In South Africa, the British army, which had swept all before it, finally ran into trouble. After pushing deep into Transvaal, it was met head-on by the long-prepared private armies of Austrian nobles. The vanguard suffered devastating losses.
The British had only themselves to blame for their arrogance. Their string of victories had made them proud, and they had overlooked the fact that their early successes had been achieved with the help of local collaborators. Otherwise, they would not have rashly split their forces and advanced.
In fact, someone had provided the British with this intelligence as soon as the war broke out, but it had failed to draw their attention.
What was a mere merchant caravan? In these times, who among those trading in Africa did not have a few lives on their hands? In the British mind, the private armies of nobles were nothing more than caravan guards.
When they heard there were only two or three thousand of them, scattered among more than a dozen groups, they were completely reassured. In their view, when faced with such a situation, those people would naturally flee at the first opportunity.
This information was never reported upward. Although the Boers had defected to them, their status was too low for them to have access to the British high command.
Governor Delfo had not received any related intelligence from beginning to end. Even if he had, he might not have taken it seriously. The disparity in numbers was simply too great for them to pose any threat.
It was only after the frontline defeat that Governor Delfo received the intelligence. By then, there were no longer merely two or three thousand men.
Under British pressure, Viscount Fikeni smoothly took control of the Boer Republic's military and political authority. At the same