With the order of the central government in East Africa, the East African border troops are also ready to move, and the first shot to be fired is the battlefield in the Zambezi River Basin.

Merk said to a group of East African Army generals in the Songo stronghold: "Yesterday, the Portuguese have arrived, and they are stationed a kilometer away from the Songo stronghold, and it seems that they are going to fight us in the wilderness. ”

However, Merk guessed wrong, because now that the offensive and defensive situation is changing, the Portuguese side, especially the French commander Clément, is actually reluctant to continue to take the initiative to attack.

When a large number of reinforcements arrived at the Songo stronghold, Clément knew that the chances of capturing the Songo stronghold were slim, and if he could not conquer the Songo stronghold, he would not be able to successfully occupy the south bank of the Zambezi River as planned.

However, Clement is not good at getting the troops to evacuate, or transfer them back to Tete City, in case East Africa takes the opportunity to pursue it, it will be over.

So Clement said to the Portuguese generals: "We can't go back, to be honest, every city in Mozambique is quite important, such as Tete City, which is the only Portuguese settlement within 200 kilometers of the surrounding area, if we look at Tete City to save our lives, it is naturally very cool, but this means that most of the territory in the west will be lost." ”

"So what do we do now?" Someone asked.

Clément: "We have to use the narrow passage of the western plateau to block the East Africans in the western part of the plateau, so that they can also prevent them from crossing our field of view and sneaking up on the Portuguese rear." ”

The Portuguese chose this way and had no choice but to do so, and the vanguard led by Rhodes and Kerry did not pull out the nail of the Songo stronghold, so that they lost the opportunity on the battlefield, and the Portuguese army could only temporarily build fortifications, and in order to prevent the East African Army from sneaking attack, so the camp could only be built two miles away.

However, the temporary fortifications are certainly not as good as the Songo stronghold that has been built in East Africa for a few years, and it is too hasty to even get the stones, and the defense capability is certainly not very effective, but something is better than nothing.

Clément: "I know you have concerns, and we don't want to fight East Africa, but we just try to see if we can delay East Africa, and if we can't do anything, we'll retreat to Tete City." ”

When the Mozambican army operated, the black troops in East Africa were given a final education to prevent them from making mistakes, but it was impossible not to make mistakes.

"Line up in the same way you were taught in the previous training, all in three rows, don't stand blindly, and don't leave too much space in between."

Because of the problem of black queues, the soldiers of the 512th Division were not allowed to correct the mistakes of the blacks in person, and although they had received intensive training in the province of South Salzburg, many blacks had forgotten the combat skills taught in East Africa.

In fact, those who teach these black legions in South Salzburg Province in East Africa do not know much about it, and it is likely that it is because of the language communication barrier, so there will always be a big loophole in the training.

As for why they are so experienced, it is because now the regular army has completely said goodbye to the flintlock pistol, especially the new recruits, who may not have seen it, so the black legions, which are equipped with a large number of old muskets, must be educated by those veterans.

"Move slowly, don't sprint, don't go too slow, don't turn back in the face of the enemy, otherwise our machine guns won't be long-sighted."

……

When the reinforcements supporting the Songgo stronghold were resting, Clement also returned to the Songgo stronghold with the team, Clement is now a little difficult to ride a tiger, the transfer of troops in East Africa has been completed, and his plan has come to naught, but he can't withdraw it.

Clément: "We're going to run into East Africa, and I'm sure that after the elimination of these East African reinforcements and Songo strongholds, East Africa will have no troops in the interior to hinder our plans." ”

In the end, Clement was still unwilling and wanted to give it a try, in his opinion, the defenders of the Songo stronghold had reached a similar level in terms of numbers to his own, so Clement thought that East Africa should not be able to come up with more troops.

Don't talk nonsense, let's go straight to it, this time it is an active and tentative offensive in East Africa, and the Black Legion of East Africa is at the forefront, not to mention, the pre-war correction made the Black Legion not appear chaotic, and it is steadily approaching, because of the weapon, the tactics of lining up to shoot are reappearing on the African continent.

The black troops, under the command of the white officers, lined up in three formations and fired at the Mozambican troops in an orderly manner, but the error was quite large, and after one round, few Mozambican soldiers fell to the ground.

Looking at this scene, Clemand and others found that the weapons and equipment used by the East African Black Legion were somewhat backward, which made Clemand breathe a sigh of relief, he had always heard that there were no blacks in the East African army, and now it seems to be a complete hoax, there are tens of thousands of East African blacks in front of him, so there is no difference between East Africa and other colonies, and two dogs are still needed.

Clément: "The Songo stronghold can't hold so many troops, so they have to fight outside the city as well, and that's our chance." ”

Come and don't get along, it's rude. East Africa was the first to fire, and Mozambique could not be idle, and black soldiers from both sides began to shoot at each other, but compared to East Africa, the Portuguese black soldiers fought more methodically.

"The rifles in East Africa don't shoot far, they are still using primitive front-loading flintlock pistols." The Portuguese officers were pleased to find that Portugal did have a great advantage in this respect, but that East Africa had more ammunition.

"Let the cavalry company come out from the rear, and the cavalry put a little pressure on the Portuguese from the flanks!" Seeing that the black army was in some decline, the commander of the 512th Division, who was watching the battle from the Songgo stronghold, ordered.

……

The same situation played out on the eastern shore of Lake Malawi and in the Zambezi River basin, where the two main forces of Mozambique were caught up in East Africa with black troops.

Both sides won and lost in both places, but both were fought by black armies, and the East African Army did not actually join the battle, but watched the play in the rear.

However, the East African Army did make a big move in the north, on the Rufuma River, hundreds of small boats in East Africa, carrying East African soldiers, began to cross the river, and as in the same way, there was no development on the south bank of the river here, so the wilderness was still dotted with large and small tribes.

"From now on, our brigade will be divided into three directions, going deep into the interior of Mozambique, where the enemy does not have a large army deployment, so it is more likely that they will play with us, where the terrain is complex and the vegetation is dense, so it is ready to deal with the attack of small groups of enemy troops."

East Africa's tactical arrangements for such a vast and sparsely populated area suitable for guerrilla attacks are to fight steadily and steadily, step by step, and at the same time, this is the key area of focus in East Africa, so we cannot capsize in the gutter.

Ernst was very worried about guerrilla tactics anyway, so he kept the East African Army studying this aspect of tactics to prevent defeat by guerrilla warfare.

However, it did bear fruit, and the Portuguese armed more than 300 men in the north were insignificant to East Africa, but the invasion of East Africa by the local black tribes was quite unfriendly.

Because many East African natives fled into northern Mozambique, East Africa is notorious in the region, so the desperate resistance of the black tribes has indeed caused a lot of trouble for the East African Army.

In East Africa, there was a killing spree on the ground, showing no mercy to the indigenous tribes who participated in the resistance, and driving those who did not participate to the south, and a large number of indigenous tribes fled into southern Mozambique.

(End of chapter)