Chapter 402

The snow-covered Vienna once again ushered in the annual Christmas. The bitter cold didn't disperse everyone's enthusiasm, and the festive atmosphere filled Vienna.

Christmas gifts were displayed in the windows of the shops. Around the Gothic fountain in the center of the square, a colorful Christmas market had been set up with game booths of various colors.

Many entertainers began to perform on the streets, full of warmth, sweetness, sadness, and melancholy music melodies, and pleasing to the eye.

The charm of an international metropolis was revealed. Vienna, the capital of music and art, was fully deserving of its name. Here, one could enjoy Europe's unique music, different styles of dance, and magic.

Franz still hadn't received news of victory from South Africa, and it seemed that the war wouldn't end before Christmas. There were no surprises, and all of this was within Franz's expectations.

A little setback was also a good thing, and it could make people calm down. In the past few years, Austria's expansion had been too smooth, and many people had become complacent.

If they weren't arrogant, they wouldn't have shouted to occupy Cape Town before Christmas. Now that they had failed, it was a good time to tighten the reins of the Austrian carriage.

The era of great colonial expansion was over, and what was left were some dispensable leftovers. The next step was to develop themselves and transform the spoils of war into their own strength.

There were no examples of success in this area to refer to, and the performance of the major colonial empires in the original time and space was not up to standard. Without being able to transform it into their own strength, the world war broke out.

Then, there was no then. Their strength was greatly damaged in the world war, and new competitors rose, causing them to lose their last chance.

The British's imperial federal plan, and the French's provincial strategy, were all carried out too late, and failed under the external interference of the United States and the Soviet Union.

The annoying problem temporarily left Franz's mind, and Christmas still had to be celebrated. This day was the World Peace Day, and the European countries wouldn't cause trouble at this time.

The ongoing Anglo-Boer war was also called to a truce, and both sides could enjoy this special holiday without worrying about the other side launching a surprise attack.

The Christmas gifts prepared by Franz had been distributed to the hands of every soldier. Although it was just some ordinary candy, everyone was still very happy.

Crudely made Santa Claus appeared in the barracks, covered with cards. This was a benefit of compulsory education, and the soldiers could write their own Christmas wishes.

The temporary church also opened for business that day, and the accompanying priests became busy.

Viscount Ficney sighed helplessly. The soldiers were celebrating the holiday, but the officers were frowning.

The war had progressed to this point, and victory was still far from being achieved. The country had given the final answer. If they could not capture Cape Town by the deadline, then they would have to stop the war.

The original plan was to end the war in half a year. Now that the time limit had been extended to a year, there was naturally no need to continue the war if they still could not end it.

If it wasn't for the fact that they were using cannon fodder in the later stages of the siege, the morale of the army would have collapsed long ago.

Even so, the soldiers showed signs of war-weariness. Perhaps it was due to their pride, or perhaps it was due to their cultural traditions, but these emotions were not expressed.

They were in. Seeing the scene of flesh and blood flying everywhere every day, those who did not have a mental breakdown could be considered to have a strong heart.

At this time, it was up to the officers to act as psychiatrists to calm everyone's unease. Christmas was a very good tonic. It could relax the tense nerves, and it was very good for relieving mental stress.

Compared to the depressed Viscount Ficney, the governor of Delphi in the city was living like a year. After consecutive defeats, the morale of the army in Cape Town hit rock bottom.

The supply of military supplies could be guaranteed, but the large number of war refugees were miserable. After losing their livelihood, they couldn't afford the high price of food and could only rely on government relief.

The Cape Town colonial government wasn't rich either. After being embezzled by the bureaucrats, it was a problem for the supplies distributed to even fill the stomachs. Even at Christmas, there was only an extra 300-gram portion of fish.

This was caught by the fishermen from the sea, and it was now the main meat in Cape Town. Beef and mutton shipped across the ocean were at sky-high prices, and ordinary people couldn't afford it at all.

The "Boer Republic Army" didn't stop the refugees from entering the city, and even deliberately guided the surrounding British to gather in Cape Town. Now, from Cape Town to the Cape of Good Hope, there were refugees everywhere.

If the army was included, the total population of this small place had exceeded 400,000. If Governor Delphi hadn't decisively ordered the expulsion of blacks and mixed-race people, the number would have been even higher.

Having more people didn't necessarily mean more power, but having more people meant more consumption. To feed so many people, at least 1,500 tons of living supplies were consumed every day.

Coupled with various strategic supplies, the Cape Town colony needed to transport at least 3,000 tons of supplies from the outside world every day to meet its basic needs.

