African Entrepreneurship Record-Chapter 787 - 91 Relocation
"Boom, boom, boom..."
On the Indian Ocean surface, East Africa's ironclad ships and gunboats began bombarding the city of Maputo. Shells left mottled marks on the fortress walls built from black boulders, showing the robustness of Maputo as a stronghold.
"Now Maputo is no longer safe. Besides facing the glaring threat from the East African forces in New Hamburg Port City, the East African navy on the Indian Ocean has also become a serious threat to Maputo City," Bugival said gravely to Count Roberts.
In fact, the Allies had long anticipated that East Africa would attack Maputo from the sea, but when the day finally came, the Allies still felt enormous pressure.
"The sea surface is controlled by East Africa; in reality, Maputo has become an isolated city. Except for the north, Maputo is very close to other East African troops, so I suggest we should relocate the command post inland or to the north."
Bugival's suggestion naturally also involved the Mozambique Governor's Mansion, as Maputo could no longer provide everyone a sense of security.
To the south of Maputo is East Africa's Southern Border Province, and to the west is the former Kingdom of Swaziland, now part of Heixinggen Province. The Indian Ocean also faces the threat of East African warships; thus, East Africa forms a semi-surrounding strategic deployment advantage over Maputo.
Within this semi-surrounding circle, every point is less than two hundred kilometers from Maputo. If East Africa were to cut off the north, Maputo would be completely encircled.
Count Roberts: "You have a point. Actually, at the beginning, Maputo was quite suitable as our command center. However, the situation of the war changed too quickly, differing from our pre-war expectations, which led to the current predicament of Maputo."
At the beginning, the British were quite arrogant. At that time, Count Roberts aimed to quickly break through East Africa's defenses, open the passage to New Hamburg Port City, and then occupy Swaziland, proceeding eastward to the former Transvaal Republic area, or directly using superior forces and firepower to advance into the central Matebel Province of East Africa.
Underestimating the combat capability of the East African forces and East Africa's war potential led to Count Roberts' strategy being troubled by the small New Hamburg Port City from the first step, unable to proceed for a long time. Moreover, East Africa's eastern defensive line was extremely solid, relying on South Salzburg Province and Matebel Province, so even if the German army came to East Africa, they had confidence to contend with the British army.
South Salzburg Province and Matebel Province, centered on Mbeya and Harare, concentrated the core forces of East Africa's heavy and military industries. They are two industrial bases centered on heavy industries in East Africa.
With the presence of the Central Railway, supplies and personnel could be quickly transferred between the two provinces and then transported to the front line via highway.
The worse thing is that East Africa has a natural geographical advantage over Mozambique; East Africa's terrain is elevated, predominantly plateau, whereas Mozambique is primarily plain. This natural advantage of high ground over low is even more prominent in the era of hot weapons. Therefore, even if the British continue to increase troops, East Africa still has confidence in holding the eastern defensive line.
"If East Africa uses the Indian Ocean as a breakthrough point and lands north of Maputo, it may truly sever the communication between our forces and the northern units. This is the most fatal situation. Losing Maputo's command, the already disadvantaged units might further suffer in morale, causing irreparable losses," Bugival stated from a command perspective.
During the British siege of New Hamburg Port City, the East African garrison in New Hamburg Port City could communicate with East Africa via buried backup national defense telegraph lines and sea and land routes.
However, Mozambique lacked this condition. Aside from Maputo and a few coastal cities with telegraph lines, Mozambique's telegraph rate was very low and could only be used for internal regional communication. To connect with the homeland, they needed to transit through the East African city of Dar es Salaam.
This is the advantage of industrial countries over agricultural ones in the industrial age. Of course, East Africa is also an agricultural country now, but compared to other great powers, Mozambique, as a Portuguese colony, is clearly more backward than East Africa. Especially after being blockaded by East Africa's near seas, Mozambique even fell into a state of regression.
The minuscule "industry" became forced to stagnate because it could not import machinery parts and raw materials domestically.
In terms of military, it's even more so. The main weapons and ammunition of the Allies now rely entirely on pre-war stockpiles, although occasional smuggling ships could transport supplies, it was still a drop in the bucket.
The shipping in the Western Indian Ocean never came to a complete halt. Although more ships chose to pay passage through the Suez Canal because of the South African war, many bold ships still chose the Cape Town route.
East Africa does not prohibit such behavior for its own reasons. After all, East Africa also needs foreign trade, so they could only turn a blind eye to maritime trade. The British did the same, but now both countries' ships disguised as various commercial vessels are navigating in the Western Indian Ocean.
This situation is quite common in history because the Indian Ocean trade route belongs to the international transport channel. East Africa and the East African coastal countries have no right to monopolize unless a country occupies both the East African mainland and Madagascar simultaneously.
Even so, East Africa has no reason to do so, as it might provoke dissatisfaction from the international community. It's similar to the Red Sea area, where the Suez Canal affects global trade. If a country were to cut off the Red Sea route, it would surely draw condemnation from the international community.
Of course, East Africa turning a blind eye does not mean ignoring everything. Boarding inspections of cargo were achievable, and the British did the same.
However, most of East Africa's military industry can be self-sufficient, with only a small amount needing to be imported from other regions. This results in the British finding no "contraband."
Germany, France, and other countries engaging in free commercial trade with East Africa naturally left Britain no reason to sever these ties. Great powers wouldn't allow Britain to enforce violently, especially with France having colonies on Madagascar.
Unless Britain could offer benefits enticing to France and other countries, there's no reason for them to easily offend East Africa, a nation capable of military confrontation with Britain.
If East Africa's war were going poorly, France would surely intervene to grab a share. However, now East Africa grows stronger, evidently displaying great power military capability, so even if the British were willing to share some interests, they could only be empty promises.
This is the benefit of East Africa's displayed military prowess. If it were not up to par, even friendly nations like Germany and Austria-Hungary might seize the opportunity to add insult to injury.
Of course, if this were a few years after Kaiser Wilhelm II's accession, Germany might not hold the same attitude. After all, Wilhelm II had his sights set on Britain. Opposing Britain required allies; even small weak countries in Eastern Europe were targets for British and German courtship. A nation like East Africa, with its weaker military, still held great value in alliance.
After all, in past lives, Germany loved providing military aid to allies and supporting their power. The Austro-Hungarian Empire included; by the latter stages of World War I, its military was already reliant on the Germans.
"If we migrate north, we must choose a military location suitable for long-term struggle with East Africa. The primary aspect is to facilitate command over various units, and we can't neglect the role of Maputo, even if it no longer serves as the command headquarters. It should still retain important military functions," Count Roberts said.
