In the evening

Camped on the shores of Lake Malawi, on the vast emerald green plains, dotted with gray-and-white tents, and a few sheepskin rafts on the lake, casting nets for fishing.

Smoke curls from the camp and the smell of cooking is emanating from the camp.

Lake Malawi is extremely rich in aquatic products, and no one has caught it for thousands of years, so the fish in the lake are stupid and not afraid of people, and the big fish of more than twenty or thirty catties are in groups at every turn, and they go down to the net to live in a net, and from time to time they see the sheepskin raft being dragged over, and everyone laughs.

There is a large group of hippos frolicking by the lake in the distance, the number is enough to have hundreds of heads, all of them eat fat and strong, the adult hippopotamus is more than 4 meters long, weighing 3~4 tons, it can be seen that they live well, and from time to time they turn over a huge splash by the lake.

With an average depth of 270 meters, the hippopotamus can only eat rich aquatic plants in the shallow waters of the lake, and it is impossible to go down beyond 30 meters of water depth, because the increasing water pressure is enough to squeeze the hippos, which is a forbidden area.

On the other hand, there are many large fish species that are deep-water fish species that live in different waters from hippos and do not interfere with each other.

Around the campsite

There are large herds of African wildebeests, bison, African gazelles, lions and African hyenas, but there is no sign of people.

This great plain is so vast that the Lake Malawi area alone covers an area of more than 30,000 square kilometers, the large plain on the east bank of the lake area covers an area of more than 100,000 square kilometers, and the large plain on the west bank of the lake area is even larger, which is a paradise for wild animals.

More than 2,000 immigrants had arrived, accompanied by more than 700 soldiers, on the orders of the Count; Occupy as much of the Malawi region as possible, and the newly built settlements are very far away from the campsites, the nearest one is more than 630 kilometers to the north-west, and the farthest one is nearly 700 kilometers away from the north-east, in a semi-circular distribution, encompassing the entire Malawi region, and penetrating into the German-occupied East African region like a wedge.

Pity such a small person, who can't even see the splash in the area.

Therefore, the delegation led by Li Fushou could not see anyone for at least a week, and the Lake Malawi area is 560 kilometers long from north to south, and it takes eight or nine days to travel even on horseback.

The entire area of Mozambique is about 800,000 square kilometres, while the occupied area of Queensland is as high as 1.1 million square kilometres, and the extra 300,000 square kilometres are all near Malawi.

In the spirit of the Berlin Conference; Whoever occupies owns it.

"Bang Bang Bang ......"

After a crisp burst of gunfire, a large herd of African gazelles ran desperately, breaking the silence of the great plain by the lake and bringing the scenery to life.

"Master, you hit ......"

Gu Liuyan shouted in surprise, looking at Li Fushou with adoring eyes, Li Fushou put down the specially customized rifle in his hand, and said with a smile on the corner of his mouth; "These African gazelles are very bold, they have never tasted the power of a gun, and now I will teach them a good lesson."

"Wow...... Sir is the best. ”

"Hey, hey, hey......"

Li Fushou smiled reservedly and made no sound, watching the guards behind him rush up, lifting up the more than ten African gazelles that everyone had knocked down and throwing them on the horses, preparing to barbecue and eat them on the bonfire at night, which was very delicious.

Li Fushou hit one with his own hands, and the rest are the credit of the guards, and they drank fish soup and ate barbecue at night, so everyone was in a very good mood, and they were busy talking and laughing.

"Look, sir...... There's a group of lions staring at us over there. ”

"It's okay, they don't dare to come."

"Look, sir, a few lions are coming."

"Oh......"

As soon as the lion did not dare to come, a few fierce lionesses came leisurely, the dense weeds covered most of their bodies, several lionesses faintly formed a hunting formation in the lazy march, they smelled the fresh blood smell of the African gazelle.

Li Fushou looked at these lioness with an unkind expression, feeling sorry for their fate.

Behind these lionesseses, more than 20 lions followed, a large lion pack and the king of the lake area, stimulated by the smell of prey blood, ready to act.

The horses still neighed uneasily as they were soothed by the guards, a natural fear of the predators of the wasteland.

"Prepare, shoot ......"

When several lionesses approached within 50 meters, Fu Peng decisively ordered to shoot, only to hear a crisp gunshot, these close lionesses all fell in a pool of blood, and died of weak convulsions.

This frightened the lions, and they immediately fled.

The two male lions ran into the distance and stopped one after another, turned around and looked at the wasteland in disbelief, as well as the humans with guns in the wasteland, with a feeling of bewilderment and confusion......

What the hell is going on?

After the guards cheered, they took out the sharp saber on their waists and ran up, they were already preparing to roast some lion meat to eat in the evening, the lion bone soaking wine is also quite good, it is a big supplement, the lion skin is taken back and nitrated and spread on the ground, isn't it good?

Out of the habit of thrift and thrift in the bones of the Chinese, anyway, it can't be wasted.

After the vignette

At the end of the hunt, the guards hugged Li Fushou and his wife Gu Liuyan to return, and sang "Return from Target Shooting" excitedly along the way, and the cheerful singing paved the way home.

With the development of settlement, the Marawi region will usher in a great change, this wildlife paradise will be completely changed, African lions and hyenas, wild dogs, wolves, crocodiles, spotted leopards and cheetahs are all hunted and removed, the good days of wild animals are over, these predators pose a serious threat to migration and pastures, and must be completely eliminated.

