Samuel: "You have to be more careful in an unfamiliar environment, especially in Eritrea, where we can press the natives too much during the day, but what if it's night!" Then we are at risk of being cut off and attacked. ”

Sapeto thought that he had already determined why the Kingdom of Italy would lose in the Italo-Austrian War, and even the "military genius" of the Kingdom was so timid as a mouse, how could it stand up to the mighty Austro-Hungarian Empire!

So Sapeto said with some contempt: "Hahaha, General! You think too highly of the Abyssinians, can they still hold spears against the heavily armed Italian army? ”

Seeing Sapeto so blind, Samuel shook his head and said, "Mr. Sapeto, if you think so, you are very wrong!" ”

Sapeto: "What does the General think?" ”

Samuel: "Do you know how I got my way in war? ”

Sapeto shook his head.

Samuel recalled: "When I first joined the army, because the kingdom was facing the threat of Austria-Hungary, the conscription was very hasty, and my company was a group of farmers who had just laid down their hoes from the fields, and they could not even tell the difference between left and right, and they were even more at a loss for military orders, and I myself was a fledgling young man, and I knew nothing about military affairs, and I thought that such an army could have any hope for the well-trained Austro-Hungarian Empire." ”

Sapeto shook his head and said affirmatively, "No." ”

He himself actually served as a soldier and knew more about them, otherwise he would not have retired and gone to Eritrea to colonize.

Samuel continued: "That's not the worst of all, even the stupidest people know how to advance and retreat on the battlefield, and the farmer has a weapon in his hand, and even if he doesn't aim accurately, he can put pressure on the enemy, but you know what! In my company, only half of the people were assigned guns, and there were even old antiques left over from the Napoleonic era, but even old antiques were a luxury for some people, and everyone had to come in turns during training, and it was not until they were about to go to the front line that a batch of rifles were withdrawn from the front line, and all kinds of problems continued, and some simply could not be used, which was a disaster for me as a fledgling. ”

Sapeto said in disbelief: "The kingdom is not even equipped with rifles!" ”

Samuel: "I thought the same way, but this kind of thing really happened to me, and when I reported this problem to my superiors, the battalion commander with a pig's head and fat brain told me that the kingdom was not prepared for the Austro-Hungarian sneak attack, but in fact our mobilization was carried out long before the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war, and the Austro-Khalinarian Empire had not yet fought at that time. ”

Sapeto scolded angrily: "These damn corrupt officials! It's been decades! They still haven't made any progress! When I was a soldier, it was the same, but at that time, it was not that I didn't even have guns, but embezzled soldiers' funds, and I bet that your guns may not have left the factory at all, and they will be settled! ”

Samuel: "Hehe, I bet on the military expenses of the Italian-Austrian war, most of the soldiers did not get it, in addition to the sacrifices, there was also a shortage of funds after the war, which has been in arrears, and this is still when Austria-Hungary did not ask Italy for reparations. ”

After hearing this, Sapeto changed his opinion of Samuel, and he respectfully asked Samuel: "General, in that case, how did you defeat the Austro-Hungarian army?" ”

"It's easy, sneak attack!"

"Sneak attack!"

Samuel: "Yes, it's disgraceful, but it's my recipe for victory, because when the Kingdom of Italy is at stake, you don't have to think too much about the choice of tactics. ”

In this era, European countries fought wars like this, preaching the so-called chivalry, and defeating the enemy in a dignified manner, although there are always people who break the rules in the actual war, the most typical is the students of the Heixingen Military Academy who are keen on "sneak attacks" and "guerrillas", which has a lot to do with the textbooks they study, and a large number of oriental military classics are supplemented to the textbooks to broaden the horizons of the students of the Heixingen Military Academy, but everyone fights mainly in the frontal battlefield.

Samuel: "The enemy in my area is mainly the combined forces of Austria and Hungary, and I know that the Austro-Crarian soldiers are well trained, but many of their troops are made up according to ethnicity, so in terms of command, Austria will certainly not be able to be perfect, they must make mistakes often, and the performance of the Austro-Hungarian army confirms my idea. ”

"The Austro-Hungarian army often has troops to make unreasonable moves, which allows me to seize the opportunity, in the early days, because of the disadvantage of equipment, the troops I led often launched attacks on the Austro-Hungarian Empire at night, with the help of the night, touched the vicinity of the Austro-Hungarian army, and took the initiative to melee with them, the Austrian Vöhnder rifle is very advanced, not only loading and firing faster, but also the accuracy is much higher than ours, not to mention the Vöhnder rifle, even the Hungarian Lorenz rifle is also more advanced than the tattered in our hands, And they also have artillery of various calibers, so I know that there is only one way to compete with the Austro-Hungarian army in close combat. ”

Sapeto: "It's really the only way, otherwise it's ......"

