In the Juba River basin in southern Somalia, the rainy season is approaching, and after a rainy season, new green aquatic plants grow on both sides of the riverbank, and a herd of hundreds of antelopes pokes their heads out of the narrow arbor forest, vigilantly watching the movement on the riverbank.

The central Somali boundary line, south of the Howard region, gradually slopes from west to east, reaching out to the coast of the Indian Ocean in the southeast. A number of low-lying plains and river valleys divide the plateau in this area. Compared to the mountainous north, the plains and valleys are larger, flanked by the Juba and Shabelle rivers, which provide valuable water resources for the region, and are sandwiched between the two rivers with attractive aquatic grasses and dense forests, which is a rare sight in Somalia.

The clatter of steam gunboats came from a bend in the rapids, and eight or nine hippos lying on their stomachs in the aquatic weeds were startled by the sound and ducked down their huge heads and sneaked underwater.

South of the Shabelle River, the Juba River flows directly from the Ethiopian highlands to the sea near Kismayo, forming an area from its mouth to miles above Bardera

Sharp turn turbulence, sharp turn turbulence at the depth of the river wide, the widest part of the river bank is about 120 yards (about 100 meters wide), the turbulence near the shore waters can pass through inland river vessels, the water flow speed in the center of the turbulence is too fast, and small boats are prone to capsizing accidents when forced through. In 1865, German explorer

Feng. Morality. The steamer "Werf" on which Dekkon and his entourage were traveling was unfamiliar with the local water environment, which caused the ship to capsize and sink in the center of the rapids.

"Captain, ahead are the turbulent waters of Valdela, where the German expedition sank in the first place."

On a gunboat with a displacement of 500 tons, his officers reminded loudly.

"All gunboats and boats should be more careful, avoid the waters in the center of the turbulence, and stay on the right bank of the river."

Captain Zhao carefully observed the situation around the riverbank and immediately issued an order.

"Attention ships, keep to the right!" ……

The red, yellow, and blue signal flags waved, and the gunboats and armed steam ships with an interval of several hundred meters immediately reduced their speed and slowly approached the shore after receiving the flag command. ……

Crossing the turbulent waters, the fleet sailed smoothly on a peaceful river, the aquatic plants on both sides of the river bank were still fresh and dense, but a little further from the shore, the evergreen arbor trees were becoming more and more sparse, and only a few lonely Arabian oaks dotted the shrubs and weeds.

The flotilla continued to move forward, and on the way met dozens of black Somali natives armed with long grass and riding camels, the indigenous black people had just seen the flotilla in the middle of the river, their faces were full of curiosity and surprise, and then, more than 20 black people gathered around, chattered, and then more than a dozen spears were thrown towards the boat.

"Uncivilized barbarian ghost beasts, order the fleet to ignore them and move forward at full speed!"

The officer surnamed Zhao didn't take the actions of the blacks to heart at all, and coldly ordered.

"Yes, Captain!"

His officer answered, and was about to turn around to deliver the order, when a shot stopped him.

"Without an order, what fool would dare to shoot without permission!"

"Sir, the gunfire is not coming from the fleet."

"It wasn't our guys who shot it."

Captain Zhao, surnamed Zhao, recalled the direction of the gunshots just now, took the monocular handed over by the guards sideways, and looked towards the black gathering place.

Scattered blacks gathered on the riverbank, three or five of them holding old breech muskets, one with two feet in the water, and the blacks all over the body held muskets with faint white smoke left, waving their arms excitedly.

"Immediately order, the fleet is heading north at full speed, the Italians should be in front of us!"

Captain Zhao put down the monoculars, thought for a moment, and made a decisive decision.

"Sir, if the Italian army is encountered in front, I am afraid that the fleet will suffer a heavy setback, for the sake of insurance, it is better to send two gunboats to reconnoiter first, and after determining the specific situation of the Italians in front, it is not too late to make a decision."

"The Italian colonial army is mainly concentrated in the coastal areas of Marka and Mogadishu, and it has been less than a week since we set out, and even if the Italian colonial army adjusts its deployment, it is impossible to transfer its troops to the inland areas of the Juba River within a few days."

Based on the information gathered, Captain Zhao judged that "the three forces of England, France, and Italy in Somalia interact, and Italy only gained the right to rule central and southern Somalia from England because of the outbreak of the Argentine war, and the Italians focused on agricultural cultivation and livestock breeding in the Juba River and Shabelle River valleys, and our enemies here will only be third-rate armed groups organized by Italian plantations and missionaries, and it is unlikely that they will fight the Italian colonial army head-on." ”

After the opening of the Suez Canal, the strategic position of Egypt, Somalia and other places along the Red Sea coast has been greatly improved, which has led to the expansion of colonial power in Britain, France, Italy and even Germany in the local area, but in terms of purely comparing economic interests, Somalia is full of yellow sand, except for the Juba River and the Shabelle River in the south, the natural environment is slightly better, and can produce agricultural crops, there are almost no natural economic benefits, therefore, except for the Italian missionary Amor who first penetrated into the Juba River basin in 1873, Taking advantage of the opportunity of selling backward muskets to the local indigenous tribes, a few plots of land were encircled, and the British and French colonists had no intention of expanding their colonial power in the interior of Somalia, and the British initially intervened in the situation in Somalia only to ensure the supply of meat for the British troops stationed in Aden (Aden lacked meat and food resources), although the British officials in Aden and the British explorers on the Somali coast advocated occupying the Somali coast, the London government turned a deaf ear to their proposals, in the eyes of senior officials in the London government, As long as it is guaranteed that Somalia does not fall into the hands of competitors such as France and Germany, it is completely unnecessary.

The armed forces organized by Italian missionaries and private companies may be powerful against the indigenous countries of Africa and Southeast Asia, but there is still a big gap in the face of the colonial forces organized by the central government of the Han State.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, the second industrial revolution developed rapidly, and at the same time, the upgrading of weapons and equipment in mainstream countries was also very fast, such as a standard rifle, it may take several years to develop, test and install troops in a large area, and within 20 years after the breech rifle was eliminated, in less than four years, there was a new breech rifle interview.

Many breech-loading rifles have become obsolete firearms as soon as they are equipped with weapons and equipment because they cannot keep up with the upgrading of weapons and equipment.

Of course, the phenomenon of high renewal rate of weapons and equipment mainly occurs in Britain, France, Germany and other European powers, such as Africa, Southeast Asia, continents and other regions because of the lag in technology, even a musket invented in the 16th century is a rare thermal weapon.

In 1879, the technology of breech single-shot rifles became mature, and the Han National Defense Force was gradually equipped with imitation M1871 rifles, while the weapons and equipment of the second-line garrison and colonial troops were mainly old-fashioned Dresser imitation rifles, and some captured breech rifles were also equipped under more difficult conditions.

The conditions of the Kismayo stronghold are average among several strongholds, the quality of the weaponry is inadequate compared to that of the Congolese, and it is somewhat better than the Mtwara stronghold in Tanzania.

Seventy percent of the soldiers under the command of Captain Zhao were armed with imitation Dreisai rifles, one percent were equipped with machine guns, small artillery and other weapons, and the remaining two percent of the auxiliary personnel used obsolete breech guns as weapons.

After slowly taking stock of the strength of the weapons and equipment of his troops, Captain Zhao felt a little regretful, the British, French, and American troops had begun to install breech-loading serial guns as army standard equipment, while the Han country had only realized the imitation production of M1871 rifles, and it was not known how long it would take to independently produce Lianzhu rifles.