Chapter 382： cross the river

Chapter 382 Crossing the River

The East African Army moved south in three divisions. Among them, Merk's 411th Division and 412th Division advanced southward from Botswana, along the Limpopo River to the Orange River line. This area was the former British colony of Bechuanaland and is now It is also a "no man's land".

Felix's 512th Division and 331st Division advanced southward along the east side of the Drakensberg Mountains, ending at the Kingdom of Swaziland in the south.

The 111th Division, 123rd Division, 511th Division, 513th Division, and 514th Division led by Ernst and Sweet were the main forces attacking the Transvaal Republic, on the west side of the Drakensberg Mountains and on the west bank of the upper reaches of the Limpopo River. direction to attack the Transvaal Republic.

Under night, the East African Army began to cross the long Limpopo River. As the dividing line between East Africa and the Transvaal Republic, the Limpopo River was long enough, so the limited number of Boers only placed some sentries at some important crossings.

The East African Army bypassed these ferries and entered the land of the Transvaal Republic from other river sections. Under the moonlight, Ernst, dressed in military uniform and riding a tall black horse, stood by the river, waiting for the large army to pass.

The army built several temporary pontoon bridges on the river, which greatly speeded up the crossing. Men, horses and weapons passed on the banks of the Limpopo River.

However, the East African army is still more cautious, and everyone is concentrating on preventing falling into the river, because the Limpopo River is also known as the Crocodile River. Although it has been cleaned up once before, who knows if any fish have slipped through the net.

Sweet: "Principal, it seems that the Boers really don't have much defense against us. Our scout cavalry reported that not even a ghost can be seen within a radius of more than ten miles."

Ernst: "Of course. You have to know that the Transvaal Republic and the Orange Free State are not small countries in the world, and their total population is just over 400,000. From this we can see that here How sparsely populated it is.”

Thawth: "Yes, if the Transvaal Republic launches an attack on our Matabele Plateau area, they will actually encounter the situation that our army encountered."

The population of East Africa in Zimbabwe is smaller than that of the Transvaal Republic, but the independent army accounts for a large proportion. On the other hand, the Transvaal Republic mainly relies on militia forces. They are usually herdsmen and will not gather until war comes.

When East Africa attacked the port of the Transvaal Republic, the main force of the Boers happened to be fighting the Zulu Kingdom on the east side. If the Boers wanted to resist East Africa, they had to recruit militiamen.

If troops are mobilized from the eastern front, not only will it be too late, but the Zulus may seize the opportunity and take advantage of the situation to counterattack into the Transvaal Republic.

The troops crossed the river smoothly. Except for some unlucky guys who fell into the water, there were no casualties.

Ernst ordered: "Let the militia be ready, wait until daytime tomorrow, let them cross the river, launch an attack on the enemy in the ferry area, receive the ferry, and open up the supply channel."

What the militia has to deal with is the Boer army in the ferry area. In fact, it is more appropriate to describe it as border guards. The Boers on the south bank of the Limpopo River are in squad units and do not pose a threat to the East African militia at all.

The reason why the main force in East Africa did not choose to attack the Transvaal Republic from the original ferry was to avoid alerting the enemy. Although the Transvaal Republic's troops deployed along the Limpopo River were almost negligible, due to trade reasons, there were many conflicts in the ferry area. There are few Boer business people present.

If East Africa were to attack the Transvaal Republic from the front, some of these people would definitely slip through the trap and return to Pretoria to spread the news. Transvaal merchants are generally equipped with cattle and horses, and they can return to the capital Pretoria very quickly. The Transvaal Republic, which has got the news, will inevitably organize a counterattack earlier, which is not good for East Africa. Therefore, the main force in East Africa crossed the river first, while the enemies in the areas along the river were handed over to the militia. They could not make a big splash in front of the East African militia.

Whitt: "Your Highness, the troops have completed crossing the river, please give us the next step of instructions!"

Ernst: "Continue to execute according to the plan, with Pretoria as the center, the 123rd Division as the advance force, controlling the Boer farms along the way, the 111th Division moving towards Pretoria, the 511th Division, the 513th Division The division moved south and advanced to the Fal River line to prevent the Orange Free State from supporting the Transvaal Republic. The 514th Division moved south along the Drakensberg Mountains and joined Felix's troops in the south to prevent the main force of the Boers from returning for reinforcements. "

In this way, the East African Army formed a cross-attack posture and completed attacks on a number of Boer settlements, including Pretoria, from the west and north directions.

There are not many cities in the Transvaal Republic, and even whether they can be counted as cities needs to be considered. Even Pretoria, the political center, is actually only a town in East Africa (the centers of some provincial capitals and administrative regions in East Africa are towns). Bean Harare, which Sturt passes through, is much better, but much worse than Bulawayo.

Since they mainly engage in animal husbandry, the Boer population is mainly concentrated on farms in rural areas. East Africa does not need to be completely controlled. Simply cutting off their connection with Pretoria can turn the Boers into headless flies.

Of course, to be cautious, East Africa still needs to control some farms. Even headless flies flying around can hit people.

The actual operation of controlling these farms is not a big problem. The first step is to separate the Germans, Dutch, and French among the Boers, and use the Germans, the Dutch, and the French who are willing to submit to East African rule to temporarily take charge of the farms.

It is impossible for everyone on the Boer farm to be a farmer. Those employees and civilians are the targets of East Africa's struggle, because under the rule of East Africa, their living conditions have not changed much, and although the Boers are a new nation after integration, But the language is still dominated by Dutch, and compared to German, Dutch is just like the difference between Far Eastern Mandarin and Henan dialect, Shandong dialect... in the previous life, which is smaller than Cantonese, Wu dialect...

Most areas of North Germany can communicate with the Netherlands without any barriers. The Low German-speaking area (the language of the North German region) does not end abruptly at the border between Germany and the Netherlands, but extends to the east of the Netherlands. Therefore, as a dialect of Germany, Low German is also spoken by many people in the eastern part of the Netherlands close to Germany. Even the South German dialect has many words in common with Dutch, and Habsburg also ruled the Netherlands.

The unique political and economic structure of East Africa can guarantee some of their privileges, which cannot be said to be privileges, because all citizens of East Africa enjoy this part of the power equally.

On the one hand, East Africa is increasing the intensity of domestic slavery and striving to bring more indigenous people into management. On the other hand, East Africa is actively abolishing the slavery system and exporting domestic black slaves.

The entire Kingdom of East Africa was built on the oppression of slaves, so all the citizens of East Africa are actually a privileged class. This country would have disbanded long ago without the burden of 20 million black people, and East Africa has incorporated the land of the Boers and Zulu into its territory. After that, it is foreseeable that the number of black people in East Africa will increase again.

Therefore, there is no problem in East Africa recruiting Boers who are aware of current affairs, but excluding large farmers, from the moment the East African Army enters the Transvaal Republic, it is digging into their roots. If the British invade, the Boers People can still bargain with the British. The biggest advantage of the British is that they are good at using blunt knives, which can guarantee your interests at the moment, but they will still take it back through various means in the end. If this method fails, then the British People will break through their defenses and tear off their hypocritical faces.

This is a common feature of the UK, the US and Australia. They are all good at laying mines for "allies", "collaborators" and "friends" unknowingly and detonating them when they need to. As for the original promise, just think of it as farts. Well, when did the Anglo-Saxons become synonymous with integrity?

East Africa is different now. It shows the behavior of Prussian barbarians everywhere. What kind of cooperation? Are you worthy? Get out of here! Of course, East Africa also recognizes bullying the weak and fearing the strong, provided that there are strong backbones on the African continent.

(end of this chapter)