In reality, the demand was much greater than this. The construction materials needed to build the fortifications were an astronomical figure.

If the war continued, Cape Town would become the city with the densest concentration of bunkers and fortifications in the world.

What was even more tragic was the lack of water in Cape Town. In later generations, it would be the city with the most water shortage in the world, and the present was no exception.

The tap water supply to the outside world had long been cut off by the enemy, and they could only find solutions in this small area between Cape Town and the Cape of Good Hope.

The largest source of fresh water was the rain from the sky. Underground water couldn't be counted on at all. Otherwise, why would they use seawater desalination?

They could lack anything but water. Now, the British could only buy water from the Portuguese. If they didn't send thousands of tons of water one day, the crisis would break out immediately.

In order to save water, the fortifications were now built with seawater. Governor Delphi couldn't care less about the sequelae. As long as it could be used for now, it was fine.

It could be said that Cape Town was short of everything else except for its population. Water, food, fuel, construction materials … The local people couldn't be self-sufficient in any of these.

Even Britannia seemed to struggle to supply so many supplies.

In order to reduce the pressure on supplies, every time a ship delivered supplies, it would take away a ship full of refugees.

With a reduced population, what would happen to the future development of Cape Town? They couldn't care so much now.

By Christmas Eve, the local population had successfully dropped by 120,000, alleviating the pressure on supplies. Otherwise, they might not even be able to take out this little bit of fish.

It was still summer, and there was relatively enough rain, so there was no need for fuel for heating. If it was winter, the pressure on supplies would be even greater.

Considering the impact of the monsoon, killing waves more than ten meters high were common in winter. Every year in July, August, and September, the Cape of Good Hope route was almost impassable.

Even now, in order to transport supplies, the British paid a huge price. Almost 2% of the ships were destroyed halfway.

There was no other way. In the era of sailing, wooden ships were too weak to withstand the wind. It wasn't easy to withstand all kinds of natural disasters, and there were also man-made disasters that occurred from time to time.

Recently, the Royal Navy had attacked many times to exterminate the pirates, but there were still pirates who didn't know better.

Sometimes, Governor Delphi wanted to pry open the pirates' heads to see what was inside. Why hadn't they investigated beforehand, and why the ships carrying fresh water and stones were robbed?

As a high-ranking person, he didn't know the hardships of the pirates. Collecting information was not as easy as it seemed. Except for a few pirate groups, most pirates robbed merchant ships they encountered.

Since learning that the next batch of reinforcements was the Indian colonial army, Governor Delphi had been ready to go home and lie low. As for counterattacking the Boers to atone for his crimes, he wasn't that ambitious.

Like most British people, Governor Delphi looked down on the Indian colonial army. In his eyes, the combat power of this army was about the same as the black cannon fodder outside.

The only value was that using cannon fodder against cannon fodder could reduce the casualties of the lads. The army in the Cape Town area needed to rest and reorganize. If this went on, the army would be useless.

Specifically, they could refer to the Near East War, when the British army performed well. But because the rear was not replenished in time, there was no effective rest and recovery, and by the end of the war, most of the British soldiers who participated in the battle were crippled.

This kind of "crippling" was not physical, but mental. It was mainly manifested in war-weariness, fear of war, and anti-war. In particular, the British soldiers who mingled with the Italians brought back a lot of bad habits.

The subsequent defeat in the Persian War, the delay in suppressing the Indian rebellion, and the strenuous performance in the expedition to Ethiopia were all proof of the decline of the British army's combat power.

Not to mention the South African War, the results of the battle were something that even Governor Delphi was embarrassed to mention.

On the one hand, the colonial army had been pampered for a long time, and even the most basic training could not be guaranteed; on the other hand, the combat power of the main force had declined, and many tactics were stuck in the era of preloaded guns.

The colonial army and the regular army could not fight, so it was not surprising that they failed on the battlefield.

Otherwise, in the original timeline, there would not have been hundreds of thousands of people besieging the Boer Republic, and it took three years for them to win.

The more he knew, the more pressure Governor Delphi was under. On the surface, the Britannia Empire was glorious, but internally, it had begun to decay.

In this state, could Britannia meet the challenge of the Fao and the British? Deep down, Delphi had already begun to doubt it.

The defeat in this war was also a heavy blow to his body and mind, and he no longer had the arrogance he used to have.

It was already late at night, and the laughter outside had ended. Governor Delphi was lost in thought, and his thoughts ran further and further away.

At first, he was anxious about the war in Cape Town, then he was worried about his own personal future, and then he was worried about the future of Britannia.

This Christmas Eve, Delphi did not sleep at all.

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