"This..."
Leiden's purpose caught Count Roberts off guard, and he felt embarrassed, even annoyed. According to his psychological expectations, the main force in the Western Conference should have been eliminated by East Africans.
After all, from the beginning, Count Roberts determined that East Africa would first eliminate the main force of the British army in the west, and then continue to move eastward to besiege Shaokui.
This is not unfounded, because from the beginning, Count Roberts believed that East Africa had a large number of troops, but the specific number was not too clear. Intelligence in the country of East Africa was too difficult to obtain, and the lack of intelligence was also an important reason for the repeated defeats of the British army.
Moreover, the main force in the west has lost contact with Shaokui General Headquarters for a long time. This is also an important basis for Count Roberts to determine that the main force in the west has been eliminated by East Africa.
In fact, the main force of the coalition forces in the west was besieged by East Africa, and there were cavalry troops patrolling the periphery in East Africa to prevent the main force of the British army in the west from escaping eastward. Even if they did escape many obstacles, they would not be able to get in touch with Count Roberts when they arrived in Shaokui. Before the war, Shaokui was also surrounded by East African troops. It was almost impossible to enter the city of Shaokui from so many troops.
Seeing that Count Roberts was a little embarrassed, Leiden said, "Your Excellency, Count, there is no need to feel guilty, because although your troops in the west were not completely wiped out by our army, they were trapped by our army with equal strength. As long as our troops in Shaokui advance westward, it will be easy to eliminate them, and we don't even need to do it. In a short time, they will be forced to surrender due to insufficient supplies. We just want to end this war as soon as possible."
Leiden directly revealed the flaw in contacting the main force in the west. Originally, as East Africa advanced westward, the coalition forces Western Military Region lost the city and fell into the ground. A large amount of material supplies could not be brought to Saint George due to time issues, and East Africa cut off the access to materials in the east, so in the end they could not escape the palm of East Africa.
After listening to Leiden's words, Count Roberts said helplessly, "Okay, your reasons have convinced me, but I would like to know if there are other places where our military strength is apart from the west?"
Although it is unlikely, Count Roberts still hopes from the bottom of his heart to have more staunch "patriotic" troops like the main force of Western Allied forces.
Leiden said regretfully, "No, your western troops were not annihilated by our army immediately due to special reasons. Because they had too many people and strong combat effectiveness, and Saint George was far less important than Shao Kui and Maputo in the rear, so I just left enough troops to trap them."
After a pause, Leiden continued, "As for the coalition forces in other directions, to put it bluntly, they did not pose much of a threat to East Africa, so they were either completely wiped out or surrendered."
I knew this was the result! Count Roberts thought in his heart that the main force of the coalition forces in the west was Roberts' effort. From the beginning, the west was the main offensive direction formulated by Count Roberts, so Count Roberts deployed a large number of troops and elite coalition forces in the west.
At the same time, Western Allied forces has been fighting with Western Military Region in East Africa Matabele Province and Hechingen Province on the Mozambique border since the beginning of the war.
It is also the coalition force that Leiden hates the most. It initially put great pressure on Eastern Defense Line in East Africa. Later, with the support of the rear troops, it switched from offense to defense.
Therefore, the person who knows Western Allied forces best in East Africa happens to be Leiden, the highest military commander of East African Western Military Region.
The other directions, especially the northern coalition forces, are completely secondary forces of the coalition forces. The purpose from the beginning was to slow down East Africa's attack from the north. Facts have proved that this is also the case. When Eastern Military Region and the two cavalry divisions of the Northern Military Region appeared on the Limpopo River bank north of Shaokui City, it meant that the northern coalition forces were completely lost.
The southern coalition army was slightly better. It could evacuate to Maputo or Natal Colony at the beginning, and it was second only to the main force of Western Allied forces. Its strength was almost the same as that of the Shaokui garrison, so many fled to Cape Town to temporarily avoid the edge in the later stages of the war.
As for those running in the direction of Maputo, they have already been dealt with by the East African National Defense Army together with Maputo City.
After completely losing confidence in the war, Count Roberts said to Leiden dejectedly, "I can write a letter to ask the western army to surrender to your army, but you must also ensure their safety, and it is best to provide sufficient food and medicine. Malaria is rampant within the coalition forces, so I hope it will not cause you any trouble."
During his time in South Africa, Roberts was very uncomfortable. Disease was one of the biggest troubles. Of course, when dealing with malaria, the British army was not too panicked.
Especially British, who has been in India for a long time like Count Roberts, is very familiar with malaria. This is the main reason why the British focus on transferring troops from India to the South African battlefield.
Of course, the value of Africa is obviously not comparable to that of India. Although they are both malaria-stricken areas, India is a mature land that has been developed for thousands of years and has given birth to ancient Indian civilization. As for African continent, it is really difficult to attract the attention of other countries except Gold Coast.
Regarding Count Roberts's appeal, Leiden fully agreed, "This is natural. We in East Africa still value the lives of your soldiers, and naturally we will not let them die in vain on the battlefield."
Now every British soldier in Mozambique is an important hostage in East Africa's future "blackmail" British Government, so East Africa attaches great importance to the safety of British soldiers.
Although the cost will be much higher, East Africa can still afford it, but Leiden also emphasized. "Of course you'd better seek help from China at the same time. After all, we can't guarantee whether the medicines in East Africa will be effective."
East Africa is definitely not someone who is easily taken advantage of. Although the output of quinine is not small, it can basically only meet the domestic demand in East Africa. After all, East Africa did not consider the possibility of capturing a large number of coalition soldiers at the beginning. As for other drugs, the effect is far less than that of quinine, but the advantage is that it is cheap and can be produced in large quantities.
In fact, malaria within the coalition is not too serious anymore, and the coalition soldiers who have been able to stay in Africa until now may have already developed resistance.
Therefore, some drugs in traditional Chinese medicine that can improve immunity can solve most of the problems of the British army. The most important ones are hygiene and environment. There is no need to correct this in East Africa. Anyway, POW camp has strict rules and regulations that can help the coalition prisoners get rid of bad habits.
Of course, these conditions are almost only for the British army and some Portugal prisoners, such as Indians, Portugal mixed race. Black people definitely do not have this treatment, otherwise the cost in East Africa will be too high.
Britain and Portugal The government will not pay for these "waste", so for the disposal of these people, East Africa mainly "treats" them with the same treatment as the native black people. To put it simply, there is no human rights.
Count Roberts has nothing to do with Leiden's Xiao Jiujiu. He only needs to be responsible for the safety of his own people, and that is enough. Even the abuse of British soldiers is not a problem. As long as he can return to his homeland alive, he can feel "at ease".
As for the Indian troops brought here this time, to be honest, he wouldn't feel bad even if they all died. Of course, he certainly couldn't ignore some of the Indians.