Chapter 323: Encounter

The smoothness of Spain's offensive against the Sokoto Caliphate was something Spain itself had not anticipated.

Spain was quite cautious and placed great importance on this large African power, which was 1, 00 kilometers wide and nearly 1, 00 kilometers long from north to south.

Among all of Spain's colonial wars, there had never been a conflict that required Spain to mobilize an army of over 80, 00 men.

Although these 80, 00 men were colonial troops, it was undeniable that they were a modernized force equipped with standard-issue rifles.

While they could not compare to the combat effectiveness of the regular armies of European nations, among the colonial troops, auxiliary forces, and the regular armies of other non-European countries, their combat effectiveness was, if not the best, at least among the top tier.

Originally, the Spanish side—including Gao Da, who planned this war; the Minister of Colonial Affairs, Ma Deli; the Minister of Defense, Yu Kaluo; and the Commander-in-Chief of the Congo Territory Garrison, Xiang Kaluo—all unanimously believed that this war would last for several months or even over a year.

They expected the Spanish army to encounter fierce resistance from the Sokoto Caliphate, and that even the colonial troops would suffer significant casualties.

This was the reason Spain had spent several months preparing for this war. What was unexpected was that Spain's thorough preparations seemed somewhat redundant.

Within a few days of the war breaking out, the Spanish Western Army had successfully gained control of the Oyo, Ijebu, and Iwo kingdoms.

These three states provided Spain with tens of thousands of troops, allowing the Spanish Western Army to successfully exceed 100, 00 men.

Although the role of the troops provided by these indigenous states was merely to serve as cannon fodder, having tens of thousands of them for the Sokoto Caliphate's army to kill would still take them several days, wouldn't it?

The opponent was not an army like Spain's, equipped with a large number of advanced weapons; most of their soldiers were still using cold weapons, and only a small number of elite troops, or rather the Sokoto Caliph's Imperial Guard, could use firearms.

It was true that the Sokoto Caliphate possessed firearms, but their technology was far behind that of European nations.

This resulted in the fact that even though Spain had been waging war for several days, the Sokoto Caliphate's capital, Oyo-Ibogho, located over a hundred kilometers from the Spanish colony, had only just received the news.

Clearly, by the time the Sokoto Caliph received the news, it was already too late. The reason was simple: the northern border of the Oyo state was less than sixty kilometers away from Oyo-Ibogho.

By the time the Sokoto Caliph received the news and began to conscript troops from the various states of the country, the Spanish army was already about to reach the capital, Oyo-Ibogho.

Without reinforcements from the various state armies, the Sokoto Caliph's direct forces actually numbered only a few tens of thousands.

More than half of these tens of thousands used cold weapons, and only the Imperial Guard, numbering less than 8, 00, used firearms—and those were of various styles, clearly a "United Nations" collection of weaponry.

Come to think of it, if one looked closely, one could even see Spanish-made weapons in the hands of these natives.

Of course, the Spanish weapons they could obtain were not the previous generation's standard-issue Vitali M1872 rifle, but even older muzzle-loading guns.

Because of the delayed reaction, by the time the two armies met, the Spanish army was less than ten kilometers away from the Sokoto Caliphate's capital, Oyo-Ibogho.

This distance was quite fatal; the Sokoto Caliphate's army had absolutely no room to retreat, and they had to hold their positions at all costs, otherwise the capital would be captured by Spain.

What was even more dire was that although the Sokoto Caliph had assembled tens of thousands of troops in a short time, he clearly had no time to construct defensive positions.

Then again, these natives were clearly not proficient in the warfare of firearms, which also led to their lack of understanding regarding digging trenches and such.

The consequence of this was that the Spanish army faced an indigenous force with no defensive positions. Tens of thousands of indigenous soldiers were lined up; although the scene looked quite spectacular, Xiang Kaluo, the Commander-in-Chief of the Congo Territory Garrison who led the Western Army, was already beaming with joy.

Why was he beaming? To deal with the Sokoto Caliphate's massive manpower, Spain would be deploying powerful weapons like machine guns in this war.

To end the war in Africa as soon as possible, Gao Da had even waved his hand and equipped Xiang Kaluo's army with dozens of the latest machine guns just modified by Maxim.

