Chapter 331: It's Hard to Fly Even if You Have Wings
"Reporting to the Chief of General Staff, a total of 3,000 enemies were killed and over 10,000 prisoners were captured, including Ndebele leaders such as Lobengula. 6,000 guns were seized."
Lobengula was lucky. He was seriously injured but not killed. He woke up when the East Africans were cleaning up the battlefield.
Siwei Te: "Now quickly organize people to take these bodies to be cremated, so as not to cause plague, and bring Lobengula here."
"Yes, Chief of Staff!"
Soon two East African soldiers came to Siweit carrying a stretcher, on which lay the monarch of the Matabele Kingdom, Lobengula.
Although he did not die, Lobengula broke five ribs. Considering the current medical conditions, his fate is still unknown.
Siwei Te: "Are you the King of Matabele Kingdom?"
Lobengula was lying on a stretcher, looking at the pale young man who was much thinner than himself, and replied weakly: "Yes, I am the 'King of Kings' of the Matabele Kingdom."
This is not because Lobengula is putting on airs. The king of the indigenous people is the chief, and many chiefs submit to Lobengula and accept his rule. Isn't he the "King of Kings"?
Siwei Te didn't care about this. No matter how powerful he was, he was still defeated by him. He was a vassal state in East Africa before. He then asked: "Why did you start this rebellion?"
Lobengula chuckled and said, "Hahaha, rebellion? The Matabele Kingdom and East Africa are two different countries. We are just defending against the invaders normally!"
Siwei Te: "Haha, you are so daring to flatter yourself. As far as I know, you Ndebele people are just a foreign race that invaded the Matabele Plateau from South Africa decades ago and enslaved the local Shona people."
Lobengula said disdainfully: "They are willing to accept the rule of the great 'King of Kings'. I was chosen by the gods to fight against you white people."
Siweite was not a white person, but came from the Far East. However, in Lobengula's eyes, they were all the same, as long as they were whiter than the Zulus, they were all white people.
Siewert stopped trying to correct Lobengula's stubbornness. He said, "We, the East African Kingdom, didn't interfere too much in your administration and allowed you to keep your army. As a result, you, the Ndebele people, and many other so-called 'kings of kings' like you will lose their power. And all this is because you, with your own efforts, changed the East African Kingdom's policy towards the natives."
Lobengula: "There can only be one 'King of Kings', and that is the great Lobengula!"
Siwei Te interrupted: "Okay, next I want to ask you a question, who provides your guns and gunpowder?"
Siwei Te's question suddenly woke up Lobengula.
With red eyes, he said: "It's all the fault of that bitch Wiggins, you must catch him!"
In Lobengula's opinion, his current situation was entirely caused by Wiggins. Not only did they sell him a bunch of "scrap metal", but they also instigated him to test the East African Kingdom for them even though they knew that the East Africans had more advanced weapons.
Wiggins!
Lobengula: "Yes, it's all his fault, that despicable Boer."
Siwei Te said to his subordinates: "Go and find out where this Wiggins is."
"Yes, Chief of Staff!"
Soon, under the interrogation of the East African Army, Wiggins and the Boer advisory group he led surfaced.
Siwei Te: “He ran away?”
"Yes, Chief of Staff, the owner of the inn where they were staying said that they left an hour ago and escaped on horseback."
Siwei Te: "Let our scouts chase them. We can't let them go easily."
"yes!"
…
At this time, Wiggins and his party had already galloped out of Bulawayo and headed west at high speed.
"Finally escaped!" Wiggins said with emotion.
"Mr. Wiggins, if the East Africans learn of our existence, will they send people to pursue us?"
Wiggins: "What are you afraid of? Even if East Africa knows of our existence, it will be impossible for them to catch up with us. The Matabele Kingdom is so large that it is unlikely that we will encounter the East African army. Besides, we are going the other way. The East Africans will never expect us to go from the west."
Wiggins was very smart. Before withdrawing from Bulawayo, he deliberately ran some distance to the east. After he was out of the sight of the Ndebele civilians, he bypassed Bulawayo and headed west.
East Africa was indeed affected. They followed the clues provided by Ndebele civilians and pursued eastwards, which was actually completely different from Wiggins and his team.
But it is so!
Out of sight of Wiggins and the others, a small East African patrol team was heading towards them.
This force does not belong to the Southern Army, but to the Southwestern Army active in Botswana. The Southwestern Army has a very small number of troops, but it governs most of Botswana's land. It regularly sends out several patrol teams to check whether there are any suspicious forces in the territory, and is also responsible for surveying the Botswana region.
As to why it appeared in the territory of the Matabele Kingdom, it was completely an accident. The Matabele Kingdom had no clear national borders, and Lobengula almost exhausted all the forces in the western part of Bulawayo in order to fight against East Africa.
In fact, there are not many Ndebele people west of Bulawayo. After all, the climate in the west is relatively dry, and further west is the Kalahari Desert.
The Ndebele people supported Bulawayo, creating a vacuum zone in the west, which naturally aroused the vigilance of the Southwestern Army patrol, so they chose to come and investigate this anomaly.
The Southwestern Army and the Southern Army were not in the same system, so they were not aware of the Ndebele rebellion. They had not received any orders from Siwete, and their numbers were too small, so Siwete was too lazy to mobilize the Southwestern Army.
The patrol soon ran into Wiggins and his group.
"Mr. Wiggins! Look! Those are the pursuers from East Africa. Damn, how come they are faster than us?"
In the distance, the Southwestern Army patrol was also wary of Wiggins and his group. After all, it was obvious from their attire that they were not their own people.
Wiggins: "Don't be afraid, there are not many of them, we will strike first and kill them."
Because we were a patrol team, there were only seven of us, while Wiggins' group had thirteen, so the advantage was on me.
So Wiggins, along with the Boer instructors, rushed towards the patrol.
"Yes, enemy! Get ready for battle!"
When the patrol captain saw Wiggins and his group suddenly speeding up, he immediately realized that they were up to no good.
"Draw your swords, don't shoot at the enemy with guns." The patrol leader immediately gave the order.
The enemy outnumbers us, so we cannot be careless. One mistake could lead to the entire army being wiped out, so decision-making is very important. The patrol leader thought that the shooting accuracy on horseback would drop significantly. If the enemy did not receive regular military training, it would be difficult for them to hit him with a gun on horseback, so it is better to use a knife to engage in close combat with the enemy.
There was an element of gambling involved, after all, no one knew how good Wiggins and the others were at horseback archery, but the result soon became clear.
"Damn it, these East Africans are running around, it's impossible to aim accurately."
"They're coming!"
“Turn around!”
Unfortunately, it was too late. Just like dealing with the natives, the East African patrol on horseback easily caught up with them when Wiggins and his team tried to turn around.
He kicked the horse's belly hard, and the spurs made the horse accelerate instantly. Then he raised his saber and slashed at the enemy who was already level with him.
Wiggins instinctively dodged and fell from his horse and was captured, while the other Boers were either hacked to death or captured.
May 28, 1871.
The Boer criminal, Wiggins, was captured, and East Africa had irrefutable evidence of the Boers' support for the Ndebele rebellion.
(End of this chapter)
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