The prerequisite for the Chu Empire to implement the European free trade plan was to control the west coast of Africa, at least to drive away the local European colonists, seize their colonial strongholds, and use them as supply ports to ensure the safety of the routes.
The Chu army also heard about the numerous pirates on the west coast of Africa... Naturally, they did not want their own transport fleet to face various pirate threats.
Therefore, even though the Chu army currently has no desire for territorial expansion on the west coast of Africa, in order to ensure the smooth progress of the European free trade plan, it is still necessary to control the coastal colonial strongholds in these places. Angola is a strategic location.
The Putao people were angry at the arrival of the Chu army at first, then desperate... and finally resigned to their fate.
They didn't even have the courage to carry out armed resistance. After the Chu army's fleet arrived, they saw the huge Chu army's warships and simply chose to surrender... and more of them had already boarded the ships and ran away before the Chu army's arrival. .
As for colonial strongholds, whoever wants them wants to go there.
As a result, without much fighting, the Chu army successfully captured many coastal colonial strongholds in Angola, and then symbolically left dozens or hundreds of troops to garrison some major strongholds before heading north again.
Then there is the coast of Ghana, also known as the Gold Coast, or the Slave Coast... This place is the core area of the Atlantic slave triangle trade, and gold is also produced locally. The Dachu Empire has no interest in the slave trade, and is not even interested in the so-called local production of gold. I have no interest... The Chu Empire, which holds South Africa's gold, looks down upon ordinary small gold mines.
But the Chu army is interested in the local port... They want to build a large military base here to be used as a strategic military base in central West Africa.
The local Europeans did resist this time... but after being bombarded by the Chu warships, they died, fled, and surrendered!
There is no way, I really can't beat him... Whether it's at sea or on land, it's a one-sided battle.
On the sea, the sail warships of the Europeans were no different from sampans in front of the steel cannon warships of the Chu Empire.
Even without the use of these warships, the armed merchant ships of the Western Trading Company can directly tear them into pieces without any losses themselves.
The strength of the Da Chu Empire's navy, which possesses steam engines and rifled cannons, has far exceeded the imagination of Europeans... Forget about resisting.
In ground combat, the difference in weapons generation between the two sides is too great. The Chu army can kill everyone on the opposite side with artillery alone without the need for infantry...
These colonial stronghold cities built by Europeans these days are not to mention big places, and there are no artillery defenses. Moreover, these Europeans are not regular armies, and their fighting will and even weapons and equipment are very poor.
Under such circumstances, the Chu army was covered with a round of artillery fire... The other side was basically finished, and it was not even the infantry's turn to fight the enemy... The Chu army went north to West Africa and also attacked many European colonial strongholds, but so far, The Type 18 rifles, which many high-ranking generals in the empire had high hopes for, had little chance to perform... because the two regular army infantry had never seriously fought against the indigenous infantry on the opposite side.
There wasn't even a fight, so there was no way to use rifle firepower.
On the other hand, in the Chu army, the Type 21/Type 23 flash cap percussion guns, which have begun to withdraw from the regular army's combat order on a large scale, are performing as strong as ever.
Because many landing operations and final battles were fought by the Indian Second Division... The Indian Second Division is equipped with 21/3-year-old percussion rifles retired from the regular army of the Chu Army.
And this kind of flash cap percussion gun is still more than one generation ahead of the flintlock guns equipped by Europeans in terms of performance!
Under such circumstances, the Chu army's operations in Ghana, Africa, basically involved the navy first launching the bombardment, and then the army landing. After the army landed, the artillery bombarded first, and after the bombardment, the Indian second division was sent in... It was not the case that the Indian servant army came on stage. Fight, but clean up the mess...mainly burying the corpses to avoid the plague.
What's interesting is that most of the time, after the battle, the Chu army still doesn't know who they are fighting... because the current Gold Coast area is too chaotic. There are Portuguese people, British people, Dutch people, and even French people. There are...and then there are all kinds of random pirates.
In the eyes of the Chu people, these European barbarians all looked the same, and they couldn't understand the language... They couldn't tell who was who.
But this does not affect the Chu army's actions in West Africa. Anyway, no matter which colonial stronghold they encounter, the operation is the same: the warships go up first to bombard one round, the army artillery goes up to fire another round, and then the Indian servant troops are sent to land. Pick up the pieces.