The latest machine guns were based on the original design but fully utilized machine gun cartridges made with smokeless powder. This not only solved the problem of poor visibility caused by the original machine guns but also significantly increased the firing range and bullet lethality.

With dozens of such powerful machine guns, let alone the tens of thousands of natives in front of him, even if the number of indigenous soldiers increased to 100, 00, Xiang Kaluo was confident he could rout them in one battle.

He had personally come into contact with such powerful weapons as machine guns, so he naturally understood how devastating they were to soldiers.

Especially for African natives, whose bunched-up formations were simply the best targets for machine guns to aim at. A single burst would see dozens of natives fall, and given the current power of the machine guns, even if these fallen natives were lucky enough not to be hit in vital organs, they would basically not survive.

The moment the two armies encountered each other, the tens of thousands of indigenous troops immediately launched a charge toward the Spanish army.

Because there was no room to retreat, the Sokoto Caliphate side could only attempt to take advantage of the Spanish army before they were firmly established, hoping to quickly break through the Spanish formation to gain an advantage.

Watching the vast sea of natives rapidly approaching his side, Xiang Kaluo could not suppress the corners of his mouth, and with a smile, he issued his order: "Deploy all machine guns to the front line for me; I want these natives to taste the power of the machine guns."

"Artillery should also be ready; once these natives get close to our machine gun positions, drive them back. I don't want anything to happen to these precious things; they are the army's great treasures, and even the Imperial Guard hasn't been equipped with many of them yet."

"Have those indigenous troops get ready; once the Sokoto Caliphate's army is routed, it will be their chance to pursue the victory."

"Tell the officers of those indigenous troops that if they can perform meritorious service, I will personally send a telegram to the homeland to request a reward from His Majesty the King for them."

"But if anyone dares to fear the battle and hold back, don't blame me for being impolite. The battle-supervision squads must keep a close eye on these natives; if anyone fears the battle and tries to desert, shoot them on the spot!"

"Yes, Commander!"

At this moment, Xiang Kaluo was in high spirits. Because Spain's expansion in Africa was going quite smoothly, he had become a hot new star in the Spanish military.

Unlike Kaman, who had been steadily rising through the ranks within Spain, Xiang Kaluo seemed to have the momentum to overtake him.

Not long ago, Gao Da had commended Xiang Kaluo's merits and promised that after the African war ended, he would personally confer honors and titles upon Xiang Kaluo in Spain.

Xiang Kaluo himself already held the title of Baron; if he could advance further in rank, he could at least become a Count of Spain.

Although a Count was not considered a great noble in Spain, for Xiang Kaluo, who was originally just an ordinary graduate of the Royal Military Academy of Turin in Italy, everything he had achieved so far was already quite precious.

Because it concerned his own future, Xiang Kaluo also attached great importance to this war. He had almost brought out everything he had learned in his life, all to end this war as soon as possible and expand the results as much as possible.

Following Xiang Kaluo's instructions, the Spanish army also began to move.

Gao Da had not only given Xiang Kaluo dozens of machine guns but also machine gunners who had been secretly trained in the use of machine guns within Spain.

The reason for sending a large number of machine gunners to Africa was that Gao Da was worried that the soldiers of these colonial troops would not be familiar with the use of machine guns.

Current machine guns were weapons of mass destruction, and Gao Da did not want information related to them to be leaked to the natives or other European countries.

How to prevent leaks? The best way was to ensure the complete victory of the war and ensure that the enemy could not capture Spain's weapons.

Compared to colonial soldiers, the machine gunners sent by Gao Da from the homeland had higher loyalty. Because they were already undergoing training related to machine guns, they naturally could not leak data related to them.

Because these colonial soldiers had never been in contact with machine guns, at most they could only leak the news that Spain had a type of firearm with more powerful firepower.

Without the Maxim, such secrecy could also delay the time it took for European countries to obtain machine guns. Their time to obtain machine guns would be later than Spain's, and the climbing of their technology tree related to machine guns would naturally be behind Spain's.

If nothing else, Spain's existing smokeless powder machine guns, including the principles of water-cooled and air-cooled types, would be enough for European countries to study for several years.

Historically, the Maxim machine gun was no different from open-source, and European countries all developed their own machine guns based on the Maxim machine gun.

But now, because of the high level of secrecy within Spain, European countries could not use the Maxim machine gun as a reference to develop their own, and the progress related to machine guns was naturally very slow.

