Reborn South Africa as a police officer

Chapter 653 Thoughts

Phoenix Mountain, which is less than 50 kilometers away from Port Edward, has the largest oil storage base on the east coast of Africa. It can store 150 million cubic meters of crude oil, which is about 940 million barrels or 148 million tons.

There is no oil storage base of this scale in the UK, but there are eleven in southern Africa, eight of which are concentrated in Nyasaland, Rhodesia, and the Transvaal.

Of course, because the strategic reserve plan has just started, most of the oil storage bases have not yet been built, and the only ones that are actually put into use are Port Edward and Cape Town, and other oil storage bases are still under construction.

Viscount Gladstone only realized how important Port Elizabeth was to Southern Africa after Roque introduced it.

Although the internal combustion engine technology has progressed, the internal combustion engine has become more and more advanced and its status has become more and more important. It has gradually surpassed the steam engine and become the real heart of industry.

An important problem brought about by the popularization of internal combustion engines is that the importance of oil is gradually increasing. The situation in the UK and southern Africa is similar. There is almost no oil in the UK. Southern Africa now has oil from Port Elizabeth, which has solved the energy crisis. The local oil supply also depends on the oil fields in Romania, facing the threat of Germany at all times, so Viscount Gladstone is very concerned about Port Elizabeth.

"A super-large oil field was discovered in Port Elizabeth, and now the daily output of oil has reached [-] barrels (the previous statement is wrong, it is [-] barrels per day), but Port Elizabeth is not safe. With the increasing importance of oil, the Ottoman Empire Port Elizabeth is salivating, the governor of Egypt also wants to take back Port Elizabeth, and some local tribes also want to share the profits brought by the oil, in short, Adan Company is very difficult now." Of course, Rock still complained, but the actual situation is certainly not so serious.

Although the Ottoman Empire is greedy for the oil in Port Elizabeth, compared with Port Elizabeth, Italy's threat to Tripolitania is more serious for the Ottoman Empire, so the Ottoman Empire will sign a supplementary agreement with Nyasaland. More land was sold to the former umbrella company.

After knowing the discovery of oil in Port Elizabeth, the Governor of Egypt once intended to jointly develop the oil in Port Elizabeth with the Umbrella Company, but was firmly rejected by Roque. There is too much oil underground in Port Elizabeth, and Roque absolutely does not allow others to get involved.

As for the local aboriginal tribes mentioned by Roque, Port Elizabeth currently owns only [-] square kilometers of land in name, but actually controls more than [-] square kilometers of land. Within [-] kilometers around Port Elizabeth, the aboriginal tribes The tribe either moved away, or disappeared mysteriously, unable to survive at all.

"Locke, if you can, you can send oil to the mainland through the Suez Canal. I guarantee that the local merchants will give you a good price." Viscount Gladstone is also coveting Port Elizabeth, where no oil was found. Before, many British people, including Viscount Gladstone, didn't even know that there was a place called Port Elizabeth. Now with the discovery of oil, the name Port Elizabeth is gradually becoming familiar.

"Your Excellency, there are eleven strategic reserve warehouses in southern Africa, with a total design capacity of 2100 million cubic meters. If calculated based on the current oil production in Port Elizabeth, even if all the oil is sent to southern Africa, these warehouses must be filled. It will take at least seven years." Roque was noncommittal, as the war was imminent, southern Africa still had to protect itself, and Roque would not consider selling oil to Europe until the oil reserves in southern Africa reached the safety line.

Of course, Roque told Viscount Gladstone that the data was also an ambush. The current oil production in Port Elizabeth is [-] barrels per day instead of [-]. According to this speed, before the outbreak of the world war, Roque There is enough time to fill the strategic reserve warehouses in southern Africa.

"Seven years is too long. Do you think the arms race can last for seven years? It doesn't take seven years, at most five years, London and Berlin will go bankrupt, and a war will be needed to end it all." Viscount Gladstone Estimated the strength of Germany, because Britain has more colonies, it is no problem to persist for five years, while Germany can only persist for three years at most.

Three years later, Germany will need war to test the effectiveness of the arms race.

