African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 781 A large ring within a small ring

When Howell finally made his decision, Schwal had already led the people out of the forest. The forest was indeed not suitable for marching, that is, the Portuguese were too slow, otherwise Schwal felt that he would definitely be blocked here.

Looking at the familiar grassland, Schwal was finally relieved. However, the crisis was far from over at this time. After all, he was going deep alone, so it was better to find a safe place first.

 “Commander, which direction are we going?”

Schwal: "To the west, but we must find a foothold today. We don't have time to linger here now. The enemy has discovered our traces, so we can only get through the current difficulties at this time."

At this time, Schvaldo had no room to think. After all, East Africa was not very familiar with this area. Although there was a map provided by the Military Intelligence Office, it was not too detailed.

  No matter whether you go south or north, you are likely to encounter the main force of the coalition forces, so only the west is the safest in Schwal's opinion.

Of course, Schwal also had the idea of ​​meeting the main force of this roundabout operation. This time, a total of two troops in East Africa went deep into the enemy's rear. In addition to his own regiment, there was also a brigade that entered the enemy's rear from the western mountains.

It’s just that their speed is definitely much slower than the Schwal tribe that travels by sea and land, so Schwal has to find a way to survive in the past few days.

The most important thing is to solve the problem of material supply. This is the biggest problem for the survival of the Schwal department. After the East African Defense Forces went deep alone, they completely lost their logistics, and they could only find solutions from the enemy.

Thinking of this, Schwal said: "We have to march westward for at least thirty kilometers before dark to get rid of the tail behind us."

And based on many years of experience in Schwal, the British and Portuguese definitely have no way to continue to pursue the Schwal tribe.

At the same time, he will also face the risk of enemy encirclement and suppression, but Schwal is confident about this, because the main force on the East African frontline should be able to hold back most of the enemy's troops.

  In other words, the current location of the Schwarz Department is the enemy's supply line. As long as they find a good base, the Schwarz Department can attack from all directions and rob the enemy's transport convoys.

In this way, Schwal's pressure will be greatly reduced and the space for maneuver will be greater. Of course, cleaning up the enemy's supply lines is only a minor part of this combat mission.

It is almost dark now. Marching at night is safer and easier to escape the enemy's crisis. This is a required course for the East African army.

 So the troops that the enemy can send are 70% likely to be garrisoned in the direction of Maputo.

 It will take a lot of time to reach the landing point in East Africa, and it will take even longer if you are chasing the East African army.

However, Schwal believes that this problem should not be too big. After all, the amount of materials needed by the British and Portuguese on the front line must be huge, and these materials can only be sent to the front line from Maputo.

More importantly, backstabbing the enemy troops on the front line will cause confusion among the front-line coalition troops, and the main combat tasks must be completed by other troops.

But he only needs to wait two or three days, and the situation will change drastically. By then, the enemy will have to face interference from a main brigade in East Africa in the west, and the frontline East African troops will continue to put pressure on the coalition forces.

This can be more intuitively reflected since no large enemy troops have appeared now, which means that the enemy's nearest troops are not close to where the Schwarz Department landed. It has been two hours now, so even if the enemy's speed reaches 40 kilometers per hour, , should also have walked eighty kilometers.

Of course, it is impossible for the enemy to reach this speed. According to the marching speed of most Portuguese armies, they can reach thirty or forty kilometers a day. They are the best of the best. The Indian army is even more slow, marching at most one mile a day. Twenty kilometers.

The British, the most normal among the coalition forces, do not have much problem at this point. However, the British cannot mobilize their troops now. Earl Roberts adheres to the method of using good steel on the blade. Divide the troops into four large parts for use. The British army is the absolute main force of the war, so it must be deployed in places with the greatest intensity of war, such as the front line or important cities, strongholds, fortresses, etc. such as Maputo.

Followed by the Portuguese, the purely Portuguese army is mainly responsible for coordinating the military operations of the British army. They are generally deployed on both wings of the British army and assist the main force of the British army in combat.

Then there are black people. Black troops are generally used as cannon fodder. This has been found to be very useful by the coalition forces. Black troops are more brave than Indian and even some Portuguese troops.

 Finally, there are the Indians, who are mainly responsible for logistics and other tasks, because the Indians' fighting skills are too low and can easily cause bad results on the front line, leading to greater vulnerabilities.

 After receiving several “education” sessions in the early days of the war, Earl Roberts and the top brass of the British army no longer dared to challenge the Indians’ “bottom line”. Facts have proved that they have no bottom line at all.

This also means that if the Schwalbe Department is interested in coalition logistics, it will probably be very easy to succeed, because the Indians are in charge of this area.

It's just that the coalition forces never thought that East Africa would go deep behind enemy lines and attack their logistics lines. In fact, it was not that they had not considered it.

It’s just that East Africa has been fighting with the coalition forces for more than half a year, but almost no lone troops have gone deep behind enemy lines, so this has made the coalition forces relax their vigilance.

 In addition, the coalition forces deployed "heavy troops" on the coastline. In Roberts' view, it should be "foolproof", but Earl Roberts miscalculated again.

 The troops in charge of the coastline are mainly "Portuguese". Although the Portuguese do not break the "routine" as often as the Indian soldiers, they will definitely bring "scare" to everyone.

Just like the Schwal troops were able to enter the rear of Mozambique, they completely relied on the slackness of the Portuguese army, but the Portuguese army did not do nothing.

 At least they still maintain daily patrols. If the Indians are allowed to guard the coastline, there is a high probability that they will not find any trace of the East Africans.

After all, patrolling the coastline can be a "false report", just like signing in. As long as the superior cannot see it, who knows after leaving the military camp whether the task has been completed seriously or not according to one's own ideas.

 …

At the time the Schwal troops successfully landed and penetrated into the enemy's rear, a larger fleet on the Indian Ocean was also coming towards Maputo at night.

This combined force is the East African Navy and the Guards Division. The Guards Division also has its own small navy and serves as the main force on land. This time their target is northern Maputo.

 In this way, East Africa's division and encirclement of the enemies around Maputo is being completed, and now the prototype of a small encirclement has taken shape.

The large encirclement is completed by the Guards Division in cooperation with the Western and Southern Military Districts. The Guards Division carries a large number of heavy weapons. At the same time, the navy and the small navy of the Guards Division will also cooperate to launch a new round of attacks on Maputo.

 In this way, the forces in Maputo and surrounding areas will be divided into two parts, forming a strategic pattern of a large ring within a small ring.

In this way, Maputo is really likely to become an isolated city, thus interrupting the communication and command between the coalition forces and other regional forces.

But what the East African side did not expect was that half a month ago, the British Commander-in-Chief, Earl Roberts, and the Governor of Mozambique, Bougival, had already moved the coalition headquarters to Saukwe in the Limpopo River Basin in the north, which was regarded as an early escape.

 (End of this chapter)