Chapter 232: Troop Deployment And Massive Colonial Military Expansion |
When Carlo received Manuel’s action report, two days had already passed since Manuel’s action.
Although the speed of receiving the message was indeed a bit late, fortunately, it was news that Carlo was happy to hear.
With the cooperation of the tribal chief, Manuel quickly controlled the entire Bangi Tribe and divided the population of the Bangi Tribe and several nearby indigenous villages.
More than 200,000 indigenous people ultimately contributed more than 70,000 adult male laborers to the Congo Territory, which also made the labor force in the Congo Territory suddenly abundant.
In addition to these 70,000 adult male laborers, Manuel also held nearly 100,000 elderly, weak, women, and children as well as female indigenous people in his hands; these were the chips to control those male laborers.
To ensure their family members and relatives were safe, the adult male indigenous people had to go to workplaces designated by Spain and work for a year.
Fortunately, Manuel had personally promised that their work would bring them and their families food and other materials, which also made these indigenous people have no intention of resisting.
Although he held the families of these indigenous people in his hands, for the sake of the safety of the Congo Territory, Manuel still immediately requested aid from the nearby Guinea Colony and sent a telegram to Spain, requesting Carlo to prioritize dispatching two colonial defense regiments to help him maintain order.
Although Carlo had given him the power to form a larger-scale army in the Congo Territory, it was definitely too late to form an army now.
Moreover, the loyalty of soldiers selected from the indigenous people of the Congo Territory could not be guaranteed. Therefore, Manuel also requested Carlo to transport a portion of indigenous people from colonies with more indigenous people, such as South Morocco Colony and the Philippine Colony, to serve as troops for the new army in the Congo Territory.
The number of these foreign indigenous people did not need to be too large; as long as it could be controlled to half of the Congo Territory army’s numbers, the entire army could be ensured to be controllable.
After all, for the sake of the combat effectiveness of the army being formed, at least 2 to 3 colonial defense regiments would be retained as the main force in the colonial division that Manuel was about to form.
These two or three colonial defense regiments were also 5,000 to 7,000 troops, and adding nearly 10,000 troops transported from other colonies would already account for more than half of the division’s 20,000 troops.
Even if the loyalty of these soldiers selected from the Congo Territory was insufficient, they could not influence the entire division.
When promoting Manuel to major general back then, Carlo had already issued an order to draw one colonial defense regiment each from the Guinea Colony and the South Morocco Colony to the Congo Territory.
Unexpectedly, just a few days had passed, and Manuel had given Carlo a big surprise. Carlo had originally thought that Manuel’s action would wait until these two colonial defense regiments arrived, but he hadn’t expected him to take down a large indigenous tribe with a population of over 100,000 with just the 2,300 troops in his hands.
Of course, this was definitely a good thing for Spain. With these tens of thousands of indigenous laborers, the construction of Spain’s Congo Territory would definitely proceed more rapidly.
As for the casualties to the indigenous population caused by attacking the indigenous tribe, no one in all of Spain cared.
Carlo not only did not criticize Manuel’s unauthorized action but also greatly praised the merit he had established.
In the telegram replying to Manuel, Carlo stated that the two supporting colonial defense regiments were already on the way. The army drawn from the nearest Guinea Colony to the Congo Territory might arrive at the Congo Territory even before Manuel received Carlo’s response, and the army drawn from the farther South Morocco Colony could also arrive at the Congo Territory within a week.
In addition to verbally rewarding Manuel, Carlo also decided to increase support for him.
It was very necessary to form a colonial division in the Congo Territory, and the local indigenous people lacked reliability; at least, they were impossible to fight to the death for the Spaniards.
Precisely because of this, Spain needed to transport a large number of troops to the Congo Territory to help Manuel complete the formation of the colonial division as soon as possible.
Regarding the troop drawdown, Carlo had already made plans.
Although the population of the South Morocco Colony was not the largest among Spain’s colonies, these Moroccans were the most reliable among all colonial populations.
Of course, this was premised on excluding the European population in the colonies. If speaking of the colonial indigenous people with the most hope of assimilation, it could only be the Moroccans.
They were at least very similar to the Spaniards in skin color and appearance; as long as they learned Spanish language and converted to Catholicism, it would be completely undetectable that they were of Moroccan bloodline.
After all, to put it bluntly, there had once been a large number of Islam believers on Spanish soil. Spain had a lot of experience in converting Islam believers to Catholic believers.
If gentle conversion methods were not feasible, then forced conversion could also be adopted. During Spain’s transition from Islam to Catholicism, the Inquisition played a huge role.
If the Moroccans in the South Morocco Colony were not relatively obedient, Carlo would have planned to establish the Inquisition in South Morocco to help Catholicism expand on Moroccan territory.
It was precisely because Moroccans were white people that Carlo went to such lengths to assimilate them. If they were black people, Carlo would have no intention of assimilating them at all and would only squeeze all their value dry, then disperse or annihilate them.
Including the two colonial defense regiments about to arrive at the Congo Territory, the Congo Territory currently only had less than 7,000 troops.
