"Now it's what I call desolation. www.biquge.info Duncan's voice broke the silence he had maintained since leaving Djibouti a few hours earlier. He rode a dromedary, and as far as the eye could see, it was the only creature other than humans. He felt hot and tired. And his own voice startled him.

After a week of waiting in Djibouti, he and O'Connor finally got the supplies and two squadrons of mercenaries on the Liberty. So now, Duncan and some of his mercenaries were carrying the weapons and ammunition ordered by Emperor Menelik II to the southwest, preparing to cross the border near Ali Sabiya to Dire Dawa and, after a period of rest, to Addis Ababa.

Basically, the route chosen by the guide for him and the mercenaries was the railway line connecting Djibouti with Addis Ababa. Of course, there was no such railway yet, and it would have been built after the end of the war between Abyssinia and Italy, otherwise they would not have had to travel long distances through the inhospitable desert.

Of course, this is not a big deal, if they don't carry so many weapons, ammunition and supplies.

Duncan turned his head to look behind him. He saw a barely large contingent: mercenaries, who looked a little languishing in the scorching sun, slowly walking in the sand; Behind them were improvised Djiboutians, thousands of them, driving camels and mules laden with goods, shouting and laughing as they went, or singing songs he did not understand.

These Djiboutians seem to be happy, but Duncan is not.

"I hope that the Dire Dawa will have the Emperor's army waiting to receive the goods, and I don't want to take these Djiboutians all the way to Addis Ababa." He loves to complain and starts complaining whenever he has time, and he doesn't worry about anything in the slightest. Anyway, neither the liaison nor the Djiboutians sent by the Duke of Engida could understand English, and the translator he hired himself was not enough to translate his complaint to them.

Duncan would have liked someone to hear his complaint and talk to him, such as O'Connor, but he wasn't here, and he went north with two other mercenary brigades to Edariel, preparing to capture Assab in Eritrea and seize an outlet to the sea for Emperor Menelik II.

O'Connor's idea was simple: by seizing an outlet to the sea, the company's next business with the Abyssinians would be slightly more convenient, without passing through French territory. Although the French did not prevent them from sending weapons to Abyssinia through Djibouti, the possibility of trade routes being cut off was inevitable as long as it was on their territory.

O'Connor wasn't going to take any chances, so he was going to capture Assab.

But there was also a lot of risk in this plan, and no one could have predicted how the Italians would react when they learned that one of their cities had been taken by the enemy, and perhaps Rome would send a larger army to Eritrea to regain lost territory. And to make matters worse, Menelik II and his dukes had no idea of O'Connor's plans.

O'Connor's plan came up with a sudden decision that came up without warning while Djibouti was waiting for supplies and personnel. Although Duncan immediately asked the liaison arranged by the Duke of Njida to send a messenger to deliver the message to Addis Ababa after he made his decision, the messenger was still on his way considering the poor traffic conditions and poor road conditions!

If luck had not been good, by the time Menelik II got the news, O'Connor's forces had already captured Assab...... Most likely.

Duncan didn't know whether this was a good thing or a bad thing...... Maybe it's a bad thing, maybe the Abyssinian emperor and his dukes didn't intend to get a port at all...... Of course, whether they wanted it or not, O'Connor's actions seemed too presumptuous—but it was too late to say anything. "Next time, Sean...... Oh, there's no next time for him. He shrugged, "But no matter what, I'll have to excuse him in front of the emperor." It's terrible. ”

Duncan shook his head, depressed for a moment about the little trouble O'Connor had caused himself, then lowered his head and shouted in his unfamiliar French to the Djiboutians leading the camels, "Forward!" Keep moving! ”

"Yes, sir." Perhaps that's how he answered; Duncan didn't understand the Somali he spoke, but that was probably what he meant, because the Djiboutians were already leading the camel forward, and he was back on a rickety long journey.

At this moment, of course, O'Connor was also having a headache with his plan, and of course he did not consider it a mistake, but there were some minor troubles in its execution: the Abyssinian warriors who led the way were simply ignorant of the situation in Asab, they did not know how many Italian soldiers were there, they did not know the equipment of the Italian army, and they did not know the deployment of the local defenses......

