Vienna is once again celebrating its annual Christmas. The bitter cold did not dispel everyone's enthusiasm, and the spirit of the festival was already filling Vienna.

Shop windows are lined with colorful Christmas gifts, and around the Gothic fountain in the center of the square, a colorful playshed has been erected for the Christmas market.

There are also quite a few artists on the street who have started to perform, classical, pop, rock, rhythm and blues, hip-hop, jazz, dance music, alternative, country, Latin, folk......

The charm of a cosmopolitan city is evident, and you can enjoy a variety of European music, dance, and magic tricks.

Franz still hasn't received the news from South Africa, and it seems that the war will not end before Christmas. No surprises, all this was expected by Franz.

It's also a good thing to have a little setback, it can make you calm. Over the years, Austria has expanded so smoothly that many people have drifted away.

If it weren't for hubris, there would have been no shouting about the capture of Cape Town before Christmas. Now that it has failed, it is time to tighten the reins of this Austrian carriage.

The era of great colonial expansion is over, and all that remains is some dispensable leftovers. The next step is to develop yourself and turn the spoils of war into your own strength.

There are no successful examples to refer to in this regard, and the performance of the major colonial empires of the original time and space is not up to par. Without being able to translate into its own strength, a world war broke out.

And then there was no then, and the world war was greatly weakened, and new competitors arose, so that they lost their last chance.

The British plan for an imperial federation and the French strategy of provincial system were carried out too late and failed under the external intervention of the United States and the Soviet Union.

The annoying question left Franz's mind for the time being, and Christmas was still to be celebrated. This day is World Peace Day, and the countries of Europe will not do anything at this time.

The ongoing Anglo-Boer War has also come to a truce, and both sides can enjoy this special holiday without worrying about a surprise attack from the other.

The Christmas gifts prepared by Franz have been distributed to every soldier, and everyone is very happy, even though it is just some ordinary candy.

Santa Claus appeared in the barracks, covered with cards. This is also considered a benefit of compulsory education, and soldiers can write their own Christmas wishes.

The temporary chapel was also open for the day, and the military priests became busy.

Viscount Fikney sighed helplessly, the soldiers were celebrating the holiday, but the officers were frowning.

The war has been going on now, and victory is still far away. A final reply has been given in the country, and if Cape Town cannot be conquered by the deadline, then a truce will be called.

The original plan was to end the war within half a year, but now that the time has been relaxed to one year, it is still not possible to end the war, so naturally there is no need to continue.

If it weren't for the siege in the later stage, they were all attacking with cannon fodder troops, and the morale of the army would have collapsed long ago.

Even so, war-weariness arose among the soldiers. Maybe it's because of self-esteem, or maybe it's because of cultural traditions, but these emotions don't show up.

But the officers were already aware of it. Watching the bloody scene every day, without the collapse of the mentality, it can be regarded as a strong heart.

At this time, the officers can only act as psychiatrists to calm everyone's uneasy emotions. Christmas is a good spice to relax tense nerves and relieve mental stress.

Compared to the lost Viscount Fikney, the governor of Delphi in the city is really living like a year. After a series of defeats, Cape Town's morale hit rock bottom.

The supply of materials for the army can still be guaranteed, and a large number of war refugees will be miserable. After losing their livelihoods, they simply cannot afford the high food prices and can only rely on government relief.

The colonial government in Cape Town was not wealthy, and after being withheld by the bureaucracy, the distribution of supplies became a problem. Even for Christmas, it's just an extra 300 grams of fish.

It is fishermen who catch it from the sea and is now the main meat in Cape Town. The beef and mutton transported across the ocean are sky-high, and ordinary people can't afford to eat them at all.

The "Boer Republican Army" did not intercept the refugees from entering the city, and even deliberately guided the surrounding British to converge on Cape Town. Now from Cape Town to the Cape of Good Hope, there are now refugees everywhere.

If the army is added, the total population of this small place with a large palm has exceeded 400,000. This number would have been much higher had it not been for the decisive order of the Governor of Delphi to expel blacks and mulattoes.

A large number of people does not necessarily have great strength, but a large number of people must consume a lot. To feed so many people, at least 1,500 tons of daily necessities must be consumed.

Together with the strategic supplies, the Cape Town colony needed to transport at least 3,000 tons of supplies from the outside world every day to meet its basic needs.

In fact, the demand is much greater than that. The building materials used to build fortifications are astronomical.

