Chapter 351 The Past
Samuel: "In an unfamiliar environment, we have to be more careful, especially in Eritrea. We can suppress the natives during the day, but what if it is at night? Then we face the risk of having our food supply cut off and being attacked by surprise."
Sapeto thought he had determined why the Kingdom of Italy failed in the Italo-Austrian War. Even the kingdom's "military genius" was so cowardly, how could it fight against the powerful Austro-Hungarian Empire!
So Sapeto said with some contempt: "Hahaha, General! You overestimate the Abyssinians. Can they fight against the fully armed Italian army with spears?"
Seeing that Sapeto was so blind, Samuel shook his head and said, “Mr. Sapeto, if you think so, you are totally wrong!”
Sapeto: "What do you think, General?"
Samuel: "Do you know how I got my start in war?"
Sapeto shook his head.
Samuel recalled: "When I first joined the army, the kingdom was facing the threat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, so the conscription was very hasty. The company I was in was composed of a group of farmers who had just put down their hoes from the fields. They couldn't even tell left from right, and they were at a loss for military orders. I was also a young man who had just started out. I didn't know much about military affairs, but I knew nothing about it. Do you think such an army has any hope against the well-trained Austro-Hungarian Empire?"
Sapeto shook his head and said firmly, "No."
He himself had actually been a soldier and was quite familiar with these things, otherwise he would not have gone to Eritrea to engage in colonization after retiring.
Samuel went on to say, "That's not the worst. Even the dumbest people know how to advance and retreat on the battlefield. Even if a farmer can't aim well, he can still put pressure on the enemy with a weapon in his hand. But you know what? In my company, only half of the people were allocated guns. We even had antiques left over from the Napoleonic era. But even antiques are a luxury for some people. During training, everyone had to take turns. Only when we were about to go to the front did a batch of rifles come down from the front line. And there were constant problems. Some of them simply couldn't be used. For a rookie like me, it was simply a disaster."
Sapeto said in disbelief: "It's not possible that the kingdom can't even equip itself with rifles!"
Samuel: "I thought so too, but this actually happened to me. When I reported this to my superiors, the fat-headed battalion commander told me that the Kingdom was not well prepared for the Austro-Hungarian attack. But in fact, our mobilization was carried out before the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire had not even attacked at that time."
Sapeto cursed: "This bunch of damn corrupt officials! It's been decades! They still haven't made any progress! When I was in the army, it was the same, but at that time they didn't even have guns, but they embezzled the soldiers' funds. I bet your guns may not even leave the factory before they are settled!"
Samuel: "Haha, I bet that most of the soldiers didn't get the military funds for the Italo-Austrian War. In addition to the sacrifices, there was also a shortage of funds after the war, and the money has been in arrears. This is when the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not ask Italy for compensation."
After hearing this, Sapeto changed his opinion of Samuel. He respectfully asked Samuel: "General, in this case, how did you defeat the Austro-Hungarian army?"
"It's simple, sneak attack!"
"A sneak attack!"
Samuel: "Yes, although this is not glorious, it is my secret to victory. After all, when the survival of the Kingdom of Italy is at stake, there is no need to think too much about the choice of tactics."
During this era, European countries fought wars in this way, advocating the so-called chivalry and defeating the enemy in a fair and dignified manner. Although there were always people who broke the rules in actual wars, the most typical example was the students of the Hexingen Military Academy who were keen on "sneak attacks" and "guerrilla warfare". This had a lot to do with the textbooks they studied. A large number of oriental military classics were added to the textbooks to broaden the horizons of the students of the Hexingen Military Academy, but when people went to war, they mainly fought on the front battlefield.
Samuel: "The enemies I faced in my area were mainly the coalition forces of the two kingdoms of Austria and Hungary. I know that the soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire are well-trained, but many of their troops are composed of ethnic groups. In this way, Austria will definitely not be able to achieve perfection in command. They will definitely make mistakes frequently. The performance of the Austro-Hungarian army also confirmed my thoughts."
"The Austro-Hungarian army often has troops that do things that go against common sense, which gives me the opportunity to seize. In the early days, due to the disadvantage in equipment, the troops I led often launched attacks on the Austro-Hungarian Empire at night. With the help of the darkness, we sneaked up to the Austro-Hungarian army and took the initiative to engage in close combat with them. The Austrians' Warndel rifles are very advanced. Not only are they faster to load and fire, but their accuracy is also much higher than ours. Not to mention the Warndel rifles, even the Hungarian Lorenz rifles are more advanced than the junks we have, and they also have artillery of various calibers. So I know that close combat is the only way to compete with the Austro-Hungarian army."
