My Italian Chapter 454

Social security is very important and far-reaching for Italy, but the current international situation is more important to Italy.

First in South Africa, the British Empire can finally proudly declare that it has conquered the Boers.

On January 10, 1900, Roberts, Commander-in-Chief of the South African Expeditionary Force, and Kitchener, Chief of Staff, arrived in Cape Town.

Instead, they brought their own Seventh Army, reinforcements from Australia, New Zealand and Canada, and three cavalry units in India and Ceylon.

By the end of January 1900, the number of British troops on the battlefield in South Africa had increased to 190,000, and by March to 250,000, an absolute advantage. In addition, several thousand military horses arrived in South Africa from Britain and Australia, increasing the mobility of the British army.

That's right, the fiasco a while ago made the British Empire ruthless.

The incumbent Lord Roberts also changed his strategy after some battlefield investigations, moving the main attack direction from Natal West to the Orange area where the troops are weak in the middle, and at the same time changing the rigid frontal attack tactics and adopting a roundabout strategy.

On the western front, the British defeated the militia group commanded by the most ferocious "Black General" Piet Kronye, ​​and liberated Kimberley, which had been besieged for several months, on February 27. The British on the Eastern Front launched an offensive on February 28, defeated the Boers at Dordrecht on March 5, and finally relieved the siege of Ledis Smith.

Having neutralized the most powerful Cronje threat to the left flank, Roberts turned the main force back to Orange and marched steadily north.

Having learned the lessons of the failure of the first stage, the British army changed tactics. When being ambushed by the cloth army, the infantry troops no longer maintained their formation, but dug trenches nearby to cover the cavalry to launch a roundabout attack on the cloth army position.

Under this tactic, the cloth army failed to block the poplar forest, Abraham's bullpen and other places one after another. On March 20, the British 6th and 7th Divisions defeated the most well-equipped Johannesburg police force of the cloth army at the Abraham Bullpen.

On March 22, the president of the Orange Free State, Matthew Stein, led government and parliamentary officials to flee the capital, Bloemfontein, to Kronstad in the north.

On the afternoon of March 23, British troops entered Bloemfontein.

In late March, typhoid fever was prevalent in the British troops, and Roberts had to order a rest on the spot, and the British offensive was interrupted. On April 2, Joubert, commander-in-chief of the cloth army, was seriously injured by another fall from a horse during the battle at Willow Farm and died on April 3. According to his last wish, Louis Botha, who was skilled in guerrilla warfare, succeeded the commander-in-chief of the Boer field forces.

When good news came from all fronts of the British army, another large number of British reinforcements arrived in South Africa. Yes, the lion fights the rabbit with all its strength, and the British Empire is determined to show the style of its army (although previous battles have exposed its army to its original shape).

Since there are reinforcements, there is no reason to not use it, and after the adjustment of the force, the British Empire's army has changed again.

In the main direction of attack, Roberts had eight infantry divisions (3rd, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, Colonial) and the 12th Cavalry Division. With the main force, Roberts resumed the offensive in mid-May. On May 29, Roberts' army captured Kronstad, the new capital of the Orange Free State.

With successive defeats, the morale of the Boers plummeted. Under Roberts' clemency, many of the militiamen operating in the British rear surrendered to the British, surrendered their weapons, and returned to their farms. By mid-June, there were just over 20,000 Boers still fighting.

On June 24, 1900, Lord Milner in Bloemfontein announced the annexation of the Orange Free State by Great Britain.

After the annexation of Orange, the British intensified their attack on the Transvaal.

On 29 June, General French, commanding the Australian cavalry, defeated the last defending force at the Clipper River on the southern outskirts of Johannesburg. On June 30, President Kruger left the capital Pretoria by train. On June 31, Roberts entered Johannesburg and drove into Pretoria in the early morning of July 5.

On September 1, 1900, Roberts announced the British annexation of the Transvaal and declared the end of the war.

On September 11, President Kruger was authorized by the exiled Transvaal government to arrive in Lourenço Magues, the capital of Portuguese Mozambique. On October 19, Kruger went to Europe for help on the cruiser Gelderland sent by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands.

By the time Roberts declared the war over, the British Empire had lost more than 13,000 people. And most of them are the losses suffered by the army. Of course, in addition to the dead soldiers, the army has more than 19,000 injured and missing.

The casualties of more than 30,000 people were definitely not small for the British army. Of course, the Boers were not feeling well either. Their highest mobilization of 88,000 troops was only 31,000 when Lord Roberts announced the end of the war.

