Chapter 378 has his own way
According to the plan he designed, Samuel calmly carried out surgical operations on the Abyssinian Empire, trying to use the division of the Abyssinian Empire to divide the southeastern region Some sixty to seventy thousand square kilometers of land were pried away from the Abyssinian Empire.
This area contains about a quarter of the high-quality arable land in Ethiopia in the past, but now it is completely undeveloped.
"General! This is a telegram from the country."
The Signal Corps took the telegram from the country by boat from Egypt to Desaix and then handed it over to Samuel.
Samuel read the telegram with a frown on his face.
Sapeto, the boss of Rubatino Company, noticed Samuel's expression and asked: "Your Excellency General! What order did the government give?"
Samuel shook his head and said : "That's not true, but some people in the country think that my current actions are too timid and not active enough in dealing with indigenous countries like the Abyssinian Empire."
Zapeto was a little embarrassed, he said: " Don’t they know how much military expenditure they have withheld? We spent two or three months just to ensure food supply for the troops with limited funds, but now we are timid!”
Samuel! : "This is not a big deal. I had already expected that some people in the country would be restless, especially after we obtained Desai City."
Although Samuel established a firm foothold in the Abyssinian Empire after occupying Desse, the large area of land from Assab Port to Desse, including the land to the north of the East African Rift Valley (south of which belonged to East Africa) Redava Military Town) have been included in the territory of the Kingdom of Italy. These lands are mainly deserts and a small amount of grassland, but their area has reached more than 50,000 square kilometers.
The current area of the Kingdom of Italy is only over 200,000 square kilometers. The numbers of the areas occupied by Samuel alone are enough to inspire most people, although many of them are barren lands unsuitable for human habitation.
Zarpeto: "It seems that they have forgotten the lessons of the Italian-Austrian War. They rashly started the war without understanding the movements of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. As a result, they encountered the elite troops of the Austro-Hungarian Empire head-on. The Bisinian Empire is not an existence that can be defeated in one blow. "
In the past few months, Sarpeto has been following Samuel, and he has gained a lot of experience, and he has learned about the warriors armed with Arab teachings. How difficult it is to deal with, and the more backward the Arabs are in areas, the more difficult it is to deal with them. Fortunately, General Samuel planned the strategy and handled it properly. He could predict the movements of the indigenous people in every decision-making step, smash the indigenous plots one by one, carry out sneak attacks, and guerrilla warfare. Samuel was unable to do anything. Instead, he lost his troops. When daylight came, Samuel The army was dispatched to encircle and suppress the villages, and even carried out extermination activities. Samuel did not care whether the resistance army was a good citizen. He only knew that the soil on which the guerrillas relied for survival was these villages rooted in the desert.
Although the Abyssinian Empire is dominated by the Orthodox Church, it is certainly not weak if it has been able to fight the Arabs for so many years. Even the Ottoman Empire in its heyday had no way to deal with the divided Abyssinian Empire. .
Samuel: "There is no other way. The news I got is that the kingdom may send troops to attack the Abyssinian Empire from the north in the future. They have already negotiated with Egypt and have the guarantee of the British. From Eritrea (Latin) , the Red Sea, which Italy calls this area, means the land along the Red Sea), attacked the Abyssinian Empire through the north."
Sapeto laughed directly: "They want to attack the Tigray region directly!"
Samuel was also infected and laughed, jokingly saying: "Maybe they don't know where Tigray is."
As the core of Abyssinia, the Tigray region has always been It is the most economically developed and armed region in the Abyssinian Empire. The capital Aksum is also located here. Johannes IV was responsible for the northern defense when he was the commander-in-chief of the northern fortress and dealt with the Egyptian army all year round.
So Tigray concentrated a large number of the population and troops of the Abyssinian Empire, which is why Samuel avoided the richer north and placed his bets in the south.
