China understands the Western world, but the Western world does not understand China, and even Britain, the United States, France and other countries cannot understand why China must support Ethiopia in resisting Italian aggression, and even risk declaring war on the German and Italian camps.

Beginning in the second half of 1936, China's political winds suddenly changed dramatically, first through a statement in Congress openly opposing the ultra-left and far-right Spanish-led civil war, and publicly warning Italy to stop its military invasion of Ethiopia.

In March 1937, China reached an agreement with other member states at the leadership meeting of the Asian League that the member states of the Asian League should no longer maintain direct military alliances with other countries.

Since China had already started a war with the Soviet Union, Germany and Italy in the region, and because China was also in a tense naval race, France, which was unwilling to get involved in the war, gave its understanding very decently, and after several rounds of consultations, the two sides resigned the "Sino-French Treaty of Friendship and Mutual Assistance" and officially ended the military alliance between the two sides on August 15, 1937.

At this point, China has also clarified the country's diplomatic relations as a whole, shifting the focus of China's diplomacy from the developed countries of Europe and the United States back to Asia, Central and South America, and East Africa.

When China completed its strategic development program for nuclear weapons, the political situation in the whole world changed drastically from this year onwards, and not many countries could understand the sudden change in China's policy direction.

The Empire sent more than 200,000 Free Coalition troops to the Spanish battlefield, and 60,000 Free Coalition troops in the East African theater to form two semi-mechanized army divisions to attack the Italian army head-on.

It is said that the Italian army is not even as effective as the militia of the Spanish civil strife.

The formal intervention of the Reich Centre Army quickly led to the rapid collapse of the Italian invading army, and the so-called Free Coalition Army was basically composed of the Empire's second-line patrol troops and local retired non-commissioned officers, some of whom were even freshmen who had just graduated from military academies.

In May 1937, the angry Italian surname Soo tore his face and directly threatened the empire that a real world war would break out, and the empire was even more ruthless in sending the regular Central Defense Forces into East Africa, and all the navy, land and air forces sent elite main forces to arrive.

After the situation deteriorated further, Britain and France decided to intervene in mediation, but Italy refused, because Italy had already assembled 200,000 troops in Eritrea and transferred about 400 planes and more than 200 tanks from the country to put on a posture of full-scale expansion of war.

With four army divisions and one air division, the Imperial Central Army faced off against an enemy twice its size, but with the combined forces of the Free Coalition and the Ethiopian Army, the total strength was almost the same.

Ethiopia in May is already a very hot place, Ethiopia and Sudan in the north, Somalia in the east is different, it is a country with rich water resources in Africa, of course, it is not as good as Uganda, Congo and other countries, but in Northeast Africa does belong to the climate and environment is very good region, but unfortunately the utilization rate of water resources is too low.

After all, this is the place where human beings were born, and its natural environment has its special surname.

Liu Gungyun knew early on that he might be going to Ethiopia, and he had been collecting information about this and the military intelligence of the Italian army, but even so, when he came to Africa, he felt that he knew too little about this world.

He had the impression that Africa was a vast grassland, with African lions and cheetahs, and endless indigenous people, and during the period of Ethiopia's leading war, he took time to visit some local monuments and buildings to realize that Africa also has a long ancient history.

It is not very difficult to deal with the Italian army at his level, and the key is not his level, but the level of the entire army.

He was a little difficult to understand at one time that such an army would dare to invade other countries?

Why?

He can understand this, now Italy is not at all the Roman Empire era, Italy's city-state system makes soldiers all over the country lack a sense of mutual identity, as the birthplace of modern national consciousness in Europe, especially Latin Europe, Italians seem too special, they even difficult to condense the heroic feelings of dying for the nation.

This is a descendant of Rome who has long been spiritually decayed.

In fact, Liu Gengyun has been away from the front line of the army for a long time after the Sino-Soviet War, and has always served as the dean of the Northeast Military Academy, but this has allowed him to have an extremely in-depth study of mechanized warfare and the changes in modern military theory, tactics and strategy, and this is precisely the reason why the emperor sent him to agree to the battle of the main force of the army.

