Chapter 397: Prussia's Grand Strategy
Once Johnson realized this, he stopped fretting over the small matter of East Africa invading Griqualand. After all, Griqualand was merely a poor, tiny land. Johnson had felt practically exiled when assigned here by the Cape Colony government, so now he was quite ready to return to Cape Town.
"Mr. Mölk, let's set aside this Griqualand issue for now. I must head back to Cape Town to make my report. As for how Griqualand's ownership is ultimately decided, that depends on the big shots in the Cape government. I won't waste time quarreling with you over it anymore," Johnson said to Mölk.
Mölk responded, "Of course, nothing is absolute. Sometimes a misunderstanding can be resolved if both parties sit down and speak candidly. It's possible to settle conflicts before they get out of hand."
"Yes, indeed. There's nothing that can't be discussed, and it benefits both sides. So I hope from here on, sir, you'll give us some courtesy and won't create trouble for us on the way," Johnson replied.
"Naturally." Mölk told his adjutant, "Arrange a squad to escort Mr. Johnson and his party to the far side of the Orange River."
"Yes, Commander."
Then, Mölk said to Johnson, "By the way, Mr. Johnson, let me clarify: our men can only escort you to the Orange River. Once you're across, it's beyond our jurisdiction."
"Heh, thank you for the reminder, General. But beyond the Orange lies a safe area. I'm confident among my own people," Johnson answered.
Johnson had signaled Mölk in advance out of concern for his personal safety. And Mölk would not dare harm him – after all, he is an official of the British Empire. If anything happened to him on East African soil, that would truly be poking at Britain's pride in its heyday.
Eager to return to Cape Town with his intel, Johnson might not realize that Cape Colony had an even clearer view of the situation than he did. The large-scale maneuvers by the East African Kingdom in South Africa were loud enough for even a blind man to notice.
If anyone was more nervous than the British, it was the Portuguese. Among Western powers, the Portuguese colony of Mozambique knew East Africa the best. Felix's forces' sudden appearance in the Swazi Kingdom had genuinely startled Mozambique. Maputo, the seat of Mozambique's colonial government, lies next to the Swazi Kingdom, making it impossible to miss any movement there.
Mozambique's administration was aware that East Africa had been active inland for a while, but with several native states in between, it only had a rough idea – for instance, news that the Matabele Kingdom had been crushed by East Africa. However, since Matabele territory was somewhat distant, plus a few states formed from the breakup of the Monomotapa Kingdom still lay between East Africa and Mozambique, Mozambique enjoyed a certain sense of security.
Yet once East Africa occupied Swaziland, Mozambique was suddenly bordering East Africa directly on its southern flank, creating a triple encirclement of Mozambique by the East African Kingdom. That said, the Mozambique governor, who had learned something of East Africa's strength over time, knew that Mozambique had no chance if it tried picking a fight. Probably not even Portugal back home could do much against these Germans, so the governor decided to lie low: as long as the East African Kingdom doesn't attack, they'll pretend not to see a thing.
Mozambique never fully understood the East African Army's precise military strength, only that it was formidable. By watching the military outposts East Africa set up along their shared border, Mozambique inferred East Africa's capabilities. In Mozambique's eastern frontier alone, East Africa stationed several thousand to ten thousand troops, and that was only one portion – so who knew how big East Africa's army was overall?
…
Cape Town.
"Merchants returning from the Transvaal tell us that the East African Kingdom mustered at least tens of thousands of troops for that campaign. Furthermore, there's news from the Natal Colony that a new force is clashing with the Zulu Kingdom – not the Boers. Judging by their gear, they're similar to troops from a Germanic country. Their numbers also appear substantial. Unless I'm mistaken, those fighting the Zulus are also the East African Army. Putting it together, East Africa probably deployed twenty to thirty thousand men this time."
After hearing his subordinate's report, the Cape Colony Governor Henry Barkly said gravely, "From what I know, the East African Kingdom is up north in the Tanganyika region by Portuguese Mozambique, covering part of the Zanzibar Sultanate and some inland territory. Apparently, we've known far too little about them."
Henry Barkly walked to a fairly rough map of Africa. "Look here: Tanganyika is here, Mozambique is here. The East African Army apparently came from the inland to South Africa, meaning they bypassed Mozambique from behind. They must hold quite a stretch of the continent's interior to reach South Africa over land."
The Cape Colony's broad Africa map was crude, just a rough shape of the continent's coastline with the center mostly blank. Normally, in this era, European explorers would be venturing deep inside Africa to fill in those blank zones with topography and waterways. But that process was disrupted by the East African Kingdom, which prohibited such explorers from entering. As for the bold ones who still tried, East Africa simply let them vanish – Africa's a dangerous place, after all, and accidents happen.
Hence, the map Barkly possessed provided no real details, only that East Africa must hold extensive territory next to Mozambique. He didn't know exactly how or how much land they had taken, but he did understand the length of Mozambique's coastline. Mozambique's coast stretches some 2,600 kilometers, so going around it by land or inland route to South Africa implies a trek roughly that large.
But Barkly personally guessed that East Africa likely used some north-south river route for shipping, enabling swift troop movement and resupply, doubting they could spread so quickly from the East African coast to South Africa by land alone.
"All told, the Germans likely rely on a north-south river so they can navigate and handle logistics more easily. Without that, I can't see how they could have expanded from East Africa all the way here so fast," Barkly said.
He's not altogether wrong. East Africa does have one river matching his guess somewhat: the Luangwa. But that's just a tributary of the Zambezi and can only reach it, not straight to South Africa. East Africa does run shipping along the Luangwa, but its routes aren't continuous – they're broken into segments.
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