October 5, 1867.

Lake District, East Malawi.

The village of Mitomoni is located more than 100 kilometers south of the city of Songaia.

The Lake East Malawi region is densely forested, with tall clusters of trees that are very different from the endless grasslands of the northern colonies of East Africa.

In the past, even in the 21st century, Tanzania's forest coverage remained at about 50 percent, but now the entire Tanzania has only a lot more forest coverage.

Unlike tropical rainforests and subtropical forests, the forests of East Africa are not densely populated between trees, and there are large gaps between trees, and there are mainly grasslands between trees, and there are few shrubs, etc., so it is easy to pass, but it is easy to get lost without a compass and map.

As a result, the Lake District of East Malawi is also the least developed land in East Africa, after all, a single fire in the grasslands can burn a large area of wasteland, and it is still difficult for the small East African colonies to cut down these trees.

There are two sides to everything, the forests are abundant, and the timber resources are abundant, and due to the limitation of transportation capacity, these trees cannot be exported at present, but they greatly meet the needs of the East African colonies themselves.

Building houses, using them as fuel, and making tools, all of which can be used to exploit these abundant resources, are inexhaustible in order to exploit the timber according to the current population size of the East African colonies.

As one of the southernmost villages in the Lake District of East Malawi, Mitomoni Village is also a small military stronghold.

In addition to the low walls made of earth and stone, there were also rudimentary sentry posts made of wood, and there were wooden horses in the exit direction, which was a bit of a luxury for the natives of the south.

Strictly speaking, East Africa did not share a border with the Portuguese colony of Mozambique, after all, although Mozambique has a large population, there are not many Portuguese, and most of them are located along the coast.

Naturally, the Portuguese could not have a complete grasp of Mozambique, so there were a large number of indigenous tribes in Mozambique, and their relationship with the Portuguese was more like a vassal state.

As long as they submit to the rule of the Portuguese kingdom, they are considered their own people, of course, this situation is more obvious in the interior, in the coastal areas controlled by the Portuguese themselves, those natives can only make cattle and horses for the Portuguese, and bully them at will.

Before the end of the slave trade, Mozambique was an important source of goods for the Kingdom of Portugal.

The Portuguese colonization of Mozambique was also a rule, first capturing the ports on the coast and then gradually expanding inland along the rivers.

Of course, the Portuguese also had a side goal in the beginning, which was to destroy the Arab power as much as possible, so it was also a religious war.

In Mozambique, the Portuguese succeeded, and the Arabs along the coast were really weak and it was difficult to resist the Portuguese invasion.

However, when the Portuguese tried to replicate this operation to the north, they encountered the Sultanate of Zanzibar, which was in its prime, and the two sides were tied, so the Portuguese turned from confrontation to cooperate with the Sultanate of Zanzibar, and the two sides jointly developed the interests of the western Indian Ocean coast.

Once the Portuguese had reached as far as Zimbabwe and parts of Zambia, the Portuguese were forced to retreat to Mozambique due to the plague in both places, which was the first failed attempt by Western colonists to exploit the interior of Africa.

Until now, the Portuguese have not succeeded in expanding into the interior of Africa, and at most they have been an important extraterritorial influence affecting the indigenous kingdoms and tribes of the interior.

……

A Portuguese patrol, heavily armed, headed north, led by Tulio Penelli, a Portuguese colonial officer in Mozambique.

As a Portuguese who has been in the colony of Mozambique for many years, Tulio Penelli is familiar with the local area.

The small team, 47 men in all, followed the traditional road and inspected the indigenous tribes of the Mozambican colony.

Gradually, Tulio Penelli came to the border between the East African colonies and the Mozambique colonies.

In fact, the Portuguese did not know much about the expansion of the East African colonies, only that the Germans defeated the Sultanate of Zanzibar, but the Sultanate of Zanzibar still existed, only retreating to the island of Zanzibar.

According to the Portuguese, the Germans should be on the same path as themselves, mainly concentrated in the coastal zone, and at most affect the inland tribes.

After all, the Portuguese themselves had been developing the local area in Africa for hundreds of years, and they had not succeeded in penetrating deep into the interior, and the Germans had just arrived and developed the coastal plains at most.

The village of Mitomoni is not far from Lake Malawi and can be regarded as inland, so Tulio Penelli and his party set off nonchalantly towards the north.

Soon, after arriving at the last tribe in northern Mozambique, its chieftain began to report the latest news with Tulio Penelli.

"There are many people who have fled from the north, who have been captured by us, they are all from the tribes of the north, and I heard that they have recently been driven away by a group of white-faced men, and many of the rebels have been killed, or fled westward, and they are also resisters, and they do not want to flee west, and have fled to our territory with the help of the forest." The interpreter said to Tulio Penelli.

"White faces?" Tulio Penelli whispered, "Could it be the Germans!" ”

Tulio Penilli was undecided, and said to the chief, "Tell me in detail what they look like, how they dress, and what they are wearing, and what they are all about. ”

"Our people have been to the north to check, there has been a castle (Mitomoni village) has been built there, they have a very similar skin color to you (in fact, most of them are Chinese), they have the same weapons (guns) as you, and they are dressed similarly, but they are more uniform, and they are not as good as your clothes (Westerners have bells and whistles, while the East African colonies are mainly military uniforms), and the people of the northern tribes we captured say that the other side is a tribe with lions as totems." The chief replied.

"It seems that it is indeed German!" Tulio Penelli said to the players, "In that case, we will go and pay a visit, and then we will listen to my orders, and not to clash with the Germans." ”

Soon, Tulio Penelli and his party rushed to the vicinity of the village of Mitomoni under the leadership of the chief, and looked at it from a distance, and in front of the rudimentary fortifications stood the lion totem that the chief said.

Tulio Penelli naturally recognized that it was not a tribal totem in the mouth of the local natives, but a flag, the coat of arms (coat of arms) of the Heixingen family, and the flag of the East African colonies.

In fact, Tulio Penelli only knew that it was the flag of a European aristocratic family, as for Heshingen or something, so many nobles in Europe, especially in Germany, where did Tulio Penelli, a commoner of the Kingdom of Portugal, know him.

The reason why we can know that it is the flag of the European aristocratic family is mainly the lion on the flag, which is too common in Europe, and many noble families have this sign on the royal coat of arms, and the eagle and lion can generally be used as the family emblem (coat of arms).

But this did not prevent Tulio Penelli from knowing that it was the flag of the Germans, because on the eastern seaboard, Portuguese merchants could still obtain a lot of information from East Africa, especially at the mouth of the Rufuma River (the boundary river between the East African colonies and the Mozambique colonies), and many of these flags were set up on the opposite bank.

What Tulio Penelli didn't expect was that the Germans had infiltrated the interior of East Africa and established a large foothold here.