(The previous text of Mombasa and Bagamoyo was messed up and has now been corrected.) ）

Although Mombasa was the territory of the Omani Empire at this time, with the development of trade between the East and the West, the great powers became more and more interactive, and even the overlord of the Indian Ocean, Said the Great, felt powerless.

Although it took him a few years to rebuild the fleet and increase his military prowess to the next level, the cannons of the Austrian side became a lingering shadow in the mind of Said the Great.

The Austrian Empire occupied Tanzania, and the British tossed and turned on both sides of the Gulf of Aden to make it clear that Sima Zhao's intentions were clear.

The British instigated the nomadic tribes of the Somali region to revolt against the Omani Empire in the southern part of the Gulf of Aden, and directly occupied the city of Aden (Port of Aden) in the north.

The historical Omani Empire did not react to the Somali betrayal, and even sent its own blessings.

However, at this time, due to the frankincense and myrrh business with the Austrian Empire, the merchants of the Omani Empire resolutely opposed Somali independence, and the local farmers were even more afraid of losing their markets and land.

So Saeed the Great planned to have a glass of wine to release the military power, and the Somali chieftains wanted to assassinate the king of Qin with a handful of jingke.

After that, both sides declared that the other was the enemy of the "frame boil", and they were forced to fight back.

Somali nomadic troops burned down farmland planted by the Omanis, while the latter sent a fleet to sweep up its coastal areas, destroying almost all the ports in its path.

The purpose of the former was to force the latter to leave, while the purpose of the latter was to warn the British not to intervene. At this time, there were only a few hundred British troops in the city of Aden, and the most valuable one was a coal warehouse.

Seeing the warships of the Omani Empire showing off their might outside, the British troops in the city of Aden naturally knew what this meant, so they all shrank in the city, and forbade anyone to leave the port so as not to stimulate a sensitive nerve of the other party.

It is clear that the first round of confrontation between the two sides was won by the Omani Empire, because their goal was achieved, and the nomadic tribes of Somalia had nothing to gain but to provoke the anger of the opposing merchant class and destroy some farmland.

What followed was the brutal land war, and as one of the few army talents in the Omani Empire, Al Haldi was trained by British instructors since he was a child, and he felt that even if he encountered the French army, he could have the strength to fight.

(At the time, it was widely believed that the French Army was the strongest in the world.) ）

Al Haldi brought 8,000 soldiers and supplies from 5,000 peaks to Hargeisa, the stronghold of the Somali tribal alliance.

Soon after the landing, the troops of the two sides met unexpectedly, and the Omani Empire, as the overlord of the western Indian Ocean, showed its due strength.

In the end, the Omani Empire wiped out more than 300 people, captured more than 2,000 people, and more than 1,000 supplies and gold and silver treasures at the cost of only 59 people.

(Feng refers to a camel.) ）

After the victory in the first battle, Al Haldi made it all the way to the city of Hargeisa, and the city surrendered in less than half a day under artillery bombardment.

But the war was not over, and the nomadic tribes of Somalia took full advantage of their strengths and began to attack the supply convoys of the Omani Empire.

In the end, the Omanis were forced to abandon their inland cities and retreat to the coastal areas, and the Somalis did not have a hard time, and their living space was drastically reduced.

At the same time, the loss of trade routes with Omani merchants made life extremely difficult, and they had to rely on trade with the Abyssinians to survive.

To outsiders, this was nothing more than a civil war in the Omani Empire, and Said asserted his hegemony over the western Indian Ocean to the British.

But this is meaningless to the British, who have already occupied the port of Aden, because their goal has been achieved, and it does not matter whether the Somalis will succeed or not, whether they will be free

In addition to Somalia, what is causing even more headache for the Omani Empire is the rise of the Second Saudi Empire in the north. Although Najd had less than 200,000 men at this time, it was very fanatical about expanding its territory.

The former ruler of Najd, Ibn Shunat, was a fanatical religious man, and although he went to war and conquered cities, Sa'id did not see him as an opponent.

However, the new king Faisal chose a policy of softness to integrate local forces, and at the same time began to marry extensively, and constantly befriended the British.

This put so much pressure on Said that he even considered sending a large army to destroy Najd, but it was still nominally Ottoman territory.

The first would offend the mighty Ottoman Empire by doing so, and the second and most crucial problem was that Najd was too poor.

