Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 232: Troop Deployment and Colonial Expansion

When Carlo received Manuel's action report, two days had passed since Manuel's action.

Although the message was received a little late, fortunately Carlo was happy to hear it.

With the cooperation of the tribal leaders, Manuel quickly took control of the entire Bangui tribe and divided the population of the Bangui tribe and several nearby indigenous villages.

The indigenous population of over 20 eventually contributed more than 7 adult male laborers to the Congo Territory, which made the labor force in the Congo Territory suddenly abundant.

In addition to these 7 adult male laborers, Manuel also controls nearly 10 elderly, weak, women, children and female indigenous people, who serve as bargaining chips for the male laborers.

In order to keep their families and relatives safe, adult male natives had to go to a Spanish-designated workplace and work for a year.

Fortunately, Manuel also promised personally that their work would be exchanged for food and other supplies for them and their families, which made these natives have no intention of resisting.

Although he had the families of these natives in his hands, for the sake of the safety of the Congo territory, Manuel immediately requested assistance from the nearby Guinea colony, and sent a telegram to Spain, requesting Carlo to dispatch two colonial garrison regiments to help him maintain order.

Although Carlo gave him the power to form a larger army in the Congo territory, it was definitely too late to do so now.

At present, we can only rely on the garrison regiments of other colonies to temporarily maintain order. It will take at least half a year for the Congo Territory's own army to be trained and form combat effectiveness.

Moreover, the loyalty of soldiers selected from the natives of the Congo Territory could not be guaranteed. Therefore, Manuel also asked Carlo to transport some natives from southern Morocco, the Philippines and other colonies with a large number of natives to serve as the new army of the Congo Territory.

The number of these foreign natives does not need to be too large. As long as they can be controlled at half of the number of troops in the Congo territory, the entire army can be controlled.

After all, in order to consider the combat effectiveness of the army, Manuel will retain at least 2 to 3 colonial garrison regiments as the main force in the colonial division that he is about to form.

These two or three colonial garrison regiments also have 5 to 7 troops. Together with the nearly troops transported from other colonies, they already account for more than half of the entire division's troops.

Even if these soldiers selected from the Congolese territory were not loyal enough, they could not have any influence on the entire division.

When Carlo promoted Manuel to major general, he had already issued an order to transfer a colonial garrison regiment from the colonies of Guinea and South Morocco to the Congo territory.

Unexpectedly, just a few days later, Manuel gave Carlo a big surprise. Carlo originally thought that Manuel's action would not be carried out until the two colonial garrisons arrived. Unexpectedly, he relied on only 2300 troops in his hands to conquer a large indigenous tribe with a population of more than .

Of course, this is definitely a good thing for Spain. With these tens of thousands of indigenous workers, Spain's construction of the Congo territory will definitely be faster.

As for the casualties caused to the indigenous population by the attack on the indigenous tribes, no one in Spain cares.

Far from criticizing Manuel's unauthorized actions, Carlo lavishly praised his achievements.

In his reply to Manuel, Carlo said that the two colonial garrison regiments were on their way. The troops from the Guinea colony, which was closest to the Congo territory, might arrive there before Manuel received Carlo's report. The troops from the further southern Morocco colony could also arrive there within a week.

In addition to verbally rewarding Manuel, Carlo also decided to increase his support for Manuel.

It is necessary to form a colonial division in the Congo territory, but the local natives lack credibility, at least they are unlikely to work for the Spaniards.

It is also because of this that Spain needs to transport a large number of troops to the Congo territory to help Manuel complete the formation of the colonial division as soon as possible.

Carlo had already made plans for the withdrawal of troops.

Although the population of the South Moroccan colony was not the largest among the Spanish colonies, these Moroccans were the most credible of all the colonial populations.

Of course, this is excluding the European population in the colonies. If we talk about the natives of the colonies who are most likely to be assimilated, it can only be the Moroccans.

At least in terms of skin color and appearance, they are very similar to the Spaniards. All they need to do is learn Spanish and convert to Catholicism, and you won't be able to tell that they are of Moroccan descent.

After all, to put it bluntly, there used to be a large number of Muslims in Spain, and Spain has a lot of experience in converting Muslims to Catholics.

If gentle conversion was not feasible, forced conversion was available. The Inquisition played a huge role in Spain's conversion from Islam to Catholicism.

If the Moroccans in the southern Morocco colony had not been obedient, Carlo would have planned to establish an Inquisition in southern Morocco to help Catholicism expand across the Moroccan territory.

That is to say, Moroccans are white, otherwise Carlo would not have tried so hard to assimilate them. If they were black, Carlo would not have intended to assimilate them at all, but would have squeezed out all their value and then dismissed or eliminated them.

Including the two colonial garrison regiments that are about to arrive in the Congo Territory, the Congo Territory currently has less than 7000 troops.

The fully-strength colonial division planned by Carlo will have nearly 2 troops, which also means that the army of the Congo Territory will still have a vacancy of at least 1.3 troops.