The full-strength colonial division planned by Carlo would have nearly 20,000 troops, which also meant that the Congo Territory’s army still had at least 13,000 troop vacancies.
Because it was a colonial matter, Carlo had great right to speak. After communicating with Grand Duke Serrano, Carlo unhesitatingly issued his orders.
This 13,000 troop vacancy would mostly be filled by the South Morocco Colony and the Philippine Colony.
The South Morocco Colony would provide 5,000 troops, and these 5,000 people would undergo layers of screening to ensure their loyalty to Spain.
These 5,000 soldiers and their families would go to the Congo Territory together; they would serve as permanent residents of the Congo Territory and be formally recognized as residents of the Congo Territory.
In this way, they could shed their identity as colonial indigenous people, and applying for Spanish nationality would become much easier.
Of course, they could also thoroughly become residents of the Congo Territory. The Congo Territory had vast undeveloped land; if they were willing to reside long-term in the Congo Territory, they could also reclaim and cultivate land on their own.
Anyway, Spain had obtained a large amount of labor from the Bangi Tribe, and these laborers could be hired by them to reclaim land.
Simply put, these Moroccans selected as soldiers had completely shed their indigenous identity; their status in the Congo Territory would become that of superiors, in turn enslaving the local indigenous people.
The remaining 8,000 troop vacancy would be filled with 5,000 from the Philippine side and 3,000 recruited locally from the Congo.
The conditions given to Philippine indigenous people would be worse, after all, they were not white population, and assimilation would be more difficult.
But as long as their loyalty to Spain was sufficient, they would also have the opportunity to apply to join Spanish nationality. Even if they could not join Spanish nationality, in the Congo Territory they would absolutely not be the lowest class and could easily enslave black slaves.
Similarly, these 5,000 Philippine soldiers could also bring their families to the Congo Territory. Doing so, in addition to promoting population development in the Congo Territory, was also to use these soldiers’ families to ensure their loyalty.
Under no accidents, their families would live very happily in the Congo Territory. But if any problems arose in the army, these soldiers’ family members would become a means to threaten these indigenous soldiers, forcing them to obey Spanish rule.
Although this seemed somewhat cruel, no one would sympathize with those indigenous people. Moreover, compared to the indigenous people who continued to suffer enslavement and oppression in the colonies, these indigenous people fortunate enough to be selected as soldiers were already much luckier.
As long as they obediently listened, obtaining Spanish nationality in the future would not be difficult. They could also shed their indigenous identity and become people above others in the colony.
In fact, Carlo could draw sufficient troops from the South Morocco Colony and the Philippine Colony to the Congo Territory, with no need to recruit locally from the Congo Territory.
But considering that transporting troops from South Morocco and the Philippines would take a long time, not only with high costs but also quite troublesome, Carlo ultimately decided to form a regiment-scale local indigenous army.
Although the loyalty of these local indigenous armies in the Congo Territory was undoubtedly unreliable, under the premise of having a death squad, using them as cannon fodder was no problem.
These local indigenous armies had an advantage: soldiers who died could be replenished at any time. The entire Congo Territory spanned at least hundreds of thousands or even millions of indigenous people; even if tens of thousands died, Spain would absolutely not feel heartbroken.
This was only the current scope of the Congo Territory. If continuing deeper into the lower reaches of the Congo River and occupying the Kingdom of Congo, the local indigenous numbers could even reach tens of millions.
If these indigenous people were utilized well, they could also become millions of laborers and cannon fodder. With these laborers constructing the Congo Territory, the development of the Congo Territory could also advance by leaps and bounds, quickly becoming one of Spain’s profit-generating colonies.
Although this did indeed solve the troop problem in the Congo Territory, a new problem was placed before Carlo: the South Morocco Colony and Guinea Colony, from which troops were drawn, now also had insufficient troops.
Before Manuel’s colonial division was formed, Spain had a total of 20 colonial defense regiments, totaling 46,000 troops.
These 20 colonial defense regiments were distributed in Spain’s Cuban Colony, South Morocco Colony, Congo Territory, Guinea Colony, and Philippine Colony; the original troop numbers were barely sufficient.
But with Carlo repeatedly transferring troops from the South Morocco Colony, the South Morocco Colony currently had some troop shortages.
The current distribution of Spain’s 20 colonial defense regiments was:
The highest-income Cuban Colony had a total of 6 colonial defense regiments with 14,000 troops; the Philippine Colony, which had recently undergone major expansion, had a total of 6 colonial defense regiments with 11,500 troops.
The nearest South Morocco Colony to the homeland had 3 colonial defense regiments with about 7,000 troops; the Congo Territory had 3 colonial defense regiments with about 7,000 troops.
The Guinea Colony had two colonial defense regiments totaling 4,600 troops.
Even including the colonial division that Manuel was about to form, the only colony with sufficient troops among Spain’s colonies was the Guinea Colony.
The stability of the Cuban Colony had always been a problem; six colonial defense regiments were only 14,000 troops, making it hard to ensure the stability of Cuba.
There was no need to say more about South Morocco. The Kingdom of Morocco in the north had growing hatred toward Spain, and with Spain’s assimilation policy in South Morocco, it was very necessary to dispatch more people to defend Morocco.
