It won't take long - Qin Lang trusts his judgment, but in fact the situation is moving more quickly than he predicted - on the second day of Christmas, December 26, to the cheers of thousands of supporters, a volunteer army of 1,000 German, Dutch, Belgian, French, Russian, Italian and Scandinavian volunteers left Europe for the Transvaal to support the just cause of the Boers. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

This was the first group of volunteers, followed by the second: on the 27th, London was warned that a cargo ship carrying fifty radical Irish anti-British elements and two hundred American volunteers had left the port of New York the day before Christmas and was bound for Lorenzo-Marques in the Portuguese colony of Mozambique.

Then, on the twenty-eighth in Berlin, a man named Bedholt. Coster's retired German army colonel declared that he had gathered 1,300 retired officers and enlisted men into a volunteer army to march to the Transvaal to defend the independence and freedom of the Boers; But only one day later, the size of Colonel Coster's Volunteer Army was increased to three thousand men, because two other officers, retired artillery commander Heinz Bush. Lieutenant Colonel Saxenberg and retired cavalry officer Siegfritt. Major Fritag joined them with the Volunteer Army they had formed.

However, this was not the final size of Colonel Coster's Volunteer Army - by December 30, near the end of 1898, the fourth German Volunteer Army, retired Bavarian Lieutenant Colonel Friedrich Friedrich. Geishard's Volunteer Army also joined, bringing the size of the Colonel's Volunteer Army to four thousand, including three thousand four hundred infantry and six hundred cavalry, with twenty artillery pieces and six machine guns - one felt that it did not look like a real Volunteer Army.

But it was the Volunteer Army - when the British Foreign Secretary protested, the German Ambassador replied that Colonel Coster and his soldiers were volunteers and had nothing to do with the German Government, and certainly would not be interfered with by the Government, because it was the freedom of the German people to organize the Volunteer Army......

The protests of the British had no effect, and the situation continued to deteriorate:

On 2 January, Wilhelmshaven, after receiving the cheers of at least 100,000 excited German civilians, Colonel Coster and his volunteers boarded the transport ship and sailed south;

On January 5, retired Navy Lieutenant Commander Gustav Murphy. Rodel began to gather volunteers, and within a day four hundred retired soldiers answered his call, and the fifth German Volunteer Army was formed;

On 9 January, the British government was again warned that 300 Irish anti-British elements and about 100 American volunteers had left Boston;

On 13 January, the Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, Cecil. Sir Milner urgently reported that a Dutch-flagged merchant ship had run aground near the Cape of Good Hope, and that four thousand Mauser rifles and one million rounds of ammunition had been accidentally found on board during the rescue by the maritime police, and that a crew member admitted that the weapons would be unloaded in Lorenzo-Marques;

On 17 January, the German Minister for Foreign Affairs met with the British Ambassador and conveyed to him the "very regrettable" news that a large-scale rebellion had broken out among the indigenous soldiers of the colonial forces in South-West Africa, and that although they had been suppressed, some 600 soldiers with weapons had fled and were moving east......

The British smelled of intrigue and war.

But at first, their actions were still protest: London believed that Berlin would not risk a full-scale war with Britain to provide military aid to the Transvaal...... Not only military aid, Berlin even sent a large number of soldiers, who seemed to want to participate directly in the war......

There can be no doubt that it is not fundamentally different from a formal declaration of war, and the German government should be aware of this danger and therefore control its own actions.

The British believed that the Germans did not want a war with them yet. Of course, as an attempt to expand the German Empire further, the Germans were trying to intervene in the Transvaal-British conflict, hoping to gain some benefits, but as soon as Great Britain gave a clear warning, they would immediately withdraw their hands and leave the Boers aside.

The confidence of the British was very strong, so they simply turned the "protest" into a "strong protest".

The German government's reply was the same as before: every German soldier who went to Africa had been discharged, they were volunteers, they did not represent the German Reich, and of course the Reich would not take direct action to restrain their actions.