But if that was all there was to it, the "brave and loyal" samurai, unfortunately, seemed to be frightened by the Italians, or simply had no faith in the mercenaries, and in any case, they either begged him to abandon his plans or to ask him to attack after he had been reinforced with "at least ten thousand samurai", which undoubtedly made O'Connor rather depressed and annoyed.

But it wasn't the Abyssinian warriors who annoyed him even more.

"Hell, those damn French guys are still following us." O'Connor gazed angrily at a small group of French cavalry not far away, these flies-like nasty fellows had been following the group since the troops left Djibouti, no doubt on a surveillance mission. He didn't like that, he didn't like to be watched, although he perfectly understood the mood of the French.

The French colonial forces stationed in Djibouti numbered only a few hundred men, and like the colonial units of all countries, they were incapable of combat, and such a force could only be used to suppress the local natives - which was of course the sole purpose of the French troops in Djibouti, but a well-equipped army could easily defeat them and gain control of Djibouti.

Now that O'Connor was in command of a well-armed army, armed with machine guns and artillery, but also overwhelmingly superior in numbers, the French commanders in Djibouti were of course concerned and sent cavalry to keep an eye on them.

It was normal and reasonable, but O'Connor just couldn't stand it.

"Shepard!" He shouted. Soon, the commander of the 503 brigade appeared beside him, "What's the matter, boss?" ”

O'Connor pointed at the French cavalry. "Spread out your troops into battle formations, and I'm going to get those pesky flies away."

Shepard was taken aback by the order. Let the troops spread out in battle formation? This will most likely lead to a brief firefight. But the problem is that this is a colony of the French, and here they are engaged in battle with a French cavalry unit...... Not just corporations, but even the federal government are in trouble. The commander thinks that his own boss should be stopped. "Sir—"

"Carry out my orders, Mr. Shepard." O'Connor shouted in an unmistakable tone. Of course, he hasn't gone crazy yet; He wasn't prepared to put himself and the company in trouble. "Let the troops spread out in battle formation, and then find a French-speaking guy to negotiate with them." He added, "Don't worry, Commander, I'm not going to war with the French yet. ”

After a slight hesitation, Shepard saluted him. "Yes, sir." Then he turned around and passed the order to the four squadron leaders, who in turn passed the order to the squad leaders, and finally, each soldier got the order, and then they moved quickly.

Gérard•Ensign Duwab and his men were frightened by the sudden formation of the American mercenaries, and when they saw the weapons that they had quickly erected, like some kind of light mortar, fear seized their hearts. They never imagined that the Americans would actually attack themselves. The second lieutenant quickly assessed the current situation, and surrender seemed to be the best option.

The second lieutenant thought again. The distance between the two sides was less than a hundred meters, thirty people could not run away in front of so many enemies, and they still had artillery...... Surrender is indeed the best option.

"Sergeant Delanoe." Duwab turned to one of his men and asked him to fly the white flag. But before he could speak, the sergeant had already screamed. "Second lieutenant, the Americans raised the white flag."

He turned his head to look at the American line. Indeed, as the sergeant said, an American with a white flag had already come out of the ranks and was slowly moving towards his side. It looks like they're ready to ......

"They're ready to surrender to us, second lieutenant?" A soldier asked suddenly.

"Stupid!" Before Duwab could speak, Sergeant Delanoe had already aimed at the poor fellow's head. "Mr. Barrez, you'd better use your brain before you speak! There are more than a thousand Americans here, why should they surrender? They want to negotiate. ”

Of course, after negotiating, realizing that the Americans did not intend to kill themselves, Ensign Duwab immediately reverted to the usual arrogance of the Gauls. "I don't know what to talk about with these Americans, but I want to know what they're going to say." He straightened out his already wrinkled uniform, and then said to the soldiers: "The sergeant and Barrez follow me, and the others stay here." ”

Then, no matter how ugly Delanoël and Barez's faces became, he began to move forward.

(To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to the WWW.CMFU.COM, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) (To be continued.) )