Chapter 862

The Cape of Good Hope, as the fuse of this world war, was now coming to an end.

Lieutenant General Stend watched helplessly as his line of defense was constantly broken through by the enemy. He had been tortured, and his entire body was haggard.

Unlike the last South African War, the British had naval firepower support. Now the Cape of Good Hope was an isolated island.

Every time the Royal Navy came, the enemy's air force would follow. There was no room for action at all.

In order to reinforce the Cape of Good Hope, in just two months, Britannia had paid a heavy price in the sinking of three warships and 18 merchant ships.

It wasn't that the enemy's air force was powerful; the key was that the enemy's assistance was powerful. Of the many ships that sank in Britannia, none were directly sunk by the enemy.

Including the three warships that sank, they were all damaged by the enemy and perished under the waves.

There was no other way. The Cape of Despair had waves over two meters all year round, and waves of six or seven meters were common. From time to time, there would be typhoons over level 11.

It was dangerous to sail a ship in perfect condition. If the hull of the ship was damaged, it would be even more dangerous. Whether or not the ship could survive depended on God's blessing.

In order to avoid the attack of the Shinra air force, logistics were forced to move to the night. The waves during the day were dangerous, not to mention at night.

Fortunately, it was summer in the southern hemisphere. If it was winter, the monsoon and the "murderous waves" would be suffocating.

Rubbing his forehead, the exhausted Lieutenant General Stend ordered the guard, "Ask the domestic electricity company when the reinforcements will arrive."

Since the beginning of the war, the Cape of Good Hope had received three waves of reinforcements, with a total force of more than 200,000.

Unfortunately, most of these reinforcements were Indian colonial soldiers. They could be used as cannon fodder, but their combat power was not worth mentioning.

The only ones with some combat power were the two Australian divisions, but unfortunately, their combat power was also very limited.

Anyway, they were suppressed by a group of aristocratic private armies. Lieutenant General Stend had completely lost hope of the colonial troops. Now, his only hope was for the mainland to send reinforcements.

Telegrams asking for help had been sent many times, but they had been rejected by the mainland with the excuse of "expanding the army."

Lieutenant General Stend understood the difficulties of the mainland. The army was so small, and after the expansion, it had expanded more than ten times. There was a serious lack of basic officers, and basically, the veterans had become officers.

They were all new troops, and without running-in training, there was no way to enter the battlefield.

However, time waits for no one on the battlefield. There was no way to fight back against the enemy with just a group of colonial troops.

Although the combat effectiveness of the new troops in the country was also worrying, the officers were veterans. No matter what, they were still stronger than the temporary colonial cannon fodder.

It couldn't be helped. Most of the British colonial troops came from India, and it just so happened that India was also the front line.

The colonial troops with a little bit of combat power were left in the local area by the Governor of India, and those sent to reinforce other areas were temporarily pulled out to make up the numbers.

These troops were used to do odd jobs, so they needed someone to watch over them. If they were thrown into the battlefield, they would just be sending their heads to the enemy.

Lieutenant General Stend wasn't someone who was obsessed with morality. If he could protect the Cape of Good Hope with just human heads, he didn't mind using cannon fodder to fill the hole.

It couldn't be said that it was completely ineffective. The cannon fodder troops did slow down the enemy's attack, but unfortunately, they couldn't stop the enemy's advance.

Lieutenant General Stend watched anxiously as the line of defense continued to shrink. He was afraid that he would lose this strategic location in his hands and become a sinner of Great Britain.

The only consolation was that he wasn't the only unlucky person. There were even more miserable scapegoats.

The Far East Fleet had lost Malacca, and Cam Ranh Bay was in danger. The neighboring British East Africa was also trapped, and reinforcements couldn't get in. It was estimated that it would fall in a few days.

Everyone was losing, and the psychological endurance of the people had been tempered. As long as they performed better than their colleagues, the possibility of escaping was very high.

London was still trembling under the enemy's bombardment, which attracted the attention of the people, and the firepower was attracted to the big shots in the mainland.

If it weren't for the cooperation of his colleagues, Lieutenant General Stend, who had suffered a series of defeats, would be either at the military court or on his way to the military court.

But it was different now. Unless the Cape of Good Hope fell, the Government of London would not be replaced.

On the one hand, Britannia lacked officers, and on the other hand, no one was willing to jump into this huge pit.

