"Uncle Aziz …" A very young voice sounded behind an Arab man who was smoking in the courtyard.
Hearing someone calling him, the man turned around. His face was full of anger, and his eyes were fierce enough to scare the child into taking two steps back.
"What's the matter?" Aziz asked in a very fierce and unfriendly tone.
"… My dad will treat you to a meal," the child said timidly.
"Tell your father that I'll be right there!" After Aziz finished speaking, he turned around and continued to smoke. It seemed that he had no intention of moving until he finished smoking.
From the moment they arrived in Khartoum and started negotiating with the Chinese, Mahdi's subordinate, Mohammad Mohammad Ali, was the first to arrive. Aziz had been in Khartoum for nearly 10 days. Nearly ten days ago, Mohammed al-Bashir Lord Aziz was also a handsome Arab with a determined and capable appearance. Now, the handsome Arabian hero was in a state of unease and depression.
In the name of Mohammed? From Aziz's experience, when a city was besieged from the outside, it would be extremely chaotic internally. But the fact that Mohammed? Aziz was disappointed. Khartoum, a city that didn't even have a city wall, was besieged by Sir Mahdi's massive army. Not only did the city not fall into chaos, but it even ensured stability and order in the city and kept Sir Mahdi's army far away from Khartoum.
Sir Aziz had never encountered such a terrible situation. As the war progressed, the mood of the residents of Khartoum became more and more stable. Moreover, the residents who showed a high degree of obedience in the first few days even received more arrangements. They either started cleaning the streets or joined the patrol team. With the increase in the number of patrols, the density of patrols also increased. This forced Aziz, who could have sneaked out, to hide in the house.
This was because Lord Aziz was very lucky. Just as he was about to go out, there was a sudden noise outside. Aziz looked out through the crack in the door and saw a group of people catching a lone wandering fellow at the door of the house where Aziz was hiding. Currently, the rules in the city stated that those who were allowed to move in groups under the command of the Chinese. As long as they saw a single person without a military uniform, they would be immediately arrested.
Aziz only understood that the Chinese had given such an order after listening to the pleas and explanations of the people at the door. The person at the door was fine, as he had proof that he was a local resident. If Aziz was arrested, he wouldn't be able to produce any proof. The owner of the house showed Aziz the household register. The book contained all the information of the family members. It was impossible to bluff his way through. Therefore, while Aziz was sighing at his luck, he also found that he could no longer go out. His whole body was imprisoned in this small courtyard, unable to move.
Thinking of Sir Mahdi who was fighting outside the city, Aziz felt his insides burning, but he did not dare to act rashly. If he was caught, who would be responsible for causing a riot in the city? When he stubbed out the cigarette, Aziz stood up and looked up at the sky. All he wanted to do was shout at the sky, "This is different from what we agreed on!"
Just as Aziz was restless like a tiger in a cage, Wang Mingshan welcomed Zhong Sheng, the representative of the Gem Wine Company, at the dock. Zhong Sheng first took a boat to Port Sudan, then took a train to a place more than 50 kilometers away from Khartoum, and then took a boat to enter Khartoum. Although it was hard along the way, he did not encounter any substantial threats, which made Zhong Sheng's mood a lot more stable.
Wang Mingshan first shook hands with Zhong Sheng, then smiled and said, "I heard that you sent a very stern telegram to the Navy?"
Zhong Sheng immediately remembered what happened a few days ago. He never thought that one day he would be angry at the Navy, but Zhong Sheng couldn't bear it and shouted at the telegram operator, "Tell the Navy that you can't just reap the fruits and not work hard. Our troops must go north. The Navy will temporarily send people to Mozambique to maintain order. What's the problem?! "
Of course, after shouting, Zhong Sheng felt a little regret. It's not that he found the Navy's decision acceptable after his anger dissipated, but he felt that shouting wouldn't solve the problem at all. The telegram operator probably saw the change in Zhong Sheng's expression and asked, "Representative Zhong, do you still want to issue this order?"
"Issue! Of course! "Zhong Sheng replied without hesitation. Now listening to Wang Mingshan's words, Zhong Sheng didn't expect that the Navy would actually complain to Wang Mingshan.
"Secretary Wang, why didn't the Navy go to Mozambique?" Zhong Sheng asked angrily.
Wang Mingshan smiled and said, "The Navy told me that they are afraid of the British attacking Mozambique. If it's just a military port, it's fine. After all, Mozambique has a gold factory and so many inventories. If something happens to this thing, the Navy can't afford it. "
Zhong Sheng's eyes widened and he said angrily, "Did the British eat a bear's heart and a leopard's gall? They dare to attack us, but the Navy doesn't dare to deal with them in turn? We don't need to do much. Just send 100,000 people to Africa and we can wash the British's Cape Town to the ground. "
Wang Mingshan didn't want to scold the Navy. There were some words that he couldn't say to his low-ranking comrades. The British sh * t-stirring stick did not just stir up trouble in Sudan. The British also used France, which had a brief colonial experience in some parts of Madagascar, to encourage the remnants of the local "Kingdom of Madagascar" to collude and try to do something there. The "private army" of the Gem Wine industry has been active in Tanzania and other East African countries. They didn't know about the local problems in Madagascar.
