African Nationhood

Chapter 75 South Bechuana Cleanup Operation (Part )

During the attack on South Bechuana, Shi Jintang learned about the Boer's attack process.

On December 1880, 12, more than 17 Boers gathered in Paldekra, a small town near Pretoria, to hold a swearing-in meeting.

Then everyone elected Paul Kruger, Piet Joubert and Matheus Pretorius as leaders.

The three-person leadership team sent the letter of challenge directly to the commander of the British garrison in Pretoria.

Naturally, the British did not agree, and the Boer rebellion began.

On December 12th and 17th, two major military conflicts broke out between the two sides. The British suffered heavy losses and lost hundreds of people.

Now the British troops in the Transvaal have been huddled in garrison points in various places, waiting for reinforcements.

The Boers continued to attack and sporadic fighting broke out.

At present, most of the territory of the Transvaal is still controlled by the British army, and the Boers have only recovered a small amount of land.

The Governor of the Cape Colony and the Governor of the Natal Colony are coordinating garrisons from various places to quickly support the defenders in the Transvaal.

……

Seeing the fight between the two sides in full swing, Shi Jintang felt relieved.

Tian Liang, commander of the 3rd advance battalion, while dispatching liaison officers, headed north along the Crocodile River from Rand Fortress City to the small town of Mafeking at the intersection of the Crocodile River and the Limpopo River.

This is a Boer settlement, and it was also the capital of the British-ruled Bechuanaland region (Botswana) in the original time and space.

Tian Liang took out Little Pretorius's warrant and directly requisitioned this town to serve as a logistics base for crossing the river.

Then a platoon of regular troops and a militia team of 100 people were left behind to take care of the supplies.

After crossing the river, the advance third battalion directly launched an attack on the indigenous tribes in the southern Bechuanaland area.

After Shi Jintang led his army into the South Bechuana area, he immediately spread his troops horizontally and advanced in a linear shape from west to east.

Because the South Bechuanaland region is a narrow strip with an average width of 200 kilometers from north to south and 600 kilometers from east to west.

Therefore, Shi Jintang requires each company-level unit to sweep a width of 25 kilometers, and supply supplies along the way.

The indigenous tribes encountered along the way were cleared away without leaving any trace, and small tribes were pushed away without stopping at all.

Large tribes can unite with other company-level units to attack together. It doesn't matter if the advance is slower, but the natives must not be allowed to escape.

The purpose of this clearance activity is to keep a low profile and try not to let the British know about it and interfere with us.

The cleaning activity in the entire southern Bechuanaland area is scheduled to last for one and a half months.

One and a half months later, there should be no indigenous chiefs familiar with the British in the southern Bechuanaland area.

In the original time and space, in 1885, three indigenous chiefs went to London to meet the Queen of England and secured the protected status of the Bechuanaland area.

One of the three chiefs was Kama III. This old chief had so many cows that he had to snatch them away.

……

Although the South Bechuanaland area is generally flat, there are still hills and swamps in some areas.

Therefore, it is not safe to ride a horse in such an area, so you can only dismount and walk slowly.

Li Rong got off his horse early and started walking. He was covered in sweat as he walked, but he couldn't rest and had to catch up with the progress every day.

Following him were soldiers from the Eighth Company of the Second Battalion.

The advance second battalion is a reinforced battalion, so the second battalion has a total of eight companies.

As the last company in order, Li Rong Company's cleaning area is to advance eastward along the Orange River.

The Orange River has abundant water in the upper reaches, but the water volume decreases sharply in the middle section, and the lower reaches often dry up in autumn and winter.

The section of road that Li Rong's company is advancing on belongs to the middle reaches, so the water problem of their unit is basically not a problem, and they are still slightly wealthy.

So their warriors bathed every day when not fighting.

The other companies were not so lucky. They basically couldn't take a shower along the way.

Li Rong was often very proud of this. Seeing that it was almost noon, Li Rong wondered if it was time to stop for lunch.

I heard the scouts in front of me running over quickly, "Report to the company commander, we have detected the territory of indigenous tribe No. 101."

