Chapter 350 New African Players
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 winning the support of the British, the Kingdom of Italy embarked on the path of repaying its debts. However, the Kingdom of Italy was already so poor that it only had debts left, so it could only pass on the debts through colonization.
An infantry division of the Kingdom of Italy landed at the port of Assab on the Red Sea coast, and the Italian government officially started its own colonial path.
This is very important to the Kingdom of Italy. If the anger of the people cannot be alleviated through colonial routes, the Kingdom of Italy may explode at any time.
Port of Assab.
After simple intimidation, on the morning of May 13, the Italian Royal Government expelled the Egyptians from Assab.
After all, Eritrea is too far away from the Egyptian mainland. It is easy for Egypt's Assab City defenders to deal with colonial gangs like Rubatino Company. However, when the Italian Army landed, the Assab City defenders immediately gave up their defense. , the entire Assab City garrison only had one battalion, and the gap was obvious in front of an Italian division.
And the worst thing was that the Rubatino Company in the city and the dock launched a rebellion at the right time and occupied a series of important facilities including the dock, buying 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 obtained this important stronghold from Egypt.
After the First Division entered the city of Assab, the boss of Rubatino Company, Sarpetto, came to greet him personally: "Hello, General Samuel, I am the boss of Rubatino Company, Giuseppe Sarpetto. !”
Samuel, Commander of the First Division: "Mr. Giuseppe Sarpeto, thank you for your support to the motherland. The Italian people will never forget your contribution."
Samuel was the most outstanding general in the Italian-Austrian War. He was promoted from company commander to brigade commander through military exploits. He did not lose a single battle from the beginning to the end. However, due to the incompetence of the friendly forces, the Kingdom of Italy still failed.
After the war, when the Royal Italian Army reviewed the war, it was discovered that Samuel, a general of civilian origin, was much stronger than those Italian aristocratic officers with high qualifications. Although, almost all of the top army officials were of aristocratic origin, which did not prevent them from conquering Italy. The failure was attributed to the enemy being too powerful, and facing the Austro-Hungarian Empire, why was Samuel able to perform well!
yes! Why? That is certainly not because the Kingdom of Italy’s army is incompetent. After all, the Austro-Hungarian Empire is the world’s top power, and it is only normal that the Kingdom of Italy cannot defeat it.
As for Samuel, he could continue to win because he was a natural military talent like Albrecht. By elevating enemies and elevating colleagues, the Army can get rid of its own culpability.
Sarpeto: "No, General Samuel, compared to me, you are the real hero of the Kingdom of Italy. It's a pity that you appeared too late. If you had become a senior general earlier, you would have definitely led the Kingdom of Italy to victory!"
Sarpeto was not flattering. He really believed that Samuel, who had been packaged by the Italian Army, was already a national hero of Italy, and was used to restore the poor self-esteem of the people of the Kingdom of Italy.
Samuel: "No, no, Mr. Sarpeto, if Italy wants to get out of the crisis, it requires the joint efforts of all Italians. It is impossible to lose anyone. I am just an Italian with better luck, but our entire country's The fate is not as lucky as mine, which is painful for every Italian, so we should unite to fight Italy's tragic fate!"
Samuel has always been a humble person in front of outsiders, so he remained unknown until the war came.
He is not good at packaging himself, which is very unfriendly to his promotion. If it were in peacetime, he would definitely not be successful, but he encountered a war, and it was at the most miserable time in the Kingdom of Italy.
The reason why Samuel was able to sit in the position of company commander before the outbreak of the war was because of his talents and junior high school education, which allowed him to automatically become a company commander when the Italian army expanded.
Although he comes from a civilian family, Samuel's family is not very poor, and is even somewhat wealthy. This is why he was able to complete his junior high school education.
Although Samuel is touted as a famous general and contains elements of the Italian Army packaging, he himself has real abilities.
When fighting against the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he was generally relatively cautious. When the enemy was strong and we were weak, he would never take risks easily. However, once he discovered a flaw in the Austro-Hungarian army, he immediately bit the enemy like a lion. At the same time, before the enemy's reinforcements arrive, quickly slip away and never stop fighting.
Sarpeto: "General! You are too modest. This time our enemy is not an invincible existence like the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It is just an indigenous country in East Africa. So I believe that the Kingdom's army will easily solve Abyssinia."
Samuel shook his head and said: "We cannot underestimate any opponent, even the indigenous people. Just like in Europe, no one would have thought that Prussia could easily defeat the powerful France before the war. If we don't pay enough attention to the enemy and attack rashly, It will only leave holes and be defeated by the enemy. This is the experience I learned from the Austro-Hungarian Army!"
Sarpeto was somewhat doubtful of Samuel's ability: "In fact, the British used only a very small colonial army to fragment the Abyssinian Empire and the emperor committed suicide, so Abyssinia is not considered strong, or Said it was very weak.”
Samuel: "The British can do it, but that doesn't mean that Italy can do it, because the purposes of our two countries are different. The reason why the British started the war is to demonstrate, and we in Italy do it for the living space of the entire nation. This There is an essential difference. The war launched by the British will only make the careerists of the Abyssinian Empire cooperate with them to bring down their emperor, while the purpose of our Italian nation is to obtain land, which is not good for the Abyssinian Empire. Even if we want to kill them, they will unite and fight with us throughout Ethiopia, even to the last man. Therefore, every step we take must be careless. We must overturn in Abyssinia. Italy has already gambled its future destiny. Here it is.”
Samuel knew very well that the Italian Kingdom's invasion of Abyssinia was fundamentally different from the British. The British were just for hegemony, while Italy was simply carrying out national subjugation and genocide against the "enemy", vacating the land and feeding the Italian mainland.
Every next step of the Kingdom of Italy must be well designed to prevent the Abyssinian Empire from discovering its true intentions. It must ensure that the Abyssinian Empire remains divided and cannot be united, so that the Kingdom of Italy can attack the Abyssinian Empire. The forces of the sub-empire were defeated one by one.