Chapter 323

The smoothness of Spain's attack on the Sokoto Caliphate was something Spain itself had not expected.

For this African great country that was 1,600 kilometers wide from east to west and nearly 1,000 kilometers long from north to south, Spain was quite cautious and attached great importance to it.

Among all of Spain's colonial wars, there had never been a war that allowed Spain to dispatch an army of over 80,000 people.

Although these 80,000 people were colonial troops, it could not be denied that these were all modernized troops equipped with standard rifles.

Although they could not compare with the combat effectiveness of the regular armies of various European countries, among the colonial troops, auxiliary troops, and other non-European countries' regular armies of various European countries, the combat effectiveness was not said to be one of the best, at least it was also in the forefront.

Originally, on the Spanish side, Carlos, who planned this war, Colonial Affairs Minister William, Defense Minister Evan, and Congo territory garrison commander Andrew all unanimously believed that this war would last for several months or even more than a year.

The Spanish army would encounter strong resistance from the Sokoto Caliphate, and even the colonial troops would have significant casualties.

This was also the reason why Spain prepared for this war for several months. What was unexpected was that Spain's sufficient preparation seemed a bit redundant.

In the few days since the war started, Spain's western army successfully obtained control of the Oyo, Ijebu, and Iwo kingdoms.

These three states provided Spain with a force of tens of thousands of troops, and also allowed Spain's western army to successfully break through 100,000 people.

Although the troops provided by these indigenous states only acted as cannon fodder, letting several tens of thousands of cannon fodder be killed by the Sokoto Caliphate's army, they would have to kill for several days.

The other side was not an army like Spain 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 the Sokoto Caliph's Imperial Guard, could use thermal weapons.

The Sokoto Caliphate did possess thermal weapons, but their technology was far behind European countries.

This also led to the fact that Spain had launched the war for several days, and the capital of the Sokoto Caliphate, Oyo-Iboho, which was more than 100 kilometers away from the Spanish colony, only received the news at this time.

It was very clear that it was already late for the Sokoto Caliph to receive the news at this time. The reason was also very simple, which was that the northern border of the Oyo state was less than 60 kilometers away from Oyo-Iboho.

By the time the Sokoto Caliph received the news and conscripted the armies of various states in the country, the Spanish army had almost fought to the capital Oyo-Iboho.

Without the reinforcements of the armies of various states, the direct army of the Sokoto Caliph was actually only a few tens of thousands of people.

More than half of these tens of thousands of people used cold weapons, and only the Imperial Guard with a population of less than 8,000 people used thermal weapons, and they were still the kind of thermal weapons of various styles, which looked like "ten thousand countries made."

And it must be said, if one looked carefully, one could actually see Spanish-made weapons in the hands of these indigenous people.

Of course, the Spanish weapons they could get were not the previous generation standard rifle, the Vitali M1872 rifle, but earlier muzzle-loading guns.

Because the reaction was not timely, by the time the armies of both sides met, the Spanish army was less than 10 kilometers away from the capital of the Sokoto Caliphate, Oyo-Iboho.

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

What was even more fatal was that although the Sokoto Caliph assembled tens of thousands of troops in a short period of time, he obviously did not have time to build defensive positions.

Then again, these indigenous people obviously were not proficient in thermal weapon warfare, which also led to the fact that they did not know much about digging positions, etc.

The consequence of doing this was that the Spanish army faced indigenous troops without any defensive positions. Tens of thousands of indigenous soldiers lined up in a row; although the scene looked quite spectacular, Andrew, the commander of the Congo territory garrison who led the western army, was already beaming with joy at this time.

Why beaming with joy? In order to deal with the Sokoto Caliphate's huge manpower, Spain would use powerful weapons like machine guns in this war.

In order to end the African war early, Carlos waved his hand and equipped Andrew's army with dozens of the latest machine guns just modified from the Maxim.

