Australian Storm 1876

  Chapter 517 Two Rebellious Forces

at dusk

  Set up camp on the edge of Lake Malawi, on the endless emerald green plain, dotted with gray-white tents dotted with dots, and several sheepskin rafts on the lake, casting nets for fishing.

  The smoke in the camp is smelt, giving off the smell of cooking.

The aquatic products of Lake Malawi are extremely rich, and no one has caught them for thousands of years. Therefore, the fish in the lake are dumb and not afraid of people. Living in a piece of land, from time to time I saw the sheepskin raft being pulled over, and everyone laughed.

There are a large group of hippos frolicking by the lake in the distance. There are hundreds of them. All of them are fat and strong. The adult hippos are more than 4 meters in length and weigh 3 to 4 tons. It can be seen that they are living well. , From time to time, huge splashes of water come out by the lake.

The average water depth of Lake Malawi is 270 meters. With a fat hippo, it can only eat rich aquatic plants in the shallow waters of the lake. The water depth of more than 30 meters can't go down because the increasing water pressure is enough. Squeeze the hippopotamus, it is a forbidden zone.

  On the other hand, fish are different. Many large fishes are deep-water fish species and live in different waters with hippopotamus. The two do not interfere with each other.

   Around the campsite

  There are large herds of African wildebeests, bisons, African gazelles, as well as lions and African hyenas that haunt them, but no one can be seen.

  This large plain is too vast. The Lake Malawi alone has an area of ​​more than 30,000 square kilometers. The large plain on the east coast of the lake has an area of ​​more than 100,000 square kilometers. The large plain on the west coast of the lake has a larger area and is a paradise for wild animals.

Previously, more than 2,000 immigrants arrived here, accompanied by more than 700 soldiers, according to the instructions of Lord Earl; occupy as much of Malawi as possible, and the newly built settlements are very far away from the camp, the nearest one It is more than 630 kilometers to the northwest, and the farthest one is nearly 700 kilometers to the northeast. It is distributed in a semicircular shape, encompassing the entire Malawi region, and as deep as a wedge into the German-occupied East African region.

  Poor such a small number of people, scattered in the area can not even see the spray.

  Therefore, the delegation led by Li Fushou could not see anyone at least for a week. The Lake Malawi region is 560 kilometers long from north to south, and it takes eight or nine days to drive on horseback.

  The entire Mozambique region covers an area of ​​more than 800,000 square kilometers, while the occupied area of ​​Queensland is as high as 1.1 million square kilometers. The extra 300,000 square kilometers are all areas near Malawi.

  According to the spirit of the Berlin Conference; whoever occupies owns it.

   "Papa Papa..."

  After a burst of sharp gunshots, a large group of African gazelles ran desperately, breaking the tranquility of the large plain by the lake and making the scenery lively.

   "Master, you hit..."

Gu Liuyan cried out in surprise and looked at Li Fushou with admiration. The old **** Li Fushou put down the specially customized rifle in his hand, and said with a smile on the corner of his mouth; "These African gazelles are so courageous, they didn’t taste it. I’ve seen how good bullets are, and now I’ll teach them a lesson.”

   "Wow...Master is the best."

   "Hey hey..."

  Li Fushou smiled and didn't make a sound. He watched the guards behind him swarm up, lifted up a dozen African gazelles that had just been knocked down, and threw them on the horse. They prepared to have a bonfire for barbecue in the evening. It was very delicious.

  Li Fushou personally hit one, and the others are all the contributions of the guards. Drinking fish soup and eating barbecue at night is not good, so everyone is in a very good mood, and they are busy talking and laughing.

  "Lord, look...There is a group of lions staring at us over there."

   "It's okay, they dare not come over."

  "Look, my lord, some lions are coming."

"Oh……"

I just said that the lions did not dare to come over, and some lionesses with sturdy expressions came over leisurely. The dense weeds covered most of their bodies, and the lionesses faintly formed hunting formations in their laziness. Smell the fresh blood of African gazelles.

  Li Fushou looked at these lionesses with an unkind expression, feeling sorry for their fate.

  Behind these lionesses, more than 20 lions all followed. This is a large group of lions and the king of this lake area. Under the stimulus of the **** prey, they are ready to take action.

  Under the comfort of the guards, the horses are still neighing uneasy. This is a natural fear of predators in the wilderness.

  "Prepare, shoot..."

When several lionesses approached within 50 meters, Fu Peng decisively ordered the shooting. After only hearing a crisp shot, all these close-range lionesses fell into a pool of blood, convulsing weakly. After a few strokes, he slumped to death.

  This frightened the lions, and immediately ran away.

  The two male lions ran to the distance and stopped one after another. They turned around and looked at the wasteland in surprise, as well as the human beings with guns on the wasteland. There was a sense of bewilderment in their expressions...

What exactly is going on?

After cheering, the guards drew out their sharp sabers and ran up. They were ready to roast some lion meat to eat at night. The lion bone soaking in wine was also pretty good. To make up for it, take the lion skin back and nitrate it. Isn't it good to be on the ground?

  Because of the habit of diligence and thrift in the bones of the Chinese, anyway, it should not be wasted.

  After the episode

  The guards who finished the hunt surrounded Li Fushou and his wife Gu Liuyan to return, and sang "The Return of Targeting" excitedly along the way, and the joyous singing was all over the way home.

With the emigration and development, the Malawi region will usher in tremendous changes. This wildlife paradise will be completely changed from now on. African lions and hyenas, wild dogs, wolves, crocodiles, piebald leopards and cheetahs will all be hunted. The objects of removal are the end of the good days of wild animals. These carnivores pose a serious threat to immigration and pastures and must be completely removed.

