Chapter 351 Past
Samuel: "In an unfamiliar environment, we must be more careful, especially in Eritrea. During the day we can overwhelm the indigenous people, but if it is night! Then we will face the threat of being cut off from the food road and being attacked risk."
Zapeto thinks he has determined why the Kingdom of Italy failed in the Italian-Austrian War. Even the "military genius" of the kingdom is so timid as a mouse, how can it fight against the mighty Austro-Hungarian Empire!
So Zapeto said with some contempt: "Hahaha, general! You think too highly of the Abyssinians, can they still hold spears against the fully armed Italian army?"
Seeing that Sapeto was so blind, Samuel shook his head and said: "Mr. Sapeto, if you think so, you are very wrong!"
Sappeto: "What advice does the General have?"
Samuel: "Do you know how I made my fortune in war?"
Zapeto shook his head.
Samuel recalled: "When I first joined the army, because the kingdom faced the threat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the conscription was very hasty, and the company I was in could be said to be a group of farmers who had just put down their hoes from the fields. They can't even distinguish between left and right, and they are even more at a loss about military orders. I am also a fledgling young man, and I don't know anything about military affairs, not to mention a little. Is there any hope for the Austro-Hungarian Empire?"
Zapeto shook his head, and said in a firm tone: "No."
In fact, he himself was a soldier, and he has a better understanding of these things, otherwise he would not have retired to Eritrea to colonize.
Samuel went on to say: "This is not the worst. No matter how stupid a person is, he knows how to advance and retreat on the battlefield. If a farmer holds a weapon in his hand, even if he can't aim it, he can still put pressure on the enemy. But you You know! In my company, only half of the people are assigned guns, and there are even old antiques left over from the Napoleonic era, but even old antiques are a luxury for some people, and everyone can only take turns during training. A batch of rifles were withdrawn from the front line only when it was time to go to the front line, and there were various problems, some of which could not be used at all, which was a disaster for me as a fledgling.”
Sappetto said in disbelief: "The kingdom is not even equipped with rifles!"
Samuel: "I thought the same way, but this kind of thing really happened to me. When I reported this problem to my superiors, the pig-headed and fat-brained battalion commander told me that the kingdom faced Austria. The Hungarian Empire’s surprise attack was insufficiently prepared, but in fact our mobilization was carried out long before the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire hadn’t even fought at that time.”
Zapeto scolded angrily: "This group of damned corrupt officials! It's been decades! They still haven't made any progress! It was the same when I was a soldier. Funding, I bet, your guns may not have been shipped from the factory at all, and they will be evened out!"
Samuel: "Hehe, I bet that most of the soldiers did not get the military expenses for the Italian-Austrian War. Apart from the sacrifices, there was also a shortage of funds after the war. They have been in arrears. This is still not required by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the case of compensation."
After hearing this, Zapeto changed his view of Samuel. He respectfully asked Samuel: "General, in this case, how did you defeat the Austro-Hungarian army?"
"It's easy, sneak attack!"
"Sneak attack!"
Samuel: "Yes, although this is disgraceful, it is my secret to victory. After all, when the Kingdom of Italy is alive and dead, there is no need to think too much about the choice of tactics."
In this era, wars in European countries are like this. They preach the so-called chivalry and defeat the enemy dignifiedly. Although there are always people who break the rules in actual wars, the most typical one is the student of Hechingen Military Academy who is keen on "sneak attack" and "guerrilla". , This has a lot to do with the textbooks they study. A large number of oriental military classics have been added to the textbooks to broaden the horizons of the students of the Hechingen Military Academy.
Samuel: "The enemies in my area are mainly the coalition forces of the two kingdoms of Austria and Hungary. I know that the soldiers of the Austria-Hungary Empire are well-trained, but many of their troops are organized according to ethnic groups. In this way, in terms of command, Austria There is no way to be perfect, they will always make mistakes, and the performance of the Austro-Hungarian army confirmed my thinking."
"Some troops in the Austro-Hungarian Army often acted against common sense, which allowed me to seize the opportunity. In the early days, because of the inferior equipment, the troops I led often attacked the Austro-Hungarian Empire at night. , touched the vicinity of the Austro-Hungarian army, and took the initiative to fight with them. The Austrian Vorndel rifle is very advanced. Not only is it loaded and fired faster, but its accuracy is much higher than ours. Not to mention the Vorndel rifle, it is the Hungarian Loren The Zeus rifles are also more advanced than the rags in our hands, and they have artillery blessings of various calibers, so I know that the only way to compete with the Austro-Hungarian army is close combat."
