The news of the arrival of the British spread quickly throughout the Fort River. The new Far East immigrants may not have much of a feeling for the British, whose only memory they have of is the days when they were first locked down because of the war; However, for the more than 100 old immigrants in Fort River, the British are definitely a gnashing of teeth! In the government's years of anti-British and anti-British propaganda, the British have long been portrayed as demons and scumbags, and even the more than 600 immigrants from England in China are a little disgraced and disgraced.

Mo Ming was also extremely shocked after hearing the news. Traveling through the history of the Dao is probably a golden finger against the sky, but sometimes it may also cause people to have a fixed mindset. For example, this time, if the British colonial fleet had not been discovered by the East Coasters when they were resupplying in San Vicente, then perhaps the East Coasters would have been confused for a long time before they learned about the arrival of the British.

In fact, the arrival of the British was both accidental and inevitable. What are they all beaten by you near the Cape of Good Hope, and you still expect people to do nothing and be indifferent? That's naïve. In other words, the British East India Company's large-scale colonization of Cape Town was both unexpected and reasonable for the East Coasters.

Something had to be done! This was Mo Ming's first reaction. Soon, under his orders, ten heavily armed horsemen rushed out of the south gate of the River Fort, crossed the Berg River, and galloped into the endless wilderness to the south, where they were to reconnoiter and ascertain the situation near Cape Town.

At the same time, Mo Ming also summoned some Khoisan and Xhosa tribes that depended on the east coast for survival that night, and carefully asked them if they had received some news from the south these days. Unfortunately, many Khoisan tribes south of the Berg River (the are also part of the Khoisan) were devastated by the "grain convoys" on the east bank at the turn of spring and summer this year. It is currently in the vast wilderness of tens of thousands of square kilometers between the Cape Town and the Berg River. There are not even a few indigenous tribes that survive. It is said that they fled to the other side of the Cape Mountains.

This made Mo Ming scratch his head a little. But it's not a big deal, and now it's up to the cavalry to send back the reconnaissance information. During this period, Mo Ming, Liu Ang, Xie Hansan, Li Yi and other leading officials in the Hezhongbao area gathered together and began to discuss the complex situation they are facing.

"According to the information that has been widely circulated in the market from the San Vicente station of the General Intelligence Bureau, the British colonial fleet consisted of twelve ships, almost all of which were large transport ships, carrying a large number of people and supplies. They arrived at the port of São Vicente on the 22nd of late May and then procured a considerable portion of food, livestock, farming implements and building materials. It's hilarious. The red bricks, cement, lime, farm tools and other materials purchased by the British were all sold by us to the Brazilians, and now they are being resold to them. "The number of immigrants is estimated to be more than a thousand, or even more, and most of them are organized from England and Ireland. According to the grapevine, the East India Company gave the immigrants considerable preferential measures to encourage them to put down roots in the area and try to open up the situation as soon as possible. ”

"More than 1,000 people...... Liu Ang smacked his lips, and then said: "The population is not less than ours." There's a problem, though. Will so many of them come and eat just by bringing enough food to eat? You know, the harvest in the first year was not very good. Whether they can feed themselves is a question of whether they can support themselves. The East India Company is not like us, they do not prepare adequate rations and bright shelters for every immigrant free of charge. They are usually only willing to pay a small portion of their food rations, leaving the rest to be raised locally by the migrants. In other words, these poor penniless British immigrants probably did not have enough food to survive the next autumn harvest. It's already a cold winter, and the British can't grow food. They can only take advantage of the winter to reclaim the wasteland, repair the canals, and wait until the beginning of spring next year for spring sowing. So, until the autumn harvest in May, they will be in a tight state of food supply for 10 months. If we don't get it right, we're going to die, so I think maybe we can find something from here. ”

"Not a bad idea." Mo Ming praised it, and then said: "That's it, Company Commander Xie, the troops have rested for the past two days, and it's time to pull out the army to practice." Tomorrow I will have Fort Riverville mobilize some of the militia, and at the same time requisition a few hundred native warriors from several vassal tribes, and then, with the Fourth Company as the main force, march south and east to clear the vast area between the Berg River and Cape Town of the indigenous tribes. Whether it was the Xhosa or the Khoisans, all the cattle, sheep, and grain were confiscated, and the men were driven eastward to keep them away from the control zone of the British, so that the Britons could not find a trade partner, trapped them, and starved them to death! ”

"Okay, I was originally controlled by you, you can give orders." Xie Hansan didn't shirk and agreed. This time, they brought a small number of horses, plus the original dozen or so military horses in the local area of Hezhong Fort, which was enough to form a small cavalry reconnaissance force. With these powerful cavalry, the indigenous tribes of the plains could not escape the pursuit of the people on the east coast. These natives used to graze their cattle there, and the people of the East Coast didn't bother to pay attention to them, but who let the British come now? Then I have no choice but to cut you down, so as not to leave it to the British in the future.