  In addition, there are large groups of African wildebeests and bisons that are also hunted by immigrants, because these wild animals will destroy the pastures, eat the most tender and delicious weeds, and attack humans. This is absolutely intolerable.

  The arrival of immigrants will change everything here, and it is an unavoidable thing in colonization.

  No one can tolerate that there are lions and ferocious African hyenas near pastures and cultivated fields that can pounce at any time. Therefore, the fate of these wild animals is doomed.

  Back to the camp

  Assistant Deputy Director Li Siren followed in with the document, and after the respectful salute, he submitted the document in hand; "Master, this is the urgent report just delivered by the courier, please review it."

   "Oh, what's the matter?" Li Fushou took it and threw it on the folding table, took a sip of the soaked fragrant tea, and asked casually.

   "Returning to the master, it is about the news of two African tribal armed rebellions, and the application of the African Expeditionary Force to deploy enough Arabian horses from Xi'an Town to equip the army."

   "Okay, I see."

  Li Fushou waved his hand, sent away the secretary Li Siren, picked up the file, and looked at the dim kerosene lamp in the camp.

  File display;

A group of rebels is dominated by the Ngoni people of the Northwest Province, located in a remote inland area. Their struggle against the Portuguese lasted for more than 70 years. They occupied Lourenço-Maguis and threatened the town of Dausofra in the Zambezi River. The area to the south is raging.

This indigenous rebel armed force is the largest, bringing together dozens of indigenous tribes in Ngoni, with a total number of about 100,000. Headed by Ngoni chief Gengenhana, they form the so-called "Gaza Federation." Known as the "Gaza Armed Forces".

  After the Queensland colonial forces ruled the Mozambique region, they drove away the Portuguese and therefore inherited the rebellion in the region.

  The reason why there was no encirclement and suppression of the Gaza armed forces before was mainly due to the lack of troops, and the remote southwestern provinces could not be taken into account for the time being, and the African Expeditionary Force did not have large-scale cavalry equipment, and the army’s mobility was limited, so it could only come one step at a time.

  But now the Gaza armed forces have begun to attack the road-building army, threatening the town of Solafa, which has attracted the attention of the African Expeditionary Force and is preparing to deploy troops for encirclement and suppression.

There is also an indigenous African rebel force, the Shona people living on the central Manica Plateau. Under the leadership of African chiefs Umtasa and Mapundra, they gather tens of thousands of people and occupy the border between Mozambique and Zimbabwe. area.

The   Expeditionary Force Command is preparing to encircle and suppress the rebel forces, but the lack of horses has become the biggest problem.

  The central Manica Plateau has mountains and ridges, valleys and hills spread across rivers, and the range is extremely wide. The Shona are nomadic tribes and their whereabouts are uncertain. Therefore, it is best to send cavalry troops to encircle and suppress.

The   Expeditionary Force Command applied for enough equipment to equip two regiments with 3,600 Arabian horses, which made Li Fushou frowned and considered giving instructions on the application report;

  No, small-scale Arabian thoroughbred horses can be appropriately introduced, breed in captivity, and gradually develop the expeditionary horse farms, and finally achieve the goal of fully equipped with cavalry.

  Abandoning the pen in his hand, Li Fushou rubbed his eyebrows with a headache, and directly ignored the request of the African Expeditionary Force.

  What's the joke?

It’s not an easy task to transport a large number of horses to Mozambique. Not to mention how cumbersome it is to organize such a large number of horses. The cost is an astronomical figure alone. Qualified Arabian horses are never cheap, either. Strategic materials strictly controlled by the Ottoman Empire.

  Minus the horses that died of illness and wastage during transportation, in order to meet the expectations of the expeditionary force, at least 5,000 horses must be organized.

what is this concept?

  At the very least, it is the cost of building a heavy cruiser "Xuanwu", which is in Africa, not Australia.

  Li Fushou would rather equip the African Expeditionary Force with one more regiment of machine guns than equip them with war horses. The price is too expensive.

  The only way is to establish a local horse farm and breed Arabian horses in captivity step by step. This cost is within an acceptable range. The disadvantage is that the time required is too long, and there will be no results after seven or eight years.

The indigenous Africans have no cavalry or war horses. The nomadic tribes of the Shona people mainly raise cattle and poultry and livestock. They drink cow blood, milk, and eat beef. They also pick wild bananas and wild fruits to supplement their food needs, but they don’t raise horses. .

  This is because there are no horses that can be ridden in Africa, and zebras with grumpy personality are difficult to tame, let alone riding.

  Indigenous Africans are quite satisfied with their lives. They really don’t have the ambition to sweep the continent with war horses. Their knowledge of horses is food and they can be eaten.

  As for taming riding, I really don’t have that kind of thought.

  Why can’t zebras be domesticated into war horses?

  The zebra species is not the same as the general horses. They are too irritable. The most troublesome thing is that once a zebra bites something, it is difficult to let go.

The living environment of African zebras is perilous, which leads to great nervous reactions of zebras. Once they are frightened, they are either directly scared to death, or scared to “crazy”, or even stiffened and fell directly on the grass. Who else is there? Dare to ride?

   Another point is that the eyesight of zebras is too poor. There have been embarrassing incidents of zebras crashing and dying on large trees in the African grasslands. How the eyes can ride is simply too dangerous.

  According to the lazy nature of Africans, they will never provoke the zebra, a wild animal with a split personality. Isn't it good for everyone to get along well?

  (End of this chapter)