Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 326 Encounter
The success of Spain's attack on the Sokoto Caliphate was something that Spain itself had not expected.

Spain is quite cautious and attaches great importance to this large African country which is 1,600 kilometers wide from east to west and nearly 1,000 kilometers long from north to south.

In all of Spain's colonial wars, there has never been a war in which Spain has deployed more than 80,000 troops.

Although these 80,000 people are colonial troops, it is undeniable that they are all modern troops equipped with standard rifles.

Although its combat effectiveness is not as good as that of the regular armies of European countries, it is at least among the top in the ranks of the colonial armies, vassal armies and regular armies of other non-European countries.

Originally, on the Spanish side, Carlo, who planned the war, William, the Secretary of State for Colonial Affairs, Evan, the Secretary of State for Defense, and Andrew, the Commander-in-Chief of the Congo Territory Garrison, all agreed that the war would last for several months or even more than a year.

The Spanish army would encounter fierce resistance from the Sokoto Caliphate, and even the colonial troops would suffer considerable casualties.

This is why Spain prepared for this war for several months. Unexpectedly, Spain's adequate preparations seemed a bit redundant.

Within a few days of the war starting, Spain's western army successfully gained control of the kingdoms of Oyo, Ijebu and Iwo.

These three states provided Spain with tens of thousands of troops, allowing Spain's western army to successfully exceed 100,000 troops.

Although the troops provided by these indigenous states only served as cannon fodder, it would take the army of the Sokoto Caliphate several days to kill tens of thousands of cannon fodder.

The enemy was not an army like Spain that was equipped with a large number of advanced weapons. Most of their soldiers were still using cold weapons. Only a small number of elite troops, or the guards of the Sokoto Caliph, could use hot weapons.

It is true that the Sokoto Caliphate possesses thermal weapons, but their technology is far behind that of European countries.

This also led to the fact that it was several days after Spain launched the war that Oyo Igboho, the capital of the Sokoto Caliphate, which was more than 100 kilometers away from the Spanish colony, received the news.

Obviously, the Sokoto Caliphate received the news too late. The reason is very simple, that is, the northern border of Oyo State is less than 60 kilometers away from Oyo Igboho.

By the time the Sokoto Caliph received the news and called up the armies of various states in the country, the Spanish army was almost reaching the capital, Oyo Iboho.

Without reinforcements from the armies of various states, the direct army of the Caliph of Sokto actually only had a few tens of thousands of people.

More than half of these tens of thousands of people used cold weapons, and only the guards, numbering less than 8,000, used hot weapons, which were of various styles and were obviously made in various countries.

What's more, if you look closely, you can actually see Spanish-made weapons in the hands of these natives.

Of course, the Spanish weapons they could get were not the previous generation standard rifle, the Vitali M1872 rifle, but the earlier muzzle-loading rifle.

Because of the untimely response, by the time the two armies met, the Spanish army was less than ten kilometers away from Oyo Iboho, the capital of the Sokoto Caliphate.

This distance was quite deadly. The army of the Sokoto Caliphate had no room to retreat at all. They could only defend their positions, otherwise the capital would be captured by Spain.

What’s even more terrible is that although the Sokoto Caliph assembled tens of thousands of troops in a short period of time, he obviously did not have time to build defensive positions.

Having said that, these natives are obviously not proficient in warfare with hot weapons, which also leads to their lack of understanding of digging positions.

The consequence of this was that the Spanish army was facing an indigenous army with few defensive positions. Although the tens of thousands of indigenous soldiers lined up in a row, the scene looked very spectacular, but Andrew, the commander-in-chief of the Congo Territory garrison who led the western army, was already smiling.

Why are they so happy? In order to deal with the huge manpower of the Sokoto Caliphate, Spain will use powerful weapons such as machine guns in this war.

In order to end the war in Africa as soon as possible, Carlo waved his hand and equipped Andrew's army with dozens of the latest machine guns that Maxim had just modified.

The latest machine gun uses machine gun bullets made of smokeless gunpowder on the basis of the original machine gun. This not only instantly solves the problem of poor vision of the original machine gun, but also greatly increases the shooting distance and bullet power of the machine gun.

