Outside the window, the silver full moon is in the sky, sprinkling a few wisps of homesickness.

The milky white living room, the velvet carpets hanging on the walls are all snow-white gothic style embroidery, the luxurious chaise longue sofa, and the coffee table are placed with all kinds of yellow and green fruits, most of which are no different from the fruits of Middle-earth, but there are two kinds of fruits Ye Zhao can't name them.

Ye Zhao was sipping coffee while listening to Tao Chaoqing's report on the conflict between the indigenous people in the Huangzhuang territory and the Zulu tribes in the south.

Most of the southern tip of the manor territory borders the Zulu kingdom, and a large tribe that has defeated the Zulu chieftains of the original land is rising, and this newly rising tribe is naturally full of ambition for the land, and the victories over the land's owners have not been able to obtain land and population. The victors, the tribe known as the "Tazmi", were resentful of the sudden emergence of the Chinese, and they inevitably had stumbling disputes with the indigenous tribes living on the estates, but this large-scale invasion was extremely rare.

One tribe in the southernmost part of the farm was bloodied by the Tazmi, and all but the captive population were killed, including the old people, who were of little use in the eyes of the Tazmi.

The rest of the tribes who had submitted to the Chinese manors were naturally apprehensive and came to the Chinese "Stone Town" to complain, asking the owner of the stone town to grant them peaceful protection.

"Your Majesty, the British are eyeing the Zulu country, and these barbarians are still provoking without knowing the depths, which is really arrogant and ridiculous." Tao Chaoqing had a calm face, obviously angered by the Tazmi, and wanted to teach them a cruel lesson, but unfortunately the emperor blocked the luck, because he didn't dare to be good at it.

Ye Zhao nodded slightly, the empire did not use sword soldiers in southern Africa, although the black indigenous tribes were afraid of the sharpness of Chinese firearms, but in their hearts, the weight of the latecomer Chinese was still not as good as that of white Europeans.

The Tazmi are the largest Zulu tribe in the north of the Zulu Kingdom, and the chieftain is called the Tazmi, who are brave and good at war, and their style of behavior is more famous for their cruelty.

While the Chinese authorities in Maputo announced an investigation into the massacres in the southern territories and sent a letter to King Séchuaio of the Zulu Kingdom asking for his cooperation, Séchuaio was meeting at the Royal Palace with Sir Battell=Freel, a guest from England.

This is not the first time that the Zulu people have been subjected to "civilized society" investigations, as four years ago, the British colonial government of Natal strongly protested the killing of dozens of women who did not obey their marriage arrangements because their king, who was actually the military chieftain, the Grand Chief Sedwiwayo, and the Natal authorities also sent a commission to investigate; Two years ago, because of the border dispute between the Zulus and the Boers, the British also sent a high commissioner to investigate, and the high commissioner who led the team at that time was this Sir Bartel = Freel.

Sir Freel has now become close friends with Séchivayo, and although Sir Freel is psychologically inclined to the Boers, because the Boers had briefly spent honeymoon with the Chinese, the British were inclined to control the Zulu Kingdom to clamp down on Chinese and Boer influence in southern Africa

Now that relations between the Boers and the Chinese were breaking down, Sir Freel had received instructions from Cape Town to suggest that he would mediate the territorial dispute between the Boers and the Zulus, and that the Chinese would lose an excuse to expand their influence to the east and south.

As soon as Sir Freel arrived in Urundi, the capital of the Zulu Kingdom, King Sechivaio received an official letter from the Chinese authorities in Maputo, sent by tribes in the northern border region, in which the government of Maputo Overseas strongly stated that the massacres in the southern border areas of the country were "intolerable" and that the authorities would send an investigation team to investigate the massacre, and demanded that the Zulu King Séchivayo cooperate "sincerely" and "frankly". …,

In fact, by the time the letter was handed over to Séchivayo, a ten-member Chinese investigation team consisting of three high commissioners and seven commissioners had arrived at the border with an armed force to begin an investigation into the massacre.

The three High Commissioners are composed of an Overseas Provincial Official, a Press and Publisher, and a landowner. The journalist is a young reporter from the newspaper Governor-General of Maputo, called Tang Shaoyi; The landlord is Tao Chaoqing.

