Chapter 381 State Ceremony
The north bank of the Limpopo River.
"Mr. Wiggins! Thank you for your hard work over the past few months. We have prepared a small boat for you. After crossing the river, you can return to the Transvaal Republic. This is a letter. I hope you can take it to the president of your country." The East African warrior handed a letter to Wiggins and said.
Wiggins, who was in a somewhat depressed state of mind, said in disbelief: "You really want to let me go!"
Wiggins was taken to the Limpopo River by two East African soldiers. He thought that the East African Kingdom was going to execute him. He had been under house arrest in East Africa for so many days, and no one spoke. Even a person with a healthy heart could not stand this torture. Wiggins knew what he had done, and it would not be an exaggeration for the East African Kingdom to shoot him a hundred times.
"Of course, Mr. Wiggins. Although we don't like you, your sentence has been completed. You are indeed useful. You can be a messenger between our two countries. I hope you can convey our friendship to your government."
Wiggins, who regained his freedom, quickly responded: "No problem! I will definitely deliver the letter to the president!"
The East African soldier waved his hand and said, "Then please go back quickly! Remember not to do such shameful things again in the future!"
Wiggins put the letter in his arms. Seeing that the East African soldiers were indeed going to let him go, he nodded vigorously and said, "Today I swear to the Lord that I will never set foot on the land of the East African Kingdom again."
Under the watchful eyes of the East African soldiers, Wiggins boarded a small boat and paddled to the other side of the river. When Wiggins crossed the river, he was sure that the East Africans had kept their promise and did not shoot him in the back. However, he had to find a Boer farm nearby to take him back to Pretoria.
In this way, Wiggins, completely unaware of the situation, headed towards Pretolia with the "Declaration of War", which was a state gift from the East African Kingdom to the Transvaal Republic.
The Declaration of War declared that East Africa was at war with the Transvaal Republic on the grounds that the Transvaal Republic supported the Ndebele people in launching a conspiracy rebellion in East Africa and subverting the politics of the East African Kingdom.
Wiggins would never have imagined that he had such a thing in his arms, so much so that when the East African army invaded the Transvaal Republic, he was still on his way to Transvaal.
…
Bulawayo.
Ernst, the crown prince of the Kingdom of East Africa, personally inspected the East African combat troops that were training here. After more than ten days of forced marches and exposure to the wind and sun, Ernst's skin, which was a bit white when he first arrived in East Africa from Europe, completely turned bronze. It must be the East African sun that nourishes people! Ernst thought to himself.
"Your Highness, we are here to review the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Brigade of the 331st Division of the East African Mountain Forces!" A short, strong man saluted Ernst.
Ernst returned the salute.
The East African Mountain Troops were a force specially prepared by Ernst for the Zulus. Most of its members came from Germany in the Alps and immigrants living in Guangxi and Yimeng Mountains in Shandong in the Far East.
The Boers did not take advantage of their victory to destroy the Zulus, largely because of the existence of the Drakensberg Mountains, which made it difficult for the Boer cavalry to deploy in mountainous terrain.
Therefore, as early as after occupying the Azande Plateau in East Africa, a mountain force was formed in the complex terrain of the Azande Plateau to cope with warfare in mountainous terrain.
When selecting mountain troops, Ernst specifically picked soldiers from Guangxi as the focus. First of all, people from Guangxi are more courageous. The Taiping Rebellion, the later performance of the Guangxi warlords, and the War of Resistance Against Japan all proved that people from Guangxi are more capable of fighting.
The Guangxi Wolf Soldiers have been famous since the Ming Dynasty. One reason is that the people there are tough and brave. Guangxi is far away from the political center at all times and is a region where the influence of Confucianism is weak. Ernst does not belittle Confucianism, but the castration of Far Eastern national thoughts by Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism after the Song Dynasty is indeed inappropriate.
The Han Dynasty also respected Confucianism, but the scholar-officials could say: "Everywhere the sun and moon shine, all is Han territory; wherever the rivers flow, all are Han subjects." This statement was extremely shameless in the eyes of foreigners. In Ernst's view, this was the pinnacle of national spirit.
Especially in the world of the 19th century, the so-called benevolence, righteousness, and morality were of no use at all. The great powers did not care about benevolence, righteousness, and morality. The European colonists, starting from Portugal, were a group of armed swindlers who cheated the Indians into losing everything.
As a later generation, the East African Kingdom is actually the successor of colonialism. Its attitude towards the indigenous people is firmly profit-centered. The indigenous people are guilty of possessing land and resources.
It's just that Ernst, as a man who has lived two lives, has a longer-term perspective and knows that colonization will backfire, so he did more to cut the weeds and prevent East Africa from going down the evil path of being backfired by colonization in the future. Although this is unavoidable, East Africa has to be conservative.
Guangxi's unique geographical environment has shaped the Guangxi people's spirit of fearlessness and tenacity. There is nothing much to say about this. Before the level of productivity develops to a certain level and the plains become green deserts, life in the mountainous areas will never be worse than that in the plains. Most of the uprisings in the Far East were also initiated in the mountainous areas.
The last and most important point is that the climate of Guangxi is most similar to that of East Africa. The latitude of Guangxi has reached the tropics and it has a large population. Although the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom originated here, Guangxi was not particularly affected. The areas mainly affected by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement were Jiangxi, southern Anhui and Huijing, which were almost turned into wastelands and have not recovered yet.
Therefore, Ernst had no psychological burden in recruiting immigrants from Guangxi. According to the current living standards in East Africa, coming from Guangxi to East Africa is considered to be making a fortune.
After the mountain troops passed, it was the East African artillery troops. The East African artillery preferred small-caliber artillery, which was considered a small force to be reckoned with when used in Africa. This time, in order to deal with the Boers, Ernst concentrated 30% of East Africa's artillery in Bulawayo.
The most famous tactic of the Boers was to use ox carts to form a circle and use it as cover to deal with the enemy. In addition, they were equipped with hot weapons, so artillery was indispensable to deal with this formation. Once a shell was fired, the Boers' ox and horse formation could not resist it at all.
The last to be reviewed were the East African cavalry units. This was the first time that cavalry was used on a large scale in East Africa. The Boers were a horse-riding nation, and the best way to deal with cavalry was to use cavalry. After such a long period of development, the East African cavalry had become quite capable.
In addition, the East African troops attacking the Transvaal Republic were still mainly infantry, but this time the East African infantry was different from the past, and that was the first time they used machine guns.
Machine guns appeared as early as the American Civil War. East Africa also had them, but they were not prominent in the wars in East Africa. Think about it, the enemies in East Africa before were all natives, and they didn’t need advanced weapons like machine guns at all. What a waste of bullets! The East African infantry used machine guns on a large scale this time, mainly to deal with the Boer cavalry.
In order to deal with the Boers, Ernst could be said to have planned for a long time. From the day he took action against Zimbabwe, Ernst knew that there would be a war with East Germany (East Africa and the Transvaal Republic). After all, he was a person who could not resist temptation.
The reason for holding the review in Bulawayo instead of on the banks of the Limpopo River was to avoid arousing the suspicion of the Boers. Before Ernst arrived here, the East African Army had conducted several military exercises with the Transvaal Republic as its imaginary enemy, including the release of Wiggins, all in selected sections of the Limpopo River to prevent it from spying on the ambitions of the East African Kingdom.
After the review, Ernst gave the order: "Move out! Target: Transvaal Republic!"
(End of this chapter)
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