At noon, the entire army enjoyed lunch on the spot in this desolate mountain. The main lunch was wheat cakes, with canned soybeans and beef and cheese. The soldiers ate lunch silently while drinking the cool white blossoms in the cowhide water bag. This desolate mountain was filled with fine stones and sand, and some low bushes were mixed with, which looked desolate and barren.

"I'm afraid even the poorest shepherds don't want to come here." Zanpalini, the top corps of the Fourth Company of the Army, sighed. After so long, his meticulous hair has now become a messy bird's nest. He also saw the morning battle from afar. The tactical and organizational levels of the black Xhosa were amazing. He could easily organize ambushes of hundreds of people, and at the same time organize retreats safely when the enemy pursued them. What level is this?

Anyway, Zamparini knew that these people would never have been able to do this level if they were not veterans who had been on the battlefield several times. When they thought of fighting such an enemy on the battlefield they chose, Zamparini frowned. Perhaps this sweeping operation was not a good opportunity to make a fortune? It is said that the leader set a goal before this operation. For every five hundred people caught, the garrison headquarters will reward all combatants with three yuan each, and the allocation of spoils will be calculated separately. But now it has been more than ten days since it has been out, and there are only a dozen prisoners, and there is no spoil at all. Not only that, the 104th Company also lost more than twenty soldiers. No matter how it is calculated, the business is in a loss.

"It's really a bad start!" An Dahai, who was sitting next to Zanpalini, thought in his heart. After the autumn harvest, their fourth company will be transferred back to the East Coast Army and return to the local area as a whole. The second company of the Army will be replaced by them and joining the South African garrison army. In other words, An Dahai's years in South Africa have only been so few months. It will be difficult to find such a place that is easy to make a fortune next time.

Now the local border is very peaceful. Both the Gauchoma bandits and the Chalua people are far away from the East Coast people, for fear of causing trouble. In other words, after they return to the local area, they will have no war to fight. If there is no war to fight, it means that there is not enough trophies to be distributed, which means that they can only get a little dead salary - although this little dead salary is already high in the eyes of many people.

During his two years of service in South Africa, An Dahai saved up a lot of money. He participated in several attacks on the surrounding indigenous tribes and the large-scale sweep operation last year. After several operations, he sold the trophy distributed alone for 70 or 80 yuan, not to mention that his military pay for almost no penny in the past two years. However, this money is still not enough. After returning to the local area, he had to spend a lot of money on his eldest son to get married. Then his two younger brothers and a younger sister went to school and work had to be put on him. There are so many places to use money. I really hope that I can make another money from these Xhosa people before leaving!

No matter how hard the soldiers were, how strong the war was, Xie Hansan, who was conservative, would not take any risks with his army that was concerned about the safety of the Hezhong Fortress, especially when the troops had lost more than twenty people in a mess. This group of Xhosa people were no longer the weak and bullied natives they had encountered before. They obviously had a certain degree of organization and combat effectiveness. The mountainous land leading to the valley area was rugged, and there were terrain suitable for ambush everywhere. The hundreds of main forces under him could not withstand such uncontrollable losses. Everything would be done when they contacted the cavalry unit commanded by Leonid, and I hope they would not encounter any trouble.

Just half an hour after lunch, the cavalry troops, which had lost contact for four hours, finally sent people back to contact. A few hours ago, they were besieged by a large number of Xhosa blacks in the Xianghe Valley ahead. It is estimated that the number of Xhosa blacks besieged is no less than 700, and they are generally equipped with large shields and spears. They are extremely tenacious in fighting, well-trained, and know how to cooperate with combat. Leonid led 90 cavalry to rush through the flat valley, pistols and sabers together, and then barely broke a gap and rushed out. Even so, after rushing out of the Xhosa siege, they still lost eight riders and five war horses. In addition, nearly twenty riders suffered injuries of varying degrees, which is the heaviest loss since the establishment of the South African cavalry company.

Looking at the dusty cavalry in front of him, Xie Hansan was speechless. At this point, the whole thing was clear. The black people of Xhosa now have a strong organization, sufficient manpower and experienced warriors. Their organizational capabilities and command systems are probably developed in years of wars and should be more effective. So now the problem is that when the enemy has obvious precautions and has begun to ambush and siege you, if you force yourself to march, no matter whether you win or lose, the purpose of this battle will be lost first, right?

