African Entrepreneurship Record

"The Zulus are coming! Gather quickly!"

"Woo..."

I don’t know how many times this month, General Andris of the Transvaal Republic roared angrily.

This time the attack was made by a small group of troops from the Zulu Kingdom. They also held firearms and attacked the Boers like the Ndebele people.

After the Boers finally gathered together, as a trumpet sounded from the opposite side, the Zulu army began to retreat in a well-trained manner.

Andris could only watch helplessly as the Zulu army retreated and pursued, but no one dared to give this order, because the Zulu people opposite were a group of insidious indigenous people, and they must have failed to hold it in.

For the Boers, life is getting harder and harder. The most important thing is that the pressure on national defense is getting heavier and the little Zulu Kingdom is becoming more provocative. With the British on their side, it is difficult for the Boers to cause serious damage to the Zulu Kingdom. Even playing more and more conservatively.

It can be said that the hatred between the Boers and the Zulu people was settled from the moment they met. In fact, neither of them is the owner of this land. The Boers are going north, while the Zulu people are going south. In this way, the two forces are in Natal region meets head-on.

The original owners of the Natal region were the Ndebele people who were completely defeated by East Africa. The Ndebele people and the Zulu people share the same origin. However, due to the invasion of the Zulu Kingdom, the two sides launched a bloody battle in the Natal region.

The outcome was still uncertain, but at this time the Boers heading north gave the Ndebele a fatal blow.

The Boers heading north had to face the Ndebele on the border with the Cape Colony, but a series of attacks went smoothly.

Soon after the war started, they united with the rival tribes of the Ndebele people and launched a bold sneak attack on their capital, plundering many old and weak women, children, livestock, and horses.

The Ndebele King was at war with the Zulu Kingdom at the time and was discouraged by this sudden blow. They simply led the whole family, old and young, to cross the Limpopo River and migrate north to avoid the two-sided attack by the Zulu and Boers.

This is the reason why the Matabele Kingdom of Zimbabwe was established. Compared with the Zulus and the Boers, the Ndebele people are definitely the most unlucky. The Ndebele Kingdom of Matabele had just prospered, but they encountered another problem. The East African Kingdom that moved south gave the Ndebele people the final blow, and the entire tribe became prisoners.

After the Ndebele people voluntarily retreated, the Boer colonists established the first Natal colony on the land left by the Ndebele people, and appointed governors, militia commanders and other positions.

Natal Governor Retief also wrote to King Dingang of the Zulu Kingdom in the north, asking the other party to allow the Boers to open up farms and settle on the land close to the Zulu border. Ding Gang wrote back and said: If Retief can help Zulu recover the 700 cattle stolen by the nomads, he will agree to the Boer's request.

Subsequently, Retief helped the Zulu king recover the lost cattle as agreed, and the latter signed a land migration treaty with the governor in the capital Mgangundlovu. But during the celebration banquet, the Zulu king suddenly attacked and ordered the guards to disarm Retief and his guards, and all of them were stabbed to death with short spears.

The Zulu field army, which was ready to go, immediately dispatched to launch a full-scale attack on the Boer colony, which was not yet stable. All Boer farms and forts were destroyed, several camps were attacked at night, and even the port of Durban, the only outlet to the sea, was captured. About five hundred women, children, and children were killed, leaving the remaining survivors feeling insecure and waiting in the camp, afraid to go out to fight.

At the critical moment, the Boer farmers wrote to Pretorius, the militia commander of the Cape Colony. He was asked to take on the important task of leading the Boers against the Zulu Kingdom and lead the Boer militia remaining in the Cape to aid the Natal region.

At this time, civil strife broke out in the Zulu Kingdom. Ding Gang's younger brother Mpanda, fearing that the other party would murder him, led 17,000 soldiers to set up his own business. This made Pretorius plan to concentrate on dealing with Dingang, while supporting Mpanda as a war ally.

The two sides fought decisively at the Ncome River. Pretorius's men carried an old naval gun and a land gun, and they repelled each wave of offensives by firing grapeshot.

A small group of Zulus tried to bypass the Nkum River and attack the vehicle formation from behind, but they were also fired upon continuously by the colonial troops.

Since the Boers often relied on the meat obtained from hunting to support their black slaves, almost everyone was an expert shooter. Even the slaves who followed them had high attainments in holding guns.

In addition, the attack range of the rifle itself was twice that of the Zulu spear, killing the black warriors in droves in the Ncome River.

The battle continued until dusk that day, and the Boers' ammunition was basically exhausted. Pretorius, desperate, led 300 Boer cavalry to launch a countercharge against the Zulus.

Under the fierce attack of the Boers under the leadership of Pretorius, the exhausted Zulu black warriors were killed in pieces and were unable to organize an effective offensive again.

More Zulu warriors were driven into the Ncome River and killed, even dyeing the entire Ncome River red with blood, creating the so-called "Battle of the Blood River", a battle that has gone down in history.

In the end, 3,000 people fell on the battlefield, but only one Boer colonist was killed. The Zulu Kingdom, which had always been proud and proud, could only leave in anger.

This Battle of Blood River also determined the ownership of the Natal region. The Zulu Kingdom, which had once been completely dominant, began to fall into passivity.

The Boer convoy arrived at the capital of the Zulu Kingdom and found that Ding Gang had already led all the soldiers and civilians in the city to abandon the city and flee north. They supported the Zulu prince Mpanda to become king, allowed the Boers to settle in Natal, and paid 10,000 kilograms of ivory to Pretorius as compensation. Then he led his army to pursue the escaped King Dingang, forcing him to be killed by the guards after fleeing into Swaziland.

However, the good days of the Boers did not last long. Although they defeated the Zulu Kingdom, the British took a fancy to the Natal colony.

The British invaded the Republic of Natalia on the grounds that the Boers had violated the rights of the Zulu people. The defeated Boers in 1843 marched inland again, finally breaking through the Zulu Kingdom's defense lines and establishing the German Empire in 1852. Transvaal Republic and Orange Free State.

The two tigers fought, and the British gained. With the support of the British, the Zulus also began to get rid of their disadvantages and launched frequent counterattacks against the Transvaal Republic.

The Transvaal Republic was harassed by the Zulu Kingdom almost every day, and the small battles never stopped. The main force of the Transvaal Republic's army had to be concentrated in the southeast to resist the provocations of the Zulu Kingdom.

As for the huge East African kingdom in the north, the Transvaal Republic was initially shocked by the newly arrived Germans. However, after getting along with them for such a long time, they found that the Germans had no intention of doing anything, and instead started trading with them. Gradually, They lowered their vigilance, but deep down in their hearts, the Boers were still afraid that the Germans would be as virtuous as the English beasts, so they supported their former defeated Ndebele people, which also laid the foundation for their own demise. .