Chapter 496: Battle
As the East African central government issued orders, the East African border troops also became ready to move, and the first shot was fired on the battlefield in the Zambezi River Basin.
Merk said to a group of East African Army generals in the Songo stronghold: "The Portuguese arrived yesterday. They are stationed one kilometer away from the Songo stronghold. It seems that they intend to fight us in the wild area."
However, Merk guessed wrong, because the offensive and defensive situations had changed, and the Portuguese side, especially the French commander Clement, were actually not very willing to continue the offensive.
When a large number of reinforcements arrived at the Songo stronghold, Clement knew that the chances of capturing the Songo stronghold were slim. If he could not capture the Songo stronghold, he would not be able to successfully occupy the south bank of the Zambezi River as planned.
However, Clement could not evacuate the troops or transfer them back to Tete. If East Africa took the opportunity to pursue them, they would be doomed.
So Clement said to the Portuguese generals: "We can't go back. To be honest, every city in Mozambique is very important. For example, Tete is the only Portuguese immigrant settlement within 200 kilometers. It would be great if we could save our lives by Tete, but this would mean that most of the territory in the west would be lost."
"So what should we do now?" someone asked.
Clement: "We must use the narrow passages on the western plateau to block the East Africans in the western part of the plateau. This will also prevent them from sneaking past our sight and attacking the Portuguese rear."
The Portuguese had no choice but to make this choice. The vanguard led by Rod and Kerry had failed to eliminate the Songo stronghold, and thus lost the initiative on the battlefield. The Portuguese army could only build temporary fortifications, and in order to prevent a sneak attack by the East African Army, they had to build the camp two miles away.
However, the temporary fortifications are definitely not as good as the Songo stronghold in East Africa that took several years to build. They were built in such a hurry that even the stones were not gathered together. The defensive capabilities are definitely not very effective, but it is better to have it than not.
Clement: "I know you have concerns. We are not going to fight East Africa head-on. We are just trying to delay East Africa. If that doesn't work, we will retreat to Tete."
When the Mozambique army was on the move, East Africa gave the black troops a final education to prevent them from making mistakes, but it was impossible to avoid mistakes.
"Line up as we taught you in training. Line up in three rows. Don't stand randomly, and don't leave too much space in between."
Because of the black queuing problem, the soldiers of the 512th Division were not allowed to correct the blacks' mistakes in person. Although they had received intensive training in the South Salzburg Province, many blacks had forgotten the combat skills taught in East Africa.
In fact, East Africa only has a superficial understanding of the black troops in the South Salzburg Province. It is probably because of language barriers, so there are always big loopholes in the training.
This requires experienced East African soldiers to correct them. As for why they need to be experienced, it is because the regular army has now completely bid farewell to flintlock rifles, especially the new recruits, who probably have never seen them before. Therefore, the black army equipped with a large number of old-style muskets must be educated by those veterans.
"Move forward slowly, don't run too fast, and don't walk too slowly. Don't look back when facing the enemy, otherwise our machine guns won't be able to see."
…
While the reinforcements supporting the Songo stronghold were resting, Clement also led his team back to the Songo stronghold. Clement was now in a dilemma as the troop deployment in East Africa had been completed and his plan had failed, but he could not withdraw.
Clement: "Let's just fight East Africa. I believe that after destroying this batch of East African reinforcements and the Songo stronghold, East Africa should have no troops inland to hinder our plan."
In the end, Clement was still unwilling to give up and wanted to give it a try. In his opinion, the number of defenders at the Songo stronghold had reached a level similar to his own, so Clement believed that East Africa should not be able to send out more troops.
Without further ado, let's get straight to work. This time it was East Africa that took the initiative in launching a tentative attack, with the East African black army at the forefront. What's more, the pre-war corrections prevented the black army from falling into chaos, allowing them to advance steadily. Due to the weapons, the tactic of lining up and shooting reappeared on the African continent.
The black troops, following the command of the white officers, formed three teams and fired in an orderly manner at the Mozambican army. However, the error was quite large, and after one round, few Mozambican soldiers fell to the ground.
Watching this scene, Clement and others discovered that the weapons and equipment used by the East African black army were somewhat backward, which made Clement greatly relieved. He had always heard that there were no blacks in the East African army, but now it seems to be a complete scam. There are tens of thousands of East African blacks in front of them, so East Africa is no different from other colonies and still needs Ergouzi.
Clement: "The Songo stronghold cannot accommodate so many troops, so they must also fight outside the city. This is our opportunity."
East Africa opened fire first, and Mozambique could not sit idle either. The black soldiers of both sides began to shoot at each other, but compared with the East African side, the Portuguese black soldiers fought more systematically.
"East African rifles cannot shoot far, and they are still using primitive muzzle-loading flintlock rifles." The Portuguese officers were delighted to find that Portugal did have a great advantage in this regard, but East Africa had more ammunition.
"Let the cavalry company come out from the rear, and let the cavalry put some pressure on the Portuguese from the flank!" Seeing that the Black Army was somewhat in decline, the commander of the 512th Division who was watching the battle at the Songo stronghold gave the order.
…
The same situation was playing out on the battlefields on the east coast of Lake Malawi and in the Zambezi River basin, where the two main forces of Mozambique were being tied down by the black army of East Africa.
Both sides won and lost in both places, but the battles were all fought through black troops. The East African Army did not actually join the battle, but watched the show from the rear.
However, the East African Army did make big moves in the north. On the Ruvuma River, hundreds of small boats carrying East African soldiers began to cross the river. Like the other side, there was no development on the south bank of the river, so there were still large and small tribes dotted in the wilderness.
"From now on, our brigade will be divided into three directions and go deep into the interior of Mozambique. The enemy does not have a large-scale military deployment in this area, so they are more likely to play dirty tricks on us. The terrain here is complex and the vegetation is dense. We must be prepared to deal with attacks from small enemy forces."
The tactical arrangement for East Africa, a vast area with a sparse population and suitable for guerrilla warfare, is to proceed steadily and step by step. At the same time, this is the key focus area in East Africa, so we cannot afford to capsize in the ditch.
Ernst was very worried about guerrilla tactics, so he asked the East African Army to study this kind of tactics to prevent being defeated by guerrilla warfare.
But there were indeed results. Portugal had only more than 300 armed forces in the north, which was insignificant to East Africa. However, the local black tribes were quite unfriendly to the invasion of East Africa.
Because many East African natives fled to northern Mozambique, East Africa was notorious in the region, so the desperate resistance of the black tribes did cause considerable trouble to the East African Army.
To this end, East Africa launched a massacre in the local area, showing no mercy to any indigenous tribes that participated in the resistance, and driving those that did not participate to the south. A large number of indigenous tribes fled to southern Mozambique.
(End of this chapter)
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