Chapter 387 First Fight
Before the arrival of the East African Army, Wiggins, who took over Pretoria, made some major changes to Pretoria's defense system within three days. He not only temporarily raised and reinforced the city walls, but also dug trenches around Pretoria.
Although the Boer population in the Transvaal Republic was small, there were quite a lot of black slaves, so Wiggins didn't care about the life and death of the black slaves. Wiggins organized a large number of slaves and solved the problem of military construction in Pretoria in a short time.
At that time, there were less than 10,000 Boers in the whole of Pretoria, because Pretorius the Younger took away a considerable number of them, and then some residents saw that the president had fled, so they followed suit.
Fortunately, Wiggins started "patriotism" education in time and forced the remaining people to stay. Faced with the huge size of the East African army, Wiggins only had two thousand white soldiers, so it was necessary to add black slaves to the army. Although this had certain risks, Wiggins still selected more than 10,000 blacks to join the army, temporarily gave them guns, and promised to give them freedom after the war.
Thanks to the last experience of assisting the Ndebele people, the Boers had stored a batch of arms, which were distributed to the black slaves by Wiggins.
Black slaves and Boers were mixed together, with the Boers mainly responsible for command. In order to give these patriotic young people some war experience, Wiggins gave each of them an official position, with several slaves under every three people, which indeed greatly enhanced the Boers' enthusiasm for fighting.
Playing the patriotism card, Wiggins called his troops the "Young Patriotic Army", which was very consistent with the character of his troops. It was impossible for those old hands to join Wiggins' troops. Many of them had already fled to the Orange Free State or even returned directly to Cape Town.
"The East Africans are not to be feared. Don't be fooled by their large numbers and exquisite clothing. In fact, they are just for show. As long as we don't make big mistakes, then defending Pretoria will not be a problem." Wiggins tried hard to enlighten his troops.
This was a must. Previously, the East African Kingdom's army had been belittled by Wiggins as worthless. But when the East African troops were at the gates of the city, the sense of oppression arose, so Wiggins had to stabilize the troops' morale first.
Fortunately, black slaves were added to the army before, otherwise the gap between the two sides would be too big. Now, judging from the number of people, the gap between the two sides is not much. Although there are more East African soldiers, the Boers are on the defending side, so it is a 50-50 match between them and the East Africans, Wiggins calculated in his mind.
At this time, the 514th East African Division had already set out and was marching towards Pretoria. As a second-line force, the 514th Division did not have much advantage in equipment over the Boers.
"It seems that the East Africans have not made any progress. Everyone, pay attention. Don't shoot yet. Wait until the East Africans are 300 meters away from the trench before starting to shoot. When the East Africans are only 200 meters away from the trench, people on the city wall can open fire." Wiggins commanded in an orderly manner.
Based on the experience of the last Ndebele uprising, Wiggins decided not to confront East Africa head-on this time, but to rely on trenches and cities to defend.
The defense line designed by Wiggins can be divided into two levels. The trenches are the first level. Most of the black slave soldiers are divided into trenches, and some Boer commanders are also assigned. Wiggins' requirements are not high. Just being able to shoot at the East African army will be enough. In addition, the sense of security brought by the existence of bunkers will not let them collapse psychologically easily.
The Boers and a small number of black slaves were distributed on the second level, that is, on the city wall. This way they could be in a commanding position to protect their own people in the trenches, while at the same time they could supervise the battle and prevent the soldiers in the trenches from escaping.
Wiggins stood on the city wall and had a clear view of the battlefield situation. When the vanguard troops of the 514th Division entered the range specified by Wiggins, they began to fire at the East African army.
"Crawl forward, find cover nearby, and attack Pretoria!"
Faced with the Boers' fire suppression, the 514th Division could only fire passively. Although equipped with Dreiser rifles, the enemy had bunkers and city walls, which made it difficult for the 514th Division on the flat ground to launch an effective counterattack. Instead, it was restricted everywhere and its formation was disrupted, but it still maintained an offensive posture as a whole.
To be honest, the performance of the 514th Division was not satisfactory. Apart from numerous mistakes and rigid command, the only thing that deserves praise is its courage.
Ernst looked at the twisted 514th Division troops and said, "This is not what I expected!"
Siwei Te responded on the side: "Principal, if the 514th Division cooperates with the brother troops in the battle, there will be no problem. But asking them to attack the city alone is a bit unreasonable. First of all, their military commander is not professional. Because the first military district is given priority, the students of the Hechingen Military Academy who participated in the Franco-Prussian War last time have been added to the elite troops of the kingdom. As for the other five military districts, except for the mountain troops of the third military district, which have been improved due to their special nature, the other troops have not changed much. The commander of the 514th Division was only a company commander in the Kingdom of Württemberg before, so it is indeed difficult for him to command a division of troops.
Secondly, the 514th Division had previously fought against indigenous people, who rarely built cities, let alone defensive fortifications such as trenches. Therefore, the soldiers of the 514th Division had almost never faced European-style fortress cities like Pretoria.
Finally, and most importantly, the 514th Division lacks heavy weapons and professional siege equipment. A skilled cook cannot make a meal without rice, so this situation is also expected. "
"Okay, no need to make excuses. The 514th Division simply lacks military quality. Previously, our troops always fought against unskilled blacks. Although our troops enjoyed fighting, it did not serve as a training exercise. Once we encounter the same type of troops, we are likely to make no progress like today." Ernst continued, "Birds of a feather flock together. The situation of the 514th Division must also represent the situation of the other military regions besides the First Military Region. Even if those troops have some strength, they are probably not much stronger than the 514th Division as a whole."
Siwei Te: "Principal, you are right, but it is difficult for us to find some strong opponents in Africa to use as a reference standard."
Ernst: "Then we should take the whole world as the standard. We should not limit our vision to Europe and Africa. Any valuable cases are worth our reference, such as the battle between Afghanistan and the British, why Afghanistan was able to defeat the strong with the weak, why the performance of the Far East army was uneven, etc. These are all things that our army needs to study.
East Africa is likely to be in a long-term peace in the future. Does that mean the army cannot improve just because it is peaceful? We must learn to actively improve our military literacy in order to become a battle-hardened army. "
The East African Army was modeled after Germany, so it has a strong German style, but it is always fighting against the natives, so its abilities are destined not to be exercised. Prussia has become the world's recognized number one land power by fighting in places like Europe where monsters are everywhere. There is a lack of strong land enemies around East Africa, so it is impossible for them to have endless wars like Prussia, and their opponents are all quite strong.
(End of this chapter)
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