Ten days later, February 2, 1886

Red Fort

"Fat oil, what the hell is this kidding me, right?"

Li Fushou looked at the urgent transoceanic telegram in his hand in disbelief, and couldn't help but spit out dirty words in shock, because the news was so amazing.

news from London;

On the morning of February 1, the British Conservative Cabinet, which had been in power for less than seven months, collapsed, and Her Majesty Queen Victoria had ordered the leader of the Liberal Party, William Yurt Gladstone, to re-form an emergency cabinet, which was a political earthquake from London.

On Li Fushou's desk was a telegram sent by Lord Charles, assistant to the Minister of Colonial Affairs, just a few days ago, saying that Sir Robert had an important letter on the question of Mozambique, which had been sent to Queensland by diplomatic mail, and that the telegram contained many words of praise for the foreign secretary, Tang Shaoyi.

Now that this important diplomatic letter is still more than a month away, and as a result, the Conservative Cabinet has collapsed.

The African Expeditionary Force contingent is still floating at sea, and it is estimated that the forward should have landed in Mozambique in the future, and everything in front of it is still dark, and the news has not been transmitted back for the time being.

At this time

Sir Robert, the colonial minister who led the landing on the shores of Mozambique, has stepped down, so ...... That...... How is a private agreement calculated?

Li Fushou really felt that 10,000 divine beasts flew over his head, not to mention this inexplicable feeling that came to his heart, it felt like a well-prepared banquet was about to start, and the back kitchen began to go to the dishes, but the invited VIPs missed the appointment for no reason.

"That...... Lord Yuanding, there are unforeseen circumstances in the sky, and people have good and bad luck, and this matter is difficult to complete. Fan Zhongzhai saw that Lord Earl's face was extremely ugly, and couldn't help but comfort him.

"Special NND, I'm suffering from the British." Li Fushou sighed and scratched his scalp with some annoyance.

How can there be a turning back arrow when the bow is opened?

The advance party of the African Expeditionary Force may have landed on the shores of Mozambique at this moment, and it is only a matter of time before the Portuguese react, and war may not necessarily break out, but skirmishes of pushing and shoving will inevitably occur.

Queensland is not afraid of fighting with the other party, but the Portuguese have no confidence, and they will not dare to do it for a while, and they will definitely urgently call Lisbon for assistance, and only after finding out the details can they take targeted measures.

This situation is like two guys fighting, Queensland ran to Portugal to provoke, originally Queensland stood far behind the big man of the United Kingdom, although he did not interfere, but full of deterrence, partiality is self-evident.

Now Queensland looks back, and there is not even a shadow of the British behind him......

In this case

If the Portuguese figure out the details of Queensland, coupled with the shouts and cheers of the royal families in Europe, the attack on Mozambique will be the real big trouble.

A similar situation can be seen in the Boer War, where Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, and Switzerland provided volunteers, France secretly provided financial aid, and other countries gave moral solidarity to isolate the British, even the British Empire, let alone Queensland.

Once the Mozambique issue is prolonged and international public opinion is surging, London, which is under huge international pressure, may retreat, and Queensland can only withdraw its troops in disgrace.

This is obviously a door-to-door bully of white people, and without the support of the British, Li Fushou really did not dare to send troops to Mozambique to spread wild, which would provoke public anger.

According to the secret agreement;

The correct posture should be that London is responsible for mediating at the diplomatic level, or pulling or pressuring some private deals, suppressing dissent before the storm is set, buying time for the African expeditionary force, and when all the dust settles, it will be fine, and the work will be called a day and the territory will be divided......

said that the good thing is yellow, can Li Fushou not be in a hurry?

He weighed it in his mind for a moment, and realized that the problem was not to the worst.

In this era, communications were extremely underdeveloped, let alone the impoverished African continent.

It is estimated that it will take three or four months to communicate back and forth in this way, and by then the advance team of the African Expeditionary Force will already have a firm foothold and will be able to respond to the development of the large force in depth.

Anyway, I can't suffer a big loss, at most I will increase the casualties.

With this period of transition, it is clear that the emergency cabinet in London has already been formed, the last Liberal government is still in power, and the Prime Minister is still Lord William Jurte Gladstone, the leader of the Liberal Party.

As for whether the Minister of the Colonies is still Lord Gulliver, according to the understanding of all parties in Li Fushou's most complicated British political arena, it is estimated that it is very suspenseful, and more than eighty percent will have to be replaced.

This meant that Queensland had to deal with a new colonial minister, who had what kind of personality, what his political leanings, and whether he was of Liberal origin. The Queensland side was completely blinded.

It cannot be ruled out that in order to reflect the broad representation of the emergency cabinet and to win over small parties in London politics, the current emergency cabinet has ceded some important positions through private deals, and the colonial minister has come to power by the leader of a small party.

What a fuck!

"Ordered the European Offices to report any latest news from London as soon as possible, and ordered the diplomatic representative Tang Shaoyi to urgently contact the proposed cabinet members, and to seek a clear reply from the Colonial Office, whether the previous secret agreement was valid?"

