Chapter 110: Desire for Continental Land
In the early 20th century, Portugal had gradually gone downhill. Although Portugal was not a major participant in the First World War, it also brought Portugal a lot of losses.

Therefore, after the 20s, the domestic situation in Portugal was turbulent. For example, in 20, the domestic regime changed nine times.

In this chaotic situation, Salazar seized the opportunity and rose to power. In 1932, Salazar, representing the interests of the bourgeoisie and the religious class, successfully took control of the country's power.

The situation of the Salazar regime in Europe was also very delicate. On the one hand, Portugal had always been on good terms with Britain and had good relations with Britain. On the other hand, due to the similarity of the nature of the regimes, Salazar had good connections with the German head of state and Mussolini of Italy. Therefore, for these reasons, Portugal was able to maintain its neutral status in the early stages of World War II, and only sided with Britain and France when the situation became clear in the later stages.

Therefore, Portugal did not suffer too much loss in World War II. During World War II, only Portugal's colony on Timor Island was occupied by Japan, while other colonies remained under the control of the Salazar government.

As Portugal's overseas colonies revolted one after another, even India began to recover its colonies. With the military assistance of the Soviet Union and Cuba, Portugal's treasury was emptied by years of war. In 1972, Portugal had 16 troops in the colonies to suppress the uprising, accounting for 20% of its total force of 80. Military expenditures accounted for 44% of the national budget.

From a historical perspective, the early colonial powers of Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands increasingly demonstrated their weaknesses of being small countries with small populations as time went on.

World War II was approaching, and the Longhan Kingdom also wanted to take the opportunity to gain more benefits. Portugal had a population of less than eight million and a land area of ​​less than 10 square kilometers. How could it occupy 80 square kilometers of land in Mozambique? It was obvious that the Longhan Kingdom was closer to Mozambique.

Looking at the fat meat that is within reach at its doorstep, it is impossible for Longhan Kingdom to turn a blind eye to it. As the saying goes, if you don't take what God gives you, you will suffer the consequences.

Longhan Kingdom is now a small island, which is very easy to be blockaded on the sea, and it never feels safe on the main road.

Therefore, the Longhan Kingdom must obtain a large piece of land on the African continent so that it can participate in the affairs of the African continent in the future.

The desire of Longhan Kingdom for land on the mainland can be seen from the madness of their daily life and their overestimation of their own capabilities.

Yao tribe in northern Mozambique.

The Public Opinion Survey Office secretly sent intelligence personnel to the Yao tribe, which had been suppressed twenty years ago when it resisted Portuguese colonialism.

In fact, the struggle of Africans in Mozambique against Portuguese rule has never stopped, which is completely different from India.

In 1571, 1000 Portuguese troops set out from Sena to attack the Mweni Matapa Kingdom, but were almost wiped out by the counterattack of the local people.

In 1574, the Mozambicans annihilated 200 Portuguese troops stationed on the Zambezi River. In the 17th century, the people living in the Balue region and the Tonga people in the Zambezi region resisted Portuguese rule most fiercely.

In the 18th century, local Africans often attacked Portuguese trading posts and occupation garrisons. In the 19th century, almost all ethnic groups in Mozambique participated in the struggle against Portuguese invasion and rule. The Ngoni people's struggle against the Portuguese lasted for 70 years. They occupied Lourenço Marques, captured Sofala, and confiscated large estates south of the Zambezi River. In 1885, Ngoni chief Gengenhana united the surrounding ethnic groups to form the Gaza Federation to fight, which was not suppressed until 1895. The Shona people living in the central Manica Plateau, under the leadership of chiefs Umtasa and Mapondela, began to resist Portuguese rule for more than 19 years from the 60s, and once drove the Portuguese out of the border area between Mozambique and Zimbabwe. The struggle of the Yao people in northern Mozambique was not suppressed until 30.

In order to resist the oppression of Portuguese colonists, a large number of Mozambicans fled to neighboring countries from the late 19th century to the early 20th century. In March 1917, the people of the Balue region launched another armed uprising, which was suppressed at the end of the same year. The remnants of the uprising continued to fight guerrilla warfare until 3.

The staff of the Public Opinion Survey Office went directly to the home of the Yao tribe leader and met with him.

"Chief Armando, I admire your spirit of courageously resisting the Portuguese colonial rule. Although we have failed, our Longhan Kingdom can now provide you with a large amount of weapons and ammunition, and send military instructors to help you drive out the Portuguese and let the Yao people become the masters of Mozambique." Chief Bai, the person in charge of the Public Opinion Survey Office, said straight to the point.

"If you are really willing to help us, then I wonder what price we have to pay?" Although Armando was very surprised, he also understood that there is no free lunch in the world.

