Author: Seven Years Period

On the other side of the sea, Lieutenant General Raven Hoback, commander of the British fleet, was driven crazy by Friedrich because the Austrian fleet had anchored again.

This time the Austrians dispatched an unprecedentedly large fleet. There were three super battleships alone, not to mention the total number of other types of battleships reaching twelve. Plus various types of warships and transport ships, the number of personnel alone exceeded

Twenty-seven thousand people.

This makes the team of 20 people and seven warships sent by the British look a bit small.

Billy Mullen Jr., the head of the British investigation team, felt the pressure doubled. He even suspected that the Austrians had premeditated a war with themselves. This is also very strange. A Dutch merchant ship was attacked by British pirates in the Southeast Asia. The result was

Austria and Britain are responsible for investigating the ins and outs of this matter.

In order to frighten the opponent, the Royal Navy directly dispatched a fleet of seven new paddle-wheel warships. As a result, the latter dispatched an even larger fleet.

Of course, this was not Franz's instruction, but it doesn't mean that he was shocked when he learned the news.

He took an eighteen-hour train ride to Trieste and spent the whole night looking for his uncle, a naval marshal.

"Uncle Friedrich, what are you going to do?!"

"Give the British a show of strength! We sent ten people here, but they actually sent twenty people! There are also seven battleships! Investigating pirates? It's better to go to Nanyang to grab territory!"

Friedrich obviously had a strong opinion against the British, and he had long known about Franz's plans in the Southeast Asia region. Of course, he also knew that the whole thing was inevitable.

"But even if you want to retaliate against your opponent, this fleet is too big and a bit wasteful. And why do you want to bring so many armies?"

A large part of the reason why Franz came to see Friedrich was that the former saw a large number of army officers in the entourage list, and then he also found a large number of army soldiers, and even engineering teams and medical soldiers.

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"Franz, there are some things that I have to tell you. It was obviously you, the colonial minister, who said that tooth for tooth, blood for blood."

Last year there were some attacks on Austrian colonists and soldiers in West Africa, where tribes hid in the forests and hung the remains of their victims (their eaten skeletons) from trees.

On the surface it was a defensive move by the indigenous people to intimidate outsiders for their own safety, but in fact it was a revenge move by the French and Portuguese against the Austrians.

After all, the arrival of Franz and his entourage affected their interests, so the operators hiding behind the scenes decided to bribe some tribes.

However, most of the local tribes did not dare to accept this kind of business in view of the exaggerated combat power displayed by the Austrian army.

So the French and Portuguese sent explorers to find the primitive tribes deep in the forest. These terrible guys had no fear of the Raushi army. They only recognized three things - muskets, food and women.

After some investigation after the incident happened, Franz already understood the ins and outs of the incident, but the solution still had to be solved.

Because the West African region occupied by Austria is different from Algeria and Morocco occupied by France. Most of the so-called "countries" are still in the era of primitive civilization, and they are not even medieval countries. Let's not talk about whether they can conquer it. Communication is also a problem.

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Franz must communicate with them in a way they can "understand", otherwise he will achieve half the result with twice the effort.

So he made a plan to eliminate the twenty-seven tribes. The process was the same as before. The Austrians would defeat them, and then the other tribes would divide their children and property. Franz only wanted the land.

However, it was still the rainy season in West Africa at that time. For the modern Austrian Army, it was still necessary to avoid going to the tropical rain forest to fight with primitive people.

But just after the rainy season, troubles continued on the European continent, and it was not until recently that Austria was free to take action. As long as the fighting ends before the rainy season comes in May.

In fact, in addition to the army, there were also a large number of colonists and professional technical workers who went to West Africa, mainly skilled farmers and breeders.

Of course, there were also some explorers and geologists. After all, Europeans’ understanding of the interior of Africa was still very limited at this time, especially in terms of geology. In the 15th century, an explorer saw Africans exchanging animal skins with Europeans.

Iron tools, we came to the conclusion that there is no iron in Africa.

This outrageous rumor was still believed to be true by Europeans until the early twentieth century.

In addition, Africa also has a lot of reserves of various precious metals and rare metals, but they have not been discovered yet.

Of course, the fastest way to withdraw funds in Africa is still through the planting industry. For this reason, Austria needs a large number of laborers, and it is unrealistic to expect to transfer people from the country.

Therefore, Franz needed to turn those tribal chiefs into planters. Only by integrating them into Austria's economic system could the local area maintain long-term stability.

"Okay, Uncle Friedrich, no matter which general leads the army this time, I still have my original request, only defeat and not pursue, and set the mountain on fire."

This is the driest season in West Africa, and fire attack is undoubtedly a good choice. It saves time and effort, and the burned land will leave a large amount of humus that can be used for farming.

As for damaging the environment, Franz can't think too much about it now, and since he's not native, what's the worst he can do to adopt a rotating farming system?

The reason for only defeating and not pursuing is very simple. Africa is a place where people are not familiar with. If the Austrian army really pursues it, it may increase the results of the victory or fall into a trap.

As for annihilating the remnants of the hostile tribes, other local tribes can do it for them. Of course, if there are any traps, they will step on them for the Austrian side.

As for those rebellious tribes, they will soon discover that once they show weakness, they are seeking death, because they will be torn apart by their compatriots around them, so they can only choose to fight with their last resort.

However, Franz still liked the numerical value game. After all, the technology and organization of the two were several generations behind each other, so there was no possibility of losing in a head-to-head confrontation.

Friedrich seemed a little dissatisfied with Franz's approach, which forced the latter to remind the former again.

"Uncle Friedrich, you don't want to become Austria's eternal sinner, do you?"

After some discussion between the two, Friedrich had to accept Franz's suggestion of sending war supervisors and prosecutors.

In fact, Franz hoped to send some of his right-hand assistants, but the reality was that there were not.

Yes, Franz did have a lot of experts and scholars at his disposal, and there were also countless soldiers who were willing to make friends with him.

But Franz could know which scholars and experts had real materials through the history of later generations, but he could not distinguish the advantages and disadvantages of these soldiers.

After all, most of the last batch of famous generals in Austrian history had become famous at this time, and Archduke Albrecht, who was not famous, was not lacking in fame at all.

And if those veterans were really sent to Africa, they would probably die of illness before the war started.

In the same way, if you send your last few famous generals to Africa, there is a high chance that they will die. Moreover, most of these people are of noble origin and do not need any military exploits to occupy their future positions.

As for these war supervisors and prosecutors, they are actually all outstanding graduates within the empire; of course, the "excellence" of these people is not given by their instructors, but obtained by taking Franz's examination.

But those exams can't actually prove anything. What can prove them is the battlefield and practice.
Chapter completed!