Samuel: "Otherwise, we will suffer huge casualties, and we will not inflict the same trauma on the enemy, unless we use several times the superior forces and fill them with more lives, it is possible to exchange for a trivial victory, but Austria-Hungary is already larger than us, and it will be more and more unfavorable to the Kingdom of Italy if it continues like this, and this is also the lesson I learned when I fought Austria-Hungary for the first time." ”

"General, you've failed too!"

"It's not a failure, it's just that the first time I went to the battlefield was inexperienced, I caused some losses, and after seeing that I couldn't do anything, I changed my strategy in time, in fact, we didn't have much action, and the Austro-Hungarian artillery fire didn't give us a chance to attack on a large scale at all."

"And how did you deal with enemy fire?"

"With the help of the terrain, retreat in an orderly manner, do not confront Austria-Hungary head-on during the day, and find the field back at night,"

"Then how do you respond to the orders of your superiors! If the above doesn't let you retreat, resist to the end? ”

Samuel laughed out loud when he heard Sapeto's words: "Hahaha, do you count on orders from above!" In fact, the Italian army has been in retreat, the chain of command has long been gone, everyone is running for their lives, my earliest battalion commander disappeared when the war broke out, but they don't know, the faster they escape, the easier it is to be completely annihilated by the Austro-Hungarian army, seeing that Italy is cowardly before the battle, the morale of the Austro-Hungarian army is greatly increased, so when I command the troops, I never synchronize with the friendly army, even if I want to escape, I can't let the Austro-Crarian army seize the flaw, let the pursuers throw a mouse. ”

"If the chain of command fails, how do you get supplies such as ammunition?"

Samuel: "To put it mildly, the kingdom has absolutely no supplies for the cannon fodder troops, so my troops are mainly fighting on captured Austro-Hungarian weapons, and the Austro-Hungarian Vaindel rifles are much more reliable than our own weapons...... This is also the reason why I do not despise the Abyssinian Empire, when I faced the powerful Austro-Hungarian army, I also used a lot of cold weapons, and in hand-to-hand combat, the machete is much more reliable than the antique rifles of the kingdom, I can deal with the Austro-Hungarian army like this, so why can't the natives use the same means against me! ”

Samuel himself was familiar with this, and he did not believe that the Abyssinian Empire, an empire with a history of thousands of years and a population of tens of millions, did not have people like him.

After listening to Samuel's experience, Sapeto was in awe of the young general in front of him: "General Samuel, you are a real soldier!" ”

Samuel sighed, "I just did what a soldier should do, not a military genius as they say." ”

Samuel was still modest, but Sapeto admired the young man even more: "Your Excellency, General, I used to be a soldier of the kingdom, and after I retired from the army, I have achieved a little in Eritrea, and I am familiar with the local area, and from now on I will fully support and cooperate with all your orders." ”

Samuel: "Thank you, Mr. Sapeto, for your support, and I really need the experience of an elder like you in Eritrea. ”

Samuel then began to consult Sapetto about all aspects of the Abyssinian Empire, as well as the surrounding powers.

Sapeto: "If you want to talk about the surroundings of the Abyssinian Empire, because of the opening of the Suez Canal, there are indeed many new powers nearby, in addition to our Italy, there are also Britain and France, Egypt and the Ottoman Empire, in addition to the East African Kingdom in the south, and the East African Kingdom should belong to the German power. ”

Samuel: "The Kingdom of East Africa? The one related to Austria! ”

Samuel remembers that when the Kingdom of East Africa was founded last year, the first to cheer was Austria-Hungary, and Austria was a German in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

"There is some relationship, but it is not a big problem, as long as we don't provoke them, it doesn't matter, the monarch of this East African kingdom is Prince Constantine of the Hohenzollern family, so I think they should have better relations with Germany, and Prussia has a good relationship with our Kingdom of Italy, if the communication is good, maybe they can help us."

Samuel: "Well, I'm just worried that if they're in league with Austria-Hungary, they'll hinder our operations." ”

In fact, East Africa did not have the leisure to pay attention to the Kingdom of Italy, even if Italy turned the Abyssinian Empire upside down, it did not matter, and the Boers were the top priority of the East African Kingdom.

Later, Samuel consulted Sapeto for a lot of information, covering all aspects of the Abyssinian Empire, but Sapeto didn't even know much about the port of Assab.

Samuel: "We still know too little about the Abyssinian Empire, so let's start with the intelligence side first, and then make a solid plan after studying the Abyssinian Empire thoroughly, and the future of the kingdom will not allow us to make mistakes." ”

(End of chapter)