For safety, Ye Zhao returned to Hanzhou City, and at the same time had a brief contact with Xu Shichang and Tang Shaoyi before the investigation team set off

Zulu King Sedchwayo did not know who the Chinese Ombudsman was, seeing that the letter said that the Chinese had entered the northern territory of Zulu, his dark face showed a look of annoyance and anger, the urn muttered a few words that probably meant cursing the arrogant Chinese, and looked at Sir Freer with a fierce light in his eyes inquiringly, and said a few words loudly, he was already hot, although the Zulu people had suffered from the Western powers, but for the yellow people from the East, Sechwayo did not know the depth.

Since the defeat of the Zulu Kingdom to the Boers forty years ago, the military system of the traditional Bantu people has been reformed, and the young and strong men of each tribe have to be drawn out to form a legion to protect the entire kingdom, and at the same time, for decades, the Zulu people are no longer the natives who used to use primitive cold weapons, and now there are many guns, of course, most of them are eliminated breech rifles, and there are also a few Enfield rifles that have been eliminated by the British army, and now the entire Zulu Kingdom, Séchuaio had amassed at least 10,000 rifles, and it became increasingly unbearable for Séchuayo to provoke invaders from the East and the West.

Hearing that Séchwaio was going to kill all the Chinese investigation team that had entered the Zulu border, Sir Freer shook his head, his barbarian friend was a frog at the bottom of the well, and he could only patiently explain, to ensure that the British forces in Cape and Natal provinces had a deterrent advantage over the Chinese, and controlling the Zulus was a prerequisite.

The Chinese continue to increase their troops in the overseas provinces of Maputo, and now the Royal Chinese Army has about an infantry division stationed in various towns in Maputo, plus black mercenaries, the total strength is about 30,000, and the total number of British infantry in Cape and Natal provinces is also about 10,000.

What exactly are the intentions and interests of the Chinese in Southern Africa? Sir Freer was puzzled, but in any case, London did not want to see the Chinese expand their influence in Africa, a vast and foggy continent in the interior, the cheapest market for raw materials, and the place where the great powers of Europe are now fiercely contested.

To the surprise of Sir Freel and Séchivayo, the Chinese declared war so quickly, when the Chinese Commissioner's Investigation Group determined that the Tazmi, a tribe in the northern part of the Zulu State, were responsible for the massacres in the border areas

The Maputo Overseas Provincial Government soon issued an ultimatum to the Zulu state, demanding that it hand over the Tazmi tribal leaders and the murderers involved in the massacre, and that the ten-day period had just passed, consisting of a group of about 3,000 Chinese infantry and 2,000 black mercenaries

The infantry regiment launched an attack on the tribes of the Zulu Kingdom, and after defeating the Tazmi people with lightning speed, the Imperial Infantry Regiment began to march on the Zulu capital city of Ulundi. …,

Zulu though

Firearms are available, but the techniques and tactics for using them are lacking. The Zulu lack basic knowledge about the maintenance of weapons and ammunition, and in fact the vast majority of guns are no longer usable. Breech guns still required the fighters themselves to carry their guns

Medicine, although the Zulu people can already produce their own fire-to-fire medicine, but there is no equipment to carry fire-food, ox horn has become the most commonly used tool, this itself is dangerous and can not play a role in moisture-proof, in the rainy season, fire-fire medicine often can't

Use. For breech guns, the Zulus will use even rarer.

Compared with the well-equipped infantry regiments of the Eastern Empire, the Zulus are like primitive tribes encountering aliens, and there is a several generations of tactical and strategic weapons between the two sides.

This one-sided battle was nothing short of a slaughter for the Zulus, and many tribes defected and joined the Chinese in their crusade against the "tyrants".

The European world was also shocked by the appearance of the increasingly sophisticated Chinese infantry, especially the innovation in the design of light and heavy machine guns, and the application of powerful light mountain guns.

Although at the beginning of the war, the Zulu king Sedhuayo turned to the British for help, and the Zulu capital Ulundi was so close to the British overseas province of Natal, the Natal authorities hesitated to urgently communicate with Cape Town and London

In the secret telegram, the Governor of Natal believed that with the strength of Natal's British army, it would be difficult to help the Zulus defeat the Chinese, and perhaps, the Chinese mobilized more than half of the infantry regiment to attack the Zulus with great fanfare, and used artillery to fight mosquitoes, which was itself powerful

The intention of intimidating the British from interfering.

