Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1763 South Africa and the United Provinces ([-])

On December 1677, 12, in the thirsty midsummer of the Great Karoo Plateau in South Africa, a long team was slowly moving forward under the scorching sun.They looked very tired, but the formation was maintained fairly well. It should be an old and strong team. If you consider that this is in South Africa and the color of their military uniforms, then it is very clear. This is a regular battalion on the east coast of the South African Garrison.

In fact, this is also the case. This is a unit that started from Lishan County. The designation is No. 11 Mixed Battalion.They set off from Lishan County, where the battalion headquarters is located, almost 20 days ago, and traveled eastward along the thousands of ravines on the Little Karoo Plateau. After collecting some supplies in Union Township—in fact, they also added some drinking water And live animals, because Gein was still very poor locally-began to turn north, climb over mountain ridges, look for traces of the enemy and pursue them.

The enemy they are looking for is the black people of the Karma Kingdom.To be honest, this kingdom with the Xhosa people as the main body is currently in a dying state, and it can even be said to be in a de facto state of disintegration.Thanks to the year-round raids by the people on the east coast, the nomadic and nomadic tribes under the Kama Kingdom suffered heavy losses, and gradually broke away from their rule due to various reasons.Some of them were attracted by the people from the east bank and joined them here, and then were incorporated into the Black Eight Banners sequence. Some of them went away and disappeared without a trace.

In short, after these nomadic and nomadic outlying tribes left, the situation in the Kama Kingdom deteriorated day by day. After the king's court moved to the east, when fighting the local Zulu-speaking tribes, they could not defeat them very quickly, and even suffered several defeats, which made people very frustrated.You must know that the Karma Kingdom has undergone a hard-working reform. At that time, the first king concentrated considerable power and relied on his personal prestige to forcibly promote the Dutchization process of the country. He required the middle and upper classes to use the Dutch language, learn Dutch culture and knowledge, and introduce Dutch religion. , At the same time, he also sent the children of the royal family to study in Amsterdam, which greatly increased the strength of the Karma Kingdom and won repeated victories in the conquest of surrounding tribes.

But how many years have passed?The Karma Kingdom, which was once invincible among the aborigines, the aboriginal kingdom that once fought hard with the people on the east coast, and the powerful regime that used to talk and laugh with the Dutch and the English, have gone through adolescence and prosperity in just 40 years. In old age and old age, how fast is the decline and death!

According to the information gathered by people on the east coast, the last royal court of the Kama Kingdom has moved to a place with rich water and grass east of the Great Karoo Plateau, and it migrates from time to time due to wars, lack of food and other reasons.Think about the time when this country had escaped from the nomadic farming state and developed towards settlement, but was severely attacked by foreign colonial troops. Although it struggled repeatedly and some relatively outstanding people came out to carry out reforms, in the end it still It was nothing, and now it has returned to the nomadic society decades ago, and the trend of civilization retrogression is irreversible.

It is said that the king’s orders of the Kama Kingdom can’t go out of those few direct tribes. Some marginal tribes who were closely united around them are very dissatisfied because the fight with the Zulus is too tragic, but the benefits are not much. , Wang Ting's prestige is decreasing day by day.People from the Gendarmerie Command estimate that the current population directly controlled by King Kama’s royal family will not exceed [-], perhaps even less, and the standing army may not be more than [-], and there are still a few muskets that have to be questioned. After all, it has not been supplemented for many years, and now it is not bad to have three or four hundred shots that can be shot.

The strength of the Kama Kingdom is naturally not taken seriously by the people on the east coast.In fact, when people on the east coast formulate expansion policies to the inland areas of South Africa, they basically no longer regard the threat of the Karma Kingdom as the number one threat. They even feel that those scattered small tribes may It was more harmful to the East Coast settlers than the imagined Karma Kingdom army numbering over a thousand and having a lot of metal weapons, which hadn't been seen in many years.

According to the plan formulated by the Hezhong District Administrative Office, the current expansion in the south of the South Hengshan Mountains, the Little Karoo Plateau and the Great Karoo Plateau is still based on steady progress and self-reliance.That is to say, the first priority of a newly established colonial point is to feed itself, not as a military station, warehouse or barracks, and the first priority of each settlement is to develop production, rather than focusing on military training.

