58 Glory
There is no doubt that colonization was brutal and brought great suffering to the colonized peoples.
But objectively, colonization also promoted the prosperity of the colonies and accelerated the social development of the colonies.
Specific to Rhodesia, Cecil Rhodes's annexation of Rhodesia changed the social structure of Rhodesia, and the original tribes of Rhodesia were incorporated into the whole of Rhodesia and became part of Rhodesia, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
If you write like this, someone should be scolding the fish head again-
In fact, Cecil Rhodes is already very good, in this era, there is not so much rational analysis, there is not so much humanitarianism, the big fist is reasonable, whoever makes the rules, who has the right to explain, the truth is written so bloody and directly to the hearts of the people.
The Americans almost wiped out the Indians, and as a result, no one in the world blamed.
In 1904, that is, three years later, the Herero people in German Southwest Africa rebelled, and the Germans killed 100,000 Herero people to 200 left, and imprisoned all 200 of them on Shark Island opposite German Southwest Africa, only to die of tuberculosis a year later, except for some written accounts of scaly claws, who knows about this?
Compared with the Americans and Germans, the Rhodes family are all gentlemen, at least in Rhodesia, the Shona and Ndebele people can still live, so Roque is willing to make friends with Cecil Rhodes Jr.
Of course, at this time, Aiden and Cecil Rhodes Jr. did not expect what kind of ordeal Rhodesia would go through in the future, Aiden just did not want to fight with the guerrillas, he was not a government official, and the governor of Rhodesia was not appointed by the king, even if there was merit, Aiden would not be rewarded.
Roque will definitely not give up this opportunity, for Roque, the guerrillas are the dish delivered to the door, so Roque has already begun to check weapons and prepare for battle.
Not only Roque, but all the commandos were eager to take it out, and they pulled out the magazine partitions, checked the strength of the horses' equipment, and took the time to feed their old fellow black beans, and then they would have no time.
The composure of the commandos also infected the Rhodesian police.
In fact, they are all young and strong young men, no one is convinced, the commandos have defeated the guerrillas many times, and the Rhodesian police are not to be outdone, it is a mule or a horse to pull out and slip.
"Check your weapons and get ready for battle!" Aiden couldn't convince Roque, gritted his teeth and decided to align with Roque.
"Aiden, you don't have to fight, you stay and protect our oxcarts." Roque didn't worry about Aiden, his size, he couldn't do the work of charging at first glance.
It's not that Aiden can't do it, it's that Aiden's horse can't do it.
Although the horse that Aiden rides is also a good thoroughbred, but for Aiden's size, it is more suitable to change to a tall and strong Shire horse, and the thoroughbred is a waste for Aiden.
"I'll forget it, let my kids try it with you, and feel it." Aiden didn't stand out, but he still fought for the Rhodesian police to see the world.
In fact, before that, the reputation of the Rhodesian police had been ruined.
Remember the rebellion planned by Cecil Rhodes before the outbreak of the Second Boer War?
At that time, it was the Rhodesian police who were in charge of the response.
In Cecil Rhodes's plan, the rebellion was initiated by a "reform committee" made up of British Americans living in Johannesburg, and the core of this reform committee was Cecil Rhodes's brother, Frank Rhodes.
According to the plan, the Reform Commission would launch a riot in Johannesburg and take control of the whole of Johannesburg, and then Dr. Starr Jameson would lead the police force to Bechuana and enter Johannesburg on the appointed date to prepare for the internal and external cooperation.
The scheduled date was December 28, 1895, but just a few days before the 28th, the "Reform Committee" preparing for the riot was surprised to find that December 28 was during the traditional Johannesburg Horse Racing Week, horse racing is a sport that mine owners love, so the "Reform Committee" wanted to postpone the riot and make concessions for the horse racing week.
When Cecil Rhodes learned of the situation, he urgently contacted Dr. Starr Jameson and asked him to postpone his entry into Johannesburg.
Regrettably, Dr. Starr Jameson did not receive the telegram.
