I want to be emperor

If the Great Chu Empire wanted to implement the European free trade plan, the prerequisite was to control the west coast of Africa, at least drive away the local European colonists, seize their colonial strongholds, use them as supply ports, and ensure the safety of the route.

The Chu army has also heard that there are so many pirates on the west coast of Africa... Naturally, they don't want their transport fleet to face all kinds of pirate threats.

Therefore, even though the Chu army has no desire for territorial expansion in 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 this strategically important place.

The grape people are angry about the arrival of the Chu army at first, then they are desperate... Finally, they resign themselves 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 got on the ships and ran away before the Chu army arrived. .

As for colonial strongholds, whoever wants them will go.

So without any fighting, the Chu army successfully took down many coastal colonial strongholds in Angola, and then symbolically left dozens or hundreds of troops in some major strongholds to garrison, and the fleet went north again.

Then there is the coast of Ghana, which is the Gold Coast, or the slave coast... This place is the core area of ​​the Atlantic slave triangle trade, and gold is also produced there. The Great Chu Empire has no interest in the slave trade, and even the so-called local gold production I have no interest either... The Great Chu Empire, which holds South African gold in its hands, looks down on ordinary small gold mines.

But the Chu army is interested in the local port... They want to build a large military base here as a strategic military base in central West Africa.

The local Europeans did resist this time...but after being bombarded by the Chu army's warships, they died, fled, and surrendered!
There is no way, I really can't fight... Whether it's at sea or on land, it's a one-sided battle.

In the sea, the sail warships of the Europeans were no different from sampans in front of the steel cannon warships of the Great Chu Empire.

Even without using these warships, the armed merchant ships under the Western Trading Company can tear them into pieces without any loss.

With steam engines and rifled guns, the strength of the Great Chu Empire Navy has far exceeded the imagination of Europeans... Don't even think about resistance.

In ground combat, the difference in weaponry between the two sides is too great, and even infantry is not needed. The Chu army can completely kill the opponent by relying on artillery alone...

As far as these colonial stronghold cities built by Europeans these years, not to mention the big places, and there are no artillery fortifications, and these Europeans are not actually regular troops, and their fighting will and even their weapons and equipment are very poor.

Under such circumstances, a round of artillery fire from the Chu army continued... The opponent was basically finished, and it was not the turn of the infantry to fight the enemy... The Chu army went north to West Africa, and also attacked many European colonial strongholds, but so far, The Type [-] rifle, which many high-ranking generals of the empire had placed high hopes on, basically had no chance of performance... because the two regular army infantry had never fought against the opposing indigenous infantry in a serious manner.

He didn't even fight, so naturally he couldn't even talk about using his rifle firepower.

On the contrary, in the Chu army, the 21-year/23-year flash cap percussion guns that have begun to withdraw from the regular army's combat sequence on a large scale are as strong as ever.

Because many landing operations and closing battles were fought by the Indian Second Division... The Indian Second Division was equipped with the 21/[-]-year-type flash cap percussion guns retired from the regular army of the Chu Army.

And this kind of flash cap percussion gun is still ahead of the flintlock guns equipped by Europeans by more than one generation in terms of performance!
Under such circumstances, the Chu army’s operations in the Ghana region of Africa basically consisted of the navy launching shelling first, and then the army landing. After the army landed, the artillery shelled first, and after the shelling was over, the Indian second division went up... It’s not true that the Indian servants came on the field Fighting, but picking up the pieces...mainly burying the corpses to avoid plagues.

What's interesting is that most of the time, after the Chu army is over, they still haven't figured out who they are fighting with...Because the current Gold Coast area is too chaotic, there are grapes, British, Dutch, and even French There are... and then there are all kinds of pirates.

In the eyes of Chu people, these European barbarians look similar, and they can't even understand the language... They can't tell who is who.

But this does not affect the actions of the Chu army in West Africa. Anyway, no matter which colonial stronghold they encounter, it is the same operation: the warship first goes up to bombard for a round, and the army artillery goes up for another round, and then sends Indian servants to land. Pick up the pieces.

