My British Empire

  Chapter 521 Huge Water Army

  Niger River Director and Fleet Commander, this is the most powerful local figure in the Songhai Empire in West Africa. He is in charge of the entire Niger River and ships, and controls the economic lifeline of the entire empire.

   Moreover, thanks to the emperor's authorization, the Songhai Empire gained the right to supervise the local governor, which made this position even more popular.

  The prosperity of Songhai mainly depends on the control of the trade routes across the Sahara.

  The Songhai Empire is located in the central part of the Sahel region of Western Sudan.

  The Niger River flows through Songhai from west to east, which also facilitates transportation. The fertile land on both sides is good for intensive cultivation.

  The huge fortune-seeking fleet, most of the ships cannot travel in the Niger River, and only a dozen small boats of one or two hundred tons can be used to transport thousands of people on board time after time.

  First of all, at the outlet of the Niger River, it belongs to a place called Benin, where the land is fertile and has a large number of African chief tribes.

   In this regard, the Elvis knight and the guide Wilson did not ignore it. Instead, they launched a large army to carry out large-scale looting, but the result was very little.

  These tribes don't have much gold and other things, but have a lot of wood carvings, ivory, and food.

   This disappointed them greatly. After seizing some food and wooden ivory, they left a mess and continued to move towards the Niger River.

   Immediately afterwards, there is Hausa, a vassal area of ​​the Songhai Empire. Since this is a transit area leading to the lower reaches of the Niger River, although there are many tribes, Wilson and his party still harvested a batch of gold, cattle, horses, and slaves.

  So, 3,000 people gathered here and robbed it fiercely. The muskets and long guns made the Hausa area composed of cavalry and infantry terrified.

  A large number of soldiers fled, and the people fled, screaming everywhere: The white devil is coming!

  The wreckage of the Hausa people was left all over the place, men, women and children, black corpses fell on the yellow sand, looking extraordinarily desolate and sad.

  Based on a conservative estimate, the number reached three thousand. The river of blood was sticky on the entire yellow sand, dried by the dazzling sun, and turned black like a corpse, which looked extraordinarily scary.

  The head of the child on the ground was split open, but no liquid flowed out, but there were more than a dozen screaming vultures and eagles with hooked beaks and giant wings hovering in the sky.

  A naked black-skinned woman lying naked on the ground with her legs spread wide open, and there is a mess between them.

  Tents, huts, and clothing were set on fire and slowly burned, as if preparing to burn up these traces and eliminate evidence.

  But history firmly remembers these.

  Wilson and Elvis Knight turned a blind eye, riding the captured horses, let the soldiers transport the captured property to the small ship, and then sent it to the large ship on the sea.

  Everyone raised their heads and chests happily, and under the leadership of the dark guide, they rode horses along the Niger River and walked step by step towards Gao, the capital of the Songhai Empire.

  At this time, the general manager of the Niger River of the Songhai Empire, the commander of all the water troops on the river, was received by the emperor.

The emperor of the Songhai Empire at this time was Emperor Daud, the lord of Zhongxing. Since he succeeded to the throne in 1549, he swept away the decline of the Songhai Empire and took back all the lost lands one by one, so that the entire empire was restored. Prosperity.

  The emperor's throne is set on a high platform, so the chubby river manager needs to climb through the ranks and sweat hard to see the emperor in the palace.

  In the imperial palace, there is a huge lineup of courtiers, including members of the royal family, high-ranking officials, Griot (collectively referred to as poets and artists) and so on.

  On the high platform, around the emperor, there were 700 eunuchs and well-dressed Griot, who were in charge of heralding orders.

  A large number of servants (usually slaves) under the command of a court officer are responsible for rating various court affairs, cleaning gently, and turning a blind eye to the advancing river steward.

   "Looking up to you, Your Majesty!" The emperor in black robes, with a cold face, looked down at the poor river chief, and the vicissitudes of life sounded:

"There was a message from the Hausa area that a group of nearly 3,000 white people were burning, killing, and looting in Hausa with weapons, turning the prosperous Hausa into a white land, and now they are riding horses along the Niger River, step by step towards Gao!"

   "Take your river fleet and destroy them!"

   "Yes—" Kneeling on the ground, the river chief did not dare to look directly into His Majesty's eyes, agreed loudly, and then retreated slowly.

  The plump body left the palace step by step, went to his general manager's mansion, and then went to the port, where there was his fleet—a fleet of two thousand hollow canoes.

  In this arid place in West Africa, two thousand canoes are enough to control the Niger River and control this golden waterway.

  At this moment, looking at more than 2,000 canoes, the river manager suddenly became full of confidence, and a wave of ambition emerged from the bottom of his heart.

   "It's time for me to make a contribution—"

   A week passed in the blink of an eye, and the money-hunting army was still more than 200 miles away from the goal of Gao City. In this difficult place, it was inevitable to walk for another week.

   At this time, when the army was tired and marching confidently, the ships in the river discovered a big thing.

   "General, the watchman found that two miles away, a group of canoes is coming. It seems that the visitors are not good!"

  The sailor looked at the Elvis knight who was walking on a horse with a large bag of gold on his waist, and the smile on his face froze immediately.

  The moment he heard the enemy, the general who had robbed for many days panicked, but his first reaction was not to defend against the enemy.

  When he heard that the enemy only had about 2,000 canoes, the smile on his face spread and he couldn't stop:

   "Hahaha! I'm dying of laughter, Canoe, what did I hear? Can these also be called enemies?"

   "Of course not, knight, these are just desserts before our dinner!"

  Wilson also had a big pocket, and responded with a smile.

   "Notify everyone, sailor!" Cavalier Elvis immediately ordered with a stern expression, stern expression:

   "Let everyone start preparing, the enemy is coming, prepare to deal with the enemy! Although we are facing a group of ridiculous navy!"

Hahaha…

  As the last sentence sounded, the British soldiers around laughed out loud.

  Although there are only a dozen sailboats of one or two hundred tons, for a canoe that only holds a few people, no matter how many there are, they are still huge.

   At this moment, as they gradually approached the group of white troops that looked like they came from North Africa, the river manager suddenly felt a little nervous, and he had some bad premonitions.

   Sure enough, when he saw a dozen ships in front of him that were countless times larger than himself, including the chief executive, he was stunned.

  (end of this chapter)