Chapter 476: Huge Fleet

On the other side of the sea, Lieutenant General Raven Hoback, commander of the British fleet, was about to be driven crazy by Friedrich because the Austrian fleet had anchored again.

This time, the fleet sent by the Austrians was unprecedentedly large. There were only three super-class battleships, not to mention that the total number of other types of battleships reached 12, plus various types of warships and transport ships, the personnel alone exceeded 27,000.

This made the British investigation team of 20 people and seven warships seem a little small.

Little Billy Mullen, the head of the British investigation team, felt the pressure doubled. He even suspected that the Austrians had planned to fight with him. It was also strange that a Dutch merchant ship was attacked by British pirates in the South China Sea, and it turned out that Austria and Britain were responsible for investigating the ins and outs of this matter.

In order to deter the other side, the Royal Navy directly sent a fleet of seven new paddle-wheel warships, but the latter sent a larger fleet.

Of course, this was not Franz's instruction, not to say that he was also shocked when he learned the news.

After taking an 18-hour train to Trieste, he went to see his uncle who was a naval marshal overnight.

"Uncle Friedrich, what are you doing?!"

"To show the British a warning! We sent ten people, but they sent twenty! And seven battleships! Investigating pirates? It's better to say that they are going to grab territory in the South Seas!"

Friedrich obviously had a lot of opinions about the British, and he had long known Franz's plan in the South Seas, and of course he knew that the whole thing was inevitable.

"But even if you want to fight back against your opponent, the scale of this fleet is too large, which is a bit wasteful, and why do you bring so many land forces?"

A big part of the reason why Franz came to Friedrich was that the former saw a lot of army officers in the list of accompanying personnel, and then found a regular army soldier, and even an engineering team and medical soldiers.

"Franz, I have to talk to you about some things. It was you, the Colonial Minister, who said that we should fight tooth for tooth and blood for blood."

Last year, some attacks on Austrian colonists and soldiers occurred in West Africa. Those tribes hid in the forest and hung the remains of the victims (the skeletons they had eaten) on the trees.

On the surface, it was a defensive move by the indigenous people to intimidate outsiders for their own safety, but in fact it was a revenge of the French and Portuguese against the Austrians.

After all, the arrival of Franz and his party affected their interests, so the operators hiding behind the scenes decided to buy off some tribes.

It's just that most of the local tribes did not dare to take this kind of business in view of the exaggerated combat power shown by the Austrian army before.

So the French and Portuguese sent explorers to find the primitive tribe deep in the forest. These terrible guys had no fear of any army. They only recognized three things-muskets, food and women.

After an investigation after the incident, although Franz had understood the ins and outs of the matter, it had to be solved.

Because the West African region occupied by Austria is different from Algeria and Morocco occupied by France, most of the so-called "countries" are still in the era of primitive civilization, and they are not even medieval countries. Not to mention whether they can be conquered, communication is a problem.

Franz must communicate with them in a way that they can "understand", otherwise it will only be half the result with twice the effort.

So he made a plan to eliminate the 27 tribes. The process is still the same as before. The Austrians will defeat them, and then other tribes will divide their children and property. Franz only wants land.

However, it was still the rainy season in West Africa at that time. For the modernized Austrian Army, running to the rainforest to fight primitive people should be avoided as much as possible.

But just after the rainy season, there were constant incidents on the European continent, and Austria only had time to spare until recently. As long as the battle ends before the rainy season in May, it will be fine.

In fact, in addition to the army, there are also a large number of colonists and professional technical workers going to West Africa, mainly skilled farmers and breeders.

Of course, there were also some explorers and geologists. After all, Europeans had very limited knowledge of the interior of Africa at that time, especially in terms of geology. In the 15th century, an explorer saw Africans exchanging animal skins for ironware with Europeans, and came to the conclusion that there was no iron in Africa.

This outrageous rumor was still believed by Europeans until the early 20th century.

In addition, Africa has a lot of reserves of various precious metals and rare metals, but they have not been discovered yet.

Of course, the fastest way to recover funds in Africa at the moment is still planting. This is because Austria needs a large number of laborers, and it is not realistic to expect to transfer people from its own country.

So Franz needs to turn those tribal chiefs into plantation owners. Only by incorporating them into the Austrian economic system can the local area remain stable for a long time.

"Okay, Uncle Friedrich, no matter which general leads the team this time, I still have the original request, only defeat and not chase, and set fire to the mountain."

This is the driest season in West Africa. Fire attack is undoubtedly a good choice, saving time and effort. The burned land will also leave a lot of humus, which can be used for farming.

As for damaging the environment, Franz couldn't think too much about it now, and it's not native to the country, so the worst that could happen is to adopt a rotation system.

The reason for defeating without chasing is very simple. Africa is a place where people are unfamiliar. If the Austrian army really chases randomly, it may expand the results of the war or fall into a trap.

As for the elimination of the remnants of the hostile tribes, other local tribes can do it. Of course, if there are any traps, they will step on them for the Austrian side.

As for the rebellious tribes, they will soon find that if they show weakness, they will seek death, because they will be torn into pieces by their compatriots around them, so they can only choose to fight with their backs against the wall.

However, Franz still likes the game of numerical competition. After all, the technology and organization of the two are several eras apart. There is no possibility of losing in a head-on confrontation.

Friedrich seemed a little disapproving of Franz's approach, which forced the latter to remind the former again.

"Uncle Friedrich, you don't want to become Austria's eternal sinner, do you?"

After a discussion between the two, Friedrich had to accept Franz's suggestion to send supervisors and prosecutors.

In fact, Franz hoped to send some of his own capable assistants, but the reality was that there were none.

It is true that Franz did have many experts and scholars, and there were also many soldiers willing to befriend him.

However, Franz could learn from the history of later generations which scholars and experts were truly capable, but he could not distinguish the pros and cons of these soldiers.

After all, most of the last batch of famous generals in Austrian history had become famous at this time, and the unfamous Archduke Albrecht was not lacking in fame at all.

And if those old generals were really sent to Africa, they would probably die of illness before the battle.

Similarly, there was a high chance that the last few famous generals of the party would die if sent to Africa, and most of these people were of noble origin, and they did not need any military merits to take their future positions.

As for these supervisors and prosecutors, they were actually outstanding graduates within the empire; of course, the "excellence" of these people was not given by their mentors, but obtained by taking Franz's exams.

But those exams actually couldn't prove anything, and the only thing that could prove them was the battlefield and practice.