The news of the victory of the British caused immediate repercussions in the market, because of this victory, it was widely believed that the British Empire would soon achieve a final victory over the Boers. In this way, the output of South Africa's gold and diamond mines will be restored, and even because these mines have not ceased production during the war, the British-owned gold mines are still in production after being seized by the government of the Transvaal, but they cannot be shipped out because the sea routes are blocked. Once the war ended with a British victory, the gold would still be on the market. Therefore, the futures prices of other precious metals also fell with this news.

……

The capital of the Transvaal Republic, Johannesburg.

President Kruger is deliberating with his cabinet members about the war.

"If we don't win Cape Town quickly, we won't be able to achieve our number one goal. Now, we have to deal with this war according to the second set of filings. General Piette Joubert thought that in the present situation, we should induce the British army to disperse its forces, and then concentrate the superior forces to fight a beautiful war of annihilation or two. Defense Secretary Pitt first paraphrased the views of the generals.

"How does General Pierre plan to disperse the British?" President Kruger asked.

"General Pierre asked the government to allow him to abandon some of the cities and colonies that had already been captured." Pitt went on to explain, "The British are now quite limited in terms of the total number of troops they have brought in. If, for every time we abandon one of these strongholds, they will need to leave a part of their army behind to defend it. Moreover, since they won all the way and did not receive fierce resistance, the British naturally did not send more reinforcements. On the other hand, when we evacuate some important cities, we can also do some damage to some important facilities that are very important for the war. It would also make the British more anxious to march and take these cities before we destroy them. In this way, it will be easy for them to make the decision to divide their forces and advance quickly, and will even leave some baggage troops and heavy artillery behind for the sake of speed. In this way, we will have the opportunity to concentrate our forces, destroy some of them, and take advantage of the mobility of our cavalry units to attack, destroy those baggage units that are left behind and lack protection. ”

"What do our American and German friends think about this tactic?" President Kruger asked.

"Our American friends think that Britain is actually quite optimistic, and they think that three divisions are enough to defeat us in a short time. Therefore, the British did not make the decision to continue to mobilize more troops to South Africa. And three divisions of the British, used in such a vast land, it is conceivable that there will be a shortage of troops. So they all thought that General Pierre's idea was justified. As for our German friends, they thought that the war could be prolonged, so he suggested that we should prepare more weapons and ammunition. Of course, you know, both the Americans and the Germans want to be able to sell us more weapons and make more money. An official from the diplomatic department replied.

"What about our weapons stockpiles?" President Kruger asked.

"At the moment, it should be sufficient. And, now, if you want to continue buying, you have to trans-shipment through the area of the Guò Portuguese. The Portuguese would probably not have dared to allow ships loaded with weapons to use their ports. Another official replied.

"American friends say they have a way to evade the British and get weapons to us, but the transportation capacity is very limited and the transportation cost is high." The official replied.

This is completely understandable, to forcibly break through the blockade of the British Navy and send supplies over, the risk is not ordinarily large, and every business in the world has a basic principle, that is, the greater the risk, the corresponding profit must be higher. However, since the weapons reserve is still sufficient, there is no need to spend a lot of money on these things for the time being. So the president just nodded and didn't go on.

"Well, do you have any opinions on General Pierre's strategy?" President Kruger asked.

He looked around and saw that everyone was silent. So he smiled and said: "One of my elders said that professional things should be handed over to professional people. We are not as good as Pierre in the matter of war, and since he thinks it is best to do so, let's do what he wants. ”

……

In the University of Cleveland's room, in addition to the aircraft, a submarine is also being tested. In fact, submarines are nothing new. Especially in the United States, it's nothing new. As early as the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, Leonardo da Vinci, one of the legendary all-round geniuses in European history, proposed the idea of submarines, and in the eighteenth century, during the American Revolutionary War, the American David Bushnell built a human-powered submarine called the "Turtle". The submarine is filled with water from the tank through a guò foot-operated valve and can dive up to 6 meters underwater for about 30 minutes. The boat is equipped with two hand-crank propellers, which allow the boat to achieve a speed of about 3 knots and control the lifting and lowering of the boat. There is a manual pressure water pump in the boat to discharge the water in the water tank and make the boat float. Carry an explosive bag that can be detonated with a timed fuse on the outside of the boat, which can be manipulated and tethered to the bottom of the enemy ship. Only one person is accommodated inside to operate the rudder and propeller. In 1776, the Turtle attempted to attack HMS HMS Eagle, which was unsuccessful, but ushered in the era of submarine use in naval warfare.