Because it was a colonial matter, Carlo had a great say. After communicating with Grand Duke Serrano, Carlo issued his orders without hesitation.

Most of the 1.3-man troop vacancies were filled by the colonies of Southern Morocco and the Philippines.

The colony of South Morocco will provide 5000 troops, and these 5000 people will be screened through multiple levels to ensure their loyalty to Spain.

These 5000 soldiers and their families will go to the Congo Territory together, where they will be officially recognized as residents of the Congo Territory as permanent residents.

In this way, they would be able to break away from their status as colonial natives and it would become easier to apply for Spanish citizenship.

Of course, it is also possible to become a complete resident of the Congo Territory. The Congo Territory has a large area of ​​undeveloped land, and if they are willing to live in the Congo Territory for a long time, they can also cultivate the land themselves.

Anyway, Spain obtained a large number of laborers from the Bangui tribe, who could be hired by them to cultivate land for them.

Simply put, these Moroccans selected as soldiers have completely gotten rid of their indigenous identity. Their status in the Congo territory will become that of superiors, and they will in turn enslave the local indigenous people.

There are still 8000 troop vacancies. The Philippines will provide 5000, and the remaining 3000 will be recruited from Congo.

The conditions for the indigenous people of the Philippines would be worse. After all, they are not white people, and it would be more difficult to assimilate them.

But as long as they are loyal enough to Spain, they also have the opportunity to apply for Spanish citizenship. Even if they cannot obtain Spanish citizenship, they are definitely not the lowest class in the Congo territory, and there will be black slaves who can be easily enslaved.

Similarly, these 5000 Filipino soldiers can also bring their families to Congo Territory. In addition to promoting the population development of Congo Territory, this will also ensure the loyalty of these soldiers' families.

Without any accidents, their families will live happily in the Congo Territory. But if there are any problems in the army, the families of these soldiers will become a means of threatening these indigenous soldiers, forcing them to obey Spanish rule.

Although this may seem a bit cruel, no one will sympathize with the natives. And compared to the natives who continue to stay in the colonies and suffer slavery and oppression, the natives who are fortunate enough to be selected as soldiers are much luckier.

As long as they obey the rules, it will not be difficult for them to obtain Spanish nationality in the future. They can also get rid of their indigenous identity and become the superior people in the colony.

In fact, Carlo could have drawn enough troops from the southern Moroccan colonies and the Philippine colonies to the Congo Territory, and there was no need to recruit troops from the Congo Territory. However, considering that it would take a long time to transport troops from southern Morocco and the Philippines, which was not only too costly but also quite troublesome, Carlo finally decided to form a regiment-sized local indigenous army.

The loyalty of these local indigenous troops in the Congo territories is certainly unreliable, but as long as there is a supervision team, it is still okay to use them as cannon fodder.

The advantage of these local indigenous armies is that they can be replenished at any time if soldiers die. The entire Congo territory has at least millions or even tens of millions of indigenous people. Even if tens of thousands of people die, Spain will definitely not feel bad.

This is only the current territory of Congo. If they continue to go deeper into the lower reaches of the Congo River and occupy the Congo Kingdom, the number of local indigenous people may even reach tens of millions.

If these natives are used well, they can also become millions of laborers and cannon fodder. With these laborers to build the Congo territory, the Congo territory can also develop rapidly and quickly become one of Spain's colonies that can achieve positive returns.

Although this did solve the problem of military strength in the Congo territory, a new problem was posed to Carlo. That was that the colonies of southern Morocco and Guinea, from which troops had been withdrawn, were also currently short of troops.

Before Manuel's colonial division was formed, Spain had a total of 20 colonial garrison regiments with a total strength of 4.6 people.

These 20 colonial garrison regiments were distributed in Spain's colonies of Cuba, South Morocco, Congo, Guinea and the Philippines, and their original strength was barely sufficient.

However, as Carlo has mobilized troops in the South Morocco colony many times, there are currently some vacancies in the troops in the South Morocco colony.

The current distribution of Spain's 20 colonial garrisons is as follows:
The Cuban colony, which had the highest income, had a total of 6 colonial garrison regiments with 1.4 troops. The Philippine colony, which had just experienced a large-scale development, had a total of 6 colonial garrison regiments with 1.15 troops.

The South Morocco colony closest to the mainland has a total of three colonial garrison regiments with a strength of approximately 3 troops, and the Congo territory has a total of three colonial garrison regiments with a strength of approximately 7000 troops.

The colony of Guinea had two colonial garrison regiments with a total strength of 4600 people.

Even if we take into account the colonial division that Manuel is about to form, the only Spanish colony with sufficient troops is the colony of Guinea.

The stability of the Cuban colony has always been a problem. The six colonial garrison regiments have only 1.4 troops, which makes it difficult to ensure the stability of Cuba.

Needless to say, southern Morocco. The hatred of the Kingdom of Morocco in the north towards Spain has been deepening, and coupled with Spain's assimilation policy in southern Morocco, it is still necessary to send more people to garrison Morocco.

