Less than sixty kilometers from Pretoria there is a river, known to the Boers as the Meritelle, and the 111th, 123rd, and 514th divisions of the East African Army camped on the north bank of the Murray Taylor River.

After more than ten days of high-intensity marching, the East African soldiers were generally a little tired, even Ernst on horseback was a little unbearable, and there was a battle with a small group of Boers in Petersburg before, so the East African Army needed to rest and wait for the troops transporting grain and grass by the way.

The battle at Petersburg was not even an appetizer for the East African Army, the Boer army combined did not have five hundred men, and the weapons used were inferior to the East African Army, and the East African army sent a cavalry battalion to crush the Boers.

At night, the breeze came and brought a hint of coolness, and there was a burst of singing from the barracks on the banks of the Murray Taylor River:

"By the creek in the village of the Rhine,

On the golden wheat field,

The eagle soars freely.

Who packed this bag for me,

Who put on this uniform for me,

Never forget the gentle girl of her hometown.

The Rhine is my beautiful homeland,

Who can forget the lovely hometown ......"

East African soldiers sat around the campfire singing to the beat of the zitra (a traditional Austrian instrument), and everyone had a smile on their faces. It was an evening party organized by the East African soldiers themselves to relieve their boredom.

Ernst heard the singing of the East African soldiers, and inadvertently stretched his brows, and the corners of his mouth rose, this kind of simple song has not been heard for a long time!

Ernst rarely went to the countryside in Germany except for Heixingen, and listened to a lot of high-end concerts, after all, it was an indispensable part of aristocratic life, and such songs with the style of the German countryside and the army were never experienced by Ernst and the people.

Seeing that His Highness was interested in this, Witt explained on the side: "The East African soldiers have created a lot of military music, this tradition has existed since the first town colony was just established, and it can be traced back to the German states, most of the members of the first mercenary team came from the armies of the German states, and the German states had military bands, so we East Africa was also inevitably affected by this, and at the same time, in the barracks where there was no entertainment, songs from all over Germany quickly became popular, Some people who are slightly musically literate have begun to try to compose music, and can write many popular songs in the army with simple vocabulary. ”

"These were the precious cultural treasures of the East African kingdom," Ernst said, "and when the war was over, the court musicians would have it recorded." ”

As the chorus ended, the next show was a surprise, at least to Ernst's surprise.

"The performers of the next show will invite artists from the East to bring us the Oriental opera "The Story of Three Nations."

There was a round of applause, it seemed that the audience was quite wide, and many soldiers from Germany seemed to be looking forward to it, which made Ernst a little curious, can the Germans understand?

Then a familiar piece of music sounded that made Ernst's scalp tingle, a piece played on an earthen pipa (willow leaf lyre), with a distinctly oriental opera.

Ernst has no contact with opera, but has heard Henan opera, Huangmei opera and opera, which is not that Ernst likes it, but when he was a child, his grandmother liked to listen to opera, and he listened to it himself, especially the story of Yang Jiajiang who listened to it the most.

Then things turned out to be even more unexpected, and as the prelude ended, the man with the earthen lute began to sing, but he did it in German?

Because it's German, Ernst also understood, this is the story of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the three heroes vs. Lu Bu, good guy! The most exaggerated thing is that he also rhymed! Rhyme in German! So much so that Ernst directly exclaimed: "Talent! No, genius! ”

Ernst never thought that someone would sing in a "foreign" language, and it sounded good, compared to Ernst's overreaction, but the soldiers sitting around the campfire listened with relish, I don't know if it was because the exotic story of the Far East such as the Three Kingdoms was fascinating, or the unique Oriental singing voice was more attractive.

Ernst: "Thinker, when the party is over, give me the information of the person who knows Oriental opera." ”

"Yes, Headmaster." Thinker responded.

Witt had already guessed why the principal was so surprised just now, to be honest, the first time I saw the oriental opera sung in German, it was also like this, it was very weird, but I didn't think much about it at the time, because of the diversity of immigrants in East Africa, so it is not uncommon for some strange things to appear, this kind of thing is not an exception in East Africa, but a large number of examples piled together, although East Africa can make the whole East Africa and Germany the same difference in hardware, but culture is not something that the East African government can control, at most it plays a guiding role, For example, the promotion of the German language has been very successful.

……

After resting, the East African army continued to advance, and two days later, Pretoria appeared in front of Ernst.

Ernst mounted his horse, took out the telescope pinned to his waist, and carefully observed the city construction of Pretoria, thinking in his heart.

Ernst: "Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal, is about the same size as our first town, and it's a well-developed city in Africa. ”

Witt: "Headmaster, there aren't many people in the Transvaal Republic in total, not even as much as the population of our Central Province, and that's when we haven't gone all out to develop the Central Province. ”

Now the population of the Transvaal Republic is estimated to be at the level of more than 100,000, after all, there is no demographic data like East Africa, which is not easy to assess, but in the second Boer War in history, the population of the Transvaal Republic plus the Orange Free State was only about 440,000, and that was still in 1899, so the population of the Transvaal Republic will definitely not exceed 200,000 now, and it should be more likely to be in the early 100,000s.

If the population of the Boers is now more than 200,000, then according to the level of their entire army, they will not be bullied like that by the small Zulu Kingdom.

Pretoria, on the other hand, is about the same size as First Town from a distance, and it probably doesn't exceed 30,000 people. The total number of Ernst's three divisions reached more than 23,000, which means that it was easy to take Pretoria.

So Ernst said: "To start preparing for battle, the 514th Division will first launch a tentative attack on Pretoria!" ”

The 514th Division belongs to the second-line troops in East Africa, but it is also a standing army, one level higher than the militia armed forces, and the 123rd Division is a cavalry mobile unit, mainly responsible for mobile field operations, siege is not a strong point, mainly to deal with the cavalry of the Boers, and the 123rd Division was dispatched by Petersburg before.

As for the 111th Division, it belongs to the elite forces of East Africa like the 123rd Division, but the 111th Division is an all-rounder, the second infantry division in the East African sequence, and the first is the 101st Division, that is, the Royal Guards Division, although the Royal Guards Division is called a division, it should actually be more accurate to become a military talent, with a total strength of 30,000 men, responsible for the defense of the entire Central Province, of which the gateways of the two first towns, Bagamoyo and Dar es Salaam, are the focus of its defense.

To deal with Pretoria, Ernst was ready to test the water with the 514th Division, which was one of the old foundations of the Southern Route Army and the worst combat effectiveness in the Southern Route Army, while the other units of the Southern Route Army were responsible for other directions of strategy.

For example, the 511th and 513th Divisions attacked the Transvaal from Botswana on the west bank of the Limpopo River, while the three troops led by Ernst himself attacked the Transvaal from Zimbabwe on the north bank of the Limpopo River.

The middle and upper reaches of the Limpopo River present a large bend in the shape of a horseshoe, encircling the west and north of the Transvaal Republic in the middle, which is also the situation of the Transvaal troops attacking the Transvaal in East Africa, in fact, there are two divisions led by Felix in the east, although Felix's troops also pass through the Transvaal Republic, but Felix's troops are mainly towards the Eswatini Kingdom, Eswatini Kingdom is built on the eastern slope of the Drakens, and there are mountain combat needs, So the only mountain division in East Africa, the 331st Division, was also in Felix's hands.

(End of chapter)