Coles agrees with Caster's point of view: "In the three months that we have been trapped in Kinshasa, the whole of Kinshasa has only six hundred military forces, and the enemy has as many as four or five thousand, but we have withstood the attack of the Portuguese for three months with more than 600 men. ”

"Although this Portuguese army was only a ragtag army with a large number of black slaves, their firepower was a notch higher than that of the Portuguese army during the First Portuguese War."

Coles was a veteran of the First Portuguese War, so he was well aware of the situation of the last Portuguese army.

"And this is just the promotion of the Portuguese miscellaneous forces, Portugal has two brigades stationed in Angola, this should be the top military force in Angola, it is not sure where these two brigades are, but their weapons and equipment should be able to catch up with the European average."

"As the rear, the lifeline of Angola and the capital of the colony, the exact number of troops in Luanda is not easy to know, but in the number of fortifications and artillery, it is definitely the place with the most in Angola at the moment."

"So in dealing with Luanda, we should ensure that a certain number of artillery pieces can suppress the enemy, so artillery is necessary in war."

In Coles's view, even if the Portuguese were the ones who took the initiative to attack in the early stage, it was impossible to put all their main forces on the front line.

After all, the security of the capital must come first in the colony, just like Maputo in Mozambique, and to be honest, Maputo's location is very unsuitable for geography as a command center for war.

However, thanks to the development of the Portuguese over the centuries, Maputo's conditions far exceeded those of the rest of the interior, so its position was constantly strengthened according to its historical continuity.

In fact, the same is true in East Africa, which is too eastern, but the first town is the center of the most elite guard division.

This is the privilege of the political center, Luanda is the political center of the Angolan colony, so the Portuguese "nobles" will definitely give priority to the deployment of troops in the Luanda area, even if the number is not too much, it is definitely the elite of Portugal.

Caster: "Well, but we should be a little bolder regardless of the Portuguese, and just now, I had an idea that if it could be a big win over our time. ”

Hans Griffin asked, "What idea?" ”

Caster: "That is, can we divide the army into two ways to achieve strategic objectives, before we thought of the north and then the south, but why don't we also carry out military operations against the mouth of the Congo River and Luanda!" ”

"Cabinda is certainly not as important to Portugal as Luanda, so we only need to send fewer troops to take control of the Congo estuary."

"In the Luanda direction, we need to increase our personnel and equipment, and launch an offensive at the same time, so that we can achieve our strategic goals more quickly."

Hans Griffin asked, "Then how do we distribute our forces?" ”

Karst: "More than 4,000 people at the mouth of the Congo River should be enough, as for the rest of the troops are attacking in the direction of Luanda." ”

Hans Griffin: "Isn't that risky?" ”

Caster: "There is definitely a risk, but we have a greater probability of success, after all, this counteroffensive on the Western Front is not only us, the Western Military Region is the real main force, they are the focus of the Portuguese." ”

"So I'm afraid most of the Portuguese army will be dragged southeast by the brother forces, and this is also a good time for us to march into Luanda."

"And even if the Portuguese want to return reinforcements, I'm afraid it won't be so easy, you must know that the Western Military Region will definitely bite their tails."

"And the threat of our army to Luanda is more likely to disrupt the morale of the Portuguese troops in front and make them even more powerless to resist our offensive."

Of course, in the end, Castel's confidence came from the fact that the Angolan colonies had no decent opponents, and if the Portuguese could not concentrate more than three times the number of troops, Castel was confident that they would win.

After all, the 331st Division, as one of the elite troops in East Africa, has a very high combat effectiveness, and if even the Portuguese miscellaneous army can't be cleaned up, there is no need to fight the South African war again.

……

August 7, 1888.

The 331st East African Division began to split into two parts and moved simultaneously towards the mouth of the Congo River and Luanda.

The route of the British army of the 331st Division was mainly in the territory of the former Kingdom of Kongo, and the Portuguese and East Africa were the main reasons for the fall of the Kingdom of Kongo.

Of course, Portugal's annexation of the Kingdom of Kongo in the seventies to supplement the passive cession of land from the south was the direct cause.

Moreover, East Africa blocked the way for the Congo Kingdom to flee eastward at that time, so it could only be slaughtered by others, and it was impossible to escape in Africa, and many indigenous kingdoms fled from East Africa to West Africa at the beginning.

Unfortunately, the fate of the Kingdom of Kongo is not good, there is no way out on all sides, the north is the most brutal Belgians, and the east is the "notorious" East Africans, so in contrast, the Portuguese are the friendliest force to the Kingdom of Kongo.

Although the Portuguese annexed the Kingdom of Kongo, Angola itself had a number of mulattozonal descendants who cooperated with the Portuguese rule.

And these half-breeds also became the biggest threat to the 331st Division's southward movement, seriously delaying the pace of the march in East Africa, which made General Custer very angry.

"The harassment of these black servants has become a serious threat to us, and I think they should be eliminated in order to make an example of them." Custer said through gritted teeth.

Hans Griffin: "I'm afraid this will delay our military operations." ”

Custer: "Now it seems clear that these blacks are going to live and die with the Portuguese, so if we don't destroy them, I'm afraid they will gain an inch, and end up in a catastrophe." ”

"Are you going to massacre the local natives!" Hans Griffin asked, a little frightened.

Although East Africa does not do anything in Africa, there are almost no massacres against blacks, and the Kingdom of Congo in the original region is obviously a relatively densely populated area of blacks, and only the Belgians in the north are ruthless, and now the number of blacks in Belgium has been greatly reduced.

Custer: "If I could do that, I would definitely do it, after all, for the stubborn, physical elimination is more relieving." ”

Hans Griffin hurriedly persuaded: "Don't do this kind of thing that is easy to dirty your hands, now we really can't do anything about these blacks, but when the war is over, we have a way to concoct them." ”

Hans Griffin continued: "Our first goal now is to deal with the Portuguese, and as for these blacks who dare to break ground on the head of Tai Sui, in the future we will send them all to the Belgian territory, so that they can see what cruelty is." ”

For Belgium, Custer and Hans Griffin are quite convinced, after all, Bangui is not far from the Belgian Congo colonization, so many people in the 331st Division are clear about the means of Belgian colonial rule.

It is no exaggeration to say that the Belgians were born executioners, and under the reactionary rule of Leopold II, the Belgian Congo successfully achieved negative population growth, and at the same time, the disability rate was very likely to be the highest in the world.

(End of chapter)