OR1-EP2: Battle of Rhodesia (15)

Surrounded by a group of soldiers, Andreas Darlton came to the scene of the fire. In front of him was the tribe that had been engulfed by the fire. Many natives were anxiously watching outside the fire wall. Occasionally, brave natives rushed into the sea of fire regardless of their own safety, but all they could rescue was one charred corpse after another. Looking at this tragedy, the aborigines couldn't help themselves. A dozen or so aborigines were crying beside these Britannians. They looked like so-called civilized citizens who grieved for their relatives outside the fire scene when they encountered a fire. However, Andreas Darlton's heart was not fluctuating, and he didn't even want to waste a second look at these natives who were just tools. In the Britannian Empire, although all races are legally equal, so that black-skin nobles have appeared in the empire, except for these pretentious models used to show the emperor's mercy to the lower classes, most non-whites are still live in poverty. Not only that, prejudice also hindered the mainstream society of the Britannian Empire from accepting these people. Therefore, in Darlton's eyes, they only choose to cooperate with these primitive people who have not fully evolved for their own purposes. If one day the Britannian Empire really sets foot on the land of South Africa, it must first wipe all these natives out.

"Sir, why are you injured?" A soldier noticed that Darlton's right arm was wrapped with a bandage, and asked worriedly about the situation at that time. Of course, Darlton would not admit that he lost to an EU mercenary of unknown origin and let that man go as agreed, so he had to babble some innocuous words to divert everyone's attention. Fortunately, in the Imperial Britannian Army, the superiors had absolute authority. Since Darlton himself said nothing, others naturally had no reason to ask questions.

They were not the first Britannian soldiers to sneak into South Africa. Strictly speaking, it wasn't the group directly in charge of this task, it was just that the task happened to fall on them. In order to prevent the EU from destroying the empire's local intelligence organization, Britannia will change the person in charge and executor every once in a while, and the departments of different factions will push each other and contain each other, mobilizing the indigenous people in South Africa. The work of resisting the EU authorities has been handled by four different groups of people since the day it started, and finally Darlton and others came to the Northern Reserve to incite the aborigines to carry out armed rebellion. In the past, the empire wanted to create as realistic a fake identity as possible. At that time, they usually sent soldiers of civilian origin to perform tasks, and the result was frequent defections-those Britannians of civilian origin chose to join their compatriots in the EU. The old emperor Stephen II learned from the painful experience and decided to send only those nobles who have been favored by the emperor to perform missions overseas. Even so, this insurance measure does not always work, and accidents of nobles choosing to defect regardless of the lives of their families still occur from time to time.

Andreas Darlton couldn't remember how many times he had sneaked into the reservation. For ordinary EU citizens, the reservation is just a tourist attraction for them to visit the original ecological life of primitive people; but in the eyes of secret agents, the reservation is a heart disease that is strictly guarded by the EU. The local bigwigs need to use it to cover up their dirty human trafficking business, and the local defense forces are afraid that the natives will rebel, and there are countless pairs of eyes staring at it. When he came for the first time, Darlton hid in a wooden box in order to deceive the EU inspectors. As a result, he was almost suffocated to death. It was the local aborigines who saved his life.

The natives always looked at these Britannians who traveled thousands of miles to South Africa to help them fight against the EU invaders with a slightly fearful look. Darlton enjoyed this kind of worship as a liberator and benefactor. Using the internal contradictions of the EU to contain the EU and prevent the EU from putting pressure on the New World is one of the long-term basic foreign strategies of the Britannian Empire since the end of World War II. This was a somewhat humiliating strategy, as the Empire, mired in aristocratic infighting, was powerless to confront the EU's relentless pursuit head-on. However, if there is any hope of the Empire turning defeat into victory, then these dispensable upheavals will completely bury the EU. In order to prevent the Britannians, who were supposed to play the role of liberators, from annoying the natives, all relevant personnel who contacted the natives had received long-term training. They had learned how to pretend to be saints who did not care about fame and wealth in front of the natives. Perhaps the natives can guess that they are vain and submissive, and the natives themselves have no choice—Britannians are currently the only foreign aid to assist them against the EU.