The absolute gap in strength was not something that could be changed by personal strength. Even if Jeffrey Amherst was replaced, the result could not be changed.

Moments of peace were always short. With the sound of the alarm, the Cape of Good Hope once again entered the state of "planes hovering in the air, cannons roaring."

The flames of war burned again. Without waiting for a reply, Lieutenant General Stend turned around and walked to the command center.

After a series of defeats, the morale of the defenders had fallen to the bottom. As for the Indian Colonial Army, they had never had morale, so naturally, it didn't fall.

Panic, hostility, hatred, pessimism … all kinds of negative emotions spread among the defenders.

At this moment, the Cape of Good Hope was like a bag of dynamite. All it needed was a spark, and it would explode with a bang.

The higher-ups weren't having a good time, but the soldiers on the front line were even worse. Days of fighting had long exhausted them physically and mentally.

War was full of danger, but it was also full of opportunities. For example, after the outbreak of the war, Brent changed from a soldier to a captain.

Although he hadn't been officially appointed, the appointment had been announced. Rules were meant to be broken. Special times were special, and in times of war, everything was simple.

Brent wasn't the only one in the British army. There were many similar promotions on the frontline. It wasn't that the British army's promotion system had changed, but mainly because the death rate of platoon and company officers was too high.

Because of the emergency army expansion, there was a huge shortage of basic officers, and they could only promote "talents" from the veterans.

But Brent didn't want this kind of promotion at all. There was no other way. As an officer, he had to take the lead and charge. The supervision team was watching from behind, and there was no place to hide.

In the short span of two months, the company commander that Bernd was in had changed five times. As the sixth commander, it was impossible for him not to feel pressured.

Perhaps he was cursed. Of the previous five seniors, one was promoted in the army expansion, two were still lying in the rear hospital, and the other two had already met God.

With such a terrifying casualty rate, he was simply a "death company commander." Unfortunately, the appointment was mandatory and Brent couldn't refuse.

Under the hail of bullets, Captain Brent continued to defend the position. There was no longer panic, only numbness.

In the east, there was an extremely violent explosion. In the south, there were bullets flying everywhere. In the sky, there were rows of bombs, like a bottomless volcano.

Lying in the temporarily dug trench, Captain Brent buried his head deep and didn't have the slightest intention of peeking out.

The earth had already begun to tremble. Based on his own experience, Captain Brent knew the enemy's tanks were coming.

"The enemy is coming, prepare for battle!"

No matter what, he still had to fulfill his duty. Although he didn't think the motley crew he brought could do much against the enemy's tanks, it was necessary to resist.

…

Compared to the nervousness of the defending army, the attacking side was much more relaxed. Shinra implemented a national reserve system, and the noble's private army had already returned to the army according to the reserve system.

At this point in the war, it wasn't just the noble's private army that participated in the war. The regular army stationed in Africa also appeared on the battlefield.

The tank unit in front of them was the best of the best. Ever since he joined the war, he had been unstoppable on the battlefield. He had been unrivaled in the battlefield.

They bullied the British army's lack of anti-tank weapons and armored forces. With tanks cooperating with the enemy's infantry, it was hard not to succeed.

After all, it was a colony. No matter how important the strategic position was, the British couldn't put two tank divisions in the Cape of Good Hope. But the Holy Roman Empire could.

In the vast continent of Africa, even if there were a few more tanks, no one would object, much less two.

The British army was different. It was a pocket-sized army, so naturally, there weren't many armored forces.

The same tank division, but the organization of each country was very different. A Shinra tank division was equivalent to two British tank divisions.

However, the British Army did not even have a few tank divisions like this. It wasn't that they didn't want to, but the military budget was limited, and they couldn't afford to play with such expensive toys.

Although the armored forces also belonged to the army, in terms of expenses, it was directly comparable to the navy and air force.

If it was infantry, the cost of a battleship could support a division; but when it came to the armored forces, even the most advanced battleship could not match the daily expenses of a tank division. (According to the three-three-four system, a regiment was calculated with 108 tanks.)

It was all forced by reality. If the British army didn't save money, how could the Royal Navy dominate the world?

If the land, sea, and air forces played an arms race, no matter how rich the British Empire was, they couldn't withstand it.

This was determined by the size of the economy. The upper limit of the British Isles was there, and they couldn't explode even if they wanted to.

