African Nationhood

September 1911, 9, Durban.

The new Portuguese Prime Minister Enrique Michel de Paiva Cabral Cuseiro came to visit, and Prime Minister Ouyang Geng of the Cabinet led a team to welcome him at the Port of Durban.

The leaders of both sides had a cordial and friendly meeting, and then the two leaders took a train back to Hanking (Pretoria).

After arriving in Hanking, the two sides held talks on the implementation of the "China-Portugal: Hanking Agreement."

First of all, regarding the handover of Portuguese West Africa, Portuguese East Africa, Goa, Daman and Diu, the Portuguese Prime Minister hopes that South China can give them some time.

Prime Minister Ouyang Geng expressed doubts about this, and Prime Minister Cuseiro immediately smiled and explained: "We hope to hand over the territory of Portuguese West Africa later. As you know, there are a group of gangs entrenched in Portuguese West Africa. They have been entrenched in Portuguese West Africa for many years.

We want to clean up these gangs before handing them over to you. "

Ouyang Geng naturally knew the situation in Portuguese West Africa, and these gangs were deliberately supported by Nanhua.

They have been very happy in West Africa these years, and they have accumulated a lot of wealth after being entrenched for so long.

After Nanhua took over the colony, they would clean it up, firstly to recover their accumulated goods, and secondly, purely to clean up the black population.

The Portuguese also want to target these southwest bandits. The Portuguese military plans to gather tens of thousands of troops from the mainland to eliminate them before the handover.

……

"We will handle these matters ourselves, so you won't have to worry about them."

Upon hearing Ouyang Geng's decision, Prime Minister Kusero became anxious.

"Prime Minister Ouyang, we want to deal with it first. After all, these gangs are too hateful..."

Ouyang Geng's face turned cold, "We will deal with these gangs, Prime Minister Kusero, don't worry."

Prime Minister Cuseiro knew that the matter was irreversible, and tried to calm down his emotions. He continued: "Although the colony has been handed over to your rule, the Benguela Railway in Portuguese West Africa has been under construction for many years.

The initial investment for this railway is very huge, and we need to discuss the purchase price with you. "

The Benguela Railway was built by the colonial government of Portuguese West Africa in 1902 and is still an unfinished railway line.

According to history, it should take another 18 years to reach the Congolese border. The total construction time of this railway is nearly 30 years.
The reason why it took so long was that the route was full of complex and difficult terrain such as swamps and virgin forests, and the railway speed after opening was only 30 kilometers per hour.

Not to mention the current conditions, even with the advanced materials and sufficient machinery and equipment of later generations, it took the infrastructure maniacs 10 years to rebuild this railway.

Nowadays, this railway only covers the route from Benguela to Huambo on the Bié Plateau, which was the route used by Nanhua and the Portuguese to eliminate the Ovendu people.

Over the years, the Portuguese have gained a lot of resources from this railway line. Now that they have to hand over the colony to Nanhua, it is natural for them to be reluctant.

At the same time, it was also because Portugal was really too poor. The Nanhua mercenaries looted a large number of wealthy people during the chaotic night in Lisbon, and also hijacked three absconding cruise ships from the river port after the war.

More than half of the total gold in Portugal was taken away by Nanhua.

There are more than 500 million ounces, and this is just gold. The value of other antiques, paintings and jewelry is even more inestimable.

Chairman Shi laughed from ear to ear after learning the total number, and directly decided to promote Huang Youcai to brigadier general.

Although Prime Minister Cusero and King Manuel knew after the war that the South China Army had made a lot of money in Portugal, they did not dare to make it public.

Once they break up, it will not only not help matters, but will also worsen the relationship with Nanhua.

Although the cabinet government was established, the Kusero cabinet was very short of money.

Their government couldn't find anyone to borrow money from domestic capitalists, so it had no choice but to hope to recover some funds from these fixed investments in the colonies.

"Well, this matter is negotiable. How much does your country plan to offer?" Prime Minister Kusero took a list from his attaché. This list lists the funds for the construction of the railway. Lin Lin summed it up to nearly ten million pounds. .

