"For the Motherland! For the emperor! For the sake of faith! ”

The Egyptian positions were instantly overwhelmed by the slogans of the previous Battle of Adwa, and the Egyptian officers and men held high the green, yellow, and red striped national flags, armed with rifles, spears, and hoes with bayonets, jumped out of the broken trenches, and pounced on the enemy like a storm......

Stabbed with a bayonet, stabbed with a spear, knocked with a hoe, chopped with a hatchet, stoned with a ...... The Egyptians fought the enemy hand-to-hand with everything they could find, and even bit their teeth and pick their nails – something that the "civilized" Italians could not tolerate.

Encountering such a savage enemy who does not respect the laws of war, coupled with the bloody picture of his comrades being smashed on the spot and their heads pulled out of their intestines, the Italians, who have been influenced by the elegant civilization of the Renaissance, quickly turned from the initial confusion to substantive action: the officers wearing the golden tassels on their chests and snow-white gloves on their hands first threw down their beautiful sabers, cursed the bulky leather boots under their feet while using their strength to run back, and the soldiers followed suit, threw down their rifles, and most of them stumbled back, The remaining half lost all the strength and courage to escape, and simply knelt on the spot and raised their hands in surrender.

The Ethiopian army treated the prisoners with kindness, and according to the experience of the last war, these prisoners were living money,—— after the first Egyptian-Italian war in 1896, the Italians paid 10 million lire (equivalent to 110,000 pounds) to ransom the 2,000 soldiers captured.

In this attack, the Italian army suffered hundreds of casualties, a number of prisoners, and their morale was greatly damaged, and they did not launch another attack for a whole day, and they did not even fire a single shell.

In the early morning of August 25 the next day, the Italian artillery fire began to sweep Adwa again, and it was booming, when six Egyptian planes suddenly flew into the southern sky, rushed to the Italian artillery position in three directions, and dropped bombs and strafed the scalps of the Italians.

Taking the air signal of its own planes, the 1st Army Corps of the Duke of Katema of the Egyptian Army suddenly closed the encirclement of the 9th Infantry Division of the Italian Army, and attacked the enemy's position from the west, east and north with a fresh force of 36,000 people from 6 infantry brigades and 3 cavalry regiments, blocked the Italian army on the right flank of the 9th Division with 2 infantry brigades, and cut off the left flank of the 9th Division with the Praetorian Cavalry Regiment and 30,000 feudal militia of the Duke of Katema's family. At the same time, Adua's Mangaxia army also rushed out of the city defense positions and killed back in the direction from which the enemy came, and the 9th Division of the Italian Army was caught in the net!

As soon as the battle began, the first-line cover position of the Italian Ninth Division was overwhelmed by the overwhelming Egyptian troops, and the Italian army hurriedly retreated into the second-line cover position, and formed three mutually supportive ring defense circles centered on three artillery positions.

The Egyptian infantry cavalry launched dozens of waves of heroic charges against the three rings of defense supported by powerful machine gun artillery fire from morning to night, but because the field artillery units had not yet arrived at the battlefield, their own supporting fire was suppressed by the enemy's heavy artillery, and the attack failed, and a large number of corpses of Egyptian soldiers fell in front of the Italian position.

At night, the 3,000 private soldiers of the Governor of Mangasia, who had just arrived on the battlefield, were naked, armed with machetes, daggers and crossbows, and under the cover of bushes and dead grass, they touched the eastern ring position of the Italian Ninth Division at night, and after a few sharpshooters quietly wiped out the enemy's forward sentries, a whistle, all jumped up and charged less than thirty meters from the enemy's first line of trenches, and the Italian troops fell into the nightmare of hand-to-hand combat in the middle of the night without having time to release their guns.

As soon as Mangaxia's private soldiers were successful, thousands of soldiers of the 10th Infantry Brigade of the First Legion, led by Rastafari, the 16-year-old Duke of the Royal Family and Governor of Sidamo, rushed into the enemy position.

The soldiers of the 10th Brigade carried rifles, armed with short spears and bayonets, and stabbed them without hesitation when they touched the clothes in the dark, killing the Italian army a ghost crying wolf, and by dawn, there was no Italian who had not been spared blood on the Italian army's circular position in the east, and in the center of the circular position, in front of the neatly arranged 24 cannons, the green, yellow and red horizontal striped tricolor flag of the Ethiopian army was fluttering in the wind.

At noon on the same day, the four field artillery companies of the First Army Corps finally arrived at the battlefield, 12 75-mm field guns, 12 105-mm heavy field guns, plus the newly captured 8 Italian-made 100-mm heavy field guns and 8 75-mm field guns, the firepower of medium and long-range artillery was enough to confront the enemy, and the 1 floating balloon platoon (with 1 floating balloon) that arrived with the field artillery company made the Egyptian artillery even more powerful.

After lunch, the Duke of Katema personally went to the city of Adwa and commanded tens of thousands of Egyptian troops, including the Mangaxia Army, to attack the two remaining ring positions of the Italian Ninth Division.

