The geographical conditions of East Africa do not have rivers with high shipping value, one is topographical, all large rivers pass through areas with large drops, and the other is climatic reasons, and the seasonal differences of rivers are large.

The construction of canals in the central province avoids the above two problems, the terrain in the central province is relatively flat, and the natural rivers have navigable value, while the rivers in the central province are also seasonal, but even in the dry season, the precipitation is very sufficient.

For example, the Ulugulu Mountains, one of the birthplaces of the Wami River and the Little Rhine River, have an average annual precipitation of more than 3,000mm.

The Rufiji River is more exaggerated, with its source in the mountains along the shores of Lake Malawi and its large area, with a strengthening in the central part and heavy rainfall in the downstream catchment area.

……

After half a month's march, the border guards of the province of South Salzburg led by Siter himself and the counterinsurgency army composed of some militia forces directly attacked Bulawayo, the capital of the Kingdom of Matabele, through the Luangwa River.

The Ndebele people along the way were simply unable to resist the menacing border guards of the South Salzburg Province, which was used to deal with the Portuguese army and ensure that East Africa was a strategic force connecting the Tanganyika region and the Katanga Plateau corridor.

Three months ago, graduates of the Heshingen Military Academy and students who had participated in the Franco-Prussian War were incorporated into the main forces of East Africa after they arrived in East Africa, and they were reorganized and specially trained for the main forces of East Africa.

One of them is the South Salzburg Border Guards, all of which are equipped with Dreiser rifles and 18 light mobile guns.

This era is also the era of rifles and artillery, although the Dreiser rifle has fallen behind in Europe, but only for the military powers of Europe, even if the Dreiser rifle with many shortcomings in the Franco-Prussian War, many European countries do not have it, such as the Kingdom of Portugal, the East African Kingdom is equipped with the Dreiser rifle for Mozambique, which is a colony of the Kingdom of Portugal.

Witt asked his guide, Cassos, "How many kilometers are there to get to Bulawayo?" ”

"Report to the Chief of the General Staff, wading through the small river in front, there are probably more than forty kilometers left." Kasos replied.

Thinker: "Are you sure that the river is so deep that you can wade through it?" ”

Kasos: "Yes, even in the rainy season, the depth of this river does not exceed 50 centimeters, and the deepest depth is about 1 meter, and we used to wade through the river, so we are very familiar with it. ”

Kasos is a survivor who escaped from the previous Ndebele rebellion, and some East African strongholds knew that something was wrong when they developed the Ndebele rebellion, and ran away in advance, the more crowded the stronghold, the more so, in the face of hundreds of Ndebele people, it was strange not to run.

But there are also conditions for running, and it is good to have a stronghold with horses, and the armed personnel of a stronghold without horses can only choose to compete with the Ndebele people.

The advantage of the armed men in East Africa is that they are durable, while the African aborigines are explosive in short distances, and the indigenous people of Zimbabwe are not good at running because they belong to the half-foot farming civilization, and all this is because of the Ndebele people.

The Ndebele people came from the Zulu kingdom and had a relatively strong knowledge, and the Shona people they enslaved were themselves more civilized among the African natives, and the Shona people lived on agriculture and pastoralism, and had mastered the crude iron-making and alchemy techniques.

The kingdom of Matabele under the rule of the Ndebele people strengthened the agricultural and pastoral attributes of the Zimbabwean region, and the Ndebele people followed the example of the Boers and built pastures and farmland in the Zimbabwe region, and became landlords themselves.

The indigenous people who are engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry do not need to rely on hunting for a living like the Bantu tribes in East Africa, so they do not have to chase prey all day long, and their ability to run long distances is not strong.

The East African troops, including the militia, have been trained, and in this era, everyone's physical fitness is good, so the two sides mainly fight for understanding and endurance of the terrain, and the East African armed personnel are not at a disadvantage in terms of physical strength.

And Kasos, with his amazing perseverance and long time in this place, has a good understanding of the terrain, and escaped from the encirclement and suppression of the Ndebele people.

With the living map of Kasos, it is much easier for Thinker to carry out his actions.

He ordered: "Give the order to go down, and the whole army is ready to cross the river." ”

Fortunately, the natives did not understand the art of war, but if they had a little military concept, they lay in ambush by the river, and when the East African army crossed the river, they would attack half-crossing. The East African army must have suffered heavy losses, but unfortunately many natives could not even count five fingers, so the East African army went deep into the territory of the Matabele plateau again smoothly.

The people of Ndebele must have some knowledge, but they are all concentrated in the royal capital, and the intellectual talents must give priority to Lobengula after all.

Lobengula's appointed prime minister was a knowledgeable and knowledgeable man of the natives, and his father was a Swahili merchant, so he had learned some mathematics himself.

Basically, the tax collection of the Matabele kingdom was monopolized by his family, and most of the leaders of Lobengula and Ndebele were warriors who only knew how to use violence, so the delicate work of managing the country had to be done by their own families.

The benefits are also obvious, as long as the basic needs of the people of Ndebele are met, most of the remaining tax revenue goes into the pockets of the prime minister's family.

The Ndebele people were fed by the Shona tribe, and twenty percent of the wealth created by the Shona went into the prime minister's pocket through taxes, which Lobengula did not know at all, only that he knew that by mastering the army, his rule would be as solid as a rock.

Therefore, as long as the prime minister can use the money to support himself to expand his army and upgrade his equipment, he can continue to be the "king of kings", as for who the prime minister pays from, it doesn't matter, so the monarchs and ministers of the Matabele Kingdom belong to both directions.

Bulawayo.

The East African army came from the north, and Lobengula also got the news, looking at the northern military leaders who retreated from the front line and knelt on the ground for help, Lobengula was angry, these old immortals will only cause trouble for themselves.

Lobengula: "Look at what you guys look like! In the past, you were asked to obey the orders of the central government, one by two, and when you met the white skin, you were as timid as a mouse, and you simply lost the face of our Ndebele warriors, and now you dare to come to see me. ”

"The great 'King of kings', it's not that we don't work hard, but that the enemy's equipment is too strong, and they, like the Boers, are armed with many firearms, and they also have artillery, and our warriors, no matter how brave, cannot fight with flesh and blood and bows, arrows and spears."

Lobengula: "Okay, don't say it again, failure is failure, don't make excuses, I just look at the results, don't make any excuses, when my father led his men to fight against the Boers, the weapons were also at a disadvantage, and they still fought well, and now you don't even want to resist, you must have been hollowed out by wine, and you have forgotten the military traditions of our Ndebele people." ”

In the face of Lobengula's accusations, the military leaders who were nearly half a hundred years old were silent, ah, yes! You're right, anyway, we've escaped now, so we can't help but cut us all down for the sake of the old king's face!

(End of chapter)