African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 509: Chapter 187 Battle

With the East African Central Government’s order, the East African border forces were also eager to move. The first shot was fired on the Zambezi River basin battlefield.

Merk, inside the Songgo stronghold, addressed a group of East African army generals: ”Yesterday, the Portuguese arrived. They’ve set up camp a kilometer outside the Songgo stronghold, and it seems they intend to engage us in the wilderness.”

But Merk guessed wrong, because now the roles of offense and defense have switched, and on the Portuguese side, especially the French commander Clement, there was little willingness to continue the offensive.

The Songgo stronghold awaited a large number of reinforcements, and Clement knew that the opportunity to capture Songgo was slim. Without capturing Songgo, it would be impossible to smoothly occupy the southern bank of the Zambezi River as planned.

However, Clement couldn’t just let the troops withdraw or retreat to Tete City, lest East Africa take the opportunity to pursue them.

So Clement told the Portuguese generals: ”We can’t go back. Honestly, every city in Mozambique is very important, like Tete City, which is the only Portuguese immigrant settlement within two hundred kilometers. If we focus on Tete City for safety, that’s nice, but it also means losing most of the territory to the west.”

”So what do we do now?” someone asked.

Clement: ”We must use the narrow passage of the western plateau to block the East Africans at the western section of the plateau, which also prevents them from bypassing our view and launching a sneak attack on the Portuguese rear.”

This was a helpless choice for the Portuguese. Previously, the advance forces led by Luo De and Kerry had failed to remove the thorn of the Songgo stronghold, resulting in a lost tactical advantage. The Portuguese army could only hastily build fortifications, fearing East African army raids, so they had to construct their camp two miles away.

However, the hastily built fortifications could not compare to the Songgo stronghold, which East Africa had built over several years. They hadn’t even gathered enough stone in their rush, so their defensive capability was of course lacking, but something was better than nothing.

Clement: ”I understand your concerns. We’re not looking to confront East Africa head-on, just to see if we can stall them. If we can’t, we’ll retreat to Tete City.”

When the Mozambique army was on the move, East Africa gave the Black Army a final briefing to prevent errors, although errors were inevitable.

”Line up as you were taught in training before, into three rows. Don’t stand randomly, and don’t leave too large gaps.”

Due to issues with the Black troops’ formations, soldiers from the 512 division had to personally correct their mistakes. Although they had undergone training in South Salzburg Province, many of the Black soldiers had forgotten the combat skills taught by East Africa.

In reality, East Africa’s teachings to these Black Corps in South Salzburg Province were only partially effective, likely due to language barriers, leading to many gaps in training.

This required the experienced East African soldiers to correct them. As for why they were experienced, it was because the regular army had completely moved on from flintlock guns, especially new recruits who probably hadn’t even seen one. Therefore, the Black Corps equipped with mostly old muskets needed to be guided by the veterans.

”Advance slowly, don’t run, and don’t move too slowly. Do not turn your back on the enemy, or else our machine guns will not show mercy.”

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While the reinforcements supporting the Songgo stronghold were resting, Clement also led his troops back to the front of Songgo. Clement was now in a bit of a dilemma; the East African troop movements had been completed, ruining his plans, but he couldn’t retreat.

Clement: ”We might as well clash with East Africa. I believe that after wiping out this batch of East African reinforcements and taking the Songgo stronghold, East Africa shouldn’t have any more forces in the interior to hinder our plans.”

Ultimately, Clement was unwilling to give up and wanted to try his hand. In his view, the defending troops at Songgo had already reached a similar level to his own in numbers, so Clement believed East Africa couldn’t mobilize more armies.

Without saying much more, they directly engaged. This time it was East Africa launching a probing attack. The East African Black Corps was at the forefront, and due to the pre-battle corrections, they remained orderly, steadily advancing. Due to the weaponry, the firing line tactic reappeared on the African continent.

The Black troops, under the command of white officers, formed three lines and fired orderly at the Mozambique troops. However, the inaccuracies were significant, and after a round, only a few Mozambique soldiers fell.

Seeing this scene, Clement and others realized the East African Black Corps’ weapons were somewhat outdated, which greatly relieved Clement. He had previously heard rumors that East Africa’s army had no Black people, but now it seemed to be a complete sham. Before them were tens of thousands of East African Blacks, showing that East Africa was no different from other colonies, also relying on the ’second-class’ soldiers.

Clement: ”The Songgo stronghold can’t accommodate so many troops, so they must fight outside the city. This is our opportunity.”

Return the favor; it’s only polite. East Africa fired first, and Mozambique couldn’t just stand by. Both sides’ Black soldiers began shooting at each other, but compared to East Africa, the Portuguese Black soldiers fought more systematically.

”East Africa’s rifles don’t shoot far; they’re still using primitive muskets.” The Portuguese officers joyfully discovered they had a great advantage in this regard, although East Africa had more abundant ammunition.

”Let the cavalry come out from behind, and apply pressure on the Portuguese from the flank!” Seeing the Black Corps showing some signs of faltering, the 512 division commander at Songgo stronghold gave the order.

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The same scenario played out along the east coast of Lake Malawi and the Zambezi River basin battlefield. Mozambique’s two main forces were tied up by the East African Black Army.

Both sides had their victories and losses in these regions, but all engagements were completed through the Black troops. The East African army did not actually enter the fight, instead watching the proceedings from the rear.

However, the East African army indeed made significant moves in the north. On the Lufuma River, hundreds of small boats carrying East African soldiers began crossing the river. Similar to elsewhere, the south bank of the river here hadn’t been developed much, still wilderness with scattered tribes.

”Now our brigade will split into three directions to penetrate deeper into Mozambique’s interior. The enemy hasn’t deployed large-scale troops in this area, so they’re more likely to pull tricks on us. The terrain here is complex, and the vegetation is dense, so be ready for small enemy unit raids.”

East Africa’s tactical approach to this sparsely populated area, suitable for guerrilla warfare, was steady, advancing step by step. This was a key area of focus for East Africa, so they couldn’t afford to slip up here.

Ernst was quite concerned about guerrilla tactics and kept having the East African army study this area of tactics to prevent defeat by guerrilla warfare.

There were indeed some results. In the north, the Portuguese had only over three hundred armed men, which was insignificant to East Africa, but the local Black tribes were very unfriendly to East Africa’s invasion.

Because many East African natives had fled to northern Mozambique in the past, East Africa was notorious in this area, and so the Black tribes resisted fiercely, causing considerable trouble for the East African army.

For this reason, East Africa retaliated harshly against the resisting native tribes in the area, showing no mercy. Those who did not participate in resistance were driven southward, and many native tribes fled to southern Mozambique.