Although they encountered some dangers on the road, Meng Xiu and the others continued to move forward resolutely. After many days of trekking, they finally arrived at the outskirts of the Dutch immigrant settlement.
The straight-line distance between this place and Maputo on the east coast of Africa reaches more than 400 kilometers, but the actual distance is even further because of the winding roads.
Meng Xiu and the others walked all the way for a full twenty days before they arrived at this poor place. On the way, because the road was really difficult to walk, and they also carried a large amount of logistical supplies, their progress was very slow.
Later, due to the lack of established roads for horse-drawn carriages, we even had to give up the use of horse-drawn carriages and switched to horse pack transportation and manpower preparation to carry supplies forward, which made the progress even slower. .
In places like the African continent, due to the serious lack of, or even lack of, good ground transportation, it is indispensable to directly use long-distance marches on the ground. It is not only dangerous, but also very slow.
Whether the European colonists in the past or the Chu army today, in fact, when they moved around the colonies, especially when they went deep into the inland areas, they actually took boats and penetrated deep into the interior through rivers.
However, the Chu people had only been in the African continent for a relatively short period of time. They had not yet understood the geography of the inland areas, and they did not yet know what rivers could reach the place where the Dutch immigrants were. In addition, in order to avoid long nights and dreams, they did not I plan to procrastinate and explore the river slowly...
Then I chose to take the overland route directly, and went all the way to Tshwane where Dutch immigrants currently settled.
After arriving at the outskirts of Tshwane, Meng Xiu did not rush to kill them directly with his men. They had traveled a long way along the way and were exhausted, so they were in urgent need of rest.
Therefore, Meng Xiu and the others found a small valley with better conditions and more privacy to camp and rest.
During this period, Meng Xiu also asked several men with rich experience in wild survival and combat to ride horses to conduct preliminary reconnaissance to find out the situation of the Dutch on the opposite side.
Although Meng Xiu had never been a soldier, he was a serious pirate at least. Later, he had been plundering overseas in India and Africa for a long time. It is hard to say anything else, but he had quite a lot of experience in fighting with the indigenous people.
He knew very well that even though he had a lot of people and more advanced equipment, if the tactics were chosen incorrectly, it would be easy for him to capsize in the gutter.
After all, matchlocks, spears and swords can also kill.
Although Meng Xiu's percussion guns have better performance and are two generations ahead of the matchlock guns in the hands of the Dutch, in actual use, the rate of fire is almost the same as that of the matchlock guns, and the hit rate and power are also the same.
The advantage of the percussion gun is that the regular army can exert more intensive firepower when using line tactics.
If there is no formation and scattered small-scale combat, the advantages are actually very limited!
If anything, the percussion rate of percussion guns is better. It is rare that the bullet does not go out after firing. Flintlock guns and matchlock guns are much worse.
However, this is basically limited to windy, rainy, humid and other weather conditions.
If it is sunny, windless, dry and not humid, the firing rate of matchlocks and flintlock guns is actually very high. If operated correctly and properly maintained, the dud rate is actually very low!
The firing rate that Chu people talk about is actually the all-weather firing rate, which means the comprehensive firing rate under various weather conditions, including good weather, windy and rainy weather, humid weather, severe cold or hot weather, etc. The average data of all kinds of common weather are combined together. Of course, the different weather here, such as rain, is only tested under light rain... It is impossible to test in heavy rain, because under heavy rain, even a firing gun There is no way to shoot...
When fighting in heavy rain, you can only use rifles with metal fixed-loaded bullets, whether they are paper-packed bullets, front-loaded bulk bullets or even rear-loaded paper-cased fixed-loaded bullets. It is difficult to fight in heavy rain.
These limitations mean that the flash cap firing gun still has huge limitations, and in some cases it is difficult to achieve a decisive advantage.
This is why the Dachu Empire has been focusing on the research and development of metal fixed bullets in recent years. Hebei Arms Company and Huguang Arms Company have successively launched two metal bullets with different technical routes, and attached them to their respective research and development systems. On firearms.
The 21-year-style flash cap firing gun used by Meng Xiu and the others has performance limitations. In such a small-scale irregular combat force, one might easily capsize in the gutter.
In recent years, many Chu people have been killed overseas by the natives using outdated weapons!
Meng Xiu didn't want to be one of them.
