December 30, 1869.

Maputo.

"This is the news sent back by the president of the Kazenbe Chamber of Commerce, Yaristo, the Germans have appeared in the Kazenbe Kingdom, and they are still stationed there, so they should not plan to leave." said the Governor of Mozambique.

"Mr. Governor-General, the Germans are expanding rapidly in the interior of Africa, and I think we should work together with the Angolan colonies to curb the development of the Germans."

"Yes, if the kingdom of Kazenbe is occupied by the Germans, then the land passage between us and Angola will be cut off by the Germans."

"However, Angola may not be able to act with us unless the kingdom is convinced, but there is a fatal problem here, how do we put our forces inland? The British have ill intentions towards us. This year, the British drove their troops directly into the Delagua Bay in Mozambique, and if it weren't for our powerful artillery fire, the British would not have fled. ”

"If Germany is a wolf, the British are tigers, the Germans fight every day, and they have always been not weak on land, and the British can directly attack our ports with warships."

Unlike many of East Africa's pre-planned and built-in inland cities, Mozambique's core is coastal cities and ports.

So it is difficult to say who is the biggest threat to Mozambique between East Africa and the British, and there must be a larger East African on land, and the two places are directly bordered, but over the years, East Africa has been relatively peaceful along the Ruboma River, and the two colonies have been relatively peaceful.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the Germans are developing too fast in Africa, and if they are allowed to develop like this, sooner or later Mozambique will be greatly threatened.

You know, the Germans have only been in East Africa for more than three years, and they were just a small point under the Zanzibar Sultanate, and now they have not only eliminated the Zanzibar Sultanate but also expanded their sphere of influence into the interior of Africa, how terrible is this?

If you look at this map, this is the mouth of the Rufuma River, this is Lake Malawi, and this is the kingdom of Kazenbe, and these three points are connected in a line that half-encloses us.

And how long this line is, I will not go into details, which shows that the area of land occupied by the Germans is very large. ”

"I disagree with you, Mr. Keldon, the Germans are good to go inland, but how can they stand firm! Although Kazenbe's kingdom was occupied by the Germans, his chieftains and tribes still existed, and we tried to expand inland, but we did not give up in the face of stubborn resistance from the natives.

Therefore, it would be nice to say that the Germans would at most have a few puppets in the interior to rule in their place, and Mr. Keldon, if you look at the line you have drawn, this distance is not ordinarily long.

If the Germans expand inland according to this pattern, we should be glad that it is like a long snake, which is just convenient for each to break, and you see here, this is the Kingdom of Malawi, which is stuck in the middle of the land of the Germans, and if we attack from here, we can make the Germans unable to take care of each other.

And our Mozambique colonies have always been orderly development of Mozambique, after so many years of rule, has been very stable, the Germans came late, but the people are not enough to swallow elephants, their local ruling foundation must not be solid, if we have a conflict with the Germans, as long as the local natives of East Africa are instigated, it will definitely lead to East Africa everywhere in an instant. ”

"Rather than talk about the threat of the Germans, it is better to talk about the threat of the British, who only have the potential to be disadvantageous to us, and the British have already acted.

This year the British have already begun to test us, but fortunately we have enough artillery to let the British succeed. ”

"Moreover, Britain has a Cape Town colony in the south, which is not too far away from us, and the so-called Zulu kingdom in the middle cannot act as a buffer at all, and if the British borrow it, they may not refuse."

"In this way, the British can threaten us from the sea or land, and they are already in action, and the British are the country we should be most wary of."

"The kingdom has a good relationship with Britain on the surface, but once it arrives in the colony, it is a mess, and the British have not died of thieves all these years."

"The Germans can't afford to be on guard, at least the three kingdoms to the west, and we should give them some support so that they can withstand the pressure of East Africa."

"No, just support the Kingdom of Malawi, the Kingdom of Malawi is our buffer state with East Africa, and the two countries in the south are the direction of our future expansion, and giving them support is equivalent to cutting off our own back roads."

"That's right, Chriss, can you use your brain before you speak, the Germans' hands can't reach there, on the contrary, we have been infiltrating there all these years, so the next time you speak, you'd better look at the map first, don't pretend to be clever and make up the so-called German threat theory, that will only let everyone here know that you went out today without a brain."

The councillor's words caused everyone to laugh, and Chriss, who supported aid to the countries to the west, was eager to find a crack in the ground.

"Alright, silence." The Portuguese governor of Mozambique, who had been listening to the discussions, spoke.

"I have just listened to the suggestions of all of you here, and after careful analysis, I still feel that the threat of the British is greater than that of the Germans, and the most important thing is that the Germans do not have a strong navy, and the Kingdom of Portugal has an advantage in this regard.

In the inland area, we are not able to expand for the time being, but we can negotiate with the Germans first, and the most important thing is to beware of the British first, otherwise we really have a conflict with the Germans, and the British will definitely attack us from the sea in the end, so we must remain calm before East Africa does not infringe on our core interests.

Moreover, in the past two years, we have not known enough about East Africa, so that the sudden appearance of the East African army in Kazenbe was still due to the news from the Kazenbe Chamber of Commerce, and we can use this negotiation as an excuse to examine the development of East Africa and find out the strength of the Germans. ”

"Mr. Governor-General, the most important thing in this negotiation is to let East Africa protect our interests in the Kazenbe region, and it is better to bring the Kingdom of Malawi into the talks, to be honest, it is better to have the southern part of the Kingdom of Malawi in our own hands."

"That's right, the Kingdom of Malawi should have entered the dustbin of history a long time ago, and we can negotiate with East Africa to carve up the Kingdom of Malawi."

As soon as they heard that it was profitable, everyone immediately changed their faces, and one second ago they were a big confidant in East Africa, but now they have become accomplices who can share the spoils.

And the side that originally said that it would support the Kingdom of Malawi has now shut up, if East Africa is easy to talk about, wouldn't it be a win-win situation for everyone to divide Malawi directly? This is much better than a direct confrontation with East Africa.

Before you know it, the theme of the meeting has been deviated, and the original discussion of East Africa and the British threat has become a discussion of how to divide the Kingdom of Malawi with East Africa.

(End of chapter)