As a colony, Australia has very little military presence, and in fact, Britain has been extremely careless about the operation of its colonies, at least in the deployment of its military forces, except for a colonial legion in India, which has been passed down to France, and in most of the other colonies, the presence of its military power is mostly merely a symbol. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

It's enough to be symbolic!

For Britain, he does not need to save much army, after all, that "rice flag" is enough to deter all countries, all potential enemies with ambitions for its colonies, strong enough, is the British people's support, and it is also the pride of the British.

It is precisely because of the great power of Britain that the British can manage the colonial military force in that seemingly casual way, rather than sending a relatively large military force like the colonies, which is of course the characteristic of the colonies of various countries - after all, they are only faced with a group of barbaric "uncivilized natives" who have no civilization to speak of.

In this case, they certainly do not need a strong force as the military support of their colonies, and they do not even need a strong colonial regime. In 1861, Australia was not without a unified government, and the colonies of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, the Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australia all set up accountable self-government, and the six colonies politically ruled this vast land of more than 7 million square kilometers.

And these six colonial governors' palaces, which seemed to have vast power, actually had no military strength, they only had a "red shrimp soldier" whose "ceremonial" was greater than its actual utility, just to let the world see the red of Britain in the colony, nothing more.

After all, for the British, they never imagined that, after Napoleon, someone would dare to invade their colonies.

Adelaide was the capital of the colony of South Australia, and the capital was in complete chaos - war had broken out!

When the news came, people initially just took it as a joke, just like when the news of China's declaration of war on Britain came, these proud Britons did not believe that this was the truth at all, but the truth was cruel, just as they were trying to adapt and accept this terrible news there, the news that the war had burned to the door of the house made everyone in unprecedented horror.

The news of the capture of Port Lincoln by the Chinese expeditionary force reached the city in the early hours of the morning through the mouths of some fleeing citizens and soldiers, and immediately plunged this port city of only a few thousand people into unprecedented chaos, and all kinds of rumors spread in the city, but one thing is for sure - the Chinese army is marching towards Adelaide!

Soon they will hit here, and the flag will soon be lowered from Adelaide.

"No one dares to challenge Britain!"

For Wright, as the governor of South Australia, once upon a time, he never doubted this, but now, in the face of the Chinese attack, he has completely devoid of this arrogance in his bones. Some were just worried about the future of the colony as a whole.

"Colonel Sheld, you tell me, how much strength do we have to use to stop the Chinese attack?"

Looking at the colonel in front of him, Wright asked a little nervously, as the governor of the colony, he knew very well that the power in his hands was extremely limited, after all, the entire colony had a population of less than 150,000, all the soldiers combined, less than 700 people, and even less than 300 soldiers in the capital, other forces were scattered throughout South Australia, as a symbol of the queen, now with such a weak force, how can they resist the attack of the Chinese?

"Your Excellency the Governor, even if we mobilize all our forces now, we cannot recruit an army of more than 5,000 men, and most of them are temporary conscripted farmers, as a soldier, my suggestion is that now we do not need to think about how to defend South Australia, after all, according to our intelligence, the Chinese have invested no less than 20,000 troops in South Australia, and their strength is still increasing, in this case, our resistance is undoubtedly meaningless, After all, what we need to face is not an indigenous people who don't know how to fight, but a legion that is trained in modern times like us! ”

As the top commander of the South Australian Defence Force, Shield, of course, knows the power in his hands, and knows what he can do, as a soldier, although he has his pride, but his current words are undoubtedly more realistic.

"Colonel, what should we do now?"

The colonel's answer made Wright stunned for a moment, and then immediately asked.

"Retreat to the Victorian colony, in the whole of Australia, the Victorian colony has the largest population and the most developed economy, and he even has a defense force of several thousand people, if we withdraw there and join him, then soon, the Victorian colony will be able to mobilize an army of more than 20,000 people, in this way, maybe we will have the strength to protect Australia, after all, the Victorian colony has a population of more than 500,000!"

Although Australia is vast, Australia's population is extremely limited, but the population of one million limits its development, and it also restricts the British army guarding it to be extremely limited, and even in the face of invasion, it is impossible to recruit a strong enough army. This is the weakness of the colonies, and now Sheld's proposal is undoubtedly extremely reasonable, so that the originally scattered forces can be gathered into a powerful force, so as to ensure that the British can have enough strength to protect this colony in the next war.

Even in the past ten years, there have been disputes with the Victorian colonies over tariffs and other issues, but at this time, Wright, as the colonial governor, immediately abandoned the previous disputes and immediately began to deploy the plan for the Governor's Office to withdraw to the Victorian colony.

In the days that followed, tens of thousands of South Australian colonial officials, servicemen, and their families withdrew overland to Victoria Colony, for the simple reason that they feared an attack by the Chinese fleet at sea.

After the withdrawal of the governor and the army, Adelaide, as the capital of South Australia, immediately became an undefended city, but the city did not fall into chaos, according to the governor's order, Adelaide became an "undefended city" Clancy, as the mayor, is still trying his best to maintain order in the city, the army may have withdrawn, but there are still police in the city, and the presence of the police has not plunged the city into chaos.