You should know that the purpose of this second major sweep was not to defeat the black people of Xhosa, but to capture as many local indigenous people as possible and provide sufficient cannon fodder labor for the upcoming development plan of Madagascar. In the hot, rainy and disease-ridden place of the Madagascar Island, you may not even be able to build a small castle without investing thousands of people, let alone the planned base was designed to accommodate a large number of immigrants in production and life.

Xie Hansan is of course capable of gathering all the troops at this time, then let the soldiers wear breastplate, and then rush into the Xianghe Valley area ahead step by step. The black Xhosa people will definitely not be able to stop it, and they dare not stop it. But the question is, even if you occupy it, what if you need? What about the population you need? The several Xhosa tribes over there are not fools. They bring soft and soft, and they can run away by rushing cattle and sheep. Will they be foolishly waiting for you to catch it?

In the end, you fought with the black soldiers of Xhosa, hurting a lot, but getting nothing. What's that? Not to mention the endless wars and frictions that may follow after the conflict escalates. There are only a few East Coast people in South Africa, with more than 3,000 people. When they think of fighting with a rising indigenous tribe, especially this tribe may have more than 10,000 long-standing warriors. They even learned how to use muskets, Xie Hansan couldn't help but feel a toothache. Although he will step down as commander of the South African garrison in a few months, he will return to the local area with the troops, but he feels that he cannot rashly provoke a powerful enemy for Hezhong Fort before leaving. Although this enemy is currently in battle with the East Coast people, the conflict has not yet expanded, and things may still be turning around.

Of course, the most important thing is that now that the enemy is prepared, this war has no meaning. When my thoughts float here, Xie Hansan immediately made a decision. He immediately sent several commanders to return to Hezhong Fort to pass on to Mo Ming and asked what to do next action. After all, he, the commander of the South African garrison army, is also a nominal subordinate of the captain of the South African pioneer team.

After doing this, he ordered all the soldiers to wear breastplate and line up to continue moving forward. At present, the task is to take the cavalry out of the way. Although he did not want to continue to fight a meaningless war with the Xhosa, retreating without fighting seemed to be a bit harmful to morale. Therefore, he continued to advance to the edge of the valley to meet the cavalry that was still staying there, and then deployed defenses on the spot and waited for orders from the rear to be the right way.

After three hours of rapid march, after eliminating the delayed sexual harassment of two groups of Xhosa people, Xie Han's third detachment finally successfully joined the cavalry. After commanding Leonid's cavalry broke out of the siege in the valley, he retreated all the way, but was intercepted by a group of Xhosa people again on the road, resulting in twelve more people (four people died in battle, seven were slightly injured, and one seriously injured).

"Damn, who said these black men were stupid? They even learned guerrilla warfare!" Seeing that nearly forty people were killed and killed in the cavalry, even commander Leonid was slightly injured, Xiao Baitu, who was born in a cavalry, finally couldn't help but curse, "Why do I think we are like the Japanese devils who went to the countryside at the time, and they were not familiar with the place and were full of enemies everywhere. They rarely fought face to face with you, and they could not use their strength. Who said that those Zulu people liked to fight against the British and Boers head-on, grass!"

"This is a Xhosa, not a Zulu." Xie Han looked at him expressionlessly and said, "I think these black people are already very close to the level of slave society. Perhaps they are already at the level of civilization in the early stages of slave society. The war in slave society is tactical, not to mention that they are fighting and annexing the army that dares to fight and fight, and what's so strange about the generals who have not systematically learned military theory, but have done what they do to secretly match the military strategy?"

The army soldiers quickly found a flat and open ground, then began to drive piles, pull barbed wire, and hang bells. Each army strictly set up isolation belts and fire trenches. It was too late at this time, and the mountain road was purely seeking death, so they must camp here tonight. If they camped in the wild and did not repair fortifications properly, they would be joking about their lives.

The soldiers of the Eight Banners waved shovels, and the engineer shovels began to work hard to the earth. The soldiers of the Fourth Company and the 104th Company set up their formations and were ready for possible enemy attacks. The cavalry troops that had fought for a day helped the military medical officers to treat the wounded and chop firewood in the camp. Some injured war horses were also dragged away and slaughtered in the sad eyes of the cavalry, and these would be served as extra meals for the wounded soldiers tonight.

After everything was ready, the night finally slowly enveloped the earth. (To be continued, please search for Astronomy, novels are better, updated and faster!
Chapter completed!