Originally, according to Rost's idea, it was natural to strive for more "military merits", but because there was no reason to "capture" East African soldiers, it was impossible to figure out the establishment of the East African army.

In this case, how to make up the "Tugela River victory", after all, the fabrication must also be justified.

Rost's approach is not strange in this era, just like in the previous life when Britain fought with Boer, the false reporting of military achievements and losses was very serious, and almost spent the British treasury, which is similar to what the US military did in Afghanistan later.

Of course, it is an irreversible fact that the Tuguela line was breached, but to "exaggerate" this victory, it is necessary to obtain intelligence from East Africa.

After dealing with the question of the Indian prisoners, Rost ordered: "Order the whole army, after a brief rest, to go north at once, this time we must make East Africa pay the price." ”

This time it was necessary to capture a group of East African prisoners and to clarify the composition of the East African Defence Force, and there was no rush to report on the Tugela River campaign until then.

After Rost's order was issued, the British troops, who had just come ashore, hurriedly continued to pursue the "routed" East African army after waiting for heavy weapons to cross the river.

In fact, the British army's firepower preparation this time was not sufficient, after all, according to past experience, in colonial wars, British firepower was superior.

This time, of course, the firepower of the British army was not weak, but the firepower of East Africa was not expected by the British army, so compared with the previous colonial wars, the idea of "insufficient firepower" arose.

……

Kroneskoop.

The 9th Brigade, under the orders of Arridotus, did not rush to retreat to the city of New Hamburg, but prepared to fight the British here in a head-on battle.

What emboldened Arridot was that at least the Battle of the Tuguela River did not cause too many casualties to the Ninth Brigade, and excluding the casualties, the Ninth Brigade still had more than 5,000 people.

By voluntarily abandoning the Tuguela River defensive line, the Ninth Brigade was able to concentrate its forces, which actually increased Arridotus' available forces.

Standing on the roof of the house, Arridode pointed around and said to his subordinates: "The village of Kronskop is actually a slightly low-lying place, mainly plain, with a little higher terrain around it, and we have deployed our troops on the high ground on both sides, and Kronskop is the only place where the road to the city of New Hamburg passes, and the British must pass through here." ”

"So choosing the battlefield here, we have the greatest advantage, this will also be the first time that our brigade and the British army have a frontal confrontation, I won't say anything superfluous, everyone must be energetic, according to the pre-war deployment to play their respective roles, especially to the brigade headquarters orders to unconditionally obey, I don't want when I give the order to retreat, someone loves to fight because of greed for military merit."

Previously, Arridot and the rest of the brigade had fully analyzed that there was a 90 percent chance that the old soldiers in Britain would not choose to go elsewhere.

Because the roads in the Southern Frontier Province were in extremely poor condition, and the British dragged a bunch of money, they had to choose to pass by road.

Of course, if an accident occurs, it is not impossible, and if an accident does occur, it can only be said that the luck of the Ninth Brigade is too bad.

War is like this, it cannot be perfect, so Aristotle can only choose the strategy that maximizes his own interests to arrange the war.

Of course, now that the Ninth Brigade is laid out like this, it may also face the risk of being dumpled by the British army, but only if the British have mature intelligence about East Africa.

And this is the biggest problem facing the British army at the moment, and Rost is facing this situation.

Rost: "The people in the MI should be hanged, the map they gave me can't be said to be similar to the actual East Africa, I'm afraid that there was no map of pre-colonial Africa gathered before, and even the basic terrain was not understood." ”

"Commander, what should we do then? Will you attack East Africa along the coastline, or will you take the roads built by the East Africans? The subordinate asked.

It is certain that you will be able to reach the city of New Hamburg if you walk along the coastline, after all, the city of New Hamburg is a coastal city, and you will definitely find the main force of East Africa if you go north along the coastline.

Apart from the coastline, the only reference value is the road built by the East Africans, along which the Ninth Brigade retreated, leaving a lot of ruts and footprints on the road.

Because of the dry season, these traces are clear and have not been washed away by the rain, but judging from the condition of the roads, the level of construction of East Africans is still good.

Although there is only one road, the neighboring Natal colony does not bother to build such a cross-regional road except for cities and strongholds such as the port of Durban.

"Follow the highway pursuit! We fought with the East African army before, and judging from the road situation, the end of this road must be the main direction of the East African army's withdrawal, and this road will definitely lead to the port of New Hamburg, so now we will pursue north along the road, of course, in order to avoid East Africans setting up ambushes along the road, the vanguard should be careful. ”

After Count Roberts left for Maputo, Rost was the supreme military commander of the Natal colony, so his orders were kept to good faith.

Soon the vanguard of the British army was heading towards the village of Kronskop.

At about four o'clock in the afternoon, as expected, they met the Ninth Brigade, which had been waiting here for a long time, and a fierce exchange of fire broke out, and the vanguard met the enemy, and the British troops in the rear finally arrived.

"In front is a village of East Africans, the enemy who was defeated by us before seems to be resting there, and there are quite a few people on the opposite side, so the vanguard does not dare to act rashly, waiting for your instructions!" The subordinate reported to Rost.

"Very good, this should be the East African troops holding the Tuguera River, we had no way to take them because of the Tuguera River before, and now they have nothing to rely on, see what they take to fight us, and order the Indian troops to organize an attack." Rost ordered.

At this time, the British lobster soldiers could finally put out the ancestral "one-word lobster formation", of course, this time Rost still used the Indian troops as the vanguard.

The Indians are dead and dead, anyway, cannon fodder troops, and they should be able to consume a lot of ammunition in East Africa, of course, this can also make the number of British casualties look much better.

Rost was not actually a reckless man, although the British army had lost some troops before this, but the number was almost negligible, because the Indian servant soldiers who accounted for the majority could only be counted as consumables.

As long as it wasn't the British who died, Rost could find a way to fool things over, after all, the last thing Britain lacked was Indians.

And this is also an important reason why Rost has not learned a lesson from the war to the present, although the Indian soldiers have suffered heavy casualties, but Rost can't empathize, if the British died so much, Rost may have gone berserk long ago.

The Indian troops deserved to have received the true inheritance of the British army, although the weapons and equipment were a little backward, but in other aspects they were almost exactly the same as the British.

They lined up outside the open terrain of the village of Kronskop in the standard British formation, and even organized a military band that was standard in Europe.

In this case, this is the first time that the East African Defense Forces have seen it, of course, this first time it mainly refers to the enemy's side, when fighting with the natives in the past, East Africa also likes to line up to kill tactics, so that in the face of the death charge of some large indigenous tribes or kingdoms, it is indeed easier to concentrate firepower to harvest.

However, with the equipment of the Dreiser, the performance of the rifle has been greatly improved, and the "ancient tactics" of queuing to kill tactics have long been eliminated by East Africa.

(End of chapter)