African Nationhood

Chapter 354 Smuggling Equipment

At the end of 1897, after the Cape Town Colonial Government sent away a calm and wise governor, it welcomed a new governor, Alfred Milner.

The new governor was born in the Grand Duchy of Hesse, Germany, and has dual German and British ancestry.

He was educated in Oxford, England, where he received several scholarships.

He became a fellow of the New College in 1872, became a lawyer in 1881, and soon turned to journalism.

He began to enter politics in 1885 and served successively as cabinet and colonial officials with remarkable achievements.

As a strong, stubborn and British man, he is also an imperialist.

Faced with the tense relationship between Britain and the Boers, the new governor-general once said: "Unless reforms or war are carried out in the Transvaal, the political disputes in South Africa cannot be resolved."

……

In 1890, the Transvaal announced that foreigners settled in the Rand Fortress City would have to pay full taxes, but would not enjoy the right to participate in presidential and legislative elections unless they had lived in the Transvaal for 14 years and naturalized their nationality.

In addition, all foreigners are prohibited from holding government offices and their children cannot attend government-funded schools.

This law was protested by the British, because most of the foreigners in the Transvaal were British.

This is also the reason why Governor Cecil Rhodes has always been hostile to the Boers. Finally, in 1895, Dr. Jameson's attack occurred.

Governor Milner took the initiative to call the Transvaal Republic at the beginning of 1898, requesting the Transvaal Republic to lift restrictions on non-residents (mainly British residents in the Transvaal) and give them fair treatment.

The Transvaal Republic was very disdainful of this and ignored the protests of the new Governor-General.

Governor Milner's attitude became increasingly tough. He strongly demanded that the Transvaal Republic grant full citizenship treatment to foreign residents who had lived for five years and obtain the same rights as the Boers.

Naturally, the Boers would not be fooled. Once they agreed, it would be tantamount to ruining the Boers' autonomy.

Because there are many British people in the Transvaal, if these British people are given citizenship, they can completely influence the political process of the Transvaal Republic.

Therefore, the Transvaal Republic remained calm and ignored the British protests and provocations.

……

The Boers' confidence to ignore the British came from Kaiser Wilhelm II. Since Dr. Jameson's attack, the relationship between the Boers and Germany has developed rapidly.

Not only did it import a large amount of artillery and machinery from Germany, it also purchased many Maxim machine guns and shell guns from Nanhua Company.

Anyway, most of the money the Boers made from the Rand Gold Mine over the years went into the pockets of the Germans and the South China Company.

The Boers have reached a strategic alliance with the Germans, and trade relations between the two parties have developed rapidly.

The toll tax revenue of Map Port has also been rising, from more than 2 pounds at the beginning to more than pounds today.

Seeing that the Boers imported such large quantities of advanced industrial products, Sansa Bruce once warned General Manager Shi that the Boers should not be allowed to develop industry, otherwise the future of Nanhua Company would be worrying.

Shi Jintang smiled and said nothing. The total population of the Boers was too small, which was a natural disadvantage. It was impossible to counterattack the Nanhua Company.

Moreover, the British will take care of the Boers themselves. The most important thing for him at present is to do his own job well.

The wheel of history is rolling forward, and Nanhua Company must prepare for the coming war.

……

At the beginning of 1898, the Nanhua Company arranged for immigrants to settle in Palawan, Mariana Islands and Sulu Islands in advance.

Lead the local indigenous people to carry out infrastructure projects in these archipelago areas and build a large number of residential buildings that can accommodate more immigrants.

He also ordered his affiliated Philadelphia International Shipping Company to allocate grain ships to help Nanhua Company transport grain to the above areas.

At the same time, a wild animal cleanup order was issued to the immigration and reclamation groups and wild beast hunting groups within the company's territory. The wild animals that were killed were skinned and meat was extracted, and a large number of dried meat products were dried. The company's salt company and fishery company are operating at full capacity, producing large quantities of dried salted fish and canned fish.

The company's food companies, canneries and military food factories have increased their efforts to produce canned food and military food.

In addition, the military headquarters of Nanhua Company ordered all units to carry out large-scale military training and competitions, mainly focusing on exercises and trials of city defense warfare, fortified warfare and positional warfare.

Conduct a comprehensive assessment of the physical fitness, tactical literacy, weapons proficiency, and military skills of grassroots soldiers.

Shi Jintang was temporarily unable to get away because he had to preside over the new artillery experiments within the company.

The military department was ordered to preside over the competition between its units. In the early stage, the military department presided over the records. In the finals, Boss Shi went to watch the competition in person.

The winner of this competition will receive a commendation from his boss Shi, and the worst army officer will not only have to review to the military department, but also have to be removed from the position of chief officer, demoted to the rank of master, deputy, and other officials, and so on, all of them will be demoted.

If next year's competition is still the worst, then the master's deputy will be directly transferred from the position of military commander and directly go to the military department as a civilian.

……

"Jianye Metal Processing Factory" in Xinhu Town, 80 kilometers south of Jianye (now Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe).

The paint on the newly built factory gate has not yet dried, but the atmosphere inside the factory is fiery.

The entire factory has been under construction for more than a year, and now it has officially begun producing and processing artillery.

This factory covers an area of ​​120 acres, and the building style is exactly like the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau in Shanghai.

Even the machines in this factory are mostly from Jiangnan Manufacturing Administration.

Due to the lack of core workers, the R&D and production of Jiangnan Manufacturing Administration have come to a standstill.

The Qing Dynasty was engaged in reforms again, and Li Hongzhang was denounced by the reformers and became an empty prime minister.

Boss Shi contacted Li Zhongtang through Li Jingmai, the third son of the Li family, and asked him to exert his final influence to transfer the dusty and corroded heavy equipment from the Jiangnan Manufacturing Administration.

Li Hongzhang had no objection to this and directly negotiated conditions with Boss Shi and asked Boss Shi to arrange a position for Li Jingmai. The authority must be more weighty.

Shi Jintang readily agreed and assigned Li Jingmai to the commercial department and asked him to serve as Shi Jinyong's deputy, dedicated to managing the company's heavy industry.

After receiving the reply, Li Hongzhang immediately used his strong personal connections and influence to secretly transfer heavy equipment from the Jiangnan Manufacturing Administration.

Cannon turning and milling lathes, drilling machines, rifling cutting machines and thousand-ton water hammer machines have all entered the relocation catalog.

In order to transport these heavy equipment, Nanhua Company specially mobilized giant cargo ships from Philadelphia International Shipping Company to berth in Modu Port and wait for transfer.

After arriving at the Port of Beira, these giant equipment were transported directly by port cranes, loaded on trains, and transported to the factory.

It is said that it was purchased scrap iron. After being reassembled in the factory, it was still running normally during the trial run.

The Li family contributed a lot this time, and Shi Jintang specially expressed his gratitude to Li Jingmai, the third son of the Li family.

Li Jingmai waved his hand and said with a smile: "The credit for this is not mine, but my father and Mr. Shi.

I just did some coordination work and it wasn't worth anything. "

That being said, Nanhua Company has laid the foundation for heavy industry with these equipments. This step is crucial for a political entity.

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(End of this chapter)