Chapter 704 Confidence

Winburg.

It is the most important military fortress in southern East Africa and the front line of East Africa's confrontation with the Transvaal people. The Boers have not done nothing over the years. Before the civil war, the Boers began to build defense projects on the south bank of the Fetter River.

So now there is also a large military fortress built by the Boers opposite Winburg, and it is built very professionally with the technical support of the British. Even if the heavy artillery currently produced in East Africa is used, it is probably difficult to conquer it, unless the imported super-large caliber coastal defense artillery is transferred from the coast to the front line.

After the civil war, the Transvaal people were able to continue building the South Fetter River Line of Defense, which echoed the North Fetter River Line of Defense in East Africa.

Therefore, it was not easy for the Transvaal people to attack East Africa. In turn, East Africa also had to face the fortresses built by the Boers. Therefore, it was destined from the beginning that the war in the south would not be easy.

In previous wars, the only enemies that East Africa had encountered that built fortifications were the Sultanate of Zanzibar and several indigenous countries on the shores of the Great Lakes.

As for Portugal's two colonies, due to their large area, they were simply unable to build systematic defensive fortifications. Once a war broke out with East Africa, they could only deal with East Africa with isolated strongholds.

However, East Africa's strength is its large population, so it is difficult to capture one place. The Portuguese can choose to leave some troops to surround the area without attacking, and then the main force will continue to move to the rear. The Portuguese, who are exhausted from dealing with the situation, can only watch East Africa run rampant on their land.

General Walspiegel of the Transvaal Restoration Army said: "The Fetter River defense line we built is more than 200 kilometers long. We built a total of 137 large bunkers and more than 300 small bunkers. At the same time, we built hundreds of kilometers of roads to ensure that supplies from the rear can be quickly supported to the front line. The total construction time was as long as seven years. More than 70,000 black workers participated in the construction. The various fortresses can react quickly, leaving no opportunity for the East Africans to take advantage of!"

The "South" Fetter River Line was the brainchild of Walspiegel and the basis for the Transvaal people to fight against the East Africans.

"To sum up the last war between East Africans and the Transvaal Republic, the word that stands out is speed. The Limpopo River is full of loopholes, and we did not have a clear understanding of the wolfish ambitions of East Africans at that time. As a result, the main force was unable to return to defend when fighting with the Zulus.

East Africa divided its troops into three groups, and quickly divided the entire Transvaal Republic into three parts along the Drakensberg Mountains. In addition, East Africa also had cavalry units that could quickly support various battlefields and were quite familiar with mountain warfare. It was clearly a long-planned move, so the demise of the Transvaal Republic was reasonable. "

Little Pretorius still had vivid memories of the last war in the Transvaal Republic and East Africa.

At that time, the Transvaal people were beaten so badly by East Africa that they had no idea which way was which. Pretoria directly lost contact with various regions and was finally trapped in an isolated city and defeated by East Africa. They fled in a panic, so Pretorius the Younger hated East Africa the most.

In order to deal with the threat from East Africa, the Transvaal people can be said to have fully absorbed the lessons of the previous war.

The most important point is to slow down the marching speed of the East Africans, not to engage in field battles with them, and to have heavy firepower support.

An important reason why Pretoria fell was that the Boers at the time lacked the means to counter East African artillery.

At that time, the firepower of the East African troops could be said to be comparable only to the garrisons in Cape Town, Natal and Maputo in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa.

"Also, we must closely monitor the ferry crossings of the East Africans. We neglected the importance of the ferry crossings in the Limpopo River area, which allowed the East Africans to land easily on the south bank of the Limpopo River. We must not repeat the same mistake this time, especially at night. We must deploy more searchlights to prevent the enemy from crossing the Fette River under the cover of darkness."

The defense line built by the Boers on the south bank of the Fetter River was naturally under the surveillance of East Africa. It can be said that it was built step by step under the witness of East Africa. It was affected during the Orange Free State Civil War, but the losses were not great. The main reason was that the Orange people lacked heavy weapons at the time, so they could only allow the Transvaal people and the British coalition forces to break through the defense line.

Of course, this is also related to the Orange people's weak sense of resistance. Although the Transvaal people are not kind, they are the same nation after all. The life-and-death fighting between the upper class does not prevent the lower class from switching camps.

In fact, one of the main reasons for the Orangemen's failure was that the lower-class Orangemen surrendered to the Transvaal government. Especially after the Orangemen's coalition forces showed signs of decline, the number of deserters was increasing every day.

"With the South Fette River defense line, it will be basically impossible for the East Africans to go south and repeat the situation they experienced last time when they conquered the Transvaal Republic. We only need to rely on the defense line and the consumption of East Africa. Later, the British and Portuguese will attack East Africa in other areas, and the East Africans will be exhausted. After the war enters a stalemate, we will take the initiative to attack and we should be able to gain an advantage." Walspiegel introduced to Pretorius Jr. optimistically.

"What if East Africa continuously sends its rear-line troops to support us? You should know that most of the East African garrisons are now concentrated on the Fet River line, and they have been planning for many years. It is obvious that they have big plans. How can you be sure that after the British and Portuguese take action, the East Africans will focus their energy on other areas? If we can break through the Fet River defense line first, it should be of great significance to the entire South African battlefield. After all, the Orange Free State is deep in the territory of East Africa!" Pretorius the Younger asked back.

"Mr. President, this depends on the deployment of the Portuguese and British. First of all, there is Portugal's colony of Mozambique. In my opinion, its threat to East Africa is far greater than ours. After all, the capital and economic center of East Africa are on the Swahili Coast. Dar es Salaam should be the most economically developed city in East Africa, so East Africa must deploy heavy troops to guard against the Portuguese."

"Portugal holds the strategic initiative. First of all, their colonies are divided into two parts, one on the left and one on the right of East Africa. This situation is naturally disadvantageous to East Africa. East Africa must also know this, so the Portuguese are probably the primary target of East Africans. East Africa must solve one of Angola and Mozambique to achieve its own strategic security issues."

"As for Transvaal, no matter how important it is, can it compare to the eastern part of East Africa? And the reason why East Africa has deployed so many troops in the south is probably not because we are so important, but because of our military threat. After all, East Africans also know that our hatred for them is difficult to resolve. This is the same reason why Prussia and France stationed troops on the border. The powerful military force of Transvaal is the reason why East Africa maintains so many troops stationed there."

What Walspiegel said is very correct. East Africa does have concerns in this regard. Compared with Portugal, the military strength of the Transvaal people can be regarded more highly by East Africa.

The morale of the people of Transvaal is much higher than that of the Portuguese. This is an unchangeable fact. After all, there is a big difference between Portugal's two territories, which are only colonies and the mainland.

Colonies can be lost at any time. Although it is very painful, it is not a life-and-death struggle. After all, Portugal has lost too many colonies. If the Portuguese did not have a big heart, they would have died long ago.

(End of this chapter)