In the distance, a tall and mighty middle-aged aboriginal man walked towards Darlton. That was the temporary leader elected by the surrounding native tribes, and Darlton was not even interested in remembering his name carefully. He once proposed to these aborigines to immediately switch to the modern way of life, but was rejected by the stubborn aborigines. At that time, Darlton finally understood that some people are only worthy of living in the wilderness, and putting them in a suit will make them new circus clowns. Thinking of this, Darlton somewhat supported the current policies of the EU in its African colonies.

"Yintonile uyenzayo ulapha? Silahlekelwe ngamajoni amaninzi, asinakukwazi ukuluhlaselaolunye uhlaselo." The leader shouted at Darlton angrily. The guards behind both sides looked blank. The Britannians could not understand the native language at all, and most of the natives could not speak English at all. The communication between the two sides depended on a few key figures who mastered both languages at the same time.

"Use human's words. My soldiers can't understand why you are distressed." Darlton looked contemptuously at the leader who shouted, "Ukuba usafuna ukubangumanyano lwethu, yiba nembeko."

The leader was stunned, his majesty offended by this foreign officer who had always been defiant. For the natives, it didn't matter who was an EU citizen and who was a Britannian: they were all aliens wearing strange clothes and using strange machines. If it weren't for the fact that the Britannians were assisting them to resist the EU, perhaps the natives would just kill these Britannians as their old enemies from the EU.

"We, can, not, bear, it." The leader stammered to Darlton, and at the same time looked at the soldiers with live ammunition behind Darlton with a slightly pleading look. He couldn't afford to offend these mysterious people. The weapons and ammunition used by these indigenous tribes were all provided by the Britannians, and falling out with the Britannians would not do the natives any good. There are not a few competitors staring at him as the leader of the tribal alliance. If Darlton says that the current leader has broken the cooperative relationship, there are more than a dozen people who are willing to pull him down.

Darlton looked at his subordinates with different expressions behind him, and raised his voice: "Our chief said that they can't bear it anymore... they are too incompetent." He pointed his pistol at the natives who were still hovering around the wall of fire, so scared that other natives quickly dissuaded them, for fear that Darlton would shoot at others in a rage, "In my opinion, you still have a lot of people, and no one could let them just watch the battle. Let them take up arms and continue to fight the EU thugs, everyone has to rush forward!"

Seeing what the officer said, the rest of the soldiers also expressed their opinions in twos and threes:

"That's right, you only have these people in total, how can you do it if you don't turn all the people into soldiers?"

The leader, who had just learned to speak English for a few days, was at a loss for words. He knew that he could not fall for the tricks of the Britannians. The united indigenous tribes seem to have a large number of people, but that is only compared with these uninvited guests who invaded the reserve. Perhaps the total number is slightly higher than that of the EU Defense Forces stationed here like the South African Fifth Infantry Regiment deployed on the outskirts of the reserve, but it is impossible for the indigenous people to overthrow the EU's rule in South Africa by only relying on tribes. Even if all the natives here are dead, it will have no effect on the Britannians. They can retreat and go to another place to continue to disrupt the order of the EU. The Britannians were forging their cause in the flesh and blood of the natives, and some natives knew it themselves.

The chief stared at Darlton angrily. He wanted to see through the heart of the Britannian, but he couldn't. Every Britannian will act according to his own set of logic with a clear conscience, and what he does is justice, which is deeply rooted in them by the monarchy for more than a hundred years.

"We can't be ruined here," the leader retorted. "The next generation can't go to war. They are the future."

"The future, the future... what future do you have?" Darlton laughed endlessly, and the Britannian soldiers behind him also laughed, "Continue to hide in the reserved area and eat the leftovers that the EU gave you? Or, do you think that primitive people like you, who have never seen tanks, planes and cannons in your life, are capable of driving out the Europeans and then managing the whole of South Africa? Even the ideas of those old and young Russians are not as outrageous as yours."

