Chapter 230: Massive Military Expansion In The Congo Territory |
News and photographs of Carlo personally receiving the first-place winner of the bullfighting competition, Sebastian Sharp, were also reprinted by major newspapers, becoming the hottest news in Spain in November
Sebastian Sharp himself gained supreme honor and was hailed as Spain’s most powerful bullfighter, an idol in the hearts of many Spanish teenagers, and also admired by many Spanish young women.
This also made many bullfighters envious, and they all secretly resolved to achieve better results in the next year’s bullfighting competition, to replace Sebastian Sharp and become that nationally acclaimed hero.
However, Carlo at this time had no time to pay attention to these matters, because in mid-to-late November 1877, bad news came from the Congo Territory: some of the plantations established by Spain in the Congo Territory had been plundered by local indigenous forces.
The area of the Congo Territory created by Spain was very large, at least several hundred thousand square kilometers. Because no great power had deeply colonized the African inland, Spain could occupy this land without restraint.
Of course, unrestrained occupation also came at a cost. Currently, Spain’s control over the Congo Territory was not high; the truly managed areas were only the Guinea-Congo corridor involved by the railway and dozens of colonial outposts upstream.
The combined area of these colonial outposts was only over ten thousand square kilometers, currently inhabited by fewer than ten thousand people.
Beyond these colonial outposts, the land was home to at least millions of local indigenous people. At the beginning of establishing the colonial outposts, relations between the outposts and local indigenous people were relatively friendly.
The colonial outposts could even exchange some food from local indigenous tribes through material trade, which was also a reason why the colony could establish many in the early stage despite material shortages.
This quickly destroyed the relationship between Spain and the local indigenous people, turning their initial friendly trade into hostility, and even sparking large and small conflicts.
Fortunately, Spain had long dispatched a colonial defense regiment to garrison the Congo Territory, which ensured that no major crises had occurred in the Congo Territory up to now.
But a Spanish colonial defense regiment was only 2300 men in scale, with over half of the troops drawn from indigenous people in various colonies.
This also resulted in the colonial defense regiment’s combat effectiveness not being strong, only barely maintaining the colony’s stability.
If the Congo Territory maintained its current scale, this colonial defense regiment could barely protect it. But the Congo Territory was in constant expansion, also to compete with Portugal for the scale of the Congo Colony.
Portugal’s colonization of Congo had begun over a hundred years ago, and they had achieved considerable results.
Spain’s purpose in vigorously developing the Congo Colony was precisely to fully control the downstream Congo River Basin before Portugal, giving the Congo Territory its own estuary.
The importance of an estuary to a colony goes without saying; currently, world trade is basically maritime trade, and land trains have limited transport capacity.
If the downstream Congo River could be controlled, opening an estuary for the Congo Territory, the territory’s development would gain a golden period.
Moreover, the only enemy in the Congo region was Portugal, which made the Spanish Government quite unrestrained in expanding the Congo Territory, currently having expanded at least 300,000 square kilometers of land.
The rapid expansion of the Congo Territory was of course good news, but it also came with many problems.
The most pressing was the security issue of the Congo Territory. Currently, the entire Congo Territory’s population was only over ten thousand, most of whom were immigrants transported from Russia.
The indigenous population of the Congo Territory was millions, posing no small threat to its security.
More importantly, this land was home to various indigenous ethnic groups, which also had competitive relationships among themselves, making management quite troublesome.
To the east of Spain’s Guinea Colony was the territory of the Baka people, and east of the Baka was the Zande people. South of the Baka and Zande was Spain’s Congo Territory, south of the Congo Territory was the territory of the Bantu people, and to the east were some indigenous kingdoms that had existed for hundreds of years.
In the downstream Congo River, there were also many indigenous nations including the Anziku, Luengo, Ngoyo, Orungu, and Congo.
The large number of indigenous nations and tribes made the order near the Congo Territory extremely chaotic, so it was not surprising that some indigenous people who hated colonists took advantage of the chaos to loot plantations.
Upon learning that some plantations in the Congo Territory had been looted, Carlo immediately issued orders, requiring the Congo Territory to form a larger-scale army to guard territorial security, and appointing the regimental commander of the garrison regiment stationed in the Congo Territory, Manuel Macías Ikadusa, as the commander-in-chief of the Congo Territory garrison, promoting his military rank from colonel to major general.
Carlo had been vigorously cultivating mainland Spanish officers, and Manuel Macías Ikadusa was one of the particularly outstanding representatives.
As the regimental commander of the colonial defense regiment stationed in the Congo Territory, Manuel Macías Ikadusa bore enormous responsibility.
