At the end of July 1926, Contini finished his inspection activities in North Africa and was about to return home, originally he wanted to take Ida to Greece for a good vacation, after all, the Libyan sand tossed the little girl a lot, and now that he is his girlfriend and tolerates the affairs of his two illegitimate children, he can't help but show a little gentlemanly demeanor.

As for why he plans to marry Ida, Contini also has his own considerations: on the one hand, there is indeed this need, political needs are overwhelming, on the other hand, Ida is Ziano's wife in history, the two not only have children, but also have a good relationship, although there was an awkward quarrel in the middle, but in the end they were reconciled, and at the last moment of Ciano's life, it was Ida who had been desperately protecting him - until he couldn't protect him. Therefore, he cannot be indifferent to reason and reason.

But the Greek holiday had only lasted a week before news came out of chaos in Rome: Mussolini had signed a treaty of friendship and commerce with Yemen and was preparing to expand his business influence in Syria, Palestine, Iraq and elsewhere. This news startled Contini: the Middle East is the sphere of influence of the British, and it has been closely watched, what does Mussolini want to do? Isn't it easy to use your brain?

What is even more nervous is that on August 9, Blomburg sent him a message that they had cooperated with Truz's troops to advance layer by layer, completely occupied the Zifra Oasis, and fought several battles with the partisans during the advance, with small losses, the total number of casualties was less than 200, but they intercepted a radio station and 2 Englishmen - an Englishman, an Englishman, to be exact, an Egyptian of British nationality!

Don't look at what Blomburg said lightly, in fact, this battle was not easy, and the Libyan armed camel cavalry repeatedly attacked some time ago, causing great trouble. After consulting with his men, Blomburg decided to use a force as a bait to lure the enemy into an ambush, and then send a fast column and paratroopers to surround it.

This was the first time that the oil guards had used air-ground combined tactics, and when the squad was encircled, they did not panic, but on the one hand used various terrain to counterattack, and on the other hand, they urgently called for support. Because the battle was taking place near the oasis, the Libyan forces could not simply be trapped in the harsh terrain and had to fight, so they were glued. Then Manstein, Rommel, Guderian and other fast troops fired three arrows, Student led the paratroopers to parachute in to cover the rear of the guerrillas, and then fighters and bombers were all dispatched to pursue and track in the air.

More than 800 Bedouins were killed in one go, of course, less than half of them were actually partisans, and the remaining 400 or so were ordinary people who were swept into it, but the oil guards couldn't control this, and they couldn't tell who was a good Bedouin and who was a bad Bedouin, plus Contini had said that he didn't have to care about Bedouin casualties when he taught and emphasized North African tactics, so they opened fire together. Eventually, the leader of the guerrillas, Saeed Mohammed al-Ridda, surrendered with the remaining 30 or so guerrillas, and the two Englishmen were taken prisoner along with them.

Contini was shocked and angry, angry that the British were too bastard, not to mention the weapons support, and even the radio and agents were sent out, so shocked that Mussolini dared to think about infiltration in the Middle East - the basic territory of Libya could not be saved.

So he had to end his vacation early and hurriedly go back to Rome, poor Ida was pulled back before he could enjoy it, and pouted on the spot, and finally on the way, His Excellency the President said something bad, and told her that Ida was about to start a new construction, and invited her to attend the ceremony, and the little girl broke into tears and laughed - being a girlfriend is different now.

Seeing Contini return early, Mussolini was also surprised, could it be that the two quarreled? But he didn't ask about it, only pulled Contini and said excitedly: "I have just reached a tacit agreement with the British side, recognizing our special interests in western Ethiopia, and hinting that if we attack Ethiopia, Britain will not obstruct it." ”

"Leader, who said that? Is it reliable? Contini couldn't bear to splash him with cold water, so he asked with a reluctant smile.

Said the new British ambassador." Mussolini waved his hand, looking excited, "I spoke with the ambassador and assured him that if there was a dispute between Britain and France, we in Italy would be on the side of Great Britain. In exchange, the British side gave this preferential terms. Of course, I know the wishful thinking of the British, and their Egyptian-Sudanese colony also wants to get some territory on the Ethiopian side. When the time comes, we will fight with Ethiopia, and the British will beat the side drum to gain some advantage for themselves - will Great Britain do such things less? ”

History proves that when Italy attacked Ethiopia, although the British did not directly send troops to intervene, they did not do much to oppose and arm the embargo with France, and finally forced Italy and Germany to form a steel axis, standing on the British side, of course, Italy can go to Ethiopia to get some benefits, but Italy wants to swallow it? No way!

He thought about it for a while, diplomacy was directly managed by Mussolini, and if he persuaded him at will, he would definitely not be pleased, so he smiled and said: "If you want to attack Ethiopia, it is not enough to rely on Libya alone, let alone 2 divisions, and I feel that there are some problems with 5 divisions." We've had a big loss in Adwa. ”

Mussolini nodded: "What you said is also reasonable, of course 2 divisions are not enough, you have to increase troops, 5 divisions are too much, at most 2 more will be sent." 4 divisions, 50,000 troops, enough, right? ”

"Leader, I just came back from North Africa, and I have a little Ethiopian intelligence in my hand, do you want to listen to it?"

"Okay, you say ......"

"Ethiopia is not the African indigenous army we imagined to be, nor the poorly armed Libyan guerrillas, they have a full-fledged modern army – the Forces nouvelles."

In 1916, the Ethiopian royal assembly deposed Emperor Eyassu, appointed Empress Zorditu, the daughter of Menelik II, the hero of the Battle of Adua, as emperor, and elected Haile Selassie as crown prince and regent, with the title of duke, and began to ascend to the center of state power. This is the later famous Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I, although he is the crown prince, but in fact he is not the son of the empress, he is considered the empress's cousin. He used his power to appoint and dismiss civil and military officials and control finances, and actively carried out activities conducive to the comprehensive implementation of reforms, and he knew very well that only with military power could he have status, so he spent a huge amount of money to buy a large number of guns from Europe to form a Praetorian Guard and control it in his own hands, and the instructors of this Praetorian Guard were hired from Sweden to conduct hands-on training, and even the military uniforms on his body and the military boots on his feet were bought from abroad.

Mussolini gasped: "How many of them are there?" ”

"It's not too much, it's about 12,000 people at present, and there may be an additional batch."

Hearing that there were only 12,000 people, Mussolini suddenly took it to heart. "It's okay, it's okay, I'll send 5 times the troops!"

"However, there are still 300,000 to 400,000 tribes armed in Ethiopia."

"Calais, what's wrong with you? How did you go on a trip to Africa to increase the prestige of the natives? Have you lost the war in Africa? Libya is playing ugly? ”

Contini nodded: "From the dispatch of the army and oil guards to the time I returned home, a total of more than 6 months, we have cleared thousands of militants in Libya, but our own casualties are also very large, all kinds of due to illness, injuries or simply direct death of more than 1,000 people, I have a feeling that it may take 2-3 more divisions and another 5,000 losses to achieve the goal." ”

"How is that possible? How so? Mussolini shook his head, "You are overestimating the enemy a little, the losses in the first round are caused by the environmental and climate inadaptation of our team Libya, and it will be good after a long time." ”

"But this time I almost lost more than 2,000 people...... Contini told Truz about his men being led into the trap, and Mussolini frowned again and again, asking, "Do you think Truz is okay?" No, let's change people! ”

"It's not just his problem, it's that we have new problems." Contini silently handed Mussolini the telegram about British radio and British agents.

After reading it, he suddenly felt that the whole person was not good......