African Entrepreneurship Record

”This...”

Lidun’s intention caught Count Roberts off guard and made him feel troubled, even frustrated. Originally, according to his psychological expectations, the main forces in the West should have already been wiped out by the East Africans.

After all, from the start, Count Roberts assumed that the East Africans would first eliminate the main British forces in the West and then continue eastward to encircle Shao Kui.

This wasn’t without basis, because from the start, Count Roberts believed that the East African forces were numerous, though exactly how many was unclear. The intelligence on East Africa was exceedingly difficult to obtain, and this lack of information was an important reason for the repeated failures of the British Army.

Moreover, the main western forces had lost contact with Shao Kui’s headquarters a long time ago, which was also an important reason why Count Roberts believed that the Western main forces had been eliminated by East Africa.

In reality, the Allied main forces in the West were tightly besieged by East Africa, and East Africa also had cavalry patrolling the outskirts to prevent the British Western main forces from fleeing eastward. Even if they managed to escape numerous checkpoints, upon reaching Shao Kui, they still wouldn’t be able to contact Count Roberts. Before the battle, Shao Kui was also surrounded by East African forces, making it nearly impossible to enter Shao Kui city through so many troops.

Seeing Count Roberts in a difficult position, Lidun said, ”Your Excellency, you do not need to feel guilty because although your Western troops have not been entirely annihilated by our forces, they have been pinned down by an equal number of our troops. As long as our forces in Shao Kui advance westward, eliminating them would be as easy as pie. In fact, we wouldn’t even need to take action; before long, they will be forced to surrender due to a lack of supplies. We just want to end this war as soon as possible.”

Lidun directly pointed out the critical weakness of the contact with the western main forces. As East Africa advanced westward, the Allied Western military district lost cities and territories, and due to time constraints, a large amount of supplies couldn’t be brought to Saint George. Moreover, the route to obtain supplies from the East was cut off by East Africa, so ultimately, they would not escape from the grasp of East Africa.

After hearing Lidun’s words, Count Roberts said with resignation, ”Alright, your reasons have convinced me, but I want to know if we have forces elsewhere besides the West?”

Although unlikely, Count Roberts still hoped in his heart that there could be more steadfast ”patriotic” troops like the Western Allied main forces.

Lidun replied regretfully, ”No, your Western troops were not annihilated by our forces initially because they were numerous and strong in combat. Moreover, Saint George was not as important as the rear Shao Kui and Maputo, so I only left enough troops to contain them.”

After a pause, Lidun continued, ”As for the Allied forces in other directions, to put it bluntly, they were not enough of a threat to East Africa, so they were either completely wiped out or surrendered voluntarily.”

That’s what I thought! Count Roberts pondered internally. The Allied Western main forces were dear to Roberts’ heart. From the start, the West was the primary direction for the attack planned by Count Roberts, so he deployed a large number of troops and elite Allied forces to the West.

Since the beginning of the war, the Western Allies had been fighting along the borders of East African Matabele Province, the Heixinggen Province, and Mozambique.

This is also the Allied force that Lidun hates the most. Initially, they put great pressure on East Africa’s eastern front line, but later they switched to defense as reinforcements arrived from the rear.

So, the person in East Africa who best understood the Western Allies was actually Lidun, the highest military commander of the East African Western Military District.

In other directions, especially the Northern Allies, were completely secondary forces. From the start, their goal was to delay East Africa’s northern attack, and in reality, that’s how it happened. When the two cavalry divisions of the Eastern Military District and the Northern Military District appeared by the Limpopo River north of Shao Kui city, it indicated that the Northern Allied forces were almost completely lost.

The Southern Allied forces were slightly better off, initially able to retreat to Maputo or the Natal colony, and were second only to the Western main forces in strength, being almost on par with the Shao Kui garrison. Therefore, many fled to Cape Town to avoid the conflict in the later stages of the war.

Those that ran towards Maputo were resolved by the East African Defense Army along with the city of Maputo.

After losing all hope in the war, Count Roberts said wearily to Lidun, ”I can write a letter to have the Western troops surrender to your army, but you must guarantee their safety and preferably provide ample food and medicine. Malaria is rampant within the Allies, and I hope it doesn’t cause you any trouble.”

During his time in South Africa, Roberts was very troubled, with disease being one of the greatest concerns. Of course, dealing with malaria wasn’t too alarming for the British Army.

Especially for a Briton like Count Roberts, who had spent a long time in India, malaria was no stranger. This was also a major reason why Britain focused on drawing troops from India to the South African front.

Of course, the value of Africa was clearly incomparable to India. Although both were major malaria zones, India was a well-developed land cultivated for thousands of years, once having nurtured ancient Indian civilization. In contrast, other than the Gold Coast, the African continent hadn’t really attracted the attention of other countries.

Lidun heartily agreed to Count Roberts’ requests: ”Of course, we East Africans do value the lives of your country’s soldiers and definitely won’t let them die in vain on the battlefield.”

Every British soldier in Mozambique was an important hostage for East Africa to ”extort” the British government in the future, so East Africa placed great importance on the safety of British soldiers.

Although this increased costs considerably, East Africa could afford it. However, Lidun also emphasized, ”Of course, it’d be best if you could seek help from your country, as we can’t guarantee the effectiveness of East African medicines.”

East Africa certainly didn’t want to be a scapegoat. While the production of quinine was considerable, it mainly met domestic demand, as the possibility of capturing a large number of Allied soldiers hadn’t been anticipated from the start. As for other drugs, they couldn’t compare to quinine but were cheap and abundant.

In reality, malaria within the Allies wasn’t too severe. Those who had been in Africa this long likely already had some resistance.

So, some traditional Chinese medicines that could boost immunity could address most of the British Army’s issues. The crux was hygiene and environment, a point East Africa saw no need to correct, as the strict regulations at prisoner-of-war camps could help Allied captives kick bad habits.

Of course, these conditions applied primarily to British soldiers and some Portuguese captives. Indians, Portuguese mixed race, and black people surely didn’t receive such treatment, otherwise East Africa’s expenses would be astronomical.

The governments of England and Portugal certainly wouldn’t foot the bill for these ”undesirables,” so the treatment of these individuals by East Africa primarily involved treating them like the local black population—in simple terms, without human rights.

Count Roberts didn’t concern himself with Lidun’s little schemes. As long as he ensured the safety of his own people, that was sufficient. Even British soldiers facing mistreatment wasn’t a problem, as long as they could return home alive, he could be somewhat at ease.

As for the Indian troops brought over this time, to be honest, he wouldn’t feel much heartache if they all perished. Of course, some attention still had to be given to part of the Indians,