Chapter 325 Ndebele Supporters

There are still some differences between the Zhuhai Commercial District and the previous Zhuhai Special Economic Zone. The reason for the establishment of the Zhuhai Special Economic Zone was to attract investment from businessmen from Macao, Portugal and other regions inland.

The East African government does not have this consideration. It just wants to get a share of the southern market in the Far Southeast. The reason for choosing Zhuhai is that the good location in the south has long been occupied by the British and French.

Behind Tangjiawan is Xiangshan County. The current Xiangshan County is almost the same as Zhongshan and Zhuhai in the previous life, so the potential is still believable.

This is Ernst’s own belief. In fact, his own people don’t quite understand it. Now Xiangshan is completely an inland county, and the coast is basically all tidal flats. For example, Tangjiawan, which is rented to build a port in East Africa, has only Several small fishing villages engage in local trade, and all infrastructure must be built at their own expense.

However, this is how trade was in this era. It had only been more than 20 years since the Qing government liberalized the coastal areas. The good places had already been taken over by Britain and France. Guangzhou and Shanghai were so geographically advantageous that they could pass through the Pearl River and the Yangtze River. The waterway connects the interior, which is a place that everyone is jealous of and cannot be monopolized.

Looking at Germany in its previous life, it came too late and had no choice but to choose Jiaozhou in the north as its base. In order to open up the inland, Germany had to work hard to build a railway. As a result, when it was completed, the Japanese took advantage of it before it was even warm.

…

East Africa, Matabele Plateau.

Lobengula still has some real skills. By integrating the military leaders of the Ndebele people at all levels, almost all the Ndebele people formed a rebel army of 50,000 people, and there were also members of the Shona ethnic group. An army of one hundred thousand servants.

They seized the transportation strongholds set up in the interior of East Africa. Suddenly, the material transportation channels that East Africa built during the southern expedition were blocked. If these channels cannot be opened in time, over time, the East African troops on the border will be trapped. A situation of food shortage.

Sweet personally went to South Salzburg Province and organized a counter-rebellion army of more than 5,000 people, which marched south along the Luangwa River. At the same time, he sent cavalry to inform the Matabele Plateau border troops to cooperate in suppressing the rebellion from three directions: east, west and south.

Bulawayo.

The capital of Matabele Kingdom and the headquarters of Lobengula.

The prime minister of the kingdom was reporting the uprising situation to Lobengula: "Your Majesty, our military leaders in various places have completed their tasks. A total of seventy-eight East African strongholds have been destroyed, and more than 10,000 enemies have been wiped out."

Obviously this war report is false news. If there are really more than 10,000 people in East Africa in the interior of the Matabele Plateau, then there is no chance of the Ndebele rebellion launching.

The stronghold set up by East Africa in Matabele is mainly to maintain grain transportation and commercial roads. Each location has a maximum of twenty or thirty people, and some even have only single digits.

However, Lobengula was in a good mood and did not delve too deeply into this data. It is human nature to falsely report military achievements. Anyway, the effect he wanted was achieved.

Lobengula: "Very good, order them to continue their efforts. We will drive all East Africans out of the Matabele Kingdom at once."

Lobengula was extremely ambitious, and in order to seize the throne, he also fought for a long time in all directions to defeat the rebels.

That is to say, just when he had conquered all the forces and ascended to the throne, the East Africans came. At that time, Lobengula was still unclear about the reality of the East Africans, and the kingdom was in a period of weakness due to turmoil, so he could only watch the East African army enter the Matabele Kingdom.

The mighty East African Southern Route Army really frightened Lobengula at the time, but he soon discovered that the main force in East Africa was mainly facing the Portuguese and Boers in the east and south directions.

At the same time, the East African Kingdom sent an envoy to ask Lobengula to surrender to the East African Kingdom. Why should he share it if he could monopolize it and pay tribute? This was intolerable to Lobengula.

Lobengula said to his subordinates: "The reason why these white-skinned men were able to defeat the heroic Ndebele warriors was entirely due to the power of firearms. Now we have also organized our own firearms troops. As long as we defeat the East Africans entrenched in the south, People, our Matabele Kingdom can achieve final victory.”

As a branch of the Zulu people, the Ndebele people are no strangers to firearms and suffered heavy losses at the hands of the Boers. Therefore, after the former king Mzilika moved his people to Zimbabwe, he actively contacted the Portuguese and purchased firearms. , form your own firearms unit.

This was even more true after Lobengula succeeded to the throne, but the supplier changed from the Portuguese to the enemy, the Boers.

Although the Portuguese Governor of Mozambique is not very fond of East Africa, the strength of East Africa is indeed worthy of respect. Without local support, it is better not to go to war with the East Africans, as that will only benefit the British in the south.

The Boers are different. The Ndebele people who come to trade with gold are naturally very welcome. As for the East African Kingdom, it is important that you have gold!

In the past, the Boers would definitely have to educate the Ndebele people on their behavior of carrying gold bricks through the market, but the arrival of the Germans made the Boers feel threatened.

But just thinking about letting the Boers fight the Germans makes them feel guilty. However, if the Ndebele people come to visit, the Boers will have a way to test the power of the Germans.

The Boers imported firearms to the Matabele Kingdom through weapons smuggling, and the Boers' firearms were obtained from British traders. The Boers then smuggled across the Limpopo River and traded with the Ndebele people in the dense forests on both sides.

In just three months, the Boers imported 5,000 muskets to the Ndebele people, most of which were weapons retired by the British Army after the Crimean War.

In the past, the Boers would certainly not have been so supportive of the Ndebele people. After all, they also coveted the land on the north bank of the Limpopo River.

However, now that the north bank of the Limpopo River has become the territory of the East African Kingdom, it has cut off the expansion direction of the Boers, and the Ndebele people have changed from enemies to exploitable pawns. Anyway, the Ndebele people are causing harm to the East African Kingdom. You can also get gold from his hands, kill two birds with one stone, why not do it.

Five thousand firearms is where Lobengula's confidence lies. With the original more than a thousand firearms troops, he can organize a firearms troop of 6,000 people. With the remaining hundreds of thousands of troops, he will win no matter what. bigger.

Lobengula was obviously misled by the Boers. He thought that the East African Kingdom, like the Boers, was the kind of white man who relied on the advantage of firearms to enclose lands in Africa but had a small number of people.

But this situation only exists in Zimbabwe. The East African immigrant population in Zambia is much larger than the entire Ndebele people in Zimbabwe.

However, due to the distance, the development of Zimbabwe was lagging behind, so there were few manpower, which gave Lobengula an illusion.

Although Zimbabwe has a large number of East African troops, they do not farm their own land. As long as they cut off their food supply, they will not last for a month before they surrender due to lack of food.