Chapter 487: Fikni, the Rule-Breaker
Chapter 476 – The Fikni Who Tells the Rules
The sun was as bloody as blood, the afterglow of the setting sun waved on the earth, reflecting the wreckage all over the ground, and the air was filled with blood and smoke.
From time to time, dark brown buzzards would fall from the sky and snatch a piece of meat from the ground. The atmosphere was particularly eerie, as if they were in the middle of hell.
The soldiers who were busy cleaning up the battlefield didn’t care about so much. Everyone was physically and mentally exhausted after a big battle, and they just wanted to quickly collect the remains of their comrades and send them back to God’s embrace.
As for the enemy’s corpses, there was no need for them to bother, they were directly handed over to the recruited Zulus to deal with, and casually dug a hole and buried them.
There is no way, there are always a variety of accidents on the battlefield, for example: fainted in an accident, or perhaps shot and wounded unconscious, this kind of situation if the unreliable Zulus to deal with them, they can all be buried alive.
If the enemy that does not matter, buried also buried, if their own comrades were so dealt with, that would be a tragedy.
Therefore, when cleaning up the battlefield, it was the “Boer Republican” soldiers with Zulu laborers, the former responsible for inspecting and directing, the latter responsible for lifting the single frame.
Not far away from a “Boer” officer with a few soldiers walked over, this is a middle-aged man about forty or fifty years old, slender body slightly thin, a head of blonde hair, coupled with a pair of eyes, appear particularly pale and powerful.
The person is the Viscount Fikeni who patrols the battlefield, do the show should be done in full set, the people who participate in the battle are changed into the Boer Republican military uniform.
This batch of uniforms was rushed out temporarily, due to the time is too tight, a lot of uniforms are ordinary clothes dyed a little bit of color, just make do.
Do not underestimate this change, to the battlefield bright uniforms are living targets, the Boer Republican yellow-green uniforms are not very good-looking, but wins in practical.
Casually crawl to the ground, from a distance and the local color is similar, easier to hide.
In contrast, the opposite side of the British army is very tawdry, red uniforms beautiful is beautiful. Unfortunately, and the local environment is out of place, is a living target.
For Viscount Fikeni, who has been mixing in the African continent for many years, what is aesthetically pleasing, can it be eaten?
As a pragmatist, Viscount Fikeni never cared whether the uniform was beautiful or not.
Even in life, except for attending banquets, or certain activities he would only wear a dress, the rest of the time he is a military uniform, and is still Africa suitable for the jungle camouflage uniform.
This was the experience summarized from years of living in Africa, the closer the clothes were to the natural environment, the easier it was to survive.
In fact, the Austrian military uniforms of this period were also multifarious, and the colors of the military uniforms of the garrisons in different regions were different. For example: the army in Libya and Sinai Peninsula is the earthy yellow uniform, while the garrison in the Congo region is a variety of colors of camouflage uniforms.
When fighting in the South African region, the yellow-green uniform of the Boer Republic would be more appropriate. Ugly is a little bit ugly, but better than practical, naturally there is no need to be new and different.
The weakness of the British uniforms being too dazzling was also exploited by Viscount Fikeni, who repeatedly ambushed them in the jungle.
After a few engagements, the British have now learned to enter the forest, and have taken the initiative to shrink their battle lines to just engage them on the front battlefield.
Viscount Fikeni is clear that this is just the beginning, it will not be long, I’m afraid that the British will not even come out to fight.
This is the battlefield exchange ratio between the two sides decided, the front battlefield is usually seven to one, eight to one, the jungle more than a dozen to one are often things.
Fighting like this, it wouldn’t be long before the British’s superior force ceased to exist. Governor Delphi had tried very hard, and the British soldiers were very desperate.
Unfortunately, the fighting strength of the indigenous army is only so much, in addition to giving away heads, they are just soy sauce on the battlefield.
If the British soldiers weren’t there, they wouldn’t even be able to fight this exchange ratio. It’s not that these soldiers weren’t brave, in fact they were braver than most of the British soldiers.
However, this is not the Cold War era anymore, and bravery is not the same as combat effectiveness. Military discipline was lax, orders fell on deaf ears, and from time to time they let loose their snatch into the air without even looking to see if there was an enemy.
Not only in the 19th century, but even in the 21st century, there are many African armies that fight like this. When the two armies shoot at each other, they don’t even look at the enemy’s position, the muzzle of the gun is lifted up high, and the bullets all fly into the sky.
When charging, they all swarmed together, and there was no formation at all. Now there is no Maxim machine gun, but Gatling Austria is still not short of, against this kind of haphazard charging object is the most suitable.
They do not take their lives seriously, the British commander will be even less concerned about the casualties of this gang of cannon fodder. As soon as the war started, the British took the lives of the indigenous cannon fodder and filled them up.
It was more like a child’s play compared to the wars in Europe. So even though the war was fought fiercely, the main casualties were provided by these cannon fodder.
If he wasn’t worried about wasting ammunition and increasing the pressure on logistics, Viscount Fikeni was also prepared to form a cannon fodder unit and send it to the door to fight against the British.
Viscount Fikeni has experience in this kind of thing, when he was cleaning up the indigenous tribes, in order to minimize losses, he formed an indigenous army to go up and fight.
These people are not soft when it comes to killing their own people. Viscount Fikeni can be sure that the Africans who died in the hands of the colonizers, absolutely not dead in the hands of their own one-fifth, or even less than one-tenth.
After all, labor is also money, the colonists still value their wallets, only these indigenous armies won’t care. By the time the battle was over, these indigenous armies were pretty much depleted.
Even so, Viscount Fikeni still formed an army of indigenous cold warriors. Every time there was a physical fight, they were sent up.