The Philippines currently has two expansion directions. One is to continue expanding on the island of Kalimantan, and the other is to extend its reach to the island of New Guinea and engage in colonial competition with the great powers.

Regardless of the direction of expansion, Morocco needs more colonial troops to protect the security of the colonies.

Needless to say, the Congo Territory is a land area of ​​nearly one million square kilometers. Even if the colonial division is established, it may not be able to keep an eye on such a large indigenous population within the colonial area.

If Spain only intended to utilize a portion of the indigenous manpower and slowly develop the Congo territory, 20,000 people would be enough to ensure the security of the Congo territory.

But Spain's goal was not just to capture a part of the indigenous people, but to use hundreds of thousands of indigenous people to quickly reclaim the Congolese territory.

Therefore, the garrison of the Congo territory also needed to be strengthened to ensure that these indigenous people would not unite to resist Spanish rule.

Perhaps the only one that was not worried about insufficient military forces was the Guinea colony, which had no plans to expand.

In fact, there are many directions for the expansion of Guinea colonies. The Spanish Guinea colony is quite large. Although it is only in the coastal area, it still involves many African countries including Nigeria, Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea.

Whether expanding northward or eastward, the Guinea colony could acquire hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of land. And these lands were suitable for agricultural development, and they were also located on the coast, making sea transportation more convenient.

However, due to Spain's lack of manpower and financial resources, it could only focus on developing one colony, so it had to temporarily give up the development of the Guinea colony.

Since Carlo ascended the throne, he has indeed temporarily given up the development of the Guinea colony, and the expansion of the Guinea colony has also been temporarily slowed down.

However, with the development of the Congolese territory, the Guinea colony will sooner or later expand. Carlo's plan for the scope of the Congolese territory is to form a triangle along the Congo River and the Guinea colony, and Spain will fully occupy this triangle.

In terms of area, this would be a land of nearly 300 million square kilometers, including the two Congos, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Nigeria and Central Africa.

As for the Kingdom of Kongo south of the lower reaches of the Congo River, which is Angola and other areas in later generations, it has now fallen under the control of Portugal, and Carlo has no intention of having a conflict with Portugal for the time being.

After all, there are still large tracts of unoccupied land in Africa for Spain to explore, so there is no need to focus on Portugal for the time being.

Doing so would only intensify the conflict between Spain and Portugal and disrupt Carlo's plans in Portugal.

If the Portuguese were to become too hateful of the Spanish, it would be impossible for them to annex Portugal in the future. Although the differences between the Portuguese and the Spanish were not that great, it would take decades or even hundreds of years to integrate the Portuguese into the Spanish community.

This will require problems to break out in Portugal itself, causing the Portuguese to lose confidence in their government and royal family.

If Spain forcefully invades and annexes, the outcome will be the same as Spain's annexation of Portugal in history. Forced annexation will only make the Portuguese hate the Spaniards more, and the final outcome will still be the two nations parting ways.

According to the deployment of troops in each colony, both the South Morocco Colony and the Philippine Colony needed to further expand their military forces.

After discussions with Archduke Serrano, Carlo also decided to expand the number of Spanish colonial garrisons to 30.

This number increased by 10, or 2.3 troops. Manuel's colony had 8 colonial garrison regiments with more than 2 troops, which is why Carlo directly expanded 10 colonial guard regiments.

Because the Congo Territory will add three more garrison regiments on top of the existing three colonial garrison regiments, the other colonies can only get the remaining seven garrison regiments.

After consideration, Carlo decided to send two colonial garrison regiments to the colonies of Cuba, the Philippines and South Morocco, and one colonial garrison regiment to the colony of Guinea.

Doing so would ensure the continued stability of Cuba, the Philippines, and southern Morocco. Especially Cuba, before Spain could truly reach an agreement on colonial exchange with a foreign country, it was still necessary to maintain the stability of Cuba.

The continued dispatch of troops to the Guinea colony was also based on the consideration that if there was a need for troops in the Congo territory in the future, they could be dispatched from the closer Guinea colony.

This way, the Guinea colony will have three colonial garrison regiments. In case of emergency, at least two colonial garrison regiments can be mobilized to quickly go to the Congo territory.

One colonial division plus two additional colonial garrison regiments, that's nearly 1 troops.

To be honest, Carlo didn't think that the local indigenous people in the Congo territory could threaten the 2.5-strong army.

Although the colonial garrison regiments did not have any decent heavy firepower weapons, the 10 colonial garrison regiments also had 30 artillery pieces, which was something that the colonial natives who did not have hot weapons could not match.

In history, after Belgian King Leopold II gained control of Congo, he only assembled an army of more than 10,000 people to ensure the stability of Congo and implemented a rather cruel rule in Congo.

Carlo's rule in Congo was not as cruel as Leopold II's. After all, this king would chop off hands at any time. Although Leopold II never visited Congo in person, under his rule, at least millions of Congolese natives had their hands and feet chopped off, a number that Carlo could not reach by a long shot.

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(End of this chapter)