The remaining greatest threat to Samuel is the Kingdom of Shoa on the south bank of Lake Tana (the largest lake on the Ethiopian Plateau) within the Abyssinian Empire in the west. However, the Kingdom of Shoa and the North are constraining each other, and they are also afraid that the North will take the opportunity to move south. So choose passive defense. Historically, the Kingdom of Shoa was originally an ally of the Kingdom of Italy. Menelik II was able to successfully unify the country, and Italy made great efforts. In the end, Menelik II gave Italy a disastrous defeat, which made Italy lose face in Europe.
But in this dimension, the Kingdom of Shoa has no such opportunity. Italy is here to seize the land. With its clear goal, it is impossible to support its enemies.
The current attitude of the Shoa Kingdom or Menelik II towards the Italian invaders is that I will not attack others unless they attack me. Of course, it would be better if Italy could fight with the northern army of Johannes IV. He could just reap the benefits and finally unify the entire Abyssinian Empire, drive the Italians out and restore the glory of the empire.
However, when Menelik II met Samuel, his plan was doomed to fail. Samuel would not foolishly fight against Johannes IV. In the Italian-Austrian War, he learned The biggest experience is not to underestimate any opponent. Even if you want to solve the opponent, you should adopt the easy first and then the difficult method. Therefore, you can find a common point in his victory. Buy is that every time the Austro-Hungarian Empire army fails, it starts with the Hungarian army. started.
The easiest part of the entire Abyssinian Empire is the southeastern region. The forces here are mixed and there are no strong warlords. This means that there are no factions that can knead the local Abyssinians into a ball and cut off the local and the Abyssinian people. The connection in the north was completely leaderless.
Samuel said to Sarpeto: "No matter who the kingdom wants to send to the Abyssinian Empire to get a share of the pie, we don't need to care about it, since the kingdom has chosen to open a new battlefield in the north , then it has no contact with us, and we can ignore any non-local orders."
Samuel was also angry. He knew the nature of those aristocratic bureaucrats very well, and now it is up to him to look at himself. Some results feel like they are okay again.
Samuel then speculated: "The leader of the kingdom's new army must be a guy with a background. This kind of person is most likely to use chicken feathers as arrows. We'd better ignore them and find various excuses to get rid of them. Anyway, we will face the northern part of Desai with our own strength. The Abyssinian Empire, which is heavily defended, has trouble getting through, and the kingdom can’t find any reason to say that we don’t try our best.”
Zarpeto agreed, and now he has ten thousand for Samuel. recognition, because Samuel is always "right."
It can’t be said that Samuel was acting against the will. He also suffered a lot during the Italian-Austrian War. He was often deceived by his immediate superiors and colleagues. He agreed to let his troops fight for a while, and reinforcements would arrive immediately. In the end, let alone reinforcements, the rear The commander led the team and ran away long ago, and his colleagues often showed no mercy and remained motionless.
After several experiences, Samuel understood a truth, that is, you cannot believe a word of what your superiors and colleagues say. No matter how good the pie painting is, you have to find reasons to shirk it.
The consequence of this is that Samuel was very unsociable with his colleagues during the war, and was not popular with his immediate superiors, but he also avoided being led into the pit by his pig teammates.
The strength of the troops led by Samuel was also preserved, and occasionally the Austro-Hungarian Empire could fight back. When the war was over, Italy searched the entire army and could only find Samuel, the only undefeated general. , the noble generals could only pinch their noses to mold Samuel into a rising star in the army, and Samuel could only say that he relied entirely on the support of his peers.
So this time the kingdom opened a new battlefield, Samuel did not intend to participate. Samuel was even prepared to collect taxes in his own jurisdiction and recruit Italian immigrants to supplement his army.
According to his experience, if he does not cooperate with his colleagues' actions, they will definitely put their own shoes on him. Although his colleagues are very good, they have good fathers and are in the same group.
In this case, I am afraid that I will never see a penny of the military expenses that have been withheld in the future. I have encountered this situation when I was in Italy. Fortunately, I can fight on the spot in Italy. To replenish the troops and supply food and supplies, we relied entirely on donations from friendly forces in Hungary next door.
In the Abyssinian Empire, where you are unfamiliar with life, you still have to rely on yourself. From the day Samuel rose to power, he can say without any burden that his success is the result of his own efforts. .
(End of this chapter)