"I still have more than a dozen oil exploration teams in Port Elizabeth looking for oil, and I hope that oil production will increase further—" Rock made an illusory promise, and now even if the oil is sold to Europe, it will not be able to sell at a price. It is always necessary to wait until the war has progressed to a certain stage and all parties are exhausted before Southern Africa can enter the field in time.

Only then can the maximum benefit be reaped.

"If more than a dozen oil exploration teams are not enough, add more people. If a dozen are not enough, then fifty, and if fifty are not enough, then one hundred. In any case, we must find more oil." Viscount Gladstone did not care about the cost, although Elizabeth Oil was discovered in Hong Kong, but no European companies went to the peninsula to look for oil. If you don’t know the exact location of the oil field, this kind of aimless search is undoubtedly looking for a needle in a haystack, and the cost of drilling an oil well is huge. no return.

Not everyone has the courage of Roque. Roque also knows that there is oil in Port Elizabeth, so he will invest a huge amount of money, otherwise Roque would not dare to make a move.

"It's useless. Even if we can find more oil, if it goes beyond the range of Port Elizabeth, the oil still doesn't belong to us." Rock set a trap for Viscount Gladstone.

"Who does it belong to? The Ottoman Empire? Or those indigenous tribes on the peninsula? Whoever finds it belongs to him! If anyone has any objections, then let him shut up!" Viscount Gladstone is full of domineering, this is the attitude that the governor of southern Africa should have .

Of course, this shutting up is not to reason with the facts. The Viscount Gladstone will not reason with the indigenous tribes. Physical destruction is the means of once and for all. The Americans will not reason with the Indians, and the result is the United States today.

"What if it is the Ottoman Empire?" Rock is not used to this way of doing things, which is simply too simple and rude.

But Rock likes it.

"The same goes for the Ottoman Empire. Now the Ottoman Empire can't even deal with the Italians. I don't think the Ottoman Empire will exist for too long. Aren't you the best at this? Arm the indigenous tribes and let them go to the Ottoman Empire. Trouble, You just wait to pick the fruit." Viscount Gladstone is really not ironic, there are so many white people in southern Africa, why does the British government treat Rock, a Chinese, with special respect?

Of course, it was because Roark could bring benefits to the British Empire, not the color of the skin. The Boers were also white, but the interests of the United Kingdom were violated, and the United Kingdom still killed them.

"I'll try—" Roque snickered. Viscount Gladstone really knew Roque very well. In fact, Viscount Gladstone didn't need to remind him. Roque was doing the same.

It is actually very simple to arm the indigenous tribes on the peninsula. The nomads originally advocated force, but they did not have advanced weapons, and they still used machetes and spears until now, so they could not compete with the Ottoman troops equipped with advanced weapons.

After the Umbrella Company bought Port Elizabeth, the Nyasaland Military Industry Group grandly put all kinds of weapons on the shelves of the Port Elizabeth store. It doesn’t matter if there is no British pound rand. The nomads still have a little savings. There are a lot of gold and camels For gold, you can go to the Rand Bank to exchange it first, and for camels, you can sell them directly to Adan Company, and then you can buy various weapons including general-purpose machine guns.

Of course, because the price of general-purpose machine guns is a bit expensive, no one is willing to buy them at all, because the price of bullets is also very expensive, so the best seller is the export-oriented Lee Enfield, an export-oriented machine gun from the Nyasaland Military Industry Group. The ex-factory price of Lee Enfield is only 35 rand, and it will sell for 120 rand in Port Elizabeth.

Love to buy or not.

So far, in just one year, the Nyasaland Military Industry Group has made more than 100 million rand in profits in Port Elizabeth, which is more than the Umbrella Company and Adan Company. The local indigenous tribes on the peninsula have been advanced. Weapons, and more motivated to attack other indigenous tribes, and finally dared to fight head-on in the face of the troops of the Ottoman Empire.

While publicly selling weapons, Li De also made frequent moves after arriving in Port Elizabeth. The most important thing is of course to find a suitable spokesperson for Southern Africa.

The spokesperson is called Ali Rashid.