Darlton refers to the remnants of the Russian Empire that was defeated by the EU in World War I. The Britannian Empire cannot tolerate another group of aristocratic groups with the title of emperor issuing orders on their own territory. Besides, Britannia was established by those nobles who escaped from the British Isles. Groups of similar exiles replicated this irreproducible success. Under the joint suppression of the royal family and noble groups of the Britannian Empire, the Romanov dynasty has long since become extinct. Now the noble leader who claims the title of Emperor of Russia is the 13-year-old Grand Duke of Velaines, Augusta Henry Highland.

Seeing that the leader was silent, Darlton became anxious. He doesn't need the respect of these people. Fear is what drives most people to act. He went straight to the periphery of the fire scene, picked up a child who was no higher than his waist, and turned around to leave. There was a heart-piercing cry from behind, and an aboriginal woman rushed towards Darlton recklessly, but was knocked to the ground by a Britannian soldier on the side. At this time, the natives remembered that the Britannians were not kind, and they only temporarily assisted them in fighting those invaders who had no bottom line.

"The new era means that as long as there are guns and cannons, weak old people and children can also fight the enemy." Darlton handed the pistol to the child who couldn't understand what happened, and picked up another pistol himself. Everyone was shocked by Darlton's method, even the soldiers who helped Darlton hold down the child's mother didn't know what he was going to do.

"Asifunimntwana. Sidinga amajoni." Darlton raised his pistol to the forehead of the aboriginal boy, "Listen well, you old bastards with rigid concepts selfishly don't want your children and grandchildren to participate in the war, so let me tell you, ten years ago when the EU intervened in the conflicts between the Arab countries and Persia, they discovered that the local children had to learn how to kill others from the age of three!" Having said this, Darlton continued to shout at the natives who were still standing on the spot, "Tell him, pull the trigger on me now, or I will shoot him to death immediately!"

This shocking act not only frightened the natives, but also frightened the surrounding Britannian soldiers out of their wits. Darlton was gambling with his own life. If the aboriginal child really shot and killed Darlton, the remaining Britannian soldiers didn't know how to explain to their superiors. After all, they couldn't say that the flight lieutenant wanted to commit suicide, right?

The translator next to him spoke the original words, causing a panic. The native boy, perhaps aware of what he was facing—those who live in tribes are always precocious—he raised the pistol with both hands that were unable to hold it, and aimed at Darlton. Everyone's emotions were extremely tense, and even the natives who were still mourning for their dead relatives stopped crying, and they all stared at this strange combination that was confronting each other with guns.

"Three—" Darlton yelled, only heard a gunshot, and the bullets flew past his ears without causing any damage to him. Seeing that both of them were safe and sound, the onlookers and Britannian soldiers breathed a sigh of relief. They quickly pulled Darlton away to prevent him from making any untimely moves. Darlton didn't care about his decency, and quickly ordered the soldiers on the side:

"When we launch an attack on the Fifth Infantry, let the old, the weak, and the sick be at the forefront."

"Isn't that a bit too cruel?" Someone immediately raised an objection, "Besides, they can't play much role. What else can they do besides holding guns to scare people?"

"It's useful, they can delay time." Darlton sighed, "Although the natives under us seem to have a large number of people, there are not many who can really be regarded as qualified soldiers, and even these people may not be able to compare with a regular EU soldier. We just want to let the old, the weak, the sick and the disabled go to the forefront, and let the world know that the EU is massacring the indigenous people here, and we didn't intend to win the battle here, and the more critical step is yet to come cloth."

However, perhaps the natives need to take a moment to eliminate the remnants of the task force before attacking the EU's defenses. There is not much time left for them, because the EU Defense Forces who have been watching from the sidelines have finally noticed the intensifying fire, and now they have no way to hide their little secrets.

TBC

Chapter Notes:

In fact, there is no evidence that whether Darlton belongs to the Army or the Air Force, and the uniform color is for reference only.

An interesting fact is that the capital of the Britannian Empire was moved to Pendragon in the desolate Mexican desert in the mid-19th century. This seems to imply that the Imperial family may have been expelled by the nobility of the East Coast.