Dolo is located in the upper reaches of the Juba River, where the Dawa River, which originates from the Ethiopian plateau, meets the Ghanale Doria River, and the confluence of the two rivers makes the water and soil here quite good, so the Sabu tribe (a small tribe of Somalis) who live here cultivates the small flatlands of the river valley, and there is still a large harvest.

Since it was not bad here, then as the commander of the Italian expeditionary force, of course, Colonel Crowley would not let go of such a place, not that he took the main force of the expeditionary force, 1500 people occupied Dolo.

It's just that he didn't know that his move to occupy Dolo made Vannis Vasquez, Duke of Alaaba, feel threatened.

The ruler of most of the Bakool region (most of present-day Ethiopian province of Somalia), although he remained neutral in the Abyssinian Civil War, was distracted by the Italian invasion.

After sending an envoy to demand that Italy withdraw from Dolo was denied, the Duke of Araaba, with most of his forces, pressed Dolo along the valley of the Doria River in Ghanale.

How many troops did this Duke of Allah Aba bring?

Its direct subordinate force is 21,000, equipped with some front-loading guns and a small number of rear-loading guns. The tribe mustered 24,000 troops, mainly bows, javelins, and spears, with a small number of front-loading guns.

These 45,000 troops were not a small number for the Italian troops stationed in Dolo. Colonel Crowley, who served as the commander for this reason, had many thoughts about wanting to quit Dolo and avoid his edge. However, considering the impact of this on his career prospects, he held back.

However, although he resisted the idea of retreating for the time being, Colonel Crowley did not intend to rely on this little force to block the attacking enemy, and he sent three waves of heralds in succession, asking the Italian garrisons in Lugue, Garbaharé, and Bourbore in the rear to withdraw troops to support Dolo.

Speaking of which, it is also to blame him for his negligence, because he was successful before, he has always faced not too large tribes, so the expeditionary force he led has also been reduced from 3,500 people at the beginning to 1,500 people. After all, such a large place needs to be garrisoned to declare sovereignty. Put two hundred in this place and three hundred in that place, and the number of troops will naturally be much less.

In addition, they were invaders, and the Duke of Ala'aba was the head of the land, so by the time they heard the spies report that the enemy was coming, the army of the Duke of Ala'aba was already less than 150 kilometers away from them. It's less than a week away.

At this time, Colonel Crowley could only be supported by the nearest Lugar garrison, and its commander, Captain Cooney, drew a hundred men from his own two hundred men to urgently support him.

In the face of such a drop in the bucket of support, Colonel Crowley also knew that the captain did his best, knowing that Luger was his back, and if he was cut off, there would be nowhere to run. After all, there is a desert everywhere, and there is no water source anywhere else except for the Juba River Valley.

"Are you sure the enemy has reached Reava?"

"Yes, my lord, I can be sure that the enemy has reached Reava. It was crowded with troops, all of them were the troops of the Duke of Araaba, Vannis Vasquez. ”

Questioned by Colonel Crowley is Mensah, the most successful businessman in the former Kismayo, who is now using his advantage to become Colonel Crowley's intelligence agent.

He recruited several locals, all of whom were familiar with the local terrain, so he was able to provide information to Colonel Crowley. And what he called Reava was a small river called Wiib, twenty kilometers from Dolo, where it meets the Doria River in Ganal.

"Okay, thank you for the intel, it's important to us."

After sending Mensa away in two sentences, Colonel Crowley called the orderlies. "Call Major Tovani and I've got something to look for him."

We will not mention the conversation between the two Italian officers.

The next day, Dolo's Italian army was ready for a large number of troops in front of them. Although half of these black native armies were armed with cold weapons, half of them were armed with front-loading guns and a small number of rear-loading guns made in Europe.

There were even natives pushing 6 front-loading bronze cannons, which were definitely Napoleonic cannons, 2 were 6-pounder guns, and 4 were 12-pounder guns.

