This small-scale battle in West Africa quickly formed a written report and was gradually passed upwards.
The first one to receive the news was naturally the West Africa Command. When the people in the command got the report from the front line, they suspected that the report was false...
Because this battle report is too exaggerated... In this encounter between more than 200 Chu troops and the indigenous people, without the support of powerful cavalry, the enemy army was still able to defeat a thousand people in total. We managed to annihilate more than 800 people and capture more than 200 people, nearly annihilating the enemy.
You know, even if the Chu army has sharp guns, on the battlefield, especially when the troops are at a huge disadvantage, it is actually very difficult to completely annihilate an indigenous army, even if the indigenous army does not have many firearms and uses a huge number of them. Some of them are cold weapons, and even this indigenous army has no cavalry.
This is because in an encounter with a weak force, it is unlikely to form an encirclement.
When the Chu army used the performance of their weapons to kill enemies on a large scale on the battlefield, the natives knew how to escape even if they were fools.
At the same time, if there is insufficient cavalry to pursue and intercept, it will be difficult to carry out large-scale killings.
That is to say, when the contemporary Chu army faced off against the natives, it was actually easy to defeat the natives, but it was not easy to annihilate them all.
Of course, siege operations, encirclement operations, and situations where there are enough cavalry to intercept are exceptions.
Therefore, previous examples of the Chu army creating exaggerated battle loss ratios generally occurred when there were multiple sieges or when there were enough cavalry to intercept in the wild, and the terrain was very suitable.
But this battle is obviously not the case. In this field encounter, the Chu army is at an obvious military disadvantage. Well, that is not important. What is important is that there are not many cavalry, only more than twenty cavalry, and quite a few of them are said to be cavalry. , but in fact they are messengers. On the battlefield, they do not perform tasks of directly fighting the enemy, but mainly convey battlefield information.
However, even so, the Chu army still achieved extremely exaggerated results, which made those headquarters staff who boasted of unparalleled tactics felt a bit exaggerated.
But if you look at the report carefully, it is reasonable in every aspect.
The reason why such great results were achieved was because the frontline commanders were very thief. They simply took advantage of the range of their own weapons to launch intensive killings on the natives from a long distance. Instead, they played a little trick and deliberately let the scattered troops do whatever they wanted. The attack caused the natives to lower their vigilance and boldly move forward to a distance of two to three hundred meters... and then became a target for their own heavy machine guns...
Heavy machine guns are more reliable than artillery when hitting infantry phalanxes in dense formations... The range of artillery is limited, only two or three shells per minute. Even if the shells are powerful, their explosion range is limited.
At the same time, although the array of the indigenous infantry is also called an array, it is not the kind of crowding. There is a certain distance between the soldiers. In this way, in fact, the shelling of a small number of artillery in a short period of time will give the enemy The casualties caused by the army were actually limited.
But heavy machine guns are different. With a rate of fire of hundreds of rounds per minute, two machine guns firing together can have a range of more than a thousand rounds. At such a close distance and such an obvious group target, as long as the shooter is not a fool and his hands are not shaking. , then there is basically no reason to miss.
As soon as the heavy machine gun fired, the natives on the opposite side suffered heavy casualties in an instant... The most important thing is that when these natives reacted and wanted to turn around and run away, the heavy machine gun was still strafing them... The natives started from three hundred He turned around and ran away at a distance of about meters, but the limited range of the heavy machine gun could reach one thousand meters.
This meant that as they ran all the way, the Chu army's heavy machine guns were still firing at them.
In fact, most of the dead and injured indigenous soldiers appeared in the stage of turning around and running away... It was not a collapse that caused more casualties, it was simply that the indigenous soldiers reacted and turned around very quickly after being strafed in a frontal attack. He ran away... purely due to the influence of time.
The rise of heavy machine guns directly led to major changes on the battlefield.
In addition, after the firing, a 70mm infantry cannon and two hundred Type 25 repeating rifles were also firing.
