Chapter 329： Outdated current version

Chapter 329 is behind the current version

The battle between the East African Army and the Matabele Kingdom Army was in the east of Bulawayo. The East African side was composed of the South Salzburg Provincial Border Force and part of the Second Brigade of the South Route Army, with more than 6,000 people. There are more than 16,000 troops in the Kingdom of Baylor, including more than 10,000 servants of the Shona tribe.

Sweite held a telescope, looked at the army of the Matabele Kingdom on the opposite side and said: "It seems that the Matabele Kingdom is going to fight with their backs, but they actually choose to fight us head-on, which is interesting!"

To say that the most troublesome tactic for the indigenous East African army is guerrilla warfare, so the East African army has rich experience in anti-guerrilla warfare in Africa, but the Kingdom of East Africa definitely hopes that the enemies in East Africa can fight East Africa with dignity, rather than being the sixth child.

The reason why the Ndebele people chose to fight head-on is very straightforward, because they don't know much about the use of muskets, especially the command of such a large-scale musket force can only be completed by Boer instructors.

The Boers have a large-scale command experience of eggs. They also play guerrilla tactics, and they are more flexible with the blessing of cavalry.

If you don’t have relevant experience, you can just copy the ready-made ones. The Boer instructors just took the "line-up shooting tactics" of the British lobster soldiers and applied them to the Ndebele people.

The British still have a platoon. After all, they are the world's most powerful country. The British lobster soldiers rely on the "queue to kill tactics" and have no single enemy in the colonies.

The official name of line-up shooting tactics is line tactics. The emergence of line tactics was limited by the level of guns at that time. It was mainly to ensure lethality and to maximize the attack power of flintlock guns. It also produced three stages. Shooting tactics, you can know the unfolding situation of this tactic just by listening to the name.

However, the officers of the Army of the Kingdom of East Africa opposite them, especially the border troops of South Salzburg Province, are students of the Hexingen Military Academy who participated in the Franco-Prussian War.

In the Franco-Prussian War, the formation and killing tactics were outdated, so these students of the Hechingen Military Academy mastered the more advanced skirmish line tactics. The skirmish line tactics had appeared as early as Napoleon's era, but the large-scale application was still in the Franco-Prussian War. , the Prussian Dreiser rifle is far inferior to the French army in terms of performance and accuracy, and it is a commonly used tactic in order to avoid French fire suppression.

However, when the East African kingdom fought with the aborigines, the aborigines were basically defeated at the first encounter, so the most troublesome thing for the East African kingdom was often to capture these fleeing soldiers after the war, so that the East African army often had to disperse its troops, so the skirmisher line tactics It was further strengthened in East Africa.

Lobengula: "Your Excellency Wiggins, let's just charge forward like this! Don't we need to cover up?"

Wiggins: "Your Majesty, you have to trust my judgment. You have to know that this is the tactic used by the army of the United Kingdom, the most powerful country in the world. Don't think it looks dull to stand in a row like this, but think about it, The simultaneous firing of these muskets will form a dense wall of firepower, and any enemy in front of it will be destroyed as if destroyed."

Only then did Lobengula feel relieved. He had heard of the Kingdom of Great Britain, or any country in the world that is not very closed to foreign exchanges knows the prestige of the British Empire. It is a well-deserved world hegemony. Even the mighty Boer No one is its opponent.

Wiggins: "Your Majesty, let the Shona servants rush to the front first, and let's consume the ammunition of the East Africans first."

"No problem!" Lobengula replied.

So more than 10,000 Shona servants were driven by the Ndebele supervisor team towards the East African Army.

These poor Shona don't even have decent weapons. Most of them only hold simple pruned wooden sticks in their hands, and some of them haven't even peeled off the green skin. It can be seen that they were made by felling trees temporarily. The pitcher at the front is equipped with the spear darts eliminated by the Ndebele people as a long-range weapon.

After the Ndebele people were equipped with muskets, the spear darts, a one-time primitive weapon, were naturally eliminated. However, the Ndebele people did not completely trust the muskets. They dismantled the original weapons, melted all the iron, and remade them The scimitar used in close combat is not attached to the waist. At the same time, the most important shield of the Zulu people has not been eliminated, and it is carried on the back for emergencies.

The current equipment of the Ndebele people can be said to be quite good in the whole of Africa. In stark contrast to this is the Shona servant army with sticks as weapons.

"The enemy has moved, but is Lobengula joking? He is going to let these people die!" Seeing the Shona servants with sticks and spears as weapons, Sitte said.

"Chief of the General Staff, the Shona tribe is just consumables in Lobengula's eyes. He doesn't worry about the life and death of the Shona tribe at all. Lobengula must want to use the Shona tribe's servant army to consume our wave of ammunition first. "

Sweet sneered: "We'll see if they can stand it. Come, push the artillery to the front, and bombard the enemy's phalanx indiscriminately."

Afterwards, eighteen small-caliber artillery pieces were pushed forward, and the commander gave an order, "Boom...boom...boom..."

The cannonballs fell into the phalanx formed by the servants of the Shona tribe. Sure enough, the power of the artillery instantly disintegrated the will of the servants of the Shona tribe. The artillery was very effective in disintegrating the desire of the indigenous people to fight. Tricks, hard stubble can't offset the fear of artillery.

For the Shona servant army, today is really a terrible day. Being driven by the Ndebele people, psychologically, the Shona people must be reluctant, but the Ndebele people are against the large number of the Shona people. In other words, it is an invincible existence, and recently the Ndebele people have mastered a terrible weapon (gun) that can kill people invisible, so the Shona servants are even more afraid to resist the Ndebele people's rule and led.

However, the enemies on the opposite side were even more terrifying. They pushed more than a dozen hollowed out round "stumps" and pointed the round holes of the "stumps" at themselves from a distance, and then a loud bang resounded through the sky. In the middle of the fire, blood flowed like a river in an instant, and even tens of meters away could feel a wave of heat. This kind of "thunder" was the punishment of the gods. How could mortals fight against the gods.

The mentality of the Shona servants immediately collapsed. Some fled in all directions, and some lay on the ground, chanting words, begging for forgiveness from the gods.

"These Shona are really trash!" Lobengula in the rear scolded angrily, "Your Excellency Wiggins, East Africans have artillery, what should we do?"

Lobengula still knows about artillery. Although this kind of thing is not common in Africa, it does not delay that Lobengula has seen it in the hands of the Boers.

Wiggins: "Don't worry, Your Majesty, the East Africans came here in a hurry. They must not carry many shells. We will compete with them when they run out of shells."

At this time, Wiggins actually had no idea. The ghost knows how many shells the East Africans have prepared. If the situation is not good later, it is better to go by himself.

Witt: "Okay, the Shona servant army has been abolished, there is no need to waste shells, stop shooting, and the whole army presses up."

Following Sitte's order, East Africa stopped shelling, but began to move forward.

Wiggins: "Your Majesty, the East Africans have attacked directly. Next, when the East Africans enter within two hundred meters, we can shoot directly."

However, Wiggins' calculation was wrong. The East African army was pressing in as a whole, not as cannon fodder. The range of the Dreiser rifle equipped by the border troops of South Salzburg Province is twice that of the Ndebele rifle, and its accuracy is also high. many.

Wiggins has been in South Africa all year round, and has no understanding of the current European military development. The equipment level of the border troops in South Salzburg Province is second only to the armies of world powers such as Britain, France, Germany, Austria and Russia in the world.

(end of this chapter)