Colonel Crowley, who put down his binoculars, turned ugly. "Damn it, these Britons are just so shameless. There are also people in the church who dare to give anything for the sake of preaching. ”

Well, Colonel Crowley was right, the two 6-pounder guns were bought by the Catholic Church in a hurry to proselytize and given to the Duke of Alaaba, and the remaining 4 12-pounder guns were bought by the Duke from the British.

As for the muskets, a small half were given by the British, most of them were purchased by the duke, and some of them were purchased from Italian merchants.

However, in the face of such a situation now, fortunately, there are also artillery on the positions of the Italian army, and 12 breech-loading rifled guns are enough to let Duke Alaaba know that he cannot take advantage of artillery.

All morning, the Italian army watched as the duke's troops continued to arrive under the city of Dolo. As the saying goes, there are more than 10,000 people who are boundless, and this army of nearly 50,000 puts a lot of pressure on the 1,600 soldiers who must have come to the garrison.

The enemy's induced posture made every Italian officer and soldier bear exponential pressure.

Fortunately, by the afternoon, the indigenous army had finally made a move, and about 3,000 natives armed with cold weapons were seen approaching the city.

When the enemy was still 300 meters away from the position, Colonel Crowley, who was in charge of the battle, gave the order. "Fire."

The Italian soldiers immediately used the Vitryy M1870 rifle in their hands to let these natives armed with cold weapons know what modern warfare is.

"Bang, bang, bang~"

After a burst of gunfire, nearly 100 natives fell to the ground.

Of course, the natives were not without the power to fight back, after receiving three waves of Italian fire, they had already rushed to a distance of 100 meters, and at this time, the musketeers hiding behind immediately took the Migne front loading gun, rushed to the first row After a row of guns, several Italian soldiers were hit. This also let the soldiers in the position know that the other side also has weapons that can threaten them.

However, the natives who fired this volley suffered greater losses, and their upright position became a good target, and half of them fell in front of the Italian positions.

Of course, it was unrealistic for 3,000 men to take down Dolo, which was held by the Italian army, and after a short time he was defeated and left behind hundreds of corpses, the attack was over.

Of course, the commanders of both sides also knew that this was just a temptation, so no one paid attention to this offensive on the other side.

Subsequently, the Duke of Ala'aba launched several tentative attacks, all of which were blocked by Colonel Crowley one by one.

Perhaps considering that his army had just arrived, the natives did not attack again. Instead, they began to set up camp and prepare for a long battle.

In the face of the other party's actions, Colonel Crowley was very happy to see that this was at least an extra day of waiting for reinforcements.

Neither side made any moves to harass during the night, but Colonel Crowley still did not dare to slack off, leaving nearly a battalion of troops to guard the night.

By the next day, the army of the Duke of Araaba had appeared on three sides of Dolo. This weighed heavily on Colonel Crowley's face, for it meant that the enemy was about to launch a general attack, and it seemed that his encampment yesterday afternoon was only an attempt to confuse himself, and the enemy was even more stupid and did not want to give himself time to delay.

However, he is not a vegetarian, he dares to defend Dolo with more than 1,000 troops, blocking the enemy's nearly 50,000 troops, and he also has his own hole cards.

"Push those six Makqin up."

That's right, as the terminator of Zhennanguan, this machine gun purchased by Italy also appeared in Somalia, the original land of Africa.

Regarding the use of machine guns, the Italian army had long figured out cross-fire. So there is no need to worry about its use. The only thing that worries him is that his machine gun carries a total of 250,000 rounds of ammunition, and he doesn't know if it can survive until the enemy collapses.

Without making him wait, the army of the Duke of Alaaba launched an offensive from three sides.

The army of 10,000 people on each side charged majestically, compared with the hundreds of Italian officers and soldiers stationed in the position, it was like a monstrous wave against a stubborn rock, and a wave could drown it.

At this point, the commander of the position could no longer care about the optimal firing range, and immediately after entering the effective firing range, he ordered to open fire.