There were no tactics to speak of, and the fighting was far from intense.
Even the scale and intensity are not as good as those usually held by the Chu Army... Just like an outing, the Chu Army has already captured a bunch of messy colonial strongholds in the Gold Coast area before the Chu Army even reacted. By the way, more than 10,000 prisoners of war of all kinds were harvested.
These prisoners of war were not wasted and were directly invested in the construction of the local port base. The Chu army planned to build a large military base here to serve as a strategic transfer station between South Africa and Europe. After all, this place happens to be in the middle of Africa. The geography is The location is quite suitable.
The construction of military bases naturally requires a large number of indigenous construction workers... You can't let the Chu army's combat troops carry bricks to repair the docks, right? It's fine to use the current prisoners of war.
However, just using prisoners of war is not enough. After all, there are too many facilities to be built and the time is tight. European prisoners of war are not enough in this regard. Therefore, the Chu army will also follow the old rules and send the Indian Second Division to the surrounding areas for mopping up operations. On the one hand, the battle is to clean up the environment near the base to prevent indigenous people from urinating and polluting the environment. On the other hand, it is also to capture some prisoners of war and come back to build the camp.
The Chu army is very skilled in capturing prisoners of war and building camps all over the world, whether in India, Africa, or North America. Well, they did this in Nanyang and Fusang in the early years.
This all forms the basic routine.
The Indian soldiers of the Second Indian Division are also very skilled in their work. Their main job in Africa is actually to expel the local indigenous people around the overseas territories and capture some prisoners of war.
Although later generations have various prejudices against Indians, the Chu people, and at least the Chu military, are still very satisfied with the Indian servant army. They have low requirements, are honest, will not resist, and have high loyalty... very easy to use. Tool man.
Of course, this is also related to the fact that the Indian servants recruited by the Chu army were mainly untouchables.
The untouchables in India are not the same concept as ordinary Indians. These untouchables, who have been oppressed by the upper castes for a long time, once armed by the Chu army, treated the Indians much more harshly than the Chu army...
These servant armies composed of Indian untouchables often used the three-guang policy when performing tasks in India... The Chu Empire previously controlled southern India. In order to completely control the local area and expel the local indigenous people, the Chu army mobilized three Indian servant military divisions are performing expulsion and purge missions locally!
It only took them half a year to successfully clean up the local Indians... much more efficiently than the Chu army themselves.
Some servant soldiers who perform well in India will be transferred to Africa, West Asia and other regions to serve and receive higher salaries. The best among them will also be promoted and become indigenous officers, that is, fellow lieutenants.
And these Indian servants who were transferred to serve in Africa were so cruel to Indians, let alone those Africans.
Many times, although the Chu Army was dissatisfied with the combat effectiveness, discipline and other issues of the Indian Servant Army, the Chu Army has been increasing the size of the Indian Servant Army, instead downsizing or even eliminating it. It can be seen that the top brass of the Chu Army It's just pretentious.
The success of the Indian servant army also made the Chu army consider the possibility of selecting indigenous people from other countries to form a servant army.
It's just a pity that so far, the Chu army can't find other more suitable indigenous servants.
For example, Fuso... This would have been quite suitable, but the population in the Fuso area is too small... After thirty years of melee, the population of Fuso is now estimated to be just over three million... There are not many young adults at all, and their bodies are too big. Being weak is not good material for being a soldier.
The people of Chu were thinking of packing up the rest of the Fusang people and sending them to Africa to farm, so naturally they didn't bother to go to the trouble of selecting young people to form a slave army.
In fact, there are not many indigenous people left in other Southeast Asian regions... There are only a few protected areas on a few islands with a small number of indigenous people from the Nanyang Islands, and the others have long since disappeared in the long river of history.
There are some people in Myanmar and Siam, but not many, and they are also facing the threat of the Mughal Empire. They don't have enough young people, and they don't have many people who can serve as servants for the Chu army.
Not to mention the West Asian side, the few small colonies controlled by the Chu army only have a few natives. There is an Ottoman Empire and a Persian Empire on the side, but the relationship between the empire and the Ottoman Empire and the Persian Empire is still okay...