In order to ease the atmosphere, Wang Mingshan continued to smile and said, "Zhong, aren't you afraid that it will affect the cooperation with the Navy?"
Zhong Sheng snorted and then said, "I already thought that the Navy wouldn't send troops. Since the Navy agreed that the probability of sending troops was zero, it means that nothing I did would make the probability of success lower. "
"Oh …" Wang Mingshan laughed a few times. He could understand the sense of absurdity in these words, but Wang Mingshan couldn't resonate with the professional mathematical terms that Zhong Sheng said. These terms may be something that Zhong Sheng, who was less than 30 years old, may be used to, because junior high school and high school textbooks have a preliminary explanation of these knowledge points. Learning and accepting these terms made Wang Mingshan spend a lot of effort. He couldn't associate these with relaxed emotions.
After he was done complaining, Zhong Cheng regained his composure. "Secretary Wang, I've brought 5,000 troops with me this time. The remaining 5,000 will remain in Mozambique to wipe out the white people's estates and send them to the concentration camp. If the number of people is too small, I really don't feel at ease. I have to do one thing well. "
Wang Mingshan certainly wouldn't ask for too much. He said generously, "Zhong, I'm happy that you can come. 5,000 people can play a big role. "
Of course, Wang Mingshan changed the topic. "However, Zhong, I have already proposed to increase the number of troops in the East African Security Army. We have at least two hundred thousand troops in such a large territory. "
At this time, Zhong Sheng agreed with Wang Mingshan's proposal. He nodded again and again. "200,000 people can only be used as support. If we rely on the strength of the East African Administrative Region to solve the problems encountered in Africa, 400,000 people is not too much."
Seeing the support of a younger generation like Zhong Sheng, Wang Mingshan was naturally very happy. If several powerful units can have a common view, the possibility of the central government passing it would be greater. Of course, the next thing to do was to make contributions and let the central government understand that Wang Mingshan had the ability to do a good job in East Africa.
Wang Mingshan wasn't in a hurry to send the 5,000 troops into battle. The word "Khartoum" in Arabic meant "elephant's nose." When the Blue Nile and the White Nile met, the narrowest part of the angle looked like an elephant's nose. The Arabs who came to this place gave it such a name.
At this time, Khartoum's troops had already controlled the navigation rights of three waterways, and the Englishman who surrendered to China had also clearly explained the collusion between the United Kingdom and Mahdi. He also basically knew how much British equipment Mahdi had obtained. Wang Mingshan then took action. During the attack, the Khartoum Defense Command came up with the strategy of using barbed wire. It was to send ships to the back of the enemy, pull up the barbed wire, and surround the enemy from the front and back. Since the waterways were controlled by the Chinese, once the enemy was surrounded from the front and back, there was no way to escape.
In Port Sudan, the negotiator sent by Wang Mingshan was bargaining with the negotiator from the Osman Empire.
"Sir, since the nickel mine is sold to the Chinese, and these slaves will be sent to the mines to work, we can't pay for these slaves, but your country should pay us!" The negotiator from the Osman Empire came up with a surprising statement.
The representative of China was stunned speechless by such a shameless statement. After a long while, he finally managed to organize his words and said bluntly, "Can you be more shameless?" There was no need to say a thousand words, no need to beat around the bush. The representative of China expressed his thoughts directly and fully expressed his thoughts.
After a moment of joy, the representative of China continued, "Men go to the mines, do you think women also have to go to the mines? If you continue to talk nonsense, we'll sell the women to the Egyptians. At least they're willing to pay. "
"No, no, we don't care about women. There are so many poor people who can't afford a wife now. We want as many women as we can get. This is the problem with men now. Too many of them get sick and die when they are sent to the mines to work. We also have to provide food. Compensation, "the representative of the Osman Empire explained.
"It's impossible for us to pay, so name a price." The representative of China was obviously unwilling to accept such terrible conditions.
"How about this. Fifty percent off. I'll take ten people and only pay for five people. Also, it has to be at the port and on the ship before it counts. "The representative of the Osman Empire gave the final condition.
"You have to send people to the camp to bring people. If they don't see you Arabs, the captives will probably not be at ease. We are, after all, a different race to them. "
"Of course. If we can start watching from the camp, we will be more at ease."
…
Once the news of the deal reached Khartoum, Wang Mingshan immediately ordered the troops to move. On the same day, the Mahdi Army, which was in the narrowest area, had no way to escape. The Mahdi Army on the other side of the river also tried to get closer, but they were forced to retreat by the cannons on the ships.
