Chapter 351 Past

Samuel: "You have to be even more careful when you are in a strange environment, especially the environment in Eritrea. During the day, we can overwhelm the natives, but what if it is night! Then we are faced with the possibility of being cut off from food routes and being attacked by sneak attacks. risk."

Sarpeto thought he had determined why the Kingdom of Italy failed in the Italian-Austrian War. Even the kingdom's "military genius" was so cowardly as a mouse, how could it fight against the powerful Austro-Hungarian Empire!

So Sarpeto said with some contempt: "Hahaha, General! You think too highly of the Abyssinians. Can they still hold spears against the heavily armed Italian army?"

Seeing how blind Sarpeto was, Samuel shook his head and said, "Mr. Sarpeto, if you think so, you are totally wrong!"

Sarpeto: "What do you think, General?"

Samuel: "Do you know how I made my fortune in the war?"

Sarpeto shook his head.

Samuel recalled: "When I first joined the army, because the kingdom was facing the threat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the recruitment was very hasty, and my company could be said to be composed of a group of farmers who had just put down their hoes from the fields. They can't even tell the difference between left and right, and they are even more confused about military instructions. And I am also a fledgling young man. I don't know anything about military affairs. I don't think such an army is well-trained against Is there any hope for the Austro-Hungarian Empire?”

Sarpeto shook his head and said firmly: "No."

In fact, he himself served as a soldier and knew these things relatively well, otherwise he would not have gone to Eritrea to colonize after retiring.

Samuel continued: "This is not the worst. Even the stupidest people know how to advance and retreat on the battlefield. When a farmer gets a weapon, he can put pressure on the enemy even if he cannot aim accurately. But you You know! Only half of the people in my company are assigned guns, and there are even old antiques left over from the Napoleonic era. But even antiques are a luxury for some people. During training, everyone can only take turns. It wasn't until we were about to go to the front line that a batch of rifles were withdrawn from the front line, and there were constant problems, and some simply couldn't be used. This was a disaster for me as a fledgling."

Sarpeto said in disbelief: "It's not like the kingdom doesn't even have rifles!"

Samuel: "I thought so too, but this kind of thing really happened to me. When I reported this issue to my superiors, the fat-headed battalion commander at the time told me that the Kingdom was facing Austria. The Hungarian Empire was poorly prepared for the sneak attack, but in fact our mobilization had been carried out long before the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war, and at that time the Austro-Hungarian Empire had not even come over."

Sarpeto cursed angrily: "These damn corrupt officials! It's been decades! They still haven't made any progress! It was the same when I was a soldier, but it wasn't like we didn't even have guns at that time, but corrupt soldiers." In terms of funding, I bet your guns may have been flattened even before they left the factory!"

Samuel: "Haha, I bet that most of the soldiers did not get the military expenses for the Italian-Austrian War. In addition to those who sacrificed their lives, there was also the shortage of funds after the war, which has been in arrears. This was because the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not ask Italy In case of reparations.”

After hearing this, Sarpeto changed his view of Samuel. He respectfully asked Samuel: "General, in this case, how did you defeat the Austro-Hungarian army?"

"It's very simple, sneak attack!"

"Sneak attack!"

Samuel: "Yes, although this is very disgraceful, it is my secret to victory. After all, when the life and death of the Italian Kingdom is at stake, there is no need to think too much about the choice of tactics."

In this era, European countries fought like this. They preached the so-called spirit of chivalry and defeated the enemy with dignity. Although in actual wars, there were always people who broke the rules. The most typical example was the students of the Hechingen Military Academy who were keen on "sneak attacks" and "guerrillas" , 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 at Hechingen Military Academy. However, when everyone starts a war, they mainly compete on the frontal battlefield.

Samuel: "The enemies I face in my area are mainly the coalition forces of the two kingdoms of Austria and Hungary. I know that the soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire are well-trained, but many of their troops are organized according to nationalities. In this way, in terms of command, Austria-Hungary There is certainly no way to do it perfectly, they will make mistakes often, and the performance of the Austro-Hungarian army confirms my thoughts."

"The Austro-Hungarian Empire often had troops that acted against common sense, which allowed me to seize the opportunity. In the early days, due to inferior equipment, the troops I led often launched attacks against the Austro-Hungarian Empire at night. , got close to the Austro-Hungarian army and took the initiative to engage in close combat with them. The Austrian Warndel rifle was very advanced. Not only was it faster to load and fire, but its accuracy was also much higher than ours. Not to mention the Warndel rifle, it was the Hungarian Loren. The rifles are also more advanced than the junk we have in our hands, and they are also supported by artillery of various calibers, so I know that the only way to compete with the Austro-Hungarian Army is through close combat."