And the tribes around the Zulus, because of the rise of the Zulu in recent decades, the Zulu lack of cooperative partners, and the surrounding forces either have too much hatred with the Zulu, or are unwilling to intervene in this dispute. The Swajins, the Zonga, the Babedi, the Sothos, and so on, were all on the sidelines

There can be no doubt that the Chinese infantry regiment's punitive action against the Zulu was instructed and ordered by Beijing to place the Rentul in the imperial sphere of influence, to help the Boers to relieve the threat on the eastern border, and to use the border issue to increase the bargaining weight with the Boers, and at the same time to declare their presence in southern Africa by force.

While the Chinese infantry regiment marched on the Zulu capital of Ulundi, Ye Zhao came to a tribe of the Conga people near the British colony of Natal.

The Conga have been paying tribute to the Zulus for many years, but the Congas are located on the Zulu trade route with the seaport of Maputo, and have been competing with the Zulus for two decades, even for control of the surrounding small tribes.

Whether it is Britain, Portugal, or France, it is customary to buy and support tribal chiefs in Africa to serve themselves, and the Chinese are no exception after they arrive in Africa.

The chieftain of the Conga tribe that Ye Zhao met with was oddly named, officially recorded in China as "Saiganucha", and like most African chieftains, he was a cruel, greedy, and dominating fellow.

The camp of Seganucha was a fortified village with a wooden fence, a high wooden fence with an arrow tower, which has evolved into a patrol of musketeers and a wooden stake gate suspended by thick hemp ropes, all of which seem to have returned to the Shang and Zhou dynasties.

When he saw a hundred smoothbore guns and a number of explosives presented by Ye Zhao's entourage, Seganu grinned widely, and his thick lips seemed to be turned over.

The sun fell through the gaps in the wide leaves, shining on the wooden box containing the firearms, Segnucha walked over, greedily stroking the muskets, although these firearms have long been eliminated by the troops of the great powers, but there is still a large market in Africa, these firearms that Ye Zhao tinkered with have been wiped with oil and look new, for the natives, this is a good thing. …,

"Honorable Sir Oriental Sir Honor, it is my pleasure to help you." Saiganu had a flattering smile on his face, he was the first chieftain of the Conga people to fall to the Chinese, and it was always Tao Chaoqing who sent people to contact him, and a large area of land around the Lavumisa Imperial Estate was obtained with his help

This time, Saiganu was able to meet the big proprietor and big boss behind the scenes, and he was able to serve with a full twelve points of spirit, and his tribe could gradually become the most powerful tribe among the Congjia people, naturally because of the support of the Chinese suzerain, Saiganu was eager to give his heart to this noble man from the East.

And the pomp and circumstance of this noble man also frightened Segnu, who was followed by three or four hundred rifle gunmen, and the loaded rifle knew at first sight that it was a high-end product, and only the Chinese royal infantry had such an imposing presence in southern Africa.

Obviously, this is an extraordinary person, and Seganucha is becoming more and more respectful, hoping to get the support of the Chinese nobles as always, and if this cooperative relationship is maintained, his tribe will become stronger and stronger.

For this chief, there are not so many ethical constraints or any moral issues, and like most indigenous tribal chiefs, Segnucha thinks very simply, that is, how to be more beneficial to himself and his tribe, and who is the master and who is the servant in the relationship with the Chinese, Segnucha will never be confused.

The news of the Chinese attack on the Zulus also reached the ears of Segnucha, who heard that a company of more than 100 Chinese infantry had defeated the Zulu army of 3,000 people, and he vaguely knew that the Chinese infantry was extremely strong, but he did not want to be strong, which made Segnucha even more glad that he had sided with the Chinese very early.

This time, however, the Chinese nobles hoped that he could help the Maputo Overseas Province officials and facilitate the signing of a protectorate agreement between Eswatini and the Maputo Overseas Province, and Segnucha knew that it might be a good deal for him

An unprecedented opportunity. (To be continued [this text is provided by Fan Le]. If you like this work, you are welcome to ◤◢ to vote for recommendation, monthly pass, your support, is my most

Big power. ）