African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 404: Chapter 81: The Sheep Enters the Tiger’s Mouth

The Kingdom of Swaziland, an obscure small nation, even historically, the British only turned it into a semi-colonial state in 1907. The British typically did this for two reasons: either they couldn’t swallow it, or it wasn’t of much value. The Kingdom of Swaziland belonged to the latter.

But now, the Swazis were in deep trouble, as the saying goes, ’Sitting at home, disaster strikes from the skies’, a group of troops from who knows where directly ambushed the Kingdom of Swaziland.

The Kingdom of Swaziland is just a small nation with only tens of thousands of people. Don’t let Swaziland’s small area and population fool you; the area where Swaziland is located is actually one of the most densely populated regions in Africa.

In the 19th century, the entire population of Africa was over ninety million, with Egypt (including the Sultanate) and the Abyssinia Empire having more than twenty million, the Kingdom of East Africa along with the Black Kingdom had more than twenty-seven million. These three countries almost accounted for half of Africa’s population. If you take away northern African countries like Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria, the population of Africa’s other regions might be just over forty million, which shows how vast and sparsely populated Africa, especially Sub-Saharan Africa, is.

This was mainly due to the excessively low level of civilization among the Black people originating from West Africa, which resulted in them remaining in a primitive society stage even after spreading throughout the region. In primitive society, population growth is basically constant; although many are born, many also die.

Thus, the environment had a significant impact on Africa’s population. The Nile River banks in Egypt, the Great Lakes Region of East Africa, the Abyssinia Empire, West Africa, the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, the Lake Malawi region, and the northeastern part of South Africa are currently some of the densely populated areas in Africa.

And Swaziland is in the northeastern part of South Africa, next to the capital of the Portuguese Mozambique colony, Maputo, the Zulu Kingdom, Britain’s Natal colony, the Transvaal Republic, and the buffer state between East Africa and Mozambique—the Gaza Empire (a native state).

Swaziland is less than a hundred kilometers from Maputo, and once occupied by East Africa, it can pose a direct threat to the capital of Mozambique.

The King of the Kingdom of Swaziland was at this moment standing beside Felix, introducing him to the situation of the Kingdom of Swaziland.

”To the east of my country is the Portuguese nation, and in the southeast are those barbarians of the Zulu Kingdom. A few years ago, our west was occupied by the Boers, but because of the barren land and complex terrain, generally, no one would come to our Kingdom of Swaziland.”

It must be said that Swazis are quite easygoing, and although they are of the same origin as the Zulu people, their personalities are completely different; when they encountered the East African army, they chose to surrender without any hesitation.

This left Felix quite helpless, as he had expected that there might be a fight with this small native country to get some thrill, but in the end, they didn’t resist at all.

Felix: ”Hmm, I understand all this very well. Indeed, this place is not suitable for human habitation.”

However, this was not a reason for the Kingdom of Swaziland to continue to exist. East Africa’s strategic intention this time was clearly to control Transvaal and the Zulu Kingdom, and the location of the Kingdom of Swaziland was right at the crucial point of East Africa’s southern advancement.

”Regarding your attitude, it is unique in the whole of Africa, so in terms of handling the Kingdom of Swaziland, I will communicate with the kingdom to negotiate some favorable conditions for you,” said Felix.

How to handle the issue of the Kingdom of Swaziland is indeed not easy to deal with. Since they’ve been so cooperative, one cannot be too harsh; this matter should be left to the crown prince to worry about in the future!

At this moment, a messenger suddenly came to report: ”Commander, our forces discovered an unknown armed force heading towards Swaziland from the southeast.”

Felix: ”An unknown armed force! What’s the situation?”

”It’s a white armed force, but it’s unclear whether they are Portuguese or Boer forces.”

”How many of them are there?”

”There should be three to four thousand people.”

Felix turned to the King of Swaziland and asked: ”Have you offended anyone in Swaziland recently?”

”How is that possible, General! Our Kingdom of Swaziland has always loved peace.”

Of course, while the King of Swaziland said so, he did not think so in his heart. The main issue was that the population of Swaziland was too small, and its military power was weak; otherwise, they would have left this remote place long ago.

The Kingdom of Swaziland has been here since the 16th century, without a chance to expand outward, mainly because their brothers, the Zulu people, were too formidable, and were all crazy fighters. As for the native kingdoms to the north, they were all ”big countries” to the Swazis.

Felix instructed the messenger: ”Have our troops stop them, if they are Portuguese, bring their officers here to talk, if they are Boers, then we’ll fight.”

If one doesn’t ask directly, it’s really possible not to distinguish where they come from, as there’s no obvious difference in the appearance of Portuguese and Boer armed forces.

At this time, the Boers on the mountainside were also bewildered, discovering there were other forces here! Wasn’t Swaziland supposed to be a Black Kingdom!

So both sides cautiously assessed each other, and someone had already recognized the East African military uniforms; these could only be the East Africans invading Transvaal.

”Who are you?” shouted East African soldiers.

The soldiers of the Transvaal Republic on the opposite side listened,

”It’s German, so it must be East Africa!”

”What should we do now?”

The Boer commander said: ”Ignore them, we will temporarily return the way we came.”

By this time, Felix’s messenger had arrived, ”Commander Bell, the commander said to keep them if the other side is Boer.”

Although it wasn’t clear whether the other side were Boers, seeing that they were trying to escape, Bell could not sit still.

”Transmit my order, don’t let the Boers on the other side escape!”

At present, Bell had only one regiment of troops, but the Boers were exhausted from travel, and climbing the mountain consumed a lot of their energy, which was perfect for the East African army to take advantage of.

With the military bugle blowing, the 2nd Brigade of the Mountain Division struck like a tiger released from its cage, with Bell leading from the front, charging directly at the Boers with his troops.

This put the Boers, who originally intended to sneak away, in a dilemma, and with the terrain of mountain paths limiting them, dispersal was impossible. Retreat turned into rout, trampling was inevitable, and the entire unit became a disordered mess. In contrast, the East African army exploited their advantage of attacking from a higher position, and the Mountain Division was more adapted to such terrain, moving swiftly along the Drakensberg mountain paths. In just less than two hours, the battle ended with the East African Mountain Division capturing all of the Boer main force.

Hearing the sounds of battle, Felix also led his troops there. He asked the captured Boer commander: ”Are you the main force of the Transvaal Republic?”

”Yes, sir!”

”Then how did you end up in Swaziland’s territory?”

”Alas, because Pillar urgently summoned our unit to return, but the Zulu Kingdom noticed our anomaly, so the Zulus dispatched heavy troops to encircle us. Despite our efforts to shake off the Zulus, we couldn’t break through, and ultimately had no choice but to go through the Kingdom of Swaziland to return to Transvaal.”

After hearing this, Felix couldn’t help but laugh, as the path they sought became a trap, yielding him a military accomplishment by accident.