Of the few Boer republics, only the Orange Free State was relatively financially well-off, and although the British took the bulk of the Kimberley diamond mines, it was better to save some soup.

The Republic of Grigualan is actually very rich in resources, but it has not been explored, coupled with the harsh climate and sparse population of Grigalan, even if mineral resources are found, they are unable to develop and cannot be mined, and the only industry that the Republic of Grigaland can engage in is nomadic herding. As a result, the economic level of the Republic of Grigaland is not even comparable to that of some Arab countries with equally poor natural conditions.

A few days later, Merk annexed the territory of the Republic of Grigualand to the Kingdom of East Africa under the noses of the British and the high-ranking of the Republic of Grigualaland.

This left the administrators sent to Grigualand by the Cape Town colony dumbfounded, because the East African Army moved too quickly, and the British did not react until the East Africa blockade of the Orange River.

After many reports, Johnson, the supreme governor of the British colony of Cape Town in Grigualand, met Merk.

"Your Excellency Merk, your East African Kingdom is a naked act of aggression, and Grigualand is already the territory of the British Empire, is your East African Kingdom trying to provoke the majesty of the British Empire?" Johnson questioned as soon as he saw Merk.

When Merk saw Johnson say this, she was actually very unconfident, not because she was afraid of Britain, but because this matter was indeed a fault for East Africa.

"Mr. Johnson, you should dissipate your anger first, in fact, we did not mean to offend your country, here I apologize to you first."

Seeing that Merk had a good attitude, Johnson said: "Well, that's just like that, but then I can treat this incident as if it didn't happen if your troops were withdrawn from Grigualand immediately." ”

"Withdrawal?" Merkel was happy, how could he spit out what he ate in his mouth, and he said to Johnson with a smile: "Mr. Johnson, I'm afraid this matter can't go as you wish, it's impossible for our East African Kingdom to withdraw its troops from the Orange River!" ”

Hearing this, Johnson felt that he had been greatly insulted, but when he thought of the strength of the East African Kingdom, it calmed him down again, and now there is a fact.

That is, it is impossible for the Cape Town colony to send troops to rescue itself, not to mention that Cape Town does not have many troops in the first place, and more importantly, it is for the sake of Grigaland to organize an army to recapture it.

But as an official of the British Empire, he was standing behind the world's largest power, so Johnson believed that the Kingdom of East Africa would not dare to do anything to him.

He asked Merk rhetorically: "Why, your East African kingdom wants to challenge the empire, try to see if the empire is full of martial virtues?" ”

Merk didn't answer, but said to Johnson: "East Africa is a peace-loving country, of course, I have no intention of offending Britain, but the withdrawal of troops is not something that I can decide as a small junior officer, this needs to be ordered by the central government, and I will send the news back to China in time, and the central government will decide." ”

Of course, this is not the reason, in fact, Ernst is now in Pretoria, and it will not take a few days to send a communications soldier to let the crown prince know.

However, Merk did not want the British to know this, and he needed to find a reason to keep East Africa from leaving, and then East Africa would take administrative measures to drive out the merchants and residents of the Republic of Grigualand, and completely turn Grigualand into the territory of the Kingdom of East Africa.

This matter was also easy to solve, one was to abolish slavery, and the other was to impose heavy taxes on the Grigaland and force the Grigalan to move to the Orange Free State on their own initiative.

This is the "boiling eagle" tactic, if the Grigalan people do not follow the usual path and take the initiative to provoke the East African Army, it is even better, this is in Merk's hands, and the Grigalan can be directly and violently expelled.

After the complete destruction of the Republic of Grigualand, the British accusations against the Kingdom of East Africa naturally do not exist, you say that East Africa invaded the Republic of Grigualand, why don't I see any so-called Republic of Grigualand, which has been the land of our Germans since ancient times.

Merk also has the confidence to do this, and her years in Africa have also given East Africans a more thorough understanding of Africa.

