Chapter 307: Intent to Retreat

Thousands upon thousands of Bam soldiers charged down from the mountains, their eyes fixed on the already routed Spanish army.

Upon seeing the natives charging down from the mountains, the Spanish soldiers retreated even faster. Many soldiers threw away their armor and weapons, losing their hats and dropping the rifles they held.

In an instant, at least a thousand rifles lay abandoned on the battlefield.

The Sultan of Bam would never let such a good opportunity pass; he immediately ordered his soldiers to sweep the battlefield and collect all the weapons and equipment abandoned by the Spanish.

Without a doubt, the rifles equipped by the Spanish army were certainly more advanced than those of the Bam army. Once these rifles were all issued to his troops, the Sultan of Bam would have greater confidence in resisting the Spanish offensive.

Following the Sultan of Bam's order, the native soldiers were in no hurry to pursue the Spanish army, instead beginning to collect the scattered rifles on the battlefield.

Shoes, hats, rifles, bullets—the items left behind by the Spanish soldiers on the battlefield were a motley assortment. The panic of the Spanish army during their retreat was evident from these abandoned items, which further reassured the Sultan of Bam.

Judging by the current situation, the rout of the Spanish army was absolutely genuine. Although it was unclear why the well-equipped Spanish army had collapsed so quickly, it was, in any case, a good thing for the Bam Kingdom.

Before the Sultan of Bam could rejoice for long, the situation on the battlefield suddenly took a new turn.

Boom! Boom, boom!

First, the Spanish army's artillery began firing incessantly at the Bam army, throwing the Bam soldiers who were sweeping the battlefield into a panic as they scrambled to find cover to protect themselves.

Under the suppression of the artillery fire, these natives hid in their cover, not daring to show their heads, which created an opportunity for the Spanish army's advance.

In the terrified gaze of the Sultan of Bam, a continuous stream of Spanish soldiers surged out, advancing steadily toward the chaotic Bam army.

The Bam army, suppressed by the artillery fire, was unable to react. In order to collect rifles, these natives had dispersed quite far; some had not even realized that the Spanish army had launched an attack.

Suddenly, the natives were surprised to find that the Spanish artillery had ceased firing.

Before they could even catch their breath, they heard a continuous series of gunshots.

Bang! Bang, bang!

Only after their comrades fell one by one did this group of natives react, hurriedly picking up their rifles to return fire.

But they forgot one thing: the massive difference between muzzle-loading and breech-loading rifles.

Although the Bam army was also equipped with a large number of rifles, the vast majority were muzzle-loaders, with a negligible proportion of breech-loaders.

The reason for this was simple. First, European countries had not been equipping breech-loaders for very long; they were a product of the last ten years.

Secondly, the entities selling weapons to these native states were not official military factories, but private trading companies and other factions.

These people likely could not obtain large quantities of breech-loaders, but there were plenty of muzzle-loaders that were already obsolete and being gradually phased out by various national armies; this was the reason these African natives could be equipped with muzzle-loaders in such large numbers.

Because muzzle-loaders were equipment already discarded by national armies, private trading companies only needed to spend a small cost to purchase a large batch of rifles and ammunition.

Once these rifles were shipped to Africa, they were actually worth more than new guns, as these natives had no capability to produce rifles themselves.

Through this back-and-forth, the trading companies could make a large profit just from the price difference. Not to mention that they would also obtain large quantities of ivory and palm oil from various native African tribes; these local African products could then be shipped back to Europe and sold for another large profit from the Europeans.

If this had been an era before the abolition of slavery, the main products of these trading companies would have also included black slaves.

Unfortunately, after European and American countries abolished slavery, the slave trade lost its largest market, and black slaves were no longer the primary product for trading companies.

However, in the vast reaches of Africa and other colonies, human trafficking similar to the slave trade still existed.

After all, not all colonies possessed a sufficient population, and even if there were local people, the cost of labor was definitely higher than that of these black laborers, who could be considered free.

Why were black slaves popular in the Americas? The reason was precisely that these black slaves were not treated as human beings. Never mind income generated from labor; even their three daily meals could not be guaranteed.

Slave owners could earn income through the relentless exploitation of black slaves, and the money earned could be used to purchase new slaves, with no need to worry about this low-cost labor force dwindling.

There is a relatively interesting rumor. It is said that an important reason why black people in the later United States were physically well-developed was that the black slaves sold to the Americas at the time had been carefully selected by slave traders, and their bodies were quite robust.

Those with weaker bodies, even if they could pass the slave traders' selection, might not survive the long sea voyage.

Before the birth of ironclads, the transoceanic voyages of European countries relied on sailing warships, meaning they used wind as their power.

This greatly increased the time required to travel from Africa to the Americas. In the era of the slave trade, it took at least a month and a half to two months to transport these black slaves to the Americas.

If one were unlucky enough to encounter bad weather, the time required would be extended to over three months.

Moreover, ocean voyages at this time faced many dangers, so the physical fitness of the black slaves who could survive to reach the Americas was certainly commendable.

Back to the situation on the battlefield.

Although the Bam army had picked up thousands of standard-issue rifles from the Spanish army, because very few natives knew how to use breech-loaders, these thousands of rifles were almost useless.

Even for those who knew how to use breech-loaders, the designs varied between countries, leading to significant differences in operation.

A small number of natives could use the Spanish rifles, but because it was their first time, they were not only inaccurate but also very clumsy when reloading.

Across the battlefield, what these natives faced was a well-prepared Spanish army.

Although the Spanish colonial army was also composed of natives, these natives were carefully trained, and their combat effectiveness was commendable.

Furthermore, these natives were not black; the colonial division was composed of Moroccans, Filipinos, and Lanfang people, with not a single black person in sight.

