Just when the Balkan war was raging, the small city of Zaria, a small city on the upper reaches of the Kaduna River in distant Africa, led by Lugard himself, was preparing to raze the ancient city with a devastating momentum, until now because of the resistance of the, Nigeria's oil development plan has been delayed for two years, and the bigwigs in London have long been impatient, before because of the Boer War can not spare energy, and then because of the Baghdad railway crisis, now they can finally free up their hands to clean up these.

It is said that it is a 5,000-strong army, but in fact, the real British army is less than a battalion, although the British Army sent a division to Nigeria, but the main force is going north along the Niger River to attack Fusokoto, where is the nest of the anti-British Sokoto Sultan, here is just a partial division, after all, the supply of the British army is inseparable from the river, and from here continue to the north there is no navigable river.

In addition to the British army, the vast majority of Lugard's remaining blacks were recruited from the Lagos colony, but this was enough, after all, His Royal Highness the Emir of Zaria on the other side was only a few hundred guns, and with the combat habits of the blacks, Lugard estimated that his casualties would not reach double digits, of course, this refers to the British army, and the under him would not be considered casualties no matter how many casualties.

"Edward, wait a while to bombard their city gates, it is estimated that you will succeed in fifteen minutes at most, and then let the soldiers run forward as fast as possible, don't worry about their blockade, these may hit anything, but they can't hit their enemies, and after fighting them for a long time, you will find that with rifles are far easier to deal with than with bows and arrows, they can shoot a rabbit with a bow and arrow, But there is absolutely no ability to hit this rabbit with a rifle again at the same distance, notice that I am talking again. Lugard held up the binoculars and looked at the walls of Zaria as he smiled and said to the British lieutenant colonel beside him.

Lieutenant Colonel Edward smiled cooperatively, he had just been transferred from South Africa, and he had relatively rich combat experience.

"Wait until you enter the city. The rest of the matter is not for us to do, if their emir refuses to surrender, then let the who came with us kill people, they are not a people, they have been used to killing each other for hundreds of years, and they will do it more thoroughly than we do. Lugard continued.

Little did he know that while he was teaching Lieutenant Colonel Edward about how to deal with, a white man in an Arabic robe was also observing the most famous British legend in West Africa through a telescope on the walls of Zaria.

"Cole, how far is the Sultan of Sokoto's men?" He asked his companion very calmly.

"Just received a telegram. In another four or five hours their cavalry could arrive. Said the companion.

"Well, it looks like Mr. Lugard is going to meet his second Lake Nyasaland here." Just retired for half a year, German Captain Schumann, who had participated in the burning of Washington, said lightly.

Since the British sabotaged their Baghdad railway plan, then William naturally had to pay back, a British defeat in Nigeria was not too much, Captain Schumann brought a whole company of German troops and four heavy machine guns and two mortars, plus armed with German arms, the city currently has 2,000 heavily armed soldiers waiting for the British High Commissioner of Northern Nigeria, Lugard, and his soldiers.

Of course. This is not the most important thing, the important thing is that on the road from Kano to Zaria, an army of more than 20,000 people, cobbled together by the city-states of his empire, led by the Sultan of Sokoto himself, is coming. The five thousand cavalry who were the vanguard were less than half a day's journey from here.

Lugard, who had no idea that danger was coming, couldn't wait to order the attack, because he knew that the could not have artillery, so the British pulled the four 75 rapid-fire infantry guns they brought directly to a distance of 1.5 kilometers. Cannonballs were frantically poured at the city gates, and in the flames of the explosion, the ancient city gates, which had fallen into disrepair, lasted less than five minutes before they were reduced to pieces. Even the adobe walls collapsed.

"Attack." Lieutenant Colonel Edward drew his saber with his snow-white gloved right hand, and then pointed forward very majestically, and the drummer beside him immediately beat the snare drum, and the lobsters who had been waiting for a long time immediately shouted, and the bayonet Li Enfield rifle ran wildly towards the gap in the wall, and the who followed them and rushed forward.

Because Lugard has long said that there is no need to care about the blocking on the city wall, so these people are just like the habit of the last century, swarming in a dense formation, and it is indeed as Lugard said, the on the opposite city wall began to shoot at a distance of a kilometer, just listening to the bullets whizzing overhead, but until the distance of five hundred meters, not to mention the British army, even those did not see a single one fall, and then rushed forward to a distance of three hundred meters, densely packed among the five thousand attacking soldiers, Still no casualties were seen.

