African Entrepreneurship Record

The Maxim gun’s lethality is immense, yet the Indian troops seem ”fearless” as they continually launch offensives, which is completely different from the Indian soldiers’ performance during the Tugela River incident.

”No one is allowed to retreat!” The British troops’ supervisory squad in the rear played a significant role.

In reality, both the British and Indians were anxious in such circumstances, but just like during a stampede accident, the rear personnel, unaware of the situation at the front, rushed forward blindly, leading to a coordination failure. The front Indian soldiers were aware of the situation, yet the rear Indian soldiers were not, and the British supervisory squad behind the Indians knew even less.

If it were a regular British division, a commanding officer would quickly detect the issue, but the high command of the Indian division comprised British personnel.

The plain terrain limited the British commander’s ability to grasp the situation unfolding at the front line, while the rear influx of Indian troops was actually quite common. After all, the weak combat spirit of Indians was something the British were well aware of—it’s unusual for Indians not to flee to the rear.

At this time, if observed from on high, one would notice a bizarre battlefield situation, with East African machine gunners at the front slaughtering Indian soldiers en masse, while the British supervisory squad urged the rear Indian troops to continuously fill the front lines.

After more than twenty minutes of development, the British commander finally noticed the change in battlefield conditions—namely, the sharp decrease in the number of Indian troops, and with the mounting corpses, the brutality of the front-line battle became faintly observable from the rear.

It’s not an exaggeration to say corpses littered the ground; the rear Indian soldiers found it impossible to advance as their path was blocked by piles of bodies.

With the spread of truth, the fear already present in the Indian soldiers approached a critical point, subsequently exploding.

This fear surpassed their fear of the British. Ignoring everything, they charged backward in a bid to escape, even under the threat of bullets from the British supervisory squad, they fled heedlessly to the rear.

The Indian troops went completely ”insane”, causing the entire British frontline to collapse and quickly affecting the main forces of the British troops in the rear.

No one knew what the Indians had experienced to warrant such terror. Rost ordered the British forces to intercept the Indian soldiers, but the results were minimal.

At this time, East African artillery also kicked into gear, bombarding the rear of the British forces, deepening the fear in the Indian soldiers.

Now, the only thought in their minds was to escape this hellhole. Rost was vexed, as the Indian soldiers withdrawing from the front line seemed to have gone berserk, attacking the main formations of the British forces, yet the cause was still unclear.

Could it be that across from them, East Africa had not just one brigade but harbored more troops, leading to the complete collapse of the Indian forces?

The two Indian divisions were over four times the strength of East Africa, so many troops shouldn’t have suffered such a crushing defeat against just one brigade of East Africa.

At this moment, East African

Ninth Brigade’s brigade commander Alydot decisively ordered a retreat after observing the British chaos.

”The entire brigade is to retreat to New Hamburg Port City; artillery and wounded first, Second Regiment First Battalion remains to continue hitting the enemy along the road, slowing enemy’s march speed.”

Staying behind now serves no purpose, as after this ”extravagance,” most of the Ninth Brigade’s ammunition had been depleted. If the British caught up, the Ninth Brigade would inevitably face the risk of total annihilation; the enemy had already achieved absolute numerical superiority.

Amid the British confusion, the Ninth Brigade of East Africa began their retreat, while at this moment, British commander Colonel Rost was still amidst a crisis.

The number of these routed Indian soldiers was too great; even suppressing them would consume a lot of time, while guarding against East African attacks. But he didn’t anticipate that at this moment, the Ninth Brigade of East Africa was not lingering in battle and had already begun retreating.

As time progressed, the British forces finally managed to ”console” the defeated Indian troops under Rost’s command, while due to the ”unexpected situation” in this battle, Rost had no choice but to order the British troops to rest on the spot, also compiling and reporting the day’s battle situation.

”Based on descriptions from Indian soldiers, East Africans were using a new type of machine gun. We didn’t capture any specimens, but based on Indian descriptions and the features of this machine gun, it should be the newly emerged European Maxim gun. Unexpectedly, the East African forces are equipped with a large number of these new machine guns, indicating that the Maxim gun is very mature, fully applicable on the battlefield, its performance far surpassing the Gatling gun.”

Rost: ”Then how effective was the Maxim Gun? Can East Africans defeat several times our troops with just machine guns, isn’t it somewhat exaggerated!”

Rost had heard of the Maxim gun, but such machine guns hadn’t gone for a broad use in Europe, or rather hadn’t yet seen substantial combat usage. Achieving such astounding results with a small machine gun was something Rost could hardly believe.

After all, the British forces had machine guns too, although they weren’t Maxim but Gatlings, and Gatling guns had never achieved such records, so the results such machine guns could bring baffled Rost.

”Based on military statistics, just for today, the Indian soldiers suffered over seven thousand casualties, including over four thousand dead and more than three thousand wounded.” Speaking of this, his subordinates trembled slightly.

Rost’s face turned dark, just one afternoon of battle ended up displacing half of a division’s troops. Although the casualties were among Indian soldiers, this figure still far exceeded Rost’s psychological expectation.

Additionally, the mass collapse among the Indian forces became understandable; with such high casualties, not experiencing broad collapse would be against logic.

Subsequently, Rost began contemplating how to handle the fallout from this battle with over seven thousand casualties—this isn’t a small figure. Despite being British himself, the responsibility for the defeat couldn’t simply be shirked.

If the casualties were around three or four thousand, Rost could have maneuvered through personal relations to obscure it, but over seven thousand was beyond his capability, and now Rost’s only solace was that the casualties were primarily among Indian soldiers. If his division faced such a scenario, he wouldn’t need to work; a military tribunal would suffice.

Rost paced anxiously within the headquarters, pondering how to ”beautify” the circumstances of this battle.

Such heavy casualties are hard to conceal due to the sheer size, so solutions must stem from the adversary side.

Firstly, just like before, exaggerating the East African forces’ capabilities is required. In assessing East Africa’s capabilities, theirs must be perceived as superior while our forces are disadvantaged, thus rendering heavy casualties less awkward.

Next is exaggerating the enemy’s weapon use, especially the role of the Maxim gun. Without elevating the Maxim gun to the sky, then this affair cannot be adequately explained.

”Did we capture any prisoners this time?” Rost asked!

”We captured three living East African soldiers, although all are seriously injured and currently still unconscious.”

”Quickly treat them, deploy my personal doctor—must fully ascertain the East African troops’ composition,” Rost said.

”Additionally, you must immediately organize discussions on the analysis of the Maxim gun; this ’terrifying’ slaughter weapon, as our military isn’t equipped, it’s the main reason for battle casualties, the Military Intelligence Department bears substantial responsibility.”

”This fully illustrates East Africans increased military investment, while our national army funding is inadequate, leading to a weaponry disadvantage—therefore, our military casualties in this battle are within expectations.”