African Nationhood

The trial of the British Expeditionary Force was in full swing, and one-third of the nearly 200,000 captured expeditionary troops were subject to punishment.

The most common of these sentences is hard labor, which starts with three years of hard labor.

At this stage, the labor force in southern Africa is very scarce, and these prisoners of war are good labor forces.

……

In addition to the trial of the British Expeditionary Force, Sansa Bruce and Jan Smuts collaborated on the Boer property rights review.

Nanhua Company recognizes the previous property rights of the Boers, but if the property rights certificate is lost, it needs to prove the property rights relationship by itself.

If you can't prove it, just register as a proletarian and wait for the official land to be released.

Women imprisoned in concentration camps had the most difficulty finding witnesses to prove their property rights.

First, most of their husbands died or disappeared during the war.

Second, the conditions in the concentration camps were too poor and many people died.

Without the testimony of neighbors and former local officials, self-certified property rights will not be established, so their group has become the most vulnerable group.

At the same time, due to the war, the male-to-female ratio among the Boers was seriously imbalanced, and tens of thousands of Boer women lacked partners.

So the Nanhua Company actively organized singles among the 20 militiamen who entered the country to have blind dates with these Boer women.

Once the blind date is successful, Nanhua Company will quickly approve it and allocate land to the new couple nearby.

The single militiamen were not too resistant to this. After all, these Boer women were also poor people. Besides, the young Boer women were not bad in appearance. The only shortcoming was the language barrier.

Despite his heavy administrative work, Cai Shaoji also takes time to hold classes for newlyweds, teaching them daily vocabulary so that they can communicate simply.

In addition to teaching language, students in the class also receive early childcare education from the medical department.

The Boer orphans rescued from the concentration camps were all brought back to Jinling to receive unified education. Once these children were educated, they would become the future backbone of Nanhua Company.

Another urgent issue is dealing with the black groups in the occupied territories.

According to statistics, the number of black indigenous people in the Boer country and the occupied Cape and Natal colonies reached a terrifying 291 million people.

Basutoland (Lesotho), Swaziland and the Zulu Kingdom are the areas with the highest concentration of black people.

When fighting the British before, the South China Army deliberately did not attack these black gathering areas.

Just pay attention to clearing out the black servants who appeared in the war. Even if you kill all the black servants, the extent of the cleanup will be very limited.

Most of the black people are in the three residential areas. Such a large number of black people gives Boss Shi a big headache.

How to get rid of this group of black people as soon as possible was the most pressing question before him.

Shi Jintang sent a telegram to transfer Yang Kuan and James Lister, asking them to carry out large-scale road transportation construction in the Transvaal and Orlando as soon as possible to consume black people.

At the same time, Shi Jintang ordered the South China Army to violently attack Basutoland (today's Lesotho) and Swaziland. Because they had previously belonged to the British and had helped the British resist the South China Army, the South China Army did not accept their surrender.

……

Most of the territory of Basutoland and Swaziland is mountainous, and the mountains are high and the rocks are dangerous and difficult to attack.

But in front of the Nanhua Army with mortars, there was basically no pressure to conquer these dangerous places.

In early July, the South China Army captured two black political forces in succession.

After the South China Army conquered these two black regimes, they directly cleaned up all the aristocratic forces in these two places, confiscated all the properties of the aristocrats and collected them into the national treasury.

All civilians under the two black regimes were enlisted as indentured workers and were dispatched by the Nanhua Company.

The Nanhua Army took advantage of the situation and took over the diamond mines in Basutoland. The diamond industry here has great potential, and large-carat diamonds were often unearthed in later generations.

Although Swaziland is small, it is not barren. It is rich in coal, clay, cassiterite and asbestos mineral deposits.

But currently, it is difficult to start production of the minerals here, and the price/performance ratio is not high.

It can be used to consume black labor, so Nanhua Company requires the black people here to vigorously exploit mineral deposits. The two black regimes were easily defeated, but the total black indigenous people in these two places were only three to four hundred thousand, and the real majority of the indigenous population was in the Zulu Kingdom.

……

July 7, Bloemfontein.

Din Zulu, the former leader of the Zulu Kingdom, was brought before Shi Jin Tang.

This is a greasy black uncle. His fat belly and bloated body all show his incompetence and mediocrity.

It’s no wonder that he was supported by the British to replace his father Cetshwayo at the age of 15.

However, the British divided the Zulu Kingdom into thirteen chiefdoms, making it impossible for them to reunite the Zulu people.

In 1892, the Zulu Kingdom was incorporated into the territory by Cecil Rhodes, then Governor of Cape Natal, and Dinzulu became a mascot.

After so many years, it is understandable that he has become a waste.

"Hello, dear Lord Henry, what are your orders for calling me?"

Shi Jintang smiled and nodded to Ding Zulu while holding a cigar, "Your Excellency Ding Zulu, please sit down.

I invited you here to ask you to help me manage the Zulu people. "

"Manage the Zulus? Wouldn't it be more appropriate for your men to manage them? After all, the British have been managing them for a long time."

Shi Jintang shook his head, "No, the British method is very unsatisfactory.

I need the Zulus to obey my rule and pay their taxes honestly, but they are too unruly, so I need you to help me manage them. "

When Ding Zulu heard what Boss Shi said, his face immediately showed excitement.

"Your Excellency, I am willing to serve you, but those chiefs are so powerful that I cannot deal with them."

Shi Jintang waved his hand, "This problem can be easily solved. I will appoint you as the "Special Tax Collection Officer of the Zulu Administrative Region of Nanhua Company", and I will also provide you with 2 Martini-Henry rifles and enough bullets.

As for the soldiers you recruit yourself, you also pay for the military expenses yourself.

Are you willing to keep 30% of the tax collected and pay the rest to the company? "

Only a fool would be unwilling to do such a good thing.

"Yes, I am willing. I will definitely help you receive sufficient taxes, so that the chiefs will obey your rule and be your competent servants."

Ding Zulu was so enlightened, which made Shi Jintang very happy.

"Well, you should do this as soon as possible. I hope to see the results in the near future."

Ding Zulu knelt on the ground, kissed Boss Shi's shoes, and then respectfully exited the room.

Shi Ming took him to receive the guns and ammunition, and at the same time told him where the taxes collected should be sent and delivered to the people in those departments.

After all these things were done, Din Zulu sneaked back to the Zulu Kingdom on July 7 and secretly summoned his old troops.

His old subordinates became excited when they learned that he had been appointed tax collector by the new ruler.

What's more, Din Zulu also brought a large number of guns and ammunition. The Zulu tax force developed rapidly, and 10 people were recruited in less than 2 days.

Din Zulu trained his soldiers a little and then led the troops towards the Zulu Administrative Region.

After winning the first battle, Din Zulu directly massacred more than 4 Zulu civilians, harvested a large amount of property and sent it to Bloemfontein.

In the next few months, Ding Zulu's tax collection force collected hundreds of thousands of pounds in taxes for Nanhua Company. As a tax collector, he was quite competent.

His method of taxation helped Nanhua Company directly clear out one-fifth of the Zulu Kingdom's population, which can be said to be a great achievement for hard work.

PS: "Yanhua Dominion" or "Yanxia Dominion"? (End of chapter)