With the East African Central Government's order, the East African border forces were also eager to move. The first shot was fired on the Zambezi River basin battlefield.
Merk, inside the Songgo stronghold, addressed a group of East African army generals: "Yesterday, the Portuguese arrived. They've set up camp a kilometer outside the Songgo stronghold, and it seems they intend to engage us in the wilderness."
But Merk guessed wrong, because now the roles of offense and defense have switched, and on the Portuguese side, especially the French commander Clement, there was little willingness to continue the offensive.
The Songgo stronghold awaited a large number of reinforcements, and Clement knew that the opportunity to capture Songgo was slim. Without capturing Songgo, it would be impossible to smoothly occupy the southern bank of the Zambezi River as planned.