So on 29 December, Dr. Starr Jameson entered Johannesburg with 550 armed police officers and 250 Zulu people, as planned.
In fact, don't expect a bunch of race-obsessed miners to leave the riots behind them a secret.
The Transvaal Republic had information before the riots had begun, and when Dr. Starr Jameson led the Rhodesian police force into Johannesburg, he was caught in a sea of Johannesburg people.
Three days later, Dr. Starr Jameson's troops ran out of ammunition and were surrounded in a valley not far from Krugersdorp, where Dr. Starr Jameson finally surrendered.
After Dr. Starr Jameson's surrender, the "Reform Committee", immersed in horse racing, realized what they had missed, and they rushed into action, but were directly suppressed by the most elite police force in the Transvaal.
It's funny, a riot, just because of the horse race, was spoofed into a farce.
After the capture of Johannesburg by the expeditionary forces, Johannesburg's mine owners also attempted to organise a horse racing week, but were strictly forbidden by the Governor's Office.
I wonder how much they love horse racing!
——
Half an hour later, the commandos converged with the Rhodesian police, plus the detective team led by Yaya, and prepared to attack the guerrillas.
In fact, the gunfire was already a little sparse at this time, and I don't know whether the patrol was eliminated or the guerrillas took the initiative to retreat.
"Commando, forward!" Roque drew his saber and swung it forward with all his might.
It was just a symbolic gesture, and as the sun leaped forward, Roque put away his knife and raised Lee Enfeld in his hand.
Just kidding, pretending to be forced to do this kind of thing, just pretending to be a little bit, it is inevitable that the car will overturn after pretending for a long time.
Just as the assault team began to move, Captain Ted Barton, who was surrounded on a hill, was already praying.
A patrol of 150 men led by Captain Ted Patton set out from Kimberley in the morning to patrol around the Kimberley and return to Kimberley before sunset.
During the patrol, the patrol captured a group of Boers who were trying to escape the Cape, so Captain Ted Patton sent a group of Boers back to Kimberley, leaving the patrol with less than a hundred men.
In fact, a hundred people is enough, although the guerrillas are active around the Kimberley, but basically a dozen people, or dozens of people, the number of guerrillas around the Kimberley has never appeared more than 100 people, so Captain Ted Patton is full of confidence, even if the guerrillas attack, as long as the patrol can resist the first wave of the guerrillas' offensive, then soon, the Kimberley's garrison will be reinforced in time.
Just an hour earlier, the patrol had spotted a group of guerrillas numbering only a dozen men, and Captain Ted Patton had ordered the patrol to pursue and annihilate the group.
As a result, after chasing dozens of kilometers, the patrol led by Captain Ted Patton entered the encirclement of the guerrillas, and the guerrillas who had been ambushed in advance suddenly appeared, with a total number of more than 300 people.
"Dear Father, I want to be with you, I want to be with you, I want to walk with you, and I want to have a full joy before you, a healthy body, mind, and spirit, and be an overcomer in spiritual warfare—" Captain Ted Patton closed his eyes and muttered the words.
"Mr. Captain, the enemy is coming—" a patrol member howled.
"Damn, kill them!" Captain Ted Patton broke in a second.
The gunfire suddenly became intense.
In fact, in terms of individual combat capability, the regular army of the expeditionary force is inferior to the Boer guerrillas.
Although the Boer guerrillas were poorly armed and lacked guns and medicines, the farmers who often faced wild beasts generally had very good marksmanship.
After the outbreak of the war, although the expeditionary force had a large number of troops, in fact, many troops did not have many opportunities to go to the battlefield, after all, the British Empire has been strong for a long time, and many troops have long been negligent in the battle formation, not only the technical and tactical standards are not up to standard, but even the fighting spirit is not as good as their predecessors who dare to charge in line against bullets.
Relatively speaking, on the contrary, the Boer guerrillas insisted on the front line of combat every day, and as long as they survived one or two battles, even new guerrilla members would quickly grow into veterans on the battlefield.
So the surrounded patrol is very uncomfortable.