Under the firepower coverage from all aspects, and the local terrain was still flat, these indigenous soldiers basically failed to escape the firepower coverage of the Chu army, and ultimately failed to escape from the battlefield.
However, after some smart natives reacted, they simply lay down on the ground and escaped, and then became prisoners of war...
The boldness of the frontline commander, the underestimation of the enemy by the indigenous people, the huge power of the heavy machine gun, coupled with the ferocious firepower of the 70-foot infantry cannon and repeating rifles, resulted in more than 800 indigenous casualties and 200 prisoners in this battle. Yu, and the Chu army itself had an exaggerated record of not having a single battle casualty.
When the fighting was at its fiercest, the indigenous soldiers who rushed forward could not get within two hundred meters of the Chu army's infantry, let alone cause any damage to the Chu army.
The West African Army Command repeatedly discussed this battle and once again asked the front line for the results. After confirming the authenticity, it began to pass it on to the African Army Command. As expected, this report will be passed all the way to Jinling City is for the reference of military bosses in Jinling City and senior staff officers in the staff department.
It may even have a certain impact on the future heavy machine gun equipment and use of the Chu Empire Army, even the equipment development and use of the entire army, and even changes in tactics.
Because of this combat effectiveness, the battlefield dominance displayed by the heavy machine gun was too strong.
The last time the weapons had such a profound impact on the generals of the Dachu Empire Army, and completely changed the military combat organization, tactics, and even strategy of the entire army, were the Type 18 rifle and the 32-year-old 75mm rifle. Field artillery.
When breech-loading rifled guns came out and were planned to be equipped with the army at the same time, their battlefield dominance could be said to have completely changed the Chu army.
As a result, the Chu army completely gave up line tactics and began to use skirmishing tactics. This formed an era in which the Chu army completely defeated the European armies.
Before that, although the percussion guns equipped by the Chu army also had advantages against the European armies, it was more reflected in the quality of the soldiers and the large scale of the troops, especially the massive front-loading smoothbore cannons. superior.
But against the army that also uses flintlock guns and plays in line, to be honest, flash cap percussion guns and better front-loading smoothbore cannons do not form an absolute generational difference in weapon performance.
However, the breech-loaded rifled guns formed this absolute generation difference, which in turn led to the comprehensive reform of the Chu army.
Now, the emergence of heavy machine guns has also led to similar effects... Of course, the effects are much smaller and less exaggerated, but this is still a major change that can cause military changes.
Not to mention possible subsequent changes, in West Africa, the war is still going on.
Hundreds of second-class regular troops of the Chu Army in West Africa, plus about two thousand Indian legion servants, swept northward from the coastal area in three directions.
Although the attack seemed slow and the overall northward advance was not fast, the results were extremely brilliant.
In just one month, they defeated four or five indigenous tribes and pushed the front more than 100 kilometers north.
This more than one hundred kilometers... does not simply mean that the Chu army advanced more than one hundred kilometers north, but that all the natives within this one hundred kilometers were annihilated or expelled or captured.
This area will later become a new colony for the Chu people to open up plantations, and will be brought under the direct jurisdiction of the Golden State. Instead of just having jurisdiction over these places in name only, as in the past, all the above are Aboriginal...
In the future, the Golden State Governor's Office will carry out follow-up treatment of this area, such as auctioning and selling gold mines, and then leasing large tracts of land to agricultural companies...
As for ordinary immigrants, don’t expect that...
Don't count on this, not that you don't count on immigrants, but don't count on the Governor's Mansion... because the Chu people will never go to these indifferent places to play immigration, even if they are given a few hundred or more per person for free. Land... Land in the wilderness means nothing.
Nowadays, if Chu people want to immigrate, their first choice of immigration destination is North America... Nowadays, North America is undergoing a large-scale development in the east. The vast central and eastern regions of North America are waiting for a large number of Chu people to fill it. The climate there is... It is similar to the mainland, with many places having a good climate, and many places, especially the eastern region, have become relatively mature after years of development by European immigrants.
There is a large amount of fertile land waiting to be distributed to immigrants for free, and there is no threat from indigenous people. Moreover, it is a directly administered territory, and any laws and policies are no different from those on the mainland.
