Chapter 307: Intent to Retreat

Thousands of Bam soldiers rushed down from the mountain, and in front of them was the already collapsed Spanish army.

After seeing the indigenous people rushing down from the mountain, the Spanish soldiers retreated even faster. Many soldiers threw away their helmets and armor one after another, their hats were lost, and the rifles in their hands were gone.

For a time, at least a thousand rifles were abandoned on the battlefield.

How could the Bam Sultan let go of such a good thing, and immediately ordered the soldiers to clean up the battlefield and collect all the weapons and equipment abandoned by the Spanish.

No need to think, the rifles equipped by the Spanish army must be more advanced than the rifles equipped by the Bam army. After equipping these rifles to the troops, the Bam Sultan had greater confidence that he could resist the Spanish attack.

With the Bam Sultan's order, the indigenous soldiers did not rush to chase the Spanish army, but began to collect the scattered rifles on the battlefield.

Shoes, hats, rifles, bullets, the things left behind by Spanish soldiers on the battlefield were all-encompassing. From these abandoned things, one could also see the panicked mood of the Spanish army when retreating, which also made the Bam Sultan more at ease.

Judging from the current situation, the collapse of the Spanish army was absolutely real. Although it was unclear why the well-equipped Spanish army collapsed so quickly, this was anyway a good thing for the Bam Kingdom.

Before the Bam Sultan was happy for long, the situation on the battlefield suddenly had new changes.

Boom! Boom boom!

First, the Spanish army's cannons fired at the Bam army continuously, making those indigenous soldiers cleaning the battlefield panic, looking for cover that could protect themselves in a panic.

Under the suppression of artillery fire, these indigenous people hid in the cover and did not dare to show their heads at all, which also created an opportunity for the Spanish army's attack.

In the Bam Sultan's terrified eyes, a steady stream of Spanish soldiers killed their way out, constantly advancing toward the chaotic Bam army.

The Bam army suppressed by artillery fire could not react at all. To collect rifles, these indigenous people were relatively scattered, and some indigenous people had not even discovered that the Spanish army had launched an attack until now.

Suddenly, the indigenous people were surprised to find that the Spanish cannons stopped firing.

Before they could catch their breath, they heard continuous gunshots again.

Bang! Bang bang!

After the companions beside them fell one after another, this group of indigenous people reacted, hurriedly picking up the rifles in their hands to counterattack.

It was just that they forgot one thing, which was the huge difference between muzzle-loading guns and breech-loading guns.

Although the Bam army was also equipped with a large number of rifles, most of them were muzzle-loading guns, and the proportion of breech-loading guns was negligible.

The reason was also very simple. First, the time for European countries to equip breech-loading guns was not long; breech-loading guns were products produced in the last ten years.

Secondly, the ones selling weapons to these indigenous countries were not regular military factories, but private trade companies and other forces.

These people probably could not get large-scale breech-loading guns; instead, muzzle-loading guns that had been backward and gradually eliminated by the armies of various countries had a lot, which was the reason why these African indigenous people could be equipped with a large number of muzzle-loading guns.

Because muzzle-loading guns were already equipment eliminated by the armies of various countries, private trade companies only needed to pay a small price to purchase a large batch of rifles and bullets.

These rifles were even more valuable than new guns after being transported to Africa; after all, these indigenous people had no ability to produce rifles at all.

Going back and forth, the trade company could earn a fortune just by earning the price difference. Not to mention they would also obtain a large amount of ivory and palm oil from various indigenous tribes in Africa; these local products in Africa were transported back to Europe, and they could earn a fortune from the hands of Europeans again.

If it were in the era when the slave system had not been abolished, the main products of these trade companies would also include black slaves.

It was a pity that after European and American countries abolished the slave system, the slave trade had already lost the biggest market, and black slaves were no longer the main products of trade companies.

However, in the vast Africa and other colonies, there would still be human trafficking similar to the slave trade.

After all, not all colonies possessed sufficient population, and even if there was population locally, the labor cost was definitely higher than these black laborers who could be called free.