Because of the need to pursue lightly, the patrol did not carry the heavy machine guns that were most effective against the guerrillas, and had to rely on Lee Enfield in their hands to meet them.
Lee Enfield was far more efficient than Martini Henry, who was equipped by the guerrillas, but the main factor that determined the outcome of the battle was by no means weapons, but people, and the guerrillas had been preparing for this attack for a long time, and it was not only the command of the expeditionary force that was under pressure, but also the guerrillas who were under pressure to maintain their advantage at the negotiating table.
300 men, almost all the guerrillas around the Kimberley combined, and the Boer guerrillas were really planning this attack.
At least 200 guerrillas were involved in the attack, alternating cover and firing at the counter-attacking patrol soldiers, many of whom were inexperienced by the guerrillas' precision marksmen simply because of the slightly larger area of their bodies exposed to the cover.
Although the rifles of this era are not advanced enough, the power of fully charged bullets is still very large.
What's more, the Boers still use dum rounds, so as soon as they are shot, they are basically declared dead, and in the previous battles, the patrol suffered heavy casualties, and now more than half of the casualties are now inflicted, and the remaining patrol members are less than half.
If there were no accidents, it should have been the last moment, and less than five minutes after the battle began, the patrol positions were wailing again and again.
"Hold on, take them out, we're the Royal Lancers, we're going to defend our glory, the King is watching us, God bless the British Empire—" Captain Ted Patton shot desperately as he sparked morale.
In fact, the soldiers of the Royal Lancer Regiment have done a very good job, a unit, about one-third of the casualties is the baseline, basically the casualties reach more than one-third, and the morale of the troops will collapse.
Now the casualties of the patrols of the Royal Lancers Regiment have reached more than half, but they are still holding on, because they know very well that even if they surrender, the Boer guerrillas will not let them go, so if they want to survive, they can only fight to the end.
In fact, in terms of stature, the Dutch have the highest average height in Europe, so as descendants of the Dutch, most Boers are also tall.
Supposedly, tall men were not good at covering when attacking, but the partisans were experienced and skillfully used to alternate with the help of terrain and features, and at the same time they could suppress the counterattack of the RCR regiment with accurate fire, so soon after the battle began, the counterattack of the RCR regiment became weaker and weaker.
"Captain, we can't hold on—" One of the ensigns reported to Captain Ted Patton in frustration.
"If you can't hold on, you have to hold on, do you want to surrender to the guerrillas? The glory of the Royal Lancers requires us to defend with our lives, you coward, return to your positions! "Captain Ted Patton would rather die than surrender, and at the last moment of the battle, Ted Patton will keep the last bullet for himself, and he will never be a prisoner of the Boers.
"I'm not a coward, I just don't want to fight a battle with no chance of winning, we have done our duty as a soldier, of course I will defend the glory of the Royal Lancers with my life!" The second lieutenant blushed and roared at the top of his voice, and suddenly drew his saber and jumped out of the trench.
"Come back!" Ted Barton reached for it, but it didn't hold it.
Without warning, but unexpectedly, the second lieutenant was hit by several bullets at the same time the moment he jumped out of the trench.
In the eyes of Captain Ted Patton, the second lieutenant's upper body was dismembered by the bullet almost instantly, and the erupted blood formed a blood mist, and the second lieutenant took another step forward before falling to the ground with a bang.
"Frank!" Captain Ted Barton's eyes turned red in an instant, and he wailed like a wounded beast.
The guerrillas poured in all over the mountains, and it seemed that the outcome of the battle was irreversible.
Ted Patton emptied the bullets of his Kimberley pistol and had no time to reload again, Ted Button drew his saber, pulled a cross out of his collar, kissed it on the cross, and tightened his grip on the hilt, ready to welcome the guerrillas.
There was no need for Ted Patton's orders, the last remaining soldiers on the line were with bayonets, and the commander had set an example for them, and they were to fight until the last moment.
In the distance, the sound of dense horses' hooves suddenly sounded like thunder—
。 m.