Sapeto: "This is really the only way, otherwise..."
Samuel: "Otherwise, we will suffer huge casualties and will not cause the same trauma to the enemy. Unless we use several times more troops and more lives, we may be able to win a negligible victory. However, the Austro-Hungarian Empire is larger than us. If we continue like this, it will be more and more disadvantageous to the Kingdom of Italy. This is also the lesson I learned when I fought the Austro-Hungarian Empire for the first time."
"General, you have failed too!"
"It can't be considered a failure. It was just my first time on the battlefield and I didn't have enough experience, so I suffered some losses. After I realized that it was impossible to do anything, I changed my strategy in time. In fact, we didn't make much movement in the first place. The artillery fire of the Austro-Hungarian Empire didn't give us any chance to launch a large-scale attack."
"So how did you deal with the enemy fire?"
"Use the terrain and retreat in an orderly manner. Do not engage the Austro-Hungarian Empire head-on during the day, and regain the upper hand at night."
"Then how will you respond to your superiors' orders? If they don't allow you to retreat, will you 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 retreating all the time. The command system 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 that the faster they run, the easier it is for the Austro-Hungarian army to annihilate them. Seeing that Italy was afraid before the battle, the morale of the Austro-Hungarian army soared. So when I command the troops, I never synchronize with the friendly forces. Even if I want to escape, I can't let the Austro-Hungarian army find a flaw and let the pursuers be cautious."
"If the command system fails, how do you get supplies such as ammunition?"
Samuel: "To put it bluntly, the Kingdom's supply to the cannon fodder troops is almost nonexistent, so my troops mainly rely on weapons captured from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Austro-Hungarian Warndell rifles are much more reliable than the weapons we produce ourselves... This is why I don't underestimate the Abyssinian Empire. When I faced the powerful Austro-Hungarian army, I also used a lot of cold weapons. In hand-to-hand combat, machetes are much more reliable than the Kingdom's antique rifles. If I can deal with the Austro-Hungarian army in this way, why can't the natives use the same method against me!"
Samuel himself was familiar with this. He didn't 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 himself.
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 and said, "I just did what a soldier should do. I am not a military genius as they say."
Samuel remained modest, and Sapeto admired the young man even more: "General, I was once a soldier of the Kingdom. After retiring, I achieved some success in Eritrea. I am familiar with the local area. From now on, I will fully support and cooperate with all your orders."
Samuel: “Thank you for your support, Mr. Sapeto. I really need your experience in Eritrea.”
So Samuel began to ask Sapeto about various aspects of the Abyssinian Empire and the surrounding forces.
Sapeto: "Speaking of the surrounding areas of the Abyssinian Empire, since the opening of the Suez Canal, there are indeed many new forces nearby. In addition to us Italy, there are also Britain and France, Egypt and the Ottoman Empire. In addition, there is also the East African Kingdom in the south. The East African Kingdom should belong to the German forces."
Samuel: "The East African Kingdom? The one associated with Austria!"
Samuel remembered that when the East African Kingdom was established last year, the first to show its support was the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Austria in the Austro-Hungarian Empire was the Germans.
"There is some relationship, but it's not a big problem. As long as we don't provoke them, it's fine. The monarch of this East African kingdom is Prince Constantine of the Hohenzollern family, so I think they should have better relations with Germany. Prussia has a good relationship with our Kingdom of Italy. If we communicate well, maybe they can provide us with some help."
Samuel: "That's good. I'm just worried that if they are in league with Austria-Hungary, they will hinder our actions."
In fact, East Africa does not have the leisure to pay attention to the Kingdom of Italy. It does not matter even if Italy turns the Abyssinian Empire upside down. The Boers are the top priority of the East African Kingdom.
Later, Samuel asked Sapeto for a lot of information, covering all aspects of the Abyssinian Empire, but Sapeto, who couldn't even handle the port of Assab, how could he know much about Abyssinia?
Samuel: "We still know too little about the Abyssinian Empire. So, we should start with intelligence. After we have thoroughly studied the Abyssinian Empire, we can formulate a reliable plan. The future of the kingdom cannot allow us to make mistakes."
(End of this chapter)
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