Chapter 488 Intelligence War
Tete is more than 100 kilometers away from the nearest military stronghold in East Africa, but Portugal's troop movements in the Tete area have been discovered by East African reconnaissance cavalry.
"It seems that the Portuguese intend to use Tete as a breakthrough point to attack us. Now we must quickly bring this news back to Songo."
Songo is located upstream of Tete. It is a military outpost built on the banks of the Zambezi River in East Africa. It is located more than 20 kilometers downstream of the Cabora Bassa Reservoir in the previous life.
There is an intelligence asymmetry between East Africa and Mozambique. Due to East Africa's closed-door policy, it is very difficult for Mozambique to enter East Africa to survey intelligence, while it is easy for East Africa to obtain intelligence from Mozambique.
First of all, Mozambique’s intelligence personnel may be intercepted by East African border military outposts and checkpoints or border troops as soon as they arrive at the border. If they are lucky enough to enter East Africa, they will face the problem of material supply.
If their wild survival ability is maxed out, they can go deeper, but they will then face identity embarrassment. East Africa implements a household registration system, and without identity proof or related documents, they will be at risk of being discovered if they encounter a village or East Africans. If they avoid settlements, they will have to keep company with African wild beasts.
In short, the difficulty of entering East Africa to obtain intelligence can be said to be the most difficult of all countries in the world.
Of course, Portugal had obtained some information before, when it initially occupied Matabele Province (Zimbabwe) in East Africa.
However, the Matabele Province in East Africa had not yet been developed at that time, and the Portuguese could not obtain any other useful information except geographical information.
Moreover, gathering intelligence in East Africa is a high-risk job. It was easy for the intelligence personnel sent by Portugal in the early days to act, but after the population of Matabele Province in East Africa increased, the loss of Mozambique's intelligence personnel exceeded 30%. Later, Portugal no longer sent intelligence personnel to East Africa because the loss rate was too high and no one was willing to die. East Africa also pretended to be ignorant. The African continent is full of crises. It is possible that the Mozambique intelligence personnel were taken away by wild beasts.
However, Mozambique is almost translucent in the eyes of East Africa. East Africa can freely enter and exit Mozambique with its reconnaissance cavalry, while the Mozambique colony has no means of countermeasure, mainly due to insufficient manpower.
Therefore, East Africa has often crossed the border into Mozambique over the years, especially the northern part of Mozambique, which has been almost infiltrated by East Africa like a sieve.
When East Africa noticed something unusual in Mozambique, cross-border reconnaissance became more frequent. It was in this context that the reconnaissance cavalry at the Songo stronghold penetrated hundreds of kilometers directly into Tete to obtain intelligence.
At this time, the Portuguese stationed in Tete had no idea that their actions had been discovered by East Africa. The city of Tete, which was suddenly flooded with tens of thousands of troops, was in chaos, with the black troops in a large mess. Because the city of Tete was only a declining commercial base, there were no large-scale houses and the ability to suddenly support so many troops.
All black troops could only be stationed outside the city. The area outside Tete became a noisy "vegetable market". The East African reconnaissance cavalry could detect the abnormality of Tete from a distance.
"Was there someone on horseback watching us just now?" a black soldier asked his companion, pointing to a small mound where the East African reconnaissance cavalry had just stopped.
"Oh! Maybe? I didn't pay close attention. Maybe it was a white man who came to inspect just now."
"Who cares? It has nothing to do with us anyway." said another soldier.
Just like that, the East African reconnaissance cavalry left leisurely in full view of the black soldiers, and no black person thought that the people on the opposite side might be enemy spies, and no one thought of reporting the matter to the Portuguese in the city.
That’s right, all the Portuguese are now in Tete. Calling it Tete is actually a bit of an exaggeration. Tete is more like a large fortress. Two thousand white Portuguese soldiers gather in the city for entertainment.
