Chapter 1096: Pretending Not to Know

Even after leaving work early, after returning home, Allen Wilson still received a call from the duty officer of the Foreign Ministry, and learned about the news that Grace of Northern Rhodesia, with the assembled Slavic armies, had entered the territory of the Congo.

Now that he knew, this matter could not be hidden from the Cabinet, put down the phone, Alan Wilson pondered how to answer when asked for his opinion, and most importantly, whether he would be implicated.

It shouldn’t, although these Slavs had been sent to Northern Rhodesia by his own hand. But in the kind of chaos that had characterized the early post-war years, no one would have been able to figure out what was going on at the time, and the Americans couldn’t have done it either.

Strictly speaking, those anti-Tito elements were crossing the US-occupied zone at the time, and the Americans were put on the ground in Northern Rhodesia because they were afraid of arousing the Soviet Union’s displeasure by forcing these people to be made to be digested by the UK.

No matter how you look at it, the Americans were a little more responsible, and Britain was forced to take in these destabilizing factors.

“Something happened in Northern Rhodesia?” Pamela Mountbatten also heard her husband’s conversation and asked for specifics.

“Well, the Slavs have rallied to intervene in the Congo civil war.” Alan Wilson told his wife the truth.

“A lot of people will die, won’t they?” Pamela Mountbatten was a little worried, unnerved by the grim prospect of what my war would bring.

“That’s not such a big deal.” Alan Wilson laughed and reassured, it was a laugh, by nature he lacked a sense of empathy, so the thought of how many people would die didn’t even arise in his mind. People would have died.

In terms of the number of deaths due to war, a major country is a world record breaker. If you know a little bit about it, you can look at other statistics and see that it’s a small scene.

There are 15 million people in the Congo, and the main concentration is definitely around Kinshasa on the lower Congo River.

The entire province of Katanga alone is roughly 600,000 square kilometers, and it would be nice to have three or four million people. Taking the area south of Lubumbashi would be expelling hundreds of thousands of tribesmen, proportionally speaking.

Even if these Balkan Slavs were ruthless and killed everyone, it wouldn’t be worth the fuss to say the least.

“It’s good that you feel all right.” Pamela Mountbatten couldn’t guess her husband’s essentially hard-hearted personality and just assumed that it really wasn’t a serious matter, “It’s good that the colonies are in turmoil and it doesn’t affect Malaya.”

“Acting impulsively when your head is hot, any ethnic group may do so, but the Chinese are the least likely.” Alan Wilson knew what his wife was worried about and patted his chest in reassurance, “Relax, it’ll be fine.”

Alan Wilson calculated the comparison between Britain and France, even if France ate Algeria, Britain’s strength was still above France’s as long as it could keep Northern Rhodesia.

Because of the effective area, Britain is still more than France, Northern Rhodesia is a lot of livable land, and being in the highlands is not a tropical rainforest climate, the only weakness is that it is an inland colony, not as convenient as the Algerian coast.

Geography has a big role to play, even if the East Asians, who boast of their hard work and willingness to work, in what Niger, Mali, the local standard of living will not be much change.

It’s not like Britain didn’t have colonies with good geography, and Malaya was in a well-connected location that could shoulder another part of the role. Of course, the most important role is to resist the rise of Japan.

Now Japan is in the so-called demographic dividend, that is, no worries about the labor force for the country, but it is not impossible to fight, Malaya more than one point of interest, Japan’s sea action will be more than one point of failure. The demographic dividend cannot last forever.

One generation can be hardworking and willing to work, but so can the second generation? What’s more, the previous generation struggled when they were young, and in their middle age they want to occupy the latrine pit, as long as the momentum of Japan’s rise is curbed even a little bit, the accumulation of several decades will be enough to make Japan eventually run out of gas.

Compared to the latecomer countries in East Asia, Europe still has the old capital to eat. What’s more, now Alan Wilson has begun to unite other European countries to build patent barriers, sealing the pace of Japan’s industrial upgrading.

Allen Wilson has even been ready to fight the price war, must give Japan’s development put a foot on the brakes.

Of course, the United States is able to continue to open the market, continue to feed Japan, people in the United States is willing to he can not help.

Grace’s action now, is to play the original Katanga warlord Chong Bo’s name, leading the Balkan warriors intervened in the civil war in the Congo, at this time he also understands in his heart, not to open a big mouth to do the annexation of the thing time.

Their troops have to prepare, some military supplies are still in the process of transportation, until everything is ready. Chong Bo no longer have the value of the time, and then turn the other cheek is not too late.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the harsh climatic conditions make survival one of the greatest tests, and both people and plants and animals must face this challenge head on.

