The Rise of the Empire

Maybe someone said it. Isn't it courting death for the 50,000 Boer front-line troops to resist more than 200,000 British troops? Nonsense, at this time, why is it just death, and the method of death is different. The key is to seize the early stage! You know, the Boers had an advantage in the beginning.

The British still underestimated the enemy, and they underestimated the financial and mobilization ability of the Boers. Back then, the reason why the British dared to fight the Boer War was that what did the Boers have? There are only more than 200,000 in total, and the two Boer republics are plateaus, very flat and have railways, and they only need to deal with the outdated Boer militia of 2,000 to 3,000. How many people did the British Empire have in South Africa? More than 20,000! Whether it is equipment, number of people or supplies, it is a proper crushing advantage. What are you afraid of? Just straight!

As a result, when the war started, the British were dumbfounded. The first wave of Bourges concentrated 35,000 troops, which was almost twice as many as the entire British garrison in southern Africa! So at the beginning, the Boers had an advantage, but unfortunately, this advantage did not play out. Or can't beat it.

Kruger's strategy is still good. After the war began, the Boer army began to launch a centripetal attack on the Eastern Cape area. The center of the attack was the Port of Durban. At the same time, one of the other two troops cut off the connection between the Cape area and Rhodesia to the north, and the other force went south. , severing the connection between the Eastern Cape and the Western Cape region. In general, the mobilization of troops at that time mainly relied on ships and railways. Without these two, if you climb slowly, the speed is not as good as that of the Napoleonic army... After all, there are more people and more equipment, and it is still the horse who pulls the cart and pulls the gun.

It is of strategic significance for the Boers to choose to attack the Eastern Cape. First of all, there are a large number of Boers in the Eastern Cape. Everyone of the same language and culture should naturally take care of each other. Another key is to occupy Durban. force, and occupied Durban. The British can also easily block the surrounding waters, but after losing their foothold on land, it is not so easy to counterattack. The three troops are like three knives cutting the entire Eastern Cape region.

Great idea. But that's not the case at all. Not only did Durban fail, but also a small place like Rhodes.... On the one hand, we must ensure the siege of the city, and on the other hand, we must defend against the British army coming from the direction of Cape Town. The most tragic Boers have to leave nearly half of their troops to defend against the blacks! So you can imagine how many troops can be used for frontal combat with the British army!

The Boers started with only 35,000. There are 4,000 troops besieging Rhodes alone, plus the troops in other areas, the number of Boers resisting the British army from Cape Town will not exceed 20,000! But this is the point where the troops still performed well in the field, and the 30,000 British troops under the command of British commander Buller had no success in the face of the Boers' defense line. Instead, he was beaten and beaten.

However, the good days of the Boers soon came to an end. From the beginning of the war to the present, the Boers have successfully gained an advantage by relying on their powerful troops, but it has been 5 months, and this period of time is enough for the British Empire to concentrate its forces on the top of Mount Tai. call! At this time, the Boer army was distracted because the place to be captured was not taken down. In the face of hundreds of thousands of British troops, the so-called main force of the Boers obviously has little room for jumping, and the mobile force of the real front line is far lower than the total force, so the result is obvious, and they are sent home. !

Before Calyput came, Ruprecht, who was Ruprecht, had analyzed the situation of the Boer War for Calyput based on his own memory, although in general His Royal Highness was still not optimistic about the Boers,

But in line with the principle of making the British bleed as much as possible, Prince Ruprecht developed a more practical tactic!

In fact, it is purely from a tactical point of view. This tactic was no different from Krueger's idea. After the war, concentrated troops quickly captured the Port of Durban, and before the British reacted, they obtained a batch of supplies from the sea. Then concentrate forces to bring the entire Natal region under their control. And ensure the strategic depth, and then concentrate the main force of the Boer army to meet the British troops coming from Cape Town.

The key lies in strategy. First of all, in order to realize this plan, the Boers must concentrate a strong enough field corps, and have a strong attacking ability and a complete logistics system. The guerrilla style of hitting where you go must be abandoned. The Boers had a large army of 88,000 people. According to the organization, there are also 2 armies. The strength is not much less than the Bavarian army. On the other hand, it is necessary to shake hands with the surrounding African chiefs to make peace, so it is necessary to pay a lot of money and even part of the land must first stabilize these people!

44% of Boer's army is used to defend the black buddies on the northern front! If these tens of thousands of fresh troops joined the offensive in the early stages of the war, then many troubles would be solved. By the middle and late stages of the war, the Boers were fighting the British guerrillas, and the Africans were fighting the Boer guerrillas…. What a tragic thing this is, so if the British could win the Boer War, they should also give the black buddies in Africa a medal!

As for how long the Boers can last, it is difficult to say. After all, where is the national strength of the British, but the Boers also have advantages. After all, they are fighting on the mainland. Although South Africa is the richest British colony in Africa, However, labor and industry are still very limited, and the railway lines are not dense. If the Boers can destroy part of the railway lines and destroy important transportation hubs, it will be very annoying for the British to mobilize powerful troops. After all, 220,000 people seem like a lot, and it's not a big deal to spread them all over South Africa.

Troops are still logistical. The 4 million black people in South Africa are very uncomfortable with the Boers, but they are even more uncomfortable with the British. It is risky to recruit labor from the local area. There are still many chiefs and local forces in South Africa. The British were naturally not afraid in peacetime, but it was different during the Boer War. You must know that there is a nation called Zulu in Gada, South Africa. They had a fight with the British more than ten years ago. Although they lost to the grandmother's house, the hatred was buried. In short, if it is used well, and the understanding of the Zulu people and the neutral attitude of other peoples can be obtained, then this quagmire may be very deep!

Of course, Kruger and the others have to do the diplomatic matters themselves. What Caliput has to do is to build the Boers into a regular army that can attack fortifications and obey orders. Khaliput swore that even if the Boers were put on the foreheads with rifles, they would bring those heavy artillery with them!

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