Chapter 350 New players in Africa
While the Far East Assistance Mission was staying in Dar es Salaam, new changes were taking place on the African continent.
May 13, 1871.
After gaining the support of the British, the Kingdom of Italy embarked on the road of repaying its debts, and the Kingdom of Italy was already so poor that it only had debts left, so it could only transfer the debts through colonization.
An infantry division of the Kingdom of Italy landed in the port of Assab on the coast of the Red Sea, and the Italian government officially opened its own colonial road.
This is very important for the Kingdom of Italy. If the anger of the people cannot be alleviated through the colonial route, the Kingdom of Italy may explode in situ at any time.
Port of Assab.
After simple intimidation, on the morning of May 13, the Italian government drove the Egyptians out of Assab.
After all, Eritrea is too far away from the mainland of Egypt. It is easy for the defenders of Assab City in Egypt to deal with colonial gangs like the Rubatino Company. However, when the Italian Army landed, the defenders of Assab City immediately gave up their defense. , The entire Assab City defenders have only one battalion of soldiers, and the gap is obvious in front of a division in Italy.
And the worst thing is that the Rubatino company in the city and the docks launched a rebellion at the right time, occupying a series of important facilities including the docks, and bought precious time for the Royal Italian Army to land.
The First Division of the Abyssinian Expeditionary Force of the Kingdom of Italy won the first battle and won this important stronghold from Egypt.
After the first division entered the city of Assab, Sapeto, the boss of Rubatino Company, came to greet him personally: "General Samuel, hello, I am the boss of Rubatino Company, Giuseppe Sapeto !"
First Division Commander Samuel: "Mr. Giuseppe Sapeto, thank you for your support to the motherland. The Italian people will never forget your contribution."
Samuel was the general with the most outstanding record in the Italian-Austrian War. He passed the military exploits all the way and was promoted from company commander to brigade commander. He did not lose a single battle from the beginning to the end of the war. However, the Kingdom of Italy still failed because of the incompetence of friendly forces.
After the war, the Royal Italian Army found that Samuel, a commoner-born general, was much stronger than those Italian noble officers who had no cadavers. The failure was due to the fact that the enemy was too strong, and facing the Austro-Hungarian Empire, why did Samuel have an outstanding record!
yes! Why? That's certainly not because the army of the Kingdom of Italy is incompetent. After all, the Austro-Hungarian Empire is the top power in the world, and it's normal that the Kingdom of Italy can't beat it.
Sappeto: "Where, General Samuel, compared with me, you are the real hero of the Kingdom of Italy. It's a pity that you appeared too late. If you became a senior general earlier, you will definitely be able to lead the Kingdom of Italy to victory!"
Zapetto didn’t compliment him. He really believed that Samuel, who had been packaged by the Italian Army, was already a national hero in Italy, and was used to restore the poor self-esteem of the people of the Italian Kingdom.
Samuel: "No, Mr. Sapeto, if Italy wants to get out of the crisis, all Italians need to work together. It won't work if you lose anyone. I'm just an Italian with better luck, but our entire country The fate is not as lucky as mine, which is painful for every Italian, so we should unite and fight against this tragic fate of Italy!"
Samuel has always been a humble person in front of outsiders, so before the war came, he remained unknown.
He is not good at packaging himself, which is very unfriendly to his promotion path. If he was in peacetime, he would definitely not make a fortune, but he encountered war, and it was the most miserable time for the Kingdom of Italy.
The reason why Samuel was able to take the position of company commander before the outbreak of the war was due to his own talents and his junior high school education, which made him automatically become a company commander when Italy expanded its army.
Although he came from a commoner family, Samuel's family was not very poor, and even a little rich, which is why he was able to complete his junior high school education.
Although Samuel is known as a famous general, and there are ingredients in the Italian Army packaging, he has real abilities.
When fighting against the Austro-Hungarian Empire, they are generally more stable. When the enemy is strong and we are weak, they will not take risks easily, but once they find the flaws of the Austro-Hungarian army, they immediately bite the enemy fiercely like a lion. At the same time, before the arrival of enemy reinforcements, slip away quickly and never love to fight.
Sapeto: "General! You are too modest. This time our enemy is not an invincible existence like the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but just an indigenous country in East Africa, so I believe that the Royal Army will easily solve Abyssinia."
Samuel shook his head and said: "We can't underestimate any opponent, even the natives. Just like in Europe, no one would have thought that Prussia could easily defeat the mighty France before the war. If we don't pay enough attention to the enemy and attack rashly, It will only leave a hole and be defeated by the enemy, this is the experience I learned in the Austro-Hungarian army!"
Sapeto doubted Samuel's ability: "Actually, the British used only a small number of colonial troops to split the Abyssinian Empire, and the emperor committed suicide, so Abyssinia is not strong, or Said it was weak."
Samuel: "The British can do it, but it doesn't mean that Italy can do it, because the purposes of our two countries are different. The reason why the British launched the war was to demonstrate, while our Italians are for the living space of the entire nation. There is an essential difference. The war launched by the British will only allow the ambitious people of the Abyssinian Empire to cooperate with them to bring down their own emperor, while the purpose of our Italian nation is to obtain land. This is for the Abyssinian Empire They will unite and fight against us in the whole of Ethiopia, even to the last person. Therefore, every step of ours must be sloppy, and we must overturn in Abyssinia. Italy has already bet its future fate Here it is."
Samuel is very clear that the invasion of Abyssinia by the Kingdom of Italy is fundamentally different from that of the United Kingdom. The British are only for hegemony, while Italy is simply subjugating the "enemy" and exterminating the country, vacating the land to feed Italy.
Every next step of the Kingdom of Italy must be well designed so that the Abyssinian Empire cannot discover its true intentions. It is necessary to ensure that the Abyssinian Empire remains divided and cannot be united, so that the Kingdom of Italy can treat the Abyssinians The forces of the Asian Empire were defeated one by one.
(end of this chapter)