With dozens of such powerful machine guns, let alone there are only tens of thousands of natives in front of him. Even if the number of native soldiers increases to 100,000, Andrew is confident that he can defeat them in one battle.

He had personally come into contact with such a powerful weapon as the machine gun, so he naturally understood how powerful a machine gun could be to soldiers.

Especially the African natives in this group formation, for the machine gun is simply the best target. Randomly fired a volley of bullets will fall dozens of natives, and judging from the power of the current machine gun, even if these fallen natives are lucky enough not to be hit in the vitals, they are basically dead.

As soon as the two armies encountered each other, tens of thousands of indigenous troops immediately launched a charge towards the Spanish army.

Because there was no room for retreat, the Sokoto Caliphate could only try to take advantage of the Spanish army's unstable foothold and quickly break through the Spanish army's formation in order to gain an advantage.

Seeing a large group of natives coming towards him quickly, Andrew couldn't hold back his smile and gave his order with a smile on his face: "Deploy all the machine guns to the front line. I want to let these natives have a taste of the power of machine guns.

The artillery is also ready to drive these natives back if they get close to our machine gun positions. I don't want anything to happen to these precious guys. They are the army's treasures. Even the Guards don't have many of them.

Let the indigenous troops be prepared. Once the army of the Sokoto Caliphate is defeated, it will be a good opportunity for them to pursue the victory.

Tell these officers of the native army that if they can perform military meritorious service, I will personally send a telegram to the country to request rewards from His Majesty the King on their behalf.

But if anyone dares to be afraid of fighting, don't blame me for being rude. The supervision team, keep an eye on these natives, if anyone is afraid of fighting, or deserts, shoot them on the spot!"

"Yes, Commander!"

Andrew was in high spirits at this time. Because Spain's expansion in Africa was quite smooth, he had become a hot military star in Spain.

Unlike Kaman, who has been rising steadily in Spain, Andrew seems to be catching up.

Carlo had recently commended Andrew for his meritorious services and had promised that after the African war was over, he would personally knight Andrew in Spain.

Andrew himself is a baron, and if he can go one step further in terms of title, he can at least become a count in Spain.

Although the earl was not considered a great noble in Spain, for Andrew, who was just an ordinary graduate of the Royal Military Academy of Turin, Italy, everything he had obtained was already quite precious. Because it was related to his future, Andrew also attached great importance to this war. He almost used all his life's knowledge in order to end this war as soon as possible and maximize the results.

Following Andrew's orders, the Spanish army also began to move.

Carlo gave Andrew not only dozens of machine guns, but also machine gunners who were secretly trained in the use of machine guns in Spain.

The reason why Carlo sent a large number of machine gunners to Africa was that he was worried that the soldiers of these colonial armies were not familiar with the use of machine guns.

The current machine guns are powerful weapons, and Carlo does not want information about them to be leaked to the indigenous people or other European countries.

How to prevent it from being leaked? The best way is to ensure complete victory in the war and ensure that the enemy cannot seize Spanish weapons.

Compared to the colonial soldiers, the machine gunners sent by Carlo from the mainland were more loyal. Because they were already undergoing machine gun-related training, it was naturally impossible for them to leak machine gun-related data.

Because these colonial soldiers had never come into contact with machine guns, the most they could do was leak the news that Spain had a firearm with even more powerful firepower.

Without Maxim, such secrecy could delay the time for European countries to obtain machine guns. They obtained machine guns later than Spain, so the advancement of the machine gun-related technology tree would naturally lag behind Spain.

Apart from anything else, Spain’s existing smokeless powder machine guns, including water-cooled and air-cooled principles, are enough for European countries to study for several years.

There is no difference between the historical Maxim machine gun and open source. European countries have developed their own machine guns based on the Maxim machine gun.

Now, due to the high level of confidentiality in Spain, European countries are unable to use the Maxim machine gun as a reference to develop their own machine guns, and the progress related to machine guns is naturally very slow.