Sarpeto: "This is really the only way, otherwise..."

Samuel: "Otherwise, we will suffer huge casualties, and we will not cause the same trauma to the enemy. Unless we use several times the superior force and use more lives to fill it in, we will be able to win a trivial victory. But Austria The Hungarian Empire is already larger than us, and if this continues, it will become increasingly unfavorable to the Kingdom of Italy. This is also the lesson I learned when I fought against the Austro-Hungarian Empire for the first time."

"General, you have failed too!"

"It's not a failure. It's just my lack of experience on the battlefield for the first time, which caused some losses. After seeing that nothing could be done, I changed my strategy in time. In fact, we didn't take much action. The artillery fire of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was basically It didn’t give us a chance to attack on a large scale.”

"Then how did you deal with enemy fire?"

"Use the terrain to retreat in an orderly manner. Do not engage in head-on confrontation with the Austro-Hungarian Empire during the day, and regain the position at night."

"Then how do you respond to the order from your superiors! If the superiors don't let you retreat, how will you resist to the end?"

Samuel laughed out loud when he heard Sarpeto's words: "Hahaha, do you expect orders from above! In fact, the Italian army has been retreating, the command system has long been gone, 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 wiped out by the Austro-Hungarian army. Seeing that Italy was timid before fighting, the morale of the Austro-Hungarian army increased greatly, so I When commanding the troops, they were never in sync with the friendly forces. Even if they wanted to escape, they could not let the Austro-Hungarian army seize the flaw and let the pursuers throw a trap."

"If the command chain fails, how do you get ammunition and other supplies?"

Samuel: "To put it bluntly, the Kingdom's supplies for the cannon fodder troops are completely non-existent, so my troops mainly rely on captured weapons from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Austro-Hungarian Warndel rifles are much more reliable than the weapons we produce ourselves." Yeah... This is also the reason why I don’t underestimate the Abyssinian Empire. When I faced the powerful Austro-Hungarian Empire army, I also used a lot of cold weapons. In hand-to-hand combat, machetes were much more reliable than the kingdom’s antique rifles. I If you can deal with the Austro-Hungarian Army like this, why can’t the natives use the same means to deal with me!”

Samuel himself was familiar with this. He did not believe that the Abyssinian Empire, which also had a history of thousands of years and a population of tens of millions, did not have people like him.

After hearing Samuel's experience, Sarpeto was in awe of 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 Sarpeto admired the young man even more: "Your Excellency, General, I was once a soldier of the Kingdom. After retiring, I made some achievements in Eritrea. I am familiar with the local area. From now on, I will fully support Cooperate with all your orders."

Samuel: "Mr. Sarpeto, thank you for your support. I really need the experience of an elder like you in Eritrea."

So Samuel began to ask Sarpeto about various aspects of the Abyssinian Empire and the situation of surrounding forces.

Sarpeto: "Speaking of the area around the Abyssinian Empire, because of the opening of the Suez Canal, there are indeed many new forces nearby. In addition to Italy, there are also Britain and France, Egypt and the Ottoman Empire. In addition, there are also those in the south. The East African Kingdom, the East African Kingdom should be brought under the power of the Germans."

Samuel: "The Kingdom of East Africa? The one related to Austria!"

Samuel remembered that when the East African Kingdom was established last year, the first one to support it was the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Austria was the German.

"There is some relationship, but the problem is not big. 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 better relations with Germany, while Prussia and We have a good relationship with the Kingdom of Italy, and if we can communicate well, maybe we can provide some help."

Samuel: "That's good. I'm just worried that if they are together with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, they will hinder our actions."

In fact, no one in East Africa has 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 top priority of the East African Kingdom.

Later, Samuel asked Sarpeto for a lot of information, covering all aspects of the Abyssinian Empire, but Sarpeto, who couldn't even handle the port of Assab, didn't know much about Abyssinia.

Samuel: "We still know too little about the Abyssinian Empire. In this way, we will start with intelligence. After thoroughly studying the Abyssinian Empire, we can then formulate a reliable plan. The future of the kingdom will not be stable." Allow us to make mistakes.”