And the first example of a submarine sinking a warship was also pioneered by the Americans. During the Civil War, the South's Hores Raura Hanley built a larger submarine that used pole mines to carry out suicide attacks. and successfully sank a frigate of the Federal Navy during the war. Of course, the submarine was also destroyed in the explosion of the pole mine.

With the advent of the ammonia industry, the production capacity of large pressure-resistant tanks has greatly developed, and larger, steel-made, mechanically propelled submarines have also appeared. At the very least, the US Navy already has in its hands a fish with a displacement of up to 600 tons using a hybrid diesel and electric motor, using compressed air. Thunder as a powered submarine.

Therefore, ordinary submarines simply do not need to be secretly built in a small shipyard attached to the University of Cleveland's big room. This submarine is definitely out of the ordinary. It was a submarine for secret transport missions, and while the Morgan-MacDonald shipyard could have built such a submarine, Scrooge didn't want Morgan to know that he had built such a submarine...... This is an epoch-making giant submarine with a displacement of up to 1650 tons. Because it was intended for transport, the submarine was not armed in any way. But its power is quite strong, it is equipped with a large diesel engine of 300 horsepower and an electric motor of the same horsepower, as well as a battery pack of more than ten tons, which can run at a speed of 12 knots on the sea surface, and 7-8 knots even when it is underwater. At the same time, advances in the pressure-resistant shell have also made it possible to dive to depths close to 100 meters.

Submarines can travel nearly 2,000 nautical miles on fuel alone, a range that is not enough to supply arms to the Boers in South Africa, but the situation is completely different if it is equipped with a special transport and supply vessel.

In fact, both the British and the Boers underestimated the will of their opponents to fight. The British thought that if they taught the Boers a lesson, they would surrender obediently, crying and shouting that the shackles that the British had given them would be like bracelets and necklaces. The Boers also believed that the British were cowards, and that if enough British were killed, they would be able to give up their gold ambitions for South Africa and obediently retract their claws. But I don't want to think about it, what is called an empire, if you see money, you still spare your life, and you are afraid of the dead, you are also worthy of being called an empire?

Therefore, whether it is the Boers or the British, their preparation for war is actually not sufficient. The Boers prepared only weapons and ammunition for regular operations, and as for weapons and ammunition for long-term guerrilla warfare, they were not fully prepared. And their arsenals were also concentrated in several well-fortified major cities. As soon as these cities fell, there were big problems with the replenishment of their weapons and ammunition. The British, on the other hand, would have sealed off their shores and cut off their roads to the Portuguese-controlled districts. At that time, they will have to rely on such sea freight from the Americans, and at this time, these arms will definitely be sold for a sky-high price.

However, if it was just to sell arms, Scrooge would not have needed such special thoughts. Although the profit margin of such a trade is very high, how many weapons can be transported into it by one or two submarines alone? Even if it is sold at a sky-high price, the total income is still limited, at least, for the current Scrooge, this is already a small amount of money.

This submarine has an even bigger mission, which is to get the gold out of the Boers!

The Boers had already deposited some of their gold in the coffers of the MacDonald Venture Bank, but Scrooge knew that the Boers had more gold in their hands, and that the amount they had obtained from the seizure of the gold mines opened by the British immediately after they declared war with the British, and what they had mined themselves thereafter, was definitely quite a lot. By the middle and late stages of the war, when the security of their city was under severe threat, Scrooge believed that the Boers would agree to transport the gold to the vault of the MacDonald Venture Bank. In this way, even if in the end, the Boers were defeated, with this money, the Boers would have an economic basis to work for the restoration of the country.

However, Scrooge knew that the Boers would not be able to regain their country, and that their government-in-exile would soon be dispersed, and that by that time, the gold would be stored forever in MacDonald's coffers if a few key people were bribed, and although nominally it was someone else's, what was the difference between it and MacDonald's? R1058