Chapter 606 A War of Interest
"The commander of the local Ottoman army is called Kemal?" Sheffield was surprised when he received the telegram from Black Gold Company. It turned out that the founding father of modern Turkey had served on the battlefield in North Africa.
Anyway, with the current size of the Ottoman army in North Africa, the Italians have no hope of achieving the victory they hope for. The illusion that it can work this time is only a fantasy. Has Italy ever achieved a famous victory in independent warfare?
Sheffield couldn't remember that even the Italo-Turkish War was caused by the Russian Empire's infiltration into the Balkans and the formation of the Balkan Alliance, which forced the Ottoman Empire to deal with the threat under its nose and give up continuing to fight with the Italians.
"Boss, seems to be familiar with this man?" Jesla asked curiously. He seemed to have seldom heard that his boss was very interested in a foreigner and this time he actually asked about the situation of this Ottoman.
"Sometimes we have to admit that other civilizations also have talents. It's not like what the newspapers say that they need Western civilization to teach them. Can you trust newspapers? They are all for attracting attention and earning sales. If citizens like to watch people being killed, the front page headlines will all be about homicides." Sheffield smiled and said, "At least modern Italy doesn't seem to have any outstanding military achievements. In the Crimean War, the main force was the British and French coalition forces. In the Italo-Austrian War, the main force was the Prussian army. The greatest skill of the Italians is to stand beside the victors."
However, this time Sheffield didn't even want to give this role to Italy. The Italian Navy had a slight advantage over the Austro-Hungarian Navy, but the Austro-Hungarian Empire had too little coastline. Italy's geographical advantage allowed the Italian Navy to easily block the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the port and prevent it from leaving.
Therefore, if Italy stood on the Allied side, it would be a disaster for the Allied maritime lifeline. But if it stood on the Allied side, the Allied forces would have an advantage in the naval power balance in the Mediterranean. If Britain wanted to maintain the balance, it would have to withdraw its fleet to help the French Mediterranean fleet.
Is this good for Sheffield? Of course it is. At least with the freedom of navigation, when doing business with countries in both camps, it will not have to suffer the wrath of the British Empire. Only God knows how many marks the capitalists of the United States lost in the original world war.
The Allied Powers are too powerful, which will definitely affect the bargaining power of the future joint company. This is intolerable for a monopoly capitalist. The slave owners have always shaped their companies into Qualcomm and Intel, and have never thought of becoming Xiaomi or Lenovo.
"Send a telegram to his wife and tell her that I miss him. Never mind, I'll go myself." Sheffield originally wanted to ask the head of the bodyguards to send the telegram, but then he thought that it was not impossible for him to do it, so there was no need to ask others to do it for him.
Sheffield felt bad about always leaving his wife in Europe. Moreover, Europe would not be safe once the war started. Although he thought that a war would not break out because of the fight for colonies, the start of the world war must have been caused by something inside Europe, so it was always better to be cautious.
The current teasing is actually enough. Anne does not have to keep an eye on it in Paris. She can discuss it with Sheffield at any time. At this point, it can be handed over to the local managers in Europe to follow up.
During the entire half month that Italy landed in North Africa, apart from gaining an undefended port, the Italian army and the Ottoman army did not engage in any actual fighting. The Italian Navy was continuously transporting soldiers from the Apennine Peninsula. After half a month of transportation, the number of Italian soldiers who had landed in North Africa had reached 20,000.
This efficiency even made Sheffield stop sending telegrams to Rome, because the news sent back was of no value except for the Italians' own bragging. On the contrary, the Ottoman capital could still pan for gold in the dung to see if there was any important news.
It took only half a month to transport 20,000 soldiers to such a close enclave. Italy's efficiency, claiming to be one of the six major powers in Europe, was too much of a disgrace to the imperialist powers. Moreover, after Italy's military adventure, the negotiations between France and Germany on the Second Moroccan Crisis suddenly entered the fast lane.
Sheffield was well aware of this, and together with his wife's activities in Paris, in this operation, the slave owners had spent more than 10 million in Europe, which was enough to cover the Italians' military expenses for the Italo-Turkish War for a year. When Italy's 100,000 troops fought in North Africa, the monthly military expenditure was only 800,000 lire.
