African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 574: Chapter 252: The Navy Arrives

The press conference was quite unpleasant, of course, this unpleasantness was only for Japan. The journalists, however, were very excited as they dug up a lot of news material, especially since this diplomatic incident was an international event.

The Japanese initially wanted to set a trap for East Africa to gain sympathy internationally, but they ended up entangling themselves, and Russia was naturally at odds with Japan, especially with their ongoing disputes in Northeast Asia.

This rendered one of Japan’s two strategies against East Africa ineffective, leaving them to rely on their own strength to confront East Africa and drive them out of the southern Ryukyu Islands. Now, the Japanese even regret their dispute with the Far East Empire over the Ryukyu Islands, preferring if the southern Ryukyu Islands were in the hands of the Far East Empire.

Zhuhai Trade Region.

”In the coming days, warships will dock here. Our port will serve as a pre-war command post, fully cooperating with the country to strike against the Japanese invaders in the eastern seas and protect East African national interests.”

Due to the underdevelopment and sparse population of the southern Ryukyu Islands, along with inadequate infrastructure, they lack the capability to support large-scale warfare.

Therefore, backed by the Far East Empire, the Zhuhai Trade Region became a temporary command base for the East African navy, where they could fully mobilize resources available in the Far East. Compared to the Huaihai Economic Zone, the Zhuhai Trade Region was far weaker, but its proximity to the southern Ryukyu Islands allowed for timely frontline support.

Moreover, the surrounding areas of the Zhuhai Trade Region were commercially developed, where most material needs could be solved with money.

Of course, another reason was the consideration that the local telegraph could maintain constant contact with East Africa, which was crucial for East Africa to control the war situation.

At three in the afternoon.

The small East African fleet officially arrived at Zhuhai, with a total of three ironclad ships, two wooden sail-steam fast ships, five armored gunboats, and other supply-bearing vessels, totaling twelve ships.

The gunboats were referred to as mosquito boats in the current Beiyang navy and were the main combat vessels in the Beiyang navy. Within the East African navy, they only served as auxiliary combat ships. Despite being called mosquito boats, their displacement could reach around a thousand tons, much smaller than ironclad ships, and hence were called small ironclad ships.

So these small ironclad ships certainly couldn’t match real ironclad ships in strength, but compared to traditional wooden sailing warships, they were a grade stronger.

Such a fleet in the Far East could not be underestimated; besides the Far East and Japan, no other country even had the qualification for comparison. This fleet represented about one-fourth of East Africa’s naval strength, demonstrating the power of one of the world’s top ten navies.

”General Gleiss! Welcome to the Zhuhai Trade Region. According to domestic requirements, we will fully cooperate with the navy’s work in the coming period.”

”How are the seas around the southern Ryukyu Islands? Is the engineering construction going smoothly?” Gleiss asked directly.

”General, the construction progress in the southern Ryukyu Islands is still quite slow; you could even say it’s just starting, and the situation isn’t very good!”

Gleiss asked, ”Why? What difficulties did you encounter?”

”General, the area of the southern Ryukyu Islands is not small, and the distance between several major islands within the archipelago is large, making interconnections difficult. This also means doubled construction difficulties. If it were just one island, we could consolidate equipment and fortifications for use, but the dispersion of the southern Ryukyu Islands necessitates the setting up of an identical configuration on each island.”

Gleiss thought for a moment and agreed. East Africa’s demand for the southern Ryukyu Islands was to occupy them all, leaving no island for other forces, and these isolated islands each required a set of facilities.

The person in charge of the Zhuhai Trade Region continued, ”Labor shortages are also a significant factor, you could even say the main factor. Although the southern Ryukyu Islands lack other resources, we can ship them from home and the Far East, but not people. The entire southern Ryukyu Islands have a population of 17,300, which even pales in comparison to the African workforce on any random project, not to mention the elderly, women, children, and the malnourished.”

East African blacks, though backward, are much richer compared to the islanders in the Pacific. Firstly, because the population is small, and secondly, due to rich resources, they live by hunting with plenty of meat.

In places like Japan, even satisfying hunger with rice is a luxury, and many choose to join the army just to eat polished rice. The people of the southern Ryukyu Islands are even poorer than those in Japan, and yet, they still have to pay heavy taxes to the Ryukyu Kingdom, much of which is handed over to Japan. Because of this, the islanders of the southern Ryukyu Islands harbor intense resentment towards Japan. This is a crucial reason why Japan did not annex the southern Ryukyu Islands after swallowing the Ryukyu Kingdom.

In contrast, the Far East Empire appeared amiable, as it values face as a nominal sovereign country. Japan’s exploitation even of places as impoverished as the southern Ryukyu Islands naturally gains no support.

East Africa ruling Ryukyu has other plans: to migrate all locals to East Africa and turn the southern Ryukyu Islands into a strong military fortress in the Pacific.

As for farming on the southern Ryukyu Islands, it would be convenient to grow vegetables and fruits for the military, but they did not intend to grow grains, opting instead to convert areas into vegetable gardens, orchards, and small pastures to meet diverse military needs, with grains directly transported from home.

East Africa needs immigrants, while for island countries in the Pacific, each one is poorer than the next. Keeping them there not only occupies resources but also creates limited value. Of course, Nauru, with its heavenly abundance of resources, is an exception.

Generally, islands have little economic value, which is why many countries passed over many islands in the Pacific during colonization. In previous generations, Germany seized a pile of islands in the Pacific as colonies, which was essentially akin to ”poverty alleviation.”

For instance, Germany’s New Guinea colony on the island of Papua New Guinea still uses airports, farms, roads, and other infrastructures left by Germany from the last century into the 21st century.

Nauru’s mineral wealth was the result of birds accumulating it over billions of years, and even in the industrial era, it couldn’t withstand a dozen years of development before resources were rapidly depleted.

”General Gleiss, aside from these objective reasons, the factor hindering our development of the southern Ryukyu Islands is Japanese sabotage.”

”Hmm! Has the Japanese navy been dispatched?”

”No, but Japan has sent many fishing boats to harass our transport ships in the southern Ryukyu Islands’ waters. In the ten days before your arrival, they constantly obstructed our ships in the relevant seas, preventing us from landing. Fortunately, we left enough supplies and provisions on the island. If you had arrived a month later, the garrison on the island would have had to compromise and withdraw.”

”Approximately how many ships do they have? What is their strength?”

”About a hundred every day, passing through the Miyako Strait from the northern Ryukyu Islands, and under the guise of fishing, they compete with our ships. Although we have more large ships, even ants can bite an elephant to death. They can afford to lose those small dinghies, but our fleet cannot remain at sea indefinitely.”

”Hmm, don’t worry. Once my forces are familiar with the environment, we’ll block the Miyako Strait. If the Japanese don’t give up, we’ll counteract their merchant ships in the Far East seas. Let’s see who caves first then!”