Chapter 138: The Battle of Lake Kiwari

July 3, 1868.

The East African colonial governments were preparing for war, and the other four countries, led by Buganda, were also not resting. They continued to mobilize troops and recruited a large number of troops on the border.

At this time, Buganda was the most powerful country in the entire Great Lakes region except for the East African colonies, and its monarch Mutesa I was quite successful.

Buganda was once a vassal state of Bunyoro, a powerful country to its north. However, in the 19th century, Bunyoro, like most of the old empires, began to decline, so Buganda took advantage of the situation and quickly occupied Bunyoro's original ecological niche.

During the same period, the Kingdom of Turou also gained independence from the Bunyoro Empire.

Interestingly, both the Buganda Kingdom and the Turou Kingdom were established by members of the royal family of the Bunyoro Empire, but Buganda separated four or five hundred years ago, while the Turou Kingdom was established after the rebellion of the eldest son of the then king of the Bunyoro Empire after the 19th century.

Despite suffering numerous blows, the Bunyoro Empire did not disappear, and the Kingdom of Gitala was its direct successor.

The Kingdom of Enkole is also an ancient country that has existed for hundreds of years.

The above is the basic information about the four northern countries. It can be seen that the relationship between them is actually very similar to that between European countries, so whether the relationship is good or not does not affect the exchanges between their nobles.

Before the establishment of the East African colony, Buganda already had a standing army of more than 6,000 people and a navy of 300 ships.

Therefore, Buganda's strength is still quite good, and it deserves its reputation as the overlord of the Great Lakes region. Moreover, Mutesa I is a rather conceited person. Especially in recent years, Mutesa I has led the Buganda Kingdom from one victory to another.

Not only did he completely replace the Bunyoro Empire and bring the Buganda Kingdom to its peak, but he also led the country to effectively resist the invasion of the Eastern Bantu people.

Although the invasion of the Eastern Bantu reduced the strength of the Buganda Kingdom, it also further strengthened the prestige of Mutesa I.

Under the rule of such a powerful monarch, the Buganda people were naturally full of fighting spirit, and they believed that their monarch could solve all problems.

Mutesa I was also a man of great vision. He had a good understanding of North Africa, especially Egypt. At the end of his reign, he introduced forces such as Britain and France to balance the influence of the Arab Church.

Therefore, Mutesa I was also aware of the East African colony, a neighbor that suddenly emerged, but Mutesa I's people could not enter East Africa, so they could only observe the situation in the East African colony at the border (Western Kenya region).

The subsequent wars in East Africa against Burundi and other countries made King Mutesa I believe that the East African colonies had ill intentions.

This is a powerful enemy that the northwestern countries have never faced before. All the wars that the northwestern countries have encountered in the past few hundred years have been wars of conquest.

After all, population is an important asset, especially for Africa, where productivity is backward. Conquering the other side and obtaining its population and property has always been the theme of wars among the northwestern countries.

Today, the East African colonies obviously want land but not people, which leaves no way out for the northwestern countries. Rwanda and the Igala Kingdom have already moved to Central Africa.

However, Mutesa I was not afraid of the East African colonies. He had been fighting his way to the throne since the day he ascended the throne.

Mutesa I was full of confidence after repeated victories. He had encountered many dangerous situations before, so he was not afraid of war.

In order to meet the challenges of the East African colonies, Mutesa I actively connected the remaining three countries and formed a four-nation alliance.

Mutesa I served as the leader of the alliance. He used the resources of the four countries to organize an army of 30,000 people, divided into two routes, for a decisive battle with the East African colonies.

Among them, more than 20,000 were deployed on the southern front and more than 10,000 were deployed on the eastern front. In order to appease various countries, the eastern front was mainly composed of Buganda people, while the southern front was jointly composed of the four-nation coalition forces.

The Kingdom of Turou and the Kingdom of Gitala actually had some small thoughts. Since they did not directly border the East African colonies, they did not give their full efforts.

The Nkole Kingdom, facing the threat of its East African colonies, has already mobilized the entire country to cooperate with the Buganda Kingdom, so the main forces in the battle are Buganda and Nkole Kingdom.

Mutesa I naturally knew the little tricks of the two countries of Turou and Gitala, so Mutesa also stockpiled more than 10,000 reserve troops in the rear to prevent accidents.

On July 4, after more than a month of rest, the East African army began to resume activities, and this time both the east and south directions were prepared for war.

The head coach on the southern battlefield is still Alman, and the head coach on the eastern battlefield is Felix.

The main force of the four-nation coalition was led by Mutesa I himself, and his eldest son temporarily took over the national affairs.

This time, the East African colony did not directly attack the four countries. With the demonstrations of Rwanda and Igala last time, the East African colony decided to send a notice to the four countries first.

The general content is that you don't have much time left, so you should learn from Rwanda and other countries and ensure that you can get out of this situation safely. If you refuse to change your ways, don't blame the East African colonies for being ruthless.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you, that’s more or less what I mean. However, the four northern countries are not like Rwanda and other countries that have been harmed by the Bantu people. They are large and powerful, so they will naturally not give up easily.

King Mutesa I personally sent a message to the East African colonies: Let's have a battle between warriors! The winner will take all, and the loser will be defeated.

Simple and crude, there is nothing much to say. As for the fight of warriors, the East African colonies said that we are not warriors, we will just bully others with our power (guns).

July 6th.

The main forces of both sides launched a decisive battle on the southern shore of Lake Nakiwari. Mutesa I personally led the coalition forces to attack the East African army.

The brave Mutesa I directly boosted the morale of the coalition forces, and they charged towards the East African army like a tide.

The soldiers of the coalition forces had tattoos on their bodies, brightly painted faces, braided hair, and held simple shields and spears, looking very aggressive.

The elite troops wore battle robes, held scimitars in their hands, carried bows and arrows on their backs, and followed Mutesa I to personally supervise the battle.

The East African commander was not in a hurry to attack. After the enemy came into range, he calmly began to line up and shoot.

The battle was of little value. It was just bullying the indigenous people because of their backward weapons and equipment. In addition, the East African colonies had stockpiled enough ammunition, so the East African army fought without restraint.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the battle ended.

Mutesa I and the allied nobles disappeared, leaving only the corpses of the indigenous peoples on the ground. Cleaning up the battlefield was painful for the East African colonies.

This was the largest battle fought by the East African colonies in the northwest. The enemy left more than 10,000 corpses, and East Africa could not ignore these corpses.

Due to lack of fuel, there was no time to burn the bodies, so they had to bring in large quantities of hay and firewood from the rear to burn them. At the same time, they dug pits around the area and buried the bodies on the spot. This two-pronged approach took them two or three days.

(End of this chapter)