Therefore, North America is still the first choice for Chu people to immigrate, followed by Central America and South America.
Of course, not to those tropical jungles, but to more mature areas.
The entire American region is still the first choice for immigrants and is very popular.
There are not many immigrants in other places, especially in this poor place like West Africa. Except for businessmen, a small number of official immigrants attracted by generous policies, and some adventurers who want money rather than their lives, ordinary people rarely come here. .
There are very few people willing to immigrate to West Africa. If they do, most of them settle in mature coastal areas, such as near Ghana.
As for going deep into the hinterland of West Africa and going to a place one or two hundred kilometers away from the coastline to settle and colonize, that is just out of mind.
Therefore, the processing of these places mainly depends on agricultural companies and mining companies, or development companies that have both businesses... Well, most of them actually do both businesses together.
They will choose to rent land on a large scale, then open up large-scale plantations, survey and mine minerals, and the labor force they use will not be Chu people, but will hire indigenous labor companies through the labor dispatch system, and then Earn huge profits.
Only they are willing to take risks and develop deep into the hinterland of West Africa.
Such development companies, or single agricultural companies, and mining companies exist widely in overseas colonies, and there are many of them.
Not only do they exist in large numbers in the administrative territories controlled by the Chu people, but in fact many of them go directly to the vassal territories, or simply for development in areas controlled by indigenous people.
These overseas development companies were also very important to the economic system of the Great Chu Empire. They contributed a large number of various economic crops and sources of precious metals to the empire, and they were also the vanguard of the empire's overseas expansion.
When a development company acquires a large area of land for plantation in an indigenous-controlled area, it can basically be considered that this area has become a colony of the Chu people, and has officially become an administrative territory or a dependent territory. That depends on the empire's overall strategic arrangements in the region.
The large-scale expansion activities of the Golden State Governor's Palace in the Gold Coast region have also attracted the attention of Chen Jingyun and others.
When Chen Jingyun learned that the Golden State Governor's Palace had hired more than 20 development companies in the past few days and rented out large areas of land at extremely low prices, Chen Jingyun was envious and extremely jealous...
He, Chen Jingyun, also met with the person in charge of a small agricultural development company some time ago... As a result, he was given various preferential conditions, and the land rent was just a nominal amount. They were also allowed to maintain a certain number of armed personnel, but they were Just not happy!
Because Chen Jingyun actually wants to collect taxes...
In addition to paying taxes when opening plantations in imperial administrative territories, these overseas development companies never paid taxes in dependent territories or indigenous-controlled areas!
Generally, it is done by directly purchasing a piece of land, or buying out everything with a fixed annual rent. In the future, you natives will not come over, and our company will do the development on our own behind closed doors.
But when setting up plantations in Chen Jingyun’s shabby West African kingdom, they actually have to collect taxes...
If it weren't for Chen Jingyun's West African kingdom, it would have received the tacit approval and support from the Governor's Mansion.
If it weren't for Chen Jingyun and his subordinates who were all Chinese with yellow skin and dark eyes, the people from the development company would have planned to kill Chen Jingyun directly and then directly occupy the Kara area.
Damn it, Niang Xipi, a mere vassal territory that has not been officially recognized by the empire, still wants to ask our company to collect taxes. It is simply unreasonable!
If we are willing to pay taxes obediently, why should we take huge risks and come to your stupid West African kingdom? Can't I just go to the Gold Coast? It even saves the cost of maintaining a large number of armed personnel.
Simply sick!
Therefore, Chen Jingyun's first investment plan ended in complete failure... People were unwilling to come, and those who were willing were unwilling to pay taxes.
For this reason, Chen Jingyun also had a headache.
In the end, I had no choice but to bite the bullet and develop it myself.
Anyway, from the current point of view, in essence, what Chen Jingyun and his group are doing is no different from those of people from overseas development companies. They organize armed personnel to seize land from the owners for development.
The only difference is that the bosses of those overseas development companies only want money... but Chen Jingyun and the others want power.