Grace will not learn from South Africa, and Northern Rhodesia profoundly believes that it is only a matter of time before the volcano erupts and swallows up the Boers, despite the fact that South Africa seems to be strong now.

The Boers have always taken it for granted that the butcher’s knives and bullets of the natives will not be able to hit them, and naturally those who can enjoy a privileged life will be able to speak irrelevantly of the need to be generous to the natives. The South African colonies could do nothing to help these people, and if they were discovered to have sent out troops to purge the natives, they would only be greeted with false criticisms and attacks.

For a long time it seemed that some people wished to profit by keeping the natives in a primitive state. Grace would rather not have this cheap labor and develop a little slower, but at least the results would be her own and she would not one day give the accumulated wealth to the local natives for nothing.

Similarly, the top management of the two military organizations also know in their hearts that with a population of less than a million, they must need a country as their backing, independent or not is no longer relevant. The key is to be able to quietly live their own little life, there are two difficult problems, the border of Northern Rhodesia is very unfriendly, the only way to close the door is to occupy the protruding part.

The other was that Northern Rhodesia was landlocked, so to live a good life one had to risk a military operation, even if it meant facing Tito’s advisory mission again.

At the rest camp, Grace inspected the barracks, and wherever he passed, people kept rising to greet him, and as he walked, Grace said to those around him, “You have all traveled a long way, so how can you not take a serious look around? It takes a thousand days to raise an army, if we train for such a long time, and if we can’t even get a little bit of land, won’t it be a waste of money and human resources?”

Everyone else didn’t dare to refute Grace’s words in the slightest. These people were gathered together willing to come and fight against the natives because of the issue of personal safety, this was the consensus of the military. What awaited everyone after this battle was a life without food and clothing.

There was no need to have scruples in laying hands on them, this was stated by Grace himself. Most of the people who took part in this operation, none of them were innocent, they all had more or less unpleasant pasts, and war itself was not new to them.

“Now I’m sure that out punchbowl should be happy to contact the Belgian diaspora upon arrival in Lubumbashi. Our success will depend on whether they will stand with us.” Grace lifted her wrist to check the time, “I expect to reach Lubumbashi within three days. Immediately send men to survey the terrain and mark out the land that we, just for the time being, are still under the control of Punchbowl, and start laying mines as soon as the tables are turned.”

Alan Wilson, who had awakened early in the morning to go to work, yawned as he listened to the sudden events unfolding in Northern Rhodesia. In contrast to his listlessness, Macmillan was clearly in much higher spirits and expressed great concern.

“Ten Downing Street on the telephone.” While Alan Wilson was indicating that this was a matter for the Colonial Office, the Prime Minister’s call had come to his door, and Macmillan had to rise, “Alan, come with me to Number Ten.”

“Yes, Minister.” Alan Wilson took on a tone of responsibility and together they drove to Number Ten Downing Street.

The action in Northern Rhodesia, if it had happened in Japan, could have been explained by a single word of underhandedness. But Britain didn’t face much of this sort of thing, and originally the independence of Southern Rhodesia was sort of of similar in nature, catching Britain by surprise.

But now that Southern Rhodesia wasn’t even independent yet, Northern Rhodesia had gotten a precedent out of it.

At 10 Downing Street, Macmillan and the Prime Minister were talking about some boring response, and Alan Wilson’s eyes were at a horizontal line, seemingly ready to accept the call of doze at any moment.

“Alan, you’ve dealt with a lot of African affairs too, nothing you want to say?” Aiden opened his mouth to inquire.

“Dear Prime Minister, the current matter that can draw the attention of the nations is the French mobilization order. The matter of Northern Rhodesia does not attract attention, how can a colony attract more attention than France.” Alan Wilson said with a twist, “We also use this to see how the United States reacts, if we can establish a friendly atmosphere towards Britain in Katanga, then this African mine, at least part of it, will become a bargaining chip for Britain to increase its power.”

“If it doesn’t go well, we’ll just say we didn’t know. Anyway, with France rushing ahead, we can take advantage of the opportunity to maneuver, getting the benefits is great, even if we don’t get it, we won’t lose anything.”

Alan Wilson eloquent, and this is also an account of France, you see, the same as the colonial powers, and not just you did it, I Great Britain this time also extremely sublimated to respond to the war, and perhaps also the establishment of the forbidden zone.

I believe that France also has nothing to pick, Aidan nodded, the colonial policy also depends on whether France this time to quell the war in Algeria, if Algeria’s independence fails, the United Kingdom naturally will not let the important colonies independent.

“But it’s also important to let those Slavs know that they can’t ignore our opinions.” Aiden opened his mouth.

Alan Wilson understood for a second and opened his mouth to suggest, “I don’t know if there are still Red Beard tactical nukes on the mainland? A batch of them can be sent over, of course, I’m talking about secretly.”