Days on end

In the estuary of the Zambezi River basin, more than a dozen battles of varying sizes broke out, and the advance team of the African Expeditionary Force bared its fangs, uprooted hundreds of Portuguese farms and pastures, occupied several towns in the region, and caused more than 9,000 white men to embark on the road of exile in panic.

The tense standoff in Mozambique has been completely broken, causing great unease among people of Portuguese descent in other regions.

The whole Mozambique region is centered on the mouth of the Zambezi River, in the Queensland administrative sequence, the region is named Zambezi Province, on the east side of Zambezi Province is more than 1,600 kilometers long Mozambique Strait, and the Kingdom of Madagascar across the sea, from here to the east across the vast Indian Ocean of more than 6,000 kilometers, you can reach the capital of Western Australia, Pass.

The area south of Zambezi Province is named the Southern Province, the southwestern part of Zambezi Province is named the South West Province, the Northwest Territory is named the North West Province, and the northern region is named the North Province, which, together with the vast coastal area of the Lake Malawi District on the west side of the Northern Province, is named the Province of Malawi.

There are six provincial-level administrative divisions with a total area of more than one million square kilometers (much larger than later Mozambique), and the larger provinces, such as the Northern Province and Zambezi Province, both exceed 200,000 square kilometers, with the largest Northern Province reaching 276,000 square kilometers.

The advance force of the African Expeditionary Force concentrated its military operations at the mouth of the lower Zambezi province, a rolling hill and plain area with a network of rivers and abundant rainfall, and many white pastures and plantations.

On the island of Mozambique in the Northern Province, the Portuguese Viceroyalty is located.

The island of Mozambique is located on the coast of the Northern Province, between the Mozambique Strait and the Gulf of Mossuri, about 4 kilometers from the mainland.

Historically, the island of Mozambique was an important transit point for the Portuguese to India, with fortified castles, piers, streets and churches in Portuguese, Indian and Arabic styles, and was known as an impregnable fortified city.

Since the 15th century, the island has been at the heart of Portuguese rule in Mozambique.

The island had a population of about 27,000 men, a Portuguese garrison of about 1,400 men, and a small fleet, which combined with armed civilians to defend the city was sufficient.

Mozambique is rich in natural resources, has a pleasant climate, an abundance of fish and seafood, and beautiful beaches, and the city has always been a commercial and fishing center, but there is no trace of industrial activity.

From the 10th century to the late 15th century, the island of Mozambique and its natural harbor were used by Arab traders as a center of maritime trade. In 1498, the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama landed on the island and claimed it as Portuguese territory.

Four years later he returned with Portuguese immigrants and founded the first fort, St. Gabriel).

From 1507 to 1886, Mozambique enjoyed irreplaceable importance as the center of Portuguese colony and the seat of the Viceroyalty.

One day in early May

In the castle of the Doge's Palace, built in the style of the Italian Renaissance, the Portuguese Governor-General, Bernardo Fernández, looked worriedly at a secret letter from Lisbon, and in front of him stood General Silva, a friend and right-hand man of the Doge.

"Your Excellency the Governor, when will we be able to send reinforcements from Lisbon?"

"Dear General Silva, the reinforcements you crave may never come, and we will have to contend with the greedy British, and by the way, their thugs, the Queenslanders, all of which are terrible."

"Oh God! Why is this happening? ”

"It's because ...... The British are firmly in control of the world's oceans, and we cannot send reinforcements to East Africa under their noses, the only possibility is to arm the people on the spot, resist step by step, and make them pay heavy losses and then stop themselves. ”

"No...... This is the rhetoric of those vile capitulationists in Lisbon. General Silva waved his hand angrily and pointed in the direction of the western African continent; We have been operating here for more than 380 years, with some of the most fertile forests and alluvial plains in East Africa, gold in the middle reaches of the Mississippi River, more than 110,000 ounces shipped to Lisbon every year, abundant water and grass to graze, fertile land to cultivate, and a suitable climate to survive. ”

"Unfortunately, Mr. General, the Kingdom of Portugal is financially difficult to sustain a large-scale overseas war, and the Spaniards have never given up their attempt to annex Lisbon, and the sea choke point is in the hands of the British, so it is impossible to draw a large number of troops to reinforce the country."

"I couldn't believe it...... This is the argument of the capitulationists, those high-ranking Lisbon officials who want to kneel down and lick the toes of the British, they are burying the future of Portugal, they all deserve to go to hell, we are not facing the British, but the Queenslanders or Australians from the East or some bullshit, no matter who they are, they are not British anyway, why should they be afraid of these Orientals? ”

"Hey...... Look at the letter for yourself, the Orientals are not as weak as you think. ”

Governor Bernardo Fernández reached out and handed over the letter, and the indignant General Silva took it and quickly read it, and then his face became extremely heavy, and he was silent for a while.