He had also made great contributions to the development of the Congo Territory, having been promoted to colonel by Carlo just last year.
Since the Congo Territory needed a larger-scale army, Manuel Macías Ikadusa was naturally the indisputable choice for commander of this large-scale army.
A 32-year-old major general, his future military career would naturally be quite brilliant and splendid. Even without outstanding merits and contributions, just accumulating seniority would be enough for Manuel Macías Ikadusa to reach the level of lieutenant general and major general.
As for the higher marshal rank, besides seniority, it also depended on his ability and loyalty. Of course, in terms of loyalty, Manuel Macías Ikadusa was certainly trustworthy.
Although Carlo intended to cultivate mainland Spanish officers, he also considered their loyalty. If unsure of someone’s loyalty to him, Carlo would not cultivate them so vigorously.
Being vigorously cultivated by Carlo also proved one thing: after investigation by the Royal Security Intelligence Bureau, it was confirmed that Manuel Macías Ikadusa himself and his family had sufficient loyalty to Carlo and the royal family.
Of course, after expanding the garrison scale of the Congo Territory, it was unrealistic for Manuel Macías Ikadusa alone to control the territory’s garrison.
The Congo Territory was after all a vast region approaching a million square kilometers in area, with future area still to see constant growth.
The territory’s garrison also needed to be dispersed to various places in the Congo Territory to better ensure that colonial outposts everywhere received good protection.
In Carlo’s plan, the Congo Territory’s garrison would be raised to the scale of an entire colonial defense division, with about 20,000 men.
Because colonial defense troops were equipped with too few cannons, they could only increase firepower by boosting numbers.
Considering the millions of population in the Congo Territory, and troops that could be drawn from the nearby Guinea Colony, forming a garrison of about 20,000 was still very easy.
If really necessary, manpower could also be drawn from the South Morocco Colony or Philippine Colony; anyway, many Moroccans were vying to join Spanish nationality, which could let them join the colonial army to show their loyalty to Spain.
The Congo Territory’s garrison reaching 20,000 men also meant that, besides the commander-in-chief, i.e., the division commander, a deputy division commander was needed to assist in managing over 20,000 troops.
For this deputy division commander candidate, after consideration, Carlo finally decided to promote Andrew.
Andrew was among the first batch of confidants to follow Carlo to Spain, a graduate of the Turin Military Academy in Italy. Andrew was originally the regimental commander of the 25th Infantry Regiment of the 6th Infantry Division of the Spanish Royal Army, later promoted by Carlo to regimental commander of the Lanfang military advisory group.
Currently, Andrew had been in Lanfang for over two years, achieving quite good results. With the help of the military advisory group, Lanfang had successfully established a new army of 20,000, equipped with rifles and a small number of cannons from Spain.
The current Lanfang Republic was the third largest military power on Borneo after Spain and the Netherlands; the 20,000 new army troops could easily crush the indigenous people on Borneo.
It was precisely because the Lanfang Republic had trained a new army that the Dutch expansion on Borneo had become difficult.
The Lanfang Republic not only maintained its existing land scale but also established closer cooperation with some indigenous people on Borneo.
Currently, the Han Chinese population of the Lanfang Republic was also constantly increasing, with hope to raise it to over 600,000 before
The Lanfang Republic had formally signed a treaty with Spain, becoming a Spanish protectorate. The Lanfang Republic needed Spanish guidance on military and diplomatic rights, but the benefit was that Spain would protect the Lanfang Republic’s independence and promise never to annex it.
Anyway, the Lanfang Republic had nominally submitted to Dutch rule before, and regarding the protectorate and related treaties, the Lanfang Government had no hesitation at all.
Because the current situation was already very clear: the Qing Dynasty they flaunted could not help them, nor would it.
The Lanfang Republic could only choose to rely on the Netherlands or Spain; otherwise, it could not maintain its independence. Compared to the Netherlands, which had ambitions to annex the Lanfang Republic, Spain’s conditions were not so harsh.
Besides needing Spanish guidance on diplomacy, military, and cargo trade, the Lanfang Republic could have complete internal governance rights, and Spain would not interfere in the Lanfang Republic’s domestic governance.
For Spain, the 20,000 new army trained by the Lanfang Republic would also be a very good asset.
Whether to deal with rebellions by various indigenous people in the Philippines, or to defend against the Dutch and British, this new army of 20,000 could play a very important role.
At the same time, an army of 20,000 was not enough to defeat the Dutch. This ensured that while the Lanfang Republic had certain strength, it could still be controlled by Spain, without letting it escape Spanish control.
