As night fell, the two sides of the Tuguela River defense line fell silent, and it was not under the scope of the British to cross the river while it was dark, and night fighting was never the first choice for war.

Although there was only one brigade in East Africa on the other side of the river, there were many emergencies on the battlefield and the intelligence on both sides was very limited, so the British commander Rost had to be cautious about the situation.

No one is sure whether there will be any reinforcements in East Africa, when the reinforcements will arrive at the Tuguela River, and how many reinforcements will come.

East Africa's policy of seclusion and seclusion played a great role at this time, and in turn, it was difficult for East Africa to know about the actions and plans of the British troops in the Natal colony, and if it was Durban and other places behind Natal, it was possible to plant intelligence officers, as for the front line of the Tuguela River, there was no such opportunity at all, and it was easy to find out if it broke into the war zone.

In the dim light, the British commander, Division Commander Rost, was discussing with his subordinates the summary of today's day's battle.

Rost's face was very unpleasant, and he hit a nail in the first battle when he first arrived in South Africa, which was completely different from what he had expected before coming to South Africa.

The subordinates looked at Rost's gloomy face, and they didn't dare to breathe, especially the several commanders of the British Indian troops, for fear that Rost would vent his anger on him.

"Today's battle makes me very dissatisfied with the troops, four whole attacks, all of which were repulsed by the East Africans, and the Tuguera River is not an insurmountable natural danger, in this case it is impossible to defeat the East Africans, so if we are in the Drakens Mountains, will it not be possible for us to move an inch in the Drakensian Mountains?"

"Whether it is our army's will to fight or its military ability, it has not been reflected, but it has lost face in front of East Africa, and our army's loss of face is to lose the face of the British Empire!"

The commander of the British Indian unit retorted: "Division commander, it's not that we don't want to work hard, but the quality of the Indian soldiers is too poor, and although these attacks are not effective, our troops have also paid huge casualties." ”

Rost: "Hmph, you're still reasonable, I can see the performance of the Indian soldiers clearly, is that a bad performance?" It was a cowardice before a fight, and I can blame the last landing operation, but the first three defeats were all due to the bad effects caused by the Indians under your command who took the lead in escaping. ”

Although the fourth river crossing operation also failed, it did cause some damage to the East African army, and the landing combat force was "completely annihilated", so it was still in line with Rost's psychological expectations, after all, it was not expected that the troops would cross the Tuguera River defense line and defeat the East African Defense Forces at one time, but the failure of the first three operations did not make sense, and there was no reason to evade responsibility.

"Division commander, in my opinion, the main problem is not the morale problem, but the hardware problem, I think there are two points beyond the scope of our army's capabilities, the first is that East Africa is equipped with a large number of heavy weapons, and the level is not bad, which is not in line with our previous colonial combat model.

The second is that our army is not fully prepared, especially the ships are not well prepared, which makes every landing combat ship appear to be overstretched.

So if we want to overcome difficulties, we must find a way from these two directions, and not blame the inferior troops, after all, the Indians themselves are the ruled, and they are inferior to us Anglo-Saxons in terms of thinking, quality, etc., this is a racial gap, and the natural inferiority cannot be repaired. ”

After all, this is also the idea of the British, if the Indian soldiers are a little bloody, then the British will not be able to colonize India so easily.

"Don't discuss this issue now, we are an army, the army is to win the battle and achieve strategic goals, no matter what the reason, I must find a way to break through the defense line of the East Africans, and now you come up with a feasible plan." Rost said.

"Division commander, in my opinion, it was our direction that was wrong before, compared with East Africa, our biggest advantage is the abundance of troops, which can be seen from the number of artillery, although the East African artillery is not weak, but the density is far less than ours, so East Africa must have fewer troops on the front line of the Tuguera River than us, so to give full play to our advantages, it should be more breakthroughs, not a strong attack in the key direction, we should consider the entire Tugela River Basin, we can always find an ideal place to break through, and then tear a hole."

"Very good, but this will require us to prepare more ships, and it would be better if we could build a pontoon bridge over the river, but it may delay the fighters, and we will lose three-fifths of our ships in four attacks today, and if we make it now, I am afraid it will take a lot of time."

"Division commander, this problem may be considered flexibly, we can directly make a batch of simple rafts, the Tugaila River is not too wide, you can use ropes and tree trunks, let the soldiers with good water ability build pontoon bridges, of course, the biggest problem is that there are too many crocodiles in the Tugaila River, which may pose a certain threat, and a large area of pontoon bridges may be detected by East Africans, so it is best to act at night, but it is definitely more difficult to operate on the river at night than during the day."

After discussion, the British finally gave up their conservative style of play, and the East Africans had lost their patience with the Tuguela River.

Although this is conducive to ensuring the safety of their own personnel, after all, the Indian cannon fodder who rushed to the front line is not their own people, and the blood of the Indians is dried, and the British will not feel a little distressed, which is the same as the use of black troops in East Africa.

Of course, there are no black servants in the East African army now, and even the logistics are mainly based on their own citizens.

At present, the use of blacks in East Africa is mainly to maintain production, and military conscription still has a great impact on East Africa, especially at the level of young labor, which also makes the labor intensity of blacks in East Africa further increase during the war.

The East African model was actually very common in the early days, and the Boers were the same in South Africa, where the Boers used as a force and the blacks created value as slaves.

Later, the needs of industrial and agricultural development in East Africa made a large number of people in East Africa engage in production activities, and changed the previous mode of military activities, and now with the start of the war, it is back on track again.

……

The British intended to attack on all fronts, but the 9th Brigade on the other side of the river had no intention of holding out.

"Brigade commander, volunteers have all been withdrawn to the city of New Hamburg, and now only soldiers exist in the entire Tuguela River defense line."

Arridotus: "Very well, we have to plan for evacuation, but we can't make it too easy for the British, we have to slow down the speed and efficiency of the British army in the area leading to the city of New Hamburg and along the railway, and now I have a plan, if it is implemented in place, it is very likely to surprise us." ”

"Brigadier, your plan ......"

"It's not a hurry now, we also have time to arrange after we give the final blow to the British on the Tuguera River, all in all, we have to preserve our strength as much as possible, the military district has sent a message, we may not be able to wait for reinforcements, and from the day after tomorrow, they plan to cut off the central railway, we can only rely on the port city of New Hamburg and the British army, now our main task is to make trouble for the British while ensuring a living force."

(End of chapter)