Why were black slaves popular in the Americas? The reason was that these black slaves were not treated as people. Let alone the income generated by labor, even three meals a day could not be guaranteed.

Slave owners could earn income by constantly squeezing black slaves, and the money earned could be used to purchase new slaves, without worrying at all that this low-priced labor would become less and less.

There was a relatively interesting rumor. It was said that the reason why black people in the United States in later generations had developed limbs was that the black slaves sold to the Americas at that time were carefully selected by slave traders, and their bodies were quite strong.

Those with worse bodies, even if they could pass the slave trader's selection, might not be able to survive the long sea journey.

Before the birth of ironclad ships, the voyages of European countries across the ocean were all relying on sailing warships, which was using wind as power.

This also greatly increased the time required for Africa to travel to the Americas. In the era of slave trade, if they wanted to transport these black slaves to the Americas, it would take at least one and a half months to two months.

If they were unlucky and encountered relatively bad weather, the time required would be extended to more than three months.

And at this time, long-distance navigation needed to face many dangers; the black slaves who could reach the Americas alive, their physical quality was still worth affirming.

Back to the situation on the battlefield.

Although the Bam army picked up thousands of standard rifles equipped by the Spanish army, because very few people in the indigenous people knew how to use breech-loading guns, it made these thousands of rifles almost unable to exert any effect.

Even if there were a small number of indigenous people who could use Spanish rifles, because the designs of breech-loading guns of various countries were different, using them also had quite large differences.

A small number of indigenous people could use Spanish rifles, but because it was the first time to use them, not only was the shooting inaccurate, but the loading was also very raw.

On the opposite side of the battlefield, what this group of indigenous people faced was the Spanish army that had already made preparations.

Although the Spanish colonial army was also composed of indigenous people, these indigenous people were carefully trained, and their combat effectiveness was still worth affirming.

And these indigenous people were not black people; the colonial division was composed of Moroccans, Filipinos, and Lanfang people, and one could not see a trace of black people at all.

As the soldiers of both sides began to fight, the military literacy gap between the two sides was soon reflected.

On the indigenous soldier side, because they had experienced bombing earlier, many people had not reacted yet. Facing the Spanish army that soon rushed to the front, half of the indigenous people were still in a state of being stunned.

And on the Spanish army side, after confirming that the enemy had entered the shooting range, the soldiers picked up the rifles in their hands one after another and poured their bullets toward the enemy without hesitation.

Originally, the soldiers on the indigenous side had already panicked, and then being suppressed by the Spanish army's firepower, many indigenous people had already lost their fighting spirit.

"Damn it, let them retreat quickly." The Bam Sultan, who was watching all this on the hillside, had red eyes at this time; the number of his elite firearm army was decreasing every second.

If this firearm troop could not be preserved, even if the army could retreat safely, it would be impossible to compete with the Spanish army in subsequent operations.

Even going further, even if he could resist the Spanish army's attack, he could not let his country continue to exist.

The Bam Kingdom itself was a country with a small scale, and the reason it could exist was precisely because the kingdom possessed a firearm army as high as 5,000 people.

Without thermal weapons, let alone the well-equipped Spanish army, even the army of the Aro Alliance next door could not resist.

One had to know that the Aro Alliance and the Bam Kingdom were also trading with Europeans.

And the Aro Alliance had a larger population; all large tribes gathered together, and they could also gather a firearm army with a number as high as 3,000 people.

The Bam Sultan could not imagine, if his firearm army suffered heavy losses, could he still preserve his ruling status?

Even though the Bam Sultan was incomparably remorseful for his decision to launch the attack, he could not change the current situation of the battlefield.

Don't look at the 5,000-strong firearm camp of the Bam Kingdom looking powerful; in fact, that was only relative to other indigenous people.

The vast majority of indigenous tribes and countries on this continent had the shortcomings of insufficient training, backward equipment, and worrying combat effectiveness.

Such shortcomings still existed in later generations, which was also the reason why the vast African continent possessed an extremely large population but did not appear as a powerful country in the true sense.

