When East Africa was purging the eastern defense line, Mozambique was not idle, and unlike East Africa's defensive strategy, Mozambique was more inclined to take the initiative to attack.

Because the values between the two are completely different, for East Africa, Matabele province is an industrial base, while Mozambique is just a colony, so the territory of East Africa is more valuable, and to ensure that industry is not threatened by war, it requires more careful defense.

The main economic structure of Mozambique is plantations and mines, these two economies are very malleable, even if they are destroyed by the war, they are not distressed, after all, the investment is very low, and only the repeated exploitation of the indigenous people in the territory can be done, so Mozambique is very flexible.

Therefore, Mozambique's strategic purpose is to carry out a "destructive" attack on East African territory in order to destroy East Africa's war potential, weaken East Africa's national strength, and pave the way for the three countries to divide up East African territory.

……

Municipality of Maputo.

At this time, Maputo can be described as a group of "yin" people, representatives of the Portuguese, British and Transvaals gathered in this historic African "ancient" city.

"Why not set up a command center in Bloemfontein? Although Maputo is well located, it is also separated from our Boer Republic by East Africa and Cape Town, so there is no communication between them! Davidson asked, pointing to the map.

Bougivall: "Although you Boers are also surrounded by East Africa on three sides, the pressure you are under cannot be compared with that of Mozambique, and you must know that the most elite troops in East Africa must be deployed in the north of Mozambique, and the south of East Africa is just the border of East Africa. ”

"Even the central Natal colony cannot communicate with each other, and it is divided by the New Hamburg Port City, so if you want to open up the communication between the three countries, you must spare no effort to take the New Hamburg Port City."

"There are 50,000 British troops in the Natal colony, as well as 80,000 Indian servants, and we have 40,000 deployed in Mozambique, plus 30,000 Portuguese troops in Mozambique, and 70,000 blacks, that is, 140,000, the total of the two parts is 270,000, and the Boer Republic can temporarily expand the army to 30,000, and the number of troops can directly reach 300,000."

This does not include the garrisons in Cape Town and Angola, so the current available strength of the entire Triple Alliance is around 500,000.

"Our forces in Europe can only be compared with a few powers, so this war will inevitably kill East Africa and contribute to peace and stability in Africa." Count Roberts said proudly.

Although it is only theoretically commanding more than 500,000 troops and a large country with an area and a population of more than 10 million to fight a war, I am afraid that few people in British history have achieved such an achievement, which is no less than a copy of the "Crimean War".

However, in the Crimean War, Britain was not the main force, the main force at that time was France, and the Crimean War was also the pinnacle of France's foreign wars during the reign of Napoleon III.

Therefore, the Earl of Roberts can only enjoy this honor, and if he can successfully command this war against East Africa, he will also be a famous figure in the history of the British Empire in the future.

Davidson and Bougival did not dare to contradict these British earls, because Count Roberts had previously been the supreme British military commander in India, a British military family, his father was a British general, and he himself held the position of commander-in-chief of the Indian armed forces.

In his early years, he participated in the suppression of rebellions in India, the expedition against the Abyssinian Empire, the Second Afghan War (a war instigated in East Africa), and he also commanded the Second Boer War in history, and was also the last commander-in-chief in British history.

Roberts continued: "Of course, our enemy, East Africa's strength is not bad, they maintain a standing army of more than 100,000 people all year round, and at the same time all the weapons and equipment are Germanized, which is also an important reason why East Africa has maintained an advantage in the African war before, they also have a strong regional navy, so we must go all out to fight with a large country of East Africa." ”

Although he tried his best to exaggerate the threat of East Africa, Count Roberts did not change his attitude towards East Africa, that is, he never believed that East Africa had a huge advantage over the Allies.

First of all, in terms of military strength, the Allies currently have an absolute advantage, and although the Triple Alliance troops after being armed by the British, although their weapons and equipment are mixed, they are at the same level as East Africa.

The second is the command authority, both the Transvaal and Portugal have to obey the command of their own British commander-in-chief, the Transvaal are the younger brother of the British, and Portugal is even more loyal to the British, which is the same in Europe, so there will be no unclear command authority, which gives Count Roberts greater confidence.

Finally, in terms of navy, Britain was able to mobilize the Royal Navy forces of India and Cape Town at the same time to fight the war in East Africa, and the East African Navy was supported by the Austro-Hungarian Navy, so the British Navy was confident that it would win the war for the Austro-Hungarian Navy, which was a "weak country" in the navy.

"Our main disadvantage is logistics, once the war starts, we must quickly and accurately destroy the main forces of East Africa, and we cannot fight with the enemy in the region, and at the same time, in order to prevent accidents, the material reserves must be fully prepared, which is also an important reason why I put the main battlefield on the east coast, where we can receive supplies from India and our own country from the sea."

East Africa's advantage lies in land transportation, and with the construction of railways, resources can be mobilized across the country, which cannot be done by the United Kingdom and Portugal, which are in Europe, so they are extremely dependent on sea transportation.

This also means that the first battle between East Africa and the Triple Alliance in the future is likely to be a naval battle, but this kind of thing is not in the hands of Count Roberts, and there is no need to talk about it with the two allies.

Because the naval strength of the Portuguese is basically equal to zero, there is only one ironclad ship imported from the British, and it is estimated that it will not leave the mainland, as for the Boer Republic of the Transvaals, it is completely landlocked and does not even have the ability to form a navy, Mongolia in the Far Eastern Empire still has large lakes, and only the tributaries of the Orange River can be used in the territory of the Boer Republic.

Therefore, the main force of naval warfare can only be the British Royal Navy, and the two allies are not even qualified to fight soy sauce, but the war on land requires the two countries to make great efforts.

Mozambique, in particular, is the most prominent, which is why Count Roberts placed the headquarters of the Triple Alliance in Maputo, the main battlefield personally selected by Count Roberts.

The establishment of the Allied General Headquarters also means that the South African version of the Triple Alliance, led by the British, has been formally formed, and the main purpose of the alliance is to dismantle the common threat of East Africa.

With Britain as the world hegemon and the two major colonies of Portugal, the "puppet powers", the Allies were not to be underestimated on the African continent.

In a previous life, this alliance of military strength would have been enough to sweep away any other colonial power on the continent.

In fact, in the previous life, Britain and Portugal basically divided the whole of South Africa and East Africa after World War I, plus the British colonies in Egypt (including North and South Sudan) and Somalia, the size of Britain's African colonies also reached its peak.

(End of chapter)