Chapter 378 Have your own way

According to the plan he designed, Samuel calmly carried out surgical operations on the Abyssinian Empire, trying to take advantage of the division of the Abyssinian Empire to transfer about 60,000 to 70,000 square kilometers of land in the southeast from Abyssinian Empire. Pry away from the territory of the Nia 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 home."

The signal corps sent telegrams from the mainland by boat from Egypt to Desaix and then handed them over to Samuel.

Samuel read the telegram with a frown on his face.

Sarpeto, 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."

Sarpeto was a little embarrassed. He said: "Don't they know how much military expenditure they have deducted? We spent two or three months just to ensure the food supply of the troops with limited funds, but now we are timid. !”

Samuel: "This is not a big deal. I had expected that some people in the country would be restless, especially after we won Desai City."

Although Samuel established a firm foothold in the Abyssinian Empire after occupying Desse, the large area of ​​land from the port of Assab to Desse, including the land north of the East African Rift Valley (south of which belongs 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 areas occupied by Samuel alone are enough to inspire most people, although many of them are barren land unsuitable for human habitation.

Sarpeto: "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 Abyssinian Empire could not It’s not an existence that can be defeated in one blow like in their eyes.”

In the past few months, Sarpeto has been following Samuel, and he has gained a lot of experience. He knows how difficult it is to deal with the fighters armed with Arab doctrine, and the more backward the Arabs in the area, 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 must not be weak if it has been able to fight the Arabs for so many years. Even the Ottoman Empire at its peak 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, as the Italians called this area, meaning the land along the Red Sea), attacked the Abyssinian Empire through the north."

Sarpeto 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 the most economically developed and armed region of the Abyssinian Empire. The capital Axum is also located here. Johannes IV was in charge when he was the commander-in-chief of the northern fortress. Northern defense, dealing with the Egyptian army all year round.

Therefore, 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.

Now the 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 be foolish enough to fight against Johannes IV. In the Italian-Austrian War, the most important experience he learned was not to be too petty. Looking at any opponent, even if you want to solve the opponent, you should adopt the method of easy first and then difficult, so you can find one thing in common with his victory. Buy is that every defeat of the Austro-Hungarian army started with the Hungarian army.

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. Since the kingdom chooses to open a new battlefield in the north, it has nothing to do with us. Contact us, we can ignore any non-local transfer orders."

Samuel was also angry. He was very aware of the nature of those aristocratic bureaucrats, and now he felt that he was doing well after seeing some achievements.

Samuel then speculated: "The commander 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, with our military strength The Abyssinian Empire, which is heavily defended in the north of Desai, is normal for not being able to get through, and the kingdom can't find any reason why we don't try our best."

Sarpeto agreed with his face. Now he agrees with Samuel ten thousand times 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 leader of the team has long since run away, and his colleagues often refuse to save him and remain 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 was that Samuel was very unsociable with his colleagues during the war and was not well-liked by 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 he could occasionally fight back against the Austro-Hungarian Empire. When the war was over, Italy searched the entire army and could only find Samuel, the only undefeated general. The noble generals could only He pinched his nose and molded Samuel into a rising star in the army. Samuel can only say that he relied entirely on the support of his peers.

Therefore, 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 the actions of his colleagues, 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 cent of the military expenses that have been withheld in the future. I have encountered this situation when I was in Italy. Fortunately, fighting in Italy, I can replenish troops on the spot, and I completely rely on food and grass. Donations from friendly forces in Hungary next door.

In the Abyssinian Empire, where he was unfamiliar with life, he still had to rely on himself. From the day Samuel rose to power, he could say without any burden that his success was the result of his own efforts.