Chapter 128 Inquiry
The Las Campoli trading market is mainly used to broaden the sales of East African commodities, such as grain. Although it is a hard currency, it is time-sensitive. If it cannot be sold in time, there is a risk of expiration and deterioration.
There is also sisal fabric, which was produced in large quantities in the East African colonies at the beginning, but the sales in the European market were extremely limited. European merchants mainly bought hemp rope directly, or directly purchased sisal fiber to process it themselves.
The Las Campoli trading market is also an attempt to land trade in East Africa. In the future, a caravan may be formed to try it all the way from East Africa to Egypt.
Egypt is on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. European ships can go directly to Alexandria in Egypt. At the same time, Egypt is the land connection channel between Africa and Asia, and Asian goods can also reach Egypt directly from land.
There are two main land trade routes from East Africa to Egypt for reference. One is the east route, going north from Somalia or eastern Ethiopia, passing through Sudan to Egypt; the other is the west route, going north from South Sudan in the previous life, passing Sudan to Egypt.
Land commercial roads, although inefficient and much more costly than sea and land, can provide East Africa with one more choice.
The coast of East Africa is currently relatively easy to blockade, so there is a potential danger of being cut off by other countries at sea.
…
On the Great Lake (Lake Victoria), several small boats were galloping on the surface of the lake. The stern propellers fluctuated rapidly on the bottom of the water to provide power for the small boats.
The first batch of engines had just arrived, and they were hurriedly installed on their own toys by the newly established Neihu Army in East Africa.
After a few days of training, the sailors drove the speedboat and started their first long-distance voyage mission-going to the west of the Great Lake (Lake Victoria) to find out the situation. With weapons, dry food and fuel tanks, the Neihu troops set off.
The initial Neihu troops consisted of 153 people and five boats. In order to prevent accidents, all the boats were dispatched for the first time.
They are all speedboats equipped with engines and propellers. The chief of the Neihu Army is named Werner Joly, a native of Trieste in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He has lived in the harbor since he was a child, and his father used to be a sailor.
So Werner Joli is familiar with ship operations and has some basic knowledge. Most of the sailors in the Neihu Army in East Africa are relatively good at water, and most of them used to live on the coast.
For example, the immigrant sailors from the Austro-Hungarian Empire basically came from Trieste. Trieste was the first stop for immigrants from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to East Africa, so the number of Trieste immigrants in East Africa is very large.
Like the Trieste immigrants, there are also immigrants from the Jiaozhou Bay area in the Far East. They are also the departure port for Far East immigrants, so there are a lot of them in East Africa.
Most of the sailors in East Africa also come from these two coastal port cities. Of course, living by the sea does not necessarily mean they can swim, so some inland immigrants with better water skills were selected as sailors, but the number is not large.
"There is land ahead!" A sailor pointed and shouted.
Werner Joli looked forward, and sure enough, the outline of the land gradually became clear. He said, "Let the boat go."
Under the sailor's operation, the boat slowly approached the shore, which is the west bank of the Great Lake (Lake Victoria).
"Leave thirty people to watch the ship, and the others and I will go ashore to see the situation."
Soon Werner Joli picked six from each boat to stay, and he said to them: "You are not allowed to leave until we come back. If you don't see us before dark, you go back." Report it to the government!"
Excluding the people who stayed at the Mwanza headquarters and those who stayed to watch the ship, Werner Yori only has more than 70 available people.
Leaving thirty people to watch the ship is actually quite a lot, but in order to prevent accidents, Werner Joli still did this. Thirty soldiers with hot weapons are enough to fight a small tribe.
After arranging personnel tasks, Werner Joli landed with a large army and headed inland.
The place where Werner Yori and his party landed is the territory of the Kingdom of Buganda. The local aborigines are called Balai. Of course, Werner Yori and others didn't know it.
Just after landing, there is a mudflat along the lake, and a few tens of meters away is a virgin jungle. The tall trees extend north and south along the shore of the lake, and you can't see the end at a glance.
Werner Joli said to the team members: "After entering the primitive jungle, everyone should not run around, follow the team closely, and make more marks along the way, otherwise you will be finished if you can't find the way back. Do you hear me clearly? ?”
"It's the captain!"
Werner Yori took out the compass from his arms, pointed it to the west, and led the team towards the jungle.
In the primordial jungle, the trees were tall and strong, and the dense branches and leaves blocked the sunlight, showing the seclusion of this place everywhere, which Werner Yori was used to.
