Ernst's good mood did not last long because of the birth of the first oil well, because the "weird" news came from the south of East Africa, which made the East African government and military a little confused.

"According to our news in February 1877, the Orange Free State regained its independence, the Orange Free State was officially renamed the Boer Republic, and a new coalition government came to power, but this coalition government was the original Provisional Government of the Transvaal Republic and continued to control the entire Orange Free State politics."

"Did the British just watch the Transvaals re-establish the Boer Republic?" Ernst asked.

"There really was no reaction from the British, and we even found that they had withdrawn part of their troops into Cape Town, which showed that the British had acquiesced in the independence of the Orange Free State."

"This is a conspiracy, and Britain can accept such a bad thing as colonial independence, which only shows that the British have great intentions, and I can't think of a reason for Britain to do it except us."

"That's right, if the independence of the colony is not well controlled, it is likely to cause a chain reaction, after all, this kind of news spread has a certain negative effect on any country."

"The re-establishment of the Boer Republic shows that the Orange Free State has indeed regained its independence from the Cape Town colony, but we got the news through our spies in Bloemfontein, which means that the news did not spread," Ernst said.

So the British and the Transvaals must have made some kind of deal, and you say that the Orange Free State is not a bait for the Orange Free State to secede from the colony of Cape Town, and the fish they want to catch is our East Africa. ”

After all, East Africa itself has to admit that there are "indecent" ideas towards the Orange Free State, and the Transvaals and the British are naturally aware of this.

However, for so many years in East Africa, Chen Bing's border just did not take action against the Orange Free State.

Especially during the last civil war in the Orange Free State, which can be said to be the most vulnerable time for the entire Orange Free State, East Africa did not take the opportunity to send troops to take the Orange Free State.

So what makes the "hungry wolf" of East Africa "not change its face" by putting the fat in front of him!

Naturally, it was the Cape Town colony that stood behind the Orange Free State, and behind the Cape Town colony stood the British Empire.

If East Africa's annexation of the Orange Free State was almost no different from a war against the British Empire, the British would of course wonder if East Africa was too frightened by its "mother country" to act rashly.

This is a kind of speculation about the psychology of the British in the East African leadership, and if you think about it from another perspective, the East Africans will think the same way.

"So the British just played a double play with the Transvaals, and whether independence was false or not, attracted us to take the initiative to launch a war of aggression against the Oranges, and thus dragged us down the quagmire of war?" Someone asked.

"I can't rule out this possibility, after all, it is indeed in the interests of the British to let the Orange Free State, which is now the Boer Republic, contain us and consume our strength, but are they not afraid that we will wipe out the Boer Republic as the Transvaal Republic did in one bite?"

"The Boer Republic is just a pawn, for us and Britain, it has a certain value, but it is not indispensable, if I were British, I would also like to sacrifice the Boer Republic to test the strength of East Africa, even if I lose, I can throw the pot on the Boers, without causing a fuss." Count Yarman made a more constructive suggestion.

"Over the years, the military strength of the Transvaal people has definitely risen, although they have been disarming last year, but the weapons have not been recovered, but continue to be held by the people's armed forces, and they have always retained more than 10,000 regular military forces, so there is only one reason for their disarmament, that is, there is a financial problem, originally according to the size of the Orange Free State, it is a bit excessive to raise so many modern troops!"

"We all know that the name of the Transvaal armed forces is the Transvaal Restoration Army, and it can be seen from this name that the Transvaals have never given up the purpose of recovering lost territory, and from our hands in East Africa, retaking part of the land of Heshingen Province and Southern Frontier Province, rebuilding the Transvaal Republic, and even including the current Orange Free State, reshaping a Greater Boer Republic is the ultimate goal."

"So this time, the independence of the Boer Republic means that the war is one step closer to us!"

Someone asked Yarman: "Isn't Your Excellency the Earl a little alarmist, in the past, the Transvaals had their backs to the British, and they didn't dare to go to war with us, but now they are out of the control of the British, unless their brains are broken, they will 'declare war' like us!" ”

Count Yarman said: "Do not believe what the eyes see and what the ears hear, but see the essence through the appearance, which is only an independent statement, and it is difficult for the Lanzwaals to be able to shake off the shackles of the British." ”

"In the past, the Orange Free State may have been a British colony, and it could get more security guarantees, after all, few countries dared to provoke the tiger's whiskers of the British Empire, but this also limited Britain's own mobility, because our East Africa is not a weak country like Myanmar and Afghanistan."

Contrary to East Africa, the weaker countries of Central Asia and Southeast Asia are next to Britain's strongest Indian colonies, including the Far Eastern Empire, the "hegemon" of East Asia.

East Africa is a special case, where Britain's target colony is the Cape Town colony, and the Cape Town colony is not in any way able to form a crushing deterrent to the surrounding forces like India.

If Egypt in the north could act as a pawn. There may be some hope, but unfortunately Egypt was only a semi-colony, and the Khedive dynasty still had some autonomy.

Of course, the main reason is that the Khedive, an imperialist eagle dog, is the most typical example of bullying the weak and fearing the hard, otherwise he would not have betrayed Egypt's national interests and let Britain exploit it.

Egypt could not defeat Britain and France, and there was also a fear of East Africa in the south, or Egypt had a fear of "white Europeans".

As for the question of whether East Africa has strength, the territory and army of East Africa are the most convincing, and East Africa has not fought with the Sudanese in the past, and the local Sudanese army in Egypt is basically the result of being crushed.

Therefore, if Britain wants to mobilize Egypt to fight in East Africa, there is basically no such possibility, and even if the Egyptians can be agitated, the East African garrison in Gezira can intercept them in the Sahara Desert.

Count Yarman continued: "Now that the Boer Republic has been established, it may be the first chess piece that Britain has taken against us, even if this chess piece is eaten by us, it will not be able to implicate the British Cape Town, and on the contrary, if this chess piece really drags us down, I am afraid that England and Portugal will also end up at the same time." ”

"Count Yarman, the analysis is very reasonable, now we should think about whether we want to eat the bait of the Boer Republic, if we want to eat it, how to eat it, and in the end, what benefits we can gain from it, and what we may lose!" Ernst asked them.

(End of chapter)