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Piaotian Literature of the Fourth Empire of China www.piaotia.com Chapter 550: Can¡¯t Hold It Anymore

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    On September 11, 1899, the Boer coalition consisting of the Transvaal Army and the Orange Armed Forces moved eastward.  General Piet Joubert, commander-in-chief of the cloth army, led the main force, crossed the Drakensberg Mountains from East Orange, entered the Natal colony, and went straight to Ladysmith, where the main force of the British army in Natal was located.  In the early morning of September 17, the pursuing cloth army fought on Mount Tarana with a brigade of British troops stationed here to defend Ladysmith's outer defense line.  The commander of the cloth army, General Meir, took advantage of the favorable terrain and the cover of morning fog to launch a surprise attack on the British army.  The British army lost 865 people and the Cloth army lost 145 people.

    Another Armed Forces, commanded by General Delare, known as the "Lion of the Western Transvaal", entered British Bechuanaland on September 11 and cut off the Western Cape railway line, thus blocking the  Connections between the Cape Region and Rhodesia.  Delray divided his troops into two groups, one commanded by General Cronye to surround Mafetin, and the other (mainly Orangemen) commanded by Louis Botha to surround the diamond town of Kimberley.

    The third Boer army crossed the Orange River and went south, absorbing a small group of Boer armed forces in the British Cape Colony, operating in the northeastern region of the Cape, and threatening the East-West Cape Railway line.  The British army had to tightly defend the Orange River Railway Bridge to guard against the Boers' attempts to blow up the bridge.  De Aar, the most important railway junction and military supplies distribution center on the Western Cape railway line, was also harassed by the Boers.  In order to protect the normal passage of the East-West Cape Railway, the British had to install a 4.7-inch naval gun on the train and slowly advance under its cover.  Repair the railroad piece by piece.

    September 30, 1899.  Ladysmith's four thousand British troops launched a counterattack against the Cloth Army under the command of Lieutenant General George White.  Encountered the main force of the Cloth Army under the command of Joubert in Nicholson Gorge. The British army was defeated with the loss of 1,272 men. The remainder returned to Ladysmith and was immediately surrounded.  Due to Ladysmith's tight defense, Joubert was unable to attack the city several times, so he sent scout troops deep into the British hinterland and as far as Estcourt.  Reconnaissance of locations can be used to entrench.  The rest of the main force camped and rested around Ladysmith, waiting for the arrival of the British Overseas Corps.

    At the end of September, 20,000 British troops led by General Redvers Buller, the commander-in-chief of the British reinforcements and who had suppressed the local uprising in Ireland, finally arrived in Cape Town.  Beginning in mid-October, the British army commanded by Buller launched a counterattack against the British army on three fronts: the eastern, central and western fronts: Lieutenant General Methuen relieved the siege of Kimberley on the western front, and Lieutenant General French attacked Orange on the central line.  In the Free State, General Buller led the main force to relieve the siege of Ladysmith on the Eastern Front.

    In the early morning of October 15, General Buller launched an attack on the cloth army at Colenso, a small station southwest of Ladysmith, in an attempt to forcefully cross the Tugela River and head for Ladysmith.  The forces under Buller's command included the British 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 6th brigades, totaling 16,000 men, in addition to four regiments of light cavalry and three squadrons of lancers composed of colonial cavalry.  The artillery has 5 artillery batteries.  30 cannon, in addition to 16 naval 12-pounders and 4.7-inch guns.  Including cavalry and artillery.  Buller's total strength was 22,000 men.  The Boer troops that entered the Battle of Colenso included militia groups from eight regions including Johannesburg, Heidelberg, Krugersdorp, Freiheid, and Utrecht, troops from the Orange Free State, and Johannesburg and  Swaziland's white police force totals 35,000 people.  In addition, there are fifty Chinese-made 105mm light howitzers and 100 Type 82 infantry guns.  Due to the fact that the Burg troops had concealed their artillery positions first, and the British commander's command errors led to the dispersion of troops and rigid tactics, the British army suffered a disastrous defeat in this battle, with 4,139 killed, 30 missing, and 10 cannons lost.  The Boer army suffered only 8 killed and 30 wounded.

    The current Boers have purchased a large number of advanced weapons from China and are not much worse than the British army.  In this case, the British army simply could not withstand the Boer attack, and the entire British South African colony was in danger.

    Britain is stuck in a quagmire in South Africa, which has also brought about a turning point in the originally deadlocked negotiations between China and Britain.  The British have discovered that if they continue to remain tough on China, they will not be able to boldly quell the Boer War in South Africa.  At this time, China was making preparations for war with Japan and did not want to continue to drag out the British.

