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The Baghdad Railway involves the spheres of influence of Britain, France and Russia, so it is of great strategic significance.

Chapter 572: The Stirring West Asian Africa War: Pakistan Slips.

French Foreign Minister Delcassé wanted to win over Russia and temporarily give up some of their interests in the Middle East, allowing Germany to extend its tentacles deeper into the Ottoman land.

They wanted to use this to trigger a new round of confrontation between Britain and Germany.

After some thought, Russian Prime Minister Sergei Witte quickly expressed his agreement:

"This method is really putting a knife to the British side!"

After hearing the words of the Russian Prime Minister, French Foreign Minister Delcassé smiled and replied to the two people in front of him:

"Your Majesty, Your Excellency the Prime Minister, I believe you both know that the British want to establish a 2C colonial empire in Africa from Cairo in North Africa to Cape Town in South Africa.

In fact, they may have had the idea of ​​establishing a contiguous colony between Egypt and India to control the entire Middle East.

It is already troublesome enough for the British to deal with us French in the Levant and with you Russians in Persia.

If Germany comes again, the British will definitely be the first to jump up and down.

Because our French colonial focus is in West Africa, not in the Levant region of the Middle East.

Persia, I believe, is not Russia's colonial focus either.

But Egypt and India were two important pieces of the puzzle in the British Empire’s global colonial endeavors.”

At this point, the smile on Delcasai's lips turned into a grim smile:

“Without the Suez Canal, the British Empire’s fleet would be a lame dinghy.

Without British India, the jewel in Queen Victoria's crown would be dull and covered in dust!"

Injure the enemy by 1000 and self-damage by 800.

Delcasser's plan wasn't exactly great, but it wasn't bad either.

In his opinion, the British would have a huge reaction to this matter anyway.

And this will fall right into the rhythm of French diplomacy.

In diplomacy, benefiting others and oneself is the best, harming others and benefiting oneself is the second best. If the first two are not possible, then it is better to harm others and not benefit oneself, and never harm oneself to benefit others.

In the end, after some discussion in the Winter Palace, Nicholas II decisively agreed to the French plan.

After receiving the diplomatic notes from France and Russia, the Ottoman government did not reject them. Instead, it immediately agreed to the construction of the railway.

The Ottoman territory looks extremely large on the map.

It spans three continents and connects five seas.

But at the end of the 19th century, except for the Anatolian Peninsula where the Turks were the majority, the remaining Arab regions such as Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and South Caucasus Kurds had become the sphere of influence of Britain, France, and Russia, and had long since obeyed orders rather than declarations.

If we calculate the control power, it is not as strong as the control intensity of the southern provinces in the late Qing Dynasty in the original time and space.

Therefore, the Ottomans were very keen to bring Germany into the game.

Only by allowing the Germans to participate could the already crumbling Ottoman Empire have a chance to breathe under the control of Russia, France, Britain and other countries.

After all, Germany did not have any actual control over the land here, while Russia, France and Britain controlled the Caucasus in the north, the Levant in the south and Egypt across the sea respectively.

Not to mention, the Germans really wanted to help the Ottoman Empire build a modern railway.

The railway's financing, engineering, and construction were primarily provided by Germany's Deutsche Bank and the German company Philipp Holtzmann.

This is a real benefit.

Thus, a conspiracy against the Anglo-German marriage and to destroy the Anglo-German relationship slowly unfolded.

Just when the second batch of the Eastern Army arrived at the South African battlefield, the Ottoman Empire's "Bloody Sultan" Abdulhamid II announced in Istanbul that he would invite German Emperor Wilhelm II, who had long expressed his intention to visit, to make an official visit to the Ottoman Empire and visit Constantinople.

Yes, the name used by the Ottoman Sultan in the articles published in major European newspapers is the word Constantinople that all believers in God dream of.

This was the first time that an emperor of a major European power and a Christian monarch could visit this land since the Ottoman Empire conquered the Eastern Roman Empire and Byzantium and occupied Constantinople on May 1453, 5.

As soon as the news came out, the European continent was shocked!

The European continent continued to shake, and faraway South Africa had not yet received the news.

October 1899, 10, Western Front Command of the British Army in South Africa

The windows and doors were wide open, and thick black curtains blocked out the sunlight. Even in the shade, it couldn't stop the heat from coming in from all around.

This is the Orange region in the central part of South Africa.

At the end of October, the Northern Hemisphere has entered winter, while the Southern Hemisphere has just entered the rhythm of transition from spring to summer.

Although South Africa is located further south, it does not have the tropical savanna climate common on the African continent, but rather a Mediterranean climate.

However, South Africa at this time of year still has some characteristics of a grassland climate.

Dry and hot.

It's not just the weather, it's the atmosphere.

In the conference room, the seats were deliberately divided into two circles. The inner circle was for generals from the British mainland, and the outer circle was for generals from various colonies of the British Empire, such as Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Old man Jiao Liu group 9*slip 7902-

Of course, the outer circle also includes the "Eastern Legion" that has arrived in South Africa.