There were no more British people in the Mahdi Army's tent, and these changes did not affect the Mahdi Army's way of doing things. He immediately ordered in a holy voice, "Send someone to preach to these brothers."
At night, some of the priests who had escaped the search of the China ships and risked their lives to swim across the river to the other side gathered together and chanted the contents of the Green Scripture.
There were about thirty thousand people in this group, and they were mostly men. These people had participated in the battle against the barbed wire and knew how terrifying that seemingly thin thing was. Now that they were surrounded, they knew that they had no chance of escaping. The water of the Nile River was rapid, and the Arabs who were good at swimming were in the minority. Furthermore, there were China ships patrolling the area, and those who were good at swimming were able to escape.
In such a desperate situation, there were people who were willing to chant scriptures to appease the emotions of the people. This was in line with their needs. According to tradition, in front of different priests, these people knelt in the same position in a row. Everyone looked at the priests with a pious expression.
The priests chanted, "Those who believe in God must not abandon their fellow religion and ally with a foreign religion; whoever violates this prohibition will not be blessed by God …"
Hearing that the priest brought Mahdi Army's order was like this, everyone's face showed disappointment or nervousness. They were responding to Mahdi Army's call and obeying the call of the holy teachings. And in the call to battle, what stirred up everyone's emotions was undoubtedly the words "God has given everything in the world to his believers". If God really treated his believers like this, then the current situation should be God's warriors destroying the China people and plundering Khartoum.
But the reality proved that this dream did not come true. Not only did it not happen, but everyone was now faced with the terrifying reality of a nightmare. They fell into the Khafir's trap and fell into the Khafir's clutches. And now, the priests actually wanted everyone to fight for God …
"… Unless you are afraid of them. God wants you to be on guard against Himself. God is the final destination! "
"… Those who believe in God must not abandon their fellow religion and ally with a foreign religion, unless you are afraid of them …"
"… Those who believe in God must not abandon their fellow religion and ally with a foreign religion, unless you are afraid of them …"
…
The priests recited the scriptures again and again, reciting them in sections, breaking them apart, and then reciting them together. Of course, it was impossible to openly ask the believers to surrender, but it was the priests' responsibility to let the believers understand God's instructions on their own during the process of listening to the scriptures. Especially in such a desperate time. This was to let the believers understand that God was not a one-track minded God.
After a large portion of the people understood the meaning of this passage, they were clearly divided into two groups. One group felt that they understood, and the other group felt that it was more effective to rely on themselves to escape.
Regardless of what choice these people made, many people from tribes or large families near Khartoum began to leave without saying goodbye. There were indeed those who were determined to fight to the end for God, such as Mahdi Army and his direct subordinates. However, most of them gathered because they believed that God would lead them to victory. Now, everyone felt that passing God's trial, which was to kill all the China people, was too difficult. It was beyond their ability, so it was impossible for God to reward those who completed the trial. At this moment, other than leaving, they had no other choice.
This was the decision made by the villagers of Erdogan's village. After breaking through the castle, they plundered a lot of things. Other than the slaughterhouse, the resources from the supply and marketing cooperative made these people happy for a long time. Now that they had no choice but to leave, these people inevitably became more emotional.
"Is that Mahdi really the doomsday hero mentioned in the scriptures?" Someone couldn't help but question.
"Lord Mahdi is definitely not a liar!" Someone immediately retorted.
"If he's not a liar, then why can't he win?"
"If you can't win, it must be because you're not devout enough. You don't have the heart to fight to the end for God!"
The argument quickly reached the level of core beliefs. This could not be helped. Since the fact of failure could no longer be concealed, other than core beliefs, there was really no other reason that could be used as an argument. It must be said that this argument was very self-consistent.
Devout believers would receive blessings from God, and devout believers were undoubtedly not afraid of death. Believers who were not afraid of death would, of course, stay on the battlefield and fight to the end. The problem was that humans instinctively wanted to avoid death and escape from fear. Therefore, by defining people who had such thoughts as not devout enough, the logical chain could be completed.
"Not afraid of death = devout = able to receive blessings = able to receive spoils of war"
"Fear of death = not devout = unable to receive blessings = unable to receive spoils of war"
All the problems became accusations about whether the believers were devout or normal human nature. Those normal people had no right to complain about not being able to receive blessings from God, because the problem was not with God, but with the believers. Of course, this logic in turn proved that God had all the virtues and would never have thoughts that were not virtuous.
For these people with low abilities, it was very difficult to rely on their own abilities to break this logic. But they all knew that they were greedy for life, and they all knew that according to the scriptures, they were at fault.
Therefore, in the midst of denying themselves, these people gave up the argument. Some of the more devout ones even thought that they needed to go back and pray for God's forgiveness. It was really shameful that they could not pass God's test.
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