After carefully examining the situation on the battlefield from the vantage point of Adwa, the Duke of Katema ordered to first concentrate most of his forces and attack the relatively flat terrain of the western ring position.

At the sound of an order, the 84 cannons of the First Army fired at the highest rate of fire at the enemy position for half an hour, and the hail-like shells burst out countless columns of smoke and dust, covering the enemy position tightly. As the artillery fire extended to the depth of the enemy's position, more than 25,000 people from the four infantry brigades of the Duke of Katemar and the 10,000 private soldiers of the Governor of Mangasia jumped out one after another from the communication trenches and parallel trenches secretly dug at night, and attacked the enemy's western ring position from the west, southeast, and south with multiple waves of straggler lines......

Lieutenant Colonel Yintian, deputy head of the Chinese advisory group at Duke Ketemar's side, wrote in his diary that day: "...... Although he had expected it before, and he believed that he had witnessed several times the number of group charges on the battlefield against Russia, he should have been nothing more than that, but seeing that his 25,000 people were fearless at all, facing the strafing of grenade shells and machine guns, and rushing into the enemy formation like lightning, he couldn't help but exclaim...... Yu thought that the supreme will to fight that could be stimulated by protecting the family and defending the country, such as the world's first absolute justice, seemed to have nothing else to do. ”

More than 3,000 Italian troops and more than 1,000 Eritrean indigenous troops on the western ring were completely annihilated within three hours, and 16 artillery pieces became trophies of the Egyptian army.

As the sun set, the main force of the Italian Ninth Division in the northern ring continued to hold its position under the spur of Lieutenant General Belinik, commander of the Eritrean Corps, according to Belinik's diary after the war, there were still more than 9,000 Italian troops in the northern ring at this time, and 5,000 Eritrean indigenous troops, of which about one-fifth were wounded.

In order to relieve the besieged Lieutenant General Belinik and the 9th Division, the 6th Italian Division, which was located on the left flank of the 9th Division, that is, to the east, and was originally attacking Adigrat, stopped the siege on August 25, leaving only one regiment to monitor the Egyptian army in Adigrat, the main force of the division and 5,000 indigenous troops quickly moved westward to advance to Adua, 30 kilometers away.

At noon on the 25th, the vanguard cavalry company of the 6th Division encountered the Egyptian Praetorian Cavalry led by Serra Maconnan, the son of Duke Maconnan, 20 kilometers from Adwa, and the Italian cavalry was repulsed, and then the Egyptian Janissary Cavalry Regiment seized a pass 18 kilometers east of Adwa, where it dug trenches, deployed artillery, and set up machine guns, preparing to block the Italian army. On the flanks and in the rear of their position, 30,000 feudal militia under the command of Soabi Katema, son of the Duke of Katema, were to be under the command of Sera Maconnan by order of His Majesty the Emperor.

Major Li Ruishi, a member of the Chinese advisory group who arrived with the Praetorian Cavalry Regiment, recorded the battle that took place that afternoon at the so-called "Makang South Pass".

“…… At about two o'clock in the afternoon, more than ten enemy cavalry came to explore and were driven out by us. A quarter of an hour later, the artillery and cavalry of the enemy brigade reached about five or six miles below the mountain pass, where they were clearly visible through telescopes and quickly disappeared into the bushes. The commander of the Serra regiment wanted to launch an artillery bombardment, but persuaded him, saying that because the distance was too far and there were trees to cover it, the 57 cavalry artillery would not be easy to hit, and it was just a futile shell, so the commander of the Serra regiment gave up. A staff officer said that while the enemy's foothold was not stable, he rushed down the mountain and seized his artillery, but I said that the enemy's infantry must be nearby, and they should not act rashly. ”

“…… At about four o'clock in the afternoon, the enemy artillery bombarded the pass, and our men and horses and artillery were all hidden behind the grass and trees, and the enemy bullets were fired indiscriminately, the wood and rocks flew, and the grass burned from time to time. The shelling stopped for a quarter of an hour and resumed a few minutes later, and for a long time the intermittent shelling took place, and our troops did not lose a few dead and wounded more than a dozen. The enemy's infantry column, under the cover of artillery bombardment, stretched in four directions, followed by three columns, estimated to be as many as seven battalions, and covered by a small cavalry on each flank. ”

"On the strict order of the commander of the Serra, our army did not move, allowing the enemy to approach step by step, and everyone held their breath and did not dare to move. It turned out that the third battalion of the regiment had dismounted and entered the trench, which had been dug two or three hours before, but it was only half a meter deep, and groups of two or three people lived there, and the solid ground was covered by gravel stacks. The front of the trench and pit bunkers are covered with freshly pulled grass and trees, and the enemy cannot be recognized unless he is close up. The second and third battalions were hidden behind the mountain, resting and standby. ”