The Philippines currently had two expansion directions: one was to continue expansion on Borneo, and the other was to extend to New Guinea and engage in colonial competition with the great powers.
No matter which expansion direction, more colonial troops were needed to guard the safety of the colonies in Morocco.
There was no need to say more about the Congo Territory. This was a land with an area approaching one million square kilometers; even after the colonial division was formed, it might not be enough to watch over so many indigenous populations within the colony.
If Spain only planned to utilize a portion of indigenous manpower and slowly develop the Congo Territory, 20,000 people would be sufficient to ensure the safety of the Congo Territory.
But Spain’s purpose was not just a portion of indigenous people but to utilize hundreds of thousands of indigenous people to quickly reclaim the Congo Territory.
Therefore, the defense forces of the Congo Territory also needed strengthening to ensure these indigenous people would not unite to resist Spanish rule.
The only one without the trouble of insufficient troops was perhaps the Guinea Colony, which did not plan to expand.
In fact, the Guinea Colony had many expansion directions. Spain’s Guinea Colony had a considerable area; although only along the coast, it still involved multiple African countries including Nigeria, Cameroon, and Equatorial Guinea in posterity.
Whether expanding north or east, the Guinea Colony could gain hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of land. And this land was suitable for agricultural development and located on the coast, making sea transport relatively convenient.
But because Spain lacked manpower and financial strength and could only focus on developing one colony, the development of the Guinea Colony had to be temporarily abandoned.
Since Carlo ascended the throne, he had indeed temporarily abandoned the development of the Guinea Colony, and the expansion of the Guinea Colony had also been put on hold.
However, with the development of the Congo Territory, the Guinea Colony would sooner or later have to expand. Carlo’s planning for the scope of the Congo Territory was to form a triangular zone along the Congo River with the Guinea Colony, and Spain would fully occupy this triangular zone.
In terms of area, this would be nearly 3 million square kilometers of land, including two Congos, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Nigeria, and Central Africa, among other posterity countries.
As for the Kingdom of Congo south of the lower reaches of the Congo River, that is, regions like Angola in posterity, they had currently fallen under Portuguese control, and Carlo temporarily did not plan to conflict with Portugal.
After all, Africa still had vast unoccupied land for Spain to develop, and there was no need to focus on Portugal for the time being.
Doing so would only intensify the conflict between Spain and Portugal and also disrupt Carlo’s layout in Portugal.
If the Portuguese grew to excessively hate the Spaniards, then annexing Portugal in the future would be impossible. Although the difference between Portuguese and Spaniards was not great, integrating the Portuguese into the large Spanish group would take decades or even a hundred years.
This would also require problems to erupt within Portugal itself, making the Portuguese lose confidence in their government and royal family.
If Spain forcibly invaded and annexed, the outcome would be no different from Spain’s historical annexation of Portugal. Forcible annexation would only make the Portuguese more hostile to the Spaniards, and the final outcome would still be the two ethnic groups parting ways.
Looking at the deployment of troops in each colony, the South Morocco Colony and the Philippine Colony both needed to further expand their army sizes.
After discussion with Grand Duke Serrano, Carlo also decided to expand the number of Spain’s colonial defense regiments to
This number was an increase of 10 from the original, that is, 23,000 troops. Manuel’s colony had 8 colonial defense regiments, over 20,000 troops, which was also the reason Carlo directly expanded by 10 colonial guard regiments.
Because the Congo Territory still needed to add 3 more defense regiments on top of the existing 3 colonial defense regiments, this left only 7 defense regiments to distribute to other colonies.
After consideration, Carlo decided to dispatch 2 colonial defense regiments each to the Cuban Colony, the Philippine Colony, and the South Morocco Colony, and 1 colonial defense regiment to the Guinea Colony.
Doing so could ensure that Cuba, the Philippines, and South Morocco continued to maintain stability. Especially Cuba; before Spain truly reached a colonial exchange agreement with foreign countries, maintaining Cuba’s stability was still very necessary.
Continuing to dispatch troops to the Guinea Colony was also considering that if the Congo Territory had troop needs in the future, they could be drawn from the nearer Guinea Colony.
In this way, the Guinea Colony would have 3 colonial defense regiments. In emergencies, at least 2 colonial defense regiments could be quickly mobilized to the Congo Territory.
1 colonial division plus 2 extra colonial defense regiments was already nearly 25,000 troops.
To be honest, Carlo did not think the local indigenous people of the Congo Territory could threaten this army of 25,
Although the colonial defense regiments did not have decent heavy firepower weapons, 10 colonial defense regiments also had 30 cannons, which those colonial indigenous people without firearms could not match.
Historically, King of Belgium Leopold II, after obtaining the Congo, formed just over 10,000 troops and ensured the stability of the Congo, implementing quite cruel rule in the Congo.
Carlo’s rule in the Congo was not as cruel as Leopold II’s. After all, this king was one who casually chopped off hands; although Leopold II never personally arrived in the Congo, under his rule, at least millions of Congo indigenous people had hands and feet chopped off, a number far beyond what Carlo could reach.
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