The Abyssinian army has captured the fortress of Makaré!

Qin Lang looked at the telegram in his hand with some surprise, almost unable to believe his eyes - although the telegram brought outdated news from a month ago, this was the reason for his surprise: according to his understanding, the fierce battle between the Abyssinian army and the Italian army around the fortress of Makareal lasted about forty-five days, and according to his assumption, even with the assistance of mercenaries, this battle would last for two weeks. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

But now, O'Connor had completely captured the fortified fortress in just an hour, with minor mercenary losses and no casualties...... If you add to this the previous operation to capture Asab, he has already given the Italians a hard slap in the face.

Qin Lang didn't like this. Although, according to the telegram, Baratieri's forces retreated to Adigrat as he knew, and despite the rapid advance of the Abyssinian army towards Adwa and the confrontation with the Italian army there, O'Connor's actions allowed the war to go largely beyond his predictions.

Exceeding the prediction means that there is a high probability that the situation will develop out of his control, and he has become accustomed to controlling it in his own hands and fighting for more benefits for himself and the company. But more importantly, O'Connor's move was dangerous.

At Assab and Makaré, Italy lost 3,500 soldiers - and only 500 of them Eritreans - far beyond the historical figure he knew: 1,03. The defenders of Assab should not have been counted in the statistics, and the 1,200 soldiers of the fortress of Makary should have retreated smoothly to Adigrat, and the 1,300 soldiers who were eliminated should also be Eritreans.

But now it was the case that 3,000 Italian soldiers were killed or captured, which was almost as humiliating to the Italian kingdom and army for Rome as the fall of the fortress of Macalay, and the Italian government would have demanded that the Emperor of Abyssinia pay the price.

Crispi would send more troops to reinforce Baratieri, even ...... Although it is not clear whether the Italian government has the same courage as the British or the French, it is still possible to mobilize on a large scale and throw all the forces available into the war.

In such a situation, not only would the losses of the mercenaries rise dramatically, but Abyssinian would also be defeated in the war.

Qin Lang was full of bad premonitions about the development of events. "Perhaps, as Shaun and Duncan set off, I should give them a warning not to overdo it."

Hearing his sigh, Rachel, who was writing a letter to Yi Shui, raised his head curiously. "What, you think they're messing things up?"

"It's not for sure yet, but it's showing signs that things are going bad." Qin Lang frowned at her.

"How?"

"Under intense political pressure in Italy, Crispi will send a large number of reinforcements to Baratieri, with a large additional military expenditure - the question now is how many reinforcements he will provide."

"What do you think?" Rachel is not good at politics and military affairs, she can't express any opinions, she can only listen to Qin Lang.

But Qin Lang also did not know how fierce the reaction of the Italian Congress and the Crispi government would be, because he did not know how Baratieri would report his defeat to Rome. Perhaps he will blame the negligence of the defenders of the fortress...... But doing so would expose him to many reproaches, so that he could also exaggerate the strength of the Abyssinian army to Chrexpi, thus abusing him from responsibility.

But if Baratieri had done so, then the Italian government would have sent a large number of troops to Abyssinia, as he feared.

Of course, that's not the worst; The worst thing was the kind of situation he had just feared, where O'Connor's victory provoked the Italians too badly, plunging them into a hysterical frenzy, and then throwing all their forces into a full-scale war with a weak opponent at all costs.

That would be a huge disaster.

Qin Lang sighed slowly. "It's not clear enough," he said, with obvious uncertainty in his tone, "but it's certain that Baratieri will receive much more reinforcements and military spending than I expected." ”

"What did you expect?"

"At least 20 million lira and an Albis mountain brigade."

This was all the reinforcements that Qin Lang knew in history after the Abyssinian army captured the fortress of Makalay, but in this new era, after an even more serious defeat, he received reinforcements far more than these two figures.

