"It's okay to give aid to the Orange people, but we can't rush forward, but we have to negotiate terms with them, and of course, given the industries that the Orange people are engaged in, we can symbolically cooperate in agriculture and animal husbandry." Ernst said to Konstantin.

"You're right, now that the Oranges are trapped in the interior and have offended the British, they can't get in touch with the outside world, and the trade will definitely be affected, and we are the only ones who can help them." Konstantin said with agreement.

This may be the sadness of the landlocked countries, and Ernst thought of the Abyssinian Empire in the north, which, like in previous lives, is still landlocked.

The three neighbors of the Abyssinian Empire, Italy and Egypt, had poor relations with the Abyssinian Empire, so the Abyssinian Empire's trade could only be done through cooperation with East Africa.

Although some of the tribes in parts of the Sultan of Egypt had good relations with the Abyssinian Empire, their traditional commercial routes, mostly through the Sahara Desert and to the west, did not solve the problems of the Abyssinian Empire.

After all, the Abyssinian Empire was a country with a population of 10 million, and such a large economy could not be solved by North African trade, especially with Egypt, which had poor relations.

As for the traditional commercial routes, the Red Sea has been completely blocked by Egypt and Italy, and can only cooperate with the East African kingdom in the south.

Although East Africa had some interests with the Abyssinian Empire before, especially the annexation of some subordinate forces in the south of the Abyssinian Empire, East Africa looked much clearer than Egypt and Italy, which threatened the core area of the Abyssinian Empire.

The subordinate powers, after all, are not exactly a family, just like the relationship between the Far Eastern Empire and those vassal states, and the relationship between the Abyssinian Empire and its own vassal powers is not as close as that of the vassal states.

Whereas vassiral states had a sense of cultural identity, the relationship between the Abyssinian Empire and its vassal powers was more of a military conquest than much emotion.

"For the Orange people, we should provide some neutral weapons as much as possible, not with a strong East African color, and at the same time, the trade with the Orange people should be mainly in kind, and we should focus on giving more support to the Orange people in terms of food and military supplies." Ernst continued.

The Boers are mainly engaged in animal husbandry, which is convenient and trouble-free, and makes money, but as for farming, which is a bitter thing, it is not active.

And the Orange Free State is now in a state of civil unrest, and production will certainly be significantly affected, so support for the Orange people should not be limited to arms and ammunition.

Of course, East Africa is more concerned that it does not have so many weapons in its hands to support the Orange people, and as for the active weapons and equipment of the East African army, it is impossible to use them for export, especially to their neighbors, because East Africa is not only coveting the market of the Orange Free State, but also planning for Orange itself.

"And what country are you going to provide the Oranges with, England or France?" Konstantin asked.

As for Germany, Konstantin did not mention it, because Germany's weapons are not exactly the same as those of East Africa, but it can also be said to be the same mother's compatriots, and if German weapons are supplied, it is better to directly export East Africa's own weapons.

Ernst gave Konstantin an unexpected answer: "We supply the Oranges with Austro-Hungarian weapons." ”

"Why?"

"We supply weapons to the Oranges, no matter what the result is, the British know that we did it, after all, no one else has the ability to do it, and we have a lot of military cooperation with Austria-Hungary, and there are many suppliers in Austria-Hungary, and it is easy to get the goods.

Moreover, the weapons and ammunition of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, we in East Africa can produce a part of it, and give the Orange people a free maintenance service, while the bulk still needs to be imported from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

In this way, the arms import and export of the Oranges are completely in our hands, unless they replace all the weapons of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the future, which they do not have the means to do. Ernst explained.

And Konstantin raised a new question: "In that case, why don't we directly export weapons made in East Africa?" ”

Ernst: "Because the Orange people and the British, the Transvaals fight, they will definitely not hit the stone with eggs, they use more guerrilla tactics, and now the enemy of the Oranges is first of all the Anglo-German army, and the future is very likely to be us, one of the characteristics of guerrilla warfare is that it is impossible to defend against it, attacking the enemy's supply lines, and this also makes it easier for the other side to seize supplies from the enemy, in case the Oranges clash with us in the future, we have to avoid this, and with Austro-Hungarian weapons, we don't have to worry about this at all." ”

The process of exporting Austro-Hungarian weapons to the Orange Free State was entirely in the hands of East Africa, so that if the Oranges survived the Anglo-German offensive in the future, the Oranges would have to continue to rely on East Africa as a supply channel.

In this way, it is similar to using East African weapons, and it can also allow the Orange people to let down their guard a little, after all, directly using East African weapons is no different from becoming a military vassal of East Africa.

After all, Austria-Hungary is a third-party country, so on the surface, at least the Orange people can be more reassured, of course, it is only on the surface, when the Orange people really rely on the Austro-Lunar weapons, they will find that they can't get around East Africa, and even bullets need to be provided by East Africa.

On the East African side, it can completely rely on intermediate channels to control the Orange people's military, after all, whether to cut off the Orange people's arms supply or not, the initiative is completely in the hands of East Africa.

In this way, even if East Africa becomes an enemy with the Orange people in the future, it can cut off its supply of weapons at any time, and it can surrender to the army without fighting.

Unless the Oranges reconcile with Britain and continue to supply through Britain, but Austria-Hungary is in league with East Africa after all, East Africa can completely interfere with it.

And if Britain provided the Orange people with their own weapons to replace the Austro-Hungarian weapons, this would involve the entire military system of the Orange people, including the use experience, maintenance system, etc., all in all, it was not so easy, which was the same as India in the previous life could not directly get rid of its dependence on Russian-made weapons.

Moreover, according to the current relationship between the Orange and the British, there is basically no possibility of reconciliation between the two, unless East Africa does annex the Orange Free State now, and the enemies of the three parties will instantly become East Africa.

And this is the reason why Ernst is not in a hurry to take action against the Orange Free State, first let the three sides fight the head and blood, it is better to fill the hatred value, then the difficulty of East Africa's invasion of the Orange Free State in the future can be greatly reduced.

After all, after this lesson, the Boers will definitely be divided in the future, and they will not be able to work together, and the gap in their hearts will increase with time.

Moreover, this civil unrest was entirely caused by the betrayal of the Transvaals in the eyes of the Oranges, and there is a saying that a traitor is more hateful than an enemy, and the Orange people will certainly have a worse impression of the Transvaal than they did towards Britain and East Africa.

In this way, it will be easier for East Africa to assimilate the region in the future, and of course, East Africa will certainly have to take other measures to further erase the Boer community.

(End of chapter)