This is basically the limit of blocking the news. Although Spain has tried its best to keep it secret, European countries have made some progress in the research and development of machine guns.

It is impossible to keep it completely secret and prevent European countries from obtaining machine guns. After all, even if there was no Maxim, there would be Niu Keqin. New firearms experts such as Niu Maxim developed new machine guns similar to the Maxim machine gun.

Andrew couldn't help but get anxious as he saw the natives getting closer and closer to him. It would take a few minutes for the Spanish machine guns to be deployed, and before the machine guns were deployed, these native soldiers couldn't be allowed to get too close to the machine gun positions.

"The First Colonial Division, go ahead and delay the natives' advance. I hope that within five minutes, these natives won't be able to get close to our machine gun positions.

After our machine gun and artillery positions are deployed, the Colonial Division will withdraw in an orderly manner. Andrew immediately issued his own orders and changed his original deployment.

Under Andrew's command, the 1st Colonial Division marched towards the front line in a mighty manner.

As the earliest colonial division established in Spain, the First Colonial Division has the highest level of training and its comprehensive combat effectiveness is also the best among the three colonial divisions in Spain.

If the Colonial Division were to resist the attack of the indigenous army, it would not be a problem for them to hold out for five hours or even five days, let alone five minutes.

Of course, as time goes on, the 1st Colonial Division will certainly face more casualties.

But at this time, because the machine gun and artillery positions had not been deployed, the army had to take over first.

We can't let the enemy rush into the machine gun and artillery positions. By then, not only will we not be able to let these natives taste the power of the machine guns, but I'm afraid the machine guns and artillery will be destroyed by the natives in the first place.

Although these natives did not know what a machine gun was, they certainly would not leave this weapon, which looked somewhat similar to a rifle, to the Spanish army.

As long as they could break into the Spanish machine gun and artillery positions, these indigenous soldiers would definitely destroy them first.

These machine guns and artillery are great treasures for the colonial army. If it weren't for the need to attack the army of the Sokoto Caliphate this time, Andrew's Congo Territory Army would not have been able to obtain so many machine guns.

Obviously, the machine guns damaged in the war would not be replenished in a short time. After all, this latest improved machine gun also needs to be equipped on a large scale in the Spanish native army, and the equipment priority of the native army is much higher than that of the colonial army.

It is unknown how many years it will take before it is the colonial army's turn.

This is like Spain’s latest standard rifle, the Maxim M1884 rifle.

Although the Maxim M1884 rifle has been around for some time, it has only been fully equipped in Spain.

No colonial army was equipped with the Maxim M1884 rifle, and few if any would be in the next few years.

The reason is very simple. First of all, it is very costly to fully equip so many colonial troops with the latest rifles. After all, the colonial troops are composed of indigenous peoples, and the Spaniards only serve as officers, so there is no need to equip them with so many new rifles.

In addition, the new rifle not only increased the shooting distance and power, but also increased the firing rate of the rifle. If the colonial army was fully equipped with the Maxim M1884 rifle, the logistical supply of bullets would be a considerable problem.

Among all the colonies of Spain, only the Philippines has a small military factory that can independently produce weapons and ammunition.

The reason why the Philippines has a small military factory is simple. It is mainly because the Philippines is too far away from the Spanish mainland and it is too costly to transport weapons and equipment from the mainland to the Philippines.

Even so, the small military factories owned by the Philippines can only produce the outdated Vitali M1872 rifles, and the output is very small, so there is no need to worry about the problems faced after the military factories are occupied by the enemy.

The main purpose of this small arsenal was to produce ammunition for the colonial army of the Philippines, with firearms production being only incidental.

Apart from the Philippines, currently only the colony of Guinea has a small military industry, which can also only produce ammunition.

If the colonial army were to be fully equipped with the latest rifles, it would mean that these small military factories would also need to change their production lines.

The cost of doing so was too great, and it was an unnecessary expense for the Spanish government and the colonial governments.

Unless the finances of the colonies are already quite wealthy, Spain will only consider equipping all colonial armies with the latest rifles.

(End of this chapter)