Two weeks later, Captain Haddock's "Thetis" arrived safely in the Dutch-controlled harbor and unloaded its cargo.

The man who came from the Boer side to pick up the goods was called Falkenberg, a tall man, although he was white, but probably because he was always running outside all day long, and the African sun was too strong. So this guy is tanned like a black man.

On the MacDonald's side of the Infantry Weapons Company, the man who represented the cooperation in the sale was Donald, who had arrived with a team of advisors four days before Captain Haddock's ship arrived.

This so-called team of advisers includes both engineers with glasses and a large group of so-called "tacticians" with thick calluses on the second section of the tiger's mouth and index finger on their right hand. Donald's line of work has two major tasks, and that is:

The first is to provide the Boers with so-called "after-sales service" and to get more money out of the hands of those Boers through this "after-sales service".

"Donald, do you think this deal between us and the Boers is a short-term or a long-term deal?" Before Donald set out, Scrooge had tested him in this way.

"I don't think this deal will last long." Donald replied, "The Boers could not have defeated the British in this war anyway." Once the conflict began, the British had to suppress them, even if they fought for their lives. Otherwise, it will be troublesome for the other colonies to follow suit. Moreover, the ambitions of those Boers themselves were not small. I don't know if it's because gold came so easily, giving them the illusion that if they have gold, they have power. As far as I can see from my contacts with the Boers these days, they are even delusional in their desire to expel the British from all of South Africa. They also don't want to think about it, although the status of the Cape of Good Hope has dropped a little after the opening of the Suez Canal, but the strategic significance of this place is still unparalleled, how could the British give up on it? And if it really wants to fight, the Boers don't have any decent industry except gold. As long as the British blockaded the coast, they would win sooner or later. Therefore, this trade is completely a short-term trade. ”

"In that case, and the fact that we have already signed a contract with them for the sale and purchase of weapons, in fact it is impossible for us to do more with these Boers. Then why do I want you to lead a team to South Africa? Scrooge continued.

"Probably to familiarize me with the whole process of arms trading." "In addition, generally speaking, the money earned by the arms trade at the time of delivery is only a part, and if the after-sales service is done well, it should be able to make more money." ”

"Very well, then you sue me, where do you think you can still make money?" Scrooge asked with satisfaction.

……

All kinds of weapons were soon transported by rail to the vicinity of Johannesburg. Then, the relevant after-sales training begins.

To be honest, the Boers fought quite well, at least much better than the Italians or Cubans that Blackwater had trained before, and if nothing else, they had at least honestly fought a small battle with the British. Of course, in the first Boer War, the British did not take it too seriously. And the Boers defeated nothing more than the so-called colonial army of the British. The British colonial army has always been nothing more than a police force to maintain law and order. For example, in World War II, if you look at the combat effectiveness of those armies in the British colonies in Asia, they are simply inferior to the KMT army. But if you really think that the British army is not even at the level of KMT, then you cannot understand how the British Empire ruled the world for a century. In fact, not to mention the level of the elite British army, even the level of the regular army of the British Commonwealth cannot be underestimated, in the Pacific War, the Australian army used machetes more than once in hand-to-hand combat to teach the self-proclaimed hand-to-hand combat expertise of little Japan to be a new man. However, the advantages of the Boers were still very prominent, they were good at ambushes, and they instinctively abandoned the old-fashioned game of queuing and killing earlier.

But apparently, the Boers did not know how to conduct a war under modern conditions. The reason why they abandoned the queue to kill was largely a habit formed in the irregular fighting in the jungle with the Zulus. They don't know much about modern warfare, especially after the Civil War, which became more efficient and bloody and brutal because of Scrooge's influence, and their impression of the war between Caucasians is still in the time of the First Boer War.

