It was a simple wagon travelling down the rocky road. Mountains in the horizon stood ominously on the horizon. The trees in the distance obscured their sight. The wild sheep chewed grass as the mosquitoes buzzed.
The group decided to little further away from civilization, but not too far away. A kilometre away from the nearest homesteads, but still a possibility of falling back.
The plan was simple. Through the trees, was estimated to be a site of a Zulu village. Smoke rising from the treetops confirmed their suspicions. It was too much to be the campfire of a single family. No, it was a communal campfire, likely to cook whatever they have hunted.
They will sneak in there, opening a couple of shots, to spread chaos throughout the village. Whilst the Zulus try to form up into their formations, they will head to the kraal where all the cattle are kept and open the gates. The Zulus will be too distracted with the cattle to focus on them, and they will sneak off with a couple of cattle.
Honestly, what could go wrong?
These groups of farmers were newcomers who came after the formation of the Republic. They had heard tales of the large amounts of cattle looted by Pretorius and his party during the various battles and wanted a piece of the pie. After all, they used guns, while the Zulus used spears, so it was obvious who will win.
The sound of vegetation being trampled stopped them in their tracks, and they fell to the ground. Clutching their rifles close by, they peeked to see a Zulu herding a couple of cattle back to their kraal. The cow lazily mooed as it munched on the grass. The elf urged it forward with a push.
“Follow him,” Their leader whispered in Dutch. The rest of the men nodded, and they slowly crept behind the young elf. Their barrels were all traced on him. They rather not shoot him since it alarmed the camp, but if they didn’t and the boy instead yelled, the result was no different. They would rather take the chance of the camp treating the gunfire as some distant noise from one of the nearby Boer homesteads.
The boy entered a clearing, where they suspected, stood a group of Zulu huts. A kraal was filled with cattle, and the boy opened the gates and ushered the cattle in. The cow slapped its tail against the boy’s face who probably swore angrily, before closing the gates. The cow mooed.
The boy then entered one of the huts, and the Boers raised their heads a little higher, trying to get a better view of their surroundings. In the middle, a big fire was being held, and a dead buffalo was lying on the ground. Elves were carving up the meat, preparing to cook it.
The Boer leading the group looked at his group of men, who eyed the cattle with greed. Their enthusiastic eyes encouraged him to reach for his gun. Cocking it, he aimed it to the sky and open-fired.
Bang!
The sound of the fire-eating wood echoed as the Zulus took some time to register the noise. At the same time, Boers were rushing to the kraal, leaping over a couple of fences. They shoved a couple of Zulus to the ground, hitting them a little, before heading to the centre of the village where the cattle were. Bashing down the fence, they pointed the guns at the nearby Zulus who cowered in fear of their guns. Grinning, the rest of the Boers surged forward.
The other unthreatened Zulus quickly picked up their spears and launched sporadic attacks. The Boers opened fire, cutting them down as the others herded the cattle out of the kraal. Their blood was pumping, and they could taste beef for dinner soon. However, a sudden gunshot had one of the Boers slumps a cattle.
“Which fucking idiot shot that shot!” The Boer leader yelled, and another shot was fired, taking down another man.
Doing a 360 scan, he finally found the culprits. They weren’t human. The elves that ran to their huts revealed their newly purchased firearms. The Boers baulked at that sight and raised their firearms back at the elves.
“I didn’t want to slaughter you all. But you gave us no choice,” The Boer grumbled, and urged their cattle to hurry on out as they returned fire. The elves ducked behind the fences, and the shots dug into the wood.
As the elves were busy reloading, those that weren’t armed with firearms began lobbing throwing spears, taking down a couple of men or the cattle they were riding on. The anguish cries of the Boers echoed throughout the forest.
They got to get out of there before another Zulu village came to their aid. But suddenly, the elves stopped chasing, and watched as they left with their cattle.
“Heh, heh,” The Boer laughed as they made out with cattle. Indeed, they will be eating beef for dinner!
“The Zulu Veldkornet Nokuthula is complaining about a group of Boers attacking a Zulu village in Zululand. They were last seen heading to the rural districts of the port,” Russell reported with a grimace.
