There are some differences between the Zhuhai Trade Zone and the Zhuhai Special Economic Zone in the past, and the reason for the establishment of the Zhuhai Special Economic Zone is that the inland is to attract investment from Macao, Portugal and other regional businessmen on the opposite side.

The East African government did not have this consideration, in order to get a piece of the Far East and South market, and chose Zhuhai because the good location in the south had long been occupied by the British and French.

Behind Tangjiawan is Xiangshan County, and the current Xiangshan County is almost Zhongshan and Zhuhai in the previous life, so the potential can still be believed.

This belief is Ernst's own belief, in fact, his own people do not understand too much, the current Xiangshan is completely an inland county, and the coast is basically full of tidal flats, such as Tangjiawan, which is rented to build a port in East Africa, and there are only a few small fishing villages on the seaside, and the local trade is carried out, and the infrastructure must be built at their own expense.

However, trade in this era is like this, the Qing government has only opened up the coastal area for more than 20 years, and the good places have long been occupied by Britain and France, and the geographical location of Guangzhou and Shanghai is too superior, and the inland can be connected through the Pearl River and the Yangtze River waterway.

Looking at Germany in the previous life, it was too late, so it could only choose Jiaozhou in the north as a base, and Germany had to build a railway in order to open up the inland.

……

East Africa, Matabele Plateau.

Lobengula still has some real skills, and by integrating the military leaders of the Ndebele people at all levels, almost all the Ndebele people have formed a rebel army of 50,000 people, and there is also an army of 100,000 servants composed of the Shona tribe.

They seized the inland transportation bases set up in East Africa, and all of a sudden, the material transportation channels that East Africa had built during the southern expedition were cut off, and if these channels could not be opened in time, the East African army on the border would fall into a situation of lack of food after a long time.

Witt personally went to the province of South Salzburg and organized a counterinsurgency army of more than 5,000 people to move south along the Luangwa River, and at the same time sent cavalry to inform the border troops on the Matabel Plateau to cooperate in suppressing the rebellion from three directions, east, west and south.

Bulawayo.

The capital of the Kingdom of Matabele, the base camp of Lobengula.

The Prime Minister of the Kingdom is reporting the uprising to Lobengula: "Your Majesty, our military chiefs in various places have completed their mission, destroying a total of 78 East African strongholds and destroying more than 10,000 enemies. ”

It is clear that this report is false news, and if there were more than 10,000 people in East Africa in the interior of the Matabele plateau, there would be no chance of a rebellion by the Ndebele people.

In East Africa, the strongholds set up in Matabele are mainly to maintain grain transportation and commercial roads, with a maximum of twenty or thirty people in each place, and some even only single digits.

However, Lobengula was in a good mood, and he didn't delve too deeply into this data, it was human nature to falsely report his achievements, and anyway, the effect he wanted was achieved.

Lobengula: "Very well, order them to continue their efforts, we will drive all the East Africans out of the kingdom of Matabele at once." ”

Lobengula is extremely high-spirited, and in order to snatch the throne, he is also the lord who has been fighting for a long time to crusade against the disobedient.

That is, when he had just subdued the forces of all parties and ascended to the throne, the East Africans came. At that time, Lobengula could not figure out the reality of the East Africans, and the kingdom was in a weak period due to turmoil, so he could only watch the East African army enter the kingdom of Matabele.

The mighty South Route Army of East Africa did frighten Lobengula at that time, but he soon found that the main forces of East Africa were mainly in the east and south directions and the Portuguese and Boers on the line.

At the same time, the East African Kingdom sent an envoy to make Lobengula submit to the East African Kingdom, so that he could monopolize why he wanted to share, and he also had to pay tribute, which was unbearable for Lobengula.

Lobengula said to his subordinates: "The reason why these white skins were able to defeat the heroic Ndebele warriors was entirely by virtue of firearms, and now we have also organized our own firearms troops, as long as we defeat the East Africans entrenched in the south, our Matabele Kingdom will be able to achieve the final victory." ”

As a branch of the Zulu people, the Ndebele people are no strangers to firearms, and they have suffered a lot in the hands of the Boers, so after the former king Mzilika moved into Zimbabwe with his people, he actively contacted the Portuguese to buy firearms and form his own firearms army.

This was especially true when Lobengula succeeded to the throne, but the suppliers changed from the Portuguese to the enemies of the Boers.

Although the Portuguese governor of Mozambique is not very interested in East Africa, the strength of East Africa is indeed worthy of respect, and in the absence of local support, it is better not to go to war with the East Africans, which will only cheapen the British in the south.

The Boers are different, and for the Ndebele who come to trade with gold, they are naturally very welcome, and as for the kingdom of East Africa, you have gold as important!

In the past, the Boers must have been educated about the behavior of the Ndebele people holding the gold bricks, but the arrival of the Germans made the Boers feel threatened.

But let the Boers themselves fight the Germans, just thinking about it, the Boers feel empty-hearted. But if the Ndebele people came to the door, the Naboer people would have a way to test the might of the Germans.

The Boers smuggled firearms into the kingdom of Matabele, and the Boers smuggled them from British merchants, who then smuggled across the Limpopo River to trade with the Ndebele in the dense forests on both sides.

In just three months, the Boers imported five thousand muskets to the Ndebele, mostly weapons decommissioned by the British Army after the Crimean War.

In the past, the Boers would certainly not have been so supportive of the Ndebele people, after all, the land on the north bank of the Limpopo River was more coveted by themselves.

However, now that the north bank of the Limpopo River has become the territory of the East African Kingdom, the direction of Boer expansion has been cut off, and the Ndebele people have become pawns that can be used from enemies.

5,000 firearms is where Lobengula's confidence lies, plus the original more than 1,000 firearms troops, he can organize a firearms force of 6,000 people, plus the remaining 100,000 troops, no matter how you look at it, you have a better chance of winning.

Lobengula was clearly misled by the Boers, believing that the Kingdom of East Africa, like the Boers, was the kind of white man who relied on the superiority of firearms to enclose territory in Africa but was small in number.

However, this is only the case in Zimbabwe, where the migrant population in Zambia is much larger than the entire Ndebele ethnic group in Zimbabwe.

It's just that because of the distance, the development of Zimbabwe is lagging behind, so there are few people, which gives Lobengula an illusion.

Although Zimbabwe's East African army is quite numerous, they do not farm their own land, as long as they cut off their food supply, they will not last a month, and they will surrender because of the lack of food.

(End of chapter)