Not to mention the Africans... The Chu people did not regard them as human beings, and they never mentioned the idea of recruiting Africans as servants from the beginning to the end.
Similarly, there are Indians in the Americas... They were killed too hard in the past few years... Now there are not many Indians left on the west coast of North America under the control of the Chu army.
In the end, after all the calculations, only India, with a population of hundreds of millions, has relatively rich population resources, and the unique local caste system is also very valuable.
This is also the reason why the Chu army only recruits servant soldiers from the untouchable group, but never recruits servant soldiers from the upper castes or ordinary civilians in India.
Those who want are the lowest untouchables.
These untouchables, because of their small number and low status, could not resist if they wanted to... But with the guns and cannons given by the Chu people, they killed other castes in India, especially the high castes. It was exciting. !
Many times, the people you thought were at the bottom have become insensitive and resigned... That's because you didn't give them a gun!
Generally speaking, the Dachu Empire's military, mainly the army's servant army composed of Indian untouchables, feels very good, and is willing to let them take on more important combat tasks.
This time going north to control the west coast of Africa, the Indian Second Division assumed the main ground combat mission... They did not live up to the trust of the Chu army generals. Under the cover of naval and artillery along the way, they directly swept through various European colonial strongholds, and by the way Eliminate and expel all kinds of chaotic indigenous tribes in the surrounding areas.
A clean west coast of Africa was left to the Chu Empire.
As for the regular troops of the Chu army, they took boats and slowly headed north... During the whole process, except for the occasional artillery attack on the shore, the infantry basically never fired a shot.
After this stop and go, the vanguard of the Chu Empire's expedition fleet, a small fleet carrying an infantry battalion, escorted by a cruiser and two frigates, finally arrived in the northwest region of Africa in June, that is, Moroccan region.
The members of the vanguard fleet looked along the coastline, and finally focused on the small port city of Tarfaya on the southern coast of Morocco... There was no special reason. It was that this place was far away from Dakar, the current base camp of the Dachu Empire's European Expeditionary Force. The area is closer, first take a port as an outpost, and then consider building a large military base in Spain or northern Morocco.
As for the feelings of Moroccans...it's none of Chu people's business.
The Chu people's overseas expansion has always paid no attention to what the local indigenous people think. What they consider more is their own situation.
As a result, the Moroccans were dumbfounded... In fact, they had heard before that there was a super-state called Chu from the East, which was attacking cities and territories in central and southern Africa and occupying all the European colonies in Africa.
But they didn't expect that one day someone from Chu would hit them on the head.
Morocco is still in the early stages of the establishment of a new dynasty. The rulers are relatively capable and ambitious. When they saw the Chu people, they did not even say hello. They directly landed and occupied Tarfaya, and also brought the local garrison and civilian youth. When Zhuangdu captured them as prisoners of war and forced them to repair the port.
The Moroccans could not bear it any longer and first sent people to negotiate... But the people who came to negotiate did not even enter the entrance of the Chu army's camp, and were killed by the Chu army soldiers with one shot...
The soldiers of the Chu army guarding the gate were quite boring... I just happened to see a few natives coming to the door and yelling, but I couldn't understand what they were saying. Who knew what they were talking about.
The guards told them to get out, but these natives were still too lazy to leave.
The guards at the door immediately used them as targets to practice their marksmanship...
Not to mention, these guards were very accurate with their marksmanship. One by one, they killed several envoys sent by the Moroccans.
When the Moroccans saw it... they were furious.
The two armies are fighting, and the envoys who don't kill them don't understand... They also say that we are barbarians, and you Chu people are barbarians.
So they were very angry and gathered more than 5,000 people to resist and take back Tarfaya.
These more than 5,000 people are equipped with smoothbore artillery and flintlock guns obtained from Europe, and export-type plate armor produced by Chu State purchased from merchants. They can be regarded as the main force in Morocco.
After all, the Moroccans also heard about the power of the Chu Empire and the strength of the Chu army, so even though they knew that there were only eight or nine hundred Chu people who captured Tarfaya, they still assembled a main army of more than 5,000 people.
The Moroccans still attach great importance to the Chu people and do not underestimate the enemy!
However, the battle process was more exaggerated than they expected, and the result was more cruel than they imagined.
