Shaokui.

Bujiwal said gloomily: "East Africa has surrounded Shaokui, and it is almost certain that all the troops in other directions have been annihilated by East Africa, and now we are completely trapped in the lonely city." ”

Of course, Bougival was still too pessimistic, and it was not so easy to destroy the British army, especially the main British army in the west, and so far the combined forces of São Jorge and Mapayi had not voluntarily surrendered.

However, they were unable to break through the blockade of East Africa and join the coalition forces in the east with Shaokui.

In this case, it is actually similar to what Bougival said, but there are discrepancies in the details, and the ending is already doomed.

"At present, there are about eight or nine divisions in East Africa, and Shaokui is firmly surrounded, and we basically have no possibility of breaking through." Count Roberts said with a gloomy face.

After fighting a lifetime of war, this South African War can be said to be the most regretful of Count Roberts, and he should not have participated in this war, so he is still an admired hero.

However, if he is defeated by East Africa, Count Roberts's past achievements will also be overturned, after all, Count Roberts's former opponents were the Abyssinian Empire, Afghanistan and India, Burma, and so on.

In most cases, it actually relied on the superiority of the British army in weapons and equipment, and once defeated by East Africa, his past results would be vassalized as "bullying the weak and unable to attack the strong", which was unacceptable to Earl Roberts.

"Javier, how many people do we have left?" Count Roberts asked,

"Report to the Commander-in-Chief, there are still about 70,000 people in the entire Shoquay area, including nearly 10,000 British troops, more than 20,000 Portuguese troops, and the rest are Indians and blacks."

After listening to the situation of the army, Roberts frowned, it seems that the strength of the army is about the same as that of East Africa, but it is estimated that there are actually less than 30,000 people who can fight with East Africa.

However, thinking of his future "sad" encounter, Count Roberts still decided to break the net with the East African fish, tomorrow is Christmas, if nothing else, the two sides will cease fighting for a day, but Count Roberts decided to break this traditional agreement and try to break through to the northwest on Christmas Eve.

……

Christmas Eve on the 23rd.

It turned out that Christmas Eve was not peaceful at all, and the same unspeakable East Africa launched a surprise attack on the British army at night.

"Boom, boom, boom......"

On the Tugela River, East Africa began to organize artillery shelling of British positions on the opposite bank, while the East African Defense Forces began to lay pontoon bridges under the cover of machine guns and artillery.

Due to the withdrawal of the British army to the colony of Natal, they easily destroyed all the bridges and boats on the Tuguera River, so that East Africa could only cross the river directly from the surrounding wood.

It is worth mentioning that now that the Central Railway has been reopened, logistical supplies are continuously transported to the port of New Hamburg through the railway, which is also the confidence of this campaign in East Africa.

Shells and bullets covered the enemy's positions as if they didn't need money, and under the cover of artillery fire, East Africa successfully laid a number of pontoon bridges, and then East Africa began to clear the British troops on the south bank.

The British army and the Indian servant army in the Natal colony were almost powerless, and it was difficult to lead more than 30,000 Indians with only more than 3,000 British.

"These damn Indian cubs!" Commissioner Marshall, who was watching the game from a high place, broke the defense directly, while Bids next to him was motionless like a piece of wood, but his eyes were full of schadenfreude, as if he had expected it.

"Major General Bids, what should we do now?" Marshall asked awkwardly.

Bides held back a smile and said with a serious look: "Now there is no way, we can only retreat in the direction of East London, I think you have seen the virtue of the Indian soldiers, counting on them to fight East Africa, it is a completely impossible task, and at the same time, the firepower comparison between our two sides just now is also very obvious, and now the East Africans are completely superior to us in firepower, so the fundamental reason for the defeat of the South African war is that the East Africans miscalculated the strength of the East Africans before the war, it is no exaggeration to say, Their military strength has reached the standards of the great powers. ”

Seeing Marshall's stinky face, although Bids gloated, he still analyzed some details of the war to Marshall.

Marshall seemed to suddenly realize: "I'll just say that why are the East Africans so difficult to fight, their firepower is indeed a bit beyond common sense, could it be that foreign countries secretly support them?" ”

No wonder Marshall thought so, the British army has always been the side with the advantage in firepower, and the South African War is obviously different, East Africa, a "colonial country", is stronger than the British Empire in terms of firepower, which naturally makes Marshall difficult to accept for a while.

"East Africa has a complete defense industry, which is especially evident in the war, and their firepower is stronger than in the early stage of the war as the war progresses, so the war stimulates the war potential of East Africa."

At the same time, it is impossible for us to allow other countries to support East Africa on a large scale, although we are at a disadvantage in the South African battlefield, but it does not affect our military layout in the world, and the most important thing is that Suez and British Somaliland are in our hands, like Germany and Austria-Hungary, it is impossible to support East Africa. ”

Marshall: "Do you mean that East Africans don't import weapons from Europe or elsewhere?" ”

Bids: "East Africa has obviously been planning for a long time, they have long expected that there will be war on the African continent as well, so in the seventies they started to build their own defense industry, and it was consolidated in the eighties, so far, this defense industry system in East Africa, obviously supports the war needs in East Africa, so we started the war from the beginning wrong.

Many people think of East Africa as a country like other colonies, but East Africa, under the rule of the Heshingen royal family, has embraced European advanced technology and knowledge, and has inherited the militaristic tradition of the German countries, so we have been at war with a weakened version of the German Empire from the beginning. ”

In Bides's mouth, East Africa has even become a country that can be compared with Germany, but there is still a great difference between the two, it can be said that each has its own advantages and disadvantages, but now the overall strength of East Africa is still far weaker than Germany, and it is not as good as Germany, and the only thing that can be praised is the vast land area of East Africa.

But now is not the time for Marshall and Bides to make small talk, as the East African Defence Forces have landed on the south bank of the Tuguera River, and the Natal colony is in jeopardy.

So Bides said: "Your Excellency, I'm afraid we have to retreat, or it will be unsightly to become a prisoner of East Africa, now go back to Durban, and then take a boat to the port of East London, and we can continue to fight against the East Africans." ”

Marshall's face was ugly, he had just arrived here for less than a week, and he had to leave by boat, which was simply a humiliation to himself, but the situation was stronger than people, and it was better to save his life.

On the same day that the Southern Military Region launched the landing operation in Natal, the Southern Military Region also launched a cross-river operation in the Orange area, resulting in a heavy exchange of fire with the British forces in Cape Town.

However, the British army in Cape Town was not as easy to fight as the British army in Natal, and the remnants of the Boer Republic provided Cape Town with a relatively sufficient supply of troops, so it could continue to rely on the Orange River to confront East Africa.

(End of chapter)