Before the East African Army arrived, Wiggins, who had taken over Pretoria, made major changes to Pretoria's defenses within three days. He not only temporarily heightened and reinforced the city walls, but also had trenches dug around Pretoria.
Although the Republic of the Transvaal did not have many Boers, it had quite a few black slaves. Wiggins did not care in the slightest whether the black slaves lived or died. He organized large numbers of slaves, and in a short time resolved Pretoria's military construction problems.
At this point, there were fewer than ten thousand Boers left in all of Pretoria. Little Pretoria had taken a considerable number away, and when some residents saw that even the president had run off, they followed suit.
Fortunately, Wiggins promptly launched "patriotic" education and forcibly kept the remaining people behind. Faced with East Africa's enormous military force, Wiggins had only two thousand white soldiers under his command, so it was necessary to replenish the army with black slaves. Though this carried certain risks, Wiggins still selected more than ten thousand black people and incorporated them into the force, temporarily issuing them firearms and promising them freedom after the war.
Thanks to their previous experience aiding the Ndebele people, the Boers had stockpiled a batch of weapons and ammunition, which Wiggins distributed to the black slaves.
The black slaves and Boers were mixed together in the ranks, with the Boers mainly responsible for command. To give these patriotic youths some experience of war, Wiggins made sure every one of them had an official position, assigning several slaves under every three men. This indeed greatly boosted the Boers' enthusiasm for battle.
Playing the patriotism card, Wiggins named his troops the "Youth Patriotic Army." It suited the image of his force perfectly. Those old hands would