Chapter 826 The Price of Conquest (3rd update, please subscribe)
What happened in Africa was not a war, at least for the African Corps, they had hardly experienced any decent war.
Apart from the slave traders and the large tribes along the coast, the indigenous tribes that were more and more barbaric as they went inland were no match for the "mixed brigade" with a total strength of about 1,100 people, including infantry, cavalry and artillery.
What is the biggest enemy for the Ming Dynasty's samurai sword?
It happened quickly. In just a few months, the African Corps lost more than 30% of its soldiers. Such a loss was an unprecedented blow to Ximen Longsheng, the commander of the East African Front.
"How could this happen? There will be too many casualties in the future!"
Once again, facing the military intelligence sent back by the expeditionary force in the front, Ximen Jun couldn't help feeling a little melancholy.
"Chief of Staff, how could this happen? So many people are infected! Is this... the price of colonization?"
In response to the commander's question, Chief of Staff Zhang Desheng pursed his lips. Although he wanted to ridicule the commander in front of him in his heart, he still controlled his emotions.
Then said.
"Sir, colonization always has a price. In the "Records of the Grand Historian: The Family of Chu", it is said that "in the past, our ancestor, Xiong Yi, lived in Jingshan, and made his living on a path of thorns and blue caltrops. He traveled through the mountains and forests to serve the emperor, and only had a peach bow and a thorn arrow to help him serve the king."..."
Every undertaking has a price, but they just don’t know how heavy that price is.
Mentioning this sentence in the history book, after a brief silence, Zhang Desheng sighed.
"The history books only used a few dozen words to describe the difficulties of the founding of the Chu State, but what about the reality? For more than 2,000 years, the Chinese people have regarded the south as a bad place full of diseases and miasma. If it weren't for the hard work of the Chinese ancestors for thousands of years, there would be no land of fish and rice!"
Looking at the extra rivers and roads on the almost blank map on the wall, these were depicted on the maps that the expeditionary force kept sending back.
The tens of thousands of people who died now were just the cost of drawing the map, and it was just a tiny bit of the map that was drawn.
Conquer... it's still a long way to go.
"Ah, now I understand the hardships of the ancients!"
Ximen Longsheng sighed and then said.
"I originally thought that it would be easy for us to conquer the natives given their primitiveness, but I never thought that the seemingly beautiful environment here is actually worse than we imagined. Oh, right..."
If it were really that easy, how could it be their turn?
Ximen Longsheng asked, thinking of the fact that the empire had colonized places such as the Congo River for many years.
"Chief of Staff, since we already have a colony on the other side of the Congo River, we must have a strategy to deal with the diseases here. I think we should notify them immediately and ask them to send some doctors over, or at least send someone to instruct the troops on how to avoid contracting the disease..."
Facing such heavy casualties, Ximen Longsheng said.
"We are all His Majesty's warriors! With so many casualties, how can I be worthy of His Majesty's trust!"
When he mentioned the heavy price of tens of thousands of deaths and the fact that almost everyone in the army was infected, Ximen Longsheng felt that he had failed His Majesty's trust. His Majesty entrusted the East African Army to him. What a trust!
But what about now?
Before joining forces with the West African Corps, he had already lost nearly 20% of his troops. How could he not feel heavy?
This is because many battalions have not yet contacted the headquarters. If he knew that the death rate has now reached almost 30%, he would probably even want to commit seppuku to apologize.
Not to mention Ximen Longsheng, even Emperor Zhu, who had long heard of the harsh environment in Africa, was stunned for a long time when he received Ximen's telegram.
"It's only been a short period of time, and more than 17,000 people have died?"
For a moment, Emperor Zhu even doubted whether he had heard it wrong. It had only been a few months!
The East African Corps had a total of only 90,000 people, but 17,000 of them died... Such a tragic death rate is even faster and more than the deaths in the war!
"Whether in East Africa or West Africa, all the telegrams mentioned diseases. Almost everyone has been infected with malaria at least once, and many have been infected with other diseases. Your Majesty, I estimate that if the speed continues, many troops will run out of quinine tablets before the troops meet up. I suggest that in order to maintain the combat effectiveness of the legion, we can use airships to replenish them with quinine and other drugs..."
As the Minister of War, Sun Hu certainly cares about his subordinates. The African Corps is also the African Corps of the Ming Dynasty.
"Well, I should take some medicine, but..."
Emperor Zhu paused, then spoke.
"We will be taking action in Brazil soon. It is not advisable to send airships to Africa at this time. I think we can send one or two airships there. After all... it is just to deliver medicine, so one or two airships will be enough."
The environment in Africa is too harsh!
I recalled how some alumni who went to Africa to do earthworks when I was in college described the local conditions. They described diseases like malaria, sleeping sickness, and yellow fever. According to them, there were a million ways to die in Africa, and civil war was not among the top 20.
Emperor Zhu's scalp felt numb.
No wonder the European powers looked down on Africa. It was not because they looked down on it, but because the local environment was too bad! Perhaps it was precisely because of the bad environment that the natives of Africa survived...
One or two airships to deliver the medicine should be enough!
In fact, there is no need to deliver the medicine so quickly. After all, it is the empire's consumables. How can we justify the consumables if we don't consume them?
"Your Majesty, please send two more ships!"
Sun Hu pleaded,
"After all, it's not easy for them either! Besides, we will need them when we deploy troops in other places in the future."
Faced with such a suggestion, how could the benevolent Emperor Zhu not agree?
However, even though we agreed, we certainly couldn't send so many medicines there. After all, in the future, when fighting with Brazil, we would definitely need a large amount of quinine and other medicines. If we had the medicines, of course we would use them ourselves first.
"Then let's have four, two each for the East and West. While transporting medicine, I think we can also use the airships to transport back some seriously ill or injured people. After all, they are all loyal and brave warriors of the empire, serving the empire on the front lines. As their lord, how can I not care about them? Well, although there are not many airships, maybe saving as many as possible is a saving..."
He was a little moved when he heard such compassionate words coming out of Emperor Zhu's mouth. From ancient times to the present, which emperor would care about the lives of ordinary soldiers as much as he did?
No emperor would ever care about that. No emperor would ever care about those people.
What's more, what he is concerned about now is just a group of consumables of the empire. This is simply unimaginable.
Well, I can only say that I am a very kind person.
What other explanation is there besides this?
there is none left!
We must publicize it well when the time comes. For example, we can write a news report in the future to report how airships were used to save those ordinary consumables, no, ordinary African Legion soldiers.
Come to Japan and be moved together!
Well, if there is a chance in the future, I can make a movie about this incident, for example, a movie about using airships to transport medicines and rescue the wounded.
(End of this chapter)
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