They can also readjust if there is an error.

Although it was not superior in military strength, Liu Gengyun brought three elite mechanized divisions, namely the 10th, 14th and 20th divisions, which were all elite units that had been established in the early era of the empire's integrated divisions, the 10th division was the main tank armored division, and the 14th and 20th divisions were conventional armored divisions.

In the past few months, through fighting and training, Liu Gengyun organized the 120,000-strong Free Alliance Army into six new Free Brigades, but until today, Liu Gengyun has not really taken out the main force, nor has he let the Free Alliance Army conduct a quick battle with the rapid mobile tactics that the Imperial Army is best at.

Like when he cooperated with Chen Wu as the head of teaching, Liu Gengyun of the academic school is not the kind of general who is in a hurry, he is better at maintaining a defensive position steadily, waiting for the other party to show great flaws, and before that, he is not used to exposing the main force too early.

In addition, because the whole army had never fought the Italian army, the earliest contact with the Italian army was during the First World War, and he and his troops needed time to adapt to the opponent, get familiar with the opponent, and find out the opponent's habits.

The Italian army had colonies and ports in both the north and south of Ethiopia, but because the imperial navy was stationed in Aden and held the entire Gulf of Aden, the Italian army did not dare to take risks easily, so it could only assemble in the port of Massawa in Eritrea on the north side, wave its division south into Axum, and reassemble an army of 400,000 in the Aksum Heights, with more than 2,000 fighters and more than 400 bombers in the army air force.

Although it was only after a few large-scale battles, the Italian army retreated quickly, and basically emptied the whole of Ethiopia, and only concentrated defense around Axum.

Liu Gengyun deployed the troops of the Free Alliance Army in a small city called Abiadi, and the Consent Army maintained a distance of about 30 kilometers to construct a defensive line, while the three mechanized divisions of the main elite Central Army and a newly organized baggage brigade remained in the Merkelle area.

It makes sense for the Italian army to deploy defenses in the area of Axum, because this area is all barren mountains, there are no roads, it is too difficult for mechanized troops to quickly insert in, and the overall terrain is extremely favorable to the defenders.

Unconsciously, he was already a fifty-seven-year-old veteran general, who had fought for ten years and been the dean for twenty years.

After having a clear understanding of the local terrain, Liu Gengyun reformulated a new operational plan and reported it to the Central Military Department, hoping to get approval.

If the Central Military Department does not approve it, he can only attack hard, and even if it is a hard attack, it is necessary to talk about strategy, if the central government approves his plan, he will have to attack quickly, but there is no strategy to speak of in a quick attack, the speed is fast enough, a 300-kilometer march, directly cut off the opponent's port, but it needs the cooperation of the navy.

In the past few days, the Central Military Department has been holding meetings constantly, and the supporters of Liu Gengyun's new battle plan are in the majority, because this has always been the style of the Imperial Army, although the strength of the Imperial Army is definitely hard enough, but the Army prefers to give full play to the special advantage of rapid attack.

The army agrees, but the General Staff and the Navy do not agree very much, the army can also use the Freedom Coalition to cover up the operation, and even the navy has killed the past, what is this? Is it tantamount to a complete declaration of war between China and Italy?

With two aircraft carriers and two battleships of the Imperial Central Navy already in the Gulf of Aden, only 700 kilometers away from the Italian Navy, which can be reached in 14 hours, plus the submarine forces hidden in the waters of Somalia and the air force stationed in Ethiopia, it is not impossible to defeat the three battleships of the Italian Navy docked in the port of Massawa.

After arguing endlessly, he finally had to go to the emperor, and the emperor gave the conclusion that "declare war first, and then fight a decisive battle".

Although Germany and Italy had not yet signed a formal treaty of alliance, formally the two sides had confirmed a quasi-alliance treaty such as the coordination of foreign policy, and after the Reich decided to intervene in the Spanish Civil War, Germany considered the importance of Sino-German relations and Hitler's special respect for His Majesty the Emperor, and Germany immediately chose to withdraw from the war and reduced its support for the Spanish far right.

