Chapter 377: The End of the Boer War

Not long after the fleet carrying Prince Juan Fernando set sail, a piece of heavy news came from South Africa.

Since the last reinforcement of 50,000 troops, the British government decided to reinforce another 100,000 troops. As time came to February 1896, the number of troops invested by the British in the Boer War had exceeded 250,000.

Besides these troops, the British also transported thousands of military horses from the mainland and Australia to increase the mobility of the troops.

In this era, the role of cavalry was still very important. As the fastest-moving army, cavalry could not only be used as reconnaissance troops but also conduct strategic assaults and flanking maneuvers.

The Boers obviously did not have so many horses, which also meant that once the British cavalry force was formed, the British had already occupied an absolute advantage in terms of cavalry.

Sure enough, after the British cavalry force was formed, it soon had an effect on the front battlefield of the Boer War.

The original offensive route of the British army was to attack north from Natal, directly block the coastline of the Transvaal Republic, and achieve a comprehensive encirclement of the two countries of Transvaal and Orange.

The Boers also understood the British's intention. They deployed a large number of troops in the south and southeast of the Transvaal Republic, and under the resolute resistance of these troops, it was difficult for the British army to push the front line to more northern regions.

Even if the scale of the British army was already in an absolute advantage, it was still impossible to make progress on the front battlefield in a short time.

After careful consideration, the British army decided to prioritize dealing with Orange, which had weaker defensive power. Although they were both Boer countries, the Orange Free State had a smaller land area and population, and naturally, its defensive power was also weaker.

More importantly, if they could occupy Orange, the British army could directly go north from the land of Orange, bypassing the defense line formed by the Boers in the south and southeast of the Transvaal Republic.

In this way, the British army could easily occupy Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal Republic, and end this war from there.

Thinking of this, the British did not hesitate anymore.

Because the total troop strength was five times that of the Boers, the British could change their offensive targets unscrupulously without worrying about the offensive in other battlefields being affected.

The current situation on the front battlefield was unfavorable to the British offensive, but it was also impossible for the Boers to counterattack the British.

Because the troop strength was in an absolute disadvantage, the Boers could only adopt a strategy of all-line defense. Doing so did indeed have a certain effect, seriously slowing down the speed of the British army's offensive.

This was also the reason why the war had been going on for nearly a year, and the British army still had no major gains on the front battlefield. Coupled with the continuous arrival of aid from European countries to the Transvaal Republic, this war was even more difficult than in history.

The good news was that because the British army kept losing on the front line, the belligerent mood of the British public kept rising.

In the eyes of the British, the British Empire was the most powerful country in the world, and the British could not make concessions in front of the small Boers.

Even if they lost several hundred million pounds, they must win this war at all costs. The British's belligerent mood also affected the British government; given the current situation, no matter how the front line was fought, this war could only continue.

Unless the British could obtain the final victory, the British government absolutely could not compromise.

Once they compromised, the angry British public would immediately let the British government understand what it meant by "the will of the people cannot be violated."

The war had developed to the present, and the funds invested by the British government in this war had reached more than 100 million pounds. Fortunately, the British government was wealthy; these military budget figures were astronomical figures for other European countries, but for the British themselves, they could accept it.

Was 100 million pounds a lot? Of course, it was a lot.

But this was only the British government's fiscal revenue for one year. Letting other countries take out their one-year fiscal revenue and invest it in the war, although the governments of various countries would also feel the pain, it would not reach the point of fiscal collapse.

Take the Spanish government as an example. The Spanish government's total fiscal revenue last year reached 1.4462 billion pesetas. If the Spanish government was asked to take out so much capital for the war in one year, the Spanish government could still easily gather this sum of capital.

Even if so much military expenditure was spent in one year, it would not hurt the bones and muscles for Spain. This was the British's confidence; the British fiscal situation was better than Spain's, and they had the confidence to invest more fiscal budget; anyway, what the British lacked most was not money.

In order to inspire the combat confidence of the front-line soldiers, the British government gathered a large amount of food and beef and mutton, and transported them to the South African battlefield.

The soldiers fighting on the front line had meat to eat almost every day, which was already a quite good level of food. Such generous food did indeed inspire the British army on the front line, and their fighting was indeed more fierce than before.

Under the incentive of the British constantly throwing money, the front-line army soon achieved results in the Boer War.

Although the Boers' resistance was very tenacious, the Boer population was really limited, which was a shortcoming that could not be made up for at all.

After the British shifted the focus of the offensive from the Transvaal Republic to the Orange Free State, the problem of the Boers' insufficient troop strength was soon exposed.

There were only four or five thousand troops in total, and wanting to fully defend such a large area of land for the Boers was very difficult. Under the advice of European experts, the Boers placed the main defensive force in the south of the Transvaal Republic, which was also the direction of the British army's main offensive.

But when the British army changed the direction of the offensive, the Boer army could hardly respond accordingly.

Once the Boers mobilized the troops in the south of Transvaal, the British army might attack this land again.

