Chapter 343 Farming

Because of preparations for war, the East African government decided to slow down the development of Zambia and put Zimbabwe first.

The first is to build a telegraph line from South Salzburg Province to Zimbabwe. This dedicated line is different from the telegraph line from South Salzburg to Lusaka. It will go directly from South Salzburg Province to Zimbabwe. to the north bank of the Limpopo River, and then extend to both sides along the north bank of the Limpopo River to ensure that the central government can keep abreast of frontline news.

Secondly, the local Shona people were organized to build a simple north-south road to ensure the smooth movement of food, weapons, personnel, etc. on the front line.

At the same time, the East African Kingdom will build a series of fortifications in Zimbabwe. Although the possibility of the Boers pushing back is extremely low, as long as it is possible, preparations must be made in advance.

Among them, Bulawayo, the former capital of the Matabele Kingdom, continues to function as a military fortress and assumes the important task of ensuring the safety of food routes.

The last step is to work in the fields in Zimbabwe. This time the East African government has taken the land of the Ndebele people as its own. The Shona people in the territory are still the "proletarian" class. As landlords, the East Africans naturally have the right to use their own land. The Shona people levy taxes.

But the situation in Africa is well known. If you want black people to engage in agricultural production honestly, you can't do it without taking some special measures.

Without the control of the Ndebele people, the Shona people can make a living by relying on wild animals everywhere, which is very inconsistent with "East African values".

Everyone is going to catch wild animals, who will develop the land! East Africa immediately declared that all animals in Zimbabwe belong to the government and prohibited "illegal" hunting. The legal principle is that the land belongs to East Africa, and everything on the land, including the Shona people themselves, is the property of the Kingdom of East Africa.

As for illegal hunting, it means that all hunting activities carried out by black people in Zimbabwe without the permission of the East African government are illegal, and they will be turned into slaves immediately if they are found.

As for the Shona people who have lived here for hundreds of years, who said that if you came early, the land ownership is yours? Anyway, the East African Kingdom snatched the land from the Ndebele people, so even if the land ownership is discussed, it should be discussed by the Ndebele people. It is a pity that they are already on the road to dig the central canal. inevitable.

The purpose of East Africa's farming in Zimbabwe is mainly to solve the problem of food supply on the front line. East Africa is expected to have 50,000 troops to fight the Boers. Add in the border troops to guard against the Portuguese and the more than 10,000 troops to maintain local security. Then the entire territory of Zimbabwe will have At least 70,000 retired soldiers.

If the food to feed the 70,000-strong army is transported from the rear alone, it will definitely be a disaster. The main reason is that the transportation is unbearable. Therefore, it is necessary to farm in Zimbabwe and solve most of the food supply problems nearby.

Ernst could even imagine the scene of indigenous people farming. In his previous life in Tanzania, he had seen some local people engaged in agricultural production. They were quite rough and they basically just scattered the seeds on the ground and ignored them.

In the end, the food output was indeed terrible, but Africans are more open-minded, and it is enough to feed themselves. Although they are lazy, they are really not interested at all. This is called not seeking improvement in the East.

Of course, the lack of scientific concepts is also an important reason. For example, the Tanzania government also tried to go to the countryside to break local feudal superstitions, but it had little effect.

Most people reject science and do not accept chemical fertilizers or pesticides even if they do not have enough to eat. The promotion of high-yielding crops such as hybrid rice is also fraught with difficulties.

Despite this, Tanzania can be regarded as a model country among African countries. The government is relatively responsible and the regime is relatively stable, far surpassing its peers.

This also shows that aid from the Far East still has some effect. In fact, people from the Far East in previous generations always made a mistake, that is, they confused East African countries with West African countries and South African countries.

As we all know, West Africa is the territory of France. Even in the 21st century, France still has a dominant presence in West Africa.

South Africa is the territory of the United Kingdom, especially the Cape Town area. The United Kingdom has developed it for a long time. Even if South Africa is independent enough, the United Kingdom still has an important influence on the country. South Africa also affects Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia through its economy.

East Africa is special. Although they are all black Africa, East Africa has been a colony of Germany and Portugal for a long time. During World War I, Germany led the East African natives to see how rich the so-called British Empire was, while Portugal's colonies in various colonies after World War II The performance is also disgraceful, being educated by India, Indonesia, and even Angola, without dignity.

This has caused East African countries to perform relatively better than West African and South African countries after independence, and at the same time they are more opposed to the West.

One thing that caused conflicts in previous marketing accounts is that most of the United Nations' opponents of the Far East's restoration of its seat in the United Nations are African countries. In fact, if you look carefully at the list, you will find that the countries in Africa that oppose the permanent membership are all West African and South African countries.

According to intersex people: "This is what is called the Black Brother!"

In fact, in the Far East and West Africa, the countries of South Africa have never been relatively friendly. Just like Japan and South Korea, two dogs have no autonomy.

The countries that provided early aid to the Far East were mainly East Africa, and the supporting countries in Africa during the voting were mainly North Africa and East Africa.

After all, when West African countries and South African countries voted, West Africa wanted to decide what France's father would do. France was a thief. Half of the West African countries voted against and half voted in favor, so that they could offend neither the United States nor the Far East.

As for the three South African countries (South Africa, Lesotho, and Swaziland), all voted against it, and Nyasaland (Malawi) also voted against it. The remaining countries affected by South Africa abstained, including South Africa (white) and Australia. , Canada is also a loyal and loyal supporter of the United States.

It can be seen from this that Africa is not a whole, but when people from the Far East discuss Africa, they always treat them as a whole.

Ernst's experience of living in Africa gave him a different view of East Africa. At least he came into contact with many East Africans with good personalities. Of course, there are also some people who specifically dislike Chinese people. The good and bad are mixed, so this is also a general situation. The reason why Ernst would not choose to exterminate the East Africans.

However, in order to avoid trouble, it was better to let them leave East Africa in the end, which would be friendly to everyone.

Returning to Zimbabwe, even under the supervision of the East African Kingdom, the food production of the Shona people is probably sparse, but the food grown by two million people, no matter how low the output, can greatly alleviate the pressure on food supply.

In addition to military considerations, the most important thing for farming in Zimbabwe is to open up fields. In the past, many Ndebele landowners were engaged in grazing, so there is not much farmland in Zimbabwe.

Let the Shona people open up the land first. When subsequent immigrants take over the land, it will be easier to transform it. Land reclamation is a technical job. The slash-and-burn method of land reclamation like the indigenous people can only be used in the early stage. Later field transformation still needs to be done by immigrants. Finish.