In order to successfully capture the Dutch stronghold and seize the gold mine, all necessary information must be collected in advance.
With sufficient intelligence information, they can formulate a combat plan more calmly, and then capture the Dutch and seize the gold mine at the minimum cost.
Meng Xiu and the others rested in the nameless valley for three days. During these three days, the investigators sent by Meng Xiu also reported a large amount of intelligence information. For this reason, they even secretly captured a tongue and came back for torture.
Now they can basically confirm that these Dutch people migrated from Cape Town, South Africa. The current number is about 2,000, and the number of young people is about 1,000.
There are about three hundred people holding matchlocks, and two to three hundred people equipped with spears or swords. The total number of five or six hundred people is the armed force of these Dutch people.
Some are stationed in and around their settlements, and some are in gold mines five or six kilometers away.
According to what Tongue said, some people went out to capture indigenous slaves.
In order to facilitate defense, their settlements were not large in scale, and most of them were made of wood. Only a few places had stone walls built.
The gold mine was a small basin. The Dutch built some wooden sentry towers around it and stationed many armed personnel.
However, judging from the deployment of these guard towers and armed personnel, the approximately one hundred Dutch armed personnel here mainly guard the large number of indigenous labor forces in the mine, and are not intended to respond to attacks from the outside.
There are at least two to three thousand indigenous slaves working here. They use the most primitive and simple wooden tools to mine. Their mining mode is not to dig deep mines, but to pan for gold on the surface.
But it is worth noting that among these Dutch immigrants, in addition to the relatively regular-looking armed personnel, some other adults, even some women, also wear some relatively backward cold weapons. These people use these backward cold weapons for the purpose of guarding them. And supervise the work of the slaves.
These Dutch people captured a large number of slaves not only for mining, but actually for farming.
Seeing how many slaves the Dutch had made working, Meng Xiu was amazed... He didn't even know what the Dutch used to feed so many slaves.
You must know that these Dutch people have only been here for a few months. Although they brought food with them when they left Cape Town, the food was not enough for two thousand of them to use themselves, let alone for the slaves.
No matter how little the slave eats, he still needs to eat, otherwise he will starve to death in just a few days.
Naturally, it is very little for a slave to eat a little bit, but these Dutch people have at least 20,000 slaves... Calculating this, the food consumption required is quite a lot.
Naturally, Meng Xiu didn't know that when these Dutch went north, they defeated and swept away many indigenous tribes and obtained a batch of food. At the same time, after arriving here, they also continued to plunder local indigenous tribes to obtain food.
It doesn't matter if you can't support them anymore. You can starve to death. You can just wait until the food harvest in the autumn to capture more slaves.
And this is actually a common method used by European colonists these days. After arriving in a place, they often capture a large number of local indigenous people to serve as slaves, and then use them for infrastructure construction and more importantly, plantation work.
The Dutch, Portuguese and Spanish basically do this.
This was the case for the Indians in the Americas. Their population dropped off a cliff. After the 19th century, there were not many Indians left... But even the last Indians were completely wiped out by the westward expansion of the United States. The remaining scattered Indians live in Indian reservations to show the kindness of Americans!
Because the Portuguese, Dutch, Spaniards, etc. were too harsh on the local indigenous people during their early colonization, there is now a strong demand for slaves, which in turn gave birth to the infamous slave trade.
There are not enough indigenous people to farm and mine in the Americas, so naturally new slaves can only be introduced from Africa.
Therefore, the idea of these Dutch people is very simple. First capture slaves to farm for gold. After a while, when the food is enough, they will continue to use it. When the food is really not enough, they will throw the slaves to starve to death, and wait until the food is harvested to catch them.
As for Meng Xiu, although he is also engaged in the labor agency business, to be honest, he really does not understand the cruelty of slavery in a true sense.
After all, even though Meng Xiu was a former maritime merchant and pirate, now an arms dealer, a trader and a bandit, he was still a serious Chu native, and his understanding of things like slavery was still too superficial.
Slavery is very cruel, especially when European immigrants arrive in a new place and capture local indigenous people to work hard for construction and development, and there are many indigenous tribes in the nearby area who can capture and replenish slaves at any time.
These slaves will become truly cheap consumables.
Unlike some slave owners in the Americas, it was difficult to find a large number of natives to serve as slaves, and they could only rely on purchasing. The cost of slaves was not low, so they still cherished their property.