Under the strategy of the Spanish army first suppressing with artillery fire and then frontally charging with firepower, this group of indigenous people on the battlefield panicked for a time, not knowing whether they should hide to save their lives or bravely pick up the weapons in their hands to counterattack.

Maybe they only needed a few minutes to figure it out, but the battlefield would not give them these few minutes of thinking time.

The Spanish army was getting closer and closer to these indigenous people; under the suppression of the Spanish army's firepower, the indigenous soldiers who dared to show their heads were getting fewer and fewer, and most of the indigenous people huddled under the cover, their mood already close to collapse.

Eventually, this war did not last long.

When launching the attack to chase the Spanish army, the Bam Sultan sent the entire firearm camp plus several thousand troops holding cold weapons; these nearly 10,000 indigenous people died and were injured by thousands under the Spanish army's attack.

Qiao Di did not have the idea of receiving prisoners of war here; because the troop strength was limited, keeping these prisoners of war would always be a disaster.

Therefore, after the war on the frontal battlefield ended, Qiao Di soon issued the order to execute thousands of prisoners of war.

Because the soldiers of the colonial army were all white or yellow people, they had no psychological burden for killing these surrendered black people.

With Qiao Di's order, thousands of surrendered black soldiers were also soon killed; they would be buried in a pit with the black soldiers who died in the frontal battlefield.

As for the dead Spanish soldiers, they would receive better treatment.

Whether it was Moroccans, Filipinos, or Lanfang people, or Spanish officers who unfortunately died in battle, they would all be transported to the Guinea colony and buried in the mausoleum there.

Spanish officers would receive a certain pension, and the families of the fallen officers would also receive certain preferential treatment and compensation.

As for those ordinary soldiers, they did not have much pension after dying in battle, but their families could also receive some compensation, such as land or other assets.

Precisely because of this, these indigenous soldiers were not repulsive to fighting for Spain. Indigenous soldiers also had salaries; although they could not compare with regular armies, it was at least an income.

And joining the Spanish colonial army could let themselves and their families obtain the right of residence in the Spanish colony, and they would also prioritize joining Spanish nationality in the future, which was the reason why they were willing to join the Spanish colonial army.

After this battle ended, Qiao Di did not gather the order for soldiers to clean up the battlefield, but instead paid attention to the movement on the indigenous side.

With the firearm camp of the indigenous people almost completely wiped out, Qiao Di also flexibly changed his war plan.

Don't look at the Bam Kingdom still having nearly 20,000 troops, but these troops basically used cold weapons and could not pose a threat to the Spanish army at all.

Even Qiao Di had reason to believe that even if this 20,000-strong indigenous army returned to defend Fuban, the three colonial garrison regiments attacking Fuban could also rely on their powerful firepower to defeat these indigenous people.

In the face of a large weapon gap, even the human sea offensive could not change the outcome of the war.

If these indigenous people chose to retreat, Qiao Di would not hesitate to chase these indigenous people, letting them turn from retreat to collapse.

These indigenous people did not have such high military literacy; when they found that the rear was attacked by the enemy and there was a large piece of enemy chasing them behind, even the calmest people would fall into panic.

As Qiao Di guessed, after the firearm camp collapsed, the indigenous people had an attitude of retreat.

The Bam Sultan was not stupid either; originally relying on the 5,000-strong firearm army, he could still fight with the Spanish army.

Even if he could not beat back the Spanish, defense was also no problem.

With this army equipped with firearms completely wiped out, the Bam Sultan's hope of holding the position also vanished.

Continuing to stay here had no effect; it was better to retreat a distance and rely on the capital Fuban for defense.

The Bam Sultan still had a stock of hundreds of firearms in Fuban; equipping these firearms to the army, barely carrying out defense was no problem.

At worst, after reorganizing the army, he would take his clansmen to flee to the deep mountains further north; as long as he fled there, the Spanish would definitely not be able to find them.

Of course, if he fled to the deep mountains, what to feed these populations was also a problem. However, the Bam Sultan had no good choice in front of him; first retreat to preserve his army, and then he could make other plans.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 308 =====

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