"Mr. General, is it possible for us to resist the ferocious invasion of the Queenslanders without the help of Lisbon?"

Faced with the Governor's question, General Silva replied in a difficult tone after thinking for a long time; "Difficult, very difficult, this time is different from the invasion of the French and the British with a small force of three or five hundred people, but an army of tens of thousands of people has landed across the sea, the Queenslanders have proven that they are not inferior to the Dutch in combat effectiveness, and the infantry equipment has reached the world-class level, this is an extremely severe test for us, if we want to get through this pass, unless there is a miracle."

"What kind of miracle do you mean?"

"Armed civilians can endure great sacrifices, the spirit of resistance united by unity, outstanding military command, enemy mistakes, and God's mercy, so that we have no more than a 30% chance of victory."

"Oh, thirty percent is not low." Governor Bernardo Fernández was clearly in high spirits, and he did not want to lose Mozambique during his tenure, which would be a shame that would remain with the family for the rest of his life.

"There are prerequisites for that."

"Tell me?"

"First of all, the terrible Blue Dragon-class heavy cruisers you are talking about will not be able to come to East Africa, the defensive walls of Mozambique Island cannot withstand the huge artillery attack, and the fatal flaw of this defensive fortress is that the place is too small, only less than one square kilometer, and the artillery fire will cause a lot of casualties to the defending soldiers and the civilians of the city, which we cannot afford."

Governor Bernardo Fernández's smile froze on his face, and he couldn't help but shudder as he imagined the invincible power of the heavy cruiser Blue Dragon destroying a nation's navy, and he was in the middle of the city.

I pray to the Father, Our Lady and the Son, that this terrible monster of war does not come.

"Anything else?" He asked in a dry tone.

"Yes, the current news we have received is that the size of the Queenslander army is about more than 10,000 people, if the current army size is maintained and does not continue to increase, we still have a chance to reverse, otherwise it will ......"

General Silva was silent, Governor Bernardo Fernandez certainly knew what it meant otherwise, but he couldn't guarantee that the Queenslanders would stop decisively and not continue to recruit troops in the face of unfavorable war conditions.

"Anything else?"

"We have more than 70,000 white settlers in the Mozambique region, and we are able to mobilize no less than 20,000 armed civilians to fight, and the biggest difficulty is the logistics and weaponry, we must have enough rifles and ammunition, which is the premise of everything."

"I have a solution." Governor Bernardo Fernández, who felt extremely powerless in the face of the first two questions, regained his strength, seriously considered the following; "The 22,000 ounces of gold mined earlier this year are currently on the island of Mozambique and have not been shipped back to Lisbon due to the instability, and no less than 13,000 ounces are stranded in Quelimane, and I can withhold this money in the name of a wartime emergency for the purchase of weapons and ammunition and to arm all the resistance, we can find the Germans or the French, and they will be very happy to add to the British."

"That's the only good news I've heard today." General Silva was obviously not as optimistic as the Governor, and said in a heavy tone; "It is easy to arm civilians, but the combat effectiveness is worrying, and going out of the city to fight the enemy in the field is definitely self-defeating, and the wise will not take it, so the strategy adopted by our army can only be to shrink the defense, abandon a large number of white settlements and pastures in Mozambique, and all the armed forces will retreat to the two strong fortresses of Mozambique Island and Crimeane, and not give the enemy a chance to break through, which is the last prerequisite."

"This ...... I'm afraid I can't do it! ”

Hearing this request, Governor Bernardo Fernandez gasped in embarrassment.

From a military point of view, this proposal is undoubtedly pertinent and realistic, and it is also the most successful defensive strategy at present.

But the problem lies in the human heart, just imagine;

To expect those large ranchers with thousands of acres of fertile land and herds of cattle and sheep to abandon their families and businesses and bring all their men to the island of Mozambique to participate in the defensive war, and to shed their blood and sacrifice their lives for the benefit of the Kingdom of Portugal to resist the Queensland invaders, this is pure fart!

If there really is this kind of noble feelings of sacrificing a small family for everyone, it is impossible for Portugal to be annexed by Spain in history, and it is nothing more than an individual calculating his own interests.

If this is still the case at home, how can it be possible to ask the overseas colonies to give it for free?

This first of all, it doesn't make sense logically, Mozambique belongs to the overseas territory of the King of Portugal, and the lord does not send a soldier to defend the territorial rights and interests, but asks the common people to throw their heads and spill their blood, and give up their small family to generate electricity for love, where is this kind of good thing?

On the surface, Portugal has more than 70,000 white descendants in Mozambique and 100,000 indigenous armed forces, which is a formidable force.