Samuel: "Otherwise, you will suffer huge casualties, and you will not cause the same trauma to the enemy. Unless you use several times the superior force and fill in more human lives, it is possible to exchange for an insignificant victory, but Austria The size of the Hungarian Empire was already bigger than ours, so it will be more and more unfavorable to the Kingdom of Italy, which is also the lesson I learned when I first fought against the Austro-Hungarian Empire."
"General, you have failed too!"
"It's not a failure. It's just that I didn't have enough experience on the battlefield for the first time, which caused some losses. I changed my strategy in time when I realized that things couldn't be done. In fact, we didn't take much action. Did not give us the opportunity to attack on a large scale."
"Then how do you deal with enemy fire?"
"With the help of the terrain, retreat in an orderly manner, do not confront the Austro-Hungarian Empire during the day, and find the place back at night,"
"Then how do you respond to the orders of your superiors! If the superiors don't let you retreat, resist to the end?"
Samuel laughed out loud when he heard Sapeto's words: "Hahaha, do you count on the orders from above! In fact, the Italian army has been retreating, the command system has long since disappeared, and everyone is running for their lives. My earliest The battalion commander disappeared when the war broke out, but they didn't know that the faster they escaped, the easier it would be to be completely wiped out by the Austro-Hungarian army. Seeing that Italy was timid before fighting, the morale of the Austro-Hungarian army was greatly improved, so I When commanding the troops, they were never in sync with the friendly forces, and even if they wanted to escape, they could not let the Austro-Hungarian army seize the opening and let the pursuers throw rats."
"If the command system fails, how do you get ammunition and other supplies?"
Samuel: "To put it bluntly, the kingdom's supplies to the cannon fodder troops are completely zero, so my troops mainly rely on the weapons captured from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Vorndel rifles from the Austro-Hungarian Empire are much more reliable than our own weapons. That's why I don't underestimate the Abyssinian Empire. When I faced the powerful Austro-Hungarian army, I also used a lot of cold weapons. In hand-to-hand combat, machetes are much more reliable than the kingdom's antique rifles. I can This is how they dealt with the Austro-Hungarian army, so why can't the natives use the same method to deal with me!"
Samuel himself is familiar with this set. He does not believe that the Abyssinian Empire, an empire with a history of thousands of years and a population of tens of millions, has no people like him.
After listening to Samuel's experience, Zapeto respected the young general in front of him: "General Samuel, you are a real soldier!"
Samuel sighed: "I just did what a soldier should do, not what they call a military genius."
Samuel was still modest, but Zapeto admired the young man even more: "Your Excellency, I used to be a soldier of the Kingdom. After retiring, I have made some achievements in Eritrea. I am familiar with the local area. From now on, I will fully support him. Cooperate with all your orders."
Samuel: "Mr. Sapeto, thank you for your support. I really need the experience of an elder like you in Eritrea."
So Samuel began to ask Zapeto about all aspects of the Abyssinian Empire and the situation of surrounding forces.
Sapeto: "As far as the surrounding area of the Abyssinian Empire is concerned, because of the opening of the Suez Canal, there are indeed many new forces nearby. In addition to our Italy, there are also Britain and France, Egypt and the Ottoman Empire. The Kingdom of East Africa, the Kingdom of East Africa should belong to the power of the Germans."
Samuel: "The Kingdom of East Africa? The one related to Austria!"
Samuel remembered that when the Kingdom of East Africa was established last year, the first to support it was the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Austrians in the Austro-Hungarian Empire were Germans.
"There is some relationship, but it's not a big problem. As long as we don't provoke them, it doesn't matter. The monarch of this East African kingdom is Prince Constantine of the Hohenzollern family, so I think they should have a better relationship with Germany, while Prussia and We have a good relationship with the Kingdom of Italy, and if we communicate well, it might be able to provide us with some help."
Samuel: "That's good, I'm just worried that if they are with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, they will hinder our actions."
In fact, East Africa does not have the leisure to pay attention to the Kingdom of Italy. Even if Italy turns the Abyssinian Empire upside down, it doesn't matter. The Boers are the most important concerns of the Kingdom of East Africa.
Later, Samuel asked Zapeto for a lot of information, covering all aspects of the Abyssinian Empire, but Zapeto, who can't even handle the port of Assab, doesn't know much about Abyssinia.
Samuel: "We still don't know much about the Abyssinian Empire. In this way, we will start with intelligence first, and then formulate a reliable plan after thoroughly studying the Abyssinian Empire. Allow us to make mistakes."
(end of this chapter)