The Transvaal People's Calculations

Little Pretoria said, "If the situation truly turns out as you say, that would be best. But war is the most unpredictable thing of all, just as we never considered East Africans' ambitions toward us back then. We cannot let our guard down because of this."

"Moreover, we cannot abandon our original aspiration because of the South Fett River defense line. Our ultimate goal remains the recovery of our homeland. If we gain nothing from the war and instead huddle inside fortifications, increasing our casualties, it would be a tremendous blow both to domestic unity and to ourselves."

In Little Pretoria's eyes, failing to seize spoils of war on the battlefield would be the greatest disaster for the Boers.

First, the Boer population was already small. If war broke out, it could very well shrink further, so war itself was a form of harm to the Boer nation.

Second, if they did not expand their territory, the ethnic conflicts suppressed within the country would erupt as well. The Orange people had only compromised for the time being. If they saw no results, they would certainly rebel in the future.

The last issue was debt, but to Little Pretoria, it was hardly worth mentioning. They already owed the British enough that even selling him would not repay it all, so it no longer mattered.

Of course, the British had in fact already obtained what they wanted. The Boers' only remaining value was to wear down East Africa, while the British focus, just as Valspeeg believed, was the Mozambique colony.

The Mozambique colony was the place that could truly pose the greatest threat to East Africa. This region lay beside East Africa's two major industrial zones and posed an enormous threat to every important city along the East African eastern coast, including