For the people of Adelaide, the past few days have seemed to be no different from the past, except of course, a little sadness in everyone's hearts, after all, the tragic situation of Port Lincoln has reached the city through various channels in the past few days, and the city has been flattened by the Chinese navy.

It was on the basis of this fear that, even before the arrival of the Chinese, Clancy, as mayor, ordered the removal of the batteries on the coast to avoid shelling of the city and thus protect the property of the citizens.

"I have to be responsible for the citizens here!"

When the order to lower the rice flag and raise the white flag was contradicted, Clancy even more swore that as a civil official, he had no other choice now, after all, according to the order given to him by the governor, all he could do was wait for the arrival of the Chinese, and then hand over the city to them, so as to ensure the safety of those civilians in the city.

As a civil affairs official, even in the future, no one will hold him accountable for surrendering to the Chinese, after all, the city is now an undefended city, and he is not a soldier who naturally has no obligation and responsibility to resist.

"Mr. Mayor, you have made a very wise choice!"

In the midst of the outside suspicions, no one noticed that the businessman who had entered the town hall - an American businessman who had come to Adelaide a few months earlier, and in Adelaide there were not only immigrants from England, but also businessmen from other countries, who were running all kinds of businesses here.

And Arthur? Mike is a businessman from the United States, but the businessman is only his superficial identity, his other identity is a spy sent to the United States by the Imperial Intelligence Bureau of China, and he has been lurking in the United States before. Two months earlier, he had arrived in Australia under domestic instructions, and just as he was preparing to go into hiding, as planned, the war between China and Britain broke out suddenly, and although he had not received orders from home at that time, he still launched an operation to gather military intelligence about South Australia.

After the British retreated in South Australia and Adelaide became an undefended city, he sent a line to Port Lincoln to contact the army, and at the same time launched activities in the city to ensure that the army could obtain an intact city of Adelaide after the arrival of the army.

"Mr. Arthur, I am for the citizens of Adelaide! I hope that the Chinese are really like you say, they will not harm any ordinary citizens who do not contradict it. ”

Again, Clancy said in the affirmative, but he did not mention the promise Arthur had made to him that his property would be safe, and that he would have an estate on the outskirts of the city that was tens of thousands of acres. On the surface, though, as a politician, it's only natural for him to emphasise his decision in a politician's tone, not for himself, but for the citizens of Adelaide.

Of course, this is just a cover for politicians, everyone knows that for him, he does not care about ordinary citizens, but about the safety of his property, and now what he needs is another guarantee given to him by the Chinese, to guarantee the safety of his property. Especially now, when he is about to hand over the city completely to the Chinese, who knows if they will destroy the previous promise.

"Of course, Mr. Mayor, you have to know that China, like the British, is also a civilized country, our commitment is reliable and can be trusted, and in the future, we hope to be able to maintain the same cooperation with you as we do now!"

Looking at the mayor in front of him, Arthur certainly will not expose his hypocrisy, politicians have always been so hypocritical, but in the future occupation of Adelaide, it will require the cooperation of local politicians. Although Arthur was not a soldier, as an agent, he also had some knowledge of how to maintain the rule of the occupied territories, which could not be ruled without the help of local politicians.

"And, Mr. Mayor, there is a saying in China called "a promise of a thousand gold", please believe that the promise we have made will never be violated, this is Chinese culture, which is fundamentally different from European culture! ”

Speaking of the advanced nature of Chinese civilization, Arthur's face was proud.

"Chinese......"

Looking at Arthur in front of him, he is a typical European, not a yellow-skinned Chinese, but how can he think of himself as Chinese?

Sheld, suddenly, asked with some curiosity.

"Mr. Arthur, did you immigrate to China?"

"No, I'm Chinese!"

Faced with Sheld's question, Arthur replied with a smile. After giving this answer, he took a cigarette from the cigarette case and lit the cigarette and looked at Sheld.

"The color of my skin doesn't change the fact that I'm Chinese! Mr. Mayor, "

Arthur never doubted that his skin color would have any impact or confusion on the fact that he was Chinese, after all, as a Chinese, he knew very well that China emphasizes more cultural identity than blood identification, just like Korea, Japan and Vietnam, they are also part of China, because they have been influenced and nurtured by Chinese culture for thousands of years.

"What do Chinese look like?"

While waiting, the people of Adelaide are full of curiosity about the upcoming Chinese, perhaps, those Chinese are their enemies, but it does not prevent ordinary people from being curious about them, and while curious, there are also some people there to preach the defense of Adelaide against the invasion of the Chinese. But their propaganda didn't get much of an impact - the truly brave men had joined the Defence Force, and had gone with the Governor to the Victorian colony, and even many of the wealthy had gone there, leaving South Australia with just ordinary civilians.

For these ordinary civilians, they also thought about leaving, but in the end they chose to stay here, after all, there is everything they have here, in this case, they can only silently pray to God......

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