African Entrepreneurship Record-Chapter 608 - 286 - : Incitement

While the people of Orange grumble about the so-called Transvaal Rebel Army, the daily "training" of the Transvaal Rebel Army also began.

In Bloemfontein, a new "Transvaal Republic Provisional Government" was established, and the person serving as president of this new government was young Pillotolius.

Young Pillotolius, who had been idling in Cape Town for a long time, was finally invited out by the British to become the leader of the resistance organization of the former Transvaal Republic.

The first thing young Pillotolius did after arriving in Bloemfontein was to gather his former subordinates and hold a banquet in Bloemfontein.

"Gentlemen, we are all victims of the past East African aggression. The East Africans deprived us Transvaal people of our most important asset, our land. The East Africans launched a surprise attack only by relying on advanced weapons and large armies, forcing the dissolution of the Transvaal Republic.

But we Transvaal people will not be easily defeated. Even in Orange, we can still unite, band together, and resist the East African invaders, ultimately reclaiming what belongs to us." Young Pillotolius announced at the banquet.

Young Pillotolius’s words had little substance, but they still resonated with everyone because the provisional government still comprised key figures from the former Transvaal Republic, who were also the greatest victims of East Africa’s invasion of the Transvaal Republic.

They were originally large farm owners and landowners. Although East Africa allowed them to transfer assets, the most important asset to them—land within the Transvaal Republic—was taken away by East Africa.

So they only harbored resentment towards East Africa. Now that the British provided a platform to gather them again, the Transvaal Republic Provisional Government became the group that hated East Africa the most in the world.

"Damn East Africans!"

"We must drive the East Africans out of Transvaal and take back our Transvaal land, reclaim our homeland!"

"Transvaal people will never surrender..."

Young Pillotolius was quite satisfied with everyone’s performance. At least, on the surface, everyone was relatively positive.

Young Pillotolius returned to the podium, raised his arm, and gestured, indicating, "Please calm down, everyone. I know each of you is a loyal and patriotic individual, but let’s not deny that our enemy is too strong compared to us.

The East Africans have an army of hundreds of thousands, while all of us Boers combined only number a few tens of thousands. So dealing with East Africa is not something that can be solved by shouting slogans, it requires every single Boer to give their all."

"President Pillotolius, then how do you propose we proceed?"

Young Pillotolius was very pleased with this question, confidently saying, "Thanks to my efforts, the British Cape Colony government is willing to offer support and assistance for the great cause of the Transvaal restoration. Moreover, we also have the Portuguese, who suffered like us, as allies. This reverses our unfavorable situation with East Africa. Now, let us invite the representatives of our British and Portuguese allies to come up and speak."

Subsequently, the Governor of the British Orange Free State Colony and officials from the Portuguese Mozambique Colony ascended the podium to applause from the audience.

United by their hatred for East Africa, or perhaps because of interest disputes, everyone gathered together with empathy, collectively condemning East African militarists.

"East Africa is not an invincible force. Although East Africa has a vast territory, precisely because of this, its power is extremely dispersed. So if we were to go to war with East Africa, it would only be regional and not encompass all of East Africa, so there is no need to worry about East Africa’s figures on paper," proclaimed the British Governor stationed in Bloemfontein, immediately presenting the advantages of their position.

With East Africa making a splash in the International Community, some specific data about East Africa couldn’t be concealed, like the Central Railway deeply hidden in East Africa’s central hinterland, and some inland commodity information.

By utilizing various information from areas like Dar es Salaam, the British basically summarized the approximate strength of East Africa.

Even a rough map of East Africa was obtained by the British, as many cities could not be hidden unless they did not export goods.

For instance, tobacco from the city of Harare could be traced to its origin in East Africa’s Harare City via Dar es Salaam, transported there by railway.

This way, the British came to know that there was a city called Harare in East Africa, and that it was connected externally by railway, and surely suited for tobacco cultivation.

To further ascertain the exact location of Harare City, more relevant information would need to be indirectly obtained.

For example, knowing Harare is a provincial capital and a city along a railway line makes it highly probable to conclude that Harare City is within the original Matebel Kingdom.

Beyond this, nothing further could be determined, as ordinary people couldn’t access detailed railway distribution maps, and even East African railway staff couldn’t obtain a national railway distribution map of East Africa.

The name of Harare City was completely given by Ernst; no one knew its exact meaning. These kinds of cities with names arbitrarily given by Ernst were many in East Africa, made for his convenience in memory.

This added difficulty for the British in gathering intelligence from East Africa, to the extent that direct intelligence acquisition was challenging, necessitating indirect information gathering from various aspects, including history, culture, geography, and economy.

For instance, from the export volume of East African coffee, one can estimate the minimum planting area for East African coffee. However, the cultural and historical aspect was relatively difficult because East Africa had no historical culture.

Moreover, East Africa did not inherit indigenous culture, which was vastly different from Portugal’s Mozambique, where many place names originated from indigenous people, while East Africa did not have this habit. Thus, comparing the previously drawn Portuguese map of East Africa’s interior with the current East African map was like comparing apples to oranges.

Military strength in East Africa was easiest to judge, for East Africa annually stationed troops on the borderlands with Cape Town and Mozambique, never numbering less than fifty thousand.

Knowing East Africa has railways in the interior also necessitated an upgrade of East Africa’s military might, for the railway allowed for rapid mobilization of rear troops. Thus, if a conflict occurred between the two countries, capturing the East African railway had to become a new military objective.

Understanding this, the Governor stationed in Bloemfontein sought to motivate his allies while keeping British-gathered information hidden, lest it scare off the Boers and Portuguese from playing an instrumental role.

"East Africa’s power is not fearsome. We will also continue to provide the latest British army weapons and equipment support for Transvaal and Mozambique. This neutralizes East Africa’s weapon advantage, placing both parties’ combat effectiveness on the same level, testing everyone’s courage, and I believe in your capability to unite against the East Africans."

The Governor stationed in Bloemfontein sought to encourage the Boers as much as possible because he knew how much assistance Britain could provide to the Boers depended entirely on how much money the Boers could offer. Naturally, Britain was not entirely stingy, as they needed to give the Boers a taste of benefit.

This let the Boers and Portuguese know that behind them was the world’s leading power—Britain. East Africa, however, was merely a burgeoning country whose strength might be significant, but not fearsome.

This was akin to the United States supporting Western Europe against the Soviet Union, or supporting Japan and South Korea to counter the Far East Empire, basically providing some benefits and letting other countries take the forefront.

Considering the economic scale of the United States in past lives and its global resource allocation rights, it naturally could support whom it wanted. As long as the puppet government was not too incompetent, the economy could be revived.