"Boom, boom, boom......"

In the Indian Ocean, East African ironclad ships and gunboats began shelling the city of Maputo, and the shells left mottled marks on the walls of the fortress made of black boulders, showing the solidity of Maputo as a fortress.

"Maputo is no longer safe, and in addition to facing the East African army in the port of New Hamburg, East African warships in the Indian Ocean have also become a serious threat to the city of Maputo." Bougivar said to Count Roberts with a heavy face.

In fact, the coalition forces had long expected an attack on Maputo from the sea in East Africa, but when the day actually came, the coalition forces still felt the pressure.

"The sea is controlled by East Africa, Maputo has become a de facto isolated city, and Maputo is very close to the rest of the East African forces except for the north, so I suggest that the command post should be moved inland or north."

Naturally, Bougivar said this also includes the Governor's Palace of Mozambique, which is no longer safe for everyone to feel at the moment.

Maputo is south of the South Frontier Province of East Africa, while the west is part of the former Kingdom of Eswatini, now part of the province of Heshingen, and the Indian Ocean is threatened by East African warships, so that East Africa has formed a semi-encirclement of Maputo's superior force deployment.

And within this semi-encirclement, each point is less than 200 kilometers away from Maputo, and if East Africa is cut off from the north, then Maputo will be completely encircled.

Count Roberts: "You have a point, in fact, from the beginning, Maputo was still more suitable as our headquarters, but the war situation changed too quickly, and it was different from what we expected before the war, so it caused the current predicament of Maputo." ”

At first, the British army was still relatively arrogant, at that time Count Roberts himself aimed to quickly penetrate the East African defenses, open the passage to the port of New Hamburg, and then occupy Eswatini by the way, and then move east into the former Transvaal Republic area, or directly break into Matabele Province in central East Africa with superior forces and firepower.

The underestimation of the combat effectiveness of the East African army and the war potential of East Africa led to the fact that Count Roberts' strategy was directly troubled by the small port city of New Hamburg in the first step and could not be carried out for a long time, and the eastern defense line of East Africa was even more impregnable, with the provinces of South Salzburg and Matabele as the backing, even if the German army came to East Africa, it was confident that it would deal with the British army.

South Salzburg Province and Matabele Province are the two industrial bases in East Africa with heavy industry as the core, centered on the cities of Mbeya and Harare respectively, and concentrate the core strength of East Africa's heavy industry and military industry.

At the same time, there was a central railway, and supplies and personnel were able to be quickly transferred between the two provinces and then transported to the front line by road.

What's worse is that East Africa has a natural geographical advantage over Mozambique, East Africa is high and dominated by plateaus, compared to Mozambique with mainly plains, which naturally has an advantage in fighting high and low, especially in the era of thermal weapons, so even if the British army continues to increase its troops, East Africa is still confident to hold the eastern defense line.

"If East Africa takes the Indian Ocean as a breakthrough point and lands in the north of Maputo, it is really possible to cut off the communication between our army and the troops in the north, which is the most fatal, and without Maputo's command, then the troops that are already at a disadvantage, I am afraid that the morale will be further reduced, resulting in irreparable losses." Bougivar spoke from a commanding point of view.

During the siege of the port of New Hamburg by the British, the defenders of the port of New Hamburg in East Africa could communicate with East Africa by land and sea through backup defense telegraph lines buried in the ground.

Mozambique, on the other hand, has a very low telegraph penetration rate, except for Maputo and several coastal cities, and can only be used for intra-regional communications, and if it wants to connect with the mainland, it has to transit through the city of Dar es Salaam in East Africa.

This is the industrial age, the advantage of industrial countries over agricultural countries, of course, now East Africa is also an agricultural country, but this is compared with other powers, and as a Portuguese colony, Mozambique is obviously more backward than East Africa, especially after being blocked off the coast by East Africa, Mozambique has even fallen into a state of regressive development.

The negligible "industry" has also been forced to stagnate because it is unable to import machinery parts and raw materials from the country.

This is especially true militarily, where the coalition forces now rely entirely on pre-war stockpiles for their main weapons and ammunition, and although there are occasional smuggling ships to transport supplies, they are a drop in the bucket.

Shipping in the western Indian Ocean has not come to a complete standstill, although more ships have chosen the Suez Canal to pass through the South African War, but there are still many brave ships who have chosen the Cape Town route.

East Africa does not prohibit this kind of behavior, and it also has its own difficulties, after all, East Africa also needs foreign trade, so it can only turn a blind eye to maritime trade, and the same is true for Britain, but now ships of both countries are disguised as merchant ships of various countries and sail in the western Indian Ocean.

This situation is very common in history, after all, the Indian Ocean route is an international shipping lane, and neither East Africa nor the countries bordering East Africa have the right to monopolize it, unless one country occupies both the mainland of East Africa and the island of Madagascar.

Even so, there is no reason for East Africa to do so, which could provoke international dissatisfaction, as in the case of the Red Sea region, where the Suez Canal is linked to global trade, and if any country cuts off the Red Sea route, it will certainly trigger international condemnation.

Of course, East Africa does not care about everything if it turns a blind eye and closes one eye, it is still possible to go on board the ship to inspect and inspect the goods, and the British do the same.

It's just that most of the military industry in East Africa is self-sufficient, and only a small amount needs to be imported from other regions, which makes it impossible for the British to find any "contraband".

And Germany, France and other countries and East Africa free commercial trade, Britain naturally has no reason to cut off, the same powers, naturally will not allow Britain to violently enforce the law, especially in Madagascar Island has colonies.

Unless Britain can come up with interests that make France and other countries happy, and East Africa, a country that can confront Britain militarily, France will naturally not be easily offended.

If the war in East Africa is bad, it is better to say, France will definitely end up with a piece of the pie, but now East Africa is getting stronger and stronger, and it obviously has the military strength of a great power, so even if the British are willing to share part of the benefits, it can only be a blank check.

This is the advantage of East Africa's demonstrated military strength, and if it is vulnerable, I am afraid that even Germany and Austria, which have friendly relations, will fall into the ground.

Of course, if it is a few years after Wilhelm II ascends the throne, Germany may not have this attitude, after all, Wilhelm II's goal is Britain, and it needs allies to confront Britain, and even a group of small and weak countries in Eastern Europe are the target of Britain and Germany.

After all, in the previous life, Germany's favorite thing was to provide military assistance to its allies and support the strength of its younger brother, including Austria-Hungary, whose military had begun to obey the Germans in the latter part of World War I.

"If you move north, you must choose a military location where you can fight East Africa for a long time, the main thing is to facilitate the command of the various units, and you must not ignore the role of Maputo, even if Maputo is no longer the headquarters of the headquarters, but still retains an important military function." Count Roberts said.

(End of chapter)