News of the arrival of the British spread rapidly throughout the Hezhong Fort area. The new Far East immigrants may not have any feelings for the British. Their only impression of the British was that they were blocked due to the war when they first came. However, for the more than 100 old immigrants in Hezhong Fort, the British were definitely a grimacing existence! In the government's years of anti-British and anti-British propaganda, the British had long been portrayed as a demon and scum, and more than 600 immigrants from England from China were a little dirty and dull.

Mo Ming was also extremely shocked after hearing this news. The time travelers knew that the direction of history was probably a golden finger that defied the heavens, but sometimes it might also create a fixed mindset for people. For example, this time, if the British colonial fleet was not discovered by the East Coast people while replenishing supplies in St. Vicente, then the East Coast people might have been confused for a long time before they knew the arrival of the British.

In fact, the arrival of the British was both accidental and inevitable. What did you beat them to near the Cape of Good Hope? You still expect others to do nothing and remain indifferent? This is too naive. In other words, the large-scale colonization of Cape Town by the British East India Company was both unexpected and reasonable for the East Coast people.

Something has to be done! This was Mo Ming's first reaction. Soon, under his command, ten fully armed cavalry rushed out of the south gate of the Fortress in the River, crossed the Berg River, and headed towards the endless wilderness to the south. They were going to investigate and confirm the situation near Cape Town.

At the same time, Mo Ming also summoned some Koisan and Koisa tribes who were dependent on the East Coast that night, and carefully asked them whether they had received some news from the south these days. Unfortunately, many Koisan tribes south of the Berg River (the Hotantots are also a Koisan tribe) were devastatingly hit by the "grain collection team" on the east coast at the turn of spring and summer this year. Currently, from Cape Town to the north, it goes north to the vast tens of thousands of square kilometers between the Berg River. There are not many indigenous tribes living. It is said that they all fled to the other side of the Cape Mountains.

This made Mo Ming scratch his head a little. But it was not a big problem. Now we are waiting for the cavalry to send back the information obtained from the investigation. During this period, Mo Ming, Liu Ang, Xie Hansan, Li Yi and other leading officials in the Hezhongbao area gathered together and began to discuss the complex situation they are facing now.

"According to the news publicly circulated on the market by the General Administration of Intelligence St. Vicente Station, the British colonial fleet had a total of twelve ships, almost all of which were large transport ships, carrying a large number of people and materials. They arrived at the Port of St. Vicente on the 22nd in late May, and then purchased a considerable portion of the food, livestock, farm tools and building materials. What is hilarious is that the red bricks, cement, lime, farm tools and other materials purchased by the British were sold to Brazilians, and now they were resold to them. This was done." Lieutenant Lie Yi said the news he inquired, "Their number of immigrants is estimated to exceed one thousand people, and even more, basically from the local English and Ireland organizations. According to rumors, the East India Company has given these immigrants considerable preferential measures to encourage them to take root in the local area and strive to open up the situation as soon as possible."

"More than a thousand people..." Liu Ang smacked his lips and said, "The population is no less than us. But there is a problem. Are so many of them coming to eat with enough food they bring? You know, the harvest in the first year is not very good. Whether they can support themselves is a complete problem. The East India Company is not like us. They will not prepare sufficient rations and bright residences for each immigrant for free. They are usually only willing to pay a small portion of the rations, and the rest is raised by the immigrants. In other words, these poor British immigrants who are penniless may not have enough food for the next autumn harvest. It is already cold winter and the British cannot grow food. They can only take advantage of the winter to reclaim wasteland, renovate rivers and canals, and then go to spring sowing until the spring starts next year. So, they will have ten months to stay in a tight food supply during the autumn harvest in May next year. If they are not done well, they will die. I think maybe we can think of some solutions from here."

"Good idea." Mo Ming praised, and then said, "Well, Company Commander Xie, the troops have been resting in the past two days, and it is time to pull them out for practice. Tomorrow, I will ask Hezhong Fort to mobilize some militias, and at the same time I will recruit hundreds of indigenous men from several vassal tribes. Then, with the Fourth Company as the main force, we will advance south and eastward, and clean up the indigenous tribes in the vast area between the Berg River and Cape Town. Whether it is the Xhosa or the Koisan, cattle, sheep, and food, the personnel will drive them eastward, so that they can't find a deal, trap them to death, and starve them to death!"