The letter details the heavy losses suffered by the Dutch in the East Indies War, which took place more than two years earlier, in which more than 46,000 people were killed and wounded, about 1.42 million square kilometers of colonies including Shangri-La, Borneo and Sulawesi were lost, and the Royal Navy fleet lost 37 ships, including the cruiser "Dutch Giant" and several sail battleships.

meanwhile

The letter also noted that Queenslanders occupy Great Hanish Island in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and have important logistics bases in Djibouti and Mogadishu for naval anchorage and logistical provisions.

On the west coast of Africa

The Queenslanders took ownership of Guinea from Lisbon and developed trade routes to the east coast of the United States, which also provided logistical supplies for the naval fleet.

Not to mention the fact that South Africa was in the hands of the British, and now that the Queenslanders had established themselves at the mouth of the Zambezi River, reinforcements from Europe would pass through and would not be immune from attack.

What does the ability of Queenslanders to cut off the Portuguese sea lines mean for the Portuguese colonies in East Africa, which may seem harmless in peacetime, but become impassable in wartime.

The bombardment of Nagasaki in March in Fuso left a deep impression on foreign envoys, and Lisbon also received a message that the Blue Dragon-class heavy cruisers had shown their formidable combat prowess, and that the Kingdom of Portugal did not yet have a navy ship that could compete with it.

Sum up

The British could not defeat them in any way, and as an ally, Portugal had to hold on tightly to the thighs of the British to resist the strong pressure from Spain.

Now it is the Queenslanders who are taking the lead, the British have left themselves clean, in fact, the two secretly wear a pair of pants, Portugal only knocks out teeth and swallows blood, and the weak have no right to speak in Europe, so they can only let the strong take what they want. The Kingdom of Portugal was extremely depressed, in internal and external difficulties, financially constrained, and now even the Queenslanders could not defeat it, and it would be a disaster for any Blue Dragon-class heavy cruiser with a displacement of up to 8,800 tons to reach the east coast of Africa.

The sensible choice was peace talks, and Lisbon was not opposed to any spontaneous resistance, but was powerless to provide any support, which was the harsh reality of the moment.

A moment later

Governor Bernardo Fernández sighed softly and broke the silence; "I have written to Earl Hoffmann, Governor of the Dutch East Indies, who has dealt with these odious Queenslanders for many years, and knows them well, and is sure to be able to give pertinent advice."

"That's great, we need the help of our friends right now." General Silva raised his eyebrows, a look of hope in his eyes.

Governor Bernardo Fernández said with a wry smile; "Don't expect too much from these Dutch, my friends, who have just evacuated Borneo at the beginning of April, giving up large swaths of land to Queenslanders, and I think they have left a deep psychological shadow on the poison of these Orientals, and I am afraid they will not be able to help much."

"Oh, God!"

The flame of hope in General Silva's eyes flickered and was extinguished in a few seconds, and he felt a headache;

Without reinforcements from Lisbon, what about the situation in Mozambique, where the edifice is about to collapse?

His own family knows his own affairs, and General Silva knows the level of equipment of his soldiers, and it is difficult to compete with the Queenslanders who are fierce and slaughtering.

Portugal is an agricultural country that has not started the process of industrialization, the level of economic development has lagged far behind that of European Tongji, the level of military readiness is even inferior to that of the Netherlands, and the weapons and equipment are a generation behind the world level, and the mainstream of the colonial army equipment is the British 1867 Enfield Snyder rifle.

At first glance, the gun looks like an old-fashioned front-loading gun, especially since the hammer is still a traditional outboard beak.

Because this batch of Enfield Schneider rifles was based on the Enfield P53 breech rifle, but the breech gun was obviously outdated in the late 1860s, and the British were reluctant to lose a large number of old P53 rifles, so they simply opened a hinged flap in the breech and changed the P53 breech to a breech.

The Portuguese bought a large number cheaply and equipped the colonial army.

This batch of guns fired 14.7mm black powder bullets, with a warhead mass of 31 grams, a muzzle muzzle velocity of 370ms, and a kinetic energy of 2120 joules.

It's okay to deal with the aboriginal African Black Uncle, but it's really hard to deal with the Queensland soldiers who are equipped with cutting-edge rifles.

What's especially terrible is that this gun uses a paper shell + metal bullet bottom .577 Schneider bullet, the breath-holding effect is there, but it is still afraid of moisture, and it is especially inconvenient to use in the rainy Mozambique region, and dumb fire often occurs.

According to reliable information received by the military;

The Queensland army that landed in the Zambezi River valley was only the vanguard, and there were still a large force of no less than 7,000 people left behind in the town of Xi'an in the Somali region, all equipped with cutting-edge weapons, and their combat effectiveness was quite strong, and they could come across the sea at any time.

This was an unsolvable problem for the Portuguese defenders, who had a total strength of just over 4,000 men.