African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 503: Chapter 181: Bizarre Commander

A small unit of over a thousand men, in theory, should be able to reach Songgo quickly. After all, it’s only a hundred kilometers from Tete to Songgo, which should take just three to four days.

But the pace of the Black people’s march was frustratingly slow for the accompanying French instructor, Lieutenant Kerry. They spent four days on the road and still hadn’t arrived, despite it being the dry season in Mozambique, where the dry grasslands shouldn’t pose much difficulty for marching.

However, this pace pleased the Portuguese officers. In their view, a forced march was unnecessary. Songgo was just a small outpost, and as Portugal hadn’t declared war, they believed the East Africans couldn’t have prepared in advance, so they strolled leisurely on the road. After all, covering ten kilometers a day was still within the standard.

Kerry, riding on a horse, said to the Portuguese commander, ”Captain Luo De, can’t we get the troops to speed up? We’re going to war, not on a picnic.”

Luo De, lounging on a simple sedan chair carried by Black people, lazily replied, ”Lieutenant Kerry, why the rush? The Germans are there and won’t run away; they can’t possibly know about our movements in advance.”

Kerry: ”If the German scouts spot us, this operation might be ruined!”

”You’re overthinking, Lieutenant Kerry. These days, we haven’t even seen the shadow of a German. They won’t find out about our actions in advance.”

”But...” Kerry wanted to say more.

Luo De impatiently interrupted, ”Alright, then. We’ll march an extra half-hour each day, no, make that twenty minutes at most. That’s our limit; too much might lead to exhaustion, which wouldn’t be wise against the Germans. My main goal is to have the troops in optimal condition to fight the Germans.”

Kerry looked helplessly at this useless man, feeling speechless. The Portuguese had shown him what real procrastination was. Kerry had seen plenty of layabouts, but such peculiar people as the Portuguese were rare.

France had been helping Mozambique train its army, but before the war, Mozambique’s government parachuted in a batch of Portuguese officers.

Describing it as ”parachuted” might not be entirely accurate since it had been prearranged. However, none of these Portuguese officers showed up during training, taking over command only when the war began.

Kerry really wanted to say a few words to the bureaucrats of the Mozambique colonial government. Why didn’t they do something about these mediocre talents?

In fact, the Mozambique government was powerless. The colony usually had a small military presence, and many officers were temporarily promoted from former white enlisted soldiers, Luo De included.

So, the capabilities of many officers were worrying, and they were reluctant to undergo the same training as the Blacks by the French, possibly making their military skills inferior to those of the Black people.

However, Mozambique was uneasy about handing the entire army over to the French. They couldn’t give the military power entirely to the French, fearing they might take over. So, the lackluster and soft white officers were a necessary evil.

Take Luo De, for instance. Weighing over 170 pounds of fat, he couldn’t even ride a horse, getting carried by Black people the entire way, while previously, he was merely a security officer in the city of Maputo.

Of course, not all Portuguese were inept. In Tete, there was a pure white unit, which was Mozambique’s true elite. Many of them were mercenaries or former Portuguese Army veterans with decent capabilities. These were primarily mainland Portuguese troops sent to support Mozambique.

But even calling them ”elite” is within the Mozambican context. Mozambique’s top soldiers are concentrated in the navy stationed there.

The Mozambique navy is in an awkward position, as they have nothing to do with the Mozambique colony government and are directly under the kingdom’s navy. Hence, during the Portuguese and East Africa war, they stood by, ostensibly to prevent an East African naval assault on Mozambique, a reasonable premise even though they were no match for the East African navy.

The current Portuguese kingdom can’t afford a large-scale military. Many colonies rely on private armies, or militia, for a semblance of military presence. The Portuguese government doesn’t necessarily have control over them. If these civilian colonial groups could align with the government, they might pose a nuisance to the East African army.

This is why East Africa is so assured of Mozambique’s military strength. In the short term, the Portuguese can organize a sizable Black army, but officers aren’t so easily cultivated. Even with the French as consultants, who sent only a small advisory group to assist the Portuguese, they can’t manage all those troops if fully in charge.

After six days of dawdling, the Portuguese vanguard led by Luo De finally sighted the Songgo outpost.

Luo De pretended to inspect through binoculars and then turned to Kerry, saying, ”Lieutenant Kerry, what should we do next?”

Kerry: ”...”

Luo De wasn’t faking it. He really had no idea how to capture the Songgo outpost, as it wasn’t what he imagined a military fortress to be.

From a distance, the Songgo military outpost stood about three meters high and spanned approximately three to four hundred meters. Surrounding it were ditches serving as a moat, and Kerry saw no glimmer of water. He deduced there might be spikes and other defensive measures in place.

The scale of the Songgo outpost was larger than Kerry imagined. This likely attributed to Luo De’s bewilderment because, based on his experience in Mozambique, military outposts were rarely built so large; after all, Songgo was not a significant region.

Tete’s importance, as a land and sea transport hub, justified its robust and sizable construction due to its past as a rallying point for caravans. But why was Songgo built comparably large to Tete City?

Tete City was a critical town in northern Mozambique, while Songgo was merely a common military outpost between East Africa and Mozambique. The strategic importance of the two couldn’t compare.

Kerry: ”It seems a bit tricky! We’ve underestimated the Germans’ construction capability. Such a military fortress could hold off many with just a hundred or so men!”

”Uh, you have no solution either?” Luo De asked.

Kerry was speechless. If it were the French military, they would’ve bombarded the place already. Even without artillery, they’d have siege equipment prepared. But the Mozambican military had no such resources!

Kerry: ”We can only start cutting down trees to build siege devices. At the very least, we’ll need to make some ladders to cross the Songgo outpost’s ditch and walls. Otherwise, even with our numerical advantage, we’ll be sitting ducks below and unable to breach the outpost, becoming targets for the East Africans and dying in vain.”

Hearing there was no immediate battle gave Luo De a sense of relief. ”Then I’ll leave it to you, Lieutenant Kerry. I have no experience with siege equipment, so it’s up to you to instruct those Blacks to complete this task.”

Kerry was infuriated by this Portuguese fool! ”Lieutenant Kerry,” he said repeatedly, as if commanding a subordinate. The problem was, as a French army lieutenant, how could he compare to a second-rate Mozambican colonial captain from Portugal?

The war hadn’t even started, and Kerry had already fallen into deep despair regarding the Mozambique-East Africa conflict, unless East Africa could also muster someone like Luo De as an opponent. But that seemed unlikely! The likelihood of assembling a ”Lying Dragon and Phoenix Chick” duo was slim, Kerry thought candidly.