Calling for a halt, Zlingi, the tribe leader, peeked through the dense vegetation. A hostile takeover wasn’t easy. The enemy camp of Crazou, the ruthless warlord lay ahead of him. There were scouts all around and to get to the camp they needed to retain an element of surprise. Zlingi called for the decoys.
The enemy camp was not vastly large, but it had important supplies that Zlingi’s small tribe required. The camp had a small gravel pathway leading up to it. It was completely surrounded by thick vegetation in which Zlingi and his men hid. The decoys were two of Zlingi’s men, they would divert the attention of the scouts and other men as Zlingi sneaked through.
It was immensely important that Zlingi was not spotted outside the camp. In Hillarie Belloc’s famous words ‘Whatever happens, we have got The Maxim gun, and they have not’. The Maxim gun invented by an American of the same name could spew bullets out one after the other. Unlike a conventional rifle which used by skilled hands, can fire two shots every ten seconds, the Maxim gun could fire fifty rounds by that time. Zlingi had to avoid the two shiny pieces of metal standing on top of the watch towers outside.
Zlingi had only twenty men with him and they were fitted against fifty of Crazou’s men. Zlingi’s men were armed with spears and blow darts while Zlingi himself armed himself with a revolver which he had looted off a passing British patrol. Africa was almost completely under the influence of foreign powers, the French, the Dutch, the Portuguese, and the British. The year being 1914 and the European superpowers were on the verge of tearing each other down at the approaching world war. But the British were clever, to control Nigeria they supplied weaponry to the Crazou and asked them to safeguard it whilst they would keep the territory under strict British power, this did not bode well with the tribes because they were pushed out of their homes into the forest which was perfectly fine with them except they didn’t want to be bullied.
Zlingi observed the decoys carefully. Zlingi was atop a tree from the eastern side of the wall. The decoys were heading to the gate from the North. The decoys approached the gate. They shouted ‘Hey! Those bastards of Zlingi burnt down all the boats’. All the guards were apprehensively looking at them, their attire was different. As the scouts, who were highly bored, watched the action. Zlingi ordered his men to jump the wall. Swiftly and stealthily, Zlingi’s men stole up the wall and they hadn’t even stood for a second before they took out their blowpipes and accurately launched darts at the guards near the watchtower and those wielding the heavy, immovable maxim guns. They fell down without a noise. Nobody below the watchtowers could see what happened to them.
But all of a sudden one of the guards was climbing up the ladder leading to the watchtower. Zlingi panicked, he tersely observed the guard climbing the ladder, and he was halfway through. If Zlingi were to shoot him now, then he would fall down and the alarm would be raised, but if he didn’t the guard would alert the others. Zlingi knew there was only one way he could prevent that, he took out his blowpipe and waited for a while as the guard ascended. The guard was happy to finally to reach the end of the ladder, the heat was killing him. He held the final rung and came upon the top and noticed the slumped body, a second later there were two slumped bodies.
Zlingi’s shot was perfect with the timing and execution being spot on. The guards standing below were busy interrogating the decoy men. Zlingi’s men slowly stole up to the Maxim gun. Zlingi got behind the Maxim gun turned it around and raised hell on the barracks below. The men kept coming and coming in waves of three or four and they all got sliced by the deadly, primitive machine gun. After two minutes of constant firing and all the ammunition had been used up, the men below were all full of smoking holes; some had lost arms and were shakily trying to stop the bleeding. There was nobody standing left to fight. Zlingi did not feel any emotion looking at all the death and carnage; he was trained to do this as a child. He was happy he hadn’t lost any men on his side. Twenty men had brought down fifty in a few minutes.
