African Entrepreneurship Record-Chapter 763 - 67 The Complaints of Portuguese Soldiers

When major military breakthroughs were achieved in two directions in East Africa, the western Angola colony troops also encountered trouble.

However, this trouble did not come from East Africa, but from the African environment and the Portuguese army's own lack of preparation.

Luaina was a small East African village in the central Danube Province, established as a small stronghold during the development of East Africa's western region.

However, with East Africa implementing scorched earth policies in the western region, Luaina had long been deserted, eventually being destroyed by the East African Defense Army.

A small troop from the Angola colony was the first to discover it, but upon finding it to be an empty village, everyone was greatly disappointed.

"Oerting, damn it, this is another empty village. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I'd have thought it had been struck by a plague. There's not a trace of human presence!"

The African climate is like this; without people living there, it is quickly consumed by nature. It's been two months since the evacuation of Luaina to the rear, and the ruins of the village have been covered in various weeds and moss, and various small animals have nested here, reflecting the "harmony" between "man and nature".

"Chris Luder, stop complaining. It's a blessing we found a place to rest. I don't want to sleep outdoors tonight. At least here, there are the remnants left by East Africans. Although they're quite dilapidated, they still provide some shelter from the wind and rain," Oerting said to his comrade.

Even though they were ruins, amidst the surrounding thick rainforest, the clearing with some ruins in Luaina village felt particularly intimate.

Oerting lay on a half-collapsed small hillock, squinting at the sky with a pipe in his mouth, and said, "Look how marvelous this sunlight is! We've been dealing with rainforests for months now and haven't enjoyed such comfortable sunlight for a long time."

Since the Portuguese army entered the Danube Province of East Africa, it has been exceedingly painful, especially with the dark and humid rainforest environment, along with the harassment from various venomous insects and wild animals.

Even a waste like Luaina village was enough to satisfy Oerting, who had suffered for two or three months.

"Speaking of sunlight, we indeed haven't seen it for a long time. The roads here are extremely difficult to navigate, or simply don't exist. I'm curious about how the East Africans originally invaded Angola. Didn't they have these troubles?" Chris Luder asked curiously.

Oerting explained, "I heard from the elders here that the last time East Africa went to war, they attacked Angola from the south. The south is drier than the north; I heard it's all grassland and desert over there, so the conditions are much better than here. After the last East-Portuguese War, the kingdom was forced to cede southern lands to East Africa."

"Then why don't we take back the south? Anyway, we've already torn our faces apart with East Africa. Could they really block our troops from going over? We hardly encounter East African troops here," Chris Luder said.

"If it were that simple, it would be great. Actually, the south is the Letania Province of East Africa, while we're here in what's called the Danube Province. The conditions in Letania Province are better than in Danube Province. It's a plateau and seems more livable, so East Africa has significant forces there. Although the conditions in Danube Province are tough, there's not much fighting, all in all, there are pros and cons!"

Although Letania Province isn't well-developed, the economic and population conditions in the eastern Letania Province far exceed those in Danube Province.

Because Letania Province is also a major transportation route for East Africa to connect with Southwest Africa, the Kalahari Basin, and the central region.

Thus, East Africa places more emphasis on Letania Province, so this South African War can actually be seen as a war centered on central East Africa against the Allies. No matter the direction, the primary goal is to maintain the industrial zone of the three central provinces; conversely, the eastern East Africa, apart from experiencing naval battles, wasn't much affected by the war.

However, these are matters that neither Oerting nor Chris Luder, the Portuguese foot soldiers, can understand. Even currently, the Portuguese military is confused and unable to grasp the South African situation.

Although Portugal has had a long colonial history in Angola, its understanding of the African interior is far less clear than the later-comer East Africa.

Portuguese caravans once traversed the African interior, consequently opening up trade routes from Angola to Mozambique, but these were all by "fortune seekers in peril" and not professional at all.

The trade routes drawn by these amateur merchants have instead become the only maps that Portugal and the Allies can utilize, but the development of Africa by East Africa has long made these maps obsolete.

Just like the troops Oerting and Chris Luder are part of, they are busy to the point of confusion in Danube Province. The northern Danube Province predominantly has a tropical rainforest climate and has never received significant development.

So the Portuguese troops can only tough it out, searching all over here for routes to the East African interior. Villages like Luaina are one of their accomplishments.

This Luaina village isn't even recorded on the ancient Portuguese maps, and there's also the opposite situation where many African indigenous villages or tribes marked on the maps have disappeared from the maps.

This is obviously the "work" of the East Africans. Apart from very vague terrain features, the Portuguese troops cannot obtain any effective map information. Even so, the rudimentary maps are filled with loopholes, especially in terms of error, which is incredibly large.

In short, the northern line troops of the Portuguese Angola colony, although they hadn't engaged in many major battles, were tormented more mentally. Being here for long is less thrilling than going to the southern line to battle East Africans desperately.

While Oerting and Chris Luder were enjoying the sunlight, their comrade Mars' voice came to their ears.

"The farmland around the village has also been destroyed by East Africans. We've also found plenty of ashes, and there are smoke marks on the broken walls. The iron pots on the stoves have all been taken away by the East Africans—nothing was left," Mars said helplessly.

"Damn, how can East Africans tolerate this ghostly place? Compared to Europe, Africa's environment is hellish!"

"Moreover, now malaria is rampant in the army, and our non-combat attrition is severe. Why haven't the kingdom's medicines arrived at the front line yet?"

"Only a small number of local plantations have quinine, but the price they demand is too high; we simply can't afford it," Oerting explained.

"Bastards! Do these plantation owners know whose benefit we're fighting for on the front line? Angola is just a colony. Without the kingdom's support, they'd have been annexed by East Africa long ago. At this moment, they should be fully supporting the front line instead of thinking about how to make a fortune; these greedy bastards," Chris Luder cursed.

"Luckily, our company hasn't experienced a large-scale infection. Otherwise, given the current environment, treatment would be impossible, and it's basically a death sentence," Oerting lamented.

The reason why Oerting and Chris Luder's unit is special and hasn't had a massive malaria infection isn't due to their special constitution, but because they've been in Angola for a long time.

So long ago, they had already contracted this horrific disease, malaria, and after being in Angola for an extended period, they had overcome acclimatization issues, allowing them to escape disaster.

Of course, this is also thanks to their early arrival during peacetime when medicines weren't so scarce.

Even so, many comrades died in Africa. Like Oerting and his fellows, they were, in fact, lucky survivors who had been "filtered" by the environment once, making them less susceptible to reinfection, with some resistance; the weaker ones had been weeded out long ago.