But these Dutch people... there is no need for them. There are a large number of natives around them waiting for them to catch them. Apart from spending a lot of time, there is no cost. It doesn't hurt at all to just throw them away after they are used up.
The level of cost directly led to the different treatment of slaves in the hands of different European colonial slave owners.
The higher the cost of a slave, the better the treatment.
The lower the cost of a slave, the worse the treatment.
If a slave is worth tens of thousands of dollars, these European colonists can treat this slave like a parent!
It's a pity that slaves in Africa are not as good as before. When some European slave traders purchased slaves in Africa, the FOB price of high-quality slaves in Africa was only a few yuan. This was talking about the indigenous tribe leaders who sold them to The slave trader's price, if the slaves were captured by a team organized by the slave trader themselves, then the actual cost would be even lower.
Some European slave traders shipped slaves and transported them to the Americas. The overall cost, including transportation costs, procurement costs and other costs, when all are taken into account, is about 20 yuan. These slaves are sold in the Americas for strong male slaves. Depending on the region and the condition of the slave itself, the price is around forty or fifty, and some high-quality goods can even reach seventy or eighty yuan.
As a slave owner, you have spent dozens of dollars to purchase slaves. If you don't let the slaves work for a few more years, you will be at a loss... so you will pay more or less attention to the health of the slaves.
And these Dutch people in Tshwane, their slaves cost nothing at all... Their team wanders around casually, and they can easily catch a lot of them.
With such low-cost slaves, these Dutch people naturally did not cherish them when using them.
Therefore, there is no question of whether there is enough food that Meng Xiu wondered about.
But now, Meng Xiu and the others suspected that they had a large amount of sufficient food reserves in their settlements and mines, otherwise they would not be able to feed 2,000 Dutch people themselves and 20,000 slaves at the same time.
This means that the battle must be fought quickly and not be delayed to the point of siege of the city.
If this turned into a siege, Meng Xiu and the others would be really blind if they didn't have artillery.
After obtaining sufficient information, Meng Xiu and the others discussed and discussed over and over again and finally finalized the battle plan.
On the fourth night after they arrived in Tshwane, they went to bed early to rest. At dawn the next day, before it was dark, the Chu people's camp was already lit up with faint whale oil lamps. The cook began to cook, while the others began to pack the tent, pack various supplies and salute.
However, they did not carry these tents and a large amount of supplies together. Instead, after everyone carried necessary supplies, dry food, drinking water, blankets and other necessary supplies, they began to eat hot meals cooked by the cooks.
For some of them, this may be the last hot meal in their lives!
As they ate breakfast in silence, the sky gradually turned white, and the darkness was gradually driven away.
Before the sky was completely clear, Meng Xiu's robbery gang, which had already been prepared, set off.
Meng Xiu and more than 20 other key armed personnel from the company walked in front each holding a horse, followed by more than 70 armed personnel carrying 21-type flash cap firing guns.
They continued to move forward on the dim eve of dawn. Some of them looked nervous, while others looked excited and even looking forward to it!
They came out this time just to make a fortune. They are the kind who want money rather than their lives!
If this gold mine is won, everyone will not only be able to get dividends from the existing gold in the mine.
And you can also get a certain number of shares in the gold mine. Although the majority of the shares must have been taken away by Meng Xiu and other senior managers, ordinary desperadoes like them can also get a small part, and everyone can have.
Even if this person dies in battle, the share of shares that the deceased should receive will be distributed to his designated heirs.
They had signed corresponding contracts before setting off, and each actually owned shares in the gold mine development company.
Therefore, strictly speaking, this action is a collective action of all shareholders of their company.
The reason why they really died in battle... If they want to make a fortune, they naturally need to take certain risks. They have this awareness and are more mentally prepared for this.
After all, the people who can follow Meng Xiu are either real desperadoes, or ordinary people who are desperate and risk their lives to do it.
They may be a mob, but they are determined to fight for gold!
Therefore, although some of them looked nervous or even scared, they still moved forward firmly.
It's a pity that the Dutch opposite also have this determination!
When Meng Xiu and the others appeared majestically outside the town of Tshwane, the Dutch inside were very flustered at first, but soon stabilized their position. A large number of people, even some healthy women, and half-year-old children were holding cold bottles. The weapons came out.
They also have the determination to fight to protect their homeland!