If the command couldn't keep up, the equipment couldn't keep up, the training couldn't keep up, and the morale couldn't keep up. It was an asymmetric war to begin with. It would be a problem if the battlefield wasn't one-sided.

In the enemy's front command, as the supreme commander on the front line, Baron Von Reuter's mind was no longer on the battlefield.

British South Africa was too small. Although the Cape of Good Hope was famous, it was nothing to the Holy Roman Empire that sat on the Suez Canal.

Its economic value was average, and its strategic value was also average. "Important" was only for the British. If they controlled this place, they wouldn't be choked by Shinra.

Perhaps with the continuous development of the economy and technology, the tonnage of merchant ships would slowly increase, and the importance of the Cape of Good Hope would be highlighted in the future.

But that was only a possibility. At present, the Suez Canal route was enough to meet the needs of commercial trade.

Even in the Holy Roman Empire, when calculating military merits, it was inevitable that the economic and strategic value would affect it.

Generally speaking, the higher the economic and strategic value of the place was, the greater the merit of the siege, and vice versa.

The Cape of Good Hope was not important to the Holy Roman Empire, but it didn't mean that everyone didn't put in a lot of effort. For the sake of this war, the African nobles were truly willing to contribute money and strength.

Even until now, many of the strategic supplies on the South African battlefield were paid for by private funds.

Although the government would pay for these expenses in the future, it also needed to be converted into military merits. If there were no benefits, who would be so enthusiastic?

According to the practice of the Holy Roman Empire, everyone worked together to capture British South Africa, and then after the war, the land and property of British South Africa would be divided.

The problem now was that everyone contributed to this war. There were too many people who were qualified to share the cake, but the cake of British South Africa was not big enough.

Uneven distribution of spoils had always been a big taboo. If they contributed a lot and did not get the corresponding return, then everyone would have to weigh the pros and cons when participating in the war in the future.

In the end, there would be a situation where everyone would flock to the meat, and no one would care about the bones. Then, it would be the turn of the military merit title system to collapse.

Similar cases had happened in history. The most typical example was the farming system of the Great Qin Empire, which collapsed because the latecomers had no land to divide.

Now, the Holy Roman Empire had also reached this crossroads. The only difference was that now they had entered the industrial era, and there was a chance to choose again.

Of course, this was a problem that the senior government needed to consider. As the supreme commander of the frontline, Baron von Reuter had not thought that deeply.

Right now, the problem he faced was: in a situation where there were not enough spoils of war, how to distribute the spoils of war to the satisfaction of the majority.

Although the title and fief were ultimately determined by the Emperor, Baron von Reuter was still responsible for the assessment of military merit, which also included giving detailed treatment plans.

Generally speaking, as long as the frontline military merit was determined, the opinion of the frontline commander would be considered in the division of fiefs and the bestowal of titles.

Of course, this was only a part of it. In practice, there were more issues to consider. For example, the wishes of the individuals to be rewarded must also be taken into consideration.

Relatively speaking, the nobles had less choice of fiefs, and the bigger the fief, the less choice they had.

On the contrary, the ordinary soldiers who received a dozen or dozens of hectares of land basically respected the wishes of the individuals.

Even if they could not be accommodated, they would be arranged in the surrounding areas, and the distance would not be too far.

Baron von Reuter had carefully calculated that the total number of armed forces involved in this war was as high as 230,000.

According to the statistics of military merit on the battlefield, it was already good enough to settle the ordinary soldiers who had obtained military merit in a palm-sized place like British South Africa.

There was no other way. There were only 20,000 to 30,000 square kilometers in total, and after deducting the cities, forests, and land not suitable for farming and grazing, the land that could be used to establish farms was really limited.

The soldiers were actually easy to settle. There was not enough land in British South Africa, so they could just settle in another area. The Government of Vienna would certainly not lack land after the war.

The real trouble was still the nobles. According to the past tradition, the land would be distributed first to whoever won it. Those who did not participate in the war were naturally not qualified to reach out.

In the previous war against France, the entire African continent was considered a battlefield, so there was naturally no such trouble.

However, the Cape of Good Hope Battle was independent and not connected to any other battlefield. If the meritorious soldiers were distributed to other areas, it would violate the unspoken rules of the game, and they might even be boycotted.