At that time, maybe both would be lost, and neither the Orange Free State nor the Transvaal Republic could be defended. If they did not mobilize the troops in the rear, the Orange Free State army had only more than 10,000 people, which was obviously not the opponent of the British army launching the offensive.

In order to quickly occupy the Orange Free State, the British army mobilized nearly 100,000 troops. 100,000 people fighting 10,000 people, 10 times the troop strength advantage, this war could be won even if fought with toes.

The facts were indeed so. The British army took only half a month to break through Bloemfontein, the capital of the Orange Free State, and this news also boosted the morale of all British troops on the front line, as if they saw the hope of victory in the war.

The British army, which had achieved good results, was like a broken bamboo, and soon occupied the entire territory of the Orange Free State.

At this time, time had already come to March 1896, and the entire Boer battlefield was left with only the Transvaal Republic fighting alone.

In order to prevent the Boers of the Orange Free State from continuing to engage in guerrilla warfare to destroy the British occupation, the British army directly established a large concentration camp in Bloemfontein, the capital of the Orange Free State, and almost included tens of thousands of Boers in the surrounding area.

The British established quite strict management systems in the concentration camp, explicitly prohibiting anyone from gathering privately.

Within a week of the establishment of the concentration camp, the number of Boer civilians shot and killed by the British army for various reasons had reached thousands.

The cruel behavior of the British army aroused the strong dissatisfaction of the Boers of the Transvaal Republic, and their resistance to the British army became more intense, even fearless of death, not hesitating to exchange one life for one life with the British army.

But the British army no longer cared about the Boers' views. For the British government, as long as they could quickly end this war, any means were worth it.

At the end of March 1896, the British army formally began to attack the Transvaal Republic.

At this time, the balance of victory had tilted toward the British, and the remaining Boer army was less than 40,000, among which nearly 10,000 were volunteer troops supported by various European countries.

And on the British army side, although they lost nearly 30,000 troops in continuous fighting, the troops supplemented by the British were even more.

Under such circumstances, the British army not only did not decrease in the slightest but had already approached the peak of 300,000 people.

You know, the casualties of the British on the front battlefield had already approached 100,000. This actually also represented that the troops invested by the British in the battlefield had approached 400,000, which was about the total population of the Boers.

Less than 40,000 people fighting nearly 300,000 people, the outcome of this war was actually already doomed.

The Boers also understood that they could no longer defeat the British, and their thoughts had changed from defeating the British at the beginning to creating casualties for the British as much as possible, holding the idea that exchanging one was not a loss, and exchanging two was a blood profit, the more the Boers fell into a disadvantage, the stronger their fighting will became.

The Boers' ambush in the early stage of the war made the British army bear a large number of casualties, and the British army also learned to be smart; when encountering an ambush, the infantry no longer maintained the formation, but dug trenches nearby, covering the cavalry to launch a counterattack on the Boers' position.

This was precisely the key role of cavalry. Because the Boers had few people, they could not take care of the British army's cavalry under the premise of ambushing the British army.

As long as the cavalry successfully fell behind the Boers' position, this ambush battle turned into a reverse slaughter of the Boers by the British army.

This British tactic achieved good results, and the Boers' blocking in places like Poplar Grove and Abraham's Kraal failed one after another, and the casualties reached a scale of nearly 10,000 for a time. On April 11, 1896, the 6th and 7th Divisions of the British Expeditionary Force defeated the Johannesburg Police Force, which was the best-equipped Boer army, at Abraham's Kraal.

The weapons and equipment of this army all came from European countries, and the Boers spent a large amount of capital to arm such an elite army.

It was a pity that the excellence of weapons and equipment could not cover up the shortcoming of insufficient numbers; after a bitter battle, this unit finally suffered heavy losses and could only flee.

The collapse of the Johannesburg Police Force was like the last straw that broke the camel's back for the Boers.

On April 13, the remaining military strength in the north of the Orange Free State all fled to the Transvaal Republic, and the Orange Free State had effectively perished.

The good news was that because of the prevalence of typhoid fever in the British army, the commander Roberts had to order to rest on the spot.

This was after all not the era when medical technology was quite developed in later generations, even if it was typhoid fever, it was possible to take lives at any time for the soldiers.

The British army's offensive was forced to terminate because of typhoid fever, which instead gave the Boers, who were almost collapsed, a chance to catch their breath.

The British army on the front line could wait, but the British government in the rear could not wait. Before a week had passed, another batch of reinforcements from the British government arrived in South Africa.

The total number of this batch of reinforcements was about 60,000, which was also about the last batch of reinforcements for the British army.

With the addition of these 60,000 reinforcements, the total scale of the British army on the front battlefield had exceeded 350,000, which was more than 10 times the less than 30,000 troops remaining for the Boers.

After a rest, the British army re-mobilized 8 infantry divisions and one cavalry division, preparing to launch an offensive again in early May.

The British army, which had rested, restored its combat effectiveness and soon broke through a large area of territory of the Transvaal Republic.

The British army tried to promise generous conditions to the Boers in the occupied areas, such as allowing them to return to their farms after surrendering and restoring their original peaceful life, etc., using these conditions to exchange for them to give up resistance and avoid the order of the British occupied areas from being destroyed.

