"This is our observation map of the entire Shaokui terrain these days, although Count Roberts vainly tried to rely on the Limpopo River to resist stubbornly, but yesterday's battle caused the coalition army to suffer a fatal blow, and the strength was not rich in the first place, Count Roberts's planned defense system, there are also huge loopholes, especially in the western area of Shaokui, the river bay here, at first Count Roberts must have wanted to take advantage of it, but now it can only retreat to the narrow area in the east, so the west is now the weak point of the coalition army, We should be able to annihilate Count Roberts in no time if we concentrate our artillery and forces. ”

The commander-in-chief of the Western Military Region, Ledern, said to the crowd that as Merk went south to command the combat missions to Cape Town and Natal, he was now the top military commander in East Africa in Mozambique.

And the Western Military District is also the main force that is now fighting against the Mozambican army, especially after the main forces of Western Mozambique are surrounded by the Western Military District in the São Jorge area.

Now Mozambique has become the fat in the mouth of East Africa, and the way to solve the Mozambique problem as soon as possible is to get rid of the general headquarters of the coalition army headed by Count Roberts and the Mozambican government, and then recruit the main force of the Mozambican coalition army in the west.

If this does not achieve the goal, then after eliminating the Count Roberts' department, the East African army will advance westward, and cooperate with the four divisions besieging the main force of the coalition army to annihilate the enemy army in San Jorge.

Of course, the most important thing now is to conquer Shokwe, the terrain of Shokui is very conducive to defense, the only pity is that the coalition forces have been operating here for too short, so the loopholes are very large, especially at the bend of the Limpopo River in the west.

Originally, according to the plan of the coalition army, the natural river channel here would be used as part of the city defense of Shaokui, but unfortunately, due to the lack of manpower and materials, the construction of Shaokui was not completely completed.

With the progress of the war, the grassroots order in Mozambique has long collapsed, so it is impossible to recruit troops here, the colony of Mozambique is already vast and sparsely populated, and there are many jungles, mountains, and valleys, after the outbreak of the war, many natives have hidden, so it is impossible for the Portuguese to go deep into these areas to find them out.

The lack of labor eventually led to the failure of Count Roberts's plan, but in this case Count Roberts could still use the old town of Sauqua to maneuver around East Africa.

December 25, 1888.

The East African Defence Forces, the major military districts, and the Guards Divisions launched a massive counteroffensive against Shoquay with the General Staff temporarily authorizing Delane as the temporary commander-in-chief of the battlefield.

The troops of the Eastern Military District, the troops of the Western Military District, and the Guards Division, as the main firepower output, concentrated thousands of artillery pieces of various types to carry out an artillery bombardment of the Shaokui ammunition area for half a day.

The Eastern Military Region is only separated from Shaokui by a river, and it is not a good place to attack Shaokui from land, but it can more calmly concentrate artillery units and carry out corrective artillery bombardment of the core area of Shaokui on the other side of the river.

And the Count Roberts' department, which had shrunk in Shoquay, could not cross the Limpopo River to counterattack the East African army in the east and north, so it could only be beaten passively, and at this time, in order to prevent the attack of the main East African forces in the west and south.

Count Roberts had to concentrate the only little artillery in stock, most of it, to deal with the artillery of the Guards Divisions of the Western Military District, and the East African army in the east and north had to be left to its own devices, and could only wait for the East African army to show signs of crossing the river before launching a counterattack against the East African army.

Until then, the defenders of Shoquay had to hide under fortifications, hiding from the shelling of the Eastern and Northern Military Regions of East Africa.

The daily training of the East African artillery is very strict, so the accuracy of the artillery is very high, and it can basically accurately aim at large targets on the opposite bank.

Under the bombardment of artillery fire, the temporary fortifications of Shaokui on the other side of the Limpopo River were vulnerable, and because of the rush of time, some of the fortifications of Shaokui were still mainly rammed earth, which became a lifeline in wartime.

The British and Portuguese hid in the trenches, surrounded by dust, and the roar of the shells was very uncomfortable for the allied soldiers, although it did not cause rivers of blood, but the smell of gunpowder smoke and blood wafted from the positions, and occasionally saw stumps and broken arms, complete corpses, and the entire defense line was like hell on earth.

At the same time, in the south and west of Shaokui, the allied forces faced even more difficult tests, and the artillery fire of the Guards Division and the Western Military District was several times greater than that of the Eastern Military District and the Northern Military District.

Under this intense artillery fire, the fortresses of Shaokui were almost completely destroyed, leaving only a scorched earth.

Eight o'clock in the evening.

Under the horn of the East African charge, the general assault on the city of Shaokui officially began, and under the cover of artillery and machine guns, the East African infantry advanced step by step towards the position and the head of the city.

By this time, most of the area of Shaokui had been bombed into ruins, and the East African infantry climbed these ruins and fought the enemy from the horns.

The enemy was very tenacious, but this was only a minority, and most of the enemy still surrendered after seeing the East African military flag, and at this time the opportunity was completely lost.

The British and black troops were okay to say, and the Portuguese soldiers and Indians seemed to see their biological parents, and they begged for mercy in all kinds of ways against the East African soldiers.

And this discordant situation has also completely torn apart the resistance of the coalition forces, after all, no matter how hard he sells, how can he fight this kind of battle if his pig teammates exist?

The "demonstration" made by the Portuguese and Indians was eventually transmitted to all the coalition forces, and the coalition forces on the periphery basically surrendered, and the existence of the desperate fight, the East African soldiers also let them go to hell in advance.

At this time, there were less than 3,000 reserve forces left under Count Roberts, and Count Roberts looked at the tide of East African troops, his face was as pale as water, his chapped lips were slightly open, his eyes were blank, and his gaze was dull.

"Vote for it!"

At this time, a voice came from behind Count Roberts, it was the governor of Mozambique, Bougivar, who also looked very depressed, and looked at Roberts gloomily and said.

"Surrender?" At this time, Count Roberts was muttering, but it was still like a dead fish before, as if he had not yet come out.

"Your Excellency, sober up! We don't have a chance, we can't afford to let these young lives die in vain, and to resist any longer is just to add cold numbers to the East Africans' book of merit, and we have failed, completely failed. ”

Almost as soon as he finished saying this with a broken voice of rage, Bougivall's whole body was drained and he collapsed to the ground.

Count Roberts clenched his fists, his old skin forming folds on the back of his hand, full of age.

"Alas!"

……

At nine o'clock in the afternoon East African time, the sky was already gray, but some shadows could still be faintly seen, and several conspicuous white flags were slowly rising at the head of the inner city of Shaokui.

With the surrender of Count Roberts and the Viceroyalty of the Colony of Mozambique, the unofficial conquest of Sauquay in the East brought to an end another colonial flag of the Kingdom of Portugal in Africa.

The splendor of the Kingdom of Portugal was also completely buried in the dust of history at the end of the 19th century by the Kingdom of East Africa, which took place many such wars of the century, but for the Portuguese, this was their last chance.

Without the land and population as a foreshadowing, it is basically impossible for Portugal to rise again in the future, unless their descendants, like their ancestors, stand on the cusp of the wind and complete new feats, but that is basically impossible, as Ernst knew in the previous life, the two waste timber on the Iberian Peninsula have been in a state of decline.

(End of chapter)