Chapter 230: Killing the Chicken to Scare the Monkey

There are four major tribes living in Ivory Coast, among which the Akan and Kru tribes are closer to the French. The two tribes are relatively weak, so they need France to provide them with powerful weapons to protect themselves from being annexed.

The Mande and Vodak tribes are relatively large and more independent, but due to the backwardness of firearms and other reasons, they are often at a disadvantage in wars.

In addition to these four largest tribes, there are dozens of tribes of all sizes in Ivory Coast, but the number of people is usually only one or two thousand or even less.

Needless to say, the goods used by these two tribes for exchange are naturally slaves.

Although the French government has clearly banned the sale of black slaves, the price of slaves is too attractive and too tempting now. For slave traders, it is worth it even if they risk their lives to make a deal.

The French can exchange an old-fashioned Charleville flintlock in Ivory Coast for a strong slave, and then sell it to the United States for a sky-high price of 600 US dollars.

You should know that the price of a Charleville at this time is around 8 US dollars, and the profit difference of 75 times is enough to make people crazy.

Flor Martini was a French captain on the surface, but in fact he was the largest slave trader in Ivory Coast, with millions of francs in assets.

He sneered at the 20,000 francs offered by the Austrian envoy.

"Tell your archduke that this land will belong to France. If the fleet he brought is not withdrawn, it will sooner or later become a pile of rotten wood floating on the ocean."

The failure of the negotiation did not surprise Franz, but Friedrich felt insulted.

"Don't be angry, Uncle Friedrich."

"They are insulting us! A mere French captain, who does he think he is? That Corsican dwarf? You are so naive to try to negotiate with those slave traders. Remember, we have signed a treaty, and any country's warships have the right to sink the slave traders' ships."

Franz shook his head.

"There is no need for us to do it ourselves."

Friedrich immediately understood what Franz meant.

"Okay, I'll do it."

When the Austrian Navy's large ships appeared in the port, the chiefs of various tribes learned the news from their own scouts.

Afterwards, Franz invited the chiefs, hoping to trade with the tribes.

These indigenous tribes were eager for European goods, so they were naturally willing to trade with Austria, especially weapons, ammunition, ironware, medicines, and small crafts such as watches and compasses, while other things such as snuff and sugar were also hot sellers.

As for what to exchange, the first thing these indigenous tribes thought of was slaves, and even their own internal members could be sold openly.

However, Franz had no interest in slave trade, so the chiefs had to reluctantly take out the ivory, animal skins and food of their tribes.

In fact, these things were not very valuable to Austria, so Franz made several suggestions. One was that the natives could use labor to exchange for goods, and the other was that they could choose to grow coffee and cocoa, but the chiefs did not agree with this proposal.

Among them, the Akan tribe did not send anyone to the appointment. Although it was expected, Franz still felt unhappy.

However, because the other party was a group of natives, Friedrich's performance was not as fierce as before.

"Let's go and destroy the Akan tribe."

"Ah?" Friedrich thought he had heard wrong.

"We are going to fight. The Akan tribe humiliated us, and they must pay for it."

Although Franz said this, he had actually investigated long ago. This tribe is a die-hard supporter of the French. The entire tribe has only more than 10,000 people, but has more than 3,000 guns. Even the largest Voldak tribe in the entire Ivory Coast (30,000 people) dare not fight with them.

"Then tomorrow night, I will let the special forces blow up their arsenal first?"

"Uncle Friedrich, we don't have enough intelligence, so we should save the precious special forces."

"Then how to fight this war?"

"Directly fight head-on, this is the safest way."

In the absence of reliable and accurate intelligence support, rashly carrying out special operations is no different from sending yourself to die.

Although special forces are almost omnipotent in movies and games, in fact, once they are discovered in advance, their performance is not much better than ordinary infantry.

The safest way at this time is to fight head-on, so that the possibility of accidents is minimized and the effect is most obvious.

Moreover, Franz did not think that the Ivory Coast would be stronger than the Zulus, but even the Zulus could not defeat the chariot formation of 470 pioneers.

At this time, Franz's side had 1,500 marines, 1,000 professional dragoons, and a strong artillery team. Anyway, in terms of lineup alone, it was much stronger than the Dutch pioneers.

Of course, Franz did not want to go to the battlefield in person. He still felt that it was safer to stay on the ship. If there were any stray arrows or shrapnel flying on him, wouldn't he die before he could achieve his goal?

But Friedrich would not allow deserters in his team, even the royal family.

The war sacrifice of the Akan tribe predicted that their tribe would cover the earth with blood, thunder would fall from the sky, and the endless fire would devour everything.

At the beginning of the war, the warriors of the Akan tribe rushed towards the Austrian Marines with guns and shields like crazy.

You heard it right, one hand shield, one hand rifle. At that time, Africans believed that bullets were magic, and whether they could hit the target depended entirely on faith and the mood of God.

Due to the lack of roads and the lack of efficient transportation channels, large-caliber artillery could not be transported. The artillery only brought 1,000 rodless self-spinning Congreve rockets and four four-pound field guns.

Ten launch racks were built, and with the sound of "whoosh whoosh!", the gorgeous fireworks death flew towards the enemy at a speed of five rounds per minute.

When the rockets rose into the sky, the native warriors were dumbfounded. They saw those strange things spinning and rushing into the crowd, with huge explosions and flying flames. Everything was as predicted by the wizard.

It was just that it seemed that they were the ones being slaughtered. Before the native warriors had time to wake up from the shock, the Austrian infantry opened fire.

Dense bullets were fired at the natives who only had cowhide shields and grass skirts to protect themselves. Most of the bravest and strongest warriors in the tribes standing in the front fell down at once.

Although the shooting did not stop, the native soldiers who survived in a hellish environment were on the verge of collapse. However, the cruel battlefield would not give them any breathing space. They would only be greeted by the servants of the god of death.

As the young people of the Akan tribe continued to fall, looking at the battlefield with blood flowing like a river, the chief wanted to find the war priest to ask for clarification, but at this time the old wizard had been hit by a rocket and burned into a pile of charcoal.

Less than a quarter of an hour after the war started, the 5,000 warriors brought by Chief Akan had been defeated.

These warriors were fast and could escape even if they could not win the battle. However, this time they encountered the Austrian cavalry.

No matter how fast a person runs, he only has two legs. Soon those warriors were caught up by the horses.

The cavalry that Franz brought had a very complex structure and a wide variety of weapons, but there was no doubt that this unit was the strongest cavalry in Austria.

And the cavalry liked the fleeing enemy the most, and they could harvest lives with sabers, lances, and even revolvers.

In fact, the outcome of this battle was doomed from the beginning, and it could not even be called a battle. From the moment the cavalry attacked, it had become a one-sided massacre.