"Okay, I was controlled by you, please give the order." Xie Hansan refused and agreed. This time they brought a small number of horses, plus the original ten military horses in Hezhong Fort, which was enough to form a small-scale cavalry reconnaissance unit. With these cavalry with super powerful power, the indigenous tribes on the plains could not escape the pursuit of the East Coast people. These indigenous people were grazing there, and the East Coast people were too lazy to pay attention to them, but who made the British come now? Then we had to use you to prevent them from leaving them in the future.

This was originally a competition and grudge between the East Coast people and the British, but now that the two sides have peace, they naturally cannot take action openly, so they have to use some small means. These Koisan tribes were caught in the middle and suffered a disaster, so they could only blame themselves for their poor strength and bad luck.

"By the way, Lao Liu, you will bring some militias to the east tomorrow." Mo Ming continued to instruct, "Go to trade with the Xhosa people there. There are also a few Xhosa tribes who have come here in a sporadic way. They are farming tribes and should have some excess food. Don't they like our Daqu in the river? Go and trade with them! We used to drink enough ourselves and didn't bother to pay attention to them, but this time it's different. We brought enough wine and put it in a wooden barrel to exchange for their excess food, cattle and sheep. The fur, animal fat, ivory, dog head gold and other things in their hands were also replaced. If they didn’t have enough wine, they would exchange salt and metal farm tools for them. They liked these things the most. They plundered all the surplus grain and property in their hands through such unequal transactions, so that the British could not get anything. Don’t be afraid of our shortage of supplies, and let the transport ship continue to transport from the local area. The British all touched their noses, and the Executive Committee would strongly support us!”

This British colonization of Cape Town is a very uncomfortable thing for the East Coast Republic of China. Because it means that the British's tentacles extend to southern Africa, and the East Coast people can no longer enjoy the geographical advantages here. If the British vigorously manage Cape Town and build port facilities and coastal defense fortresses, the threat to the East Coast people will be even greater.

Especially the African route that the Executive Committee is now vigorously developing is even more a joke. Isn’t that the British fleet as long as it is stationed in the Cape Town port, it will always threaten the safety of the East Coast transportation line. Moreover, this Cape Town port is only more than a month away from the East Coast. If it were replaced with a fly-scissor, it would not even take a month, and the threat to the East Coast is not an ordinary big one.

Cape Town is like a sharp knife pressing on the soft belly of the East Coast Republic, which is extremely uncomfortable. Therefore, Mo Ming, Liu Ang and others' first reaction was to kill these British people! Unfortunately, just a few months after the East Coast and the British reached a peace agreement, Mo Ming and others could not bear the responsibility of the two sides to start a war again. However, it is not possible to use some secret tricks, but it is not a big problem to use some secret tricks. For example, the British who came to colonize could not find a partner for the transaction, or frequently attacked and harassed the British through some vassal black or red tribes.

These measures do not require annihilation of the British who came to colonize (in fact, unlikely). As long as they can increase their costs or delay their colonization process, it is thankful. As for driving away the British, it is still a bit difficult to do it openly. It can only be made through agent wars and trade blockades that the British feel unprofitable or unable to persist and withdraw on their own. Of course, this does not seem very likely. In short, no matter what, Hezhongbao now has to take full action and curb the British from all aspects.

Five days later, on July 15, the cavalry who went to the south returned. The reconnaissance troops led by the cavalry corporal Sun Shengjun brought back accurate information: the British had already entered Cape Town and started large-scale construction. Twelve British sailboats were moored on the sea, and they were continuously transporting supplies to the shore. Perhaps these British people lacked enough manpower, and their construction progress was relatively slow. At present, they had only repaired some wooden trestles, houses, fences and other facilities, and other facilities such as city walls, turrets and other facilities. Moreover, according to their secret observations over the past two days, there were obviously more than a thousand British people working on land, which was not counted as the people who were assisting sailors on the deck of the ships to unload supplies.

After obtaining the accurate news, on July 16, Hezhong Fort quietly mobilized. More than 150 militiamen were mobilized to join the army, 50 of whom were gunners and followed the Fourth Company of the South African Governors to operate together, while the remaining 100 people followed Liu Ang to escort supplies eastward to trade with the Xhosa people.

At the same time, six small tribes that joined the East Coast people also received a conscript: Each tribe drew one of five adult males according to the number of adult males, and collected more than 200 people to report to the East Coast officers that each of these people was given a spear to serve as the vanguard of cannon fodder for the East Coast people.
Chapter completed!