According to Adan's propaganda, the Elizabeth field has only 15 million barrels of oil, which at the current scale of extraction is only enough for three years, and then there is no oil to recover.

Based on this calculation, it is easy to conclude that the Elizabeth field is now producing five million barrels per year, but the technicians of Standard Oil and Shell Oil have observed and analyzed the tankers entering and leaving Port Elizabeth every day, and concluded that the annual production of the Elizabeth field far exceeds the data published by Adan Company, which is absolutely only five million per year.

Even at five million barrels per year, Port Elizabeth already produces more oil than the entire Romanian market, second only to Russia and the United States, so it's no surprise that Adan is getting attention.

In just two years, Port Elizabeth has developed from a small fishing village to the largest port in the Persian Gulf, the military port of the New Cape of Good Hope can dock 10,000-ton ships, and destroyers sent by southern Africa are stationed in the New Cape of Good Hope to control the entire Persian Gulf.

Unlike most colonial countries that only plunder the colonies and do not build, since Adan Company has invested so much money on the peninsula, it is impossible to give up the peninsula in the future, and from McMahon's point of view, he is actually happy to see it, the interests of southern Africa and the interests of Britain do not conflict, they are complementary to each other, and McMahon also has a term of office as commissioner of Egypt, and once the term of office is up, he will go to other places to serve, and he does not care about the future ownership of the peninsula.

"It's good that Port Elizabeth can be annexed to Southern Africa, but it doesn't matter if it can't, and if it doesn't have oil from the Elizabeth field, Port Elizabeth is worthless." Roque couldn't help but say that if Port Elizabeth was still a small fishing village before, it was indeed worthless, and the current Port Elizabeth would be of great value even if there was no oil.

"Honestly, Sir, I am seriously discussing the future of Port Elizabeth with you." McMahon didn't like Roque's attitude.

"I'm serious, Colonel, but we're not talking about the future of Port Elizabeth, but about how to deal with the dangers facing Egypt." Roque didn't care whether McMahon liked it or not, the future of Port Elizabeth was not up to McMahon to decide, how to deal with the potential danger posed by the Ottoman troop build-up, and how to survive his tenure safely was McMahon's goal.

To be honest, diplomats can play a very limited role in international affairs, and McMahon's status in Egypt does not show how high McMahon's ability is, but the rights given to McMahon by the British government, and others respect the position of "Egyptian High Commissioner", not McMahon himself.

This is the same as when there was no autonomy in Southern Africa, Ade's situation in Southern Africa, as the governor Ade is indeed a high authority in Southern Africa, but after leaving office, he returned to London and couldn't even afford a house, if it weren't for Roque's help, Ade and Sidney Milner could only live in a hotel, the reality is so cruel.

Roque's words obviously poked McMahon's sore spot, they are also colonial officials, Roque is a powerful feudal official, who can mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops at any time, but the British only have a few thousand people in Egypt, and McMahon has not yet the right to mobilize, it is really more popular than people.

In fact, the Ottoman Empire cannot be blamed entirely on the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman Empire's increase in troops to Damascus was after the arrival of the southern African army in Egypt led by Roque, although London's increase in troops to Egypt was nominally to deal with the guerrillas in Cyrenaica, but in the eyes of the Ottoman Empire, this was a threat to the Ottoman Empire, so it was natural for the Ottoman Empire to increase its troops.

In the context of the arms race, such an increase in troops is normal, all countries in the world are frantically expanding their armies, the end of the Balkan war did not bring peace, the division within the Balkan Union led to more acute contradictions, in the previous two wars, Britain, France, Germany and Austria did not end directly, now as the situation gradually becomes clear, the Entente and the Allies are clearly distinguished, if war breaks out again in the Balkans, then Britain, France, Germany and Austria will be dragged into the water, and then a world war will break out.

London's mobilization of troops from southern Africa to reinforce Egypt shows that the war potential of Britain itself has been squeezed to the limit, and the mobilization of colonial troops has begun, the situation in Germany is even more dangerous, Britain still has colonies to call, Tanganyika and South-West Africa have no ability to feed Germany proper, and now everyone is waiting for the "X" factor to break the deadlock, and the arms race has come to an end.

Ended with a world war of unprecedented proportions.

The strategic value of the Suez Canal is very important in this war that will determine the fate of the world, and Britain has now begun to build fortifications along the Suez Canal, which is a clear violation of Britain's original promise.