There are also similar primitive jungles around Mwanza, which are distributed on both sides of Mwanza. According to Werner Yori's speculation, the situation here should be similar to that on the east coast. If so, the width of this jungle should not be long.
It was about the same as Werner Jory predicted. After walking about two or three kilometers, there was no jungle in front of him, and the vision suddenly became clear.
The group continued to move westward, and soon, the careful Werner Joli squatted on the ground and began to study carefully.
"Look, does this look like a dirt road!" said Werner Joli.
"Although there is grass growing on it, it is obviously shorter and sparser than the surrounding area." Werner Joli pressed the ground with his hands while speaking.
Then he changed several places and repeated this action. Werner Joli was more sure of what he thought, and said to the team members: "The soil on this suspected road is indeed harder than the surrounding ones, it seems that it is a road without a doubt! "
"Captain, is it possible that an animal stepped on it?" Someone questioned.
"I've been in East Africa for a long time, and I've seen the roads made by animals, which are far from the regularity of this road." Werner Yori denied.
"Look carefully, the width of this road is about one meter. It is more like a sidewalk for the natives. I don't know why there is so much grass. It is likely to be abandoned by the locals, so we follow this road. There is a high probability that you will encounter villages or traces of indigenous life when you move forward." Werner Jory analyzed.
"Isn't it? It's not convincing even if I say it. Let's find out for ourselves to find out if what I said is right. Let's take a look along this road."
So Werner Joli led the team to continue forward. This road runs east-west, and the east is the direction from Werner Jori, so Werner Jori and others continued to walk west.
"Look, that's an indigenous village!" Werner Yori said excitedly after he left.
Sure enough, a village appeared in the distance. The conical top, gray-black branches, and muddy walls all highlighted that this was a primitive village.
"Get your weapons ready, let's go and see the situation." Werner Joli ordered.
A group of people prepared for battle and approached the indigenous village nervously.
"Captain, there seems to be no one here! I don't see any natives."
"Well, it's really different from the indigenous villages we saw before. Logically speaking, it shouldn't be so quiet, at least there must be guards." Werner Yori said standing at the gate of the village.
"It seems that this is an abandoned village, let's go in and have a look."
Werner Joli walked into the indigenous village, and saw that moss had begun to grow on the wooden buildings that were left unattended.
Small huts over one meter high, most of which had their doors open. Werner Yori walked towards the largest building in the village, which is usually where the chief lives.
Werner Yori bent down and entered the chief's house. He saw that the living facilities inside were messy, and many clay pots were knocked over at will. It seemed that the evacuation was not normal.
There is a totem on the wall. I can’t tell what material it was painted on, but there are obviously a few man-made holes on it, as if poked out with a sharp instrument.
This should be done by the enemy. You must know that totems are sacred and inviolable to some tribes.
"Captain, I found something!" A team member outside shouted.
"What's going on!" Werner Yori asked as he walked out of the chief's house.
"Captain, come and see for yourself!"
The team member took Werner Joli to a house, and there were ashes left by a bonfire. There were some bones beside the bonfire, which were randomly discarded.
"Get out first!" Werner Joli ordered.
Outside the house, Werner Yori called everyone together and said: "Obviously, this village has been wiped out, the totem has been destroyed by the enemy, and the bottles and jars have not been taken away. I haven't seen that native tribe yet. This is a big mistake, the group of natives we expelled in the past wanted to take all the houses with them, this place was obviously destroyed by humans, and the enemy is still here..."
Cannibal tribes are not uncommon in Africa. There was a joke in the previous life. A European said to the indigenous chief that we killed millions of people in a world war. The indigenous chief asked, killing so many people, Have you finished eating?
Different worldviews lead to different conclusions, so in many very primitive African tribes, cannibalism may be as insignificant as slaughtering cattle and sheep in their worldview.
Werner Yori had only heard about it, but it did not prevent him from guessing the tragedy that happened in the village at that time based on the situation in front of him.
"Okay, don't think about it anymore, you go find some hay and dead wood." Werner Joli ordered.
Soon everyone found a lot of igniters from outside the village, and Werner Yori asked the team to spread these things around all the houses.
"Light it up!" Werner Joli gave the order, and the village disappeared forever in the raging fire.
After setting off the fire, Werner Joli and the others turned around and left, heading towards the place they came from. The fire behind them went out at some point...
(end of this chapter)