Originally, this was a rivalry and grievance between the East Coast and the British, but now that the two sides are at peace, it is naturally difficult to act clearly, so they have to resort to some small means. These Khoisan tribes are caught in the middle and suffer from the plague of pond fish, so they can only blame their own lack of strength and bad luck.

"By the way, Lao Liu, you will take some militia to the east tomorrow." Mo Ming continued to command, "Go and make a deal with the Xhosa people there. There are also a few scattered tribes of Xhosa over there, they are farming tribes, and there should be some surplus food. Don't they like our river song very much? Go trade with them! We used to not drink enough on our own and didn't bother to pay attention to them, but this time it's different. And when they had brought enough wine, they put it in wooden barrels and exchanged it for their surplus grain, cattle and sheep. They also exchanged their furs, animal fat, ivory, dog's head gold, and so on, and if they didn't have enough wine, they exchanged salt and metal farming tools with them, and they liked these things the most. plundered all the surplus grain and property in their hands through this unequal transaction, so that the British could not get anything. Don't be afraid of our shortage of materials, what are you afraid of, just let the transport ships continue to transport from the mainland. The British have all touched their noses, and the Executive Committee will strongly support us! ”

The British colonized Cape Town this time, which was a very uncomfortable thing for the East Coast Republic of China. Because it meant that the British had extended their tentacles into southern Africa, and the people on the east coast could no longer enjoy the geographical advantage of this side alone. If the British had run Cape Town vigorously and built port facilities and coastal fortifications, the threat to the people on the east coast would have been even greater.

In particular, the African routes, which the Executive Committee is now vigorously developing, have become a joke. But no, as long as the British fleet is stationed in the port of Cape Town, then it will always threaten the security of the east coast transportation routes. Moreover, this Cape Town port is only a little more than a month's voyage from the east coast mainland, and if it is replaced by a flying clipper, it will not even take a month, and the threat to the east coast mainland is not ordinarily large.

Cape Town is like a sharp knife against the soft belly of the East Coast Republic, and it is extremely uncomfortable. Therefore, the first reaction of Mo Ming, Liu Ang and others was to kill this group of Britons! It's a pity that a few months after the East Coast and the British reached a peace agreement, Mo Ming and others could not afford to fight again. But it doesn't work openly, but it's not much of a problem to use some shady tricks in secret. For example, the British who came to colonize could not find a trade partner, or they frequently attacked and harassed the British through some vassal black or red tribes.

These measures do not seek to annihilate the British who have come to colonize (and in fact are unlikely), but only if they increase their costs or slow down their colonization process, thank God. As for driving out the British, it is still a bit difficult to do so openly. The only way to make the British feel unprofitable or unsustainable and withdraw on their own through proxy wars and trade blockades does not seem very likely. In any case, the Fort Riverside is now going all out to contain the British from all sides.

Five days later, on July 15, the cavalry heading to the south returned. The reconnaissance unit led by Cavalry Corporal Sun Shengjun brought back accurate information: the British had already entered Cape Town and began large-scale construction. Twelve British sailing ships were moored on the sea, carrying supplies to the shore. Perhaps these British lacked enough manpower, and their construction progress was relatively slow, and only some wooden trestles, houses, fences and other facilities have been repaired, and other facilities such as city walls and forts have not yet been seen. And according to their secret observation during those two days, there were clearly more than 1,000 British people working on land, not counting those who were assisting the sailors in unloading supplies on the decks of the ships.

After receiving accurate information, on July 16, Fort Hezhong quietly mobilized. More than 150 militiamen were drafted, 50 of them as gunners carrying four army field guns to accompany the 4th Company of the South African Garrison, and the remaining 100 followed Liu Ang to escort supplies east to trade with the Xhosa.

At the same time, the six small tribes that had belonged to the East Coast also received a requisition order: each tribe drew one out of five according to the number of adult males, and gathered more than 200 people to report to the East Coast officers, and each of these people was given a spear to serve as cannon fodder for the East Coast.

When all preparations were at a halt, the troops crossed the Berg River that afternoon and headed south, targeting some of the remaining Khoisan tribes in the southern wilderness. (To be continued......)