After almost doubling the actual control area without bloodshed, Zabi did not continue to expand because there were a large number of Portuguese army strongholds in these controlled areas. Therefore, stabilizing the controlled area and expelling these strongholds became Zabi's top priority.
Although the struggle situation in the new territory is not good, Zabi is not fighting alone. There are already hundreds of trainees who have walked out of Mr. Price's training camp, and these newcomers who have completed the training have become Zabi's subordinates. The backbone of the armed forces.
Following Shepard's suggestion, Zabi mixed these new students and veterans into more than a dozen combat groups. Their mission was to mobilize the masses at the grassroots level, repair tunnels in villages, set up fortresses, and establish intelligence networks.
Although these tasks sound complicated, in fact, simplicity and complexity all depend on people. Although they have Zabi's security guarantee, the villagers here do not trust Zabi's men too much. After all, the guerrillas have just arrived, and maybe Compared to the Portuguese, the guerrillas were more brutal!
This is also the reason why Shepard did not let Zabi continue to expand. He currently controls almost one-fifth of North Lunda's territory, and he is busy with more than just fighting the Portuguese.
Generally speaking, there is no quick way to win the hearts and minds of the people. After all, there is a saying that a horse's power is determined by the distance, and people's hearts are revealed over time. Just relying on temporary bribery will not achieve very good results.
However, the situation in Africa is quite special, especially in places like Angola, which are still in a colonial state and are full of conflicts.
We must know that the metropolitan country's exploitation of the colonies is all-round. After all, colonization is for profit and not for poverty alleviation. In addition to shouldering various apportionment tasks, the colonial people also have to pay various fancy taxes.
Therefore, Shepard found a new job for the guerrillas, that is, violent tax resistance!
Although the black uncles live in mud houses, sleep on thatch piles, and eat scones and dried cassava mixed with mud, the colonial authorities are still trying to squeeze the last bit of oil and water out of these civilians. Tax collectors went to the countryside in full force to hunt cows and chickens, or they held ropes to seize useful youths and teenagers to work.
At this moment, the role of these groups formed by Zabi according to Shepard's plan is revealed. When encountering a small number of armed tax collectors, these armed groups equipped with automatic rifles produced in South Africa or World War II submachine guns will be led by veterans. , spontaneously began to besiege armed tax collectors, and the armed tax collectors of the colonial authorities only had old-fashioned bolt-action rifles in their hands, and were no match for the armed groups. .z.br>
Therefore, tax collectors who dared to confront armed groups often met a very miserable end, either being shot to death indiscriminately, or being shot to death and then stripped naked and thrown to the wolves.
And those who surrendered did not fare well, because the armed group followed the teachings of the anti-colonial fighter Master Pu and handed these people over to the civilians who were usually oppressed by them.
Unfortunately, Africa's infrastructure is underdeveloped and there are not many telephone poles, so many bodies can only be hung on trees.
But this was just the beginning. After the scattered tax collection teams could not defeat the armed groups, the colonial authorities began to organize larger tax collection teams, which were also equipped with heavy equipment such as machine guns and trucks.
The armed groups also follow the same example. If others stick together, they will stick together, and even bigger.
After an armed tax collection team with more than fifty infantrymen drove trucks and swept through three disobedient villages, the assembled guerrillas conducted an unsuccessful ambush on the side of the road. The reason why it was not successful was that It was because the guerrillas only annihilated thirteen servants and colonial policemen after paying the price of six deaths, and the remaining guys ran away.
Such a bad battle made Zabi quite angry. He wanted to give the man who was directing the battle a slap in the face. The man had been learning from Shepard for three full months. How could he behave like this?
The criticized guerrilla was also very aggrieved. He followed the instructors' drawings on the blackboard, and the process was exactly the same. Even the location of the ambush was not wrong at all. How could it be like this?
But in any case, this battle did allow the guerrillas to gain a foothold in the newly expanded areas, and even the elders and chiefs in charge of villages and towns began to pay Zabi
Although they only paid taxes on grain and cloth, at least this was a very good start, because the colonial authorities were already losing their control over the grassroots.
In the past, relying on the guarantee of strong force, the colonial authorities and the Portuguese army could carry out rounds of raids in the countryside without any worries. But now, because of landmines and roadside bombs, the Portuguese regular army no longer dares to carry out regular raids, and the guerrillas The team's hunting of servants and colonial officials has caused their previous high authority to decline little by little. It can be said that the Portuguese army has not failed to make efforts. They dispatched troops to burn villages and farmland on a large scale, and then the guerrillas organized villagers Run away and rely on the tunnel network to fight every step of the way.
In field situations, the Portuguese army is even confident of killing the guerrillas alone because they have artillery and tanks and armored vehicles. But once in the tunnels, these guerrillas who have only received simple training can reduce the exchange ratio to one to three or even One to one, if it was just a single village, then the Portuguese army could still grit their teeth and exchange, but when all the villages in the guerrilla zone started to do this, the Portuguese army really couldn't handle it!
And the worst thing is that Helen Parker even invited several reporters to Angola in the name of Zabi to report on the humanitarian crisis. These reporters used cameras to record the burned villages, burned wheat fields, and many more Although the international community did not take any actual action against the hungry and cold civilians because of these photos, the United States and the Soviet Union actually did what they deserved.
Because it hinders the international view, the Portuguese government can only knock out its teeth and swallow it in its belly. When letting the army do its work, at least cover up what should be covered up and hide what should be hidden. If not, get rid of the reporters!
As for those places that have lost actual control, just pretend that there are no such places, blow up and burn everything available, and then retreat in large strides to preserve other controllable areas.
Not long after the Portuguese army withdrew from the guerrilla-controlled areas, Shepard was finally able to appear in his promised land openly and openly in the name of Shadow Company's humanitarian aid.
"This land is very barren!"
Helen, who was wearing a summer dress, a huge sunhat and sunglasses, looked at the desolation in front of her and couldn't help but sigh.
"But it's full of opportunities!"
Shepard knelt down, grabbed a handful of land in his hands, and said.
"Understand this land, discover your own advantages, and then take the leap!"