There are no tactics at all, and the battles are far from intense.

Even the scale and intensity are not as good as the exercises that the Chu army usually holds... Just like an outing, the Chu army has already taken down a bunch of messy colonial strongholds in the Gold Coast area before they can react. By the way, more than 1 prisoners of war of all kinds were harvested.

These prisoners of war were not wasted, and they were directly invested in the construction of the local port base. The Chu army planned to build a large military base here as a strategic transfer station between South Africa and Europe. After all, this place happened to be in central Africa. The location is more suitable.

The construction of the military base naturally requires a large number of indigenous construction workers... You can't let the combat troops of the Chu army move bricks to repair the pier, right? It would be fine to use the current prisoners of war.

However, it is not enough to use only prisoners of war. After all, there are too many various facilities to be built, and the time is relatively tight. European prisoners of war are not enough, so the Chu army will follow the old rules and send the second Indian division to the surrounding areas to carry out sweeping operations. Combat, on the one hand, is to clean up the environment near the base, to prevent any aborigines from defecating and polluting the environment, and on the other hand, it is also to capture some prisoners of war to come back to repair the camp.

The Chu army is very proficient in capturing prisoners of war and building camps all over the world, whether it is in India, Africa, or North America, well, it was done in Nanyang and Fusang in the early years.

This has formed the basic routine.

The Indian soldiers of the Second Division of India are also very skilled in their work. Their main job in Africa is actually to expel the local aborigines around the overseas territories and capture some prisoners of war by the way.

Although people in later generations have various prejudices against Indians, Chu people, 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 useful Tool man.

Of course, this is also related to the fact that the Indian servants recruited by the Chu army are mainly untouchables.

Untouchables in India are not the same concept as ordinary Indians. These untouchables who have been oppressed by high castes for a long time, once armed by the Chu army, treat Indians much harder than the Chu army...

The servant army composed of these Indian untouchables, when performing tasks in India, always played the three-light policy... The Great Chu Empire controlled the southern part of India before. In order to completely control the local area and expel the local indigenous people, the Chu army called three The Indian slave army division is performing expulsion and purge missions locally!
It only took them half a year to successfully clean up the local Indians...much more efficient than Chu Jun himself.

And some servants who performed well in India will be transferred to serve in Africa, West Asia and other regions to receive higher salaries, and the best of them will be promoted to become indigenous officers, that is, fellow lieutenants.

And these Indian servants transferred to serve in Africa, they treat Indians so cruelly, let alone treat those Africans.

In many cases, although the Chu army is also very dissatisfied with the combat effectiveness and discipline of the Indian servant army, the Chu army has been increasing the size of the Indian servant army, but downsizing or even eliminating it. It can be seen that the top leaders of the Chu army It's hypocritical.

The success of the Indian servant army also made the Chu army consider the possibility of selecting natives from other countries to form a servant army.

It's just a pity that so far, the Chu army can't find any other more suitable indigenous servants.

For example, Fusang... This is quite suitable, but the population in Fusang area is too small... After 30 years of melee, the population of Fusang is now estimated to be just over 300 million... There are not many young and middle-aged people, and their physique is too weak. It's not a good material for soldiers either.

The people of Chu were thinking about packing up the remaining population of the Fusang people and sending them to Africa to farm, so naturally they didn't bother to pick the young and strong to form a servant army.

There are actually not many aborigines left in other Southeast Asian regions... There are only a few protected areas on a few islands with a small number of aborigines 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 are not young enough, and there are not many people who can serve as servants for the Chu army.

Not to mention the West Asian side, the small colonies controlled by the Chu army have few natives, and there are the Ottoman Empire and the Persian Empire beside them, but the relationship between the empire, the Ottoman Empire and the Persian Empire is still good...

Not to mention the Africans...the Chu people didn't regard them as human beings, and never mentioned the idea of ​​recruiting Africans as servants from the beginning to the end.

