Chapter 494 False Information
“The British and French navies have not made any changes, but judging from their momentum, they are indeed somewhat concerned about the development of East Africa, and they are not willing to join forces to support Portugal.”
“In this regard, our navy There is no way to intervene. The final outcome still depends on how the land war in East Africa goes. But with the support of Britain and France, can East Africa really settle the matter?"
Face the inquiry from his colleagues, Ferdinand asked. The Grand Duke smiled and said nothing. He did not answer this question. You must know that the strongest force in East Africa is the army.
……
The army that Archduke Ferdinand considered to be the strongest finally joined forces with the Mozambican Army in Songo. The sit-down battle did not last long because the large troops from East Africa arrived early.
Just one day ago, the East African army arrived at Songo Fortress ahead of the Mozambican colonial army. Tens of thousands of troops suddenly arrived at the front line. The movement was quite big.
This shocked the Portuguese vanguard who still wanted to delay. Kerry originally thought that his own army should arrive first, but in the end, East Africa completed the assembly first, which puzzled him.
He frowned and said: "Did East Africa respond so quickly? Or do they have large-scale troops nearby that can come and provide timely support?"
Portugal planned this war carefully. For several months, they originally wanted to rely on surprise to open up the situation in the central part of the country, but now that the large East African troops have arrived, it is announced that this plan may be ruined.
However, why the East African reinforcements arrived at the front line so quickly is a question that puzzles Kerry. After all, Kerry cannot open his eyes and see the Central Railway operating in the rear of East Africa.
Seeing the sudden arrival of the East African troops, Rhodes said nervously: "The enemy's reinforcements have arrived, we must withdraw quickly, otherwise Colonel Clément will arrive later and he will have to collect the corpses for us!"
The situation was stronger than the people, and Kerry had to change his past style and ordered his troops to retreat to the east towards the city of Tete.
His stern face seemed to be able to squeeze out water, and he said: "It is not suitable to stay here for a long time. Let's meet up with the main force first and see what Colonel Clément has planned!"
When he arrived! Rhode's troops were as slow as a turtle, but they were good at running away. They retreated more than 40 kilometers to the rear in one day, and collided head-on with the large army led by Clément.
"Why are you back? The Songo stronghold was captured? I didn't order you to retreat, did I? Kerry, can you explain what happened?" Clement asked sternly.
There is only one situation for the vanguard to retreat, that is, the battle is unfavorable and leads to failure. However, Clement is still lucky. After all, Songo is only a small stronghold, so it should not be impossible to capture it!
Kerry looked at Clément with some embarrassment, and said bravely: "Sir! Songo stronghold is not a small stronghold at all. Its area is not much smaller than Tete City, and its defense The facilities are obviously more complete than those in Tete City. The most disgusting thing is that the Songo stronghold does not have only two or three hundred people as the Portuguese businessmen said, but at least five hundred people. It is impossible to break through the Songo stronghold without heavy firepower. We were "False information deceived."
Kerry was telling the truth, but Clément didn't completely believe it. He then asked: "What does this have to do with the fact that you can't conquer Songo in a short time?" I won't blame you at the stronghold, but you can stay put and wait until we arrive to solve the problem. Why do you want to escape? And judging from the situation of your army, there is not much reduction in strength? "
Rhode complained? : "General Clement, if you don't run away, I'm afraid all the brothers in this sect will be lost in the Songo stronghold." Clement was a little unconvinced: "According to what you said, East Africa has at least 100 people in the Songo stronghold. Five hundred people won’t let you retreat, right?”
Kerry: "Sir, the large troops from East Africa arrived at the Songo stronghold early, so I had to let the troops retreat."
"Reinforcements?" Clement was a little confused when he heard the news. No longer calm, he asked anxiously: "How many troops came from East Africa? Are they all gathered at Songo Fortress?"
Like Kerry, Clément instantly thought of how the reinforcements from East Africa arrived so quickly. Problems reaching the front lines.
Then I heard Kerry say: "Listen to the news, there are at least ten thousand reinforcements in East Africa, and the Songo stronghold may not be able to accommodate them. Therefore, I am incompetent in my job and can only run away with the troops first."
Clement saw that what Kerry said was not a lie, so he said: "Well, if what you said is true, then it is excusable. This time, you will be exempted from punishment, but next time No one is allowed to move easily without my order. Before I give the order, no one is allowed to surrender or retreat even if they fight to the end."
...
Portugal is in trouble, and there are actually some problems in East Africa. The Songe stronghold was so anxious that it could not accommodate more than a thousand people. As a result, more than 30,000 people were transported directly from the rear from East Africa, which greatly exceeded the limit of the Songe stronghold.
Merck: "When we first arrive, it's better to play it safe first. After all, blacks make up the majority of the army. I'm afraid they won't be able to keep up. So we need to let them adapt to the unfamiliar environment first, and we can't let them Pull our own people into the water. "
This is one of the reasons why the East African troops did not immediately annihilate the Portuguese vanguard after arriving at the front line. After several months of training, East Africa also knew the details and organization of the black army. The capabilities are much different from those in East Africa. Especially if tens of thousands of black people gather together, overall coordination will be even more difficult, or to be more precise, it will be a disaster.
In fact, before the fighting broke out, the black legions were in chaos. The entire camp became a vegetable market just like outside Tete before. If a war broke out, there would be no order at all. It is impossible to say that some black legions would defect. and escape.
However, the efficiency of black people in East Africa is still higher than that of Portuguese black troops. After all, black slaves in East Africa often organize black slaves to participate in production activities and engineering construction, so there is no prohibition on incorporating them into the army. , and can also maintain the overall formation.
As for why these black people who usually have some order have a tendency to collapse when they arrive at the Songo stronghold, like the Portuguese troops, the East African Black Legion has not experienced large-scale emergency march training, so they just arrived at the Songo stronghold. The state of the black army seems to be on their backs, with various postures, and they are very tired.
So the black regiments that consumed a lot of physical strength and energy were naturally not as comfortable as the usual low-intensity training. This also shows that East Africa has no intention of training them into qualified soldiers. Look at the East African regular army. Arriving at the Songo stronghold with these black people, they still seemed to be very energetic and disciplined. After all, long-distance training is a necessary training subject.
Merck then said: "Prepare the machine guns first. If there are blind black soldiers who dare to retreat during the battle, let them know the consequences."
The machine gun is indeed a good thing, but this war mainly used black people and Mozambique to fight for consumption, so the main function of the machine guns in East Africa is to deal with the black legions in their hands. They only need to move forward after the frontline commander gives the order. Just charge, but if you retreat, you have to take the East African Army's guns first. As for the casualties, that is not within the scope of East Africa's consideration. For East Africa, it is just a series of cold numbers.
(End of this chapter)