"呯呯呯~"

Bursts of gunfire knocked down the charging natives, but the others bravely continued to charge toward their positions.

"Machine gun fire."

Seeing that the enemy was not afraid of fire, the position commander immediately moved out the big killing weapon.

"Da Da Da ......"

The distinctly different sound of continuous firing finally calmed down the heroic Ethiopian soldiers. The entire area of soldiers fell, and the fear finally instilled in them, and their offensive was pinned.

And seeing that the offensive was blocked, his own soldiers fell one after another, which made Duke Alaaba's heart drip blood. Because the troops who take the lead are all his soldiers. In order to avoid reinforcements from the Italians, he was able to attack Dolo in one go, so he deployed his troops in this way. I didn't expect the enemy to have such a burst of fire, and its ultra-high rate of fire made the warriors unable to rush at all.

"Come back, come back."

His order was given a little late, allowing at least 5 thousand soldiers to fall in front of the positions of the Italian troops.

After counting the losses, such a casualty figure was unacceptable to him. Even without touching the enemy's side, he could bear such a huge loss.

And these are all his elite troops, how can they not make people feel distressed. This is his capital related to his status, and it must not be lost here.

But he was absolutely unwilling to go back like this. Not to mention the loss of soldiers, such a big move by the labor division must have some results, otherwise his rule will be unstable in the future.

So after resting for a while, he was unwilling to choose to test the attack one after another, and he didn't dare to use such a large-scale group charge.

Since it was a skirmish, it was not better to deal with. With equipment far superior to the opponent, only there is a huge gap in strength, and now the enemy has given up the advantage and it is even more impossible to use a short attack to long.

So what kind of night raids, raids, sneak attacks and other means were used by this duke, and in this respect, this Duke of Alaaba is also a battle-hardened battle. But it's all his battles with the rest of the country, the battles of the modern army, and it seems that he hasn't experienced much.

After four days, the Duke had nothing to do with the defenders of Nadolo, but only added more than 2,000 enemies to Colonel Crowley.

On the fifth day, the Duke departed with his army. Because if you don't leave, another defeat will come.

Because his spies came to report that an Italian army was coming, and the number should be about 1,200. The spies' report gave Duke Ala'aba the idea of setting up an ambush, but considering that if this army also had that kind of burst fire, then it would be advantageous to lose the battle.

After much consideration, the Duke decided to be cautious, for he did not need to do so, because the Italian army supporting it only had two Maxims, as long as His Excellency had enough men in ambush to break through his blockade. It's hard to say that Makqin can fire like a rifle, but he doesn't know this duke.

Dolo's conflict was not unique, as the Italian conquest of Somalia was met with various powers in Abyssinia. Because it has always been a country with a long history in East Africa, it has a greater impact on the surrounding tribes (not the tributary system of the Chinese state, but just the influence).

And when these tribes were invaded by the Italian army, they naturally thought of the empire around them. Although its civil war continues, it is much stronger than these tribes.

In the face of the pleas for help from these tribes, some gave support, while others ignored their requests for help in view of Italy's strength.

As a result, Italy encountered several waves of resistance when it occupied Greater Somalia. There are like the Duke of Alaaba, who will do it if he doesn't agree with him. In general, though, the Italian army had the majority of the advantage.

However, there were exceptions, in Eritrea, an army of 500 men was attacked by the army of Emperor Johannes IV of Abyssinia at Adiquara, and only two escaped from the battle.

This result alarmed Major General Balth, who was in command in Eritrea, and while reporting to Rome, he immediately organized an army to rush to Adiquara. But by the time he arrived with his army, there were no Abyssinians left.

Faced with such a situation, Major General Barter could only sigh. Because the army gave them strict orders not to attack Abyssinia. And with the 3,000 men in his hands, if he wants to attack the East African plateau, he is also unable to do it.

As for what to do next, it is necessary to listen to the decision of Rome.