"Well, let's not talk about Port Elizabeth, once the war breaks out, the Ottomans will attack Egypt at the same time as they will definitely attack the Elizabeth fields." McMahon put it another way, and Roque could have accepted it.

"Then the Ottomans will have their heads bleeding." Roque is domineering, as long as it doesn't involve Port Elizabeth, then everything is negotiable.

The reason why Roque refused to discuss Port Elizabeth was also to send a signal through McMahon that some people would not attack the idea of Elizabeth Oilfield, and Roque was willing to share Elizabeth's oil, but it had to be in Roque's way.

"Well, sir, if there's anything you need my help with, you're welcome." McMahon retreated to the next best thing, with Roque's promise.

"Really, Colonel, you also know that Adan is rebuilding Muscat, it needs a lot of workers, and now there is a serious shortage of workers in Muscat, if it can, I hope Adan can be opened to recruit workers in Cairo." Roque did have a demand, the peninsula was sparsely populated and could not provide enough labor, and in order to solve this problem, Roque racked his brains and once considered sending workers from southern Africa to Muscat.

Southern Africa also needs migrants to supplement its workforce, and it really does not have the capacity to support Muscat.

"Will there still be a shortage of workers in Muscat? There are also not enough workers in Cairo. "McMahon is really not shirking, the Sultanate of Muscat, which was the most populous country on the peninsula before it was divided, is now suffering from a shortage of labor, and you can imagine how much the war has caused to Muscat.

"Cairo has, those beggars and vagrants will be qualified workers, it doesn't matter if they don't know the technology, Adan can train them." Roque never mentioned why Muscat was short of people, training technology was a pretext, and what Adan needed was labor, to put it bluntly, coolies.

"Those beggars and homeless people are hopeless, so they fend for themselves—" It seems that McMahon also paid attention to this issue, but it did not work well.

"It doesn't matter, we have enough and responsible overseers." Roque is not worried, as long as the work is in place, there are no unqualified workers.

Of course, Roque's request for McMahon's help was not gratuitous, and Li De came to Cairo that night and took the initiative to report the situation to Roque.

"Don went to Khuzestan and we are cleaning up the displaced people and bandits in Khuzestan and gradually cleaning up the oil fields damaged by the oil companies, hiring professionals to evaluate the oil fields in Khuzestan and the work is progressing steadily in all aspects, the reconstruction of Muscat is progressing well, we are confirming the farmland around Muscat, hoping to resume production as soon as possible and be as self-sufficient as possible." Li De is serious and responsible for his work, the inland of the peninsula is desert, and the coastal area is actually quite good, especially around Muscat.

"Stop the assessment of Khuzestan, don't develop Khuzestan's oil fields for 10 years, we are going to cold treat Khuzestan now." Roque does not irritate the Persians, and the higher the value of Khuzestan, the greater the uncertainty of the future.

"Brian is our own person and will not divulge the truth about Khuzestan ." Li De knew that Roque's purpose was just to evaluate, not to resume production.

"It is necessary to do a good job of protecting the Elizabeth fields, and once war breaks out, the Ottoman Empire is likely to launch an attack on the Elizabeth fields." Roque has reached a tacit agreement with McMahon that the Umbrella will help protect Egypt, and in return, McMahon will also protect the interests of the Umbrella Company.

"There are now 4,000 mercenaries in the oil fields, and if war breaks out, another 4,000 can be added in forty-eight hours, and we have fortifications built around the oil fields, so we don't have to worry about the Ottoman attack." Li De has confidence in the mercenaries of the umbrella company, as long as the logistics can keep up, the mercenaries of the umbrella company can completely carry ten times the enemy of his own.

"Then be more radical, if war breaks out, the umbrella must be ready to take the initiative, we must open up the passage to the Mediterranean, and then the oil from Port Elizabeth can be sent directly to the Mediterranean, without bypassing the Suez Canal." Roque is demanding, and the mercenaries of the umbrella company can play a greater role.

Although Adan is also a British company, Adan tankers also have to charge for sending oil to Britain through the Suez Canal, which makes Roque very unhappy.

If the outlet to the Mediterranean Sea can be opened, then the oil can be directly loaded from the Mediterranean Sea using the oil pipeline, which not only saves time, but also reduces costs, which is very appropriate.

"No problem, Ali's forces were once approaching Damascus, and the Ottoman army was weaker than we thought." Li De was not frightened at all, the Ottoman army could not even defeat the army of the Sultanate of Najd, let alone the mercenaries of the Umbrella Company.

Faith is all out of the box.

()

The whole book