mumbling something softly.

Yaris quickly approached to confirm: ”Santos! Santos?”

Yaris observed the mentally deranged Santos, muttering repeatedly about allied troops, and gave Santos a slap.

”Snap! Santos, wake up!”

Though Yaris usually dislikes Santos, after all, he is ”one of us,” he still wants to know what happened to transform Santos from lively just a short while ago into this state.

”What did you all do to our man?” Yaris asked the East African soldiers after seeing he couldn’t wake Santos.

”Are you certain he’s one of yours? Yesterday this guy attacked us with weapons, and after being captured alive, he became like this! Can I interpret this as your chamber orchestrated the raid?” Rols countered.

Upon hearing the East African’s absurd accusation, Yaris quickly pushed Santos aside saying, ”Misunderstanding! In fact, I don’t even know this person; he just resembles someone I knew before. After thorough confirmation, I’ve determined that it’s merely a slight resemblance and surely is not a former friend of mine!”

”That’s good, this guy launched a surprise attack on us while we were cleaning the battlefield yesterday. There were eighty-eight individuals, each armed, and several of our people were injured by them.” Rols said.

”These people must be bandits from the African savannah, having no relation to our chamber whatsoever, Mr. Rols.” Yaris insisted decisively.

”In any case, it’s a human life. We have no intention to execute him; if it’s not too troublesome for you, you can take him away.” Rols suggested.

”Mr. Rols, you’re quite the joker! Bandits bring calamity upon themselves; let him be self-sustained. But your side is indeed noble to still give leniency to such individuals.”

Seeing Santos with no utility value, Yaris smiled wryly, inwardly cursing Santos for being useless. With so many people and attempting an ambush, yet he causes only a slight loss to the Germans!

But this also proves that these Prussian brutes indeed possess real skill, and with this set of equipment, Yaris even suspects they might be Prussian regular troops.

As for taking him back, Yaris has confirmed that Santos is mad, not responding even to Yaris’s covert hint (slap), so he’s likely done for.

Furthermore, these Germans likely harbor conspiracies. Yaris maliciously speculates, after all, these Prussian brutes’ excuse for the Kazemb Kingdom war was harboring Yake Kingdom rebels and invading East African territory. If Yaris really took Santos back, wouldn’t that substantiate Santos’s actions yesterday were orchestrated by the Kazemb Chamber of Commerce?

Thinking of this, Yaris mentally cursed Santos’s entire family again. Although Yaris doesn’t harbor goodwill toward the Germans, the situation is stronger than individuals. Here they are far from Portuguese colonies, the Kazemb Chamber of Commerce is weak, so he can only vent anger on Santos.