Another slight difference is that Chen Jingyun and the others have never been in the development business before... They used to just run around with guns and rob, and they really didn't do any serious development!
Development is too difficult for people like them who only know how to fight and kill... Especially when Chen Jingyun learned that the thousands of indigenous captives who had been captured and assigned to a grain plantation were still alive. No matter how much he did, more than two hundred people died.
Death caused by disobedience to management, running away, etc... In short, there are various reasons.
He was so angry that he almost slapped one of the henchmen in charge of the plantation... Damn it, it's only been a while now, and not even a few acres of land have been cleared, and more than two hundred people have died.
Holding back his anger, Chen Jingyun yelled at his henchmen: "All the prisoners of war are dead, how about you go farm the land yourself?"
"You have to pay attention to the way you manage prisoners of war. They only kill people!"
After scolding people, Chen Jingyun felt that this was not going to work. The people under his command were just playing plantation, and they would have to torment all the prisoners of war to death within a few months. This was not important. What was important was the opening of the plantation. There will be serious delays in progress.
It seems that I still have to find a few professionals to help.
Well, the people in the agricultural development company that came here to inspect are very good, so I have to find a way to recruit a few people.
And how to recruit high-tech talents after the founding of the country overseas?
This is a very challenging job for Chen Jingyun.
Don't expect to directly ask the other party to become a citizen. It is too difficult... Chen Jingyun has been struggling for so many years, and he is still looking for people in the mercenary industry that takes orders rather than orders. He has only found a dozen people who are willing to follow him. They are just playing the game of seceding nationality and establishing their own country.
Therefore, until the West African Kingdom forms a certain scale, this matter is too difficult and should not be considered.
What Chen Jingyun wants to create is a employment model... Just like the mercenaries under him, you pay them to work, and there is no change of nationality or the like, so this is not a big problem.
Although there are not many Chu people in West Africa, there are many people who like money. As long as Chen Jingyun can afford the money, there will be no shortage of technical talents!
The problem is, Chen Jingyun doesn’t have much money... The financial revenue of this West African kingdom is almost zero now, and he spends money every day... It takes money to maintain more than a hundred mercenaries, and occasionally to fight wars, even for those prisoners of war We also need money to eat, and the infrastructure construction of Kara Port also needs money.
Nowadays, Chen Jingyun relies on years of accumulation to make a living, and he is not willing to spend a lot of money to hire someone.
How can we get those highly skilled talents to work for us willingly without spending a lot of money?
Well, Chen Jingyun was in a professional habit, and the first thing he wanted to do was to use force to intimidate... But this idea only existed for 0.5 seconds before he abandoned it.
In a real fight, people like me probably can't beat that Guinea Agricultural Development Company... Their fourth largest shareholder is the Financial Department of the Golden State Governor's Mansion.
Behind every overseas development company, there are actually officials from the Dachu Empire. Many development companies are simply established with government investment...or they hold certain shares. There are also development companies with pure private capital, but generally They are not large in scale and do not have any strong armed forces.
Taking shares in the form of mineral development licenses, rents for large tracts of land, and the provision of private security forces were common practices for colonial governments to cooperate with private capital in setting up overseas development companies.
Therefore, it is impossible for Chen Jingyun to use force to coerce the Guinea Agricultural Development Company. To be honest, the Guinea Agricultural Development Company would have already given Chen Jingyun a lot of money if they did not use force to coerce Chen Jingyun into giving them a large piece of land for free and tax-free. They lost face...
Because in terms of the comparison of strength between the two sides, the West African Kingdom, a nondescript kingdom, is the serious underdog.
Therefore, it’s not enough to be tough, and it’s not worth just throwing money at people.
what to do?
Chen Jingyun can only use his old method: talk about ideals and talk about the future!
Commonly known as: Drawing a pie!
At this moment, Chen Jingyun's thatched-roofed palace was drawing big cakes in front of people... And standing opposite him was Li Datong, a middle-aged man in his thirties, wearing professional attire.
