After seeing off Baron Raul Bravo, Qiang Quansheng also returned to his office and met with Major Guo Zili, the commander of the Second Fleet who rushed from the River-Hong Kong Port in South Africa.

"Xiao Guo, the Dutch told us that the British have already landed in South Africa." Qiang Quansheng said straight to the point: "Now we have written about South Africa and asked them to step up the investigation of the situation of the British. We expect that the British may have more than one settlement, and they have been here for a long time. The Dutch met them just an accidental border after the expansion of the territory of both sides. But don't worry, our strength is still the number one in South Africa except the natives. What needs to be clarified now is how many British people are in South Africa.

What is the combat effectiveness and whether you are hostile to us is important, of course, this is not your job. Your mission is still at sea. This time, the Executive Committee decided to allocate multiple warships from the First Fleet to the Second Fleet in order to strengthen the strength there. The two ports in the River and Xinhua are the basis for us to control both sides of southern Africa. However, you need to remember that before it is confirmed that you cannot attack the British ships without authorization to avoid causing diplomatic disputes."

The British landing in South Africa this time has had a great impact on the Executive Committee, especially Van Boyningen pointed out that before the Dutch discovered the British in the Brieux River, they may have been operating in South Africa for a while, which has further aggravated the sense of crisis among the Executive Committee's officials.

What does South Africa mean to the east coast? Not to mention gold, the massive amount of high-quality coal in the local area is urgently needed for the east coast when industrialization is in progress in the future! The amount of local coal on the east coast is very huge, especially in Ping'an County, Tieling County and later Uruguay-Brazil border areas, which are famous coal storage belts, but the problem is that the quality is too poor! Low combustion calorific value, high sulfur and high ash are typical characteristics. Housewives who cook in the east coast know that coal balls made of these coals are really ecstatic when burned. It is better to use peat made from the south (Turkey Island and Horse Island) to be very clean.

In addition, the coal mines with large reserves and high quality in the East Coast are probably the Montenegro coal mines and the coal mines located on Lesco Island (don't developed due to cost issues). There is nothing else. The industrial scale of the East Coast is still small, so the industrial coal produced by the Montenegro coal mine (which has gradually replaced Tacheng's fine coal in the past two years) and the cheap coal produced by the Ping'an Coal Mine (for civilian fuel) is enough to be used. But in the foreseeable future, as the industrial scale of the East Coast becomes larger and larger, the demand for coal, especially high-quality coal, will rise in geometric levels. At this time, a large amount of foreign coal is needed. After thinking about it, isn't South Africa, which is close to the corner, the best source of high-quality coal?

Originally, the demand for coal by the East Coast industry has not reached a certain level, and South Africa has no foreign forces (except the Netherlands). The officials of the East Coast Executive Committee must keep their energy in building their local areas. Therefore, they have neither policy nor financial support for South Africa's development. On the contrary, they continue to draw blood. The Black Eight Banners send a certain amount of labor to the local area for infrastructure every year, and export a certain amount of cheap wheat, peanuts, sorghum, sesame, wool, salted fish, wine and other agricultural and sideline products every year, which makes South Africa's development more or less weak.

Fortunately, the South African River Colony can intercept a few people from the immigration transport fleet every year, and can also be allocated to Persian and Balochi female slaves sold by some Muscat merchants. Occasionally, some exiles will be sent by the local area. Therefore, the population growth of Hezhong County in South Africa is still not satisfactory, and it has reached 36,000 so far. It has jurisdiction over Hezhong Town, Gundam Township, Xiang Township, and Port Township (later Marmesbury, a trade port between Hezhong County and the Netherlands Cape Town Colony). Even in the local area, it cannot be considered a small county. Compared with the Dutch, its strength is still quite considerable.

But now the British have returned to South Africa after many years, which has made the officials of the Executive Committee who have been building their homeland feel a sense of crisis. Therefore, there have been many policy adjustments. Strengthening the strength of the Second Fleet is a matter of subversive political and economic adjustments.

"The Executive Committee has made a final decision to abolish the South African Development Team, a plenipotential body, and set up the Hezhong Regional Administration, with former Internal Affairs Commissioner Jiao Tang as a special commissioner, to fully preside over the civil affairs of the Hezhong region; expenditures in the Hezhong region are included in the national fiscal budget, fiscal and taxation system, bureaucracy, education, medical care, culture and health system, and other systems in line with the central government; to abolish the import and export tariffs of all South African commodities. The economy, market, and finance are integrated; the South African Security Command, South African garrison and other institutions are still retained, and the Army Major Xie Hansan is appointed as the security commander, who is fully responsible for the various South African regions.

