Chapter 328: Foreign Forces
As a newly founded city, the Ndebele capital—Bulawayo—has a shorter history than many of the cities established by the East African Kingdom.
Lobengula and his father, Mzilikazi, used a large number of slaves to build their capital. Though not large in scale, it features architecture that blends Arab and European styles.
On the one hand, Arab influence along Africa's east coast is incredibly deep, and even the Zulus in the far south were not immune. Since the Ndebele are an offshoot of the Zulus, they too bear that cultural mark.
On the other hand, the Ndebele also learned from their old adversaries, the Boers. However, when the Boers occupied the Transvaal, they didn't have time or manpower for magnificent buildings—just some simple forts in Dutch or German-French style.
Drawing on the Boers' experience, the Ndebele built gun embrasures, watchtowers, and other features into their capital. The entire city essentially became a small military fortress, much like Hohenzollern Castle. This suits the Ndebele's militaristic nature.
At this moment, outside the city's stronghold, Lobengula is reviewing his troops. The sight of six thousand Ndebele warriors equipped with muskets is absolutely striking.
They wear the traditional, primitive-looking Zulu tribal attire, yet they carry muskets as tall as a man, making for a curious blend of "savagery" and "civilization."
Besides Lobengula's own "advanced" force, over ten thousand Shona auxiliaries also participated in this review. Although their numbers overall are even larger, Bulawayo alone couldn't feed them all, so they're scattered across the kingdom.
Lobengula, seeing the fighting spirit of the Ndebele warriors, is quite pleased, as though he has all the world's heroes in his grasp.
He turned to the head of the Boer advisory corps at his side and asked, "Mr. Wiggins, look at my men. How do they compare to the East African Kingdom?"
Wiggins replied with confident laughter, "Hahaha! Don't worry, Your Majesty. Ndebele warriors are brave and battle-hardened. Now that they have firearms and we Boers are training them, they'll be more than able to deal the East African Kingdom a heavy blow."
Wiggins was sent by the Republic of the Transvaal to help Lobengula train his Ndebele to use firearms. After all, those guns came from the Transvaal Republic, so they provide full-service customer support. They couldn't afford to have the Ndebele just hold muskets like spears and launch a suicidal charge at the East African colonial forces—getting shot full of holes would be a joke indeed.
Lobengula gave an order: "Let the drill begin!"
In several formations, the Ndebele warriors started reloading their muskets in unison, then lifted them up to fire in volleys at a row of wooden stakes set up in advance.
"Bang… Bang… Bang…"
The brittle stakes were blown to pieces.
"Good, good—excellent!" Lobengula praised the power of the muskets before his eyes.
He declared, "With these muskets, those East Africans will never return alive!"
…
A single fast rider galloped across the grasslands, heading toward the border forces of Southern Salzburg Province.
"I have vital military intelligence to report!"
Soon, the scout was brought before Siweite.
"Reporting, Chief of Staff! We encountered a unit from the Southern Army in the southeast. They're coming to link up with us."
Siweite asked, "Which unit from the Southern Army?"
"The Second Brigade, sir. They've been operating in this area for days, hunting down rebel tribes."
Siweite nodded with satisfaction. "Excellent. It seems the Southern Army is about done suppressing the rebellion in the south and east. We'll stay here, await their arrival, and let our troops rest for a bit."
The Southern Salzburg border troops had marched swiftly from near Lake Malawi deep into the heart of the Matabele Plateau, their main goal being to confront the main Ndebele force near Bulawayo, capital of the Matabele Kingdom. They'd left the local mop-up to the Southern Army attacking from the east and south.
Roughly twenty minutes later, a column appeared on the horizon—the Second Brigade of East Africa's Southern Army.
Its commander, Yaanlide, saluted. "Chief of Staff!"
Siweite returned the greeting. "Good. Which direction did you come from?"
"Chief of Staff, our brigade was stationed on the north bank of the Limpopo. In response to a royal decree, we marched from the southeast all the way northwest."
"So, the tribal rebellion in the southeast is basically dealt with?"
"Yes, Chief of Staff. Though some remnant Ndebele forces fled, so we pursued them here."
"Well done!" Siweite commended them.
Then Yaanlide added, "Oh, Chief of Staff, we've got important intelligence to report."
Siweite asked, "What is it?"
"Sir, please wait a moment," Yaanlide said, turning to his men. "Bring over the prisoners and the seized items!"
Soon, several white men were led forward, along with a covered ox cart. Yaanlide pulled off the rain cover, revealing box after box of goods. At a glance, the shape of the boxes told Siweite what was inside.
"These are firearms?"
"Yes, Chief of Staff—and they were supplied by the Boers to the Ndebele."
"Huh, those Boers sure have some nerve!"
But Yaanlide interjected, "Chief of Staff, once you interrogate these Boers, you'll realize they've done something far bigger."
Siweite quickly understood that the situation was more complicated than it seemed.
He stepped up to the Boer prisoners. "You're from the Republic of the Transvaal?"
One Boer responded in German, "Yes. May I ask who you are, sir?"
"I'm Siweite, Chief of Staff of the East African Kingdom."
On hearing that he was a senior East African officer, the Boer said at once, "Sir, this is all a misunderstanding."
"Hmph, don't play games. We've already heard from the Ndebele side. You'd best cooperate by confessing your crimes; otherwise…" Yaanlide cut him off.
"Ugh, at this point we'll tell you everything you want to know, but I have one condition: you must guarantee our safety," the Boer replied when he saw they were exposed.
Siweite said, "All right. If you answer my questions, we guarantee your safety. The first question: What's your purpose for coming here?"
The Boer answered, "We were sent by the president to trade with the Ndebele. As you can see, we were delivering weapons to them. The main motive was gold, but we also wanted to weaken your kingdom."
Siweite continued, "How many weapons did you supply in total?"
"I don't know exactly. But I know it's a lot—thousands of muskets, plus plenty of gunpowder…"
Ten minutes passed.
"All right," said Siweite. "We'll keep our promise. But next, you'll be our 'guests' in East Africa for a while!"
The Boer prisoners easily betrayed all the Transvaal intelligence they knew, since they realized East Africa would never let them return there.
Siweite told his subordinates, "Tsk. The Transvaal Republic sure went all out—giving weapons and even sending personnel to help the rebels. They really don't rate us at all. Once we've settled matters with the Ndebele, it's time to pay the Boers a visit!"
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