African Entrepreneurship Record

While East Africa was reinforcing its eastern defenses, Mozambique didn’t remain idle. Unlike East Africa’s strategy which focused on defense, Mozambique preferred direct offense.

The value between the two is completely different. For East Africa, the Matebel Province is an industrial base, whereas Mozambique is just a colony. Thus, East Africa’s territory is more valuable, and ensuring industry is not threatened by war requires meticulous defense.

Mozambique’s main economic structure is plantations and mines, both of which have high flexibility. Even if they are destroyed by war, it’s not a big deal, as investments are very low; simply continuously exploit the native population to maintain it, providing Mozambique with high adaptability.

Therefore, Mozambique’s strategic objective is to conduct ”destructive” offensives on East African soil, aiming to destroy East Africa’s war potential, weaken its national power, and set the stage for the Three Kingdoms to divide East African territory.

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Maputo City.

At this time, Maputo could be described as a gathering of shadows, with representatives of the Portuguese, British, and Transvaal congregating in this ancient African city.

”Why not establish the command center in Bloemfontein? Though Maputo’s location is good, there’s a separation by East Africa and Cape Town from our Boer Republic, making communication impossible!” Davidson asked, pointing at the map.

Bugival replied, ”Though you Boers are surrounded on three sides by East Africa, the pressure you face cannot compare to that of Mozambique. East Africa’s elite forces are surely deployed north of Mozambique, while the southern part of East Africa is merely a fringe area.”

”Even the central Natal colony cannot offer mutual support as it is divided by New Hamburg Port City. Therefore, connecting the Three Kingdoms’ communication requires us to seize New Hamburg Port City at all costs.”

”The Natal colony has fifty thousand British troops and eighty thousand Indian auxiliary forces. We have stationed forty thousand in Mozambique, combined with Mozambique’s thirty thousand Portuguese troops and seventy thousand black people, totaling one hundred and forty thousand. With the Boer Republic temporarily expanding its army to thirty thousand, the total number of troops will directly reach three hundred thousand.”

This doesn’t even account for the garrisons in Cape Town and Angola, so currently, the entire Three Kingdoms Alliance has manpower close to five hundred thousand.

”Our force, even in Europe, can only be compared with a few major powers, so this war must decisively defeat East Africa and contribute to peace and stability in Africa,” Count Roberts said spiritedly.

Although theoretically commanding an army of more than five hundred thousand and fighting a large country with a population over millions, few in British history have achieved such feats, akin to a reenactment of the ”Crimean War.”

However, in the Crimean War, Britain was not the main force; France was, during the reign of Napoleon III, the height of France’s foreign wars.

Thus, Count Roberts can only enjoy this glory alone. If he successfully commands this war against East Africa, he will be a noted figure in the history of the British Empire.

Davidson and Bugival dared not contradict the British Count, as Count Roberts was previously Britain’s highest military commander in India, coming from a British military family, his father a British general, and himself reaching the role of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces in India.

In earlier years, he participated in suppressing the Indian Rebellion, expedition against the Abysinnia Empire, Second Afghan War (instigated by East Africa), and later historical events saw him command the Second Boer War, also as the last commander-in-chief in British history. In summary, his background and achievements make him one of Britain’s top military talents.

Roberts continued, ”Of course, our enemy, East Africa, possesses formidable strength. They maintain a standing army of tens of thousands while completely equipping with German arms. This has been a key factor in East Africa’s sustained advantage in African wars. They also have a powerful regional navy, thus confronting a large nation like East Africa, we must go all out.”

Even though emphasizing East Africa’s threat, Count Roberts’ attitude towards East Africa remains unchanged—never considering East Africa to have a significant advantage over the alliance.

Firstly, in terms of manpower, the alliance currently holds absolute superiority, and with British armed support, the Three Kingdoms Alliance forces have a mixed array, but it matches East Africa’s level.

Secondly, command authority: both Transvaal and Portugal follow the orders of the British commander, with Transvaal being Britain’s subordinate and Portugal extremely loyal to Britain, mirrored in Europe, ensuring clear command and bolstering Count Roberts’ confidence.

Finally, in naval aspect, Britain can mobilize both Indian and Cape Town’s Royal Navy against East Africa. East Africa’s navy was supported by Austria-Hungary, a ”weak naval” country, thus Britain’s navy is confident to defeat them.

”Our main disadvantage is logistics. Once the war starts, we must swiftly and precisely destroy East Africa’s main forces, avoiding regional attrition combat, and ensure ample material reserves, which is why I’ve placed the main battlefield on the East Coast, allowing maritime reception of supplies from India and our homeland.”

East Africa’s advantage lies in terrestrial transport, with railway construction enabling nationwide resource mobilization, something Britain and Portugal at home in Europe cannot achieve, so they heavily depend on maritime transport.

This implies that the first battle between East Africa and the Three Kingdoms Alliance will likely be naval, but such matters fall outside Count Roberts’ control, nor is there any need to inform the two allies.

Because Portuguese naval strength is virtually zero, with only one imported ironclad ship from Britain, which is unlikely to leave home, and as for Transvaal’s Boer Republic, completely an inland country, unable to build a navy, Far East Empire’s Mongolia at least has large lakes, while Boer Republic has only Orange River tributaries to use.

Thus, naval warfare will have to be the primary responsibility of the British Royal Navy, with the two allies lacking even the qualification to provide token support, but land warfare will require them to contribute heavily.

Especially Mozambique, given its prominent position, which is why Count Roberts placed the Three Kingdoms Alliance headquarters in Maputo, personally choosing it as the main battlefield.

The establishment of the alliance’s headquarters signifies the formal formation of the South African version of the Three Kingdoms Alliance, led by the British, with the primary objective of dismantling East Africa as a common threat.

The alliance with Britain as the global Overlord, aided by Portugal’s ”pseudo-great-power” colonies, Transvaal’s military strength can also be formidable on the African continent.

If perceived in previous life, such an alliance’s military prowess would be enough to clear any other colonial forces on the African continent.

In reality, almost similarly, Britain and Portugal effectively divided the whole of Southern Africa and East Africa after World War I, alongside British holdings in Egypt (including North and South Sudan) and Somalia, achieving peak British African colonial territory.