As soon as Ouyang Geng looked at this list, he knew that the Portuguese had done something fishy here.

He sneered, "You have to be more professional if you want to deceive people. We have built more than 10,000 kilometers of railway lines in Nanhua. Do we not know the specific cost of the railway?"

Although he was told his thoughts, Prime Minister Kusero still insisted on his opinion, "We have indeed invested a lot in this railway. After all, we have to build a railway from the coastal lowlands to the plateau. The manpower and material resources alone are not a small amount."

Ouyang Geng didn't listen to the other party's sophistry at all, "As I said before, it's useless to play tricks. What kind of terrain have we not seen during railway construction in Nanhua?

Prime Minister Kusero, it's useless for you to try to deceive me. Minister Lister of our Ministry of Transport is working outside. I can call him in at any time to reconcile with you item by item. "

Prime Minister Kusero sighed helplessly, "Then how much do you want to give us?"

Ouyang Geng pondered for a moment, "The distance from Benguela to Huambo is less than 300 kilometers. We will calculate it as 300 kilometers. The cost will be 6000 pounds per kilometer according to our highest price for railway construction. In calculation, it will be 180 million pounds."

(The average cost of railway construction in the Qing Dynasty in modern times was 5.3 taels of silver per kilometer, equivalent to about 7500 pounds.

The Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway built under the leadership of Zhan Tianyou is the cheapest at 3.5 taels of silver per kilometer, but it is only an example. )
This railway did not cost much. After entering the 20th century, the cost of building railways was greatly reduced. The price of steel rails was even cheaper than that of iron rails, which was reduced several times.

(In 1873, rails cost $120 per ton, but by 1898, they dropped to $17 per ton.)
In addition, they forced the indigenous workers to work without paying them at all, and even asked the indigenous workers to bring their own meals.

Since the construction of this railway, more than 100,000 indigenous people have died in Portuguese West Africa due to mosquito diseases and wild beast attacks.

After Nan Hua takes over, more indigenous workers will be driven to participate in the subsequent construction of the railway.

Nanhua will also develop as many similar road traffic projects as possible, otherwise there will really be no good way to consume the indigenous people.

Portuguese West Africa has been colonized by Portugal for hundreds of years, during which time the slave trade was carried out for most of that time. Today, there are nearly 200 million remaining indigenous workers in Portuguese West Africa.

Thinking about such a huge population is overwhelming.

……

After another dispute between the two parties, the railway was finally priced at 250 million pounds, and Nanhua provided Portugal with a low-interest loan of 1000 million pounds.

But the Portuguese government wanted to sell the Portuguese Congo (today's Cabinda), São Tomé, Madeira and the Azores to South China.

The Azores Islands are located deep in the Atlantic Ocean to the west of the Portuguese mainland, about 1360 kilometers from the Portuguese mainland, about 1500 kilometers from the coast of Morocco in Africa, and about 1930 kilometers southeast of Newfoundland.

The Azores Islands are right next to the Madeira Islands. During World War II and after the war, the United States set up an air force base on this archipelago to control the situation in Europe.

Nanhua wants this archipelago mostly for the sake of Newfoundland, which is further north, which is really too far away from the mainland.

As for Sao Tome Island, it is located in the Gulf of Guinea on the west coast of Africa, 240 kilometers away from the mainland. It is one of the main islands of Sao Tome and Principe.

With this island, Nanhua could construct a perfect strategic line from the coast of West Africa to Newfoundland in North America.

Prime Minister Kusero has no choice. Their national power has declined too seriously. They occupy so many islands and have already consumed so many cabinets that they have long been unsustainable.

After negotiating the deal with Nan Hua, the cabinet finally received some initial funding.

The two parties signed a Sino-Portuguese Supplementary Agreement in this regard, one of which stipulates:
During non-war periods, the Portuguese navy and merchant ships have the right to berth at Nanhua's ports to replenish water, oil and coal.

At the same time, Portuguese goods enjoy low tariff preferences in South China, and both parties are friendly trading partners with equal status.

...(End of chapter)