"Humph! These Germans are too unparticular about doing things! If you don't say hello, you really don't take our Kingdom of Portugal seriously! Yaris said indignantly to his men.

"What are you going to do, President?"

"Do? Do what? We're just a chamber of commerce, and the other side is the army! Are you going to hit the stone with an egg? ”

"Do you want to contact the government and let them settle the Germans?"

"Do you count on those wine bags and rice bags in the back? Today's young Portuguese have long lost the vigor of the Portuguese kingdom! If they hadn't been timid, they would have kept the Germans out at the expense of offending the Sultanate of Zanzibar. Now that the Germans are gaining momentum in Africa, I am afraid that the whole of Mozambique is no match for the Germans. ”

"President, don't be so pessimistic! We have been in Africa for hundreds of years, and the Germans only arrived in East Africa three years ago. ”

"Phew! You have reminded me that when you look at problems in the future, you must grasp the key and don't look at problems with old eyes. "I ask you, why have we in Portugal given up expanding inland all these years? ”

"This?"

"It's not because of the ability, not only the colony, but even the kingdom itself, I'll put this sentence here, East Africa can now have a formed army appear inland, we can't do it."

"President, this shouldn't be difficult!"

"Of course it's not difficult, but you don't look at the level of the garrison in Mozambique, it's difficult to even fight the natives these years, the Germans now even have cavalry, they must have more troops in East Africa, worthy of Prussian barbarians, when I think of their mobilization ability, I'm afraid, the number is not too large, 50,000 Germans are enough for the kingdom to drink a pot in all the colonies in Africa."

After careful consideration, the Kazenbe Chamber of Commerce chose to forbear, but nevertheless sent a letter to the Mozambican government in the rear to explain the situation.

……

Time was running out, and after the departure of the cavalry battalion, other units from East Africa began to pour in towards the area of the "pocket" plan.

The East African Arsenal is also speeding up its efforts to refurbish second-hand ordnance and distribute weapons to newly landed immigrants.

After several sweeps in East Africa, now in the hinterland of East Africa, because the indigenous people are extinct, there are not so many guns, so most of them have been recovered, and a few can be left to the security forces to deal with wild beasts.

A steady stream of armed migrants will go all the way to Zambia to create conditions for the complete occupation of the "pocket" region in East Africa.

At the same time, the construction of a telegraph line extending Mbeya to East Katanga has begun to ensure smooth communication, and East Africa has already sent the message back to First Town by telegraph while the Kazenbe Chamber of Commerce was still sending a message to Mozambique by letter.

……

In the blink of an eye, 1869 was the end of the year.

This time, the statistics will be aggregated to both Prince Constantine and Ernst.

This year, the immigrant population in East Africa has reached 2.453 million, of which the newborn group has achieved very impressively, reaching more than 200,000.

In terms of territorial expansion, mainly in the west, mainly in the Mitumba Mountains, the area between Lake Solon and the Lualaba River, about 30 to 400,000 square kilometers, and the ongoing advance to the southwest, if it is completed, at least more than 600,000 square kilometers of new land will be added next year, plus the north has been eroding the land in the Omo River Basin, that is, the territory of East Africa may exceed 3 million square kilometers before April next year.

In the industrial sector, the East African Railway Company and a large number of mines with equipment will lead to the development of the mining industry in East Africa, and in addition to Mbeya, the minerals near the Great Lakes region can already be developed.

As of November 30, 1869, the statistics of agriculture showed that the development was in order, and the development of cultivated land reached more than 25.5 million mu, mainly on the basis of the original cultivated land to expand the scope, but under the influence of advancing to the southwest, it should be able to achieve good results next year.

This year, the newly developed land is mainly rice and other grain crops, wheat has not changed much, and the output of corn, soybeans, and potatoes has increased by a large margin.

The total grain output is more than 2.5 billion catties, that is, about 1.25 million tons.

In terms of per capita production, it is about twice that of Italy, but East Africa has large-scale cash crops in addition to food crops, and at the same time it is necessary to remove the large area of cassava that is grown to provide food rations for the indigenous people, which is very high and is not a staple food for East Africans, so it is not included in the statistics, which Italy does not have.

The population of East Africa, excluding the indigenous people, is also close to one-tenth of that of Italy, which has a population of about 25 million.

Although East Africa is close to or even surpasses Italy in some areas, Italy has thousands of years of accumulation, so relying on agricultural and population data alone, East Africa cannot reach one-tenth of Italy's national strength.

As the war in Paraguay draws to a close, Ernst will replace this gap by bringing in some immigrants from poor Italian regions next year.

Sicily is an important source, and although Sicily, like the people of the Far Southeast, prefer associations, but in East Africa it is all diluted and it is enough not to let them gather together.

Now the East African village can be said to be very well-established, there is no so-called ethnic agglomeration, according to the template, the place where everyone lives is broken up, which means that your neighbor may be immigrants from any other area, but not from the same region.

Neighbours are forced to mingle with each other, and the lingua franca is German, which eventually leads to the creation of a new German-speaking people.

In addition to the newly occupied land, the construction of roads in East Africa is almost complete, the main arterial roads can be connected to all cities and towns, and the next step of the "labor" will be the construction of mines, railways and large water conservancy projects.

The above data shows that East Africa already has a national foundation, and if it develops smoothly, East Africa will become an agricultural and mineral exporter from the next year onwards, with the help of transportation, mining and agricultural production.

Now that the Suez Canal has been opened, Ernst intends to strengthen cooperation with the Austrian royal family, focusing on Austria, not Austria-Hungary, and strengthening Austria's voice is equivalent to strengthening Germany's voice and East Africa's right to speak.

The mineral and agricultural resources of East Africa to accelerate the development of Austria were important to Ernst, and it was dangerous to consider Prussia as a big brother, but Austria was not a hidden danger if Hungary was dragging behind.

After all, with the size of East Africa, Austria can't eat it, and one Hungary is enough to torture, so it's hard to build a three-tier empire.

At the same time, next year East Africa will establish an independent state, and there will always be the recognition of the world powers, so it is very important for the Austrian royal family to take the lead, and it is basically stable in tinkering with the recognition of Prussia, Romania and a bunch of German states.

As for Ernst's concession to Austria, what Prussia thinks, the wording is ready-made, Austria is the closest to East Africa, the Suez Canal directly opens up the trade route between the two countries, everyone is a German state should watch and help each other.

Moreover, the Prussian royal family is also the Hohenzollern family, and the development of Heixingen in East Africa is a good thing for the Hohenzollern family, and it is also convenient for the Prussian government to recover some rights of the former Heichengen prince (Europe).

All aspects have been taken care of, naturally there is no opposition, as for other countries, there are only Britain, the United States and Tsarist Russia left, and the relations between East Africa and Tsarist Russia are not bad, and there are no conflicts of interest.

The United States is currently busy fighting with Britain and Spain, and Britain should also pay attention to the situation of popularizing the law, as for France, his attitude is actually not important, this time next year should be the new government, Ernst, who is familiar with the historical answers, only needs to bet on the new French government in advance, and East Africa is a poor and remote country, and France may not intervene in East Africa.

(End of chapter)