Chapter 133: Northwestern Immigration Work
The front line was advancing rapidly, and the Kingdoms of Rwanda and Igara now lay just ahead.
For Rwanda and Igara, facing the East African colony meant tremendous pressure. They had barely succeeded in putting down the Eastern Bantu, and now they had a new enemy to contend with.
Unlike the Karawi and Burundi Kingdoms, Rwanda and Igara had not previously bordered the East African colony, so they knew virtually nothing about East Africa. But any foe capable of forcing all of Burundi to flee had to be formidable, and they found themselves quite troubled by this new invader.
After all, compared to Burundi and Karawi, Rwanda and Igara were no better off. The onslaught of the Eastern Bantu against the four southern states had been catastrophic. At present, both kingdoms' nobles and ministers were stuck, wondering whether to fight—even though they might lose—or flee, even though they hated to give up their possessions.
If the Eastern Bantu invasion had never happened, both kingdoms might have had the confidence to do battle with East Africa. But now, just raising a decent army was a question mark.
They quickly found no reason to hesitate, once Burundi's and Karawi's refugees flooded in. Although this new wave of refugees was small compared to the Eastern Bantu, Rwanda and Igara were in no shape to handle them.
Worse yet, these refugees came with rumors, describing the East African colonial forces as devils—even more terrible than the Eastern Bantu, with the power to devour people without even salting them first. (Of course, most natives had no concept of number values, but the gist was clear.)
Did the people of Rwanda and Igara believe it? If only one person said it, maybe not. But when countless refugees poured in from the southeast, it was evidently not just wild talk. People might not know the East African colony, but everyone knew the Eastern Bantu. If they were even stronger than the Eastern Bantu, then, after all these years of war, the citizens of the two kingdoms didn't wait for their central governments; they packed up everything and fled north, along with refugees from Burundi and Karawi.
With their own population fleeing, there was hardly any point in resistance. The upper echelons of the kingdoms also decided to run, gathering every last resource and heading north. Compared to dealing with the East African colony, it was still preferable to remain among other African tribes. Having seen what the Eastern Bantu did, they would do likewise—moving to start afresh in the north.
Of course, the two states weren't foolish enough to venture directly into the Four Northern States looking for trouble; they only planned to pass through on their way to the northwest of Africa (toward Congo and Central Africa).
Why not go straight west? Mostly because that way lay mountains and forests that were hard to traverse, while the northern route offered easier highland grasslands for passage.
They chose to rebuild a new kingdom to the northwest because, in ancient times, these natives originally came from West Africa. Although they had no writing system to record their origins, word-of-mouth and myths told of ancestors from the northwest.
For a civilization of their relatively low level of development, migrating an entire country was normal (like the many times the Shang Dynasty's capital moved). They only practiced slash-and-burn farming anyway, so picking another place to settle was hardly unimaginable.
…
"Have all the passengers boarded?" asked Werner Jory, captain of the East African inland navy.
"Captain, yes—everyone's on board. Besides our own people, this trip carries 127 immigrants, and the supplies bound for the front lines are also ready," Hankes Fisher replied.
"All right, we're good to go," said Werner Jory.
While the war continued at the front, the East African colony was also accelerating its immigration process. The East African inland navy had joined in transporting both immigrants and supplies, with Mwanza Shipyard working overtime to build more vessels and expand the inland navy's carrying capacity.
Besides river and lake routes, East Africa also opened overland immigration routes. Although overland travel was slow and exhausting, urgent military supplies mainly came via the inland navy.
The first batch of immigrants headed to the northwest departed alongside Yarman's army, pushing single-wheel carts of grain covered with tarps to keep off the rain. They marched with the troops on foot.
Walking all the way took about a month to reach Burundi and Karawi—twenty-eight days if fast, or just over thirty if slower. From Mwanza by water, the quickest route took twenty-three days.
Of course, they didn't rely solely on foot travel. The East African colony gathered large numbers of draft animals and vehicles to transport immigrants and goods, dividing the journey into segments with stops in villages and towns along the way for rest, supplies, and drinking water—saving huge amounts of time.
In particular, the Central District and Upper Coastal District had dense villages and abundant population, along with an early start in animal husbandry, so they could spare large amounts of transport capacity for immigrants.
Currently, around three thousand immigrants arrive at the ports each day (though it fluctuates month by month), as German and Paraguayan arrivals overlap. About 1,800 go to newly occupied areas of the northwest, 900 to West Kenya, and a little over a hundred to Omerate (along the Omo River).
The first batch reached Burundi and Karawi on May 3. It is now June (the preparations began in early April, and war in May).
In just a month, the colony had settled over fifty thousand people throughout Burundi and Karawi. Thanks to the colony's strong agriculture and the Hechingen consortium's backing, they could provision so many immigrants in a short time.
By this point, the war had lasted more than a month, and the East African forces were nearly pushing into Igara and Rwanda (the army's marching speed exceeded that of the immigrants, so though they set out together, the troops got ahead over time).
Plenty of new immigrants guaranteed development of the newly occupied areas. After all, the natives of the northwest had already moved beyond hunting, relying on rudimentary agriculture, so all newcomers had to do was take over their land.
The main task for immigrants was to redistribute the natives' fields and modernize them, a far simpler start than the colony's earliest days. Back then, only the coastal plantations run by the Sultanate of Zanzibar existed, and East Africa (prior to annexing Zanzibar's coastal territory) had to develop everything from scratch.
So the newcomers were basically walking into ready-made farmland. Yet they faced their own difficulties—namely a thousand-kilometer journey. For immigrants coming by sea from the Far East, Europe, or South America, it was no small challenge.
Fortunately, the East African government had set up numerous service stations along the route, preventing what would otherwise have been a truly grueling trek.
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