Chapter 128 Inquiry
The Lascampoli Trading Market is mainly used to expand the sales of East African commodities. For example, although food is hard currency, it is time-sensitive. If it is not sold in time, there is a risk of expiration and deterioration.
There is also sisal cloth. The East African colonies produced a lot of it at the time, but its sales in the European market were extremely limited. European merchants mainly purchased hemp ropes directly, or purchased sisal fibers and processed them themselves.
The Rascampori Market is also an attempt at land trade in East Africa. In the future, a caravan may be formed to try traveling all the way from East Africa to Egypt.
Egypt is located on the Mediterranean coast, and European ships can go directly to the port of Alexandria in Egypt. At the same time, Egypt is a land connection between Africa and Asia, and goods from Asia can also be shipped directly to Egypt by land.
There are two main land trade routes from East Africa to Egypt. One is the eastern route, going north from Somalia or eastern Ethiopia, passing through Sudan to Egypt; the other is the western route, going north from South Sudan in the past, passing through Sudan to Egypt.
Although land trade routes are not very efficient and their costs are much higher than sea and land trade routes, they can provide East Africa with an additional option.
The coast of East Africa is relatively easy to blockade at present, so there is a potential danger of being cut off from external maritime communications by other countries.
…
On the Great Lake (Lake Victoria), several small boats were speeding on the surface of the lake. The propellers at the stern of the boats were rapidly moving under the water, providing power to the boats. The engines emitted black smoke and a rumbling sound that spread across the water.
As soon as the first batch of engines arrived, the newly formed Neihu troops in East Africa rushed to install them on their toys.
After a few days of training, the sailors drove speedboats and began their first long-distance mission - to go to the west of the Great Lake (Lake Victoria) to inquire about the situation. Carrying weapons, dry food and fuel tanks, the Inland Lake troops set off.
The initial Neihu troops had a total of 153 people and five boats. In order to prevent accidents, all the boats were dispatched for the first time.
They are all speedboats equipped with engines and propellers. The commander of the Inland Lake Force is named Werner Jori, a native of Trieste, Austro-Hungary. He has lived in the harbor since he was a child and his father used to be a sailor.
Therefore, Werner Jori was familiar with ship operation and had some basic knowledge. Most of the sailors in the East African Lake Force were good at water, and most of them had lived in the coastal areas.
For example, the immigrant sailors from the Austro-Hungarian Empire basically came from Trieste. Trieste was the first stop for Austro-Hungarian immigrants to East Africa, so there were a large number of Trieste immigrants in East Africa.
Like the immigrants from Trieste, there are also immigrants from the Jiaozhou Bay area in the Far East. They are also the starting port for immigrants from the Far East, so there are quite a few of them in East Africa.
Most of the sailors in East Africa also come from these two coastal port cities. Of course, living by the sea does not necessarily mean that one can swim, so some inland immigrants who are better at swimming were selected as sailors, but their number was small.
"There's land ahead!" a sailor pointed and shouted.
Werner Jori looked ahead and saw the outline of the land gradually becoming clear. He said, "Pull the boat over."
Under the operation of the sailors, the boat slowly approached the shore, which is the west shore of the Great Lake (Lake Victoria).
"Leave thirty people to watch the boat, and the others and I will go ashore to check the situation."
Soon, Werner Yori picked six people from each boat to stay. He said to them, "You are not allowed to leave until we come back. If you still can't see us before dark, you should go back and report to the government!"
Excluding the people who stayed at the Mwanza headquarters and those who stayed to watch the ship, Werner Jori had only more than seventy people available.
Leaving thirty people to watch the ship was actually quite a lot, but Werner Jori still did it to prevent accidents. Thirty soldiers with hot weapons were enough to fight a small tribe.
After arranging the personnel tasks, Werner Jori landed with a large force and headed inland.
The place where Werner Yori and his party landed was the territory of the Buganda Kingdom, which the local indigenous people called Bale. Of course, Werner Yori and his party did not know this.
As soon as we landed, we saw a mudflat along the lake. A few dozen meters away was a primitive jungle. Tall trees extended in both north and south directions along the lakeshore, stretching as far as the eye could see.
Werner Yori said to the team members, "We will enter the primitive jungle soon. Everyone, don't run around. Follow the team closely. Also, make more marks along the way. Otherwise, you will be doomed if you can't find the way back. Do you understand?"
"It's the captain!"
Werner Jori took out a compass from his arms, pointed it to the west, and led the team towards the jungle.
In the primitive jungle, the trees are tall and sturdy, and the dense branches and leaves block out the sunlight, showing the quietness of this place everywhere. Werner Yori is used to it.