If you find that in the Anglo-Boer War, two black troops are fighting in a firefight, and there are two white armies watching from the rear, don’t feel strange, this is all normal operation.
This was a tacit understanding between the two sides, and the British also wanted to even out the casualty ratios between the two sides through this kind of fighting, lest the numbers not look good.
Viscount Fickney also didn’t want to end the war immediately, just driving the British out of the Boer Republic wasn’t enough to satisfy his appetite, he now had his eyes on British South Africa.
This small victory of knuckle-dragging was not enough to make the British concede, leaving them with the hope of victory for the war to continue.
The time for a decisive battle would come when the battlefield had been pushed into the hinterland of British South Africa. At that time this Boer Republican recruits also became veterans, and in one fell swoop they exploded to directly occupy Cape Town, creating an established fact.
At that point, it was time for the foreign ministries of the two countries to engage in tug-of-war. Regardless of the final outcome of the negotiations, they had their military credit in hand. On this issue, all the nobles participating in this war had an unprecedentedly consistent stance.
Since the opening of this new type of battle mode, the exchange ratios of both sides were rapidly approaching. From a superb figure of seven to one and eight to one, it quickly narrowed down to within two to one, and occasionally, it could still be countered.
Anyway, the deaths were not of their own people, and neither side was under any pressure.
Whether it was Governor Delphi, or Viscount Fikeni, the battle reports they sent up would not have the casualties of the indigenous army, and even the establishment of this army could be passed over.
In just a few months, the total casualties of the Anglo-Boer War were more than 100,000, if they were all white soldiers, no matter who could not stand it.
Now this way everyone is good to deliver, suffered a defeat does not matter, just catch a cannon fodder troops hard to beat, enough heads can write a war report.
Spring and Autumn brush strokes, a great defeat can be turned into a draw. The reason for the retreat was a strategic shift, lest the enemy be left with an opportunity to take advantage of the situation.
That’s how Governor Delphi’s war report was written. On one side, there was constant news of victory, and on the other side, he was constantly asking for reinforcements from home. There’s nothing wrong with that. Just find an excuse, for example: the enemy has increased their troops.
This is the African continent, the parliamentary lords can not personally visit the front line to see. London government that are their own people, if the front line lost the war, the cabinet is also to be questioned by the parliament.
A stout, smiling young officer ran over and reported to Viscount Fikeni, “General, the casualties have been counted out, 76 of our troops were killed in action, 84 were wounded; more than 3,000 enemy troops were defeated, 156 were annihilated and 98 captured.”
This data was automatically filtered for the casualties of the indigenous armies on both sides, even if it was recorded, it would not serve any purpose, that thing would not be recognized by the Vienna government.
The white soldiers that were killed off were military merit, and the indigenous army that was annihilated could only be considered a hitchhiker, and the conversion could only be considered one hundred to one.
On this data, but also after subtracting the casualties of their own fodder troops, the last is nothing.
This is not the Vienna government harsh, but the reality needs. If there is no such restriction, within a year this group of nobles are able to create millions of people out of the war, and then it is the marshal flying all over the sky, dukes everywhere.
What’s the matter with modesty, it doesn’t exist at all! Even if they turned all the local natives into military achievements, these colonizers would be able to do the same.
With this constraint, it’s different. If someone really relies on the natives to brush their military achievements, they will have to kill at least a few hundred thousand of them before they can be knighted, which is basically impossible to do with a colonial team of a few hundred people.
There’s no way to suck at swiping war records, it doesn’t matter. In addition to battle results, captured loot and seized land can all be converted into battle merit.
Most of the nobles were ennobled by opening up the borders and expanding the land, and naturally the loot was privately swallowed, after all, it was too expensive to exchange it for military honors.
This was legal, all captures during colonization activities could be disposed of on their own, either by exchanging them to the government for military merits or by dividing them up amongst themselves.
Because of this, this South African war has become sought after, after all, this time it is a real war record, not only can you be knighted, but your rank can also be promoted.
Don’t look at the rank is useless, in fact in the German region this is a symbol of honor, especially the real sword to kill out, the most respected.
Even a civilian who rose to prominence by his war service would be equally respected by everyone. On the contrary, the kind of nobles who had no military achievements would be despised by the old nobles.
As the war progressed, there was another batch of nobles who reported to Viscount Fikni’s men. There were those who participated in their personal name, those who led their family’s private army, and there were even armed forces under the colonization company that joined. If the war continued, this number would continue to increase.
If it wasn’t for these people, this newborn “Boer Republican Army” would have to wait for an unknown period of time if it wanted to form a fighting force.
After all, soldiers can be trained in a few months, but officers are not easy to train. A troop without a qualified officer in command will have very limited combat power.
The result of this battle, not out of Viscount Fikeni’s expectations, the British is still so slippery, take the cannon fodder troops behind the rear, he first to run away.
The spirited order: “Got it. Passed down the order, each unit first settled the wounded, the army rested for a day, and then continue to move forward.”
The young officer replied, “Yes, general!”
Viscount Fikeni frowned slightly and said calmly, “Don’t call me general, right now I’m just a colonel, spreading the word will make people laugh.”
There was no way around it, despite commanding tens of thousands of troops in battle, his rank was still colonel. Even if he was to be promoted, it would have to wait until after he returned to Vienna after the war.
Until then, he could only command the entire army as a colonel. This was the rule, if he called himself a general beforehand, he would be ridiculed for being uneducated and not knowing the rules.
Viscount Fikeni is also a nobleman, although only a small nobleman, but that is also inherited for hundreds of years of noble families, barely called the old nobility.
Viscount Fikeni has always attached great importance to the rules, especially when it comes to the family’s reputation, that is not at all sloppy.
……
(End of chapter)