Chapter 490 The Weird Commander
It stands to reason that a small force of more than a thousand people should be able to reach Songo very quickly. After all, the total distance from Tete to Songo is only a hundred kilometers, which takes three or four days.
However, the marching speed of the black people made Kerry, the French instructor who led the team, lose his temper. He dragged his feet along the way and took four days to arrive. You must know that Mozambique is currently in the dry season, and it is dry. Marching on the grassland is not difficult.
However, this marching speed satisfied the Portuguese officer. In his opinion, a forced march was completely unnecessary. Songo was just a small stronghold, and Portugal was fighting an undeclared war. He believed that the East Africans could not prepare in advance, so they passed slowly on the road. That’s pretty good, after all, walking more than ten kilometers a day is considered up to standard.
Kerri rode on his horse and said to the Portuguese commander: "Captain Rod, can you speed up the troops! We are going to fight this time, not for an outing."
Rhodes said lazily on the simple sedan carried by black people: "Lieutenant Kerry, what are you in a hurry for? Anyway, the Germans are there and they won't run away. They can't know our actions in advance."
Kerry: "If the German scouts discover us, then this operation may be ruined!"
"You are too worried, Lieutenant Kerry. We haven't even seen the Germans these days. They will not discover our actions in advance."
“But…” Kerry wanted to say more.
Rhodes interrupted impatiently: "That's good. We can march for half an hour more every day, no, no more than twenty minutes. This is our limit. Going too far is not enough. If it is not the best idea to deal with the Germans with exhausted troops, My main purpose was to put the troops in a better mental state to fight the Germans.”
Kerri looked helplessly at this waste, feeling very speechless in his heart. The Portuguese allowed him to see what real procrastination is today. Kerry, a foreigner, has also seen a lot. Weird people like the Portuguese are really rare.
France helped Mozambique train its army, but before the war began, the Mozambican government temporarily parachuted a group of Portuguese officers.
It is not right to say airborne. It should be said that it was determined before. However, these Portuguese officers could not see any of them during training. They did not take over the command of the army until the war started.
Kerry would like to greet the bureaucrats of the Mozambique colonial government. Don't they care about these mediocre talents?
In fact, the Mozambique government can do nothing. The Mozambique colony does not have much of an army at ordinary times. Many officers are temporarily promoted from the former white soldiers, and Rhodes is one of them.
So the abilities of many officers are worrying, and they do not want to receive training from the French like blacks. I am afraid that their military capabilities are not as good as these blacks.
However, the Mozambique colony is not at ease if the army is completely handed over to the French. Military power must not be given to the French. What if a bird takes over the dove's nest? Therefore, these white officers who have no military ability and cannot endure hardships apply it.
Just like Rod, this guy weighed over 170 pounds and couldn't even ride a horse. He was carried by black people along the way. Before that, he was just a security officer in Maputo City.
But when it comes to elites, they are also Mozambique’s standard elites, and Mozambique’s top soldiers are concentrated in the navy stationed in Mozambique. The Mozambican Navy is also very embarrassed. To be precise, they have nothing to do with the colonial government of Mozambique, but are directly under the jurisdiction of the Royal Navy. Therefore, this time the war between Portugal and East Africa, they stood aside and watched. Of course, this reason is to prevent East Africa from attacking Mozambique from the sea. It makes sense, although they are indeed no match for the East African Navy.
At present, the Kingdom of Portugal simply cannot afford to support a large-scale army. In fact, many colonies rely on private armies, that is, civilian colonial armed forces to support the front line. The Portuguese government may not be able to mobilize them. If these civilian colonial groups can work in unison with the government, Maybe it can really cause some trouble for the East African Army.
This is also the reason why East Africa is so confident about Mozambique's military strength. The Portuguese can organize a large black army in a short period of time, but officers are not so easy to train. Even if there are French people as staff, France only sends An advisory group of dozens of people was formed to assist the Portuguese. Even if they took over the command of the Portuguese army, they would not be able to manage so many troops.
After dilly-dallying for six days, the small Portuguese vanguard force led by Rhodes finally saw the Songo stronghold.
Rhodes pretended to take out his telescope and looked at it, then turned to Kerry and said, "Second Lieutenant Kerry, what should we do next?"
…
Rhodes was not pretending at all. He really didn't know how to capture the Songo stronghold, because it was a little different from the military fortress he imagined.
From a distance, the Songo military stronghold is about three meters high and about three to four hundred meters long. There are ravines around it, which serve as a moat. Kerry did not see the light of the water, so he concluded that there may be spikes and other defensive measures inside. .
The scale of the Songo stronghold is also larger than Kerry imagined. This is probably why Rhodes is at a loss, because according to Rhodes' experience in Mozambique, generally no one builds a military stronghold that big. After all, Songo is not What key areas.
Because of its important location, Tete is a land and water transportation hub, and it was a gathering place for caravans in the past. Therefore, the construction is relatively strong and large-scale. This is acceptable. How come the one built by Songo is not much smaller than Tete City?
Tete is an important city in northern Mozambique, while Songo is just an ordinary military stronghold between East Africa and Mozambique. The strategic positions of the two sides are not the same.
Kerry: "It seems a bit difficult! We underestimated the construction capabilities of the Germans. This kind of military fortress may not require two to three hundred people, but even more than a hundred people can resist us for a long time!"
“Well, there’s nothing you can do?” Rhode asked.
Kerry was speechless. If the French army encountered this situation, it would have bombarded it with artillery. Even if there were no siege facilities corresponding to the artillery, it would be indispensable. But the Mozambican army does not have this condition!
Kerry: "We can only cut down trees and make siege equipment first. We must at least build a batch of ladders to cross the trenches and walls of the Songo stronghold. Otherwise, even if we rush to the city with the advantage of numbers, we will not be able to enter the city to get the weapons. If we go to the Songo stronghold, we will only become a target in East Africa and die in vain.”
Hearing that there was no need to start fighting immediately, Rhodes breathed a sigh of relief: "That's troublesome, Lieutenant Kerry, I have never seen siege equipment or anything like that, so I still have to rely on you to command those **** to complete this work. ”
Kerry is really going to be **** to death by this stupid Portuguese pig! Each second lieutenant of Cree is like a superior ordering a subordinate. The question is, can I, a second lieutenant of the French army, be compared to you, a parallel import captain of the Portuguese African colonies?
Before the war started, Kerry fell into deep despair about the war between Mozambique and East Africa. Unless the East African Kingdom could also find a fool like Rhodes as an opponent, it should be impossible! The probability of collecting all the "crouching dragon and phoenix chicks" at the same time is probably low, Kerry thought honestly.
(End of this chapter)