Chapter 382 Crossing the River
The East African Army is divided into three routes and goes south. Among them, Merk's 411th Division and 412th Division advance southward from Botswana and advance along the Limpopo River to the Orange River. This area It was the former British colony of Bechuanaland, and now it is also a "terrain".
Felix's 512th Division, 331st Division, advanced south along the east side of the Drakensberg Mountains, and its end point was 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 Attacks were launched against the Transvaal Republic from two directions on the west bank of the upper reaches of the Limpopo River.
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 is long enough, so the limited number of Boers only crossed some important crossings. Some sentries were posted.
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 pontoons on the river, which greatly accelerated the crossing of the river. Men, horses and weapons passed on the banks of the Limpopo River.
However, the East African army is still more cautious. 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.
Sweat: "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 must know that the Transvaal Republic and the Orange Free State are not small countries in the world, and their combined population is only close to more than 400,000. It can be seen from this that How sparsely populated this place is.”
Sweet: "Yes, if the Transvaal Republic launches an attack on our Matabele plateau area, they will actually encounter the situation that our army encountered."
East Africa's population in Zimbabwe , fewer than the Transvaal Republic, but a large proportion of retired troops. On the other hand, the Transvaal Republic mainly relies on militia forces. They are usually herdsmen, and they will not gather until war comes.
The port where East Africa attacked the Transvaal Republic happened to be where the main force of the Boers was fighting the Zulu Kingdom on the east side. If the Boers wanted to resist East Africa, they had to recruit militiamen again.
If troops are mobilized from the eastern front, not only will it be too late, but the Zulus may seize the opportunity and 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. When it is 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 is actually more appropriately described as border guards. The Boers on the south bank of the Limpopo River are organized into squads 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, they were not affected by trade. The reason is that there are many Boer business personnel in the ferry area.
If East Africa attacks the Transvaal Republic from the front, some of these people will definitely slip through the trap and return to Pretoria to report 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 detrimental to 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.
Sweet: "Your Highness, the troops have completed crossing the river. Please provide next instructions!"
Ernst: "Continue to implement the plan, with Pretoria as the center, and the 123rd Division as the advance force. , controlling the Boer farms along the way, the 111th Division moved towards Pretoria, the 511th Division, the 513th Division went south, advancing to the Fal River line to prevent the Orange Free State from supporting the Transvaal Republic, the 514th Division Go south along the Drakensberg Mountains and join Felix's troops in the south to prevent the main force of the Boers from returning."
In this way, the East African Army formed a cross-attack posture from the west and north. direction, completing the attack on a number of Boer settlements, including Pretoria.
The Republic of Transvaal does not have many cities, and even whether it is a city needs to be considered. Even the political center of Pretoria is actually the level of a town in East Africa (the center of some provincial capitals and administrative regions in East Africa is the town), much better than Harare, which Ernst passed through, but much worse than Bulawayo.
Because they mainly engage in animal husbandry, the Boer population is mainly concentrated on farms in rural areas. East Africa does not need to be controlled entirely. As long as they are cut off from Pretoria, the Boers can become headless. fly.
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, as well as the Dutch and French who are willing to submit to East African rule. Temporarily take charge of the farm.
On the Boer farms, it is impossible for everyone to be a farmer. Those employees and civilians are the targets of East Africa, because under the rule of East Africa, their living conditions have not changed much, and although the Boers are The new nation after integration, but its language is still dominated by Dutch. Compared with 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 in 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 junction of 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 the privileged class. This country would have disbanded long ago without the burden of 20 million black people, and East Africa divided the Boers and After the Zulu lands are incorporated into the national territory, it is foreseeable that the number of black people in East Africa will increase again.
So East Africa has no problem recruiting Boers who are knowledgeable about current affairs, but excluding large farmers, the moment the East African Army enters the Transvaal Republic, it is digging into their roots. If The British invaded, and the Boers could still bargain with the British. The British's greatest advantage is that they are good at using blunt knives, which can guarantee your interests at the moment, but in the end they will still use various means to take it back, and if this method is used If it doesn't work, the British will break through their defenses and tear off their hypocritical faces.
This is a commonality between Britain, the United States and Australia. They are all good at laying mines for "allies", "collaborators" and "friends" unknowingly and detonating them when they need them. As for the original promise, you Just treat me as a fart. When did the Anglo-Saxons become synonymous with integrity?
Now East Africa is different. It shows the Prussian barbarian style 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)