Chapter 63: North Africa Trip (7)

Truz was so overwhelmed by Contini's words that he lost his temper, but he knew how to assess the situation. Now the president is more effective at speaking in front of the leader. Besides, there is also the giant United Group, so he has to pay a lot of tribute to himself. Just do as he is told and finish it as soon as possible. If Libya pays off, he can return to Rome one day earlier. He is really fed up with this nonsense! It is said that it is not as comfortable as Somalia. At least there are no vast stretches of sand as far as the eye can see.

The reason why he originally wanted to carry out a quick encirclement and suppression campaign was actually because he wanted to finish it early and return home early. He couldn't bear to stay in this hellish place like Libya for a week, let alone a few years. But now the task assigned to him by the president may last 1-2 years. It was not enough, and the money spent was not a small amount, but the loss of more than 200 people sounded the alarm for him: facing such a cunning opponent, even doubling the strength, let alone two divisions, was not enough. , so he had no choice but to agree.

Starting from the end of July 1926, Italy's settlement policy in Libya was transformed from the original military-based policy with political and economic support to a military-based policy with political and economic support. As the governor of Libya, Truz promulgated 17 policies. After a series of measures such as cages, concentration camps, blockades, and company tactics were implemented, nearly 30,000 Italian soldiers from two divisions were converted into garrison troops on the spot. They no longer took the initiative to attack, but instead compressed the opponent's living space layer by layer and gradually concentrated Libyan population as strategy.

In the process of this change, the Libyan guerrillas are also changing their response methods. They use the method of breaking into parts to carry out sneak attacks, waiting for opportunities to kill singles or small groups of Italian soldiers. In response, Truz issued the bloody "Ten-fold Blood Repayment Law". Whenever Italy lost a soldier, he would drag out 10 Bedouins from the concentration camp in retaliation. The entire concentration camp was full of vicious events every day, but the guerrillas' momentum was suddenly suppressed because it became useless to simply kill Italian soldiers. After all, Libya only has a population of over 500,000, while Italy has 40 million. You can never win in a battle for population.

In this case, they changed the focus of their struggle and began to think of ways to destroy the United Group's construction sites in Italy. The construction site that was caught off guard at first was naturally attacked by poisonous hands. However, as time went by, the construction site also gained experience in dealing with the situation, and the two sides began a new process of battle of wits and courage.

"You don't seem to have a high opinion of your fellow citizens either."

"These are all shortcomings of insufficient education. They can be changed, but it will take a long time. Also, I personally think that the Chinese are not suitable for democracy for the time being. Even the president said that Italy wants to be rich and powerful but not free, let alone China... it is far away Very good!”

"You admire the president and leader?"

"Personally, I admire the president even more!"

Toth patted him on the shoulder: "Mr. Huang, do your best. The president thinks highly of you. I will go back to Germany one day. There are so many Chinese workers here and it will be more appropriate for you to take charge of them in the future."

"I can't command." Huang Xinguo smiled bitterly, "I have to tell you about another problem of the Chinese people: they worship foreigners and favor foreigners. It's the foreigners who control them. If they can be more honest, a young man like me can't hold the position. So a person like the CEO can only be found in Italy. Who in China would obey a young man like you, even if your father is a minister?”

Toth shook his head: "It's hard to understand you Chinese... By the way, it's also hard to understand the Japanese!"

Huang Xinguo smiled: "It is also difficult for China and Japan to understand each other."

With the rapid dispatch of oil guards, the more than 2,000 Italian Army troops who were in trouble in the hinterland of the Libyan desert were finally found. In fact, there was no sign of an ambush by tribal armed forces around them. Heat, sandstorms, lack of water, food, and poisonous scorpions underground It was enough to torment them to death, and the tribal armed forces who had brought them into a desperate situation had long since escaped by taking advantage of their familiarity with the terrain.

Fortunately, this Italian force still had radios, fortunately the reconnaissance planes could still detect their whereabouts, and fortunately Contini had just prepared barrels of water and enough planes. Otherwise, all these 2,000-plus people would have to turn into withered corpses in the desert and eventually be picked up by vultures or buried in the yellow sand.

Despite this, more than 200 people still died due to various reasons. However, compared with the total army destruction of more than 2,000 people in history, the 10% attrition rate is still within the barely bearable range.

After returning to the station dejectedly, Truz also felt that the matter was difficult. This incident sounded the alarm for him. The strategy of hoping to use separate attacks, rapid encirclement and suppression, and ending the battle was simply ineffective. The tribal armed forces were not needed at all. To fight you head-on, all they need to do is hide and seek and run in circles with you, which is enough to kill them. Judging from this time, once the tactics of the tribal armed forces succeed, they will have zero casualties, while thousands of Italians will be killed in one attack. I am afraid Mussolini will kill himself.

"This won't work. We must use stupid methods to block, centralize, monitor, and compress..." Contini suggested, "We must proceed steadily, step by step, and do it bit by bit."

"But there are hundreds of thousands of Bedouins!"

"So it is even more important to concentrate. Although the guerrillas come and go without a trace, there is a rule. They must move among these people. They cannot pretend to be Chinese or Italians!" Contini explained, "To catch fish, use Draining the water and turning the pool into a muddy ground is another way. Although the latter is slow to take effect, it can be done once and for all. "

Truz looked troubled: "I'm afraid it's not easy to maintain a concentration camp with hundreds of thousands of people."

"It's not easy..." A sinister smile appeared on Contini's face, "Do you need me to advise you on what to do?"

"This will cause a sharp decline in the population."

"Does anyone blame you?"

“But, labor!”

"There is no need for them." Contini raised his eyebrows. "I don't want a single Bedouin. The Chinese workers are much more reliable than them."

"In this case, I am worried that there will be too many Chinese people and then..."

Contini was stunned for a moment, then shook his head: "The Chinese are different from them. The possibility you mentioned is not impossible, but it is extremely weak. Instead of worrying about the Chinese gathering in crowds to cause trouble, I am more worried about the Bolsheviks in the crowd. spread, so I asked Italian soldiers, bureaucrats and oil guards to be polite to the Chinese. As long as they are not forced too deeply, they will not rise up to resist. Also, they cannot be given the opportunity to master weapons for the time being. So what you proposed last time I vetoed the Chinese patrol without hesitation. The oil guards can do this kind of thing!"

Contini was stunned for a moment, then shook his head: "The Chinese are different from them. The possibility you mentioned is not impossible, but it is extremely weak. Instead of worrying about the Chinese gathering to make trouble,