African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 400: Chapter 77 First Encounter

Before the East African army arrived, Wiggins took over Pretoria and made some major changes to Pretoria’s defense system within three days, not only temporarily raising and reinforcing the city walls but also digging trenches around Pretoria.

Although the Boer population of the Transvaal Republic is not large, there are quite many black slaves, so Wiggins is indifferent to the lives of the black slaves. Wiggins organized many slaves together, quickly solving Pretoria’s military construction problem in a short time.

At this time, the whole of Pretoria had less than ten thousand Boers because Little Pillotolius had taken a significant portion, and then some residents fled following the president’s departure.

Fortunately, Wiggins promptly initiated ”patriotism” education, forcing the remaining people to stay. Facing the large scale of the East African army, Wiggins only had two thousand white soldiers in hand, so it was very necessary to supplement the army with black slaves. Although there was some risk, Wiggins still selected more than ten thousand black people into the army, temporarily issuing them weapons and promising freedom after the war.

Thanks to the previous experience of assisting the Ndebele, the Boers stored a batch of munitions which Wiggins distributed to the black slaves.

The black slaves and Boers were mixed together, with the Boers primarily responsible for command. To give these patriotic youths some war experience, Wiggins let everyone hold a position; every three people would have several slaves under them, which greatly boosted the Boers’ combat enthusiasm.

Playing the patriotism card, Wiggins named his troops ”Youth Patriotic Army,” which fit the setting of his troops very well, as those old hands would never join Wiggins’ army. Many had already fled to the Orange Free State or even returned directly to Cape Town.

”East Africans are not to be feared; don’t be fooled by their numbers or their fine dress; they are just a facade. As long as we don’t make big mistakes, defending Pretoria is not a problem,” Wiggins worked hard to enlighten his troops.

This was necessary. Previously, Wiggins had belittled the East African Kingdom’s army, but as the East African troops approached, the sense of oppression began to build, so Wiggins needed to first stabilize the troops’ emotions.

Fortunately, he had previously filled the army with black slaves, or the gap between the two sides would be too great. Looking at the numbers now, the gap between the two sides was not large, although the East African soldiers outnumbered them, the Boers were defending, making it a fifty-fifty situation with East Africa, Wiggins calculated in his heart.

At this point, the East African 514th Division had already moved out, swaggering towards Pretoria, and as a second-line unit, the 514th Division didn’t have much advantage over the Boers in equipment.

”The East Africans seem to have not improved much. Everyone pay attention, do not shoot first, wait until the East Africans are 300 meters from the trench to start shooting, and when they are 200 meters from the trench, the people on the walls will fire,” Wiggins commanded methodically.

Based on the experience from the previous Ndebele uprising, Wiggins decided not to face East Africa head-on this time, but instead rely on the trenches and the city to hold firm.

The defense line designed by Wiggins could be divided into two levels, with trenches as the first level, where most of the black slave soldiers were distributed, along with a portion of Boer commanders. Wiggins didn’t demand much; as long as they could shoot at the East African army, that was enough. The presence of cover brought a sense of security, preventing them from easily collapsing psychologically.

The Boers and a few black slaves were distributed on the second level, which was on the city walls, allowing them to overlook and cover their own people in the trenches while overseeing the battle and preventing soldiers from fleeing the trenches.

Standing on the city walls, Wiggins had a panoramic view of the battlefield. When the vanguard of the 514th Division entered the range specified by Wiggins, they started to open fire on the East African troops.

”Advance while crawling, find nearby cover, and attack Pretoria!”

Faced with Boer fire suppression, the 514th Division could only open fire passively. Although equipped with Dreyse rifles, the enemy had the advantage of cover and city walls, making it difficult for the 514th Division on flat ground to conduct effective counterattacks. Instead, they were constrained everywhere, and their formation was disrupted, but they maintained an overall attacking posture.

Honestly speaking, the performance of the 514th Division was not satisfactory. Besides making numerous errors and rigid command, they could only be praised for their courage.

Ernst watched the twisted 514th Division and spoke: ”This does not meet my expectations!”

Sivert responded beside him: ”Principal, if the 514th Division were fighting in coordination with brother units, there would be no problem, but to let them conduct siege operations alone is quite difficult. Firstly, their military commanders are not professional. Due to prioritizing the defense of the First Military District, students from the Heixinggen Military Academy who participated in the last Prussian war were supplemented into the elite units of the kingdom, while the other five military districts, apart from the mountain troops of the Third Military District which were improved due to their special nature, had no significant changes. The chief of the 514th Division was previously just a company commander of the Württemberg Kingdom, so commanding the forces of a division is indeed challenging.

Secondly, the 514th Division used to fight mainly with natives who rarely had fortifications, let alone defensive works like trenches. Therefore, the 514th Division’s soldiers have hardly faced fortress-type cities like Pretoria, which has a European style.

Finally, and most importantly, the 514th Division lacks heavy weapons and professional siege equipment, making it difficult to accomplish tasks without resources, which was anticipated.”

”Alright, no need for excuses. The 514th Division just lacks military training. Our troops have always been fighting against black people with no technical content, which although thrilling, does not serve the purpose of training. Once we encounter a similar type of troops, it is very likely there will be no progress like today,” Ernst continued, ”being close to red makes you red, being close to black makes you black. The situation of the 514th Division certainly represents the conditions of the other military districts aside from the First Military District. Even if those troops have some strength, they probably aren’t much stronger than the 514th Division overall.”

Sivert: ”Principal, you’re right, but in Africa, it’s also difficult to find some powerful opponents to serve as a reference standard.”

Ernst: ”Then take the world as the standard, we shouldn’t limit our vision to Europe and Africa. Any valuable case is worth our reference, for example, the battle between Afghanistan and the British, why Afghanistan can win with a weaker force, why the Far East army’s performance is uneven, etc., these are all things our army needs to study.

In the future, East Africa is likely to be in long-term peace; can the army not progress because of peace! We must learn to actively improve military literacy to become an army undefeated in a hundred battles.”

The East African army is modeled after Germany, so it has a strong German style. However, constantly dealing with natives means abilities are destined not to be trained, while Prussia, now recognized as the world’s number one land military power, emerged from the monster-ridden land of Europe. The surroundings of East Africa lack strong land opponents, so it cannot fight endless battles like Prussia, and the opponents’ strength is also decent.