There are 100-200 indigenous tribes distributed throughout the southern Bechuanaland area, with large ones having more than 3000 people and small ones with hundreds of people.

During the previous trade investigation in this area, the tribes were numbered according to the order they were encountered. This indigenous tribe No. 101 is a medium-sized tribe with more than 1200 residents, 7% of whom are old, weak, women and children.

Mainly engaged in animal husbandry, there are more than 2000 cattle and more than 4000 sheep. Other supplies are in short supply.

Li Rong finished flipping through the information and nodded to the scout, "Continue the investigation, we will be there soon."

"Yes."

"Notice, everyone move forward quickly, we will go to the 101 tribe for lunch."       "Yes!"

……

The battle started without warning.

"Bang, bang~~~" After the gunshot, more than a dozen strong men fell down.

When the natives reacted, they touched the bow and arrow.

The soldiers of the Eighth Company have fired three rounds of salvos, and then they will attack freely.

When setting off from Rock City (Kalasburg, Nagota), each company received 3000 grenades as fire support and attack weapons.

Therefore, when soldiers encounter a difficult bone, a grenade can basically solve the problem.

The men in the 101 tribe finally found a bunker under volley fire.

When he tried to fire the poisonous arrow from the hunting bow, a smoking long-handled object was unexpectedly thrown towards him.

Then there was a loud "bang" and then nothing more.

The soldiers of the Eighth Company loved this explosive weapon very much, and their attack efficiency was greatly improved.

A battle usually ends in one or twenty minutes. In addition to the generation difference in weapons, the indigenous people also have poor fighting awareness.

When they encounter danger, their first reaction is not to avoid, but to freeze.

This gave the advance battalion soldiers time to harvest, so their advancement efficiency along the way was also very high.

After the indigenous men who dared to resist were cleared away, the remaining prisoners were prisoners.

Among these captives, the most important are men and women in their prime, but children can also be kept.

The old and the weak have basically no selling value, and are usually purified by fire.

Li Rong stood in a shady area outside the tribe and listened to Deputy Dalian's report on the damage.

“Three people were injured in this battle, two of them were shot by indigenous poisonous arrows, and none of them had critical injuries.

The other one accidentally fell down and broke his chin. "

"Well, how are the wounds of these three people treated?"

"Doctor Cai is treating them. It should be nothing serious."

"Don't be too optimistic. Those indigenous poisonous arrows are all biological toxins and have a high fatality rate."

"Company commander, don't worry. Dr. Cai helped them debridement immediately and bandaged them after making sure that all the blood flowing out was clean.

As for the guy who broke his chin, don't worry, just put some iodine on it. "

Facing the combat attrition of the troops, Li Rong was a little worried. Although the injuries were not serious, they would slow down the troops' march.

Li Rong waved away the Dalian deputy and walked toward the medical office alone.

"How's it going? Does it hurt?"

"It doesn't hurt, it doesn't hurt at all. This morphine shot really works."

Li Rong nodded, and then looked at Cai Ya. This girl had become much colder to him since he got married.

"How is Dr. Cai? Are you tired?"

"It's okay. I can still hold on. These two won't hurt after the injection. They will know the pain at night, so I suggest that they be left behind to wait for the follow-up troops to respond."

"Well, you can make the decision on this matter."

After speaking, the two fell into silence.

Li Rong scratched his head and wanted to find a topic, but the Dalian deputy came over again.

"Company Commander, the correspondent from the Seventh Company came to deliver a message, asking us to arrive at Tribe No. 97 before four o'clock tomorrow afternoon."

Li Rong nodded, "Yes, I understand. Let's go down and clean the battlefield. Leave a squad of soldiers to guard the prisoners and the wounded. They will chase us after the follow-up militia troops catch up."

"Yes."

After Li Rong gave the order, he quickly left, leaving Cai Ya alone and sighing silently.

……

All the ministries were advancing in an orderly manner. Shi Jintang read the battle report and breathed a sigh of relief, but he still hoped that his soldiers could advance faster.

The Boer war was advancing very fast, and the British could hardly hold on.

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  (End of this chapter)