My British Empire

The general manager of the Niger River and the commander of the fleet, this is the most powerful local figure in the Songhai Empire in West Africa. He is in charge of the entire Niger River and ships, and controls the economic lifeline of the entire empire.

Moreover, thanks to the emperor's authorization, the Songhai Empire gained the right to supervise the local governor, which made this position even more popular.

The prosperity of Songhai depended mainly on the control of trade routes across the Sahara.

The Songhai Empire is located in the central part of the Sahel region of Western Sudan. It is the hub of north-south transportation, benefiting from the Sahara trade route, and its trade is very developed.

The Niger River flows through Songhai from west to east, which also facilitates transportation. The fertile land on both sides is good for intensive cultivation.

Most of the huge fortune-seeking fleet cannot sail in the Niger River, and only a dozen small boats of one or two hundred tons can transport thousands of people on board time after time.

First of all, at the outlet of the Niger River, it belongs to a place called Benin, where the land is fertile and has a large number of African chief tribes.

In this regard, the Elvis knight and the guide Wilson did not ignore it, and instead launched a large army to carry out large-scale looting, but the result was very little.

These tribes don't have much gold and other things, but have a lot of wood carvings, ivory, and food.

This disappointed them greatly. After seizing some food and wooden ivory, they left a mess and continued to move towards the Niger River.

Immediately afterwards, Hausa, a vassal area of ​​the Songhai Empire, is a transit area leading to the lower reaches of the Niger River. Although there are many tribes, Wilson and his party still harvested a batch of gold, cattle, horses, and slaves.

In this way, 3,000 people gathered here and robbed it fiercely. The muskets and long guns made the Hausa area composed of cavalry and infantry terrified.

A large number of soldiers fled, and the people fled, screaming everywhere: The white devil is coming!

The wreckage of the Hausa people was left on the ground, men, women and children, black corpses fell on the yellow sand, looking extraordinarily desolate and sad.

A conservative estimate puts the number at three thousand. The river of blood is sticky all over the yellow sand, dried by the glare of the sun, turning black like a corpse, and it looks extraordinarily scary.

There was a hole in the head of the child on the ground, but no liquid flowed out, but there were more than a dozen screaming vultures hovering in the sky, as well as eagles with hooked beaks and giant wings.

A naked black-skinned woman lay naked on the ground with her legs spread wide open, and there was a mess between them.

Tents, huts, and clothing were set on fire and slowly burned, seemingly ready to burn the traces and eliminate the evidence.

But history firmly remembers these.

Wilson and Cavalier Elvis turned a blind eye, riding the captured horses, and let the soldiers transport the captured property to the small ships, and then sent them to the large ships on the sea.

Everyone happily raised their heads and chests up. Under the leadership of the dark guide, they rode horses along the Niger River and walked step by step towards Gao, the capital of the Songhai Empire.

At this time, the general manager of the Niger River in the Songhai Empire and the commander of all the water armies on the river were received by the emperor.

The emperor of the Songhai Empire at this time was Emperor Daud, the lord of Zhongxing. Since he succeeded to the throne in 1549, he swept away the decline of the Songhai Empire and took back all the lost lands one by one, so that the entire empire was restored. Prosperity.

The emperor's throne was set on a high platform, so the chubby river steward had to climb through the ranks and sweat hard to see the emperor in the palace.

In the palace, there is a huge lineup of courtiers, including members of the royal family, high-ranking officials and dignitaries, Griot (collectively referred to as poets and artists) and so on.

On the high platform, around the emperor, stood seven hundred eunuchs, as well as the well-dressed Griot, who were responsible for heralding orders.

A large number of servants (often slaves) under the command of a court magistrate took care of the various court affairs and cleaned them gently, oblivious to the advancing river steward.

"Looking up to you, Your Majesty!" The emperor in black robes, with a cold face, looked down at the poor river chief, and the vicissitudes of life sounded:

"There was a message from the Hausa area that a group of nearly 3,000 white people were burning, killing, and looting in Hausa with weapons, turning the prosperous Hausa into a white land, and now they are riding horses along the Niger River, step by step towards Gao!"

"Take your river fleet and destroy them!"

"Yes—" Kneeling on the ground, the river chief did not dare to look directly into His Majesty's eyes, agreed loudly, and then retreated slowly.

The plump body left the palace step by step, went to his general manager's mansion, and then went to the port, where there was his fleet - a fleet composed of two thousand hollow canoes.

In this arid place in West Africa, two thousand canoes are enough to control the Niger River and master this golden waterway.

At this moment, looking at more than 2,000 canoes, the river manager suddenly became full of confidence, and a wave of ambition emerged from the bottom of his heart.

"It's time for me to do something—"

A week passed in the blink of an eye, and the money-hunting army was still more than 200 miles away from the goal of Gao City. In this difficult place, it was inevitable to walk for another week.

But at this time, when the army was exhausted and marching confidently, the ships in the river discovered a big event.

"General, the watchman noticed that two miles away, a group of canoes is coming, and it seems that the visitors are not good!"

The sailor looked at the Elvis knight who was walking on a horse with a large bag of gold on his waist, and the smile on his face froze immediately.

The moment he heard the enemy, the general who had robbed for many days panicked, but his first reaction was not to defend against the enemy.

When it became clear that the enemy only had about 2,000 canoes, the smile on his face spread and he couldn't stop:

"Hahaha! Laughed to death, canoe, what did I hear? Can these also be called enemies?"

"Of course not, knight, these are just desserts before our dinner!"

Wilson also had big pockets, and responded with a smile.

"Notify everyone, sailor!" Cavalier Elvis immediately ordered with a stern expression, stern expression:

"Let everyone start preparing, the enemy is coming, prepare to deal with the enemy! Although we are facing a group of ridiculous navy!"

Hahaha……

As the last sentence sounded, the British soldiers around laughed out loud.

Although there are only a dozen sailboats of one or two hundred tons, for a canoe that only holds a few people, no matter how many there are, they are still huge.

But at this time, as he gradually approached the group of white troops that looked like they came from North Africa, the river manager suddenly felt a little nervous, and he had some bad premonitions.

Sure enough, when he saw a dozen ships in front of him that were countless times bigger than himself, including the chief executive, he was stunned.