“…… The enemy advanced to four or five hundred meters from the front line, three red signal flares flew up, the grass and wood fence in front of the cannon machine gun was immediately put down, and suddenly the guns and cannons were fired in unison, and the shrapnel swept through the enemy position like cutting wheat, the enemy hurriedly dispersed and fell, and the machine gun group that followed up counterattacked with the help of bush cover guns, and the commander of the Serra regiment saw the rain of bullets flying on the front line, and forced me to retreat from the position, and when he saw that I did not retreat, he ordered me to supervise the cavalry to attack. ”

“…… The commander of the Serra regiment had agreed with the son of Soabi, and the whole army would fight back down the mountain, but at this time I only heard the sound of people on the mountain, and I did not know when hundreds of battle flags had been erected, and when I reached the top of the pass, I saw that the second and third battalions had been fully mounted and galloped through in two ways. ”

“…… If the two battalions of cavalry descend from the mountain, the 30,000 militia will sweep like a swarm of bees, the enemy will be terrified, those who abandon their guns and flee will not be counted, those who raise their hands and surrender will not be counted, and those who die under the horses' hooves and knives will not be counted, and the chaos will be indescribable. I saw in my telescope that the enemy cavalry and artillery were rushing to flee in the distance, and reported to the commander of the Serra regiment, and said that they should not pursue too far, lest they be blocked by the enemy's follow-up, and that they could be combined and attacked after the main force of the detachment arrived. The commander of the regiment did not believe me, and personally led the first battalion to attack on horseback, and chased five or six miles away, coinciding with the arrival of enemy reinforcements, a fierce battle, the regiment commander was shot and fell from his horse. ”

"On the occasion of this battle, more than 1,000 enemies were killed, more than 2,000 were captured, and the enemy's 6th Division lingered in front of the mouth for two days, not daring to advance lightly, so it made a detour from afar, but the forbidden 1st brigade led by the son of Rosette intercepted the rear road, and the army was in great confusion, and fled north in a hurry, and even abandoned the 16th Regiment of Adi Grant without hesitation, causing the regiment to fall into the mouth of our Praetorian Guard, and the whole army was destroyed. The enemy's 9th Division had no hope of asking for help, our 1st Army Corps and Mangaxia's Army were besieged with iron barrels, and attacked in a series of attacks, the enemy was finally unable to support it, and the rest of the troops surrendered on 6 September, and the commander of the enemy's corps, Lieutenant General Belinik, raised his hand and surrendered with 12,000 men. With this achievement, the battle of Makangnan Pass is really indispensable......"

As Li Ruishi recounted, with the surrender of the rest of the Italian Ninth Division, the war on the northern front could come to an end. From August 14 to September 6, the Italian army lost more than 9,000 casualties, 20,000 prisoners, 11,000 wounded, and a total loss of nearly 40,000 (including 29,000 Italians). The Egyptian army captured 18,000 rifles, 90 cannons, and 80 machine guns, and at the same time gained invaluable and unprecedented morale and confidence.

During the 24-day battle, the regular Egyptian army on the northern front suffered more than 18,000 casualties (including more than 400 Janissary casualties), more than 20,000 militiamen, and more than half of the two brigades of the First Army Corps were forced to return to their original places to rest. Since the losses of the regular army in the northern frontier were not small, in order to deal with the Eastern and Western Eritrean detachments of the Italian army invading from the direction of Assab and um Hajar respectively, and to maintain the situation in the north, the Duke of Katema was also ordered to leave the two brigades of the First Army, which had been reduced by one-third, to Mangasia as a mobile force in the north.

As a result, the Strategic Mobile Force in the hands of the King of Kings was left with an almost intact Praetorian Guard, as well as four infantry brigades, three cavalry regiments, and the main auxiliary units of the partially reduced First Army Corps, with a total strength of 48,000 men.

At this time, the southern front had been tightened, and the strategic town of Dolo on the left flank of the southern front was captured by the Germans on August 27, and almost all of the more than 10,000 defenders of Dolo (including 6,000 regular troops) were killed. The other route was north-northwest of Ramahilindi, capturing Ellecre, 180 kilometres from Dolo, on 10 September, where it joined the left flank detachment of the Italian Somali Corps.

On the right flank of the southern front, the Italians captured Mustashil on 6 September at great cost and then advanced on the side of Gord and Kebridhar.

Since the vast arid zone adjacent to Somalia in the south was newly conquered by Emperor Menelik since his accession to the throne, and the population was predominantly Muslim, the treatment of the German and Italian troops in the area was not very different from that of the Ethiopian army, which also made the activities of the German and Italian troops on the southern front much easier than those on the northern front.

The southern front is in danger!

On 10 September, Menelik II ordered the 1st Army and the Praetorian Guard to assemble at his stronghold, Desai, where he intended to personally lead the army against a strong enemy on the southern front.

The members of the Chinese Military Advisory Group will also continue to savor their legendary fate here, which is not a bystander......