Everyone chatted quietly about OuU: ":0, all topics focused on the upcoming hot summer and the intensifying civilian conflicts.

When all the Boers were mobilized to fight against the army, the soldiers did not dare to carry out the mission alone. Even if they went in groups, it would be extremely dangerous.

Even "going out" has become a taboo word here.

Mohandas Gandhi was standing on the outskirts of the open conference room, with a red cross embroidered on his shoulder, bandaging a British general who had been attacked.

As a top graduate of University College London, Gandhi was given special permission to treat injured senior British generals.

In the past, these jobs were done by white people.

However, during the South African War, there was such a severe shortage of doctors that the British Army had to relax the standards and allow some "senior Indians" who knew English to fill the gap.

In fact, the British army did not lose that many people in the battle.

Although they suffered defeat in five early battles, the total number of deaths was only 5.

It was indeed shameful, but it was not the greatest loss on the South African battlefield.

Disease, the invisible and intangible disease is the number one killer.

Since the beginning of the war, various diseases have claimed the lives of nearly 10000 soldiers.

When Gandhi passed by the Military Medical Command, he heard a piece of data mentioned in a conversation between the Chief Medical Officer and the Chief of Staff, which said that as many as 8000 British soldiers had died from typhoid fever alone.

There are so many people suffering from typhoid fever alone, not to mention the casualties caused by dysentery, malnutrition and lack of rest.

It can be said that at this point, the main enemy of the British army is no longer the Boers, but the ubiquitous viruses and bacteria.

When Gandhi overheard the news, he cheered in his heart.

The young Gandhi had not yet formed the theory of "non-violent resistance movement" in his mind. Although he was willing to organize Indians to cooperate with the British, he also did not mind if more British people died.

All of this comes from his experience of discrimination in South Africa.

Indians in South Africa were just tools to be ordered around, and no British person ever looked at them straight in the eye.

In May this year, the first Indian volunteer medical team arrived at the South African battlefield. In order to provide convenience for Indians arriving in South Africa, Gandhi suspended his lawyer work in South Africa and chose to join the British army as an interpreter.

However, because Gandhi had dark skin, when he rushed to report to the military camp, he was almost mistaken for a black man and was driven out of the city.

If it weren't for his fluent London accent that saved him, he might have been hanging out with the Zulu blacks now.

When the British Empire recruited colonial soldiers for this war, it spoke very nicely, saying on the surface that all citizens of member states were treated equally.

But during the past six months, Gandhi witnessed with his own eyes the oppression of Indian medical soldiers by British troops coming from the British mainland.

He had become accustomed to it, thinking it was natural.

However, after the arrival of the Chinese, he suddenly felt unbalanced.

Especially today, while Gandhi was bandaging the wounds of the British generals attending the meeting, he glanced sideways at the most popular yellow people at today's meeting, and felt the inequality and humiliation from the bottom of his heart.

At this time, Feng Guozhang, the representative of the Eastern Legion, who was sitting in the middle of the outer circle of the conference room, was completely unaware of all this.

He is talking to General Edward Houghton, an Australian general on his left.

This was not the first time Australia had sent troops. Early in the South African War, they had sent an infantry unit to Cape Town.

The soldiers brought by Edward Houghton this time were the Australian Cavalry Regiment headed by light cavalry.

Australia also raises horses, and like South Africa, it is located in the southern hemisphere and has a similar latitude. Unlike horses shipped from Europe, horses from Australia rarely suffer from acclimatization problems in South Africa.

This Australian cavalry regiment has become a special force in the hands of the British army.

Looking at Feng Guozhang's tall back, Gandhi couldn't help but speed up the movement of wrapping the bandage in his hands.

A few years ago, South Africa was a colonized and looked down upon country just like India, but now it has gained recognition from Britain because it has sent tens of thousands of troops to South Africa.

On the other hand, Indians can only serve as medical soldiers or take on the task of cleaning up the battlefield. There are very few Indians in real frontal combat.

Moreover, just by looking at the glances that the colonial generals around them gave the Chinese from time to time, one could tell how great the impact was of the Republican Chinese government's decision a few days ago to send more troops to South Africa.

The second batch of 3 soldiers has just arrived in Cape Town.

Even though the Eastern Army had only fought one battle so far, driving away a group of Boers who had attacked by surprise, it had not demonstrated greater capabilities.

But the fact that they can sit at this table is enough to explain the problem.

There were 40 British Imperial troops on the ground in South Africa.

Among them, 25 were regular troops sent from Britain, 10 were temporarily recruited British volunteers, and 5 were colonial troops in South Africa.

The remaining 5 people came from colonial countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

qThe Chinese suddenly decided to send 10 troops to South Africa to fight, which was twice the number of troops in the rest of the colonies except the British mainland.

As one of the first overseas Indians to support India sending medical soldiers to South Africa, Gandhi suddenly realized that he had misunderstood one thing, that is, India only had its eyes on Britain, but ignored the quietly changing world environment.

: Simply relying on the British and helping the British will not win their respect.

How are the Chinese taken seriously?

Isn’t it because they defeated Russia and France one after another?