Jan sighed and held his head with his hands. He swore, truly, those rural farmers were the biggest troublemakers. It's because they didn’t follow any central authority like the urban dwellers, and that’s why they spark incidents like these from time to time.
“Just as I was excited for our little excursion to Zoutpansberg, these fuckers had to ruin the atmosphere. I fear that instead of Boers trashing the town, it will be Zulus trashing the town this time.”
The fence that divided both sections of the town was closed for the day, and no one was to be granted entry. A small mob was forming in the Zulu section, no doubt seeking to pressure their inaction into action. Jan could have easily settled it like how politicians did, apologizing or whatnot. But that would likely displease the rural farmers, who saw him as submissive to the Zulus.
A Boer mob was also forming, likely out of fear of the Zulus tearing down the fence to tear them into pieces. They brought their guns. Men and even their children, young teenagers that were around 16 held their muskets, gulping at the Zulus.
“How should we deal with this? Should we have those farmers hanged for doing something as stupid as this?”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Russell shook his head.
“I’m afraid that’s not possible. I don’t even think the Zulus will be pleased. These men are associated with us, they also want retribution to fall upon us.”
“You suspect that they think we are the culprit?”
“If anything goes wrong, who would you blame? Even if we said we didn’t do it, they’ll say we orchestrated them to do it.”
“Should I press the Pretorius panic button? It feels extremely out of my hands. This can very easily turn into a shitshow,” Jan grumbled.
“I’ll send a message to Pretorius and let us see how he will respond. That man always acts immediately, so I don’t think we will have to wait for a reply. If he thinks he needs to do something, he will personally come here and fix it.”
Jan looked at the papers on his desk. Yet again, mass resignations from Zulu employees of the administration. Perhaps he should stop hiring Zulus in such important roles, there is no doubt incidents like these will happen time and time again. Should he let his administration collapse because the Zulus stop going to work?
But for the time being, he went with a strategy of appeasement and decided to visit the Zulu village where the Boers launched an attack. Nokuthula accompanied him, but she brought an entire entourage of Zulu warriors, intimidating him with his measly force of two Boers. The only reason he brought so little was that Nokuthula requested him to do so.
Likely, she needed to play a game of politics. And here, the men were surrounding the Boers glaring at them with fury. He kept a stone-cold expression, silencing the voice in his head that told him he was going to die today. The other Boers could not keep their cool and their nerves showed up by clutching onto their firearms for their dear lives.
“It looks like you came, weak Boer. For you cannot even reign in your people.”
Jan said nothing to those words. The Zulu chief presented the village, the kraal. A small fence surrounded the village in a circle. That circular fence surrounded various Zulu huts. And in the centre of the huts was a circular fence presumably for cattle. He could only assume based on the various droppings seen in the grass, they were reminiscent of those left behind by the cattle of farmers in the town.
“The group of men attacked from this direction,” Nokuthula pointed at a couple of trampled vegetation. Leading him to it, she asked him to stand there and looked at the holes in the fence.
“From here, they fired a couple of rounds to distract us.”
Pointing at the various footsteps leading to the fence, she pointed out the chip in the fence likely made from some object.
“A couple of them leapt in, and began attacking the nearby Zulus,” She pointed to a hut, where they tried their best to help the injured. They did their medical techniques in their hut, not wanting to show them their magical techniques. Shaka Zulu did say the Zulu way of life was superior to the European ways, perhaps their medicine was leap years ahead. Then again, human medical science was based on Galen for a time, who dissected animals like pigs and chimpanzees to determine the anatomical makeup of humans. So perhaps their ways were superior.
“Another group opened the gates and urged the cattle out. Then a firefight broke out at the same time,” She revealed an empty cartridge in her hand. On the other hand, were a couple of metal balls with some blood stains on them.
“Extracted from the patients” was all she had to say about the source of the bullets. But some were clean, lacking blood stains, while others were dirtied with dirt or mud.
“They carted off the cattle there,” She pointed at the flattened vegetation that was trampled by the herd of cattle.
“So, what do you plan on doing about this?” She threatened as the Zulu warrior tightened the circle that surrounded, making Jan and the surrounded Boers touch one another.
“I can assure you, we will find a solution to it,” Jan stammered, hoping that the little trip would end and he goes straight back to the town.
