If the Portuguese were to occupy the land passage between Lake Solon (Lake Tanganyika) and Lake Malawi, it would have a real impact on East Africa, which was the point through which the Central East African Railway would pass inland.

However, it is quite difficult to occupy this place, there is the heavy industry base city of Mbeya in East Africa, three large arsenals, and the station of the 111th Division, Lake Malawi is also one of the three major bases of the East African River and Lake Army, and the black army formed in East Africa is also trained on the east bank of Lake Malawi.

The advantages of water and land transportation are all in the hands of East Africa, and logistics and supply are also quite convenient, if Portugal can break through the East African Army from Lake Malawi and its coastal areas, then there is no need for East Africa to exist.

……

Clément had the idea of raiding the Songo stronghold, but reality prevented him from implementing his idea immediately.

"Why haven't your Portuguese supplies been delivered to the front yet? Isn't the section of the Zambezi River from the estuary to Tete navigable? ”

Seen as a joke by international friends, the Portuguese general Kevendaq was also gloomy, and he comforted Clément: "We have no experience in this kind of large-scale war before, so Mozambique's logistics system has basically no experience in supplying large-scale material transshipment, and we are currently requisitioning ships from all over Mozambique, and I believe that the materials should be able to be transported to Tete in time within half a month." ”

The Mozambique colony has been peaceful for a long time, and the war of 1,000 people is a big war in the Mozambique colony, and the last time it was a big war of this scale was the annexation of the southern part of the Kingdom of Malawi, which was actually a firearm to bully the indigenous tribes with rudimentary cold weapons.

At other times, the Portuguese mainly faced threats from the sea, so naval battles were more frequent and experienced than land wars.

Therefore, this war against the Kingdom of East Africa did exceed the expectations of the Mozambican government, they did not have the experience to deal with this kind of military mobilization of 10,000 people, and the preparation time was relatively hasty, so the logistics were naturally not available.

It's okay not to be comforted, but Clement after being comforted was furious: "Half a month? We only have enough supplies to last a week, and that's not counting the ammunition reserves, and you're planning to launch an attack on East Africa while our soldiers are hungry! ”

Kevenduck: "This ...... It's not impossible, anyway, you can attack inland now, and the supplies should be delivered soon. ”

Clément: "What about the troop carriers when we came here before?" Can't they bring supplies? ”

Kevendak was embarrassed: "Those ships were temporarily rented from passing merchants, and after the money was settled, they dispersed, and the time and money spent to reunite is beyond the cost of our Mozambican colony. ”

In order to send 30,000 people to Tete City in one go, the Mozambican colonies had to temporarily charter merchant ships to carry these 30,000 people from southern Mozambique to the center.

This kind of temporary charter ship is not cheap, and it is necessary to ask for passing ships, only some empty ships are willing to accept, as for where the empty ships come from, they are generally ships that go to Mozambique to unload, mainly Arab merchant ships.

And these Arab merchant ships, many of them Arabs from the province of Zanzibar, whose main business is to bring consumer goods from East Africa to Mozambique to make the difference.

Mozambique has no manufacturing industry, everything needs to be imported, and cheap goods in East Africa are the first choice of the local Portuguese and tribal chiefs.

Kevendaq continued: "Renting a boat is three times more expensive than usual, and no one necessarily wants to do it, so we have to requisition boats from the local area to reduce costs, but it takes time for local boats to organize them in Mozambique's big and small rivers, and our food has to be transported from the interior of Mozambique through them." ”

Of course, there is one thing that Kevendack did not say, and that is that Mozambique also imports food from East Africa, mainly white Portuguese soldiers who need flour to make staples such as bread and pie, and East Africa is the closest flour producing area to Mozambique.

The colonies of Mozambique were mainly plantations, and the cultivation of food crops was not active, and the most suitable food crop for growing in Mozambique was rice, which was obviously not to the taste of the Portuguese, who had no experience in rice cultivation.

Fortunately, the population of Mozambique is dominated by blacks, and it doesn't matter what blacks eat, cassava, bananas, etc., and it is impossible for whites to feed on these.

It's okay to eat occasionally, but the staple food still has to be imported, especially in East Africa, where food prices are very cheap, and Mozambican merchants and plantation owners have even less incentive to grow food crops.

Clément: "Well, your local government is too wasteful, since the ships are not ready, send the food and ammunition to the front with the blacks, and I will see enough supplies in a week." ”

Kevendak: "General Clement, don't worry, I'll respond to Maputo." ”

Clément said solemnly: "General Kevendack, I said that it is a request, and it is a requirement that you must do, not as simple as reacting to Maputo, Maputo no matter what method is used, I only need military supplies, and they must be delivered to Tete within a week." ”

Clement has already understood that the colonial government of Mozambique is unreliable, so inefficient, and deserves to be beaten by East Africa, and Clement knows through this incident that if they do not put pressure on the colonial government of Mozambique, they are not only inefficient, but also may be corrupt.

The French army was efficient enough that it could not avoid corruption, especially the bureaucracy in the Mozambican colonies, so Clement continued: "When you write to Maputo, you must give a special order, and I will not agree to the less gram of material I want in my name." ”

Kevendak nodded hurriedly and said, "No problem!" ”

Kevendack also knows the virtue of the rear bureaucrats, anyway, this time it was Clément, a Frenchman, who asked the rear government to rein in, and he had nothing to do with him, and he was not afraid of offending people.

Clement said, lying in his chair and unhurriedly lit a cigar and smoked it again.

Seeing this, Kevendack asked, "General Clement, do we really want to wait until the supplies are delivered before launching an attack on East Africa?" ”

Clément: "What's the hurry?" In this way, we will first send a small force to take the military stronghold of Songo in East Africa, and the large army will wait in the back first, and when the supplies reach Tete, we will launch a large-scale offensive. ”

The soldiers and horses did not move, and the grain and grass went first. Clement did not have abundant military supplies, so he would not attack first, after all, his side was not familiar with the specific situation of the interior of East Africa, and even relying on the rudimentary map of the Portuguese, it was possible to get lost, and what if he ran into the enemy's trap.

And those black soldiers under his command, Clement is not at ease, the desertion situation has always existed, fortunately, he runs a few every day, the army in this state, Clement does not dare to ask too much, everything is based on stability.

Kevendak: "How many men are we sending to occupy Songo?" ”

Clément: "Just a thousand!" There are only two or three hundred people in the Songgo stronghold, and three or four times the number of troops should be able to take the Songgo stronghold. ”

In Clément's view, the border forces in East Africa, especially small military strongholds like Songo, should not be very combat-effective.

Although the combat effectiveness of black soldiers is questionable, after the training of French instructors, they should be able to fight a war compared with the armies of colonial countries such as East Africa.

Moreover, this time, he fought more and fought less, and he had more than three times the superior force, so he would not be able to take even a small border stronghold.

(End of chapter)