There were indeed some people who chose to surrender to the British army, but most Boers still chose to resist resolutely.

There was no way, the cruel behavior of the British army against the Boers in the year since the outbreak of the war was too much, and most Boers could not abandon the blood feud between them and the British.

Since they could not let these Boers in the occupied areas give up resistance, the British government did not pin its hopes on them and chose to annex the two Boer countries first.

On May 20, 1896, the Governor of the British Cape Colony announced in Bloemfontein the annexation of the Orange Free State, and the land of the Orange Free State would be incorporated into the Cape Colony.

And on the 2nd day after that, the British army increased its offensive against the Transvaal Republic, attempting to eliminate this last remaining Boer country in that month.

The British army took less than 10 days to push the front line to not far south of Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal Republic.

Here, the British army and the Boer army launched the last confrontation.

The last less than 20,000 Boer soldiers held on for three days, and finally had to surrender because of serious casualties and lack of material supplies.

When finally surrendering, the number of Boer soldiers who could continue to fight was less than 5,000, which also proved the tenacity of the Boers in this war.

On the British army side, in order to defeat the last remaining Boer army, the casualties paid by the British army were even more than those of the Boers.

Originally, the total number of the British army exceeded 350,000, but after experiencing this month of fighting, the combat-capable troops were less than 300,000.

And after defeating this last Boer army, the British army marched into Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal Republic, in a mighty manner, and announced the occupation of the Transvaal Republic a few days later.

Actually, up to here, this war was almost over. But because of the cruel behavior of the British army, most Boers did not recognize the rule of the British government.

There were still many militia groups in these two Boer countries that resisted the British rule, and only by completely eliminating these military forces that resisted them could the British achieve annexation in the true sense.

The news of the end of the war soon spread back to Europe and aroused extensive discussion among European countries.

Regardless of the British's reputation in this war, this war, which attracted the attention of European and even world countries, was concerned by all countries about the British's investment and military losses in this war.

Although the British side would not disclose relatively detailed intelligence to the outside world, some relatively basic data could still be easily obtained.

Coupled with the fact that various countries had their own intelligence organizations, having a rough range was no problem.

Relying on the Royal Security Intelligence Agency, Gao Da successfully obtained the investment and casualties of the British and Boers in this war.

This war was slightly different from history, but it was roughly the same. The hatred between the Boers and the British was deeper, and the British casualties were also more than in history.

But the British were after all the side that occupied a great advantage, even if the Boers received aid from European countries, they still could not change the fact that the winning side of this war could only be the British.

First was the troop investment aspect. The total troops invested by the British in this war reached as high as 450,000, while the total troops invested by the Boers were only 60,000, plus 20,000 international volunteers.

Although it was not clear about the total military expenditure invested by the British government, as of the beginning of 1896, the military expenditure invested by the British government had already reached as high as 140 million pounds.

In the 6 months of 1896, the British government still had to invest at least 60 or 70 million pounds of military expenditure.

Calculating this way, the total military expenditure investment reached more than 200 million pounds, even for the British Empire, it was estimated that it would have to feel the pain for a long time.

The military expenditure investment on the Boer side did not have any systematic records. Many were even free aid from European countries, which was also the reason why the small Boer country could persist for such a long time.

If they were really asked to spend all their money to buy supplies, I am afraid that in less than half a year, the fiscal of the Transvaal Republic and the Orange Free State would collapse.

Let's talk about the British casualties that European countries were most concerned about.

The British invested a total of 450,000 troops, and the number of soldiers killed alone was nearly 30,000. The total casualties of the British army reached about 150,000, and after the war ended, the number of uninjured British soldiers on the battlefield was less than 300,000.

And on the Boer side, the number of deaths in the army was less than 10,000, but the casualty ratio was extremely high, reaching a level of nearly 40,000.

Compared with the Boer army, the casualties of Boer civilians were even higher. The number of Boer civilians who died in British concentration camps and prisoner-of-war camps reached more than 30,000, which also infinitely deepened the hatred between the British and the Boers.

One had to admire that the Boers' combat effectiveness was still very fierce. In the case that the army scale was only one-seventh of the opponent, the Boers' damage ratio reached 1 to 3, and the casualty ratio reached 1 to 4, and the performance was quite good.

But if the British did not have such a cash cow as India, the British would definitely have to hurt their bones and muscles in this war.

Of course, the current situation of the British was not much better. Spending as much as 200 million pounds of military expenditure at once forced the British government to cut future shipbuilding plans, and at the same time reduce the scale of the army as much as possible to save some unnecessary expenses.

Compared with the fiscal losses, what the British government lost most seriously was actually its international prestige and influence.

The original British Empire's prestige was still extremely high, but because of the cruel behavior toward the Boers, the British government was condemned by countries all over the world.

This also meant that the British government's future diplomatic actions would be seriously affected. Those who were already British younger brothers would naturally be loyal to the British, but the remaining countries would not be so convinced by the British.

5,200 words, 2nd update, today's daily ten thousand was successfully completed!

Still need to do ten thousand for one day, beg for support!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 378 =====