Chapter 489: War is war, trade is trade
If the Portuguese could really occupy the land passage between Lake Solon (Lake Tanganyika) and Lake Malawi, it would indeed have an impact on East Africa, because it is the only way for the East African Central Railway to enter the interior.
However, it is quite difficult to occupy this place. There is Mbeya, a heavy industrial base city in East Africa, three large arsenals, and it is also the base of the 111th Division. Lake Malawi is also one of the three major bases of East African river and lake troops, and the black army formed in East Africa is also trained on the east coast of Lake Malawi.
East Africa has all the advantages in land and water transportation, and logistical supplies are also quite convenient. If Portugal can break through the East African Army from Lake Malawi and its coastal areas, there will be no need for East Africa to exist.
…
Clement wanted to raid the Songo stronghold, but practical factors prevented him from implementing his idea immediately.
"Why haven't you Portuguese supplies been delivered to the front line yet? Isn't the section of the Zambezi River from its mouth to Tete navigable?"
Portuguese General Kevin Dark was embarrassed by being laughed at by his international friends. He comforted Clement, "We have no experience of such a large-scale war, so Mozambique's logistics system has basically no experience in supplying large-scale material transportation. We are currently requisitioning ships from all over Mozambique, and I believe that the materials should be delivered to Tete in time within half a month."
The Mozambique colony had enjoyed peace for a long time, and a war involving thousands of people was considered a major war in the Mozambique colony. The last war of this scale was during the annexation of the southern part of the Kingdom of Malawi. In reality, it was just using firearms to bully the indigenous tribes who had very simple cold weapons.
At other times, the main threats faced by the Portuguese came from the ocean, so naval battles were more frequent than land wars, and they had more experience.
Therefore, this war against the East African Kingdom did exceed the expectations of the Mozambique government. They had no experience in dealing with such a military mobilization of tens of thousands of people. In addition, the preparation time was relatively short, so the logistics naturally could not be supplied.
It would have been fine if he hadn't been comforted. After being comforted, Clement flew into a rage: "Half a month? The supplies we carry are only enough to last for a week, not counting the ammunition reserves. You plan to let our soldiers launch an attack on East Africa while they are hungry!"
Kevin Dark: "This... is not impossible. Anyway, we can attack inland first, and the supplies should be delivered soon."
Clement: "Where are those troop transports when we came here before? Can't they deliver the supplies?"
Kevin Dark was ashamed: "We temporarily rented those ships from passing merchants. After paying the money, they dispersed. The time and money spent on reuniting them is not something that our Mozambique colony can afford."
In order to transport 30,000 people to Tete at once, the Mozambique colony could only temporarily rent merchant ships to transport these 30,000 people from southern Mozambique to central Mozambique.
The cost of renting this kind of temporary ship is not cheap, and one must also ask for passing ships. Only some empty ships are willing to accept it. As for where the empty ships come from, they are generally ships that unload in Mozambique, mainly Arab merchant ships.
Many of these Arab merchant ships are owned by Arabs from Zanzibar Province. Their main business is to transport consumer goods from East Africa to Mozambique to make a profit from the price difference.
Mozambique has no manufacturing industry and needs to import everything. Cheap goods from East Africa are the first choice of local Portuguese and tribal chiefs. In addition to the Arabs actively selling, the Portuguese in Mozambique will also go directly to the port or Dar es Salaam to purchase goods.
Kevin Dark continued, "The cost of renting a boat is three times higher than usual, and not everyone is willing to do it, so we can only requisition boats from the local area to reduce costs. However, local boats are scattered across the rivers of Mozambique, and it takes time to organize them. In addition, our food must be transported from the interior of Mozambique through them."
Of course, there is one thing Kevin Dark did not say, that is, Mozambique also imports food from East Africa, mainly because Portuguese white soldiers need flour to make staple foods such as bread and cakes, and East Africa is the closest flour producing area to Mozambique.
The Mozambique colony was mainly based on plantations, and food crops were not actively planted. The most suitable food crop to grow in Mozambique was rice, which obviously did not suit the Portuguese taste, and the Portuguese had no experience in rice planting.
Fortunately, the population of Mozambique is mainly black, and it doesn’t matter what they eat, they can eat cassava, bananas, etc., but it is impossible for white people to eat these.
It's okay to eat occasionally, but staple food still has to be imported, especially since food prices in East Africa are very cheap, so businessmen and plantation owners in Mozambique have even less motivation to grow food crops.
Clement: "Well, your local government is useless. Since we can't get enough ships, we can use blacks to deliver food and ammunition to the front. I want to see enough supplies within a week."
Kevin Dark: "General Clement, don't worry, I will report to Maputo."
Clement said seriously: "General Kevin Dark, I said it is a request, and it is a request that you must meet. It is not as simple as reporting to Maputo. Maputo does not care what method it uses. I just want military supplies, and they must be delivered to Tete within a week."
Clement has already seen clearly that the Mozambique colonial government is unreliable and so inefficient that it deserves to be beaten up by East Africa. Moreover, Clement knows from this incident that if he does not put pressure on the Mozambique colonial government, they will not only be inefficient, but may also be corrupt.
The French army was efficient enough, but corruption was inevitable. The bureaucrats in the Mozambique colony were probably even more so. So Clement continued, "When you write to Maputo, you must give a special order. In my name, I will not agree to a single gram less of the supplies I want."
Kevin Dark nodded quickly and said, “No problem!”
Kevin Dark was also aware of the character of the bureaucrats in the rear. Anyway, this time it was the Frenchman Clement who asked the rear government to restrain itself. It had nothing to do with him, so he was not afraid of offending anyone.
After Clement finished speaking, he lay back in his chair, calmly lit a cigar, and began to smoke leisurely.
Seeing this, Kevin Dark asked, "General Clement, do we really have to wait until the supplies arrive before launching an attack on East Africa?"
Clement: "Why rush? How about this? We will send a small force to capture the Songo military stronghold in East Africa. The main force will wait behind. When the supplies are delivered to Tete, we will launch a large-scale offensive."
Without sufficient military supplies, Clement would not launch an attack. After all, he was not familiar with the specific conditions of the interior of East Africa, and even relying on the simple Portuguese map, he might get lost. What if he ran into the enemy's trap?
Moreover, Clement was worried about the black soldiers under his command. Desertion had always been a problem. Fortunately, only a few of them ran away every day. Clement did not dare to ask too much of an army in this state, and he prioritized stability.
Kevin Dark: "How many men do we send to occupy Songo?"
Clement: "Just a thousand men! There are only two or three hundred men in the Songo stronghold. Three or four times the force should be able to take down the Songo stronghold."
In Clement's opinion, the combat effectiveness of East African border troops, especially small military outposts like Songo, should not be very high.
Although the fighting capacity of black soldiers is questionable, after training by French instructors, they should be able to fight against the armies of colonial countries such as East Africa.
Moreover, this time they were outnumbered and had more than three times the number of troops, so there was no way they could not take down even a small border outpost.
(End of this chapter)
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