As the East African Army closed in step by step, only about five hundred meters remained between the two forces.
Wiggins was still waiting for the East Africans to enter range, but the East African Army would not give him that chance, because this distance was already within the Dreyse rifle's effective range.
The Dreyse rifle had a maximum range of around six hundred meters, while the rifles equipped by the Ndebele people could reach no farther than three hundred meters. At five hundred meters, the Dreyse rifle could still exert roughly sixty percent of its power. That was enough.
"Fire!" the East African commanders ordered.
The East African Army suddenly struck, and the crack of Dreyse rifles shattered the oppressive silence between the two sides.
"Bang... Bang... Bang..."
The East Africans' sudden opening fire caught Wiggins completely off guard. "What's going on? These East Africans—"
Before he could finish, Ndebele soldiers in the front ranks had already been hit, dropping in swathes. The Ndebele warriors were also stunned by the East Africans' sudden fire. Without orders, some instinctively began firing back at the East African Army, an instinctive reaction triggered by the warning of danger.
But the East Africans had fired first, and the sight of comrades falling around them threw the Ndebele warriors, who had received only brief Boer training, into disarray. Mistakes sprang up one after another. Some soldiers in the second row even fired directly into the surviving comrades in front of them in their panic.
"You..."
The Ndebele warrior shot in the back by his own side fell unwillingly into a pool of blood, his eyes wide open.
The entire Ndebele camp descended into chaos, curses, wails, and gunfire tangled together.
Wiggins froze for a moment, then immediately came to his senses. "Damn it! Who