The smell of gunpowder is everywhere in the world, the atmosphere of war is getting stronger and stronger, and the various powers will not fight in a big way, but those countries or colonies in backward regions will fall into the mold of blood.

East Africa is also preparing for this atmosphere, with the intensity of naval and army exercises greatly intensified, and national military training has resumed, especially the navy, which has received a number of high-quality seafarers from East African secondary schools, and officers trained by the Ferdinand Naval Academy have also begun to board ships for training.

December 1877.

The East African Navy carried out large-scale military exercises in the waters off Mozambique and in the waters near the port of New Hamburg, with a total of 25 combat ships participating, including five capital ironclads and 18 gunboats, as well as two wooden sail warships.

The number of East African ironclad ships has increased to five, and a new ship will be taken over from Austria early next year, and the East African Navy has assembled most of its forces in the waters near the port of New Hamburg to better organize the exercise.

This location, both close to the British colony of Natal and not far from Maputo, the capital of Portuguese Mozambique, is an effective demonstration of the strength of the East African Navy.

With the East African Fleet conducting exercises in the colonial waters of the two countries, the strength of the East African Navy has basically surfaced, and in the Mozambique Channel, the East African Navy has launched a series of military operations against the reverie enemy.

The East African naval exercise became one of the highlights of the western Indian Ocean, and passing ships were quickly attracted, including the new Portuguese governor of Mozambique, Lefford, who came to East Africa with a local mission, but did not expect to encounter the disadvantage when he first arrived in Africa.

Standing on the boat, Lyford looked at the East African naval exercise area with a telescope and said: "The East African Navy has become one of the strongest in the Indian Ocean region, when did they develop such a navy?" Lyford asked.

"The East African Navy did not appear out of nowhere, but it has really developed at a rapid pace in recent years, and a few years ago they were still equipping the Sultanate of Zanzibar, which is now the antique ships of Zanzibar Province, but in recent years they have been like eating artillery battles, and they have served several ironclad ships in succession."

Lyford said with some jealousy and pessimism: "I'm afraid that our native navy will not be able to defeat the navy of East Africa!" ”

In 1875, the Portuguese Navy ordered an ironclad from the British Thames Shipyard, named the Ironclad Vasco da Gama, which was also the only ironclad ship in Portugal.

The total displacement of the Vasco da Gama ironclad is 2,384 tons, which is almost the same level as the first domestic ironclad ship under construction in East Africa, and this ironclad has just been launched, and the official service may not wait until next year.

Lyford: "This East African Navy is the naval force of the so-called Hexingen Kingdom, so why does East Africa have a navy of this size to build capacity, but it is also impossible to colonize us!" ”

"Your Excellency the Governor, you are new to the country, I am afraid you don't understand, behind East Africa stands the Heixingen Consortium in Germany, the boss of the Heixingen Consortium is the Heixingen royal family, so a large amount of their funds are provided by the Heixingen royal family, if they rely on colonial proceeds alone, I'm afraid they would have gone bankrupt long ago, and they will not develop into today's scale anyway, unless they control the gold mines in their hands, but so far we have not heard of any gold mines in East Africa."

Lyford: "Let's not talk about the navy, why can't the colonies expand at a rate over the years, you must know that we have been in Mozambique for hundreds of years, but the Germans have come from behind. ”

"Your Excellency the Governor, this is not to blame us, the development of the colony needs an injection of funds, so that it can be developed, of course, if you rely on the tactics of the sea of people in East Africa, the problem is that we do not occupy any of them, naturally there is no way to expand in the interior of Africa like the Germans."

Lyford: "As far as I know, the gains from the Mozambique colony are okay, right?" How can there be no money for development? ”

The subordinate looked at the second ancestor with resentment and said: "The income of the Mozambique colony is really good, the problem is that the kingdom has siphoned off most of it, and naturally it is unable to develop itself, and hundreds of years of rule have made us unable to squeeze much oil and water from these natives, and these natives are not easy to mess with, they have now learned to resist, and it also needs funds to suppress the indigenous rebellion, and at the same time, it will also disrupt the production order and reduce the income." ”

The indigenous people of Mozambique are very different from the indigenous people under the rule of East Africa, because they have experienced hundreds of years of colonial history, so the sense of resistance is much stronger than that of the indigenous people of East Africa, and the living standard of the indigenous people of East Africa is also higher than that of the indigenous people of Mozambique, so they will not play with East Africa, and they are powerless to fight against the state apparatus of East Africa, and the immigrant population of East Africa (excluding the birth population) exceeds half of the number of indigenous people, so the indigenous people do not have an advantage in the number of East Africans.

Lyford: "You just said that East Africa is expanding in Africa by relying on crowd tactics, but what about the population of East Africa?" ”

"It's not clear, but it's a rough estimate that the number of immigrants in East Africa is probably in the millions."

That's when Lyford realized that he was off to hell! Africa is not at all an unexplored continent, as the rumors say, and as long as you incorporate the borderlands into the kingdom's territory step by step, you can make a profit.

Lyford: "So many of them? ”

"Of course the Germans, of course the Far Easterners, according to our experience in Dar es Salaam, the Germans should be about the same as the Far Easterners, maybe a small number of other races, I know a hotel waitress, she is Italian."

"Aren't they afraid of malaria like imported people from Africa?"

"Your Excellency the Governor, it has been proven that the emergence of quinine has been able to solve the problem of malaria very well, but there should be some other way to reduce the probability of malaria outbreaks in East Africa, because we have not heard of large-scale malaria outbreaks in East Africa, but we often do them here."

This news made Lyford even more depressed, good guys! Not only will you not be able to make political achievements, but you may also be threatened by malaria, can you go home now?

As if seeing Leaford's thoughts, his subordinate said: "Your Excellency the Governor doesn't have to worry too much, in fact, malaria can only be regarded as a small problem, since there is quinine, most patients can basically recover themselves, and now the price of quinine is not high, and East Africa next door is one of the major producers of quinine." ”

Lyford: "East Africa is dominant everywhere, no wonder the former governor is doing nothing, in this environment, I am afraid that even His Majesty the King has no way to govern Mozambique, just like this, the local old horsemen still want us to exert force in Africa?" ”

Lyford took over as the new governor this time, that is, the Kingdom of Portugal was dissatisfied with the inaction of the previous governor, especially after the outbreak of the economic crisis, Portugal's economic situation can be said to be broken and rotten, so it has become particularly important to obtain fresh blood from the colonies, and the Portuguese government looks left and right, only Africa still has a lot to do, especially the two colonies of Angola and Mozambique, which can be said to be the most important colonies of Portugal, and the strength is also the strongest.

Now that all European countries are stepping up their colonial expansion, Portugal is not willing to be left behind, after all, it can have some say in Europe, relying on the bowl of colonization.

As for the existence of the Kingdom of East Africa, Portugal chose to turn a blind eye, they still looked at Africa with inertial thinking, Portugal was not afraid of anyone on the road of colonization, even the British dared to touch it, so they did not pay attention to East Africa, the African emirate.

But only people like Lyford who really came to Mozambique can intuitively feel the gap, just the East African Navy can sink the current kingdom's native navy into the sea, as for the army, who dares to doubt the combat effectiveness of the Germans?

(End of chapter)