Opening game, American Tycoon

Chapter 1276 Arch the fire, and then arch the fire (third update, please subscribe)
Accompanied by the roar of the train and amidst the smoke from the train, a train from the Bechuanaland Special District entered the Pretoria Railway Station. On the platform, except for the unloading black laborers and Transvaal officers In addition, there are two foreign military officers wearing green uniforms. They are Zhao Wenyu and Song Xueqian from the military attache of the embassy of the Ming Empire in the Transvaal.

The head of the military attache's department personally went to pick up the goods, which shows that the goods came not easily.

After the train stopped, Zhao Wenyu took the list handed over by the train conductor, checked it first, and then led his subordinates to check it with General Shi Muzi.

The list clearly lists various weapons and ammunition:

9 two-year-style 1500mm revolvers.

500 boxes of first-year 10000mm rifles (a total of [-] pieces)
160 ten-year-style [-]mm machine guns

105 one-year 60mm mortars

18 Type [-] [-]cm and a half field guns (with a full set of saddles)
25 boxes of 10mm bullets ([-] rounds)

5000 boxes of 750mm bullets ([-] million rounds)

……

"Major, thank you very much for sending the weapons we need so quickly."

General Smuts nodded in satisfaction. It only took half a month - from the time they submitted the order to the arrival of the first batch of munitions.

It only took half a month.

"General, just like what we promised before—at any time, the Ming Empire will be your country's closest friend. Just like back then, we all supported you to get rid of the British rule. Now we also support you Fight to defend your independence!"

Zhao Wenyu's answer made Shi Mozi nod and said.

"Major, please believe that we will never compromise like we did in 1877. We will use all means to defend the independence of the Republic!"

The year 1877 mentioned by Smuts refers to the year when the British went to the Transvaal Republic to lobby and persuade it to accept British rule.Due to financial difficulties, and facing a large-scale conflict with the Zulu kingdom to the east, the Transvaal Republic accepted the request to annex the United Kingdom.

During the three years of British rule in the Transvaal, they neither set out to improve the living conditions of the middle and lower Boers, nor did they increase investment and improve local financial, economic and political life. Instead, they allowed British businessmen to speculate in land and compensate the Boers. The collection of taxes previously owed to the Transvaal Republic caused widespread resentment among the Boers.

It finally led to the uprising of the Boers at the end of 1880. Although the war lasted only three months, the Ming Empire did not stand idly by while maintaining neutrality-providing a large number of weapons to the Boers through merchants.

It was also from then on that a different friendship was established between the Ming Dynasty and the Transvaal, which also led to the construction of the Bechuanaland Transvaal Railway.

"General, I believe that the free will of the Boers will never accept British slavery!"

Watching those Boers counting the mountains of munitions on the platform, Zhao Wenyu suddenly felt a sense of uneasiness that a war was about to break out.

When will war break out?

Shi Mozi happened to be here, so Zhao Wenyu asked.

"What's going on with the negotiations between you and the British?"

"Negotiations... hope everything goes well!"

Smuts stared at the munitions on the platform. These munitions would be the last bargaining chips for their survival.

……

"It's impossible to make progress in the negotiations."

In the office of the military attache, Zhao Wenyu first said:

"Although we have not obtained more information these days, what is certain is that the Transvaal officials will definitely not make any concessions on issues such as tariffs and explosives franchises. Once they do, they will lose everything!"

"It is indeed the case. Although the Rand Gold Mine is in the Transvaal, the Boers are conservative and more willing to buy land, so there is very little investment in the gold mines. Therefore, most of the Rand Gold Mine is invested by the British. Therefore , the Transvaal government was able to levy heavy direct taxes and profit taxes on the Rand Gold Mine. At present, the tax revenue of the gold mines is as high as seven-eighths of the annual income of the Transvaal. In addition, the Transvaal also Issuing various franchises, monopolizing the operation of explosives, and arbitrarily raising the tariff rate of commodities imported or re-exported from the Cape Colony to the Transvaal, the import tax alone grabs more than 100 million pounds a year. The monopoly of explosives makes the government A profit of 60 pounds. This 160 million pounds is simply the lifeblood of the country, under such circumstances, how could they give up!"

Sun Huatao, who looked tired, emphasized again when he was speaking.

"In addition, the Boers are more worried that the influx of British expatriates will take away their power with votes in the next few years, so they introduced a discriminatory bill against foreign affairs, which is obviously unacceptable to the UK. If they make concessions, the positions of the two sides are fundamentally inconsistent, so how can the negotiations succeed? The only question now is when the war will break out!"

"war……"

Zhao Wenyu nodded and said:

"It looks like war is inevitable."

"Indeed, if, according to our intelligence, the British are mobilizing troops to Cape Town, from India and the British mainland, although this information needs further verification, the negotiations they are conducting now should only be to buy more time for reinforcements and deploy, and as soon as reinforcements are in place, they will surely declare war."

Sun Huatao thought for a while, then said.

"So, I think we have to be prepared for that."

"Ok!"

Zhao Wenyu nodded:

"Understood, the war cannot be avoided no matter what, all we need to do is to help the Boers resist the British invasion as much as possible."

At this moment, the door was pushed open, and Song Xueqian came in and said in a low voice:
"A secret call from China..."

"how?"

Zhao Wenyu asked.

"The domestic judgment is that the war should break out from the end of today to the beginning of next year. The domestic demand is that we must try our best to help the Boers resist the British invasion before the war breaks out. If possible, we can use all means."

"That is to say, the country has decided to side with the Transvaal?"

"Yes, it is very likely that the country has reached a preliminary consensus. We may not necessarily send troops to help them, but our support policy for them will not change. It is very likely that the country hopes to use them to weaken the power of the United Kingdom."

Zhao Wenyu lowered his face, thought for a while, and then said:

"Borrowing swords to kill people... This method is good, but the problem is that the population in the Transvaal is insufficient, which makes them unable to take the initiative to attack at all. As for setting up a leisurely wait for work in the mainland to lure the enemy to intercept and attack... It seems that we have to Find ways to help them and resist as much as possible.”

(End of this chapter)