The latest machine gun was completely based on the original machine gun, using machine gun bullets made of smokeless gunpowder. This not only solved the problem of the original machine gun's poor field of vision, but also significantly improved the machine gun's shooting distance and bullet power.

With dozens of such powerful machine guns, let alone only tens of thousands of indigenous people in front of him. Even if the number of indigenous soldiers increased to 100,000, Andrew had the confidence to defeat them in one battle.

He had personally come into contact with powerful weapons like machine guns, so he naturally understood how powerful the lethality of machine guns was to soldiers.

Especially the swarm-style formation of these African indigenous people was simply the best target for machine guns to aim at. Just one burst down, dozens of indigenous people fell; judging from the current power of machine guns, even if these fallen indigenous people were lucky enough not to be hit in vital parts, they were basically not going to live.

At the first moment when the armies of both sides encountered, tens of thousands of indigenous troops immediately launched a charge towards the Spanish army.

Because there was no room to retreat, the Sokoto Caliphate side could only try to take advantage of the Spanish army's unstable footing and quickly break through the Spanish army's formation, so that they could gain an advantage.

Watching a large area of indigenous people coming towards his side quickly, Andrew's mouth could not be suppressed at all, and he issued his order with a smile: "Deploy all machine guns to the front line for me; I want these indigenous people to taste the power of machine guns.

The artillery should also be prepared; once these indigenous people approach our machine gun position, drive them back. I don't want these precious guys to have any accidents; these are the army's big treasures, and currently, even the Imperial Guard is not equipped with many of them.

Let those indigenous troops be prepared; once the Sokoto Caliphate's army collapses, it will be a good opportunity for them to pursue the victory.

Tell the officers of those indigenous troops that if they can make military achievements, I will personally send a telegram to the country to request the King's reward for them.

But if anyone dares to be afraid of war and not move forward, don't blame me for being impolite. The supervision team, watch these indigenous people for me; once anyone is afraid of war and not moving forward, or flees in the face of battle, shoot them on the spot!"

"Yes, Commander!"

Andrew at this time could be said to be high-spirited. Because Spain's expansion in Africa was quite smooth, he had become a new star in the Spanish military that was very popular.

Compared with Kaman, who had been steadily promoted in Spain, Andrew seemed to have the posture of catching up from behind.

Carlos had also commended Andrew's merits not long ago and promised that after the African war ended, he would personally add honors and confer titles to Andrew in Spain.

Andrew himself had the title of Baron; if he could go one step further in terms of title, he could at least become a Count in Spain.

Although a Count was not a big noble in Spain, for Andrew, who was just an ordinary graduate of the Italian Royal Military Academy in Turin, everything he had obtained so far was already quite precious.

Because it concerned his future, Andrew also attached great importance to this war. He almost took out his life's learning, just to end this war early and expand the results as much as possible.

With Andrew's instructions, the Spanish army also began to take action.

What Carlos gave Andrew was not just dozens of machine guns, but also machine gunners secretly trained in Spain to use machine guns.

The reason why he dispatched a large number of machine gunners to Africa was also because Carlos was worried that these colonial troops would not be familiar with the use of machine guns.

The current machine gun is a big killer; Carlos did not want the data related to machine guns to be leaked to indigenous people or other European countries.

How to prevent it from being leaked? The best way is to ensure the complete victory of the war and ensure that the enemy cannot capture Spain's weapons.

Compared with colonial soldiers, the loyalty of the machine gunners sent by Carlos from the mainland is higher. Because they were training related to machine guns themselves, naturally they could not leak data related to machine guns.

Because these colonial soldiers had not come into contact with machine guns, at most they could only leak the news that Spain had a firearm with more powerful firepower.

Without the Maxim, such secrecy could also delay the time for various European countries to obtain machine guns. The time they obtained machine guns was later than Spain, and the climbing of the technology tree related to machine guns would naturally be behind Spain.