This was basically the limit of blocking information. Although Spain had been trying its best to keep it secret, European countries still had some progress in the research and development of machine guns.

It was impossible to keep it completely secret and prevent European countries from obtaining machine guns; after all, even without a Maxim, there would be a "Niukeqin" or "Niumaxim," as new firearms experts would develop new machine guns similar to the Maxim.

Seeing the natives getting closer and closer, Xiang Kaluo could not help but feel a little anxious. The deployment of the machine guns on the Spanish side still needed a few minutes, and before the deployment was completed, these indigenous soldiers could not be allowed to get too close to the machine gun positions.

"Colonial 1st Division, get up there and hold back the natives' advance. I hope that within five minutes, these natives will not be able to get close to our machine gun positions."

"Once our machine gun and artillery positions are deployed, the Colonial 1st Division will then withdraw in an orderly manner." Xiang Kaluo immediately issued his order, changing his original deployment.

Under Xiang Kaluo's order, the Colonial 1st Division marched toward the front line in a grand manner.

As the first colonial division established by Spain, the Colonial 1st Division had the highest level of training, and its comprehensive combat effectiveness was the best among Spain's three colonial divisions.

Letting the Colonial 1st Division resist the indigenous army's attack, let alone holding them for five minutes, would not be a problem for five hours or even five days.

Of course, as time dragged on, the Colonial 1st Division would certainly face more casualties.

But at this moment, because the machine gun and artillery positions had not been deployed, they had to let the troops hold the line first.

One couldn't let the enemy rush into the machine gun and artillery positions; by then, let alone letting these natives taste the power of the machine guns, the machine guns and artillery would likely be destroyed by the natives at the first opportunity.

Although these natives did not know what kind of weapon a machine gun was, for this type of firearm that looked somewhat similar to a rifle, they certainly would not leave it for the Spanish army.

As long as they could rush into the Spanish machine gun and artillery positions, these indigenous soldiers would certainly destroy these machine guns and artillery at the first opportunity.

These machine guns and artillery were great treasures for the colonial troops. If it weren't for the need to attack the Sokoto Caliphate's army this time, Xiang Kaluo's Congo Territory army would never have been able to obtain so many machine guns.

Clearly, machine guns damaged in the war would not be replenished in a short time. After all, these newly improved machine guns also needed to be equipped on a large scale in the Spanish homeland army, and the equipment priority of the homeland army was much higher than that of the colonial troops.

By the time it was the colonial troops' turn, it was unknown how many years it would take.

This was just like Spain's current latest standard-issue rifle, the Maxim M1884 rifle.

Although the Maxim M1884 rifle had been born for some time, it had only achieved full equipment in the Spanish homeland so far.

None of the colonial troops were equipped with the Maxim M1884 rifle, and they would basically not be equipped with it in the next few years.

The reason was also simple. First, fully re-equipping so many colonial troops with the latest rifles was a huge cost. After all, the colonial troops were composed of natives, and Spaniards only served as officers; there was no need to equip them with so many new rifles.

In addition, the new rifles not only increased the firing range and power but also increased the rate of fire. If the colonial troops were fully equipped with the Maxim M1884 rifle, the logistics of ammunition supply would be a quite difficult problem.

Among the many Spanish colonies at present, only the Philippines possessed small military factories that could independently produce weapons and ammunition.

The reason the Philippines had small military factories was simple: it was mainly because the Philippines was too far from the Spanish homeland, and the cost of transporting weapons and equipment from the homeland to the Philippines was too high.

Even so, the small military factories possessed by the Philippines could only produce the already outdated Vitali M1872 rifle, and the output was also very small, so there was no need to worry about the problems faced after the military factories were occupied by the enemy.

The main purpose of this small military factory was to produce ammunition for the colonial troops in the Philippines, and the production of firearms was only incidental.

Besides the Philippines, currently only the Guinea colony possessed small military industries, which also could only produce ammunition.

If the colonial troops were to be fully re-equipped with the latest rifles, it would mean that these small military factories would also need to change their production lines.

The cost brought about by doing so was too huge, and it was an unnecessary expenditure for both the Spanish government and the various colonial governments.

Unless the finances of the various colonies were already quite wealthy, only then would Spain consider equipping all colonial troops with the latest rifles.

(End of chapter)