In 1846, the entire Najd region had less than 100,000 pounds in taxes, a population of less than 200,000, and its main industries were sheep raising and wool gathering.

Coupled with the fact that the land is vast and sparsely populated, and he is good at guerrilla warfare, Saeed is afraid that Najd will be the second Somalia. this

In addition, the French and Portuguese are also haunting East Africa more and more frequently, and the Omani Empire, a hen that lays golden eggs, may not be able to save Mombasa.

Said thought for a long time and finally came up with a solution that would give half of his sovereignty as a dowry to the Austrian Empire, which would be run by both countries.

As a result, income from Mombasa will be cut in half, but it will be guaranteed in the long term.

Said had a good idea, but in fact, according to European custom, Mombasa was at most the personal property of Archduke Friedrich, not the Austrian Empire.

However, the document ended up in Franz's hands, and he certainly knew what was going on. To be honest, Franz doesn't think much of Mombasa's small place, given the limited size of its port and its low ceiling.

And whether it is Bagamoyo or Dar es Salaam, the ultimate goal is to replace Mombasa's position at this time.

There is also this gift that seems to be the other party's blood loss, but in fact, it is secretly murderous. Because once the Austrian Empire accepted this gift, it would be equivalent to carrying the burden of dealing with the great powers for the Omani Empire.

But Franz doesn't care, because Mombasa is really not worth mentioning to him, so he will maintain the status of Mombasa free trade port, and Franz will not step into the fire pit because of this small temptation.

A small appeasement of the uneasy allies was also due, so Franz decided to reluctantly accept it on Friedrich's behalf.

The ownership is Friedrich's, the management is Franz's, and it is fair to divide the accounts fifty-fifty.

In fact, this kind of windfall is not at all controllable for the average nobleman, but as one of the richest family members in the Austrian Empire, this money is not so important.

Friedrich's treatment of the money was to allocate it directly to the Navy's military expenses, and Franz agreed with that.

The marshal himself spent money on the construction of warships, admire, admire.

Franz also wrote a letter to Said, telling the ally how to get out of the situation.

That's "having more children, more land." ”

Although this is a headless sentence in the eyes of many people, it is a golden word in the eyes of Said.

In fact, the population of the Omani Empire was too small, and there were still two-thirds of slaves in it.

If the Omani Empire can directly emigrate 300,000 people to Somalia, does it still need to be afraid of the threat of nomadic tribes? Just kill the enemy and you can sit back and relax.

The same is true of the threat from Najd and the Great Powers, and all fears come from the lack of population. Then in return, the Austrian Empire would support the Omani Empire in colonizing the Kingdom of Malawi.

——

The Great Lakes region of the Kingdom of Malawi was one of the richest regions in East Africa at this time, but it was worth the price to tie the Omani Empire to its chariot.

At this time, the Austrian Empire did not have a naval force sufficient to defend its colonies, so even if it was a hypocrisy, it had to establish good relations with the hegemon of the western Indian Ocean.

Bagamoyo, taking advantage of the monsoon and ocean currents, arrives with ships full of Dalit laborers, and then carries away sisal, hides, bushmeat, grain, and other goods that no one wants in Tanzania.

Although bush meat was forbidden in the Austrian colonies, the unique taste of the food was a favorite of the Indian maharajas.

Mysterious jungle meat with secret curry and a bowl of fragrant Ganges water, this is the luxurious and erosive life of Indian princes.

In addition, due to the sudden war, prices on the Indian subcontinent skyrocketed, and the most significant increase in them was food, for no other reason because it was hard currency.

Coupled with the fact that British reinforcements arrived from all directions and needed a lot of supplies, the price of food in India this year was higher than in the Omani Empire and Abyssinia.

With the arrival of a large number of laborers, the yield of crops in Tanzania will be further increased. Within the next five years, the development of the coastal area and the original Seven Kingdoms site will be completed, and then it will advance inland.

However, this trade between the Viceroyalty of Tanzania and India could not last long, because the resources of the two sides overlapped very much, but fortunately, the South Seas and the Far East could complement each other.

More than 80,000 workers have been brought in in less than a year, which is already a very good achievement.

Consider that the route from colonial California to Japan was seven times larger than that of the western Indian Ocean, but only 50,000 laborers were brought into California itself, of whom nearly 20,000 died.

The labor sold by the shogunate was very cheap, but the shipping cost was really not low, so the loss in California this time was not small.