"Oh my God, that's an exaggeration!" Lieutenant Colonel Edward exclaimed in disbelief that if the opposite side was replaced by the Boers, it was estimated that half of them would have fallen on the way to attack by this time.

'Edward, this is the way the war, if they can kill ten white men, then it can be said to be a victory, if the white men suffer more than a hundred casualties in front of them, it will be a great battle for them to boast about. Lugard said with a smile.

As soon as he finished saying this, suddenly there was a strange whistling above his head, and Lieutenant Colonel Edward's face changed drastically in an instant.

"Mortar!" He screamed as he reached out and pressed Lugard down, and at the moment when the two of them threw themselves on the ground, two fire regiments exploded on the artillery position, and a seventy-five cannon directly turned into scattered parts, and the barrel of the cannon even flew over their heads.

Lugard was so frightened that he almost peed his pants, but before he could come to his senses, two more balls of fire exploded, and then shells kept falling, and all four infantry guns were destroyed in less than two minutes.

At the same time, the attacking infantry also fell from heaven to hell in an instant, and four heavy machine guns suddenly appeared on the city wall, and the muzzles of the flames were like the grins of demons, and the dense hail of bullets hit the lobster in the middle of the storm, and in the blink of an eye, countless dead bodies fell.

The who attacked together were directly frightened by this scene, and after they came to their senses, they did not hesitate to scream and turn around and run, and even trampled the British officers who tried to stop them under their feet, and the mortars that destroyed the British artillery also shifted their targets at this time, and the eighty-two shells exploded one after another in the middle of the routed, driving them to rout like rabbits.

"Go back! Go on the offensive! Lieutenant Colonel Edward, who got up from the ground, brandished his saber and roared hoarsely, he knew that he had fallen into a trap, but the best option in this situation was to continue the attack, the walls had been blasted open, and four heavy machine guns could not stop the attack of five thousand men in any case, but if he escaped, he would definitely not have such a chance next time.

It's a pity that those mercenaries don't care about this, they know that if they continue to rush forward, they will fall under the muzzle of the machine gun in piles, although they will also be hit as targets when they escape, but at least there is hope of escape, but in the roar of Lieutenant Colonel Edward, his scattered directly, and only two or three hundred remaining British soldiers remained on the battlefield. Fortunately, these soldiers who had experienced the Boer War were still very experienced in combat, and after the initial panic, they quickly found their own concealment, and then lay there and shoot at the city wall, but it was obvious that this kind of shooting was extremely unfair when the opponent was condescending and protected by cover.

Seeing the British soldiers in front of him being shot by machine guns and rifles on the city wall one by one like dogs, Lieutenant Colonel Edward reluctantly gave the order to retreat, and the remnants of the British troops in front carefully crawled out of the battlefield under the cover of terrain and vegetation, and when they came back to count, Lieutenant Colonel Edward found that he had given the a victory worth showing off for centuries, and he had one hundred and fifty soldiers who had not been able to return, of course, not only the dead, but also some seriously wounded were wailing on the battlefield.

Fortunately, at this time, his also stopped the rout, and after regrouping, he and Lugard immediately determined that there were definitely no in the opposite city of Zaria.

"Germans, must be Germans!" Lugard said hatefully, this is certain, it is not unusual for the German figure to appear among the, but in his previous intelligence, there were no Germans around the Emir of Zaria, it is obvious that his information is wrong, or he is simply being given information to his people.

It can be said that the current predicament is completely caused by him, and it is conceivable that if he had been more well-informed, and had not instilled those faint tricks in the British army, even if he had not taken Zaria at this time, at least he would not have suffered so many casualties, let alone the artillery, and now it can be said that he was in a dilemma.

Lieutenant Colonel Edward didn't complain much about him, anyway, the matter has come to this point, it's useless to say anything, besides, it's more than 100 dead and wounded, a battalion he led on the battlefield in South Africa has been wiped out, and this little dead and wounded on the battlefield is a fart. Because it was getting dark, after sending a radio message to Lagos to send another batch of reinforcements there, especially a batch of artillery, the army was camped outside the city, and they were transported by water from the Niger and Kaduna rivers, so it was very convenient to send reinforcements.

What they didn't know, however, was that the real killer had arrived, and in a dense forest less than ten kilometers away from their barracks, a full five thousand tribal cavalry of the Fulani Empire were waiting for darkness to cut off the heads of the British with their scimitars. (To be continued......)