Facing the Moroccan counterattack, the soldiers of the 3rd Battalion of the 212th Infantry Regiment of the 53rd Division of the Dachu Imperial Army actually paid little attention to them.
The soldiers of the Chu army were not even in the mood to leave the camp and fight!
It was so damn hot in Northwest Africa in June that the men of the Chu army were unwilling to leave their houses and run into the sun to fight with the Moroccans on the opposite side.
After the army on the shore discovered that thousands of Moroccans were gathering and preparing to kill them, they did not move. Instead, they sent a message to the navy at the port, saying that there were thousands of Moroccans on the other side, and they let the navy take care of it.
Several naval officers discussed it and felt that the credit would not be in vain... so they asked the three warships to approach the coastline directly and get ready for bombardment.
In order to obtain a better strike effect, the navy even waited until the Moroccans were close to the city and very close to the coastline before firing... The navy was afraid of firing too early and scaring away the Moroccans.
What happened next was very simple. The army watched a good show on the shore, the navy gained a wave of kills, and the Moroccans suffered heavy losses. They lost more than half on the spot and fled in panic!
These Moroccans didn't even understand how they were defeated until they were defeated!
Because they didn't even see the Chu army's naval guns firing!
The Chu army's naval guns have a much larger caliber than the army's field guns. They are all long-barreled cannons with very long ranges.
At that time, in order to ensure the hit rate, the navy still closed the attack. At a distance of about three thousand meters, the bombardment was guided by hot air balloons.
So what the Moroccans could see and hear was this: when they had just finished gathering their formation and were preparing to attack the city wall.
Before even a single Chu State person was seen, countless cannonballs fell from the world, and the power of the cannonballs was extremely powerful... Some of the cannonballs could be considered as reimbursing hundreds of them in one hit. You knew without asking that the cannonballs must have been fired by a cruiser. 150 mm high explosive grenade.
This one was bombed inexplicably, and the bombing was particularly tragic... If it weren't for the Moroccan commander's quick response, it only took a few minutes to order the entire army to retreat.
With such a dense formation like theirs, even if they were just a few minutes late, they would all be killed alive by the bombardment of the Chu Navy!
This was actually the scene when many European colonists faced the Chu army before... Most of the time, they didn't even see the Chu army, so they were bombed inexplicably, and then they were defeated inexplicably.
There is a generational difference between the Europeans' war model and the Chu army's war model...and at least two generations!
The Portuguese and Dutch people have a deep impression of the Chu army's combat effectiveness. After all, they have been beaten too many times... It doesn't matter if they don't have a deep feeling.
Therefore, when the Portuguese and Dutch people faced the Chu people going north this time, they did not carry out any actual resistance at all. Instead, they packed up their belongings and ran away early. Resistance... was non-existent. Even before they left, they sometimes still A few people will be left to act as envoys, mainly to ask the Chu people about their plans to go north this time.
When it is known that the Chu people are going north this time to promote European free trade...the faces of these envoys are often very interesting, but in the end they will lick their faces and express similar meanings: You Chu people are going to Europe. We welcome you to do business, and we will continue to cooperate when the time comes!
Doing business makes money, it’s not shabby!
Those who resisted the Chu army heading north were some European colonists who did not know the specific strength of the Chu army, or some local indigenous people, and some were simply pirates!
For example, the French and British are relatively stubborn and often rely on colonial strongholds to resist, thinking that their small fortresses can really block the large-caliber naval guns of the Chu army!
However, apart from wasting some Chu army's artillery shells, these resistances had no practical significance.
Just like the current Moroccan counterattack... The Chu army did not even bother to leave the barracks to fight. They just gave the navy a greeting and asked them to bombard them. Then more than half of them were killed or injured on the opposite side, and the rest ran away. .
However, the corpses left by the Moroccans were very disgusting. If left alone, they would easily cause plague. The Chu army had to arrange for the prisoners of war to clean the battlefield and bury the corpses.
Looking at it this way, the Moroccan counterattack was actually not useless. At least it limited the number of prisoner-of-war labor available to the Chu people and slightly delayed the construction of the Tarfaya base!
It’s just that after the Moroccans knew this, they didn’t know what to think!
And how should European countries feel when they find out?
Although the Battle of Tarfaya was not as intense as daily exercises for the Chu army, it still officially announced the arrival of the Chu Empire to all European countries!