The same goes for the Indians on the American side... They were killed too hard a few years ago... Now there are not many Indians left in 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 useful.

This is also the reason why the Chu army only recruits servant soldiers from the untouchable groups, but never recruits servant soldiers from the high castes or ordinary civilians in India.

It's the lowest of the untouchables who want it.

These untouchables used to be unable to resist because of their small number and low status... But with the guns given by the Chu people, it is exciting to kill people of other castes in India, especially those of high castes !
Many times, the people at the bottom you thought have become insensitive and resigned... that's because you didn't give them a gun!

Generally speaking, the military of the Great Chu Empire, mainly the servant army formed by the army against the Indian untouchables, feels very good, and is willing to let them undertake more important combat tasks.

This time they went north to control the west coast of Africa, and the Indian Second Division took on the main ground combat mission...they did not disappoint the trust of the generals of the Chu army. Clean up and expel all kinds of chaotic indigenous tribes in the surrounding area.

It left a clean west coast of Africa to the Great Chu Empire.

The regular troops of the Chu army, on the other hand, sailed slowly northward in boats... During the whole process, except for the artillery who occasionally went ashore to shell, the infantry basically never fired.

This stop and go, the vanguard of the expeditionary fleet of the Great Chu Empire, a small fleet equipped with an infantry battalion, escorted by a cruiser and two frigates, finally arrived in the Northwest Region of Africa in June, that is, Morocco region.

The people of the Vanguard Fleet looked along the coastline, and finally set their sights on Tarfaya, a small port city on the southern coast of Morocco... There is no special reason, because this place is far away from Dakar, the current headquarters of the European Expeditionary Force of the Great Chu Empire. The area is closer, first take down a port as an outpost, and then think about setting up a large military base in Spain or northern Morocco.

As for the feelings of the Moroccans...it's none of Chu's business.

The Chu people's overseas expansion has always been regardless of what the local indigenous people think, and more consideration is their own situation.

Ever since, the Moroccans were dumbfounded... In fact, they had also heard before that there was a super-state Chu from the East, which was attacking the central and southern regions of Africa and occupying all European colonies in Africa.

But they didn't expect that one day the Chu people would hit themselves on the head.

But now Morocco is still in the early days of the establishment of the new dynasty. The rulers are relatively capable and ambitious. When they see the Chu people, they don’t even say hello. When Zhuangdu was captured as a prisoner of war and forced to repair the port.

The Moroccans couldn't help it, and first sent people to negotiate... But the people who came to negotiate were shot and killed by Chu soldiers before they even entered the gate of the Chu army barracks...

Soldiers of the Chu army guarding the gate are boring... I just saw a few natives shouting at the gate, and they couldn't understand what they were talking about. God knows what they are talking about.

The guards told them to leave, but these aborigines were still slacking off.

Immediately, the guards at the door used them as targets to practice marksmanship...

Not to mention, these guards were quite accurate with their marksmanship. They killed several envoys sent by the Moroccans with one shot.

When the Moroccans saw it... they were pissed off.

When the two armies are at war, if you don't kill them, you don't know... They also say that we are barbarians, and you Chu people are barbarians.

So they were very angry and assembled more than 5000 people who wanted to resist and take back Tarfaya.

These more than 5000 people are equipped with smoothbore artillery and flintlock guns obtained from Europe, and they bought export-type plate armor produced by Chu State from merchants. They are also considered the main force in Morocco.

After all, the Moroccans have also heard about the strength of the Great Chu Empire and the strength of the Chu army, so even though they knew that there were only 900 Chu people who captured Tarfaya, they still assembled a main force of more than 5000 people.

The Moroccans still attach great importance to the Chu people, and they do not underestimate the enemy!
It's just that the fighting process was more exaggerated than they expected, and the result was even crueler than they imagined.

Facing the counterattack of the Moroccans, the soldiers of the 212rd Battalion of the [-]th Infantry Regiment under the [-]rd Division of the Great Chu Empire Army actually ignored them.