Let alone anything else, the principles of Spain's existing smokeless gunpowder machine guns, including water-cooled and air-cooled types, were enough for various European countries to study for several years.

Historically, the Maxim machine gun and open source were no different; various European countries developed their own machine guns on the basis of the Maxim machine gun.

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

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

It was fundamentally impossible to keep it completely secret and prevent various European countries from obtaining machine guns. After all, even without the Maxim, there would be new machine gun experts like Niu Kexin, Niu Maxim, etc., who would develop new machine guns similar to the Maxim machine gun.

Seeing that the indigenous people were getting closer and closer to him, Andrew could not help but feel a bit anxious. The deployment of machine guns on the Spanish side still needed a few minutes; before the machine gun deployment was completed, these indigenous soldiers could not be allowed to get too close to the machine gun position.

"The First Colonial Division, top it up for me and drag the indigenous advance. I hope that within five minutes, these indigenous people cannot approach our machine gun position.

After our machine gun and artillery positions are deployed, the First Colonial Division will then withdraw in an orderly manner." Andrew immediately issued his order, changing his original deployment.

Under Andrew's order, the First Colonial Division marched towards the front line in a grand manner.

As the first colonial division established in Spain, the training degree of the First Colonial Division was the highest, and the comprehensive combat effectiveness was also the most excellent among Spain's three colonial divisions.

Letting the First Colonial Division resist the indigenous army's attack, let alone dragging it for five minutes, dragging it for five hours or even five days was no problem.

Of course, with the extension of time, the First Colonial Division would also face more casualties.

But at this time, because the machine gun and artillery positions had not been deployed, they could only let the army top it up first.

One could not let the enemy rush into the machine gun and artillery positions; at that time, let alone letting these indigenous people taste the power of machine guns, I am afraid that the machine guns and artillery would be destroyed by the indigenous people at the first moment.

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

As long as they could rush into Spain's machine gun and artillery positions, these indigenous soldiers would definitely destroy these machine guns and artillery at the first moment.

These machine guns and artillery were big treasures for the colonial army. If it weren't for the need to attack the Sokoto Caliphate's army this time, Andrew's Congo territory army could not have obtained so many machine guns.

It was very clear that the machine guns damaged in the war would not be replenished in a short period of time. After all, this latest improved machine gun also needed to be equipped on a large scale in the Spanish mainland army, and the priority of the mainland army's equipment was much higher than that of the colonial army.

By the time it was the colonial army's turn, I don't know how many years it would take to wait.

This is like Spain's current latest standard rifle, the Maxim M1884 rifle.

Although the Maxim M1884 rifle had been born for a period of time, it had only achieved full equipment for the Spanish mainland army at present.

All colonial armies were not equipped with the Maxim M1884 rifle, and they would basically not be equipped in the next few years.

The reason was also very simple. First of all, it was a great cost to fully replace all colonial armies with the latest rifles. The colonial army was composed of indigenous people after all, and Spaniards only served as officers; there was no need to equip so many new rifles.

Coupled with the fact that the new rifle not only improved the shooting distance and power, but also improved the rate of fire of the rifle. If the colonial army was fully equipped with the Maxim M1884 rifle, the logistical supply of bullets was a quite large problem.

Among Spain's many colonies, the only ones that possessed small military factories that could independently produce weapons and ammunition were the Philippines.

The reason why the Philippines possessed small military factories was very simple, mainly because the Philippines was too far away from the Spanish mainland, and the cost of transporting weapons and equipment from the mainland to the Philippines was too high.

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

The main purpose of this small military factory was to produce ammunition for the Philippine colonial army, and rifle production was only incidental.

In addition to the Philippines, currently only the Guinea colony possessed small military industry, which could also only produce ammunition.

If the colonial army was fully replaced with the latest rifles, it also meant that these small military factories also needed to replace production lines.

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

Unless the finances of each colony were already quite wealthy, only then would Spain consider equipping all colonial armies with the latest rifles.

(End of chapter)