After China and France ended their military alliance and only maintained economic alliances and strategic mutual assistance agreements, Germany could not wait to strengthen Sino-German relations and tried to form an alliance with China at all costs.

If the military department really declares war, it will not only completely tear its face with Italy, but also give Germany a resounding slap in the face, and even Sino-German relations will be broken down.

Militarily, China is not afraid of the rupture of such relations, but economically, the cabinet still wants to maintain the existing relations and cooperation.

After another dispute between the military department and the cabinet, the emperor summoned Prime Minister Gu Weijun late at night to coordinate on this, and finally the cabinet chose to give in.

On May 25, 1937, the Central Cabinet sent a notice to the Italian Embassy in Yenching, officially announcing that the Italian army must recognize Ethiopia's freedom of reading, withdraw all Italian military forces in Ethiopia, and pay Ethiopia 40 million pounds in war reparations, otherwise, China will declare war on Italy and end all Italian colonial rule in East Africa.

After receiving this news, Liu Gengyun couldn't wait to let the main force of the army move north, no matter whether the navy fought or not, he would definitely fight, after all, he had enough air force in his hand, he would definitely fight.

On 30 May, under the mediation of Germany, Britain and France, Mussolini decided to agree to China's request for an armistice, but refused to pay any war reparations to Ethiopia, and the two sides failed to reach any agreement on this clause.

On May 31, at 9 a.m. Yenching time and 3 a.m. Cairo time, China officially declared war on Italy.

As a result, one of the most dramatic scenes in the history of human warfare will officially take place.

Two days after the declaration of war, Liu Gengyun was still actively preparing for the offensive, in order to contain the Italian army, cover the main elite northward to cut off the Italian army's retreat of the operational intention, he decided to send the Free Alliance Army to attack the Axum area, and the six new brigades will be ready to go north on this day.

Just as Liu Gengyun was about to send troops, four infantry divisions and one armored brigade of the Italian colonial army in East Africa had already attacked south, and more than 100,000 troops frantically flocked to the Abyadi defense line garrisoned by the Free Coalition Army.

An academic general like Liu Gengyun was very good at choosing a defensive area, and the defensive line he arranged was only twenty kilometers away from the Italian army's Axum defense line, but the defense line was flanked by plateaus and mountains, and only the fifteen-kilometer-long area in the middle was hilly.

In the construction of the entire defense line, Liu Gengyun also chose to rely on the high ground for defense, the Italian army can easily attack the defense line, but the main force is also extremely easy to be cut, must be dispersed to besiege the high ground of the Free Coalition Army, once into such a combat situation, Liu Gengyun can give full play to the Chinese Army's rapid onslaught specialty, use the defensive heights to attract enemy troops, and then carry out encirclement and cutting operations around the periphery, and constantly use the infantry's mobile expertise to encircle and annihilate the opponent.

Liu Gengyun's idea is very good, but the Italian army does not think like this, what do they think, I am afraid it will be an unanswerable suspense for a long time, in short, the Italian army directly waved south, four infantry divisions followed behind an armored brigade, and directly rushed into Liu Gengyun's Abiadi defense line in a through line of march, as if there was no defense line here, or they thought that as soon as they came, the opponent would flee.

The Italian Air Force has reconnaissance planes, fighter planes, and bombers, and these planes only need to fly once in the sky to know the situation here, and after fighting for so long, since war is about to be declared, they have confronted each other at a distance of less than 20 kilometers for nearly three months, so they must have a basic understanding of the enemy's defensive arrangements, right?

As a result, the Italian army did not understand what was going on with the Abiadi Line.

It can be said that an academic general like Liu Gengyun has been fighting wars for the first half of his life, and he has been engaged in strategic and tactical military research for the second half of his life, but he has never encountered such an army in his life, nor has he studied such an army.

It is neither imaginable nor incomprehensible.