Chen Jingyun was speaking quickly and with exaggerated gestures, describing the bright future of the West African Kingdom and how lucrative the future benefits it could bring to Li Datong...
However, the focus of Li Datong's attention is not Chen Jingyun's words. As an old man in the workplace, Li Datong has seen many cake painting masters, but the one who can really do it and actually share the cake with employees is Phoenix feathers and water chestnuts... Anyway, he didn't see any of them.
The main reason why he agreed to see Chen Jingyun was that he felt that Chen Jingyun had a brain problem, and people with brain problems might handle things differently.
For example, not far outside the window, there is a masonry and cement building under construction in the port...it is different.
Generally speaking, most of the local emperors in small places like Chen Jingyun like to enjoy the feeling of being a local emperor, regardless of whether they are overseers of agricultural development companies, mercenary leaders, or kings who want to build their own country. .
This is the first masonry and cement building built in the Kara area. Under normal circumstances, it is basically Chen Jingyun's private residence and armed fortress, especially since Chen Jingyun does not have much money and needs to import cement at high prices. .
But the first cement building built by Chen Jingyun turned out to be a hotel... providing various services, accommodation and food for passing ship passengers.
The palace where Chen Jingyun lived was still a thatched house, and even the military barracks were still thatched houses.
Although in Li Datong's opinion, this choice is a mistake... not many people would come to Kara these days. Who would be building this hotel to live in?
It is estimated that after repairs are completed, the only people staying here are people from their company.
It was this kind of abnormality that made Li Datong feel that Chen Jingyun had a problem with his brain, and there was such a problem that Li Datong agreed to meet in private and listen to what he had to say.
At this time, Chen Jingyun happened to talk about his plan... He said that the reason why he built this hotel was to let the surrounding Chu people know that there is another hotel in West Africa that can provide various high standards, no less than local hotels. Service standard hotel.
This in turn attracts more passing merchant ships to dock here for supplies and consumption when they come to West Africa...
Finally, Chen Jingyun said that we had found a small coal mine upstream and were organizing manual mining.
When Li Datou heard this, he immediately became energetic. If Kara had coal, it would be able to provide coal supplies for passing ships and have the qualifications to become a real port city.
These days, the Chu people's ocean-going ships are basically steam ships, which require coal for replenishment. In ports without coal reserves, few ships will go to ports for replenishment and rest!
If a large number of ships later choose to pass through West Africa and choose to dock here for supplies, then there will be consumption...the supply business of these passing merchant ships is not a small amount, and the crew members have always been very generous in spending money at the port.
The traffic of passing ships can also increase the reputation of Kara Port, thereby attracting more funds and people to enter.
With funds and population, subsequent development will be easier.
Hearing this, Li Datou suddenly thought of the entire West Africa region. Except for a hotel in Ghana that barely looked reliable, there were no decent restaurants in the other colonial strongholds. As for the ones with coal supplies, There are not many ports.
As for the merchant ships running around along the way, the news that Kara has good restaurants and coal supplies may soon spread.
When many ships pass through West Africa, they will choose to find a port to replenish supplies, and the crew members will also take a rest.
Most of the ships in the past chose to dock in Ghana City for supplies, but if something happens to happen, such as a lack of coal, or the ships in Ghana City are crowded, then they can only choose several other ports with poor conditions and coal supplies.
And those supply ports do not have such high-standard hotels... In West Africa, seemingly ordinary building materials like cement are very expensive, and they are basically transported from the mainland. Those small colonial strongholds and ports in West Africa But no one would use it to repair a hotel like Chen Jingyun.
The conditions here in Kara are better. When the ship comes along, it is feasible to stop here for supplies and take a rest if it is convenient.
Based on the coal supply, good port hotels, and the overall good service attitude here, there is a great opportunity for Kara Port to become a real port city!
Although Chen Jingyun is drawing a cake, maybe the cake he draws has a chance to come true!
The crux of the question now is, how much of this painted pie can really be shared with Li Datong?
What can Li Datong get?
(End of chapter)