"Obey, Lord Yuanding, what else do you command?" Fan Zhongzhai urgently recorded it, and prepared to go back to draw up a telegram according to the Earl's wishes, and send it to London immediately.

"Alas...... I know that at this time of turmoil in the Cabinet, Downing Street must not have time to take care of the diplomatic representative Tang Zhaoyi, who knows nothing about the Mozambique plan, and the colonial department has no leader, and it is difficult to give a clear answer to this, Tang Shaoyi is facing a very difficult situation......" After thinking about it, Li Fushou continued; "Pass me on my order, grant him the right to make a decision on the spot, and have the authority to withdraw £50,000 from Huitong Bank, only by reporting it afterwards. Hope you have good news! ”

"Obey, then I'll go and do something."

"Go ahead, oh...... By the way, the second Majestic-class battleship built by the Red River shipyard will be delivered in the near future, right? ”

"Uh...... Let me think. Fan Zhongzhai was stumped by the sudden question, and replied after thinking about it carefully; Yes, the second ironclad battleship was launched in September last year, and now it has been outfitted at the shipyard, and I will check the specific delivery time. ”

"Then just find a reason to delay the delivery, the specific time...... Wait for me to be informed. ”

"This ...... Humble obedience. ”

Fan Zhongzhai hesitated to persuade something, but was glared back by Li Fushou, and hurriedly responded in a panic, and hurriedly left to do things with the documents under his armpits.

After seeing him leave, Li Fushou walked to the wine cabinet in an irritable mood and took out a crystal wine glass, opened a bottle of French dry red and poured a glass, took a big sip to calm his mood, and then walked to the edge of the sofa and sat down.

A cigar was lit, enveloping the figure in a strong tobacco atmosphere.

He has done everything he can, and the rest is left to fate, God willing!

This expedition to Mozambique was completely different from the East Indies, and the last time Li Fushou was the first to discover and declare the possession of Ilian Island, which was renamed Shangri-La Island, the matter was recognized by the British Colonial Office and was not widely disputed in the European region.

The Dutch colonists took the lead in provoking the war, and Queensland responded actively as a defensive side, and extended the war to Borneo, which is reasonable and reasonable.

Mozambique, located in central East Africa, is completely different, and if you count from the Portuguese first landing in the region in the 15th century, it is still in the era of the Ming Dynasty, and it has been more than 300 years since then.

Even since the Portuguese wiped out several local indigenous kingdoms and unified the middle and lower Zambezi River basins, it has been more than 100 years.

The Queensland army went to the door with open fire, making it clear that the bullying of Portugal had fallen.

The Zambezi River is known locally as the "River Liba", which means "great river" in indigenous language. With a total length of 2,660 kilometers and a basin area of 1.35 million square kilometers, the river is the fourth largest river in Africa and the largest in southern Africa.

The Zambezi River originates in the mountains at an altitude of 1,300 meters on the northwestern border of Zambia, and flows through Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mozambique before flowing into the Mozambique Strait in the Indian Ocean through the Malawi mainstream.

On the other side of the Mozambique Channel is the Kingdom of Madagascar, which Li Fushou has in mind.

Thinking of Li Fushou of the Kingdom of Madagascar, he snickered, the French finally retreated, and the local indigenous kingdom celebrated the victory with singing and dancing, and within two months of cessation, infighting began again, and the country was in chaos.

The death of a powerful queen who had ruled the indigenous kingdom for decades left the court divided into two factions and riots spread from the city to the countryside......

Let's make trouble, the more fierce the trouble, the better, it's really good to forget the pain, there will be no reason for such a backward and ignorant indigenous kingdom to be destroyed if it is not destroyed.

It won't be long before the melons are ripe.

With the acquisition of Mozambique, Queensland's African strategy is generally facing a perfect shape.

The rest ...... It's a question of how to operate.

There are too many various aspects involved in this, and Queensland does not have the energy to stretch its hands so long for the time being, so it can be put aside for a few years, and according to the spirit of the Berlin Conference, it must first occupy the territory.

Development and population policy is a matter for the future, and it is appropriate to take it slowly.

Now the main thing is to develop Borneo and Shangri-La, taking into account the Australian mainland, which is the current big deal.

At Queensland's current financial resources, there are very few resources that can be allocated to the African region.

Li Fushou has no interest in the arid inland areas of Africa, where mountains, deserts and the Gobi divide the oases into pieces, and the basic transportation facilities are equal to zero, especially in the inland areas, where there is no trace of modernity at all, and it is still a semi-primitive tribal life.

It is possible that with the wave of awakening of African national consciousness decades later, Queenslanders of different skin colors will have to withdraw from the gray stage, repeating the historical scene of European countries losing their African colonies.

This kind of thankless stupid thing, Li Fushou is not willing to do it, isn't it good to invest money in Shangri-La Island? Isn't it fragrant to develop Borneo?