The Kama Kingdom, a country that has been seriously "paralyzed" in the eyes of the regional administration, is temporarily put aside.Anyway, they are now fighting with the Zulu and Xhosa people in the east, fighting all day long for some land with rich water and grass, and the loss of each other's strength is not small.This behavior of being a pioneer of the king, in the opinion of Bai Yutang, the Commissioner of the Regional Administration, is in line with the interests of the East Coast Republic, and it is also in line with the long-term policy of the Regional Administration to compete for the land in the sun for the East Coast peoples—is this nonsense? They killed each other completely, and the people on the east bank just packed up their things and went to live there, and directly replanted this vast land. Isn't it flattering!

Therefore, the strategic focus of the Hezhong District Administrative Office has basically shifted back to local economic construction, such as the South African Railway that has officially started construction (that is, a large-scale infrastructure project called the "Diamond Railway" among the people).In fact, the Hezhong Regional Administration planned to build the railway many years ago. For this reason, some funds are squeezed out of the local finance and deposited in the special account of the Northwest Reclamation Bank every year. At the same time, all the diamonds collected in South Africa are also transported back to the mainland for sale. Funds, together with various other incomes and some 20-year bonds issued to the eight counties in Hezhong, they raised a total of more than 150 million yuan for the initial investment of the railway.

The local government pays for the repair of the railway. This is what the members of the Executive Committee like to see most!However, this is very uncommon, and most local governments do not have the financial resources and courage, so how rare is the behavior of the Central District Administrative Office in South Africa. Two generations of administrative office commissioners have persisted in saving money, and local resources (diamonds and a small amount of gold) are exhausted. The investment, coupled with the people's enthusiasm to buy long-term bonds for railway construction, all of these show the degree of expectation of the more than [-] people in the Hezhong area for this railway.

Of course, the local governments have shown such determination, no matter how difficult it is for your central government, it is impossible for your central government to be unwilling at all.No, under the urging of the National Railway Administration, the Central Railway Company participated in the construction of the South African railway, and borne almost half of the expenses-according to the results of the negotiation between the two parties, all the upfront costs of the railway construction were paid by the Hezhong District Administration. Undertake, wait until the financial pressure of the Central Railway Company is initially relieved before spending money on this railway. After all, they are still undertaking the construction of the Yicheng Railway and the domestic Northern Railway, and the pressure is huge.

Of course, the Hezhong District Administrative Office has no objection to this.Bai Yutang, commissioner of the regional administrative office, personally made the decision, and broke ground in Cape Town, Hezhong Town, and Gaoda Township at the same time, that is, the priority is to build the railway from Hezhong Town to Cape Town Town.This road construction plan is somewhat different from the original one. At that time, Dutch South Africa had not yet been captured by the East Coasters. Naturally, the plan formulated could not include Cape Town, Caigang, Baiting and other towns.But it’s different now. Dutch South Africa has been de facto occupied by the east coast and has set up counties to immigrate. The Dutch East India Company in Cape Town County has been operating for many years, and the investment is relatively large. Both the population and the degree of economic development are very good. , In addition, the geographical location is also extremely critical, so the Riverside Regional Administration slightly modified the plan made earlier, and added a branch railway leading to Cape Town Port.

Now, due to insufficient funds, it is impossible to undertake the construction of the entire railway at the same time. Therefore, after deliberation, Bai Yutang decided to build the railway from Hezhong Town to Cape Town Port first.This railway crosses two counties and six settlements, with a planned total length of 271 kilometers. It is not a small investment. The Hezhong District Administrative Office directly detained [-] to [-] Dutch people who originally planned to declare "liberation". The slaves under the East India Company—mostly Khoisan, Xhosa, and some Malays sentenced to exile here—organized them into groups on the spot, and then put them into vigorous railway construction operations.

