Chapter 488 Intelligence War
Tete is more than 100 kilometers away from the nearest military stronghold in East Africa, but Portugal's troop movements in the Tete area have also been discovered by East African reconnaissance cavalry.
“It seems that the Portuguese are planning to use Tete as a breakthrough point to attack us. Now let’s quickly bring this news back to Songo.”
Songo is an East African military stronghold established on the banks of the Zambezi River in the upper reaches of Tete. It is located more than 20 kilometers downstream of the former Cahora Bassa Reservoir.
There is an unequal intelligence relationship between East Africa and Mozambique. Because of East Africa's isolation, it is difficult for Mozambique to enter East Africa to survey intelligence, while it is easy for East Africa to obtain Mozambique's intelligence.
First of all, Mozambique’s intelligence personnel may be intercepted by East African border military strongholds and checkpoints or border forces as soon as they arrive at the border. If they are lucky enough to enter East Africa, they will face material supply problems.
If the wilderness survival ability is maxed out and they can continue to go deeper, they will still encounter identity embarrassment. East Africa implements a household registration system, and there is no identity certificate or relevant documents. Once they meet a village or an East African, there is a risk of being discovered. To avoid settlements, you have to keep company with African wild animals.
All in all, the difficulty of entering East Africa to obtain intelligence can be said to be the most difficult of all countries in the world.
Of course, Portugal had obtained some information before, that was when East Africa initially occupied Matabele Province (Zimbabwe).
However, at that time, Matabele Province had not yet been developed in East Africa. Apart from geographical information, the Portuguese could not obtain other useful intelligence.
Moreover, going to East Africa to collect intelligence is a high-risk profession. In the early days, it was easy for the intelligence personnel sent by Portugal to act. However, after the population of East Africa increased in Matabele Province, Mozambique’s intelligence personnel suffered a loss of more than 30%. Later, Portugal did not When intelligence personnel were sent to East Africa, the loss rate was too high. No one was willing to die. East Africa still pretended not to know anything. The African continent was full of crises. Maybe the intelligence personnel in Mozambique were snatched away by wild animals.
However, Mozambique is almost a translucent existence in the eyes of East Africa. East Africa relies on reconnaissance cavalry to enter and exit Mozambique at will. However, the Mozambique colony has no countermeasures at all, mainly due to insufficient manpower.
So over the years, East Africa has often crossed the border into Mozambique, especially the northern part of Mozambique, which has almost been penetrated into a sieve by East Africa.
When East Africa noticed anomalies in Mozambique, cross-border reconnaissance became more frequent. Against this background, the reconnaissance cavalry from the Songo stronghold went hundreds of kilometers deep and went directly to Tete to obtain intelligence.
At this time, the Portuguese stationed in Tete had no idea that their actions had been discovered by East Africa. Tens of thousands of troops suddenly poured into the city of Tete, causing chaos and a large area of black troops, because the city of Tete was just a declining commercial city. The reason for the stronghold is that there are no large-scale houses and the ability to suddenly support so many troops.
All black troops can only be stationed outside the city. The outside of Tete City has completely turned into a noisy "vegetable market". The East African scout cavalry can detect abnormalities in Tete City from a distance.
“Did someone ride a horse and look at us just now?” A black soldier asked his companions, pointing to a small **** where the East African Scout Cavalry had just stopped.
“Oh! Maybe? I didn’t pay close attention. Maybe a white man came to inspect just now.”
“Whatever! It has nothing to do with us anyway.” Another soldier said.
That's right, the Portuguese are all in Tete City now. To say Tete City is actually a bit flattering to Tete City. Tete City is more like a large fortress. Two thousand white Portuguese soldiers gathered in the city for entertainment.
Smoking, drinking, and playing cards. There was even a brothel opened by Portuguese businessmen in the city. Swahili girls danced on the stage, and the Portuguese drunkards below cheered. Dareth, President of the Tete City Chamber of Commerce: "Hahaha, generals, you must be exhausted from the long journey this time. Our Tete is not a big place, so our ability is limited, so we can only entertain you with these simple meals. .”
