African Entrepreneurship Record

With Alydot’s order, the already somewhat exhausted Ninth Brigade officers and soldiers began a new round of action to block the British army.

However, compared to the ”unease” that the East African forces felt before the war, it’s shifted to a numb state of ”the British are just like that.”

After all, the title ”the world’s strongest nation” is intimidating, but once you actually fight, the ”discrepancy” becomes evident. They are also just two arms and two legs, not invincible, unyielding ”heavenly soldiers descended to earth.”

Of course, the grass-roots soldiers in East Africa surely don’t think this way; it’s an exaggerated statement. Currently, the Ninth Brigade consists mainly of two parts: experienced veterans and new recruits who joined after the expansion.

The new recruits are divided into two parts. One part comes from the recent immigrants to East Africa, and this group is the biggest unstable factor in the Ninth Brigade.

These immigrants mainly come from German regions and the Far East, so their attitudes towards war are varied, even carrying various thought patterns of old-style armies, but they can get along with many East African veterans.

The other part of the recruits has received compulsory education from East Africa or Germany. After all, many immigrants from Austria-Hungary are Slavic, where the prevalence of compulsory education is not high, so many from Germany may not have received such education.

Recruits who have received East African compulsory education clearly have not gone through military education and have certain biases about the army, but years of disciplinary education in East Africa were not wasted, especially on the officer level. One can’t say the discipline is excellent, but it’s definitely not bad.

For the new recruits, one day of actual combat has thoroughly washed away their naivete, especially after confronting the ”world’s strongest nation.” The entire Ninth Brigade has made the greatest progress and quickly integrated.

When the British army initiated the fourth river crossing operation, all anxiety, unease, and panic in the Ninth Brigade disappeared, quickly becoming qualified soldiers under the leadership of veterans. This was the most direct feeling of the grass-roots military commanders of the Ninth Brigade, and the command of the troops became increasingly smooth.

”The British are launching an attack again, everyone on alert. According to the brigade’s order, we must save ammunition this time, especially the machine gunners. Aim before you shoot, don’t just waste bullets on the river feeling the might of the machine guns,” said the commander of the third company of the seventh battalion.

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The Tugela River flows rapidly; the potential energy accumulated from the Drakensberg Mountains is greatly released downstream, with crocodiles in the river waiting for another feast.

These Nile Crocodiles also brought immense pressure on the British army; previously, many unfortunate Indian soldiers who fell into the water lost their lives this way.

Therefore, the British small boats are very careful, needing to overcome the fast currents, be wary of the reapers lurking underwater, and dodge bullets and artillery from the East African side.

”Bang...”

The Ninth Brigade soldiers started a new round of shooting, but this time they saved ammunition, and the firepower was not as intense as before.

This gave the Indian soldiers on the British river units a sigh of relief, and the Gurkha mercenaries at the bow showed no fear, instead starting to counterattack against East African targets in the turbulent conditions.

The British at the stern ordered the Indian soldiers to row hard, seemingly turning things into a favorable direction.

”Faster, you lazy bunch, didn’t you eat?”

”If you miss the opportunity, you’ll all face military justice. Maybe charging forward will give you a chance to live. If you dare to turn back, I guarantee none of you will escape.”

The British on the small boats cursed.

In this rage and reprimand, the Indian soldiers’ efficiency indeed greatly improved. It seems enforcing strict measures is more effective to deal with these procrastinating Indians.

This time the British achieved a significant breakthrough, reaching the middle of the river without the previous collapses. Every abnormal boat was watched over by the British and Gurkhas, leading to even bloody incidents, where some inactive Indian soldiers were made examples of,

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”Without fire suppression, the British indeed improved a lot. Listen to my command, when the enemy is less than twenty meters from the shore, shoot them down, absolutely can’t let them seize the tidal flats and build positions.”

This time the British showed significant progress compared to previous attempts. After all, with Gurkha mercenaries setting an example, leading the charge at the frontline, and with British forces supervising from behind, the Indian soldiers used as cannon fodder had neither reason nor opportunity to desert.

”Machine gunners, fire!”

As the British got closer, the Ninth Brigade no longer hesitated, opening fire with artillery and machine guns simultaneously, while the British soldiers were in a retreatless situation, so close to the shore.

Retreating was impossible; the risk of getting broken while on the river was too great to return.

The Gurkha mercenaries showed no fear at all; though the East African machine gun points were powerful, they didn’t deter them.

These Gurkha mercenaries, like suicide squads, leaped ashore forcefully even before the boats docked, with their combat awareness though some continued to fall.

Once ashore, they immediately entered combat mode. To avoid the concentrated fire from East Africa, they didn’t foolishly charge but instead sought cover or lay in the mud and water, pushing forward.

The Indians behind seemed a bit dumbfounded. If they had time to think, they certainly couldn’t understand why these Gurkha mercenaries held no fear of death.

”Get ashore, stop dawdling!” the British commander roared.

After driving these slow-reacting Indian soldiers ashore, the British commander realized it wasn’t easy. East African firepower was too strong, and the river lacked cover. Under such conditions, it was likely a give-away!

However, being ashore already signified no retreat. With clarity on this point, the British commander started organizing a ”death charge.”

Unfortunately, the effect was poor. Many Indian soldiers lay on the ground pretending to be dead, while the Gurkha mercenaries, despite fearlessly fighting, were too few in number.

This rendered the British command ineffective; the East African side, on the contrary, wasn’t in a hurry, hiding behind cover, freely reaping the British lives.

Time quickly reached six in the afternoon, and after confirming the last wave of enemies was eliminated, the soldiers of the Ninth Brigade finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The fourth British river crossing operation was declared a failure.

”Throw all the corpses into the river to prevent the breeding of viruses and bacteria,” ordered Brigade Commander Alydot.

After every battle, East Africa sends people to clean the battlefield. These corpses piling up here, coupled with the high coastal temperatures in South Africa, can easily cause issues, so they must take risks to clear the British corpses on the riverbanks.

This is standard practice in the East African army. Previously, since the British hadn’t even completed a river crossing, there was no need to clean the battlefield.

However, what East Africa didn’t expect was that on the riverbank, many of those deemed ”corpses” were actually playing dead, this being the first time the East African Defense Army encountered such a situation.

While East Africa was cleaning the riverbank, many Indians suddenly sprang to life and surrendered outright, giving the Ninth Brigade a harvest of over 600 Indian prisoners.

Alydot looked at the captured Indian soldiers in wonder. After years of warfare in East Africa, this was the first time he encountered an army feigning death on a large scale to avoid combat. India truly is an extraordinary place.