"To be honest, General Delarry, although we have provided your country with the most advanced weapons in the world, I am very pessimistic about your country's performance in possible future battles." Donald said to General Delaree of the Republic of Denansva, "Because as far as the situation stands, your army doesn't know much about how to conduct a modern war. You know, since the American Civil War, and after the War of German Unification, a lot has changed the way warfare is conducted. If your army continued to use the old tactics, it might be fine to deal with the British colonial army, which was actually the police at best, but against the regular British army, you would be crushed even with these weapons. ”

Donald knew that his words were very unkind, even very harsh. He also knew that the Boers would not accept it under any circumstances. If they were willing to admit this, they would not have the courage to resist the British, or even to compete with the British for hegemony in South Africa.

Sure enough, General Drary immediately showed a disapproving look, although out of politeness, he didn't directly throw out a little guy like Donald who dared to talk nonsense in front of him, but he was still obviously very unhappy.

"Mr. MacDonald, I think you don't know enough about our Boer army, you underestimate us, our soldiers are the bravest soldiers in the world, and no army can crush us."

"Maybe my words offended you. If so, I'd like to apologize to you. Donald knows that it's okay, even necessary, to give the other person a necessary stimulus, but it also has to be moderate, "but it has little to do with bravery." Your Excellency, I heard that you and your boys fought a lot with the Zulus, and that the Zulus were cowards? ”

"Of course not, they are very brave, even braver than the Brits we have seen."

"But I know that they are always crushed by you in battles with you, why is that?" Donald asked.

"This is because our weapons are much better than his, they only have spears and animal skin shields."

"So if the Zulus have the same weapons as you, will they be able to fight you tire?" Donald continued.

"Of course not, because they are savages. The barbarians' heads are not good! ”

"Genghis Khan, Arati are also barbarians." Donald said.

"But they're not! are only half-human, so they are a little stronger than gorillas, and even with modern weapons, they are no match for us. This discriminatory view of blacks was common among the Boers.

Donald found that his conversation was going wrong, and he wanted to lead General Delarry to say things like "the Zulu people don't fight the right way, even with good weapons, they can't beat us", but who knew that General Delarry could easily put it down to a race problem. Donald knew that if he continued the discussion with General De Larry on the question of race, it would certainly not be fruitful until the next century. So, he changed the subject and said:

"Your Excellency, do you think that if you let Temujin's soldiers use their current weapons according to the way of fighting in the fifteenth century, they will be your opponents?"

"I don't know much about how Temujin fought in his time. However, if they were that stupid, they wouldn't be able to beat us. However, I guess Temujin was not that stupid and would use the same old tactics when he got a new weapon. ”

"However, this is the problem of your army now." This time Donald finally waited for this sentence, and he immediately seized the opportunity to say so.

"How do you prove it?" General Delarry did not give in.

"So, let's go and see how Blackwater's advisory team sets up defensive positions, and then you and our advisory team do another mapping assignment?" Donald issued a challenge.

Of course, General Delarry had no reason to retreat, so he immediately said, "I think this is good. ”

……

Two hours later, General Delarry began to regret a little, because during this time, he had just witnessed how quickly the mercenaries of Blackwater had set up a defensive position. This is a typical field position, deployed only for a short period of time, consisting of two to polygonal trenches, two barbed wire, and a series of anti-infantry directional mines and well-concealed infantry gun design points.

"You see, General, our trenches have a right-angle turn every few meters. This ensures that neither enemy shells nor enemy grenades fall into the trenches will cause too many casualties at once. Well, the lethality of modern artillery you have seen it before. Our infantry artillery was placed on the anti-slope so that the enemy could not see it directly, and the artillery relied on the number of targets provided by the front for firing. It can inflict massive damage on attacking enemies. Barbed wire can hold back opponents. Slows down the opponent's attack speed...... I don't think you would be able to sit idly by and watch the British army increase if they started to send a large number of troops to South Africa, would you? Most of them will launch a preemptive attack. So how does your army plan to attack in the face of such a strong, if not stronger, defensive line? Donald posed him such a question.