African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 704 Confidence

 Wynburgh.

The most important military fortress in southern East Africa is also the front line against the Transvaal in East Africa. The Boers have done nothing in recent years. Before the civil war, the Boers started building defense projects on the south bank of the Fite River.

Therefore, there is now a large military fortress built by the Boers opposite Wenbao. With the technical support of the British, the construction is very professional. Even if the heavy artillery currently produced in East Africa is used, it may be difficult to conquer, unless the super large guns imported from the coast are used. caliber shore defense artillery was transferred to the front line.

 After the end of the civil war, the Transvaal talents were able to continue to build the South Fetter River Defense Line, which echoed the North Fette River Defense Line in East Africa.

So it was not easy for the Transvaal to attack East Africa. In turn, East Africa had to face the fortresses built by the Boers, so the war in the south was destined to not be easy from the beginning.

 In previous wars, East Africa had encountered enemies building fortifications, only the Sultanate of Zanzibar and several indigenous countries on the banks of the Great Lakes.

As for the two Portuguese colonies, they were too large to build systematic fortifications. Once a war broke out in East Africa, they could only deal with East Africa with isolated strongholds.

However, the strength of East Africa is the large number of people, so it is difficult to conquer one place. You can choose to leave some troops to surround and not attack, and then the main force will continue to penetrate to the rear. The Portuguese, who are tired of dealing with it, can only watch East Africa on the land. Rampant and unbridled.

Valspig, General of the Transvaal Restoration Army: "The Fette River defense line we built is more than 200 kilometers long. We built a total of 137 large bunkers and more than 300 small bunkers. At the same time, we built long Hundreds of kilometers of roads were needed to quickly deliver supplies from the rear to the front lines. The total construction time was seven years, and more than 70,000 black workers participated in the construction. Each fort could respond quickly, leaving no opportunity for the East Africans to take advantage of. !”

The "South" Fetter River Defense Line was the brainchild of Valspig and was the backbone of the Transvaal's fight against the East Africans.

"To sum up the last war between the East Africans and the Transvaal Republic, what stands out is a quick word. The Limpopo River is full of loopholes, and at that time we did not have a clear understanding of East Africa's wolf ambitions. As a result, the main force was fighting against the Zulu There is no way to get back to defense when people are in combat.

However, the troops in East Africa were divided into three groups, quickly dividing the entire Transvaal Republic into three parts along the Drakensberg Mountains. Moreover, East Africa also had cavalry units that could quickly support various battlefields, and they were also quite familiar with mountain warfare. This was clearly planned. It took a long time, so the collapse of the Transvaal Republic was also reasonable. "

 The situation in the last war between the Transvaal Republic and East Africa was still vividly remembered by Pretorius the Younger.

It can be said that the Transvaal people at that time were beaten east, west, north and south by East Africa. Pretoria directly lost contact with various regions. In the end, it was trapped in an isolated city and was defeated by East Africa. At that time, they fled in embarrassment, so Little Pretoria Us hates East Africa the most.

 In order to deal with the threat in East Africa, the Transvaal people can be said to have fully absorbed the lessons of the last war.

 The most important point is to slow down the marching speed of the East Africans, and cannot engage in field battles with the East Africans, and must have heavy fire support.

 An important reason why Pretoria fell was that the Boers lacked the means to counter East African artillery. It can be said that the firepower of the troops in East Africa was comparable to that of the garrisons in Cape Town, Natal and Maputo in the entire sub-Saharan Africa.

"Also, we must closely monitor the ferry crossings for East Africans. Back then, we neglected the importance of crossings along the Limpopo River, which made it easy for East Africans to land on the south bank of the Limpopo River. Therefore, we must not repeat the same mistake this time, especially at night, and arrange more Come with searchlights so that the enemy cannot cross the Feit River in the dark."

The defense line built by the Boers on the south bank of the Fetter River was naturally under the surveillance of East Africa. It can be said that it was built step by step under the witness of East Africa. It was affected during the Civil War of the Orange Free State in the middle, but the losses were not significant. Large, mainly because the Orangemen lacked heavy weapons at the beginning, so they could only allow the Transvaal and British coalition forces to break through the defense line.

Of course, this is also related to the Orange people's weak sense of resistance. Although the Transvaal people are unkind, they are the same nation after all. The upper class fights to the death, which does not prevent the lower class from switching camps.

In fact, one of the main reasons for the failure of the Orangemen was that the lower class Orangemen surrendered to the Transvaal government. Especially after the Orange coalition showed signs of decline, the number of deserters increased every day.

"With the South Fetter River defense line, if the East Africans want to go south, it is basically impossible to repeat the situation of the last time they conquered the Transvaal Republic. We only need to rely on the defense line and East African consumption, and the British and Portuguese will follow in other areas. If we attack East Africa, the East Africans will be exhausted. If we take the initiative to attack after the war enters a stalemate, we should gain an advantage." Valspig optimistically introduced to Pretorius Jr.

"What if East Africa continues to send rear troops to support here? You must know that most of the garrisons in East Africa are concentrated along the Feite River, and they have been deployed for many years. It is obvious that their plans are very big. How can you be sure that after the British and Portuguese take action? , the East Africans will focus on other areas. If they can break through the Fete River defense line first, it will be of great significance to the entire South African battlefield. After all, the Orange Free State is deep into the territory of East Africa!" Pretorius Jr. asked rhetorically.

"Your Excellency, this depends on the deployment of the Portuguese and British. The first is the Portuguese colony of Mozambique. In my opinion, its threat to East Africa is far greater than ours. After all, the capital and economic center of East Africa are in Swarovski." On the Shili coast, Dar es Salaam should be the most economically developed city in East Africa, so East Africa must deploy heavy troops to guard against the Portuguese."

"And Portugal holds the strategic initiative. First of all, their colony is divided into two parts, one on the left and one on the right of East Africa. This situation is naturally unfavorable to East Africa. East Africa must also know this, so the Portuguese are probably the East Africans. The primary goal is Angola and Mozambique, and East Africa is definitely going to solve one of them to achieve their own strategic security issues."

"As for our Transvaal, no matter how important it is, can it be compared to eastern East Africa? And the reason why East Africa deploys so many troops in the south is probably not because of how important we are, but because of our military threat. After all, East Africans are also We know that our hatred for them is difficult to resolve, which is the same as when Prussia and France stationed troops on the border. Our strong military power in the Transvaal is the reason why East Africa maintains so many troops."

Walspig is right. East Africa does have this concern. Compared with Portugal, the military strength of the Transvaal people makes East Africa look at it more highly.

The morale of the Transvaal people is much higher than that of Portugal. This is an unchangeable fact. After all, the two territories of Portugal are only very different between the colony and the mainland.

 Colonies can be lost at any time. Although it is uncomfortable, it is not a matter of life and death. After all, Portugal has lost too many colonies. If it were not for a big heart, the Portuguese would have died suddenly.

 (End of this chapter)