There are similar primitive jungles around Mwanza, distributed on both sides of Mwanza. According to Werner Jori's speculation, the situation here should be similar to that on the east coast. If so, the width of this jungle should not be long.
Just as Werner Jori had predicted, after walking about two or three kilometers, there was no jungle ahead and the view suddenly became clear.
It would be more convenient to gather intelligence here by dispersing the team at this time, but for safety reasons, Werner Jori chose to be cautious.
The group continued to move westward, and soon, the careful Werner Jori suddenly squatted on the ground and began to study it carefully.
"Look, doesn't this look like a dirt road?" said Werner Jori.
"Although there is grass growing on it, it is obviously shorter and sparser than the surrounding area." Werner Yori said as he pressed his hands around the ground.
After changing to a few more places and repeating the same action, Werner Yori became more certain of what he was thinking and said to his teammates, "The soil of this suspected road is indeed harder than the surrounding soil. It seems to be a road without a doubt!"
"Captain, could it be that it was stepped on by an animal?" someone questioned.
"I've been in East Africa for quite some time, and I've seen paths trampled by animals before. They're far from being as regular as this path," Werner Jori denied.
"Look carefully, the width of this road is about one meter. It looks more like a footpath used by the indigenous people. I don't know why so much grass has grown on it. It is very likely abandoned by the locals. So if we follow this road, there is a high probability that we will encounter villages or traces of indigenous people's life." Werner Jori analyzed.
"Whether it is true or not, it is not convincing to say it. Let's go and find out for ourselves and we will know whether what I said is right. Let's go along this road and take a look."
So Werner Jori led the team forward. This road ran east-west, and the east was the direction Werner Jori came from, so Werner Jori and others continued to walk west.
"Look, that's an indigenous village!" Werner Jori said excitedly not long after they walked away.
Sure enough, a village appeared in the distance. The conical top, gray-black branches, and mud walls all highlighted that this was a primitive village.
"Get all your weapons ready and let's go and take a look at the situation," Werner Jori ordered.
The group prepared for battle and approached the indigenous village nervously.
"Captain, there seems to be no one here! I don't see any natives."
"Well, it's indeed different from the indigenous villages we've seen before. It shouldn't be so quiet. At least there should be someone guarding it." Werner Yori said, standing at the entrance of the village.
"It looks like this is an abandoned village. Let's go in and take a look."
Werner Yori walked into the indigenous village and saw that moss had begun to grow on the unmaintained wooden buildings.
Most of the small huts were more than one meter high, with their doors open. Werner Yori walked towards the largest building in the village, which was usually where the chief lived.
Werner Yori bent over and entered the chief's house. He saw that the living facilities inside were in a mess and many clay pots were knocked over on the ground. It seemed that it was not a normal evacuation.
There is a totem on the wall. It is unclear what material it is painted with, but there are obviously several man-made holes on it, as if it was poked by a sharp object.
This must have been done by the enemy. You know, totems are sacred and inviolable to some tribes.
"Captain, we've found something!" a team member outside shouted.
"What's going on!" Werner Yori asked as he came out of the chief's house.
"Captain, come over here and see for yourself!"
The team member took Werner Yori to a house. There were ashes left by a bonfire in between. Next to the bonfire were some white bones, thrown around randomly.
"Get out first!" Werner Jori ordered.
When they got outside the house, Werner Yori gathered everyone together and said, "It's obvious that this village was wiped out, the totems were damaged by the enemy, and the bottles and jars were not taken away. I have never seen such a generous indigenous tribe. The indigenous people we drove away before wanted to take the houses with them. This place was obviously destroyed by humans, and the enemy is still staying here..."
Cannibal tribes are not uncommon in Africa. There was a joke in the previous life. A European said to the native chief, "We lost millions of people in World War I." The native chief asked, "Can you eat all the people you killed?"
Different worldviews lead to different conclusions, so in many very primitive African tribes, cannibalism may be as insignificant as slaughtering cattle and sheep in their worldview.
Werner Jori had only heard about it, but that did not prevent him from speculating about the tragedy that had occurred in the village based on the situation before him.
"Okay, let's not think about this anymore. Go find some hay and dead wood," Werner Yori ordered.
Soon everyone found a lot of incendiary materials from outside the village, and Werner Yori asked his team members to spread these things around all the houses.
"Fire!" With Werner Jori's order, the village disappeared forever in the raging flames.
After setting the fire, Werner Yori and the others turned around and left, heading back to where they came from. The fire behind them was extinguished at some point...
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