The soldiers of the Chu army were not even in the mood to leave the camp to fight!

In Northwest Africa in June, it was so hot that the men of the Chu army were unwilling to leave the roof and ran to the sun to fight the Moroccans on the opposite side.

After the army on the shore discovered that there were thousands of Moroccans assembled and ready to kill them, they did not move. Instead, they sent a letter to the navy at the port, saying that there were thousands of heads on the opposite side, and let their navy do it themselves.

After discussing with several naval officers, they felt that the credit would not be in vain...so they asked the three warships to approach the coastline directly and prepare for the bombardment.

In order to obtain a better strike effect, the navy even waited until the Moroccans were close to the city and the coastline before firing... The navy was afraid that it would fire too early and scare the Moroccans away.

The next thing is very simple, the army watched a good show on the shore, the navy gained a wave of kills, the Moroccans suffered heavy losses and lost more than half of them on the spot, and fled in embarrassment!
These Moroccans didn't figure out how they were defeated until they were defeated!
Because they didn't even see the Chu army's naval guns firing!
The naval guns of the Chu army are much larger in caliber than the army's field guns, and they are all long-barreled cannons with a very long range.

At that time, in order to ensure the hit rate, the navy was still shooting closer, and at a distance of about 3000 meters, the bombardment was guided by hot air balloons.

So the scene that the Moroccans can see and hear is: when they have just completed their formation and are about to attack the city wall.

I haven't seen even a single person from the state of Chu, but countless shells are falling from the sky, and the shells are extremely powerful... Some shells can be regarded as reimbursement for hundreds of them. No need to ask, this shell must be fired by a cruiser 150mm high-explosive grenade.

This bomb was inexplicably bombed, and the bombing was particularly miserable... If it wasn't for the quick response of the Moroccan commander, it only took a few minutes to order the entire army to retreat.

With such a dense formation like theirs, they would all be killed by the Chu Navy's shelling a few minutes later!

This is actually the scene when many European colonists faced the Chu army... Most of the time they didn't even see the Chu army, they were bombed inexplicably, and then defeated inexplicably.

Compared with the war pattern of the Europeans, there has been a generational difference between the war pattern of the Chu army... and at least two generations!
The grape people and the Dutch felt deeply about the fighting power of the Chu army. After all, they had been beaten too many times...it doesn't matter if they don't feel deeply.

So the Portuguese and the Dutch did not carry out any actual resistance at all when facing the Chu people going north this time, but packed up their belongings and ran away early. A few people will be left as envoys, mainly to inquire about the plans of the Chu people to go north this time.

When you know that the Chu people are going north this time to promote free trade in Europe...the expressions of these envoys are often very interesting, but in the end they will lick their faces and express similar meanings: You Chu people want to go to Europe We are very welcome to do business, and we will continue to cooperate when the time comes!

Do business to make money, not shabby!

Those who resisted the Chu army going north were European colonists who did not know the specific strength of the Chu army, or some local aborigines, and some were simply pirates!
For example, the French and the British are more stubborn, and often rely on colonial strongholds to resist, thinking that their small fortress can really stop the large-caliber naval guns of the Chu army!
But these resistances have no practical significance other than wasting some Chu army's shells.

It's the same as the current Moroccan counterattack... The army troops of the Chu people didn't even bother to leave the barracks to fight. They just greeted the navy and let them bombard, and then more than half of them were killed and injured, and the rest ran away. .

However, the corpses left by these Moroccans are disgusting. If they are left unattended, they will easily cause plague. The Chu army had to arrange those prisoners of war to clean the battlefield and bury the corpses.

Looking at it this way, the Moroccan counterattack is not useless, at least it has restrained the number of prisoners of war labor available to the Chu people, and slightly delayed the construction speed of the Tarfaya base!

It's just that the Moroccans don't know how to feel after knowing this!

And what should European countries think when they know about it?
Although the intensity of the Battle of Tarfaya was not even as high as the daily exercises for the Chu army, it still officially announced the arrival of the Great Chu Empire to all European countries!