Chapter 132: Eager to Act
"Report, sir! Kayanza City has been taken. Our men are now clearing the battlefield," the officer in charge reported to Yarman.
"Excellent work, everyone. A big victory this time—tonight, all personnel get an extra meal," Yarman declared.
The Battle of Kayanza was the first major engagement in the war to annex the northwest. Although the enemy's resistance proved disappointing—leaving some combat enthusiasts unsatisfied—after so many days in the field, finally coming across a slightly serious fight was at least a bit of excitement.
Yarman walked through the streets of Kayanza, which lay in chaos. Everything left behind lay toppled in disarray; some houses had even been stripped of their doors, and a few bodies lay along both sides of the road.
A closer look revealed none had been shot. Their dark skin still bore muddy footprints from people trampling over them, evidently caused by the fleeing crowd. Before the East African army entered Kayanza, these trampled victims had already lain scattered across the streets. Only once the troops moved in did they gather the corpses to the roadside.
By European standards, Kayanza isn't large—like a small town district—so its residents could flee in a short time. But with so many people crammed into such a small city, and just four gates in total (three of which were blocked by East African forces, leaving only the northern gate for escape), the resulting stampedes were inevitable. The city was left in ruins.
After tallying the battlefield, the East African army found the following:
– Seven enemies crushed to death when the southern gate collapsed from cannon fire.
– Twelve natives trampled to death within the city.
– Sixteen killed by East African soldiers.
– Forty-seven wounded natives or children (unable to flee) were captured.
No East African soldiers were lost. They secured an empty city, extended their frontline toward the Kingdom of Rwanda, and completed the task of driving the local population out of Kayanza.
…
With Kayanza taken, the Kingdom of Burundi was essentially finished. From here on, the East African army would meet little organized resistance throughout Burundi's territory.
North of Kayanza lies the border between Rwanda and Burundi, about a mere ten-plus kilometers away, so this engagement signaled the near end of the fighting in Burundi.
Compared to that, the neighboring Karawi front faced even weaker opposition. As the kingdom hardest hit by the Eastern Bantu rampage, Karawi had practically lost its king and central government at the hands of those Bantu.
Leaderless, the Karawi Kingdom couldn't hold back the Eastern Bantu invasion. Seizing the chance, many local nobles broke away, pledging allegiance to Buganda or Igara instead.
Those two kingdoms, needing manpower to withstand the Eastern Bantu, gladly accepted these nobles and their people, using them to absorb the first wave of the Bantu assault.
So by the time the East African colony invaded Karawi, that kingdom existed in name only. Its central authority was gone, and its border nobles had fled. The few who couldn't escape had been forced to fight the Bantu to the death, aided by Buganda and others, eventually defeating the invaders.
Even so, when that war with the Eastern Bantu ended, those same kingdoms withdrew their support from Karawi's nobles. This proved ruinous for Karawi, which had focused heavily on warfare, leaving its farmland untended.
Truth be told, Karawi would have perished even without an East African invasion. Were it not for the heavy losses all northwest states suffered at the hands of the Bantu—and their resulting rush to restore order—Buganda and others would have partitioned Karawi long before.
As it was, they had no time, but East Africa did. In Karawi, the East African troops proceeded much like herders driving pigs, chasing the local populace northward into Buganda and Igara.
Though combined survivors of Karawi and Burundi may total just sixty or seventy thousand—most of their people decimated by the Bantu—these sixty or seventy thousand refugees could still be a disaster for those northern states eager to rebuild order and productivity.
"These natives should be running north. If they run west, they'll still end up going north in the end—wasted effort," said John Qiao, staff officer of the western army on the Karawi front, to the overall commander, Jia Ocierbart.
"Qiao, the natives don't know our battle plans. They're just fleeing opposite our advance. I'd bet none of them have ever seen a map in their lives, so it's no surprise some run west," Ocierbart answered.
"But come on—so far we haven't seen a proper opponent. Ocierbart, looks like you won't get your chance to outdo Felix this time," Qiao quipped.
"Bah, these native kingdoms… even wiping out ten of them doesn't measure up to destroying the Sultanate of Zanzibar. If I want to compete with Felix, I can't rely on these weaklings," Ocierbart retorted.
"I've already chosen my battlefield to challenge Felix. In the second phase, that fellow will definitely attack Buganda from the north. That's when we can see who'll be first to capture Buganda's capital."
The Felix in Ocierbart's thoughts was the man who had destroyed the Sultanate of Zanzibar singlehandedly in the previous war. After that triumph, he'd been promoted to overall commander of the colony's northern theater, which covered all of Kenya.
At present, Felix and his troops were stationed in Kisumu, capital of West Kenya, so he wasn't involved in the current campaign against the four southern states of the northwest.
As East Africa's first great war hero, Felix's achievement was substantial. The Sultanate of Zanzibar might have declined, but it had once been a major power in the Indian Ocean. Though part of his victory owed to luck, others within the colony still wanted to match his feats.
Ocierbart was among them. He and Felix had known each other since Germany, even coming from the same village and serving together in the Prussian army. Back in Prussia, they'd both seemed ordinary foot soldiers, yet after arriving in East Africa, Felix rose to fame with brilliant success, leaving Ocierbart stunned. He knew Felix well, and in the old days their performance had been similar—so was Felix's triumph down to luck, or genuine ability?
Ocierbart wanted to see for himself. The best way to judge was through direct comparison.
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