Ali Rashid was born in the declining Rashid family. This family once controlled Riyadh, the largest city on the peninsula at that time. Unfortunately, the area of ​​Riyadh at that time was only about one square kilometer, which was really small.

About ten years ago, the Rashid family lost Riyadh in the tribal conflict, most of the family members died in battle, Ali Rashid was the last member of the Rashid family, Reed took Ali from the slaves in Port Elizabeth Rashid found out, and then Ali Rashid became the current patriarch of the Rashid family.

It is very pitiful to say that the current Rashid family is only Ali Rashid.

But it doesn't matter, it is very easy to form a family in the peninsula, just buy slaves directly from the victor of the tribal conflict, which is exactly what Li De is best at, so Ali Rashid soon had four wives, With more than 500 loyal and brave slave fighters, these slave fighters are now receiving training at the New Cape of Good Hope, and in a few months, they will be able to fight on the battlefield with Ali Rashid.

There are not many tribes with five hundred warriors in the peninsula. Even Ali Rashid can’t tell how many people there are in the peninsula. The slightly larger tribes have at most three to five hundred warriors. The total population is only one or two thousand, so it is easy for the Rashid family to grow, just annex a few tribes at will.

"Have you already started doing this?" Viscount Gladstone was very sensitive, and immediately got some information from Roque's expression.

"Of course, a chaotic peninsula is more in our interests. I plan to support a spokesperson on the peninsula, and use this spokesperson to destroy those enemies. Whether it is the indigenous tribes or the Ottoman Empire, they will eventually disappear from the peninsula." Rock is ambitious.

"What is there on the peninsula? There are deserts everywhere, and the only oases are not worth developing. It seems that you shouldn't be interested in it." Longing is known to everyone in southern Africa, but the Chinese only need the land suitable for farming. Many lands are obviously not worth developing in the eyes of white farmers, but they can grow crops in the hands of the Chinese, and the yield is not low.

Compared with the land in southern Africa, the land on the peninsula has little development value, and no food can grow in the desert. According to Viscount Gladstone, the discovery of oil in Port Elizabeth is also an example, and it does not mean that the entire peninsula has underground reserves. rich in oil.

In the final analysis, it is information asymmetry.

"Your Excellency, if you have time, you should visit Port Elizabeth. You know that Port Elizabeth is located in the two river basins, and the conditions nearby are good. A few decades ago, Port Elizabeth had arable fertile land, and you can also get There were enough water resources to irrigate, and there were even forests in Port Elizabeth at that time. It was because of the disorderly development and destructive damage in these years that the land around Port Elizabeth gradually turned into desertification. Now Port Elizabeth is different from before. , Adan company requires everyone in Port Elizabeth to plant twelve trees every year, and also to ensure the survival of the trees, believe it or not, give me ten years, the forest in Port Elizabeth will reappear!" Rock is confident, once Land desertification is a major global problem. Everyone believes that land desertification is irreversible, but this conclusion was overturned by the Chinese later. This is much more useful than chanting a few slogans.

"You're really—" Viscount Gladstone shook his head speechlessly, and he really couldn't figure out why Roque did this: "If you have time, why not think about how to drive away the Portuguese and Belgians, and look at West Africa and the Congo Free State, Even Madagascar, isn't the land there more valuable than the land around Port Elizabeth?"

Before the dramatic changes in Portuguese East Africa, probably no one thought so.

The current situation in Portuguese East Africa has given people more ideas.

That's right, the colonial order established under the leadership of Britain and France cannot be changed. There is no legitimate reason. No matter how weak Portugal and Belgium are, Britain has no reason to attack Portuguese West Africa and the Congo Free State.

The situation is different now, and Southern Africa did not attack Portuguese East Africa, but most of Portuguese East Africa has become part of Southern Africa, and a small part has become the Kingdom of Mozambique, and the Portuguese no longer exist in East Africa.

That's what Viscount Gladstone meant. Since Roque can subvert Portuguese East Africa, he should also be able to subvert Portuguese West Africa and the Congo Free State. This is not difficult for Roque.

(End of this chapter)