After landing in North Africa, although no formal fighting had yet taken place, the local environment had already made the Italians feel uncomfortable. In order to seize the Ottoman enclave, the Italian government was very sincere and some of the army's cars and armored vehicles were transported over. The cars moved forward with difficulty in the desert and often got stuck in the sand and slipped. Fortunately, there were armored vehicles, which were used to tow the stuck cars, and the effect was quite good.
Even in the Italian army camp, a simple airport was built to serve reconnaissance aircraft. On the surface, pauper imperialism is also imperialism, at least for now it still has the style of imperialism.
The first battle took place near the port where the Italian soldiers landed. This battle came belatedly, a full month after the Italian army landed in North Africa. The Arab cavalry on camels, after entering the 20th century, rarely found the feeling of the peak period of the Arab Empire. They surrounded a battalion of Italian soldiers and, with the support of the Ottoman regular army, launched an attack, using carbines and sabers to let these invaders know that to win the war, they had to at least show some attitude.
The Ottoman army was responsible for cutting off the Italian army's support. In fact, it simply dug some trenches and other fortifications, and then waited for other Italian troops to discover that this raided force had lost contact.
In fact, they did not wait for reinforcements, and the Arab cavalry strangled the lone Italian unit. The battle lasted until dusk, when the setting sun shone softly on the desert. The battlefield was full of sand stained red by blood, corpses lying all over the place, guns scattered everywhere, and the tattered Italian flag rustled in the evening breeze.
"The symbolic resistance of the locals will not have any impact on the great Italy. In fact, everyone in the kingdom knows that this military action is more symbolic. The Italian army will seize the land that belongs to the Italians at a negligible cost."
The Roman newspapers of that day made light of the attack on the Italian troops yesterday, and described the resistance of the local armed forces as simple, instinctive resistance. But compared to the lightness of the newspapers, the ports in southern Italy suddenly became busy. A large number of Italian soldiers boarded the ships and headed for North Africa. Compared with the previous half-month of 20,000 soldiers, the efficiency was improved countless times.
"That's it?" The slow movements of the Italian army were clearly seen by the French who had free time after the Second Moroccan Crisis. After the French affairs were over, observing how the Italians fought became the focus of men, women, young and old. Politicians, especially members of the Radical Socialist Party, asked each other whether the Italian army had made any progress after the boring parliamentary agenda was over.
"If the Germans' allies are like this, then we don't have to worry about the strength of the entire Allied Powers at all."
"It is such an army that has been trying to compete with us for territory in North Africa. I heard from Senator Philip that if the Italian army does not achieve any results in North Africa within half a year, our troops stationed in North Africa can no longer sit idly by. The Italians simply cannot defeat any country. If they don't have the ability, they should not try. They should just be an ordinary country like Spain."
"That's not the case. War is never good. But then again, if you can't take control of an enclave that doesn't get support from the mainland in half a year, it's okay to give it to a more capable country."
"Congressman Philip has been active recently, trying to gain more influence in Congress. I wonder if it has something to do with the good results achieved in the negotiations with Germany this time?"
In the messy Congress, these well-dressed members are actually no different from ordinary people. In the always turbulent French political arena, the most attractive thing is nothing more than mutual accusations and attacks. Now there is finally something that can make them get rid of mutual accusations and watch the show at ease. It is very hard-won.
"Too slow!" Sighs were heard from the German General Staff. They were all concerned about the same thing, but had completely different feelings. The inefficiency of Italy's actions surprised many senior staff officers. This was not at all what an army participating in a war should have.
At the port of New York, Sheffield stood in the cold November wind, watching a huge ship slowly approaching the shore. The passengers on board were filing out. Not long after, a team surrounded by many bodyguards appeared when almost all the passengers had disembarked.
A little head popped out from the wall of people. Seeing her husband coming to greet her, Anne smiled like a flower, squeezed out from among several close female bodyguards, and rushed into the arms of the slave owner.
"It's cold!" Sheffield took the mink coat from someone else and put it on his wife, saying softly, "Don't let my wife get frozen in this horrible weather in New York."
Anne stood there obediently, like a puppet, letting her husband manipulate her. She felt warm in her heart and asked, "Aren't you cold?"
"I'm fine. Let's talk about it when we get back!" Sheffield held his wife's hand and got into the prepared car surrounded by a crowd of people.
(End of this chapter)
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