Chapter 222: Decent
January 20, 1870.
The Sultanate of Geredi, Mogadishu.
Mogadishu, this is what the East African government calls it. This name originated from ancient Persian. The locals call it Hama, and it was called Mugudusu in the Ming Dynasty in the East. The three names show the city’s long history and prosperous cultural exchanges.
Now this ancient city has been completely destroyed by the East Africans. Siweit bombarded this place with more than 30 artillery pieces. Finally, under the attack of more than 3,000 East African soldiers, the strongest fortress of the Geledi Sultanate was completely turned into a pile of ruins.
After the Battle of Mogadishu, the Geledi Sultanate was basically declared dead, and this was already the most populous area in the Geledi Sultanate.
From ancient times to the present, the Geredi Sultanate has not been able to feed too many people. Even in Mogadishu, animal husbandry is the main industry, and it is difficult to develop planting industry.
The city of Mogadishu is located on the east bank of the Shabelle River. Although the Shabelle River is the largest river in Somalia, its water volume is very small.
(picture)
In February and March, the entire river will dry up. If it did not originate from the Ethiopian plateau, there would probably not be much water in other seasons, so that the entire river would have almost no value for shipping and hydropower.
Although the rivers in East Africa are not of high shipping value, they are rich in hydropower resources. The Shabelle River has not lost any of them. Moreover, like the Yellow River, the Shabelle River is very easy to change its course. Even in the 21st century, the riverbed in its lower reaches will be higher than the banks. No wonder Ernst said that the Geredi Sultanate has no important value.
"Reporting to the Chief of General Staff, here is a letter from the Central Committee."
Siweit, who was about to lead his troops upstream along the banks of the Shabelle River, was stopped by an intelligence officer.
He opened the letter and read its contents.
"Ravis?"
"Here, Chief of Staff!"
"You will stay here and be responsible for guarding the residents of Mogadishu. From now on, no one is allowed to leave the city. The government will send people to receive the population later. When the time comes, you must cooperate with the government and keep an eye on the people in the city."
"Yes, Chief of Staff!" Lavis replied in a strong voice.
"But Chief of Staff, what exactly does the letter say?"
"It's not a big deal. It doesn't hurt to tell you. East Africa needs more natives to serve as laborers now. It's that simple."
"By the way, I want to emphasize to you that the royal family and nobles of the Geledi Sultanate should be detained separately. They have other uses."
"Yes, Chief of Staff!"
This time, Ravis was not curious about it. The indigenous royal family! In Ravis' eyes, it was no different from those chiefs. It just had a nicer name. There were at least a few hundred indigenous chiefs wiped out in East Africa, if not thousands. It was too common.
…
The territory of the Geledi Sultanate is still very large, mainly in the Shabelle River and Juba River basins. Next, Siweit will sweep across the entire Shabelle River basin and wipe out the remaining forces of the Geledi Sultanate, so just go up along the Shabelle River.
The Juba River is in the south of the Geledi Sultanate. It was attacked once when East Africa moved north. Now it can be completed by the military and police who used to patrol the border in East Africa.
This time, Siweit's combat scope is not limited to the territory of the Geredi Sultanate, but also includes the territory of the Kushites in the west. If the land of the southern Kushites is taken over, the newly occupied Somalia region in East Africa can be connected to the Omo River basin.
That is to say, historically, Ethiopia and southern Somalia were incorporated into the territory of East Africa, with the Ethiopian plateau and the Somali desert areas as the boundary, forming a natural geographical barrier.
Once East Africa achieves this goal, Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia in the past, will directly become the border area between East Africa and the Abyssinian Empire. (Historically, in 1887, Menelik II officially moved the capital to Addis Ababa. It was a plateau in the mountains and was completely a wilderness before it became the capital of Ethiopia.)
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"The advantage of fighting in the desert is that we don't have to play hide-and-seek with the indigenous tribes like we do on the grasslands. These tribes of the Geledi Sultanate live near water and grass, and we can just follow the river or find an oasis to eliminate these indigenous people at a specific point." Siwei Te said.
Shortly after leaving Mogadishu, Soft wiped out another village of the Geredi Sultanate, which consisted of dozens of people and were camel herders.
"Keep going, this time we're going to fight all the way to the source of the Shabelle River!"
…
"Mr. Platini, if we only look at the port of Dar es Salaam, what do you think of East Africa's strength?"
The Portuguese mission in Mozambique is discussing the division of the two sides of the Kingdom of Malawi with the East African government. Although East Africa has actually occupied the northern part of the Kingdom of Malawi, this meeting only needs to condone the Portuguese to invade the southern part of the Kingdom of Malawi.
However, in order to show that East Africa attaches great importance to this matter, the Dar es Salaam Municipal Government actively engaged in an unnecessary tug-of-war with the Portuguese delegation.
During the free time of the meeting, the Portuguese also handled their business in a businesslike manner and assessed the strength of East Africa, but the East African government rejected their application for free movement and only allowed them to move within the port area.
"In terms of urban construction, Dar es Salaam can be compared with Maputo, but this is of little value. After all, building more houses will not increase strength. However, the Germans are good at offshore defense projects. Mozambique does not even have such large-caliber coastal defense artillery."
"Mr. Platini, that's for sure. If you only think about the pitiful navies of Prussia and Austria, you will understand why the Germans attach importance to coastal defense artillery. Hahaha!" Everton laughed.
Platini was also amused by Everton's words. He said: "Mr. Everton, you are right. Without a strong navy, if the Germans don't even have a few coastal defense guns, they will be completely finished."
In fact, the strength of the Portuguese navy may not be as good as that of the Prussian and Austrian navies, but as land powers, Prussia and Austria have too much power in their armies. At the same time, their navies are restricted by the terrain and have become coastal fleets, which easily creates the illusion that the navies of the two countries are weak.
Although the Portuguese had a large number of ships, they were a bunch of old ships, and the East African Navy was probably able to fight them in a one-on-one duel.
The great earthquake and tsunami in 1755 interrupted Portugal's national destiny, and since then Portugal's national strength has been steadily declining.
Although there are many ships, after all, they are the livelihood of many Portuguese people, but the Kingdom of Portugal is unable to support new shipbuilding plans. The current situation of the Portuguese Navy is extremely bleak.
Historically, the first ironclad ship, Vasco da Gama, was not launched until 1876. This old ship, which was not even as good as Dingyuan, actually participated in Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, which shows the decline of Portugal.
But this did not prevent the Portuguese from mocking the maritime power of East Africa. Apart from those big countries, the naval forces between small countries were very flexible. The two warships taken over by the East African Navy from the Austro-Hungarian Navy were actually not much different from the ocean-going merchant ships of the Hechingen Consortium, except that they were equipped with more artillery. Moreover, in terms of power and size, most of the ocean-going merchant ships of the Hechingen Consortium were newly built and more advanced.
Similarly, the merchant ships of the Kingdom of Portugal can also serve as warships. This is the confidence of the Portuguese. They can occasionally act as pirates or even play a guest role in the Portuguese navy. The military and civilians are integrated to maintain the dignity of Portugal, an old colonial kingdom.
(End of this chapter)
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