If the war continues, Cape Town will become the most densely populated city in the world with bunkers and forts.

Even more tragic is the lack of water in Cape Town, which has since been the most water-scarce city in the world, and is no exception today.

The outside water supply had long been cut off by the enemy, and they had to find a way in the small area between Cape Town and the Cape of Good Hope.

The largest source of freshwater resources is rain from the sky. Groundwater can't be counted on at all, otherwise why desalination?

There is no shortage of water, and now the British can only buy water from the Portuguese, and if they do not send thousands of tons of water one day, the crisis will immediately erupt.

In order to save water, the fortifications are now built with seawater. The Governor of Delphi can't take care of the sequelae anymore, as long as he can make do with it for now.

It can be said that Cape Town now lacks everything but population. Water, food, fuel, building materials...... None of the local ones are self-sufficient.

Even Britain is struggling to supply so many supplies.

In order to alleviate the pressure on supplies, every time a ship carrying supplies came over, it would take a boatload of refugees with them.

With a declining population, what will happen to the future development of Cape Town is no longer so much to care about.

By Christmas Eve, the population had managed to drop by 120,000, easing the pressure on provisions. Otherwise, even this bit of fish may not be able to be taken out.

It's still summer, and the rain is relatively abundant, so there is no need for fuel for heating. If it is winter, the pressure on this material will be even greater.

Considering the influence of the monsoon, it is not uncommon to see killing waves more than ten meters high in winter, and the Cape of Good Hope route is almost impossible to navigate in July, August and September every year.

Even now, the British paid a lot of money for the delivery of supplies, and almost two percent of the ships were finished halfway through.

There is no way, the wind resistance of wooden ships in the sail era is too weak, various natural disasters are not so easy to resist, and man-made disasters occur from time to time.

Recently, the Royal Navy has made several sorties to exterminate pirates, and there are still pirates who are not long-sighted.

Sometimes the Governor of Delphi wanted to pry open the pirate's head to see what was inside, and why he didn't even know before he had detected it, and the ships carrying fresh water and stone were robbed.

In a high position, he didn't know the suffering of pirates, and it was so easy to collect intelligence, except for a few pirate groups that could do it, most pirates robbed merchant ships when they encountered them.

Ever since learning that the next batch of reinforcements would be Indian colonial forces, Governor Delphi was ready to go home to avoid the limelight. As for the counter-offensive of the Boers to atone for their sins, he was not so big-hearted.

Like most Britons, Governor Delphi looked down on the Indian colonial army, which in his eyes was about as effective as the black cannon fodder outside.

The only value is cannon fodder for cannon fodder, which can reduce the casualties of the lads. The army in the Cape Town area needs to rest, and if it continues, it will be useless.

Specifically, you can refer to the Near Eastern War, when the British army performed quite well. However, because the rear was not replenished in time and there was no effective rest and recovery, most of the British soldiers who participated in the battle after the war were discarded.

This kind of "waste" is not physical, but mental. It was mainly manifested in war-weariness, fear of war, and anti-war, especially the British soldiers who mixed with the Italians, and brought back a bunch of bad problems.

The subsequent defeat in the Persian War, the delay in suppressing the Indian rebellion, and the difficult performance of the expedition to Ethiopia were all proofs of the decline in the combat effectiveness of the British army.

Not to mention the South African War, the Governor of Delphi was embarrassed to say what he had done.

On the one hand, the colonial troops were well pampered, and even the most basic training could not be guaranteed; On the other hand, the combat effectiveness of the main forces has declined, and many tactics have stayed in the era of breech guns.

Neither the colonial army nor the regular army could fight, so it is not surprising that there was a defeat on the battlefield.

Otherwise, the original time and space would not have made a joke that hundreds of thousands of people besieged the Boer Republic and won three years before and after.

The more you know, the more pressure you will have on the Governor of Delphi. The British Empire, which is beautiful on the surface, has begun to decay on the inside.

In this state, will Britain be able to meet the challenge of France and Austria? Deep down, Delphi had developed doubts.

The defeat in this war was also a heavy blow to his body and mind, and he no longer had the arrogance of the past.

The night was late, and the laughter outside was over. Lost in thought, Governor Delphi ran farther and farther away.

At first, he was anxious about the war in Cape Town, then he was worried about his own future, and then he was worried about the future of Britain.

This Christmas Eve, Delphi had a sleepless night.

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