African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 92: Chapter 88 Conflict Escalation

Enzela.

East Africa colonial border outpost.

Mainly responsible for monitoring the movements of exiled indigenous tribes while preventing their return.

Looking at it now, this ”rectification” campaign has generally achieved the expectations of the East Africa colonial government.

The Northwest has already become a chaotic battlefield; war inevitably causes deaths, fulfilling the colony’s plan to eliminate the indigenous population.

It’s not that indigenous tribes haven’t tried to return to the East; the East Africa colonial government has set up dozens of military posts along the borders with the Northwest countries.

Creating a one-way valve that only allows the indigenous to leave, not return.

Enzela is one such military post.

Defense against the Northwest in East Africa mainly consists of a straight line from the southwestern corner of Great Lake (Lake Victoria) to the northeastern corner of Soron Lake (Lake Tanganyika).

About three hundred kilometers long, with military posts set every twenty or thirty kilometers, these posts are staffed with patrol personnel, continuously inspecting the border area.

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The Northwest countries, deeply harmed by the Eastern Bantu tribes, started to collaborate with each other.

Though the Eastern Bantu tribes caught the countries unprepared, causing domestic unrest, the central power of the indigenous countries still holds some strength, at least the royal family still has a direct army.

Even if many areas are temporarily separated from the kingdom due to traffic and enemy obstructions, the central part still occupies the largest territory.

Facing the aggressive Eastern Bantu tribes, the Northwest countries, long accustomed to interaction, set aside past feuds, preparing to cooperate first to suppress and clear out the Barbarians.

Meanwhile, the Eastern Bantu tribes began to expand with the influx of later migrants, considering that not all the indigenous driven out by the East Africa colonial government were large tribes numbering in hundreds or thousands, but rather some small tribes with dozens or even a few individuals, and scattered indigenous people.

These small tribes and individuals were absorbed into the larger tribes of the Eastern Bantu tribes, strengthening their power.

Thus, the scale of war escalated, and the nobles already residing in the area formed an alliance to jointly crusade against the Eastern Bantu tribes.

As the Eastern Bantu tribes gained population reinforcements, their strength surged, showing no fear, both sides engaged in chaotic warfare in the region west of the Great Lake (Lake Victoria).

The war disrupted the social order in the Northwest countries, slaves originally used for agricultural development took advantage of the chaos, joining either side of the battle, or fled into the Wilderness.

The original nobles, fighting the Eastern Bantu, naturally had to conscript a large number of slaves as cannon fodder, further exacerbating land abandonment.

With land desolate and grain production reduced, already impoverished families faced additional hardship, increasing both sides’ desperation over remaining resources.

In fact, when the nobles of the Northwest countries became serious, they indeed proved more advantageous than the scattered tribes of the Eastern Bantu.

As the most advanced indigenous productivity area in East Africa, the Northwest countries not only possessed a more advanced social system and organizational capability compared to the Eastern Bantu tribes but also mastered more advanced iron forging skills.

The advantage of the Eastern Bantu tribes over the Northwest countries lay in their destructive capabilities, for being civilized countries, the Northwest countries still had a constructive attribute, while the Eastern Bantu tribes in a primal society only knew how to battle for resources.

Fortunately, the martial force of the Northwest noblemen wasn’t completely neglected; constrained by the narrow land area between the Great Lake (Lake Victoria) and the East African Rift, countries often held ”friendship matches.”

Moreover, as slave civilization, the Northwest nobles naturally monopolized military force, responsible for suppressing slaves within their respective territories.

That is to say, these nobles were actually primal military aristocrats.

In contrast, the Eastern Bantu tribes didn’t have a concept of nobility; they mainly elected the strong within the tribe as chieftains,

The Eastern Bantu tribes plundering the Northwest countries was in fact out of desperation, expelled by the East Africa colonials, they lost their hunting grounds, and the grasslands’ wildlife was their main food source.

Coupled with the journey from the East, traversing long distances and starvation forced the Eastern Bantu tribes to rob the Northern lords for survival.

The Northwest nobles, with their advantage in iron arms and strong organizational ability, once united, quickly gained an upper hand over the Eastern Bantu tribes.

The scales of victory tilted towards the Northwest countries, determinedly hostile nobles of the Northwest refused to accept the Eastern Bantu’s surrender, executing captives immediately.

Defeated Eastern Bantu tribes, seeing no chance of survival in surrender, mercilessly retaliated against the Northwest countries.

Hatred between both sides intensified, the bloody nature of the war escalated, each aiming solely to destroy their opponent.

Victory meant life, defeat meant death. No flashy tactics involved, solely aiming to eliminate the last standing opponent.

This battle persisted over three months, ultimately culminating in the Northwest countries’ victory.

Though the Eastern Bantu tribes couldn’t be entirely annihilated, only the weak and infirm remained, conscripted as slaves by the Northwest countries to supplement labor lost in the war.

This unmemorable war claimed at least several million lives, leaving many regions in the Northwest countries almost deserted.

Worse, post-war corpses were not properly managed; in past smaller-scale wars, wildlife could resolve neglected bodies.

But this war’s large scale, paired with the Northwest hatred towards the Eastern Bantu tribes, resulted in many corpses exposed in the Wilderness.

Even nature couldn’t decompose so many bodies quickly, terrifying plagues began spreading within the Northwest countries.

The Northwest countries’ plight was reported by border East African colonial soldiers to the government, which strengthened the blockade against the Northwest countries to prevent the plague spreading into the colony.

Even Kenya bordering the Buganda Kingdom was heavily guarded.

In tropical regions, disease is quite a threatening presence, with numerous incidents occurring yearly in the East African colony despite its focus on sanitation.

To prevent the plague’s entry into colony territory, the colonial government ordered soldiers guarding the border between East Africa and the Northwest not to let a single living creature pass.

Even a mouse, or a snake, would be shot immediately.

Simultaneously, the colonial government urgently ordered large quantities of disinfectants and sterilizing agents from Europe to conduct large-scale disinfection on the border between East Africa and the Northwest countries.

With strict defense, the East African colony successfully blocked the spread of the plague to its territory.

The Northwest countries were completely devastated, southern countries suffered even more, while Buganda’s northern part, Tu Rou Kingdom, and Gitarra Kingdom were relativity mildly affected.