"German citizens enjoy full freedom," replied the German ambassador when the British Foreign Secretary met him with a strong protest, "and in fact our Foreign Office had warned these ex-servicemen of the danger of going to the Transvaal Republic, but they decided to go there anyway." So what can we do? It is impossible for the police to arrest all these veterans. ”

"On the other hand," the ambassador continued, "the volunteers who went to the Transvaal included citizens of many countries, and the popular population supported their actions by holding frequent rallies to protest against the British Government's gross interference with the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Transvaal Republic." Personally, I believe that the British government should review its Transvaal policy, rather than accusing German citizens of organizing volunteer armies and preparing to use force to defend the independence and freedom of the Boers......"

Finally, the British realized that things were going in the worst direction: it was obvious that the Germans did not want to retract their hands to their original positions, but intended to challenge the majesty of Great Britain in a sneaky way, while betting that the British would not declare war on them because of these moves.

Unfortunately, the Germans guessed right.

Great Britain could not have declared war on Germany over the Transvaal question - although British politicians knew it well. Germany had become another continental power after France, the new enemy of Great Britain, and sooner or later a war would break out between the two countries - and if war were to be declared on Germany now, it would only benefit the rest of the world.

Britain's enemy is not only Germany, but it is not only the enemy that will pose a threat to Britain's interests, but also the present ally.

The British did not want to give any enemy or potential enemy an opportunity, and they had to eliminate by other means those troubles that Germany had created on the Transvaal question.

And the easiest way is to put more forces into a fierce attack and solve the biggest problem once and for all.

As a result, London decided to increase the number of soldiers sent to South Africa to 40,000 to form a new South African Expeditionary Force, which was led by the war hero Redfuss, who had suppressed Ireland. Admiral Buller commanded; Unfortunately, either the British government did not intend to keep it strictly secret, or some of the "journalists" did an overly good job, in any case, the news was quickly leaked and soon published in the newspapers of Paris, Rome and Berlin, so that the Transvaal government was also informed.

Paul. Kruger moved quickly, canceling military and police leave, and at the same time conscripting the militia to bring the armed forces into combat readiness; Then, on 12 February, he sent an ultimatum to London, demanding that Britain cease sending troops to South Africa, withdraw all troops arriving in South Africa after Christmas, submit all disputed issues to diplomatic arbitration, and demand an answer within 48 hours - and on 13 February, according to the Colonial Secretary of State Joseph Brown. Chamberlain's order, Sir Milner replied to Kruger, refusing all his demands.

This means only one thing: on 14 February, the Federal Parliaments of the Transvaal Republic and the Orange Free State[2] declared war on the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

War broke out.

Finally, war broke out.

Qin Lang got the news on the train to New York, through the newspaper. Of course, this is not to say that the spies he ordered Fissborne to send to Germany did not work, on the contrary, they sent back a lot of information: the number of personnel and equipment of the German volunteers, the names of almost all the officers and the units in which they had served, and even the evaluations that some of them received during their service...... However, it was obviously impossible for these spies to determine the exact time when the war began.

Because even the British government could not have mastered that time. The intelligence officers could only be sure of one thing: the Boers would attack before the South African expeditionary force arrived, even if most of their reinforcements were still on the way. After all, only in this way will they be able to seize the initiative on the battlefield and gain some tactical advantage for themselves, otherwise the Transvaal and Orange will become colonies of Great Britain in a very short time.

But Qin Lang knows better: Redfuss. Admiral Buller suffered a serious setback and had to hand over command to Lord Roberts and General Kitchener; The British would commit 450,000 soldiers to southern Africa – including nearly 260,000 soldiers, about 110,000 volunteers, 50,000 colonial soldiers, and 30,000 soldiers from Canada, Australia, and New Zealand – and then end the war with the Boers in three years.

He had many opportunities to participate in this war, in several ways, mercenaries, weapons and equipment, technical guidance...... There is also financial support. But to do this last thing, he had to ask for a person's opinion and go with him.

An emperor.

Luckily, he was on his way to visit the emperor.

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Note: Maputo-Lourenço-Marques is the Chinese transliteration of the English transliteration of Maputo's Portuguese

Note 2: Orange is another country founded by the Boers (to be continued, if you want to know what happened next, please log in to the www.qidian.com, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) (To be continued.) )