As the soldiers of both sides began to engage, the significant gap in military proficiency between the two sides quickly became apparent.

On the side of the native soldiers, because they had previously experienced the bombardment, many had not yet recovered. Facing the Spanish army that had quickly charged to their front, half of the natives were still in a daze.

As for the Spanish army, upon confirming that the enemy had entered firing range, the soldiers picked up their rifles and poured their bullets into the enemy without hesitation.

The native soldiers had already been panicked, and after being suppressed by the Spanish army's firepower, many had lost their will to fight.

"Damn it, make them retreat!" The Sultan of Bam, watching all this from the mountainside, had reddened eyes; the number of his elite musket troops was dwindling every second.

If this musket unit could not be preserved, even if the army could retreat safely, it would be impossible to contend with the Spanish army in subsequent operations.

Looking further ahead, even if he could resist the Spanish offensive, he would be unable to ensure the continued existence of his country.

The Bam Kingdom itself was not a large country, and the reason it could exist was precisely because the kingdom possessed a musket army of 5, 00 men.

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

It should be known that the Aro Alliance, like the Bam Kingdom, was also trading with Europeans.

Moreover, the Aro Alliance had a larger population; all the large tribes combined could scrape together a firearm-equipped army of 3, 00 men.

The Sultan of Bam dared not even imagine if his musket army suffered heavy losses, could he still maintain his ruling position?

Even though the Sultan of Bam felt immense regret for his initial decision to launch the attack, he could not change the current situation on the battlefield.

Do not let the Bam Kingdom's 5, 00-strong musket battalion look powerful; in reality, that was only relative to other natives.

The armies of the vast majority of native tribes and countries on this continent suffered from the shortcomings of insufficient training, backward equipment, and questionable combat effectiveness.

Such shortcomings persisted even into later generations, which is the reason why the vast African continent, despite having an extremely large population, never produced a truly powerful nation.

Under the Spanish army's strategy of first suppressing with artillery and then suppressing with frontal assault firepower, these natives on the battlefield were thrown into a panic, not knowing whether to hide to save their lives or heroically pick up their weapons to fight back.

Perhaps they only needed a few minutes to figure it out, but the battlefield would not give them those few minutes to think.

The Spanish army was getting closer and closer to these natives. Under the Spanish army's fire suppression, fewer and fewer native soldiers dared to show their heads; most of the natives huddled in their cover, their spirits nearly broken.

In the end, this battle did not last very long.

Initially, in order to pursue the Spanish army, the Sultan of Bam had dispatched his entire musket battalion plus several thousand troops armed with cold weapons; these nearly ten thousand natives suffered thousands of casualties under the Spanish army's offensive.

Qiaoti had no intention of accepting prisoners of war, because due to limited forces, keeping these prisoners would always be a liability.

Therefore, after the battle on the front lines ended, Qiaoti quickly issued an order to execute the thousands of prisoners.

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

Following Qiaoti's order, the thousands of surrendered black soldiers were quickly killed; they would be buried in a hastily dug pit along with the black soldiers who had died on the battlefield.

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

Whether they were Moroccans, Filipinos, or Lanfang people, or the unfortunately fallen Spanish officers, they would be transported to the Guinea colony and buried in the mausoleums there.

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

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

It was precisely because of this that these native soldiers were not opposed to fighting for Spain. Native soldiers also had salaries; although not comparable to the regular army, it was at least an income.

Moreover, joining the Spanish native army allowed them and their families to obtain residency rights in Spanish colonies, and in the future, they would have priority in obtaining Spanish citizenship; this was the reason they were willing to join the Spanish native army.

After this battle ended, Qiaoti did not summon his soldiers to sweep the battlefield, but instead turned his attention to the movements of the natives.

With the native musket battalion almost completely wiped out, Qiaoti flexibly changed his war plan.

Do not look at the fact that the Bam Kingdom still had nearly 20, 00 troops remaining; these troops basically used cold weapons and could not possibly pose a threat to the Spanish army.

Qiaoti even had reason to believe that even if this 20, 00-strong native army returned to defend Fuban, the three colonial garrison regiments attacking Fuban could defeat these natives with their own powerful firepower.

In the absence of thermal weapons for the natives, the Spanish army, heavily equipped with thermal weapons, would only be in a posture of total crushing when facing the natives.

In the face of a large gap in weaponry, even a human-wave offensive could not change the outcome of the war.

If these natives chose to retreat, Qiaoti would pursue them without hesitation, turning their retreat into a rout.

These natives did not have such high military proficiency; when they discovered that their rear was being attacked by the enemy and that there was a large force of enemies pursuing them from behind, even the calmest person would fall into a panic.

Just as Qiaoti had guessed, after the musket battalion was routed, the natives showed signs of retreating.

The Sultan of Bam was no fool; originally, relying on his 5, 00-strong musket army, he could have put up a fight against the Spanish army.

Even if he could not drive back the Spanish, there would have been no problem with conducting a defense.

With the total destruction of this musket-equipped army, the Sultan of Bam's hope of holding his position was shattered.

Continuing to hold here was useless; it would be better to retreat a certain distance and rely on the capital, Fuban, to conduct a defense.

The Sultan of Bam still had a stock of several hundred muskets in Fuban; equipping the army with these muskets would be enough to barely conduct a defense.

At worst, after reorganizing the army, he could take his people and flee into the deep mountains further north; as long as they fled there, the Spanish would never find them.

Of course, if they fled into the deep mountains, how to feed this population would also be a problem. However, the Sultan of Bam had no better options at the moment; he had to retreat first to preserve his army before he could make other plans.

(End of chapter)