African Nationhood

(Thanks to the book friend Bai Lian Liao Shang Dian for the reward, thank you puppet!)

At the end of December 1910, Enrique Paiva Cuseiro rushed to London to meet with King Manuel II of Portugal and Queen Mother Helena.

King Manuel, grateful for Mr. Cuseiro's loyalty, directly appointed him Minister of State.

Therefore, Minister of State Kusero informed the king and the queen mother of Nanhua's conditions.

After that, the three held many discussions and had several quarrels.

After experiencing much despair and being unable to turn to anyone for help, King Manuel II and Queen Mother Helena finally realized that the situation was stronger than the people.

Nanhua only wanted overseas colonies and did not ask them to cede their homeland. This was already a good result.

If the rebels are allowed to remain in the country, they will have no choice but to live in exile overseas and will never be able to restore the dignity of the royal family.

Queen Mother Helena suddenly thought that Chairman Nanhua Stone had many children, and although her son was expelled from Portugal by the rebels, he was still a king of a country with noble blood.

It would be better to take this opportunity to ask Minister Kusero to come to Nanhua to ask for the marriage of the young king.

After establishing a son-in-law relationship, the South China Autonomous Territory can legitimately intervene in the affairs of the Kingdom of Portugal.

Moreover, the Portuguese royal family can also hand over the overseas colonies proposed by Nanhua to Nanhua for management as betrothal gifts.

After hearing this, Enrique Paiva Cuseiro also thought this suggestion was very good, so he set off from London with the authorization letter from King Manuel.

On February 1911, 2, Enrique Paiva Cuseiro returned to Hanking (Pretoria) again.

After meeting Prime Minister Ouyang Geng, he proposed a marriage request. This suggestion made Ouyang Geng quite embarrassed. He did not dare to take the initiative of Chairman Shi.

So Prime Minister Ouyang Geng said that he needed to discuss with Chairman Shi before replying.

Enrique Paiva Cuseiro expressed his understanding and said he would patiently wait for the good news.

……

So Ouyang Geng put down his work and came to Chairman Shi's house again.

Shi Jintang was writing at his desk. When he saw his old classmate arriving, he directly asked him to take a seat.

Ouyang Geng smoked half a cigar before tentatively speaking, "The Portuguese wants to propose to you."

After hearing what Ouyang Geng said, Shi Jintang was stunned for three seconds, and then shook his head, "No, this guy just wants to eat swan meat. I don't agree."

Shi Jintang disagreed because the last king of Portugal was a short-lived ghost.

In the original time and space, he married Princess Augusta Victoria of Hohenzollern in 1913. After the marriage, the two had only one daughter and no son. However, this dear friend died of illness in 1932.

He, Chairman Shi, did not want his daughter to be a widow. Besides, Nanhua's strength did not mean that he would marry these declining royal families.

The situation in Portugal is in a mess. It needs industry but not industry, and it needs resources but not resources. Marriage with them will be a burden to Nanhua.

……

Ouyang Geng smoked a cigar and said tentatively: "You don't have to think about it anymore. This is a royal family. After marrying, you will be the queen of a king."

Shi Jintang said scornfully: "That bullshit royal family, if we didn't want to look good and look good, would we have to spend so much effort?"

Ouyang Geng saw Chairman Shi being so determined and stopped trying to persuade him.

"Okay then, I'll reject them."

…Nanhua’s rejection made Enrique Paiva Cuseiro a little disappointed, but this matter still had to move forward.

He informed the king and the queen mother in London of Nanhua's attitude, and then the two sides discussed the matter of mercenaries.

After nearly ten days of deliberations, Enrique Paiva Cuseiro signed an agreement with Nanhua in accordance with the authorization letter from King Manuel.

In the end, the two sides signed the "China-Portugal: Hanking Agreement", which stipulated:

1. The South China Autonomous Territory accepted the commission from the Portuguese royal family and provided mercenaries to the Portuguese Kingdom to suppress the rebels.

This time, Nanhua needs to provide no less than two battleships, 6 cruisers, 4 submarines, and no less than 5000 soldiers to help the Portuguese royal family quell the domestic rebels and restore royal rule.

2. The military losses of the Nanhua Dominion shall be borne by Nanhua, and the Portuguese royal family is not responsible.

3. After regaining the capital Lisbon, the South China mercenaries still need to help the Portuguese royal family quell the rebels in the country.

4. After the success of this operation, the Kingdom of Portugal will assist the Kingdom of Portugal’s overseas colonies such as Portuguese West Africa, Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique Island), Goa, Diu, Daman and other colonies in the Indian mainland. The reward for sending troops to quell the rebellion will be handed over to the rule and management of the South China Dominion.

5. In addition, the South China Army ensured the personal safety of Enrique Michel de Paiva Cabral Cuseiro when helping the royal family to suppress the rebellion.

6. All unfinished matters can be concluded after communication and negotiation between both parties.

……

After the agreement between the two parties was signed, Ouyang Geng handed it over to Chairman Shi for review and signature.

Then the South China Cabinet notified the British Cabinet of matters related to "the Portuguese royal family hired the South China Army to send troops to quell the rebellion."

After deliberation, the British cabinet solemnly warned the South China Army: It should ensure that the Kingdom of Portugal can carry out constitutional monarchy reform after its restoration, otherwise this move will bring criticism to the British government.

The Nanhua Cabinet responded to the British Cabinet and this matter was already explained when the contract was made with the Portuguese royal family.

The British cabinet had no objection to this.

……

Chairman Shi held a military meeting at the Handu (Bulawayo) military headquarters to discuss this hiring expedition.

Ye Shilong succeeded Tian Liang, who had retired, as the new Secretary-General of the National Defense Commission, and his position as Director of the General Military Propaganda Department was taken over by his deputy, Brigadier General Tian Wenqing.

The reason why Ye Shilong was selected to take over as Secretary-General of the National Defense Commission is because Ye Shilong has been working abroad in his early years and does not have many connections in the country. He will be more independent as Secretary-General of the National Defense Commission.

At the same time, he is also an old minister who has followed Chairman Shi in his early years. He took this opportunity to give him a promotion to avoid being too different from Qu Sangqian and others in the future.

In addition, Ye Shilong is not young anymore, similar to Qu Sangqian and Ding He. When they retire, new people can be promoted.

Form a virtuous circle and do not give the elderly a place to die, so that the people below will not see the future and have strange thoughts.

Ye Shilong was very grateful for this position, so he was well prepared for this meeting.

The list of personnel participating in this expedition has already been submitted to Chairman Shi for review.

After receiving approval from Chairman Shi, Ye Shilong announced at the National Defense Committee meeting:
"With the approval of the Chairman, this mercenary expedition will be mainly carried out by the Ministry of Navy. The leader of the expedition is Commodore Ou Haiwa. He will lead the two battleships 'King of Shu' and 'King of Wei'.

Six cruisers, including the "Zhuge Liang", "Zhang Fei", "Huang Zhong", "Zhao Yun", "Ma Chao" and "Guan Yu", as well as the 'Sea Patrol Xiabing', 'Sea Patrol Crab General', 'Xunhai Four submarines including the Haibenjiang and the patrolling Eelix went on the expedition.

A total of 5360 navy soldiers and 5000 marines were dispatched for this campaign.

The military department will also coordinate the four cruise ships "Bloemfontein", "Mafetin", "Mba City" and "Map Port" as troop transport ships to follow this operation. "(End of chapter)