In addition, large herds of African wildebeest and bison are also hunted by migrants, as these wild animals destroy pastures, eat the most tender and delicious weeds, and attack humans, which is absolutely intolerable.

The arrival of immigrants will change everything here, and it is inevitable that colonization will happen.

No one can tolerate lions and ferocious African hyenas in the vicinity of pastures and farmland, so the fate of these wild animals is already sealed.

Back to the tent

Li Siren, assistant to the deputy director, followed in with the documents, and after respectfully saluting, he handed over the documents in his hand; "Master, this is an urgent report that the messenger has just delivered, please review it."

"Oh, what's the matter?" Li Fushou took it and threw it on the folding table, took the brewed tea and took a sip, and asked casually.

"Back to my lord, it's about the armed rebellion of two African tribes, and the African Expeditionary Force's application for the deployment of enough Arab horses from Xi'an Town to equip the army."

"Okay, I see."

Li Fushou waved his hand, sent away the secretary Li Siren, picked up the documents, and looked at the dim kerosene light in the tent.

file display;

A rebel force, dominated by the Ngoni in the north-western province and in a remote inland area, fought against the Portuguese for more than 70 years, occupying Lorenzo-Marques and threatening the town of Dausofara, raging south of the Zambezi River.

This indigenous rebel force is the largest, bringing together dozens of indigenous tribes in Ngoni, with a total number of about 100,000 people, led by the Ngoni chief Gengenhana, to form the so-called "Gaza Federation", so it is called "Ghaza Armed Forces".

Queensland's colonial powers ruled Mozambique and drove out the Portuguese, thus inheriting the rebellion in the region.

The reason why the Gaza armed forces were not encircled and suppressed before was mainly due to the lack of troops, which could not take into account the remote southwestern provinces for the time being, and the African Expeditionary Force did not equip cavalry on a large scale, and the army's mobility was limited, so it could only come step by step.

But now the Gaza forces have begun to attack the road construction army and threaten the town of Sorafa, which has attracted the attention of the African expeditionary force, and is ready to deploy troops to encircle and suppress it.

There is also an indigenous African rebel force, the Shona people who live on the central Manica plateau, and under the leadership of African chiefs Umtasa and Mapondra, who have gathered tens of thousands of people and are entrenched in the border area between Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

The command of the expeditionary force was ready to encircle and suppress the rebel forces, but the lack of war horses became the biggest problem.

The central Manica Plateau is a mountainous area, with valleys and hills between rivers, and the Shona people are nomadic tribes with uncertain whereabouts, so it is best to send cavalry troops to encircle and suppress them.

The command of the expeditionary force applied for 3,600 Arab war horses that were enough to equip two regiments, which made Li Fushou frown and consider giving instructions on the application report;

No, small-scale Arabian thoroughbreds can be appropriately introduced, bred in captivity, and gradually develop the horse farms belonging to the expeditionary force, so as to finally achieve the goal of fully equipping cavalry.

Dropping the pen in his hand, Li Fushou rubbed his eyebrows with a little headache, and directly ignored the request of the African Expeditionary Force.

Are you kidding?

It is not an easy task to transport a large number of war horses to Mozambique all the way, not to mention how cumbersome and difficult it is to organize such a number of war horses, the cost alone is also astronomical, and the eligible Arab war horses are never cheap, and they are also strategic materials strictly controlled by the Ottoman Empire.

Subtracting the horses that died of illness during transportation, in order to meet the expectations of the expeditionary force, at least more than 5,000 war horses must be organized.

What is this concept?

At the very least, it was the cost of building a heavy cruiser, the "Xuanwu", which was in Africa, not in Australia itself.

Li Fushou would rather equip the African Expeditionary Force with one more regiment of machine guns than equip them with war horses, the price is too expensive.

The only way is to set up a local horse farm and breed Arabian horses step by step, which is within an acceptable range, but the disadvantage is that it takes too long and does not bear fruit in seven or eight years.

The indigenous Africans had no cavalry or horses, and the nomadic tribes of the Shona people mainly raised cattle and poultry and livestock, they drank cow blood, drank milk, ate beef, and would also pick wild bananas and wild fruits to supplement their food needs, but did not raise horses.

This is because there are no horse breeds in Africa that can be ridden, and the irascible zebra is difficult to tame, let alone ride.

The indigenous people of Africa are quite satisfied with their own lives, and they really don't have the kind of ambition to sweep the continent with war horses, and their understanding of horses is that they are food and can be eaten.

As for domesticating rides, I really don't have that kind of mind.

Why can't zebras be domesticated into war horses?

Zebras are a species that are not quite like other horses, they are so irritable that the most troublesome thing is that once a zebra bites something, it is difficult for it to let go.

The environmental crisis of the African zebra's survival is full of dangers, resulting in a great nervous reaction of the zebra, once frightened, it will either be directly scared "to death", or directly frightened "crazy", and even the legs are stiff, and they fall directly on the grass, who else dares to ride?

Another point is that the eyesight of zebras is too poor, and there have been embarrassing incidents of zebras crashing and dying on big trees on the African grasslands.

According to the lazy nature of Africans, they will never provoke a wild animal with a violent personality like a zebra, isn't it good for everyone to get along harmoniously?