And these Boers did not lay down their weapons after Roberts announced the end of the war, but began to harass the British troops gathered in the Boers' hometown.

Among them, the supply line has become the top priority of the attack.

The British army was also rude to the harassment of the Boers everywhere. The brutal policy of heavy pressure was implemented, and the concentration camps and the Sanguang policy were carried forward here. All the Boers who can be found are all concentrated and live, and their cattle, sheep, grain and other materials can be taken away, and those that cannot be destroyed are destroyed. Tried to sever the connection between the Boers and their army.

In addition, items such as field telephones for convenient communication, armored vehicles suitable for public security warfare, and lighting lamps were all invented during this period.

Although the battle between the two sides continued, everyone knew that the Boers would not last long. After all, its number is too small to be an opponent of the British Empire at all. Of course, the poor performance of the British Empire in this war made it lose face.

And while the Boer War was in full swing, the comical war in the Far East was also over. After the armies of various countries occupied the capital, the empress dowager finally woke up and sent Li Zhongtang to try to make peace.

In the face of the empress dowager's begging for peace, various countries reacted differently. As the most troop-sending Tsarist Russia, in order to induce the Qing court to recognize the legalization of its occupation of the three eastern provinces, it first expressed its recognition of Li Zhongtang's representative qualifications and agreed to negotiate peace with the Qing court. At the same time, the Russian ministers and troops in Beijing were withdrawn to Tianjin.

As for other countries, they hope to obtain more benefits, oppose making peace with the empress dowager who is known to be pro-Russian, and also refuse to recognize Li Zhongtang's representative qualification. As for Germany, it hated the Qing court even more because of the killing of its minister, Klind, and even agreed with the United Kingdom to arrest Li Zhongtang to obstruct the Qing court's negotiation with Russia.

And Li Zhongtang also knew very well (someone tipped off the news), so after arriving in Shanghai from Guangzhou, he did not dare to go north, but he also began to prepare for the negotiation internally and externally, including asking the Qing court to suppress the Boxers and deal with foreign powers and so on.

At the same time, he tried his best to mediate for the Qing court in Russia, urging Britain and Germany to give up their plans to arrest Li Zhongtang.

On August 23, Li Zhongtang arrived in Tanggu under the protection of the Russian army, and soon went to Beijing to run among the ministers of various countries.

However, at this time, Germany proposed to punish the culprits of the war, such as Empress Dowager Cixi and Duan Wang Zaiyi, as a prerequisite for negotiating peace, which made the peace talks impossible.

The debates between various countries on whether to negotiate with the Qing court and the qualifications of Li Hongzhang as a representative are actually the manifestation of the contradictions between countries in China.

Russia supports the empress dowager and Li Zhongtang, who are known to be pro-Russian tendencies, while Britain, Italy, Germany and other countries support the reform emperor. Such a quarrel made Germany, which has the second largest force in the Eight-Power Allied Forces, dissatisfied.

As the commander-in-chief of the coalition forces, Marshal Wadsi, who arrived late, even led the coalition forces into Shanxi. And Germany's ill-conceived move shocked Britain and made Italy dissatisfied at the same time.

In the end, under the strong appeal of the two countries, Germany had to stop there, opening the door for the Qing court to beg for peace.

As for the empress dowager, in order to obtain the forgiveness of various countries, she issued an edict to punish the ministers who caused the disaster. Several governors also tried their best to absolve the empress dowager, blaming Zaiyi and his son for declaring war.

These performances of the Qing court and the vassal officials made the foreign powers feel that the empress dowager has a clear head, and it is very beneficial to them to continue to support this tame government. In addition, European countries are also worried that abandoning the empress dowager may lead to the collapse of the Qing court, and lose the opportunity and possibility of extorting the Far East.

So under such circumstances, the attitudes of the European powers gradually converged, and finally decided to "preserve" the dignity of the empress dowager and began to negotiate peace with the Qing court.

In October 1900, France took the lead in proposing six requirements, including punishing the culprit, paying indemnities, and dismantling the Dagu Fort, as the basis for negotiations with the Qing government. After being supplemented and revised by the ministers of various countries, on December 24, 11 countries (besides the eight countries plus Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands) jointly proposed 12 articles of the "Outline of Peace Negotiation" to the Qing court, which was fully accepted by the Qing government.

As a result, the conference on dividing the spoils of various countries is about to be held, and the ambassadors of various countries are gearing up to try to grab the most benefits for their own countries.

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