“I see.”
With that one remark, the men backed off, giving them room. The Boers heaved a sigh of relief.
“I don’t need an answer now. But I want it soon. I know where your office is. Don’t blame me if we show up uninvited.”
The town was chaotic and politically charged. All strata of society were discussing how to resolve this incident caused by the rural farmers.
“It’s simple, toss those fuckers to the Zulu dogs. They started it, they should suffer the consequences!” An urbanite hollered in the inn using Dutch.
A rural farmer who was eating in that inn stood up and glared at that man.
“Listen, fucker! The only reason this happened in the first place is because of you! All you city dwellers get to have nice salaries and eat good food. But what do I get on my shitty farm? I eat the same food every fucking day!”
“Well, just come here and get a job, you stupid farmer! Oh wait, you can’t read or write, then who’s fault is it!”
“Well fucker, I have a family to take care of. When do I have the time to go learn how to read and write? So, ask my children to manage the farm for me? They can’t even wipe their ass!”
The men were about to get into a fight, but men from their respective strata pulled them away from each other.
“Enough! Fuck! There’s a Zulu horde right outside the fence and you want to fight here. Get the fuck out of here!” The innkeeper hollered and pointed at the two men who sulked.
Posters were being put up by the youth in the town, who supported each party based on their various family background.
Jan could only watch as the town tore itself into pieces and sighed.
“Well, we can all agree that business will be bad, again,” Hein Hindriks glared at Veldkornet Pietje.
“This wouldn’t have happened if you didn’t buy up all the surrounding land. Where were the farmers you displaced going to go? Start a new farm somewhere else or work in your fields. These men chose to do the former. And naturally, they would feel it’s unfair and want to level the playing field!”
At its core, it was an argument against inequality. The urban Boers were more educated and more skilled and thus were highly paid compared to their rural counterparts. They were homesteaders who live off subsistence farming, they weren’t going to be rich.
That was why Pietje was sympathetic to the Boers who launched the cattle raid.
But Hein differed, as he saw those Boers as troublemakers. Trying to poke the sleeping bear.
“That doesn’t matter, someone will have to be responsible to Pretorius. If we start another war, all our heads will roll. I recommend giving in to their demands by handing over those men. Compensate them double the cattle that were stolen as blood money, and hope that things could smooth over. No one wants to start a cattle raid between one another.”
“Commando Jan Boddewijk, I can assure you, if you do as he says, you will lose your positions. The rural Boers will revolt. I say fuck them. I remembered you have recently procured artillery, bring them all over here and line them against the Zulu side of town. The Zulus won’t escalate with them in play. Then we punish those men ourselves. This is my word as your Veldkornet and as the head of the Boer Zuid Elfrica Coöperatie,” Pietje glared at Jan and threatened.
Interlocking his hands, he stayed in deep thought. Silence fell in the room. Footsteps could be heard coming from the stairs. A man leaned against the door frame, clutching a letter. It was the Head of Administration of Port Mpande, Russell Corbyn.
“Jan, a letter from Pretorius,” Russell conveyed with little enthusiasm before slapping the letter on the desk.
Jan sighed and opened it.
Dear Jan,
I’ve received your correspondence on the recent cattle raids conducted by men affiliated with you. I was thinking about stepping in to solve the issue, but I thought otherwise of it. As a Commando, this is an issue you should be able to deal with. Call it a test of sorts, I cannot have you rely on me to resolve every little situation you encounter. If you fail this test, I will ensure that you will be safely escorted back to your father’s district. A new, more capable Commando shall be installed.
Andries Pretorius
Jan shook his head.
“Pretorius ain’t coming.”
Hein and Pietje continued arguing with one another, thinking that if they won the argument, he would do as they said. But he kept silent, letting them argue. Naturally, he didn’t want either of them said.
There was no way to move, and if he pretended it never happened, the Zulus were going to escalate. Cattle raids would increase throughout Zululand, and his position would be axed. He needed more time to manoeuvre.
“Pietje, we’ll do as you say,”
The Veldkornet grinned, and Hein groaned.
“Get me all of our artillery and line them against Zulutown, I will not allow them to escalate things. However, I need more time. Lead me to the men who conducted the cattle raid, I have some questions to ask.”