"It's very simple. After driving out the Portuguese, we will use Beira-Inshope-Mamtali as the dividing line. We will get the territory in the north and you will get the rich south," Section Chief Bai took out a map and said as he drew lines with a pen.

Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, is in the south, close to South Africa. The territory claimed by the Longhan Kingdom occupies almost two-thirds of the entire Mozambique.

"You are asking for too much land. I cannot accept it. If I reach this agreement, I will become a sinner of my country and my nation." Armando stood up excitedly when he saw the mark on the map.

"Chief Armando, without our help, you will live under the colonial oppression of the Portuguese for generations to come. You will not even be able to own this territory in the southern region. Moreover, I have received intelligence that the Portuguese are preparing to carry out genocide against the black people in Mozambique and completely own the entire region." Section Chief Bai said earnestly.

"Is this true?" Armando asked Section Chief Bai in disbelief.

"Of course, you probably don't know that Portugal's land area on the European continent is less than 10 square kilometers, which is only one-eighth of Mozambique. How can such a small land be worthy of the powerful Portuguese Empire? So they have long wanted to move the country to Mozambique, and they can also plot for more African land in the future."

Section Chief Bai thought about some of the words Zhang Feng had taught him before he left, and threatened: "By then, you won't exist on this land anymore. By then, will it still matter to you whether the land in the northern region belongs to Mozambique?"

"Okay, but I still need to discuss with my tribesmen before I can give you an answer." Armando was obviously a little shaken at this time.

Compared with the long-term colonial rule of the Portuguese and the possible crisis of extinction in the future, the immediate benefits seem more tempting.

Not to mention that he might become the master of this country in the future, selling out some other people's interests and getting unimaginable rewards for himself, so why not do it?

Over the past decade, with the development and improvement of weapon power, Africans' struggle against the colonists has been failing more and more quickly. The gap in weapons has made many people feel desperate, and for a long time afterwards, no one dared to rise up in resistance.

Now the Longhan Kingdom brought hope and promised to let the Yao tribe become the rulers of the new country in the future. Without too much debate, the two parties signed the Mozambique Independence Treaty.

The main content of the treaty is that the Longhan Kingdom will provide the Yao people with military weapons and instructors, help them overthrow the Portuguese colonial rule, and help the Yao people establish a country. After the success, the two countries will use Beira-Inshope-Mamtali as the boundary, and the Longhan Kingdom will also need to protect the new country of Mozambique from further foreign invasion.

After the agreement was reached, Zhang Feng arranged for the Yulin Mercenary Company to send hundreds of military instructors to the Yao tribe to help the Yao tribe train soldiers.

Then, he took out a loan from the Longhan Reserve Bank in the name of the country, purchased a large amount of arms from Leishen Military Industry, and provided aid to the Yao people.

These bills were successfully approved by Congress. Both sides gained benefits: the country gained land and Zhang Feng's family gained benefits.

As the national debt of Longhan Kingdom increases, in addition to controlling the two violent machines of Yulin mercenary army and Leishen military industry, the Zhang family can also achieve the purpose of financial control through the reserve bank.

In September 1938, Germany deployed troops on the Czech-German border and extended its black hands of aggression to Czechoslovakia. The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Italy met in Munich, Germany's Third Reich, and signed an agreement to forcibly cede the Sudetenland and other regions to the German Third Reich without Czechoslovakia's representatives. At this point, the appeasement policy reached its peak.

Appeasement policy is a strategy of "adjustment and appeasement" adopted by Britain in the face of the emerging imperialist aggression. It aims to maintain vested interests and hegemony and takes harming others to benefit oneself as its principle. It really came onto the British historical stage after Chamberlain came to power in 1937.

There are profound historical reasons why the British Empire took such a cowardly action.

The most important aspect is the economy. The economy is the life of a country and the economy determines politics.

After the First World War, the world economy was in depression. Even the victorious country Britain suffered a direct loss of 120 billion pounds, and a large number of workers were lost. Since 1921, the number of unemployed people in Britain has been rising at a rate of about 120 million people per year. In 1929, the world economic crisis broke out. Britain's industrial production accounted for only 9% of the entire capitalist world, and its position as a financial hegemon was in jeopardy. In 1932, Britain's industrial production index fell by 1929% compared with 23, among which the production of pig iron and steel decreased by half, the shipbuilding industry decreased by 88%, the machine manufacturing industry decreased by 1/3, the foreign trade volume decreased by more than half, and the number of unemployed people reached 22% of the total number of workers.

Obviously, the British economy was in decline at this time. The once-strong empire was about to collapse.

The sun was setting, and the declining economy was undoubtedly one of the reasons why Britain pursued a policy of appeasement.

Faced with severe economic difficulties, the British government had to focus on economic recovery from urgent domestic issues. However, it inevitably neglected the consolidation of military strength.

(End of this chapter)