Currently, the situation on Borneo had stabilized; under Spanish protection, the Dutch temporarily had no intention of invading the Lanfang Republic.
This also gave Carlo the opportunity to replace members of the military advisory group stationed in the Lanfang Republic, allowing these military experts who had been stationed in the south for over two years to return to Spain to rest and reunite with their families.
As the regimental commander of the Lanfang military advisory group, Andrew had personally led the training of Lanfang’s new army.
Because of such merit, Carlo decided to promote him to colonel in the Spanish Royal Army and appoint him as deputy division commander of the Congo Territory defense division, to assist Manuel Macías Ikadusa in managing the Congo Territory’s army.
Carlo’s orders were issued very quickly, but by the time Manuel Macías Ikadusa received the news, it was already the next day.
No way around it; information transmission in this era was just that slow. Manuel Macías Ikadusa could receive the news the next day, but Andrew, far away on Borneo, would take at least several days.
Upon receiving the news, Manuel immediately convened a military conference and announced Carlo’s orders on expanding the Congo Territory’s army.
Even though over half of this 20,000-man colonial defense division were indigenous soldiers, forming this 20,000-man army was still quite difficult.
Fortunately, mainland Spain could send a batch of officers, solving the officer shortage for this large garrison division.
Troops could temporarily be recruited from local indigenous people in the Congo Territory, and additionally transported from the closer Guinea Colony and South Morocco Colony.
Manuel naturally understood the reason for Carlo’s order to expand the army: the looting of plantations was something Spain did not want to see, and whoever looted Spain’s plantations would inevitably face Spanish retaliation.
“The recent events have already drawn His Majesty the King’s attention. We must quickly find out who looted the plantations and make them pay the due price.” At the military conference, Manuel Macías Ikadusa first put forward his request.
Due to insufficient military power, after the plantations were looted, Manuel Macías Ikadusa had not borne too much responsibility.
But as the commander of the only garrison in the Congo Territory, it was impossible to say he had no responsibility at all.
Especially after learning that Carlo was already concerned about this matter, Manuel Macías Ikadusa wanted to quickly identify the culprits behind the plantation looting and bring them to justice to prove his ability to Carlo.
This military conference was attended not only by the garrison regiment’s commanders but also some main officials from the colonial outposts.
After all, Manuel had to announce Carlo’s orders, which required cooperation from the Congo Territory’s officials.
At the same time, these officials could provide ideas that officers might not think of. As long as the culprits could be identified early, Manuel did not mind letting these officials share some merit.
“Your Excellency General, those powerful enough to loot our plantations are probably some local indigenous tribes, such as the Zande, Baka, etc.
Since we can’t figure out who exactly looted the plantations, we might as well treat them all the same and attack these indigenous tribes simultaneously.
These indigenous people definitely know who the real culprits are; unless they are willing to sacrifice themselves for the culprits, under our several rounds of attacks, someone will surely reveal the truth.” An official proposed his suggestion.
Although the local indigenous people of the Congo Territory were divided into different tribes and ethnic groups, they all looked similar black.
For Spaniards, it was really hard to distinguish which tribe or ethnic group they belonged to.
But hard to distinguish was the best distinction; since they couldn’t be distinguished, treat them all as the looters of the plantations.
As the saying goes, better to kill a thousand by mistake than let one go; as long as all large indigenous tribes nearby were within the attack range of the Spanish army, the plantation looters would surely be among them.
As for the indigenous tribes mistakenly attacked, they could only blame their own bad luck.
If an indigenous tribe wanted to avoid being mistakenly attacked, they could only reveal who the real culprits were. Once the real culprits were known, the rest would be easy.
Of course, if these indigenous people refused to talk even at the cost of their lives, there were good ways to deal with them. Anyway, Spanish colonial construction needed large amounts of black labor, and there was no need to worry about their survival.
Transport them to Spain’s various colonies for construction, and after completion, cross the river and demolish the bridge by massacring them, which could permanently solve the problem.
Hearing this official’s suggestion, Manuel’s eyes lit up, and he said without hesitation: “This is a good method; let’s try it this way first.
But there’s a problem: our troops are too few, so we probably need to borrow some from South Morocco and Guinea first.”
To simultaneously attack several large indigenous tribes, at least several thousand troops were needed. Currently, the Congo Territory had only this one colonial defense regiment of 2300 men, obviously unable to attack several indigenous tribes at once.
Fortunately, the Guinea Colony and South Morocco Colony were not too far from the Congo Territory; if acted quickly, troops from the Guinea Colony could even be transported to the Congo Territory in a few days, after all, the railway between Guinea and the Congo Territory had long been completed.
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