Dar.

Thursday, February 11, 1915. On the 28th day of the lunar calendar, morning.

The skies over the Indian Ocean before dawn were still shrouded in milky white fog, and on the foggy sea, the hazy figures of several warships could be faintly seen rising and falling with the waves.

Over the past few months, the port of Dar es Salaam, a coastal city that has just become the capital of Central East Africa, has demonstrated its importance as a base camp for Chinese troops in the Indian Ocean, with dockyards providing maintenance for warships sailing in the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean, farms feeding expeditionary forces, and a recuperation ground for the expeditionary force's seriously wounded.

It can be said that the city and the colony have shown their importance as a colony.

Dar es Salaam has been expanding the port for the past few months, and there are thousands of drowsy, awake black labourers lazily carrying tools pushing stones around the site, and some of the apparent overseers or port officials shouting and reprimanding lazy labourers - the reality has proved that their effect is equal to zero, and blacks are lazy, often only the whip will work on them, so that when the reprimand fails to work, they have not yet become accustomed to the East African "way of working" With the permission of the dock officer, the overseer raised the whip in his hand. A few minutes later, under the whips of the overseers, the lazy blacks finally picked up the tools in their hands and threw themselves into the construction of the docks.

In the low abrupt sound of the valley, a white motorboat from the customs sailed off the shore and approached the warship in the morning fog in the distance. The lazy black laborers were not even interested in looking at the motorboats, they were not the blacks of the barbaric tribes in the movies and novels who had never seen the world, they even embraced Christianity.

Not to mention such a small motorboat, a warship hundreds of times larger than it, they had seen it before, and they were not surprised by such a small ship at all, only those old hats who had just come from the inland would be amazed by the steamer.

Standing on the small motorboat, Zhao Defang looked at everything around him with curiosity when he first came to Dar es Salaam, life is so wonderful, when he thought he would work in a certain customs, he unexpectedly became an official of the newly created Dar es Salaam customs - a colonial official.

Colonial officials, for the rest of the world's great powers, this name is not unfamiliar, but for the Chinese, this is a very new term, China is learning how to manage the colonies, is also learning how to be a colonial official, and compared to the Pacific colonies, the former German East African colonies with a population of millions are undoubtedly the best place to practice, which is why it is currently filled with a large number of young administrative officials, who will learn how to be colonial officials here.

"In the famous Franco-Australian port of strategic importance in the Turkish province of Baghdad, our brave and victorious expeditionary force dealt a decisive final blow to the crumbling house of Turkey. The fiasco of Basra and Port Faou meant that the Turks would have to withdraw from Baghdad,......"

Wang E, who was by the small motorboat, read aloud with a newspaper.

"The victory of the port of Faou, which is tantamount to the crumbling rule in the Turkish province of Baghdad, gives the final blow......"

When Wang E said this, several classmates around him showed a kind smile, this sentence Since the expeditionary force landed in the Arabian Peninsula, on average, three days ago, the newspapers will publish the expeditionary force to give the final blow to Turkey's crumbling rule, and every battle is "decisive", every battle is a "final blow". …,

The Turks, who should have collapsed countless times a long time ago, were still able to magically wait for the expeditionary force to give them the "decisive final blow" again on the next battlefield, and then the invincible and invincible Chinese expeditionary force once again won the "decisive victory" of the "final blow".

In short, the so-called good news, nothing more than that.

"Decisive victory forever!"

Laughter poured out of their mouths, and when the laughter fell, Wang E spoke.

"Regardless of whether he is decisive or the final blow, anyway, our casualties are not many, since the beginning of the war, a total of 10,000 casualties are not worth mentioning compared to the Europeans......"

Before he finished speaking, he was interrupted by Zhao Defang.

"That's because they're facing the Turks, and how many troops we put there, and how many troops the Turks have, you see......"

Zhao Defang's hand pointed towards the entrance of Dar es Salaam Port, and there was a white cruise ship parked in the berth area at the entrance, one side of the cruise ship was painted with a big red cross, it was a hospital ship from the Arabian Peninsula, Dar es Salaam was the location of the first-class medical station of the expeditionary force, and after the expeditionary force sent troops to the Arabian Peninsula, there was a steady stream of wounded people transferred from the front line.

"According to the statistics of the Customs Department, this is the third time that the "New Oriental" has sent wounded people to Dar es Salaam, and how many wounded can be transported in the three times? If nothing else, just look at the requisitioned theaters and schools, and you will know whether the casualties are big or small, I'm afraid only God knows! ”

Although Zhao Defang didn't know what the battle situation was on the front line, and he didn't know how many wounded were sent to Dar es Salaam for treatment, but because of his work, he still knew that the "New Oriental" hospital ship had come three times, and there were two other navy hospital ships that had come to Dar es Salaam. Five ships in front and back, how many wounded were transported? And correspondingly, how many wounded are there at the front? I'm afraid it's not as simple as 10,000 casualties.

"But no, you didn't see that the gymnasiums in Dar es Salaam have been requisitioned as field hospitals, and the government agencies are centralized to make room for the wounded, there are too many wounded, there are so many wounded sent here, I really don't know how many casualties there are on the front line!"

When mentioning the casualties on the front line, the expressions of several people became serious at the same time, and in the end, Wang E said without complaints.

"I really don't know why they are hiding the real situation on the front line!"

That's not simple, it's because I'm afraid that the casualties will be too large, and then someone in Congress will take the opportunity to oppose this "unjustifiable" war! ”

(It was supposed to be updated yesterday as planned, but the result was ...... In the past two days, I have been speechless and have dysentery, vomiting and diarrhea, "losing weight" nine pounds in two days, and I want to die, and my vision was blurred last night! I worked hard today, and I only barely coded these 2,000 words, I hope you can understand! ）

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