"The British and French navies have not moved, but looking at this momentum, they do have some concern for the development of East Africa, and they do not hesitate to join forces to support Portugal."

"There is no way for our navy to intervene in this regard, and the final result still depends on how the land war in East Africa is fought, but with the support of Britain and France, Portugal, can East Africa really be settled?"

Archduke Ferdinand smiled and said nothing when asked by his colleagues, he did not answer the question, knowing that the strongest in East Africa is the army.

……

Archduke Ferdinand, considered the strongest army, finally joined forces with the Mozambican army in Songo, and the sit-down did not last long, as the large forces of East Africa arrived early.

Just a day earlier, the East African army had arrived at Songo Fortress ahead of the Mozambican colonial army, and tens of thousands of troops had suddenly arrived at the front line.

This frightened the Portuguese vanguard who still wanted to delay, and Kerry thought that his own army should arrive first, but East Africa completed the assembly first, which made him very puzzled.

He frowned and said, "East Africa reacted so quickly? Or did they already have a large force nearby that could come and support in time? ”

Portugal had been planning for several months for this war, and had originally wanted to open up the situation in the central part by surprise, but now that the arrival of the East African army was present, it was announced that this plan might be in vain.

However, the question of why East African reinforcements arrived at the front line so quickly puzzled Kerry, after all, Kerry could not open his eyes to see the Central Railway operating in the rear of East Africa.

Rhodes saw the sudden arrival of the East African army and said nervously: "The enemy reinforcements have arrived, we must withdraw quickly, otherwise Colonel Clément will have to collect our corpses when he arrives later!" ”

The situation was stronger than the people, and Kerry had to change his old style and order his troops to retreat in the direction of Tete City to the east.

His stern face seemed to be able to squeeze out water, and he said: "It is not advisable to stay here for a long time, let's meet with the large army first and see what Colonel Clément has planned!" ”

The Rhodes Department, which was like a turtle when it came, was a good hand at running, and retreated more than 40 kilometers to the rear in one day, and collided head-on with the large army led by Clement.

"How did you guys get back? The Songo stronghold was taken? I didn't order you to retreat, did I? Kerry, can you explain what the hell is going on? Clement asked sternly.

There is only one situation for the vanguard to retreat, that is, the battle is unfavorable and leads to defeat, but Clément is still lucky, after all, Songo is only a small stronghold, and it should not be impossible to take it!

Kerry looked at Clement with some embarrassment, and said stubbornly, "Sir! The Songo stronghold is not a small stronghold at all, its area is not much smaller than that of Tete City, and the defense facilities are obviously more complete than Tete City, the most odious thing is that the Songo stronghold is not only two or three hundred people as the Portuguese merchants say, but at least more than five hundred, it is impossible to break through the Songo stronghold without heavy fire weapons, we have been deceived by false intelligence. ”

Kerry was telling the truth, but Clement was not entirely convinced, and he then asked, "What does this have to do with the sudden retreat of the guys?" I won't blame you for not being able to conquer the Songgo stronghold in a short time, but you can stay where you are and solve the problem when we arrive, why did you run away? And looking at the situation of your troops, there is not much attrition? ”

Rhodes complained: "General Clément, if you don't run away, I'm afraid that these brothers will all be broken up in the Songo stronghold." ”

Clément was a little unconvinced: "According to what you said, there are at least 500 people in the Songo stronghold in East Africa, so it won't let you retreat, right?" ”

Kerry: "Sir, the big forces in East Africa arrived at the Songo stronghold ahead of schedule, so I had to let the troops retreat. ”

"Reinforcements?" Hearing this, Clement was a little uneasy, and he asked anxiously: "How many people are coming from East Africa?" All gathered in the Songo Fortress? ”

Like Kerry, Clément instantly thought about how East African reinforcements could reach the front so quickly.

Then I heard Kerry say: "Listen to the movement, there are at least 10,000 reinforcements in East Africa, and the Songgo stronghold may not be able to fit it, so I am incompetent and incompetent, so I can only run away with the troops first." ”

Clément saw that what Kerry said did not look like a lie, so he said: "Well, if what you said is true, then it is excusable, and this time you will be exempted from the punishment of your department, but next time you are not allowed to move easily without my order, and before I give an order, even if you fight to the last man, you are not allowed to surrender or retreat." ”

……

Portugal was in trouble, and the East African side was actually a little anxious, and the carrying capacity of the Songo stronghold was not strong, and at most a thousand people were settled, and as a result, East Africa directly transported more than 30,000 people from the rear, which greatly exceeded the limit of the Songo stronghold.

Merk: "It's better to be safe when we first arrive, after all, the blacks make up the majority of the troops, I'm afraid they won't be able to keep up, so we need to let them get used to the unfamiliar environment first, and we can't let them pull our own people into the water." ”

This is also one of the reasons why the East African army did not immediately annihilate the Portuguese vanguard after arriving at the front line, and East Africa, through several months of training, also knew that the bottom of the black army, the organizational ability and the East African land ratio are too different, especially when tens of thousands of blacks gather together, then the overall coordination is more difficult, or more precisely, a disaster.

In fact, before the battle broke out, the black army was in chaos, and the entire camp became a vegetable market like outside Tete before.

However, the black forces in East Africa are still a little more efficient than the black troops in Portugal, after all, black slaves are often organized in East Africa to participate in production activities and engineering construction on weekdays, so they can not be incorporated into the army to prohibit orders, but also to maintain an overall formation.

As for why these blacks, who usually have a little order, have a tendency to collapse when they arrive at the Songgo stronghold, like the Portuguese troops, the East African Black Legion has not experienced large-scale rapid marching training, so the black legion that has just arrived at the Songo stronghold looks like it is on its back, with all kinds of postures, and it is very tired.

Therefore, the black legion, which consumes a lot of physical strength and energy, is naturally not as comfortable as the usual low-intensity training, which also shows that East Africa has no intention of training them into qualified soldiers.

Merck continued: "Get the machine guns ready, and let them know the consequences if there are any black soldiers who dare to retreat in battle." ”

Machine guns are indeed a good thing, but this war is mainly used by blacks and Mozambiques to fight for attrition, so the main role of machine guns in East Africa is to use against the black army in their hands, they only need to rush forward brainlessly after the order of the front-line commander, and if they retreat, they will eat the guns of the East African Army first, as for casualties, that is not in the scope of consideration in East Africa, and it is a string of cold numbers for East Africa.

(End of chapter)