Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 303 Kismayu III

In the Juba River Basin in southern Somalia, the rainy season is approaching. After a rain, new green grass grows on both sides of the river bank. A group of hundreds of antelopes poke their heads out from the narrow woods, vigilantly watching the movements on the river bank.

The central boundary of Somalia, south of the Houth region, the Goris Plateau gradually slopes from west to east, stretching to the Indian Ocean coast in the southeast. Some low-lying plains and river valleys divide the plateau in this area. Compared with the mountainous north, the plains and valleys here occupy a larger area. The Juba River and the Shabelle River on both sides of them provide precious water resources for this area. The area sandwiched between the two rivers grows pleasant aquatic plants and dense forests, which is a very rare sight in Somalia.

The sound of a steam gunboat starting up came from a bend in the rapids. Eight or nine hippopotamuses lying in the water plants were startled by the sound, and they lowered their huge horse heads and dived underwater.

South of the Shabelle, the Juba River flows directly from the Ethiopian plateau to the sea near Kismayo, where it forms a

The sharp bends are turbulent, the water is deep and the river is wide, the widest part of the river bank is about 120 yards (about 100 meters wide), the waters near the shore of the turbulent area are suitable for inland ships, and the water speed in the center of the turbulent area is too fast, and small ships are prone to capsizing if they force their way through. In 1865, German explorer

The ship "Wilf" that von der Decken and his crew were on capsized and sank in the center of the rapids because they were unfamiliar with the local water environment.

"Captain, we are ahead of us in the Baldera turbulent waters. The German expedition team sank here."

An officer on a 500-ton gunboat gave a reminder.

"All gunboats and ships should be extra careful, avoid the central waters of the turbulent current, and stay close to the right bank of the river."

Captain Zhao carefully observed the situation around the river bank and then issued an order.

"Attention, all ships, keep to the right!"...

The red, yellow and blue signal flags were waved, and the gunboats and armed steam ships, which were several hundred meters apart, immediately slowed down and slowly approached the shore after receiving the flag signal. …

After crossing the turbulent waters, the fleet sailed steadily on a calm river surface. The water plants on both sides of the river bank were still lush and green, but a little further away from the shore, the evergreen trees became increasingly sparse, with only a few lonely Arabian oaks dotted among the bushes and weeds.

The fleet continued to move forward and encountered dozens of Somali black natives holding long spears and riding camels. The native blacks had just seen the fleet moving forward in the river and their faces were full of curiosity and surprise. Then, more than 20 blacks gathered together, chattering for a while, and then more than ten spears were thrown at the boat.

"Uncivilized barbarians and monsters! Order the fleet to ignore them and move forward at full speed!"

Officer Zhao didn't take the blacks' actions to heart at all and gave the order coldly.

"Yes, Captain!"

The officer responded and was about to turn around to pass on the order when the sound of a gunshot stopped him in his tracks.

"Which idiot dares to shoot without orders?"

"Sir, the gunshots did not come from the fleet." "It was not our people who fired the gun."

Captain Zhao recalled the direction from which the gunshots had just been heard, turned sideways to take the monocular telescope handed to him by the guard, and looked toward where the blacks were gathering.

The scattered blacks gathered on the river bank. Three or five of them were holding old muzzle-loading muskets. One black man, who was covered in black with his feet in the water, was holding up a musket that still emitted a faint white smoke and waving his arms excitedly.

"Immediately give orders, the fleet will sail north at full speed, the Italians should be right in front of us!"

Captain Zhao put down the monocular telescope, thought for a moment, and made a decisive decision.

"Sir, if we encounter a large Italian force ahead, the fleet will probably suffer a heavy loss. To be on the safe side, it is better to send two gunboats out to conduct reconnaissance. It will not be too late to make a decision after determining the specific situation of the Italians ahead."

"The Italian colonial army is mainly concentrated in the coastal areas of Marka and Mogadishu. It has been less than a week since we set out. Even if the Italian colonial army adjusts its deployment, it is impossible to deploy troops to the inland areas of the Juba River within a few days."

Captain Zhao judged based on the intelligence he had collected that "the three powers in Somalia are interacting with each other, namely England, France and Italy. Italy only gained control of central and southern Somalia from England because of the outbreak of the Argentine war. The Italians' focus in the Juba River and Shabelle River basins is agricultural planting and livestock breeding. Our enemies here will only be the third-rate armed forces of Italian plantations and missionary organizations. It is unlikely that they will engage in direct combat with the Italian colonial army."

After the opening of the Suez Canal, the strategic positions of Egypt, Somalia and other places along the Red Sea were greatly improved, which led to the expansion of colonial power in the area by Britain, France, Italy and even Germany. However, in terms of economic benefits alone, Somalia is covered with yellow sand. Except for the slightly better natural environment of the Juba River and the Shabelle River in the south, which can produce agricultural crops, there is almost no natural economic benefit to show off. Therefore, except for the Italian missionary Amor who first went deep into the Juba River basin in 1873 and took the opportunity to sell backward muskets to local indigenous tribes to enclose several plots of land, the British and French colonists had no intention of expanding their colonial power in the inland areas of Somalia. The initial intervention of Britain in the Somali situation was only to ensure the meat supply for the British troops stationed in Aden (Aden lacked meat and food resources). Although British officials in Aden and British explorers along the Somali coast advocated the occupation of the Somali coast, the London government turned a deaf ear to their suggestions. In the eyes of senior officials of the London government, as long as Somalia did not fall into the hands of competitors such as France and Germany, it would be enough. As for military occupation, it was completely unnecessary.

The armed forces organized by Italian missionaries and private companies might be powerful against the native Africans and small countries in Southeast Asia, but there was still a big gap when facing the colonial forces organized by the Han central government.

In the second half of the 19th century, the Second Industrial Revolution developed rapidly. At the same time, the speed of updating and replacing weapons and equipment in mainstream countries was also very fast. For example, it might take several years to develop, test and widely equip a standard rifle. However, within 20 years after the muzzle-loading rifle was eliminated, a new breech-loading rifle was interviewed in less than four years.

Many breech-loading rifles have become obsolete firearms that have just been equipped to the troops because they could not keep up with the upgrading of weapons and equipment.

Of course, the high renewal rate of weapons and equipment mainly occurs in European powers such as Britain, France and Germany. In regions such as Africa, Southeast Asia and the mainland, due to technological lag, even a musket invented in the 16th century is a rare hot weapon.

In 1879, the technology of breech-loading single-shot rifles matured, and the Han National Defense Army was gradually equipped with imitation M1871 rifles, while the second-line guard army and colonial troops were mainly equipped with old-fashioned Dreyse imitation rifles. Those under more difficult conditions would also be equipped with some captured muzzle-loading rifles.

The conditions in the Kismayo stronghold are average among the several strongholds. The quality of weapons and equipment is inferior to that in Congo, but better than that in Mtwara stronghold in Tanzania.

In the troop commanded by Captain Zhao, 70% of the soldiers were equipped with imitation Dreiser rifles, 10% were equipped with machine guns, small cannons and other weapons, and the remaining 20% ​​of the auxiliary personnel used obsolete muzzle-loading rifles as weapons.

Captain Zhao slowly took stock of the strength of his troops' weapons and equipment and felt a little regretful. The British, French and American armies had begun to equip themselves with breech-loading repeating rifles as standard army equipment, while the Han country had only achieved imitation production of the M1871 rifle. It was unknown how long it would take before it could independently produce repeating rifles.

(End of this chapter)