On 10 January of the 8th year of Xinghua, the new commander-in-chief of the South African Expeditionary Force, Roberts, and Chief of Staff Kitchener, arrived in Cape Town, bringing with them the Seventh Army from home, reinforcements from Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, and three cavalry detachments in India and Ceylon. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

As of January, the British army on the battlefield in South Africa increased to 180,000, and will continue to increase in March, reaching 22~250,000, which is an absolute advantage.

The British Seventh Army was not comparable to any other unit in the South African Expeditionary Force, and the Seventh Army was well-trained and equipped with the most advanced weapons, with an average of one Maxim heavy machine gun per 100 men, and a large number of advanced artillery.

The equipment of the armies of the other British colonies is slightly backward, and there are even many units equipped with "single-one" rifles.

The arrival of the Seventh Army has greatly enhanced the strength of the South African Expeditionary Force, and the situation on the battlefield will be fundamentally changed under absolute strength.

More importantly, the total population of the Transvaal Republic and the Orange Free State is only 440,000, even if all the people are soldiers, the military strength is only about 100,000, and the number of British troops is more than twice as large, not to mention that the British army still has a great advantage in weapons and equipment.

In February, after weighing the situation on the battlefield, Roberts changed his strategy, shifting the direction of attack from Natal West to the weaker Orange area in the center, and at the same time changing the rigid frontal assault tactics and adopting a roundabout strategy.

Soon, on the Western Front, the British defeated the militia commanded by Piert Cronye, the fiercest "Black General" of the Burennese Army, and liberated Kimberley, which had been besieged for several months, on February 16, and on the Eastern Front, the British launched an offensive on February 27, and defeated the Boers at Dordrecht on March 3, finally relieving the siege of Ladysmith.

After the British eliminated the threat to his left flank from the most formidable Cronye, Roberts turned the main attack force back to Orange and steadily advanced northward, learning the lessons of previous defeats, the British changed their tactics, and when they were ambushed by the Cloth army, the infantry units no longer maintained formation, but dug trenches nearby, covering the cavalry to launch a charge on the Cloth army's position, under this tactic, the Cloth army's resistance in the poplar forest, Abraham's bullpen and other places failed one after another.

The British have a large number of soldiers, can withstand losses, and can still mobilize a group from other regions when they are exhausted, but the military strength of the Boers is so much, and the dead are permanent attrition and can no longer be replenished.

On the afternoon of March 13, the British army entered Bloemfontein, the capital of the Orange Free State, in mid to late March, the British army had typhoid fever, Roberts had to order a rest on the spot, and the British offensive was forced to be interrupted, but at this time the situation was greatly unfavorable to the Orange army, the previous series of battles made the Orange army lose troops and lose troops, and the strength was rapidly weakened, if this continued, soon the Transvaal Republic and the Orange Free State Republic will be completely occupied by the British army.

At this time, the Chinese Empire made a move, of course, the Chinese Empire would not help the Boers openly or denounce Britain internationally, but the Ministry of Intelligence secretly took action to give more aid to the Boers, and now the Boers are most lacking in advanced weapons, so the Chinese Empire will give the Boers a large number of advanced weapons.

The Transvaal Republic and the Orange Free State were two Boer states that made their fortunes in diamonds and gold, and although they were relatively small countries, they were definitely rich in wealth among small countries.

The Boer countries took the initiative to choose the British, naturally making some preparations, including the purchase of a large number of military equipment from other countries, otherwise how could it be possible to arm an army of about 100,000 people, even so, an army of 100,000 people made it difficult for the Boers to bear, and finally made the level of weapons and equipment of the Boers backward and the British native troops, only about the same as the main force of the British colonies.

In addition, the Boers did not consider that the war would be like this, and the British would go all out to destroy them, so that the weapons and ammunition of the Boers would be quickly consumed, and they would soon not be able to support a large-scale battle, if the Boers knew that the war situation would become like this, they would like to spend all the funds in their hands to buy weapons and ammunition, and now they have no money, but they cannot obtain weapons and ammunition from the outside world, because the war area has been blockaded by the British, and other countries do not dare to sell weapons and ammunition to the Boers easily.

Soon, the Caucasian-faced peripheral members of the Chinese Imperial Intelligence Department approached the Boers and made a deal with the Boers, who paid a sum of gold in exchange for a batch of weapons and ammunition.

Although the Chinese Empire did not use the gold standard, the value of gold in the Chinese Empire was basically in line with international standards, and gold was still a relatively value-preserving trading currency.

As for the weapons and ammunition obtained by the Boers, they were buried under the feet of the Boers, some places have been occupied by the British, but some have not been occupied by the British, and the Boers easily dug these weapons and ammunition out of the ground.

The weapons and ammunition buried by the Ministry of Intelligence are mainly Makqin heavy machine guns, bullets, grenades and mines, basically there are no rifles, the Boers have enough rifles, even if they are not as good as the British standard rifles, but they are not far behind, the Boers lack ammunition, in addition, the Makqin heavy machine guns can strengthen the firepower of the Boers, so that the Boers can fight large-scale battles with the British army, and there is no need to be afraid of the British cavalry, and the use of mines and grenades is also very large, it depends on how the Boers use it, use it well, was able to inflict great trauma on the British.

After the Boers had obtained these weapons, the commander-in-chief of the Boer army, Jobbel, began to gather for a decisive battle with the British.

At the end of April, a large number of British reinforcements arrived in South Africa, and after the adjustment of forces, in the direction of the main attack, Roberts had eight infantry divisions (3rd, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th division, colonial division) and 12th cavalry division, the British army relaunched the offensive in early May, and on May 12, Roberts's army captured the new capital of the Orange Free State, Kronstad.

Kronstad was also the chosen location for the decisive battle in Joubert, where a large number of troops were assembled, and there were trenches outside Kronstad.

The two armies met, and the Great War began.

The British army did not know that the Bon army had a large number of heavy machine guns, and directly launched an attack on Kronstad, and the British troops in the charge were first killed and wounded by mines, and then under the strafing fire of the Bon army's heavy machine guns, the casualties were even more heavy, with nearly 10,000 casualties.

Seeing their heavy losses, the British ordered a retreat, surrounded Kronstad, and then bombarded the positions of the Cloth army with heavy artillery.

Under the heavy artillery bombardment of the British army, the Buzzen army also suffered heavy losses, and the Buzzen army could not withstand such losses.