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Chapter 1819 Gold Mine Expedition in South Africa
"Captain, we seem to be surrounded by natives."

An expedition team in South Africa fell into the siege of local tribes. Outside the camp surrounded by four-wheeled trucks, figures and thousands of black figures appeared.These natives hold one or two slender wooden-handled javelins in their left hand, and a solid cowhide shield in their right hand as a cover.

As the captain of the expedition, he needs to make a choice to protect the safety of his group.

A strange land on the east coast of South Africa, which is not yet known, and the many tribes living here are even more isolated from the world.

The Zulu Kingdom, which should have been somewhat famous, was still a little-known small tribe at this time.

After the new sea route was opened, slave traders, whalers, pirates and merchants occasionally appeared here.

But Europeans are only active on the seashore, and few explorers go deep into the hinterland.

What hindered them from going deep into the hinterland was not how powerful the local tribes were, but the diseases that were raging on the African continent, such as malaria, typhoid, and yellow fever, deterred explorers.

An expedition from the east came from the sea to the Zululand region on the east coast of South Africa, which is the coastal plain.

They brought some new drugs, such as quinine and normal saline, to establish a new transit station and stronghold for invading the hinterland on this ancient and strange continent.

A long time ago, the Kyushu Army built a stronghold called Cape Town near the Cape of Good Hope as a transit point for the African route.

Because of the opening of the Suez Canal, the Cape Town transit station, which has just started to improve, may face a period of loneliness.

And the purpose of this expedition is not mainly a transfer station, but to find gold.

In Chu Yun's impression, South Africa has a huge gold production.

Gold is a hard currency, and Chu Yun will not let go of places rich in gold. He is also accumulating wealth while building projects in various places.

There are about 1000 people in this expedition. They were brought by four galleons, and about 500 of them came from Indian states. They will participate in the conquest of the east coast of South Africa as servants.

To establish an effective colony on an unfamiliar continent requires a sufficient population.The losses of the first batch of colonists are generally very serious, and someone needs to be a coolie. Some Indian natives who have been tamed are the best choice.

After landing on the land of South Africa, they began to search for the legendary largest gold mine in the world-the Rand Gold Mine.

They attempted to establish a colony in the Zululand region as a bridgehead for further incursions into the heart of South Africa in search of gold.

The Rand Gold Mine is 500 or 600 kilometers away from the east coast of South Africa.

Although the distance of 500 kilometers is nothing to the huge territory of China, this is Africa where tropical diseases are rampant, and there are even no roads. If you want to walk 500 kilometers here, it is not as easy as walking from Guangxi to the capital.

The plan of the expedition team is to establish a port in the coastal area now, so that they can contact the Indian colonies at any time to obtain supplies.

They built an earth and stone fortress in the crude port, and after stationing a team of 70 people, they gradually conquered the local tribes inward, and at the same time competed with some surrounding tribes for prey, which caused friction.

In order to mine the Rand Gold Mine in the future, it is necessary to obtain local labor, and conquest is necessary.

The expedition left the coast at a distance of 60 kilometers, and they were surrounded by the coalition forces of the local Bantu tribes.

There is no powerful kingdom in the area, and these tribes joined forces temporarily. Their warriors hardly have any armor, only primitive weapons such as javelins and leather shields.

Faced with the siege of thousands of natives, members of the expedition did not feel fear, because they believed in the Mauser rifles they held in their hands.

The Mauser rifle is also a breech-loading rifle, but it is much better than the Dreiser rifle, and there is no problem in causing damage at a distance of several hundred meters.

"The short-handled javelins they use should have two functions, one is for short-distance throwing, the throwing distance is about 50 meters, and the other is for close-range assassination. It would be bad if they break through the defense line and get into hand-to-hand combat Put out the machine guns and artillery, and we'll defeat them from a distance." As the captain of the expedition, he ordered the heavy weapons to be brought out. later conflict.

"Pay attention to replenishing ammunition. The formation cannot cease fire at any moment until the enemy retreats!" He then added.

The expedition team possesses far more firearms than the natives, but the disadvantage is that the number of people is too small, and strict order must be ensured to reduce losses.

Four-wheeled wagons formed the outskirts, and two Gatling guns were deployed on the front, along with two artillery pieces.

Machine guns and artillery are too bulky, and they have to carry a lot of ammunition. 1000 of them can carry two machine guns and two artillery, which is already quite difficult.

If you carry more machine guns and artillery, you can't provide them with ammunition, which is equivalent to a pile of broken copper and iron.

The Chinese and Indian natives of the expedition held their muskets tightly. The muskets they used ranged from Mauser rifles, Dreiser rifles to 1777 standard rifles, which can be said to be varied.These three generations of rifles represent the changes in the weapons used by the infantry of the Kyushu Army over the past 30 years.

In order to prevent Indian soldiers from defecting, the rifles equipped with them have always been the relatively backward 1777 standard rifles, which are nearly 1871 years behind the most advanced Mauser 100 rifles.

Because of the small number of Chinese explorers and Indian natives, they used four-wheeled trucks as a line of defense and lined themselves up in two rows, and they could only fire in two rows.

"These natives may not even have seen muskets...unless they see European navigators at the seaside, they will see muskets. I hope they can retreat after seeing the power of cannons and muskets. Don't cause nothing. Necessary casualties, our ammunition is also used a little less before being resupplied."

The leader of the expedition used a telescope to observe the indigenous coalition forces, and saw a group of somewhat orderly indigenous soldiers in the telescope, and they formed a very simple square formation.Apparently there was tribal conflict in this land as well, with different tribes and chiefs groping for formations to fight.

But their weapons are too backward, there is no cavalry, and the formation can't play any tricks.In the eyes of the expedition leader, this kind of indigenous coalition army composed of javelin soldiers and a small number of archers only had advantages in numbers and terrain.

"They're starting to attack!" The members of the expedition exclaimed.

Thousands of people, maybe tens of thousands of indigenous coalition forces held leather shields, beat the shields with javelins, and shouted that the members of the expedition team could not understand the language at all, and launched an attack amid deafening shouts!
(End of this chapter)