Clément lit an East African cigar he bought in Dar es Salaam, took a sip, tapped his leg and said: "President Dares, you are doing business here. It is not far from East Africa. You should be very interested in East Africa." Do you understand me very well?”
Dares said with a beer belly: "General, you have misunderstood me. Although Tete City is only a hundred miles away from East Africa, I really don't understand what the interior of East Africa is like. Ever since the Germans occupied the interior, After that, they cut off our original commercial routes, and many of the original caravans also left. People like me also relied on the resources around Tete City to do some small business."
Clément: "So that's it. Then East Africa has obviously infringed on your business interests. Why don't you resist?"
Dareth: "General, you don't know something about this. Although East Africa has cut off trade routes, they have developed several commercial ports in the north. Caravans can go to the north to pick up goods and then sell them to all over the world, so there is only People like me who originally earned caravan service fees suffered relatively big losses, so not everyone hates East Africa. Furthermore, the Germans have very strong military strength, which is not something a small businessman like me dares to offend."
Clement: "Oh, do you know the strength of the German army very well?"
Dares shook his head and said: "I don't know about that. I just compared the strength of our commercial armed forces in Mozambique with the Germans. They are a serious army, and our commercial armed forces are at best a small force." A little fuss."
Clement: "You should have an approximate idea of how many German troops there are in the Tete area and the border area with East Africa, right?"
Dares: "This can be inferred. As far as I know, there is a German military stronghold about a hundred kilometers northwest along the Zambezi River."
Clement: "How big is the stronghold? How about its military strength?"
Dares: "The scale is not large. The number of troops may be around two to three hundred. This stronghold has been established for more than three years."
The military stronghold that Dares mentioned is the Songo stronghold. East Africa is also very particular about setting up strongholds in Songo. Tete City is actually located on a plateau with an altitude of 500 meters, with the Amodize Basin to the east and the Amotize Basin to the west. Facing is the Zambezi Basin.
The Songo stronghold in East Africa happens to be on the same small plateau as the city of Tete, but Songo is at the western end of the plateau. Songo and Tete also have one thing in common, which is that they control the Zambia River flowing through the plateau, but There are two places, one in the east and one in the west. Songo is in the west and Tete is in the east. The purpose of East Africa building a military stronghold in Songo is to confront the city of Tete and block the Portuguese's way to the west.
Dares: "Your Excellency, General, I wonder if this information of mine is useful to you?"
“Hahaha.” Clement laughed and said, “Of course, Mr. Dares, your information will be of great help to our fight in East Africa. When we return victorious in the future, we will definitely take good care of your business again.”
After learning that East Africa only had 200 troops in Songo, Clement seemed very relaxed. This time, under his own suggestion, Portugal adopted the strategy of undeclared war, which focused on taking East Africa by surprise and catching East Africa off guard. .
When they take the Songo stronghold and quickly control the south bank of the Zambezi River, the East Africans will be strategically passive. The East Africans' forces are mainly concentrated in the north and south directions. Once they control the Zambezi River, the main East African forces in the north and south will be Contact will be lost. At that time, they can concentrate on dealing with the East African army in the south. The German army in the north only needs to watch the Zambezi River hold them back. And this time there is a force heading towards Lake Malawi. All they need to do is cut off Tanga. East Africa cannot provide timely support for the land passage between Lake Nyika and Lake Malawi.
Lake Tanganyika, also known as Lake Solon in East Africa, was also known to the Portuguese, but they did not know that Lake Tanganyika was also the source of the Nile. At that time, Portuguese explorers moved from south to north, so they had no idea that Lake Tanganyika was the source of the Nile. I don’t know much about Lake Ganika. I only know that there is a large lake in the north of Lake Malawi, and its area is probably not smaller than that of Lake Malawi.
(End of this chapter)