Speaking of the Tanzanian colony, with the further increase in the number of Dalit laborers, and the introduction of the colonial government's policy of "black" and "black".

Some European scholars commented that Indians in the colonial period only worked and did not eat meat, in fact, except for some vegetarians, the main reason was that they could not afford to eat meat.

The attitude of the Tanzanian colonies towards these Dalit laborers was close to free-range, coupled with small animals running around the African savannah.

This led to a catastrophe in Tanzania, where the Dalits slaughtered small animals with much higher efficiency than the indigenous blacks, almost to the extent of Operation Disc.

The natives, who had lost their tribal shelter, were wiped out, but it also solved the problem of black exiles that had plagued the colonies.

Otherwise, the colonists would have to hire Ambrera soldiers every time they went out, which was not only a waste, but also a sign of the incompetence of local officials.

Then there's the issue of infrastructure, otherwise every rainy season would be a shuffle, a random realignment of roads, or the smoothing of farmland, and a few large rivers would be randomly diverted every year to roam freely on the great plains.

Soon, however, more nasty news reached Vienna, and that a steppe king had emerged in the interior of East Africa, calling himself "the king of the three million Eastern Bantus", ready to march eastward.

The destination happened to be the Tanzanian colony of the Austrian Empire, and Franz didn't think that the other side could really get millions of natives to fight him.

But this was a completely non-existent event in history, which annoyed Franz, and he wondered if something stranger would happen after he went to destroy the tribe.

However, this matter still needs to be taken seriously, three million is naturally impossible, but theoretically there should be two or three hundred thousand people, and then half of the old and weak women and children who cannot be beaten, and then half of the logistics and management personnel will be removed.

Seventy or eighty thousand, this was already the greatest challenge facing the Austrian Empire in Africa.

Although they had encountered more numerous countries before, the primitive agrarian civilization was far less capable of mobilizing than the nomads, who could use the whole army as a soldier.

Franz felt that the increase of 5,000 troops was considered a lot of respect for the other party, and on the other hand, the reason why those Dalit laborers suddenly went to war with the Kingdom of Ngoni was found.

It was a missionary who took the opportunity to heal the sick and save people, took the opportunity to preach to Dalit laborers, and then picked an imaginary enemy at random, which led to a war.

(This is one of the consequences of the abuse of religious power, Ngoni is an indigenous kingdom, and what if one day these people suddenly go to the colonies of the British Empire?) ）

Healing the sick and saving people is a powerful tool for missionaries, and one of the essential skills of missionaries. Life and health are extremely important things in any era, and even today people still want them.

In particular, a terminal disease like malaria, which seemed incurable at the time, was greatly shocked by both the recipients and onlookers.

There is also a more intuitive surgery, among which cataract surgery is regarded as a miracle.

The first recorded cataract surgery in Western history was in 1745, but cataract surgery in this era has strict requirements for both the recipient and the operator.

Fortunately, laughing gas anesthesia was developed in Austria, and due to the introduction of the concept of disinfection and sterilization, coupled with a lot of experience accumulated in the colonial area, the success rate of surgery and the survival rate after surgery have been greatly increased.

The shock and contrast are so great that even those who don't believe in ghosts and gods will have a strong curiosity, and then sink step by step without being able to find an argument to refute it.

In addition, I have to say that the combat effectiveness of the black natives is really not enough, and even the third-rate army of the colony can defeat the largest Ngoni kingdom in Tanzania at this time.

The port of Dar es Salaam was ready for use after a few months of renovation, in fact, by adding some trestles and then expanding the pier of the fishing village.

However, with its natural geographical advantages, it has become a medium-sized port with a throughput that is not weaker than that of Mombasa.

When the renovation is complete, Dar es Salaam will become the second largest port in East Africa after Sofala.

At this time, Sofala was the most important Portuguese stronghold in East Africa, and could berth more than a hundred large ships.

In addition to agriculture, Franz sent a group of geologists on a mission to identify important mineral veins in the Tanzanian region.

After all, if you want to get the local people to immigrate to Africa, you can't just farm the land, they want gold, silver, and diamonds.

Tanzania just meets these conditions, in addition to oil, a very important strategic resource for future generations, and a gemstone that is not inferior to diamonds - tanzanite.

However, agriculture is the foundation of everything, and it is not good to farm well until the navy is strong.

Write something else tomorrow, East Africa doesn't feel like much of a world to read.

(End of chapter)