Chapter 178 Yeke Kingdom
Karl told everyone about his experiences and the various scenery he had seen. Although Karl was about the same age as everyone else, he had stayed in three places in the Far East, Germany, and East Africa. He went to school and worked in a factory at the same time, and his experience is indeed much richer than that of these young people from rural Germany and Austria.
Evening.
Everyone drove the cattle towards the village, ending another ordinary day.
……
Mbeya.
A meeting for Central and South Africa is ongoing. Mbeya City Military Chief Merk is reporting the situation to the top officials of the city government and the commissioners sent by the central government.
Merck stood in front of a map, pointed at the map and said: "This is Mbeya. As the most important city in the southwest of East Africa, Mbeya is not only rich in resources, but also an important military town. The eastern part of the East African Plateau is the East African Plateau. The main body of our East African royal territory is on the East African Plateau.
From the East African Plateau to the west. A large dotted area is the Congo rainforest, and starting from the southern part of the Congo rainforest, this large area is the South African Plateau
The South African Plateau is different from the East African Plateau. The East African Plateau is one large piece, while the South African Plateau is made up of many small plateaus.
Including Katanga Plateau, Lunda Plateau, Kuango Plateau, Biye Plateau, etc.
Look here, everyone, this location is the Katanga Plateau, located in the northeast of the South African Plateau, connected to our East Africa, which is the goal this time.
Lake Solon (Tanganyika) and Lake Malawi separate the East African and South African plateaus. There is a passage of more than 300 kilometers long between the two lakes. Every day our team has to Patrol on this 300-kilometer-long passage.
Crossing this passage is our first step in conquering Central and South Africa. ”
Merkel briefed the attendees on the geography of Central and South Africa and the relationship between East Africa, and then returned to his seat.
"Very good! It seems that you have done your job." Central Commissioner Sweet said, "I came here with instructions from His Highness the Prince. This time is related to our future. The East African Strategy is a strategy for the Central and Southern Africa region, and Mbeya is the outpost of this operation. Merck, your Mbeya garrison should be familiar with the forces around East Africa. Let me briefly introduce it to you."
Merkel sat at the conference table and said to everyone: "Mr. Sir, and everyone here, there are currently only two forces around Mbeya. One is the Kingdom of Malawi in the southern part of Malawi Lake.
Malawi is not our target this time. I will focus on the Katanga Plateau. Power.
There is a Yeke Kingdom to the west of us, that is, on the Katanga Plateau. This Yeke Kingdom is also called the Msili Kingdom. The Yeke Kingdom is relatively young and is several decades earlier than ours in East Africa. .
Its founder was a slave trader, his name was Msili, and Msili was once a native of the Tanganyika region, and his father was the porter of Arab merchants.
So this Musili has a relatively broad knowledge. He obtained guns through trading with Arabs and gained the trust of the original local chiefs. He continued to launch wars, gradually expanded, and finally established the Yeke Kingdom. "
Merk's mouth was dry as he spoke. He picked up the cup and took a sip of water before continuing: "The Kingdom of Yek has always been relatively strong in the local area with the firearms provided by Arab merchants.
At the beginning, when we first opened up the Malawi Lake District (the capital of Mbeya), we fought against the Yeke Kingdom. Its strength was indeed good compared to the average natives.
However, the Yek Kingdom has a fatal weakness, that is, their ammunition needs to be provided by the Arabs, and we have blocked the Arab forces, so the Yek Kingdom has one round of ammunition and one less round. However, we were not interested in the Yeke Kingdom at that time, and the number of people was relatively small, so we did not counterattack after repelling several of its attacks.
Later, construction required a large number of slaves, so we had some cooperation with the Yeke Kingdom. East Africa continued to provide ammunition for it, and the Yeke Kingdom provided us with slaves. ”
The cooperation between the Yeke Kingdom and East Africa is actually not a willing one, but a desperate one. It is not that the East African colonies are targeting it.
At the beginning, Msiri established the Yeke Kingdom with the help of The main strength is firearms. With the advantage of equipment, they fight everywhere and bully the surrounding indigenous people.
However, after the establishment of the East African colony, especially the establishment of the Upper Malawi Lake District, the original Kingdom of Yeke was directly cut off. Trading routes with Arab merchants
As a result, the Yeke Kingdom lost a lot of economic benefits and naturally refused to give up. So when the Upper Malawi Lake District was first established, it tried to use force to defeat the East African colonies.
As a result, the East African colonies were not easy to mess with, and their weapons were more advanced. The Yeke Kingdom was in trouble.
The most terrible thing is that the weapons and ammunition cannot be replenished, and the weapons in the hands of Yeke Kingdom become fire sticks.
The original advantage over the surrounding indigenous forces was gone. Many enemies began to counterattack against the Yeke Kingdom. In addition, the rule of the Yeke Kingdom itself was relatively brutal, and internal uprisings began to break out.
The rule of the Yeke Kingdom began to be unstable. Fortunately, the East African colonies later discovered that slaves were still indispensable for the development of East Africa. However, all the native East African natives were captured by East Africa, so they needed to be obtained from other regions.
Looking around, the Yeke Kingdom is relatively easy to obtain. After all, the Yeke Kingdom itself has been engaged in the slave trade for many years, and originally relied on selling slaves to make a living.
The East African colonies did not want to go to Central and South Africa to capture slaves themselves, so they simply let the Yeke Kingdom act as an agent, and the price was only a little ammunition.
But the Yeke Kingdom has no choice. By obtaining ammunition, it can re-establish a strong force and suppress its citizens and other surrounding indigenous forces. The Yeke Kingdom can continue to exist.
Although there is no money to be made, it is equivalent to working for nothing for the East African colonies, which is better than losing the country, so the Yeke Kingdom accepted the cooperation requirements of the East African colonies.
“Well, I know about this. The military director of Mbeya reported it to the central government at the beginning, but now what we need more is the entire Katanga Plateau. Slaves can be obtained from all directions. There is only one kingdom in the Katanga Plateau, the Yek Kingdom, which blocks our path to development,” said Sweet.
As the head of the Mbeya military, Merker immediately said: "Sir, our Southwest Military Region thinks the same way. We should attack the Yeke Kingdom hard. After all, they have not yet settled their accounts for attacking us."
Of course it was not that Merk hated the Kingdom of Yeke so much that he insisted on putting it to death, but that the troops of the Southwest Military Region in the Northwest War did not gain anything, and all the credit went to the Northwest Military Region and the Northern Military Region. The military district could only stay in place, responsible for monitoring and guarding against the indigenous forces in Central and South Africa.
In the Northwest War, the East African colonies fought very well, basically going with the wind. Merk was naturally jealous, wasn't he just fighting the natives? I can do it too.
Just when Merk was about to continue to encourage the commissioner to go to war against the Yeke Kingdom, a discordant voice came from the seats of Mbeya government personnel.
"Mr. Commissioner, actually I have an idea. I wonder if I can give it a try and capture the entire Katanga Plateau at the minimum cost."
(End of this chapter)