As Qin Lang feared, O'Connor's victory plunged all of Italy into an atmosphere of hysterical frenzy. The crushing defeat made the Italians, who had been so self-confident after the reunification of the country and dreamed of recreating the glory of the Roman Empire all day long, think that their country had been humiliated, but what was worse was that the French and Russian newspapers were still sneering at their failures - of course, it is not surprising that France and Russia, which had been trying to hinder Italy's expansion in Africa, would of course happily stand up and throw stones into the well when they saw it fall into the well - but their performance also made the Italians feel a deep sense of "shame" taste.

It must be said that the Italian people love their country so much that they certainly cannot tolerate any kind of humiliation of their great homeland, so they vow to make the odious Abyssinian natives pay for their actions.

"Revenge" was the word that appeared most frequently in the newspapers of Italy after the news reached Rome, followed by "capture Menelik alive", "advance" and "occupy Abyssinia", and the patriotic youth also talked about these words all day long, and clamored for "the killing of the natives of Abyssinia".

In such a frenzied atmosphere, in various regions of Italy, countless people made speeches on the streets every day, calling on citizens to join the army, go to Abyssinian to fight against the natives there, or buy national debts to provide sufficient military expenses for the army......

Of course, the situation was not as bad as he predicted. Everything that took place in Italy was a spontaneous act of patriots, and the Italian government had no idea of recruiting new soldiers and issuing war bonds. Prime Minister Christpi and his ministers did not consider this necessary, and the Abyssinian natives did not yet have the strength to force Italy into an all-out war with them.

King Umberto I, the members of Congress, and the generals of the army, agreed with the overly optimistic view of the chief who believed that with an additional fifteen thousand well-trained soldiers and an additional 40 million lire would be able to defeat his opponents, wash away the disgrace of the kingdom and gain control of Abyssinia.

So the matter was settled, and the state apparatus was put in motion to send reinforcements to their destinations. The Italian newspapers, on the other hand, began to taunt the imminent battle of revenge and wished it a successful battle, without the slightest assumption that military operations should be kept strictly secret - and naturally, the distant United States soon got the news.

"Fifteen thousand well-trained soldiers, forty million lirea special appropriations, and with these generals, General Baratieri will be able to fulfill his promise to bring Menelik in a cage and before us...... I think you're completely worried in vain, Qin. Rachel threw the newspaper he had just gotten onto Qin Lang's desk, and then sat down in front of him. It's not as bad as you think. ”

Qin Lang picked up the newspaper and read it for a while. "Obviously, the Italian government still doesn't realize how serious the problem is." Reluctantly, he admitted, "It was my mistake, and it wasn't as bad as I feared." ”

"Of course, you're right. The Italians were indeed irritated by us, they were very angry, otherwise they would not have sent so many regular troops to Abyssinia. So, now I'm a little worried as well. ”

"Fifteen thousand, except to make the victory of the Abyssinians seem more brilliant, it means nothing."

"I'm not worried about winning or losing the war." Rachel shook his head, "You should know that the Italian government will eventually find out about the military aid we have provided to the Abyssinians, and I am worried that they will not take their anger out on us. ”

"Let me think about it, it's possible." Qin Lang thought about it again, it was indeed possible.

"What do you do?"

"Countermeasure? We don't need a countermeasure, and no matter how angry the Italian government may be, it can only make some innocuous protests at best. And I doubt that the Italians are in the mood to do such a thing - if Baratieri fails again, all they have to think about is peace talks and a change of prime minister. ”

Rachel tilted his head for a moment, then laughed. "You're right. So, what do we do now? ”

"Wait." Qin Lang smiled, "What we have to do is to wait patiently for a result." ”

He raised his head slightly, looking at all possible futures. Now, he had foreseen that the war between Abyssinia and Italy would end sooner than the one he remembered. The situation in Italy would deprive Baratieri of the opportunity to choose the best time to attack, and as soon as reinforcements arrived in Abyssinia, he would have to order his troops to attack, even if he was unwilling to do so, Crispi would force him to do so.

That inevitable outcome will soon be revealed to the whole world.

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