That is, apart from the East African Kingdom, there is no rival on the sub-Saharan African continent that deserves the full strength of the East African Kingdom.

Of course, the British are not weak, but Merk does not believe that the British will be unable to get along with the East African kingdom for the sake of the small Griguarán, and can the British still mobilize large armies from other regions to conquer East Africa.

The Kingdom of East Africa is not a country like Egypt and Abyssinia, which seems to be powerful but will be shattered at the slightest touch, and the British really have no way to take the Kingdom of East Africa, which has already gained a foothold in Africa, on land.

Even if the British blockaded the coastline of East Africa and cut off the foreign trade of East Africa, this would not work now, Ernst was afraid of this trick in the past, because the population of the East African Kingdom was not enough, and the colonies had to rely on the blood transfusion of the Hexingen consortium in the early stage to maintain their operations, and the rations, seeds, livestock, tools, weapons and equipment needed to develop the East African colonies in the early stage were ...... All need to be imported from Germany and the rest of the world.

Now the Kingdom of East Africa can completely rely on Africa itself to achieve independence, relying on a population of nearly 7 million, realizing internal circulation, strong planting industry, and a barely self-sufficient handicraft system, especially in the military industry, there is basically no generation gap between the East African Army and Europe.

Now the mainstream weapons of the army are nothing more than two kinds, guns and artillery, the East African Army is equipped with Dreiser's rifles and small-caliber artillery is not bad, it is first-class in Africa, the most important thing is these two things, East Africa can already achieve self-production and self-sale.

Large-caliber artillery, in fact, East Africa is not bad, although it cannot be produced, but East Africa has enough inventory, and the large-caliber artillery deployed near the coastline can be dispatched and used at any time, which is not a big deal, the artillery in East African ports adopts a saturation defensive counterattack strategy to deal with the enemy at sea, from the day the Kingdom of East Africa obtained access to the sea, Ernst knew that the biggest threat to East Africa in the future came from the sea, so the number of artillery on the coastline was actually surplus, Even the number of artillery on the coast of East Africa exceeded the number of coastal defense guns of Austria-Hungary itself around the Adriatic Sea, which made the Austrian military-industrial complex suffer a lot of dividends.

However, this is also a strategy implemented by the Heixingen consortium in Europe, as one of the world's top grain merchants, the Heixingen consortium can gain a foothold in Germany and Austria, and it must have to do some balance and sacrifice, otherwise it is impossible for the Junker aristocracy and the Hungarian aristocracy to let the food enterprises of the Heixingen consortium exist.

In fact, the food enterprises of the Heixingen consortium are one of the largest buyers of agricultural products in Germany and Austria, like the wine industry of the two countries in recent years is promoted by the Heixingen consortium, so that the landlords of the two countries can have a variety of cash crops, and the cheap grain in East Africa can logically fill the vacancy, and finally both sides can make a profit, the only injured is only Tsarist Russia, the whole market is too rolly, although Tsarist Russia has tens of millions of gray livestock, but gray livestock is not as cost-effective as more than 20 million black slaves in East Africa.

East Africa and the Heshingen consortium will not be shut down because of the British sanctions, so there is no weakness in East Africa, and the icy Alaska is a burden, but the British may not think of it, because Ernst himself often forgets that the Hexingen royal family still has this territory in his hands.

All in all, the national strength of East Africa gives Merk the confidence to play a scoundrel, even if the other party is Britain, East Africa has nothing to fear.

Merk's attitude of not advancing oil and salt made Johnson difficult, but after calming down and thinking about it carefully, Johnson was even less calm.

At this time, he reacted, the East African Kingdom, the East African Kingdom, since it is the East African Kingdom, how did they come to South Africa?

Also, East Africa has dispatched so many troops just to deal with the small Republic of Grigualand, so what is the overall strength of the East African Kingdom? It's scary to think about!

Johnson suddenly realized that he had noticed something terrible, and that he had to report it to Cape Town and even London, but now he had to get out of Grigualand.

(End of chapter)