In essence, it is a plate of loose sand that cannot be twisted into a rope.

These white descendants are willing to fight to protect the family property and the estate for generations, but it does not mean that they are willing to give everything, including property, blood and lives, to defend the island of Mozambique and Quelimane.

After a long day of discussion, Governor Bernardo Fernández and General Silva reluctantly came to a conclusion;

The island of Mozambique and Quelimane still have to be defended, and the rest of the world will have to do their best to obey the fate of God, and only God knows what will happen in the end.

While the two were talking, the guard officer of the Governor's Mansion came in with a solemn face and a letter with both hands; "Your Excellency the Governor, the urgent military situation report from Quelimane, the Queensland army of about 7,000 people has crossed the sea, joined the vanguard and gathered tens of thousands of horses, has surrounded the city of Kolimali, and asked for urgent reinforcements."

Oh sell ga!

This news was like a slap in the face, and the two shocked big men looked at each other and were silent for a long time.

The Queensland army has three flavors of Sun Tzu's Art of War;

Therefore, it is as fast as the wind, as slow as a forest, as invading as fire, as immobile as a mountain, as difficult as a cloud, and as moving as a thunderstorm.

Since they tore their faces and started fighting, they did not leave the Portuguese a chance to breathe.

Just one day's work

News of the defeat came from Clemane, and the defenders held out for less than three hours before the walls were blasted open, and the Queensland soldiers poured in, and it took a small half day to completely clear the resistance in the city, and this important city with a population of 21,000 fell to the ground.

Quelimane is the capital of Zambezi province, an important gold mining area and trading city, the second largest town after the island of Mozambique, and the only town in the whole of Mozambique with more than 10,000 people, the other being the island of Mozambique.

The loss of Clemane meant that the Portuguese had lost control of Zambezi Province, as well as of the inland Northwest and Southwest Provinces, and the remaining sporadic revolts were no longer painful.

After the loss of Clemane, the frightened Portuguese Viceroyalty ordered the defences to shrink, and the white descendants who fled from other provinces gathered in the port of Mozambique, and some of the disheartened white descendants left here by boat to return to Europe, never to return to this sad place.

Time

The island of Mozambique's population has skyrocketed, peaking at 38,500 and gradually falling back to around 35,100 as some people leave.

For more than a month, the African Expeditionary Force made every effort to consolidate its presence in Mozambique, constantly eliminating settlements and farms of white Portuguese descent, and incidentally took over the control of the black indigenous tribes in the region, expanding its influence to the southern and northern provinces.

The British immediately informed the signatories of the Berlin Conference of the fact that Queensland occupied the Mozambique region, took the lead in recognizing Queensland's colonial rule over the region, and made diplomatic efforts to promote the recognition of Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, France, Greece, and so on.

Mid-June 1886

In the case of the mainstream international public opinion, the United States, Germany and other important world powers reluctantly pinched their noses and admitted that they did not want to see the expansion of Britain's colonial power in Africa, but they were helpless to hide the hands played by the British.

Queensland's colonial rights in Mozambique were thus determined, and the Army won a round beautifully.

The Portuguese retreated to the island of Mozambique, which covers an area of just over 1.5 square kilometers, and kept fortifying the walls day and night, rearming the army, buying a large number of weapons and equipment from the German colonies, arming all men between the ages of 14 and 60, and storing a large amount of ammunition, food and fresh water, ready to hold on for a long time.

Didn't think about it

The African Expeditionary Force had no intention of attacking the island of Mozambique, and they continued to send small units of troops into various parts of Mozambique covering an area of one million square kilometers to encircle and suppress rebels and unstable factors, and requisitioned more than 80,000 strong laborers to build roads, docks, ports and towns, and started the work of Chinese immigration, starting a vigorous construction boom.

The Portuguese were stunned, the feeling was like a well-prepared gluttonous feast that no one appreciated, and it fell into nothing, and the huge gap in the heart can be imagined!

Governor Bernardo Fernández's embarrassing discovery;

Without the backing of the rich colony of Mozambique, Mozambique is just an isolated island of 1.5 square kilometers, but it is crowded with up to 35,000 people.

There was no gold, no ivory, no cattle, no sheep, no flour, no fruits, no constant imports of all kinds of specialties, and naturally there would be no trade.

The island of Mozambique has now become a giant baby who cannot take care of itself, needs to import all goods from the outside world, but has no goods to export, and the fortress-type fortress armed with nearly 20,000 people has become a huge burden that cannot be accessed.

When the Portuguese were armed to the teeth, but the African expeditionary force did not come to attack, what kind of play was this?