Smoking, drinking, playing cards, there was even a brothel run by Portuguese businessmen in the city, with Swahili girls dancing on the stage and the Portuguese drunkards below cheering.
Dares, president of the Tete City Chamber of Commerce, said: "Hahaha, generals, you must be exhausted from the long journey. Tete is not a big place, so our capacity is limited. We can only use these simple meals to entertain you."
Clement lit up an East African cigar he bought in Dar es Salaam, took a puff, tapped his legs and said, "President Dares, you do business here, not far from East Africa, you should know East Africa well, right?"
Dares said with a beer belly: "General, you misunderstood me. Although Tete City is only a hundred miles away from East Africa, I really don't know what the interior of East Africa is like. Since the Germans occupied the interior, they cut off our original commercial routes, and many original caravans left. People like me also rely on the resources around Tete City to do some small business."
Clement: "So that's how it is. East Africa has obviously infringed on your business interests. Why don't you resist?"
Dares: "General, you don't know this. Although East Africa has cut off the trade route, they have developed several commercial ports in the north. Caravans can go to the north to get goods and then sell them all over the world. So only people like me who originally earned the caravan service fees have suffered a greater loss. So not everyone hates East Africa. Besides, the Germans are very powerful militarily, and a small businessman like me dare not offend them."
Clement: "Oh, are you aware of the strength of the German army?"
Dares shook his head and said, "I don't know. I just compared the strength of our commercial armed forces in Mozambique with that of the Germans. They are a serious army, and our commercial armed forces are at most a small fight."
Clement: "You should have a rough idea of how many German troops there are in the Tete region and the border area with East Africa, right?"
Dares: "This can be inferred. As far as I know, there is a German military base about a hundred kilometers northwest along the Zambezi River."
Clement: "How big is that stronghold? How many troops are there?"
Dares: "It's not very large, with probably around 200 to 300 soldiers. This stronghold was established about three years ago."
The military stronghold that Dares mentioned is the Songo stronghold. Setting up a stronghold in Songo in East Africa is also very particular. The city of Tete is actually located on a plateau with an altitude of 500 meters. To the east is the Amodeze Basin and to the west is the Zambezi Basin.
The Songo stronghold in East Africa happens to be on the same small plateau as the city of Tete, but Songo is at the western end of the plateau. Songo and Tete also have one thing in common, which is that they control the section of the Zambia River that flows through the plateau, but the two places are one in the east and one in the west, Songo in the west and Tete in the east. The purpose of East Africa building a military stronghold in Songo is to confront the city of Tete and block the Portuguese's way to the west.
Dares: "General, I wonder if this information of mine is useful to you?"
“Hahaha.” Clement laughed. “Of course, Mr. Dares, your intelligence will be of great help to our war in East Africa. When we return victorious in the future, we will definitely take good care of your business again.”
After learning that the East Africans had only 200 troops in Songo, Clement seemed very relaxed. This time, under his own suggestion, Portugal adopted the strategy of undeclared war, which focused on taking the East Africans by surprise and catching them off guard.
Once they take the Songo stronghold and quickly control the south bank of the Zambezi River, the East Africans will be strategically passive. The East Africans' forces are mainly concentrated in the north and south. Once they control the Zambezi River, the main forces of East Africa in the north and south will lose contact. At that time, they can concentrate on dealing with the East African army in the south. The German army in the north only needs to watch the Zambezi River to delay them. Moreover, this time there is another troop heading towards Lake Malawi. As long as the land route between Lake Tanganyika and Lake Malawi is cut off, East Africa will not be able to provide timely support.
Lake Tanganyika, also known as Lake Solon in East Africa, was also known to the Portuguese, but they did not know that Lake Tanganyika was also the source of the Nile River. At that time, the Portuguese explorers were traveling from south to north, so they did not know much about Lake Tanganyika. They only knew that there was a large lake to the north of Lake Malawi, and its area was probably not smaller than that of Lake Malawi.
(End of this chapter)
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