Liu Gengyun operated the Abiadi defense line for three months and arranged more than 40 key highland defense areas, but as a result, the Italian army rushed in like an army of hundreds of thousands of blind men, and there was no air force involved in the operation from beginning to end.

The end result is clearly a tragicomedy.

After the army of more than 100,000 troops was cut off and bombarded indiscriminately, after the two troops in front and behind were surrounded, Liu Gengyun originally wanted to carry out a siege of the city to send reinforcements, annihilate the two troops, surround the remaining troops in the center, let the follow-up troops of the Italian army come to the rescue, and then send the main force to intercept the rescue troops, but before the army could be encircled, the troops of more than 100,000 Italian troops surrendered.

No one expected this to be the case.

Jiang Fangzhen has always been more cautious about the East African battlefield, and he sent a telegram to Liu Gengyun the next morning, asking Liu Gengyun to report in detail on the situation on the battlefield, and Liu Gengyun sent a telegram back saying that he was mobilizing all manpower and material resources to build a prisoner camp to ensure that there was a way to accommodate 100,000 Italian prisoners, and at the same time asked the military department to draw food from the West Asian allies as soon as possible, because his military rations could hardly ensure the normal needs of these 100,000 prisoners.

Two days later, Liu Gengyun sent another telegram, asking the Central Military Department to send more food and baggage troops to ensure that he could accommodate 200,000 Italian prisoners.

The Sino-Italian war in the East African battlefield can be said to be a mess.

To say fierce, both sides are also very fierce, even chemical weapons have been used, and both sides also have tank units fighting head-on, but these are some local battle situations, from the whole campaign and in general, the Italian army is very confused, so that the Chinese [***] team can not figure out the Italian army's combat intentions.

Although it was a big victory, Liu Gengyun really couldn't figure out where the victory was.

From May 31, 1937, when war was officially declared, to the end of July, the Empire occupied all the Italian colonies in East Africa, but the war did not stop there, and the Empire continued to consider sending troops into Libya to completely eliminate all Italian colonies in Africa.

In the early days of the war, Germany ostensibly supported Italy, but in fact it had been supporting China in exchange for the progress of Sino-German relations, and even aided Ethiopia with tens of thousands of rifles, reaching a situation where Italy had been delayed in Africa for a long time and it was difficult to concentrate on dealing with European problems.

Britain and France are clearly opposed to Italy, and at the same time give Italy some covert support, hoping to drag China in Africa.

As a result, in the later stages of the war, because the Italian colonial forces in East Africa were completely destroyed, Britain and France were afraid that China would continue to support the surrounding British and French colonies in the Reading War, and hastily stopped supporting Italy, eager to coordinate for China and Italy, while Germany began to support Italy again.

It is also true that Italy has an arrogant leader, Mussolini does not recognize the reality of Italy's defeat at all, and will continue to fight and re-establish his old dream of a great Roman empire.

Because of the British and French restrictions, the Chinese navy could not enter the Mediterranean, and there was no way to attack the Italian colony in Libya, at least in the short term, and in return to the British and French restrictions, the empire increased the size of its military presence in East Africa, threatening the security of Britain in British Somalia and Sudan.

It was not until December 1937 that Italy was forced to accept the British armistice coordination proposal, recognizing Ethiopia's reading power and freedom, and recognizing the protection rights of Eritrea and Italian Somalia to China.

If people knew that the Italian air force in East Africa had never officially taken off because of a lack of fuel, and that Italy had provided the air force with enough macaroni and frozen meat and vegetables, but not aviation fuel, people would have felt that the matter was full of drama.

The most dramatic thing is that the Italian army did not have a real battle plan from beginning to end, and the army that was forced to go out because of Mussolini's orders had no idea which position to attack from top to bottom.

If there was nothing more absurd than this, it was that the two battleships of the Italian Navy in the port of Assawa withdrew their home repairs before receiving the order to retreat, and the convoy hid in the port of Villa for repairs on the pretext of waiting for the escort of the battleships, and the Italian army did not punish them.

(To be continued)