Shaquai

After Bugival and Count Roberts conferred, they decided to relocate the Allied command headquarters, along with the Governor's Mansion and most of Mozambique's administrative institutions, to the Shaquai region.

Shaquai was also located in what had been Gaza Province of Mozambique in the previous life. It was now only the size of a town, but in Mozambique, a town already counted as a fairly well-developed administrative center. After all, Portuguese in Mozambique were scarce, and the population was mainly concentrated in several cities along the coast.

Now that the entire Mozambican coast was unsafe, inland towns such as Shaquai naturally stood out.

If one considered only Portuguese settlements in the interior, Shaquai was undoubtedly the best choice. It was one of the larger towns in Mozambique's entire interior, especially after so much territory had been lost.

Thus, there were not many places suitable to serve as offices for both the Mozambique government and the Allied command. Together, the Mozambique government and Allied command had more than a thousand personnel; with so many mouths to feed and bodies to accommodate, small villages simply could not bear the burden.

Bugival said, "Shaquai lies on the plains south of the Limpopo River and has always been one of Mozambique's more developed agricultural regions. There, we can solve the food problem. More importantly, navigation conditions on the lower Limpopo River are fairly good, making the movement of supplies much more convenient."

Naturally, the navigation conditions Bugival spoke of could not compare with Maputo. Maputo had a natural harbor, making it more convenient to receive aid from the Portuguese homeland.

But Maputo lay away from Mozambique's central regions, instead occupying the southernmost corner. That was unfavorable for Maputo's ability to concentrate the resources of all Mozambique.

The Limpopo River, by contrast, was a relatively large