Chapter 522: North Africa Beacon Fire (Part II)

Western Algeria is dominated by Berbers like Morocco, so Kerim's Moroccan elite troops have no inconvenience of fighting on the outside line after entering Algeria, and what makes the French government even more alarmed is that they originally thought that Kerim would either meet the French army that landed in Spanish Morocco, or attack French Morocco in retaliation, so in the case of insufficient troops, they transferred most of the Algerian garrison to French Morocco to guard against Kerim's attack. As a result, more than 10,000 people in the Krim are invincible in the huge Algeria, and tens of thousands of French troops have been wiped out in just over a week, almost completely overthrowing French rule over Algeria

Inspired by a series of victories in Kerim, the national consciousness of the Algerian Berbers quickly awakened, and they took the initiative to gather under the banner of Kerim, so that the strength under his command quickly swelled to more than 30,000, at this time, after receiving the report of the guerrillas, Kerim found that the French army pursuing him was out of touch because of the rapid march, and immediately resolutely returned to the division, launched a surprise attack on a division of the French army that was too fierce, and used the strategy of "encircling the point to send reinforcements" to expand the results of the battle after destroying most of the enemy. A total of more than 30,000 enemies were annihilated, while the losses of the rebel army were only more than 5,000 people, and within a few months of Klim's reappearance after nearly 20 years of losing his freedom, the whole of Europe was shocked again. But that's just the beginning

A series of victories not only increased the prestige of the Krim among his own people, but also the same blood as the Berbers (except for Egypt). The rest of the North African Arabs were originally Arabized Berbers. The Arabs of North Africa also saw it as a hope to free themselves from Western colonial rule, and many tribes sent people to contact the rebels to express their hope for their eastward advance. At this time, Klim was also encouraged by the successive victories, and knew that with the strength of France's comprehensive national strength, the current uprising could not be confronted head-on, so he continued to lead his troops eastward into the Arab-populated areas of Algeria, and quickly grew his army to more than 100,000.

Pétain, the commander-in-chief of the French army who had invaded the Moroccan rebels, was not overjoyed when he learned of this, and he thought that it was time for Klim to return to his division to fight him and bring the French army to an end of this hellish march, but Kerim unexpectedly swung his army east again into Libya, which was still an Italian colony

"Is he crazy? Two powers are not enough, he actually wants to provoke a third power? ”。 Petain was puzzled. However, Klim's unexpected eastward advance forced the French to halt their pursuit, as the Italian government did not extend an invitation to the French, as the Spaniards did

Less than a month later, Pétain understood what Kerim meant, and in this time. Klim first defeated the Italian garrison in Libya. This was followed by the defeat of hundreds of thousands of troops sent by Italy from the mainland. The total number of enemies destroyed was more than 400,000, of which more than 360,000 were captured, while the casualties of the Klim rebels were less than 20,000. In addition, more than half of them are caused by Italy's aircraft, artillery and other jishu troops, and the difference in the combat effectiveness of the Italian army is completely exposed in front of the eyes of the world

In fact, Krim didn't know that Italy, as one of the great powers, had such a pustuated army, which was still proposed in Hu Weidong's letter, and he decided to take a risk when he was chased by the French army, anyway, even if a France is difficult to compete with his rebel army, then there will be no essential difference between one more enemy (that is, as the saying goes, "lice are too much to itch"). The Italian army's combat effectiveness was far inferior to that of Spain, and the rebels under the command of Krim were able to defeat three of them even if they encountered the Spanish army in a frontal battle, and the Italians were naturally tragic

Kerim's great victory in the anti-Italian struggle in Libya greatly encouraged the courage of the Arab and even African peoples to resist the Western colonizers, and the nearby Libyans and even Algerians, Egyptians and North Sudanese came to vote, when the rebel army basically liberated the entire territory of Libya, its total strength has grown to a staggering 150,000 people, and what is even more terrifying is that due to the massive capture obtained in the process of annihilating hundreds of thousands of Italian troops before, the Klim rebel army now has thousands of artillery pieces (including mortars) There were hundreds of airplanes and dozens of tanks, and most of them were operated by Italian prisoners of war, and the Comintern also sent hundreds of volunteers to help Kerim train Jishu troops and even directly participate in the war

The reason why so many Italian prisoners of war are willing to fight for the rebels is of course because of Krim's unique personality charm, on the other hand, he makes full use of the liliang of faith, if you can persuade the prisoners of war to convert to Islam, it is the best, those who do not want to believe in religion are not forced, there are atheistic red ideas prepared for them, two diametrically opposed ideas, there is always one suitable for you

In fact, Klim's cooperation with the Comintern began as early as his first uprising, although Kerim was a Muslim and his beliefs were completely opposed to the red ideas based on atheism, but both Kerim and Stalin were very realistic politicians, and since Western countries were the common enemies of both sides, as the so-called "enemy of my enemy is my friend", cooperation was taken for granted

However, during the last uprising, because the Liliang of the Comintern was still very weak, it could only be indirectly supported by the French Communist Party in organizing anti-war demonstrations and the like, and the effect was naturally very limited, and now the Soviet Union is already the second largest industrial country in Shijie, and the support that can be given is naturally much greater, even if Stalin does not want to completely tear his face with Britain and France, it is still no problem to send some volunteers over, but just these volunteers, The help for the rebels is already very great.

Krim, who had greatly increased his strength, took advantage of the fact that the second batch of French reinforcements had not yet been sent, and decisively led the main force of the rebel army back to Algeria. At this time, although the North French army had a total strength of no less than 300,000, in order to protect the lines of communication and large and medium-sized cities from the guerrillas, it had to station a considerable part of the army in various places, and the field troops available in Petain's hands were only 150,000; And the total number of the rebels who returned to the west with Kerim and the Italian officers and soldiers who were willing to fight for the rebels was about the same number, and the two sides were equal in strength, and a major war unprecedented in the modern history of Africa was about to start (to be continued......