African Nationhood

Chapter 16 Inventory and Future Plans

The town of Walvis Bay is really small. The entire town covers an area of ​​no more than ten kilometers in radius. There is only one cross street in the town.

There are low buildings along the street. Except for a few European-style two-story buildings, most of them are low shacks. Most of the residents here are white.

But there are also a small number of black people, most of whom serve as slaves for white people.

Most of the people gathered here are down-and-out white Europeans. Most of them are engaged in fur purchasing, industrial product vendors, and farmland farming.

The main function of this port is to provide berthing services for passing ships, supply fresh water, fresh fruits, animal meat, etc., and also sell some primary industrial products.

The total population here should not exceed 10000 people. Seeing his territory in such embarrassment made Shi Jintang feel sad.

But he quickly put this emotion aside and followed James Lister to a European-style building near the port.

"This is the residence of Mr. Thomas, no, that bastard Thomas. Since Mr. Shi has arrived, I will let you live and work here first."

It seems that the initial establishment of power is very successful, and this James Lister has already entered the role.

"Well, okay, by the way, the cargo unloaded from the ship must be properly placed. It must not be damaged or lost, otherwise we will not be lenient!"

James Lister just nodded and asked, "Do you have anything else you want me to do?"

This guy was so smart that Shi Jintang took him a little seriously.

"Well, I'll leave the matter of examining Thomas to you and my guard Tian Liang."

Tian Liang is cautious, and he knows how to be forbearing, so if this matter is left to him, James Lister should not dare to fool him for personal gain.

Even if Tian Liang was fooled and there was a second review by his boss, once James Lister cheated, James' career in Nanhua Company would be over.

Even if you don't kill him, you still have to strip him naked and throw him out.

And this is the fate of Thomas. As a target of establishing authority, he must not be spared lightly.

Why not kill him? The main reason is that Nanhua Company has just started and it is not easy to go too far and arouse the disgust of other white people.

James Lister and Tian Liang left together, while Robin Trudeau and Qu Sangqian went out for a walk together. They were full of curiosity in a new place.

Shi Jintang closed the door, sat on a mahogany desk and began to plan his future actions.

This time when he came to Walvis Bay Port, he only had three guards and a few prospecting experts around him. These people were his treasures.

He had just given an order to James Lister to entertain them well.

The rest was the weapons and equipment given to him by the British military, which was enough to arm a battalion.

The extra equipment, in Bannerman's words, means that the requirements for the title cannot be met, and the British military will provide additional compensation for the equipment.

The truth is that Bannerman deliberately overwrote this clause, and then used these equipment as a favor to block Shi Jintang's mouth.

Shi Jintang's asking prices were sky-high, so the extra equipment was an unexpected blessing.

These weapons include more than 1200 Martini-Henry mkII rifles (the British regiment camp is not obvious, so it is calculated according to the large camp).

There are two 3-pound and 6-pound light artillery pieces each (each British battalion is equipped with an artillery battery), supporting 120000 rounds of bullets, a total of 1200 artillery shells, and 2 kilograms of black powder.

Among them, the Martini-Henry rifle is the latest standard rifle modified in 1877. It is by no means the old MkⅠ. Bannerman, who took the money, indeed saved Shi Jintang a lot of effort.

In addition, Dr. Smith also purchased more than one hundred Remington m1871 roller locking rifles for him in the United States.

This gun has many problems, such as its tendency to explode and serious air leakage, but this cannot stop the fact that this gun has a simple structure and is easy to manufacture.

This rifle was very famous in the Qing Dynasty and was used until the beginning of the 20th century. The Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau copied nearly one million units.

The design of this gun was completed at a critical time in the American Civil War, and Remington originally planned to produce it to supply the U.S. military.

Unexpectedly, the American Civil War ended soon, and Remington, which had no customers, had to open up new customers and turned around to participate in the World Exposition in Europe.

As soon as it attended the conference, it set off a whirlwind in Europe, with countries praising this gun for ushering in a new era.

Because at that time, European countries were still using paper-cased bullets, and they were defenseless against metal fixed-loading rifles. Especially in France, the Franco-Prussian War was raging at that time, and the production of its own standard rifles was not sufficient.

So a one-time order of 21 guns was made, and after the war, these guns were left idle.

Shi Jintang met Henry Lebel and planned to buy a batch of second-hand pistols from him.

I just didn't expect that the negotiations with the British military would go smoothly, so I didn't speak again.

Taking stock of the current family situation, in general, the early development and occupation of territory is enough.

The next thing to do is to declare authority, and the second is to set up development points to expand the territory.

Because the current Bechuanaland Reserve (Botswana) had not yet been established, he was able to colonize it before the Cape colonial government could react.

The early colonial goal was to occupy Zimbabwe and Zambia, the two central areas of southern Africa.

Zambia is rich in minerals and has developed agriculture, but its foundation is not as good as that of Zimbabwe.

This area has been known as the "Bakehouse of Africa" ​​in later generations. If it weren't for those black uncles, how could everyone live in poverty like a "billionaire"?

After occupying the Zimbabwe area, even if there is a foundation for farming and hegemony, once the foundation is laid, it will be easier to expand and occupy other territories.

Of course, these are plans for a few years later. At the moment, he needs to focus on developing the grassland and hilly areas in central and northern Southwest Africa. As for the south, he will not care about it for the time being.

The largest gold mine in Southwest Africa is about two to three hundred kilometers northeast of Walvis Bay.

In my memory, it should be not far from the country's capital (Windhoek), but I can't remember the exact location.

In addition, the mineral resources in Southwest Africa that are worth developing include copper resources (Tsumebu Copper Mine), which have not been mined out for more than 100 years.

The uranium deposits deep under the Nakumi Desert are important minerals related to future national security, and there is no rush to exploit them at the moment.

He currently has limited funds and population, so he focuses on developing gold mines first, so as to attract popularity and secondly, to accumulate capital.

When you have money later, you can build railways and colonize on a large scale, and have better control over the land within the territory.

As for the development of diamond mines, it cannot be put on the agenda for the time being. Diamonds are too eye-catching.

Once it is revealed that there are diamond mines on his territory, vultures from all sides will swarm.

Diamond mines were discovered on the territory of the Boers, and British merchants flocked there, eventually forcing the Boers to abandon the diamond mines through war.

Later, gold mines were discovered in the Rand Basin in the Boer territory. The British and Germans also swarmed in and clashed with the Boers.

In the end, the Boers and the British fought a battle, and the British lost tens of thousands of troops and 2.2 million pounds in military expenditures, and their vitality was severely damaged.

Although the Boers struggled to establish their country, they suffered heavy population losses and had to be recruited and assimilated by the British into the white class of South Africa.

The main problem on his side right now is the lack of people, the lack of talents that can be used by him.

No one can only be recruited, and the most worthy of recruitment are naturally the Qing compatriots in the United States.

These people can go to the United States to prospect for gold, and naturally they can also come here to prospect for gold.

In addition, he also needs to find Dutch and British businessmen and promise them benefits to transport immigrants from the Qing Dynasty in the Far East.

He has to walk on both legs, and the most important thing is that he has to have someone to farm the land and he has to be self-sufficient in food.

Otherwise, even if you find gold, you will still be working for others, so in the final analysis, you still have to farm.

And when it came to farming, he still needed to make a trip to the Cape Colony.

　Please read, collect, invest, and recommend!

(End of this chapter)