African Entrepreneurship Record

Originally, according to Rost’s idea, he naturally wanted to secure more ”military merits,” but due to the lack of ”captured” East African soldiers, it was impossible to understand the structure of the East African army.

In this situation, how should the ”Great Victory of Tugela River” be fabricated, after all, fabrication must be reasonable and justified.

Rost’s approach was not uncommon in this era. Just like in the previous life during the British-Boer War, there was severe exaggeration of military achievements and losses, nearly exhausting the British treasury, similar to what the US military did in Afghanistan later on.

Of course, the fact that the Tugela River defense line was indeed breached cannot be changed, but if you want to ”exaggerate” this victory a bit, you still need to obtain East African intelligence.

After dealing with the issue of Indian prisoners, Rost ordered: ”Command the entire army, after a brief rest, move north immediately. This time we must make East Africa pay the price.”

This time, a batch of East African prisoners must be captured to clarify the structure of the East African Defense Army. Before this, the situation of the Tugela River battle is not urgent to report.

After Rost’s order was issued, the British army that had just landed continued to pursue the ”fleeing” East African army in a hurry as they waited for heavy weapons to cross the river.

In fact, the British army’s fire preparation was not sufficient this time. Based on past experience, colonial wars always had British firepower at an advantage.

This time, the British army’s firepower was not weak, but the East African firepower was beyond their expectations, hence the thought of ”insufficient firepower” compared to previous colonial wars.

...

Kranskop.

Under Alydot’s orders, the Ninth Brigade was not in a hurry to retreat to New Hamburg Port City but instead prepared to fight the British head-on here.

And what gave Alydot confidence was that at least the Tugela River battle did not cause significant casualties to the Ninth Brigade. Excluding wounded soldiers, the Ninth Brigade still had more than five thousand men.

After voluntarily abandoning the Tugela River defense line, the Ninth Brigade could instead concentrate their forces, which actually increased Alydot’s available forces.

Standing on the rooftop, Alydot pointed around and said to his subordinates, ”Kranskop Village is in fact a slightly low-lying area, mainly a plain with slightly higher surrounding terrain. We will deploy our army on the surrounding high grounds, and Kranskop Village is also a necessary passage on the road to New Hamburg Port City, the British will definitely come through here.”

”Choosing the battlefield here is most advantageous for us. This will also be our brigade’s first direct confrontation with the British army, so I won’t say any more unnecessary words. Everyone must stay vigilant, play their roles well according to the pre-battle deployment, and especially follow the orders of the brigade headquarters unconditionally. I don’t want anyone to cling to battle for military merits when I give the order to retreat.”

Before this, Alydot and others from the brigade headquarters had fully analyzed that those British aristocratic soldiers had a ninety percent chance of not choosing any other route.

Because the road conditions in the Southern Border Province are extremely poor, and the British are hauling a lot of belongings, they can only choose to travel via the highway.

Of course, if an accident happens, it is not impossible. If a real accident happens, it can only be said that the Ninth Brigade is very unlucky.

This is how war is, it can’t be perfect in every aspect, so Alydot can only choose strategies to maximize their benefits when deploying for war.

Of course, by deploying like this, the Ninth Brigade also risks being encircled by the British, but this depends on the British having mature intelligence about East Africa.

And this is currently the biggest problem facing the British army; Rost is facing this situation.

Rost: ”All those in the Military Intelligence Department deserve to be hanged. These useless people gave a map that can’t even say resembles the actual East Africa. It’s probably a collection of old African maps before colonization, without even a basic understanding of the terrain.”

”Sir, what should we do then? Should we attack East Africa along the coastline, or take the road constructed by the East Africans?” a subordinate asked.

It is certain that following the coastline, one can reach New Hamburg Port City, as New Hamburg Port City is a coastal city; following the coastline north will surely lead to the main forces of East Africa.

Besides the coastline, the only reference of value is the road constructed by East Africans. The Ninth Brigade retreated along this road, leaving a lot of tracks and footprints.

Due to the dry season, these traces are very clear and haven’t been washed away by rain, but judging by the road condition, East Africans have a fairly good level of infrastructure construction.

Although there is only one road, neighboring Natal colony, apart from cities and strongholds like Durban, will never bother constructing such cross-regional roads.

”Let’s pursue along the road! We engaged the East African army before, and judging by the road conditions, the end of this road is surely the main direction of the East African army’s retreat. This road will definitely lead to New Hamburg Port, so now we will pursue north along the road, but to avoid East Africans ambushing along the road, the vanguard must be cautious.”

After Count Roberts went to Maputo, Rost became the highest military commander of the Natal colony, so his orders are absolute.

Soon, the British vanguard headed towards Kranskop Village.

At around four in the afternoon, as expected, they met the waiting Ninth Brigade head-on, and a fierce exchange of fire broke out. The arrival of the rearguard British forces provided support.

”Ahead is an East African village, it seems that the enemies we defeated earlier are resting there. There are quite a few of them opposite, so the vanguard dare not act rashly and await your instruction!” the subordinate reported to Rost.

”Good, this should be the East African troops that held the Tugela River. Due to the Tugela River before, we couldn’t defeat them. Now they have nothing to rely on, let’s see what they’ll use to fight us. Order the Indian troops to organize an attack,” Rost commanded.

And at this time, the British Lobster Soldiers could finally deploy their ancestral ”Single Lobster Formation.” Of course, this time Rost still used the Indian troops as the vanguard.

It doesn’t matter if the Indians die, after all, they are a cannon fodder army, and they should deplete a lot of East African ammunition, thus making the British casualty count look much better.

Rost was not a fool; before this, although the British army lost some troops, the number is almost negligible because the significant number of Indian service troops are merely consumables.

As long as the dead are not British, Rost can find ways to gloss over things, since the thing Britain lacks the least is Indians.

And this is a major reason why Rost, up until now in the war, has not learned any lesson; although Indian soldiers suffered heavy casualties, Rost cannot empathize. Had so many British soldiers died, Rost would have probably gone berserk long ago.

The Indian troops are indeed worthy heirs of the British military tradition. Although their arms and equipment are slightly backward, in other aspects, they are almost identical to the British.

They lined up in standard British formation outside the open terrain of Kranskop Village, even organizing a European-standard military band to completion.

In this situation, the East African Defense Army was seeing this for the first time; of course, this ”first-time seeing” mainly refers to the enemies. Previously, when fighting the natives, East Africans liked to use queue tactics as well, as it made it easier to concentrate fire to counter major native tribes or kingdom’s death charges.

However, with the later widespread use of Dreiser rifles, which significantly boosted rifle performance, the queue firing tactic, this ”ancient battlefield technique,” had long been abandoned by East Africa.