Chapter 178 Yeke Kingdom
Karl told everyone about his experiences and the various landscapes he had seen. Although Karl was about the same age as everyone else, he had been to the Far East, Germany, and East Africa. He had been to school and worked in a factory. His experience was indeed much richer than those young people from rural Germany and Austria.
evening.
Everyone drove the cattle towards the village, and another ordinary day ended.
…
Mbeya.
A meeting targeting the Central and Southern Africa region was underway, and the military chief of Mbeya, Merk, was reporting the situation to senior city officials and commissioners sent by the central government.
Merk stood in front of a map, pointed at it and said, "This is Mbeya. As the most important city in the southwest of East Africa, Mbeya is not only rich in resources, but also a military stronghold, guarding the East African Plateau to the South African Plateau.
The eastern group is the East African Plateau, and the main part of our East African royal territory is on the East African Plateau.
From the East African Plateau to the west, the large dotted area due west is the Congo rainforest. Starting from the south of the Congo rainforest, this large area is the South African Plateau.
The South African Plateau is different from the East African Plateau. The East African Plateau is a large piece as a whole, while the South African Plateau is composed of many small plateaus.
Including the Katanga Plateau, Lunda Plateau, Kuango Plateau, Biye Plateau, etc.
Look here, this location is the Katanga Plateau, located in the northeast of the South African Plateau and connected to our East Africa, which is the target of this time.
Lake Solon (Tanganyika) and Lake Malawi separate the East African and South African plateaus. There is a channel more than 300 kilometers long between the two lakes. Every day our team patrols this 300-kilometer-long channel.
Crossing this passage will be the first step in our conquest of Central and Southern Africa.”
Merkel gave a brief introduction to the geography of Central and Southern Africa and its relationship with East Africa to the participants, and then returned to his seat.
"Very good! It seems that you have done your job." Central Commissioner Siweite said, "I came here this time with instructions from His Royal Highness. This is related to our future strategy for managing the Central and Southern Africa region in East Africa, and Mbeya is the outpost of this operation. Merk, your Mbeya garrison should be familiar with the surrounding forces in East Africa. Let me briefly introduce them to you."
Merk sat at the conference table and said to everyone: “Mr. Commissioner, and everyone present, there are currently only two forces around Mbeya. One is the Kingdom of Malawi in the southern section of Lake Malawi.
Malawi is not our target this time, so I will focus on the forces on the Katanga Plateau.
To our west, that is, on the Katanga Plateau, there is a Yek Kingdom, also known as the Msiri Kingdom. The Yek Kingdom is relatively young, only a few decades earlier than our East Africa.
Its founder was a slave trader named Msiri. Msiri was once a native of Tanganyika and his father was a porter for Arab merchants.
So this Musiri had a wide range of knowledge. He obtained guns through trading with the Arabs and gained the trust of the local chiefs. He continued to launch wars, gradually expanded, and finally established the Yeke Kingdom. "
Merk's mouth was dry after speaking, so he took a sip of water from the cup and continued, "The Yek Kingdom has always been relatively strong in the local area thanks to the firearms provided by Arab merchants.
When we first opened up the Upper Lake Malawi region (with its capital at Mbeya), we fought against the Yek Kingdom, whose strength was indeed quite good compared to the average indigenous people.
However, the Yek Kingdom has a fatal weakness, that is, their ammunition needs to be provided by the Arabs, and we have blocked the Arab forces, so the Yek Kingdom’s ammunition is one less bullet after another.
However, we were not interested in the Yek Kingdom at that time, and our numbers were relatively small, so we did not counterattack after repelling several of its attacks.
Later, a large number of slaves were needed for construction, and we had some cooperation with the Kingdom of Yeke. East Africa continued to provide them with ammunition, and the Kingdom of Yeke provided us with slaves. "
The cooperation between the Kingdom of Yeke and East Africa was not actually voluntary, but rather a desperate situation, not because the East African colonies were targeting it.
When Musiri established the Yek Kingdom, his main strength was firearms. He used his equipment advantage to fight wars everywhere and bullied the surrounding indigenous people.
However, after the establishment of the East African colonies, especially the Upper Lake Malawi region, the original trading routes between the Yeke Kingdom and Arab merchants were directly cut off.
The Yek Kingdom lost a lot of economic benefits as a result, and naturally was unwilling to give up. So when the Upper Lake Malawi region was first established, it tried to defeat the East African colonies by force.
As it turned out, the East African colonies were no match for them, and their weapons were more advanced, so the Yek Kingdom suffered a setback.
The worst thing is that weapons and ammunition cannot be replenished, and the weapons in the hands of the Yeke Kingdom have become fire sticks.
The original advantage over the surrounding indigenous forces disappeared, and many enemies began to counterattack the Yek Kingdom. In addition, the Yek Kingdom itself had a relatively brutal rule, and internal uprisings began to break out.
The rule of the Yek Kingdom began to become shaky. Fortunately, the East African colonies later discovered that slaves were still indispensable for the development of East Africa, but the natives of East Africa had all been captured in East Africa, so they needed to be obtained from other regions.
Looking around, only the Yek Kingdom is easier to obtain. After all, the Yek Kingdom itself has been engaged in the slave trade for many years and originally relied on selling slaves to make a living.
The East African colonies did not want to go into Central and Southern Africa to capture slaves themselves, so they simply let the Yeke Kingdom act as an agent, and the cost was just a little ammunition.
But the Yek Kingdom had no choice. By obtaining ammunition, it could rebuild its powerful military force, suppress its own people and other surrounding indigenous forces, and the Yek Kingdom could continue to exist.
Although no money could be made, which was equivalent to working for the East African colonies for free, it was better than losing the country, so the Kingdom of Yeke accepted the cooperation request of the East African colonies.
"Well, I know about this. The military chief of Mbeya reported it to the central government. But now what we need more is the entire Katanga Plateau. Slaves can be obtained from all directions, but there is only one Katanga Plateau. The Yek Kingdom has hindered our development path." Siwei Te said.
As the head of the Mbeya military, Merk immediately said, "Sir, our Southwest Military Region thinks the same. We should strike hard against the Yeke Kingdom. After all, they have not yet settled the score for attacking us."
Of course, Merck did not hate the Yek Kingdom so much that he wanted to kill it. It was just that the troops of the Southwestern Military Region gained nothing in the Northwestern War. All the credit was taken away by the Northwestern and Northern Military Regions. The Southwestern Military Region could only stay where it was, responsible for monitoring and guarding against the indigenous forces in Central and Southern Africa.
The East African colonies fought beautifully in the Northwest War, and the situation was basically favorable. Naturally, Merk was jealous. Isn't it just fighting against the natives? I can do it too.
Just as Merk was about to continue to instigate the commissioner to go to war with the Yeke Kingdom, a discordant voice came from the seat of the Mbeya government staff.
"Mr. Commissioner, I actually have an idea. I wonder if we can give it a try and take over the entire Katanga Plateau at the lowest cost."
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
