Tete is also more than 100 kilometers away from the nearest military stronghold in East Africa, but Portuguese troop movements in Tete have also been detected by Scout Cavalry in East Africa.

"It seems that the Portuguese are planning to use the tete as a breakthrough point to attack us, and now we will quickly bring this news back to Songo."

Upstream of Tete, Songo is a military stronghold established in East Africa on the banks of the Zambezi River, located more than 20 kilometers downstream of the former Kabrabassa Reservoir.

There is an asymmetrical relationship between East Africa and Mozambique, because of the isolation of East Africa, it is difficult for Mozambique to enter East Africa to survey and intelligence, while East Africa wants to obtain information about Mozambique.

First of all, Mozambique's intelligence officers may be intercepted by military strongholds and checkpoints on the East African border or border troops as soon as they arrive at the border, and if they are lucky enough to enter the territory of East Africa, they will face the problem of material supply.

East Africa implements a household registration system, without identity or relevant documents, once they encounter villages or East Africans, there is a risk of being discovered, and avoid settlements, then they have to be accompanied by African beasts.

All in all, the difficulty of getting into East Africa to obtain intelligence is arguably the most difficult of all countries in the world.

Of course, Portugal had received some information before, and that was when East Africa initially occupied the province of Matabele (Zimbabwe).

However, at that time, the province of Matabele, East Africa had not yet been developed, and the Portuguese could not obtain any useful information other than geographical information.

Moreover, it is a high-risk occupation to inquire about intelligence in East Africa, and the intelligence officers sent by Portugal in the early days were easy to act, but after the population of Matabele Province in East Africa increased, Mozambique's intelligence personnel lost more than 30 percent, and then Portugal did not send intelligence personnel to East Africa, the loss rate was too high, no one was willing to send them to death, and East Africa also pretended not to know, the African continent was in crisis, maybe Mozambique's intelligence officers were taken away by wild beasts.

However, Mozambique is almost translucent in the eyes of East Africa, which relies on scout cavalry to enter and exit Mozambique at will, while the Mozambican colonies have no countermeasures at all, mainly because they are not manpowered.

So over the years, East Africa has often crossed the border of Mozambique, especially the northern part of Mozambique, and has almost been infiltrated by East Africa as a sieve.

When East Africa detected the anomaly in Mozambique, cross-border reconnaissance became more frequent, and it was against this background that the reconnaissance cavalry of the Songo stronghold went 100 kilometers deep and went directly to Tete to obtain information.

At this time, the Portuguese stationed in Tete did not know that their actions had been discovered by East Africa, and suddenly poured into Tete City, which had tens of thousands of troops, and there was chaos, and the black troops were chaotic, because Tete City was only a declining commercial stronghold, and there were no large-scale houses and the ability to suddenly support so many troops.

All black troops could only be stationed outside the city, and the outside of Tete City was completely turned into a noisy "vegetable market", and the East African scout cavalry could detect the anomalies of Tete City from afar.

"Was there someone on horseback watching us just now?" A black soldier asked, pointing to a small dirt slope where the East African Scout Troopers had just stopped.

"Oh! Probably, right? If you don't pay close attention, maybe a white man has just come to inspect it. ”

"Whatever! It has nothing to do with us anyway. Another soldier said.

In this way, the East African scout cavalry swaggered away in full view of the black soldiers, and none of the blacks thought that the opposite side might be the enemy's spies, and no one thought of reporting the matter to the Portuguese in the city.

That's right, now the Portuguese are all in the city of Tete, and it is actually a bit of a promotion to say that the city of Tete is more like a large fortress, and two thousand white Portuguese soldiers are gathered in the city for recreation.

Smoking, drinking, playing cards, and there are even brothels run by Portuguese merchants in the city, where Swahili girls dance on stage and Portuguese drunkards below applaud.

Darres, the president of the Tete City Chamber of Commerce: "Hahaha, several generals, you must be tired from the exhaustion of this journey, we are not a big place, so our ability is limited, so we can only entertain you with these simple meals." ”

Clément lit an East African cigar he bought in Dar es Salaam, lit it and took a puff, knocked on Erlang's leg and said, "President Darrez, you are doing business here, not far from East Africa, you should know East Africa very well, right?" ”

Dareth held up his beer belly and said: "Your Excellency General, then you misunderstand me, although Tete City is only a hundred and ten miles away from East Africa, but I really don't know what the interior of East Africa is like, since the Germans occupied the inland, they have cut off our original commercial routes, and many of the original caravans have left, like me, I also rely on the resources around Tete City to do some small business." ”

Clément: "I see, then East Africa is clearly infringing on your business interests, why don't you resist?" ”

Dares: "Your Excellency General, you don't know this, although East Africa has cut off trade routes, but they have developed several commercial ports in the north, and caravans can go to the north to get goods, and then sell them all over the world, so only people like me who originally earned caravan service fees have suffered a lot of losses, so not everyone hates East Africa, and besides, the Germans are very strong militarily, and it is not me, a small businessman, who dares to offend." ”

Clément: "Oh, do you know the strength of the German army? ”

Darez shook his head and said: "Then I don't know, I just refer to the strength of our commercial armed forces in Mozambique compared with the Germans, they are a serious army, and our commercial armed forces are at best a small fight." ”

Clement: "You should know how many German troops there are in the Tete region on the border with East Africa, right?" ”

Dares: "It can be inferred that, as far as I know, there is a German military stronghold about a hundred kilometers northwest along the Zambezi River. ”

Clément: "How big is that colony?" What about the troops? ”

Dares: "The scale is not large, the number of troops is probably about two or three hundred, and this stronghold has been established for more than three years. ”

The military stronghold mentioned by Dareth is the Songo stronghold, and East Africa is also very particular about setting up a stronghold in Songo, and the city of Tete is actually located on a plateau at an altitude of 500 meters, with the Amotilse Basin to the east and the Zambezi Basin to the west.

The Songgo stronghold in East Africa happens to be on the same small plateau as the city of Taite, but Songgo is at the end of the western part of the plateau, and Songgo and Taite also have one thing in common, that is, they control the Zambian river through the plateau, but the two places are one east and one west, Songgo is in the west, and Tete is in the east.

Darres: "Your Excellency, I wonder if my information is useful to you?" ”

"Hahaha." Clément laughed and said, "Of course, Mr. Darees, your intelligence can be of great use to our war in East Africa, and when we return from victory in the future, we will definitely take good care of your business again." ”

After learning that East Africa had only 200 troops in Songo, Clement seemed very relaxed, and this time, under his own suggestion, Portugal adopted a strategy of undeclared war, and paid attention to a surprise and a surprise to East Africa.

When they take the Songo stronghold and quickly control the south bank of the Zambezi River, then the East Africans will be strategically passive, and the East Africans' forces will be mainly concentrated in the north and south directions, and if they control the Zambezi River, the main East African forces in the north and south will lose contact, and then they can concentrate on dealing with the East African army in the south, and the German army in the north only needs to watch the Zambezi River drag it down, and this time there is another army in the direction of Lake Marawi, as long as the land passage between Lake Tanganyika and Lake Malawi is cut off, East Africa will not be able to provide timely support.

Lake Tanganyika, that is, Lake Solon in East Africa, the Portuguese also know, but they don't know whether Lake Tanganyika or the source of the Nile, the direction of Portuguese explorers was from south to north, so they don't know much about Lake Tanganyika, only know that there is a large lake in the north of Lake Malawi, and the area is probably not under Lake Malawi.

(End of chapter)