Xiang Military Affairs; the first battalion of the local army was transferred into the combat sequence of the South African garrison troops, and the fourth battalion of the Army (Jiazibat, only more than 300 people) was formed in Luoqia County. The militia organization of the Hezhong Security Regiment was enriched to 2,000 troops and continued to maintain the previous training intensity." Qiang Quansheng said this, looked up at Guo Zili, and reminded: "Your Second Fleet should contact more Commissioner Hezhongjiao and Commander Xie in the future, and closely monitor the British and even the Dutch in the south! Do you understand? South Africa is something we cannot give up anyway. In order to protect this place, the country will declare war with any enemy!"

"Of course, this is not an encouragement to provoke those enemies actively." Speaking of this, Qiang Quansheng's nature of the "surrender faction" who has always been criticized by the army has once again attacked. He only heard him say: "The British, the Dutch are already a fait accompli. Since we have accused this for various reasons and cannot make up our minds to drive them away, we cannot intensify the conflict for the time being. Unless they have actually seriously violated our interests, generally peace must be maintained. Especially for your Second Fleet, you may encounter British ships at sea in the future. While you are vigilant, you must also be very restrained.

, try to avoid the incident of accidental fire. To put it bluntly, the Dutch told us this news that there was no good intention. If we couldn't help but have any conflicts with the British, they would probably be able to laugh. The Netherlands has a grudge with Britain, but we don't have any grudges on the surface, so there is no need to win the fire for the Dutch. Although the United Nations united British is a national policy, how to grasp the degree is also a very particular thing. Now we are busy standing on the front line to fight against Britain with the Netherlands. It is neither rational nor economical. I hope your navy can understand this principle and not be stubborn like the army's horse manure."

"I understand, Chairman Qiang." Guo Zili nodded and was taught. Although he was an army in the navy (meaning a more radical faction), he was still not confused about major events. He knew how to deal with the severity and make choices, so he immediately expressed his opinion to Qiang Quansheng: "The ships have almost been maintained. The Ministry of Service has led the fleet to leave the port in the past two days and headed to the Hezhong area. In addition, we will also send some ships to cooperate with South African personnel to the estuary of the Brieu River to see what the specific situation is, and by the way, it will also shock.

To intimidate the British. They have been too arrogant in recent years. They have only finished fighting the Dutch, sent a fleet to Lisbon to demonstrate, then beat the Barbary pirates, and then started a war with Spain. It is simply unstoppable. Their East India Company should be stepping up activities in India and Persia now. It is time for them to know who said the South Atlantic. But don’t worry, Chairman Qiang, we will grasp the right position and will not be involved in direct armed conflict with the British."

"I hope so." Qiang Quansheng glanced at Guo Zili and finally said: "We have worked hard to build this country, just like parents worrying about their children. I hope you must grasp the right measure and understand the painstaking efforts of parents, and not let the construction of the country suffer a serious impact in the past 20 or 30 years. Remember!"

"By the way, what are the French in New China Island now? Of course I have read the report written by Ma Wanpeng, but I want to know your naval opinions. Are they threatening?" Qiang Quansheng asked suddenly.

"If the French government does not add additional investment, I don't think there is any threat." Guo Zili said very simply: "They only dock at Dufan Fort in less than ten times a year, and the things they transported are limited. Moreover, I heard that they have had conflicts with the natives recently and fought endlessly, and they must have suffered a lot of losses. In addition, there have been many diseases in their place, so the population has never increased. There are still only about 3,000 white Huguenots. From a long-term perspective, there is no threat to us. Once the two countries fight, I think that with the help of the New China Colonial itself (regular army + the Eight Banners of the Island) and our Second Fleet, this group of French colonists will definitely be able to eliminate the entire New China Colonial Island and completely incorporate the entire New China Colonial into our rule. I never doubt this."

"Very good, I understand. Now you go back and prepare." Qiang Quansheng picked up the coffee cup and said.

After Guo Zili left Qiang Quansheng, he went to the dock of Dayuhe Naval Shipyard to supervise the maintenance of ships. At the same time, the First Army Battalion also arrived at Dongfang Port from the north and prepared to arrive in South Africa by boat on the Second Fleet ship. This time, the First Fleet transferred the "National Will", "Control the East" and "Fubomanli" battleships, as well as nearly ten guard gunboats, and logistics auxiliary ships into the Second Fleet battle sequence, which basically demonstrated the attitude of the Executive Committee, and the Indian Ocean will also usher in a turbulent autumn. (~^~)
Chapter completed!