Chapter 23 Original Sin
Henry would ask Rock about the progress every day. Rock would go to the temporary resting point three times a day, morning, noon and evening, to see if the informant had any news to report back.
There is no news. It’s normal that there is no news just two days after the tip was released.
Rock couldn't just stick to one thing, so he spent half a day sorting out information in the police station's archives. Based on the Boers' previous criminal records, Rock circled out a dozen Boers who might have known about the crime.
"These Boers all have criminal records. Some of them are probably no longer in Cape Town or died on Robben Island, but some are definitely still alive. I want to find them and see if they know anything, but we need an excuse, otherwise we will alert the real rioters." Rock was not sure whether Zack and the others could find clues about the rioters. After all, they had been imprisoned on Robben Island for a long time. Even if they returned to the Boers, it would take time to find clues. Relatively speaking, these people were more informed, after all, they had been living in Cape Town.
"What excuse do you need? It's enough that they are suspects. There's no need for us to take action. Just wait, I'll go find the inspector." It has to be said that Rock still didn't understand how arrogant the British were these days. Henry took the blame and didn't think it was a scapegoat at all.
After much shoving, Austin Pence assigned Sharma the offending task. This is the consequence of having no backing, being cuckolded and taking the blame while watching others fire cannons. Even the artillery unit's kitchen staff aren't so miserable.
Gunfire rang out one after another in the training ground. The commandos were seizing the time to familiarize themselves with their weapons, not only pistols, but also rifles. There is still a big difference between Lee Enfield and Martini Henry. Every drop of sweat shed now will mean every drop of blood shed less in the war.
"This gun is much better than the Martini Henry we used before. The Martini Henry too much recoil. If you are weak, you can't stand firing more than ten shots in a row. Your shoulder will hurt for several days. This gun has little recoil, high accuracy, and a shooting speed comparable to a pistol, and there is not that much smoke. My brothers have each fired at least three or four hundred rounds of bullets in the past two days, and the results are better than before." Anton praised the Lee Enfield. Compared with the Martini Henry rifle, the performance of the Lee Enfield has improved a lot. Until the 21st century, some countries are still using the Lee Enfield.
In the past in the Huayong Battalion, the Huayong soldiers were praised as "sharpshooters". They definitely had the foundation. Now that their weapons are more advanced and the logistics are more powerful, they should have better results.
Relatively speaking, the Indian police and the Boer police are much worse. The Boer police are better. The Indian police don't seem to be very interested in weapons. The pistols have been issued for several days. Rock has rarely seen Indian police in the training ground. Rock estimates that most of the Indian police don't know how to shoot, let alone maintain their weapons.
"We must speed up the training. Don't think that we don't have to go to the battlefield just because we are police officers. The situation in Cape Town will be very chaotic in the next few years. I will go to the inspector and see if we can get a few horses. We brothers also have to practice our riding skills." Rock has long-term ideas. Compared with the Boers and Indians, the quality of the Chinese police is excellent. Rock hopes that the Chinese police can attract the attention of the British with their strength.
Speaking of the riding skills of the Chinese police officers, we have to thank the British. In order to make the Chinese brave men serve in the Chinese Brave Camp with peace of mind, the British have formulated many benefits, including allowing the Chinese brave men to borrow military horses from the barracks, allowing them to hunt rabbits in the dry fields for two days a week for fun . In addition, the polo field and football field in the barracks will be open to the Chinese brave men all year round. As long as they are willing, the Chinese brave men have many opportunities to get in touch with new things. Rock is a polo master.
"Police officers also have to go to the battlefield?" Anton didn't expect that being a police officer could be so dangerous.
"Not now, maybe in the future." Rock couldn't say too much, as saying too much would reveal the secret.
There is now a large army gathered in Cape Town, so of course Rock and his men don't need to go to the battlefield. However, when the army withdraws, the Cape Colony will still have to deal with the endless stream of Boer guerrillas. At that time, the police who maintain law and order will have to face the attacks of the guerrillas. Compared with the guerrillas, the attacks of these rioters are just child's play.
Yes, it is the guerrillas. The Second Boer War can be regarded as the largest war in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In this war, many important modern combat theories emerged or played an important role for the first time.
On the Boer side, the German General Staff sent military advisers to Transvaal and Orange, and Switzerland, the Netherlands, France and other countries also sent military observers to South Africa.
Inspired by the British's use of railways to quickly mobilize troops and gain an overwhelming advantage over the Boers, the German General Staff deepened its reliance on the doctrine of "total war."
Switzerland, on the other hand, established its own unique national defense system based on the Boers’ military idea of “everyone is a soldier”.
At the same time, many new terms also appeared, such as "guerrillas", "concentration camp", and the "bunker tactics" and "scorched earth policy" implemented by Kitchener, the then commander-in-chief of the British Expeditionary Force. Do they look familiar?
Yes, that is what Japan used during its war of aggression against China. Even the British were no less cruel than the Japanese.
Most of the Chinese police officers were training seriously, only a few were absent-minded. Luo Yi was one of them. The number of bullet casings on the ground was proof of that. There were dozens of bullet casings piled up around other people, but there were only a dozen or so around Luo Yi. Rock saw it, but did not say much. Rock's behavior in the past few days had too much of an impact on the Chinese police officers, and they still needed time to digest it all.
Before Rock became a Cape Town citizen, all Chinese police officers planned to fulfill their five-year contracts with the Cape Town Police Department and then return to China with the money they earned. No one wanted to stay in Cape Town.
Rock's naturalization in Cape Town set a good example for other Chinese police officers. As far as Rock knew, in just two days, seven or eight Chinese police officers had become Cape Town citizens and decided to settle down in Cape Town and not return to the Qing Dynasty.
The rest of the people were also hesitating. Although it was hard to leave their hometown, the benefits of becoming a Cape Town citizen were there. Seeing their companions getting a salary of five pounds, who would be willing to only get 1.2 pounds a month?
With the supervisor's urging, Sharma was finally efficient for once. He captured the two Boers before leaving get off work at noon. Rock immediately started working and began to interrogate the two Boers.
Yes, it was an interrogation. Although these two Boers had committed no crime, according to the British, being born a Boer was a crime in itself, and there was no need for any reason to arrest and torture them.