In addition, the South African Regional Administration also wrote a letter to the South African Garrison, requesting it to send some capable troops to take the initiative to search for black nomadic or nomadic tribes to attack, not asking for much territory (in fact, occupying those barren lands is not at present. Too likely), I just want to plunder some labor back, because the railway construction site is like a bottomless pit, swallowing up various numbers of road construction workers every day, so naturally we need to get more consumables.

The No.11 mixed battalion led by Major Li Zhixin went northward to attack against this background.As for his immediate superior, Commander of the Eighth Mixed Battalion, Commander of the South African Garrison, and Lieutenant Colonel Guo Handong, he is leading the main force of the Eighth Mixed Battalion and the South African Cavalry Battalion to "suppress bandits" north after landing in Qisixiang. Woolen cloth.This is not only to meet the requirements of the local administrative bureau to arrest more people, but also to implement the so-called "South Africa penetration operation" plan.

Guo Handong has been fighting there for almost two months.On that land, perhaps because of the rich precipitation and humid climate, there are still more black tribes such as the Xhosa and Zulu, and the population density can be said to be far higher than that of the western half of South Africa. Nearly two thousand officers and soldiers really felt the excitement of being transferred to the treasure house at first.

It's just that after two months of continuous fighting, they had already penetrated far into the inland area, and the supplies began to be gradually unable to be delivered, and the personnel were quite tired.Coupled with dozens of battles all the way north, they caught a lot of people, but their property was really limited. Speaking of it, there were only some furs, ivory and the like that were worth a little money, and there were also some low-purity dog ​​head gold , but the number is small, and if you divide one point, everyone will not get much money at all, so everyone now has the idea of ​​​​withdrawing troops.

Lieutenant Colonel Guo Handong hesitated at first, and wanted to hold on for a while, so he did not issue an order to withdraw troops for the time being.It was only later that when news came that the Yicheng area began to sell pots and sell iron to build railways, and the more than 1000 officers and soldiers of Mao Jun and Tang Moyu in the Yiyang Bay area were weaned immediately and were unable to continue southward along the inland area to join forces with Guo Han's east. The commander immediately understood the current situation, so he decisively ordered to retreat in batches with the captured spoils and slaves, and then boarded the ship and returned to Cape Town. Of course, his mood must be relatively gloomy, but this is not enough Known to outsiders.

Major Li Zhixin estimated that at the end of this month, Commander Guo's troops will arrive in Cape Town in batches. By then, the labor shortage on the railway construction site will be greatly alleviated. Their No.11 mixed battalion should also be able to gradually get rid of the grassland, The fate of blowing wind and eating sand in the desert can return to the place to rest.You know, they and the Eighth Mixed Battalion have been guarding South Africa for several years. The officers and soldiers have been away from home for a long time, and they are eager to return home. They really don't have much interest in continuing to fight for life and death in this thirsty and barren desert. .They are the national economic control unit, and they shouldn't be doing things like suppressing bandits, but should be done by the local reserve forces. Battalion Commander Li always feels that if the security war is fought for a long time, maybe the troops will not fight. After a regular battle, the habits of officers and soldiers will also become very bad, which will undoubtedly greatly affect the combat effectiveness.

They arrived at Beiwei Township at the junction of the Great and Great Karoo Plateaus on the morning of December 12, a settlement just established this year, located near the later town of Willowmore, South Africa, and currently has a population of more than 21. At the same time, more than a thousand Xhosa black laborers built reservoirs here - some rivers confluence nearby, and there are also some natural small lakes. Although the amount of fresh water is not very large, it is extremely scarce in this area. It is already a rare resource on the plateau, so the east bank government has mobilized a group of laborers to work here.

The officers and soldiers of the No.11 mixed battalion lived in a group of simple military camps near the township government, while Battalion Commander Li went to the village field to chat with the local cadres and have a decent lunch at the same time.After lunch, just when he was about to take a good rest, a letter from Cape Town arrived here in Beiwei Township and was delivered to Li Zhixin.

Major Li opened it in doubt, and then laughed. It turned out that the letter was not about anything else, but that the representatives of the dual authorization of the United Provinces and the Dutch East India Company had formally reached an agreement with the East Coast government and made a statement on the Dutch South African colony. The status issue was eventually signed.

(End of this chapter)