African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1024 Surveillance
Luanda Police Station.

Director Finerka: "Let our people keep a close eye on the situation, especially in areas where Russian soldiers are densely populated. Deploy more personnel to prevent accidents!"

When the Russian sailors came ashore and entered Luanda, the East African government naturally had to send people to keep an eye on them. After all, the Russian Navy was not a disciplined force. The Luanda City Police Department, the National Defense Security Bureau and other departments began to be vigilant.

The situation was better than the Luanda city government had expected. Apart from some drunks, basically nothing major happened. After dragging a few drunks sleeping on the streets of Luanda and handing them over to Russian military personnel.

Director Finka said to the Russian naval officer who came to contact him: "These people should be your people. They must have drunk too much during the day, so they slept on the streets of Luanda. People from our police station found them. Fortunately, this is not St. Petersburg, otherwise, they might have been stiff the next day."

The Russian officer in charge of the connection turned green in the face. After all, no one would feel good about being embarrassed in a foreign country.

"Thank you, everyone. These guys might have been too pent up at sea, so they couldn't control themselves when drinking. I think they will be taught a lesson next time," said the Russian officer.

Finrka just smiled and handed these Russian drunkards over to the Russians.

On the way back, Finerka said to his subordinates: "The Russians' performance today was completely undisciplined and disorganized, just like a swarm of flies entering our beautiful city. So I doubt the fighting power of these Russians."

Deputy Director Boda nodded in agreement and said, "Today I had a chat with a Russian sailor. The Russian army is plagued by corruption and often withholds wages and food from lower-level soldiers. Now that war is approaching, they can only eat stale bread in St. Petersburg."

"There are also Russian junior officers, many of whom are fat and have big ears. Their clothes are quite gorgeous, but their faces and hands are very delicate, with no signs of training at all. I just don't know what the Japanese Navy is like, otherwise the Russian Navy may fail in this ocean voyage."

Finka sighed, "All glittering is rotten inside. However, the Russian navy is large and powerful, and even if it loses, it will probably recover. And it's not a bad thing for Russia. They haven't fought a decent war for a long time. The most elite Baltic Fleet is in such a state, and the rest of Russia's naval forces are probably not much better."

Boda: "Now Russia should only have the Baltic Fleet and the Black Sea Fleet. A while ago, the newspapers said that Russia's Pacific Fleet is basically finished. This is also a big blow to the Russian Navy, although the Pacific Fleet is the weakest of the three major Russian naval fleets."

The East African governments were always paying attention to the developments of the Russo-Japanese War, including the war on both land and sea levels, because the Russo-Japanese War was the most modern large-scale war. Although the Spanish-American War was very close, Spain was too weak, especially the colonial army was far behind the United States in equipment, so it did not have much reference value.

However, the Russo-Japanese War was different. In terms of naval warfare, the warships of both sides were of top-level configuration, and the land warfare was also very close to the South African War. Concrete bunkers, trenches, machine guns, barbed wire and other modern warfare offensive and defensive means appeared on the battlefield.

The scale of the war is also larger than that of the South African War. Both sides have mobilized hundreds of thousands of troops to participate in the war. Although the total number of participants on both sides during the South African War also reached one million, many British and Portuguese troops are composed of Indians, blacks or Boers.

In contrast, the Russo-Japanese War was fought by the country's own military and civilians. Now, the number of troops deployed by both sides in the Russo-Japanese War is close to one million, and the number is still increasing.

According to the East African military, the intensity of the Russo-Japanese War has now exceeded that of the South African War, mainly because both sides cannot tolerate the cost of war failure.

The South African War was ultimately a colonial war. Although Britain and Portugal invested heavily, they did not have a strong desire to fight.

As for Japan and Russia, Japan regarded this war as a battle of national destiny, and Russia could not tolerate losing to Japan, a "small country" in East Asia. This was a huge blow to Russia's national self-esteem.

In fact, the majority of people in Russia are pessimistic about the war. In recent months, there has been almost no record of war, so the Second Pacific Fleet is Russia's last straw in this war. Finka: "The Russians will stay for another day, so we must continue to monitor Russia tomorrow and there must be no mistakes."

According to the agreement between the two countries, the Russian Navy can only stay in the port of Luanda for two days. After all, the Russian side also has to hurry on their journey. Arriving in Mombasa will be the last happy time for the Russian Navy.

Although there is Pontianak Port for temporary rest and recuperation, the basic conditions of Pontianak Port are far inferior to those of local cities in East Africa.

Two days passed in the blink of an eye for the Russian Navy, and before setting off, many Russian Navy soldiers were reluctant to leave Luanda.

However, the war situation did not allow the Russian fleet to stay in Luanda, its comfortable nest, for too long; it had to join forces with the Russian navy via the Mediterranean route.

……

Rhine City.

"The current situation in Russia is very bad. The original Pacific Fleet has been basically destroyed. According to our observation ship in the Far East, no Russian warships have been observed in the Far East waters. At the same time, combined with the intelligence sent back from Lushun, the two countries have already had a fierce land war in Lushun, and the Russian army in Lushun has already exchanged fire with Japanese troops."

"As for the temporarily formed Second Pacific Fleet, it just left Luanda yesterday. The Russian troops on the Mediterranean route have not yet arrived in Mogadishu. This shows that the Russian Navy is not doing well in the Mediterranean. Our intelligence point in the Austro-Hungarian Empire reported that the British ships have been following and provoking the Russian Navy entering the Mediterranean. It is estimated that the British will make things difficult for the Russians in the Suez Canal."

Ernst listened to the reports from the military and intelligence departments, and then said: "This is basically the same as our previous judgment. If the Russian Navy had chosen the west coast route, the results might have been much better. Unfortunately, they did not do so. However, this is the Russians' own choice after all, and they naturally have to bear the consequences."

"The Russo-Japanese War is a very useful real case for us to deduce the direction of future wars. Japan is an emerging power in East Asia, while Russia is an old power. The strength of the two countries in the Far East Empire is not much different, which is far from comparable to the previous Spanish-American War."

"So the military should pay attention to the details of this war, so as to find out the similarities and differences between foreign military development and our country, and actively adjust and optimize our military development path, especially how to deal with some modern wars, modern tactics, and modern military equipment."

"The weapons and equipment used by the Japanese and Russian armies are almost at the world's first-class level, and the scale of investment is unprecedented. Under such circumstances, the Russo-Japanese War is a good preview of the development of future wars."

Military reforms have been ongoing in East Africa, but, precisely because of this, East Africa must also pay more attention to military developments abroad.

Moreover, if nothing unexpected happens, the Russo-Japanese War may be the last large-scale modern war before World War I. After all, the Russo-Japanese War in the previous life was called a "quasi-world war", and the weapons and tactics used in the war between the two countries were basically the same as those widely used in World War I.

"Especially the naval department. The development path of our navy is basically consistent with that of foreign countries. During the Russo-Japanese War, the navies of both countries were the most advanced at the time. We should pay special attention to the differences in details between the two navies during the war, summarize the advantages and disadvantages, and thus guide the future development direction of our naval tactics, equipment and ships." Ernst emphasized to the naval department.

It can be said that the dreadnought in the past was born out of the Russo-Japanese War. The Bagamoyo built in East Africa already had the shadow of the dreadnought, but what a real dreadnought should be like still needed the direction pointed out by the Russo-Japanese War. If this opportunity was not seized, East Africa could only wait for the British to build the dreadnought and then reverse engineer it.

(End of this chapter)