    October 16, 1899, Prime Minister's Office, Downing Street, London, England.  British Prime Minister Arthur Balfour once again held a cabinet meeting. The meeting was held in the conference room of the Prime Minister's Office. However, Prime Minister Arthur Balfour's face was quite ugly.

    "Who can tell me what is going on? How could those Boers become so powerful all of a sudden? If this continues, will we lose South Africa?" Prime Minister Arthur Balfour asked with a livid face.

    "Your Excellency Prime Minister, the power of the Boers?To our surprise, the weapons they were equipped with were better than those we used, and even their artillery was more powerful than ours.  This is also the main reason for Admiral Bueller's failure this time!  "Field Marshal Sir Neville Bowles Chamberlain replied.

    "So, what happened? How did those Boers have such powerful weapons?" Prime Minister Arthur Balfour asked.  He was very frustrated. He finally came to power, but he had to face the mess left by his former prime minister, the Marquis of Salisbury.  Now, Sino-British negotiations have reached a deadlock. After China completed negotiations with the United States and Russia and ended the war, it has begun to shrink its military strength.  The new Governor-General of India, Lord George Nathaniel Curzon, kept sending telegrams to the British cabinet, asking Britain to send more troops to India to strengthen India's defense so that it could resist possible attacks by the Chinese.  However, where does Britain have excess troops to transport to India?  Moreover, no matter how many troops are dispatched, after the navy's defeat, it is simply impossible for the British Army to withstand the attack of the Chinese Army.  But now, the Boers have launched another attack on the British, and the British Army has been defeated. The British rule in South Africa is already in jeopardy. Prime Minister Arthur Balfour is very anxious. He has to face threats from the Queen or the Queen every day.  Parliamentary Questions.

    "Your Excellency, Prime Minister, we suspect that there is support from the Chinese behind these Boers. The weapons used by the Boers are almost all standard weapons equipped by the Chinese Army." said Sir Neville Bowles Chamberlain, Secretary of War.

    "What? Those damn yellow-skinned monkeys, they actually dare to use such a conspiracy against the British Empire!" Prime Minister Arthur Balfour said angrily, but then he thought that the United Kingdom now has nothing to do with China.  There is no more deterrence.  China simply ignored Britain's threats and even threatened Britain's most important colonies.

    "So, gentlemen, what should we do now?" Prime Minister Arthur Balfour asked breathlessly.

    "Your Excellency, Prime Minister, I think the most important thing now is to reach an agreement with the Chinese to end this damn war. Doing so has two obvious benefits. First, the threats from India and Australia can be eliminated. Chapter 2  Second, we can put all our energy into suppressing the rebellion of those damn Boers!" Finance Minister Charles Thomson Ridge suggested.

    "However, the Chinese's conditions are too harsh. Not only do they want Burma and the Straits Settlements, they also want us to pay 200 million pounds in war compensation!" Sir John Fisher, the Lord of the Admiralty, said with a frown.  Now that Britain's finances are no longer loose, if it pays huge war reparations to China, it will undoubtedly affect the navy's shipbuilding plan.

    "Sir Fisher, Burma and the Straits Settlements have been occupied by the Chinese. Unless the navy returns to the world's number one strength, we will simply not be able to take back these colonies. As for war reparations, if we lose South Africa and India,  Our losses will be far more than 200 million pounds, and may even be ten or dozens or hundreds of times that amount!" Field Marshal Sir Neville Bowles Chamberlain said.  He also favored making peace with China first, and then concentrating all his efforts on suppressing the Boer resistance.

    Prime Minister Arthur Balfour was silent. He had to admit that this was the best way to solve these problems now.  Although I was very reluctant, there was no other alternative.

    "Well, since everyone thinks so, let's send a telegram to Lord Lansdowne and ask him to find a way to reach an agreement with the Chinese! However, we still need to safeguard the interests of the British Empire as much as possible!" Arthur?  Prime Minister Balfour said.  Obviously, in this war with China, Britain lost miserably. Not only did it lose everything in the Far East, it also handed over the entire Pacific to China.  Moreover, a stronger China will directly pose a serious threat to the most important British colonies. Whether it is India, Australia, South Africa and Canada, they are all within China's attack range.  Once the two countries go to war again, these important colonies will become China's primary target.  And if these colonies were lost, the decline of the British Empire would become inevitable.  A rising and powerful Eastern Empire would begin to challenge Britain's world dominance.

    Lord Lansdowne, who was far away in Beijing, finally breathed a sigh of relief after receiving the telegram from the cabinet.  He has been in China for nearly three months, and now he can finally reach an agreement with China and leave this place that he hates!
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