Chapter 64 Diplomatic Dispute (1)

At the end of July 1926, Contini finished his inspection activities in North Africa and was about to return to China. Originally, he wanted to take Ada to Greece for a good vacation. After all, the sand in Libya had tortured the little girl. Now that she was his daughter, Friend, he tolerated his two illegitimate children, so he had to show some gentlemanly behavior.

As for why he plans to marry Ada, Contini also has his own considerations: on the one hand, he does have this need, and political needs are overwhelming. On the other hand, Ada is Ciano's wife in history. Not only do they have children, but they are also in love. It was pretty good. Although there was some quarrel in the middle, they finally reconciled. At the last moment of Ciano's life, Ada was the one who tried her best to protect him until she could no longer protect him. Therefore, he cannot remain indifferent to both emotion and reason.

But the vacation in Greece had just lasted a week, and another chaotic news came from Rome: Mussolini and Yemen signed the "Treaty of Friendship and Commerce" and was preparing to expand business influence to Syria, Palestine, Iraq and other places. This news shocked Contini: The Middle East is the British sphere of influence, and they have been keeping a close eye on it. What does Mussolini want to do? Is your brain not working well?

What makes people even more nervous is that on August 9, Blomberg sent him a message. They cooperated with Truz's troops to advance step by step, completely occupying the Zifra Oasis, and fought with the guerrillas during the advancement. After several battles, the losses were not big, and the total number of casualties was less than 200, but a radio station and two British people were intercepted. To be precise, one British person and one British Egyptian!

Although Blomberg said it was very light, in fact this battle was not easy to fight. The Libyan armed camel cavalry repeatedly attacked some time ago, causing great trouble. After discussing with his men, Blomberg decided to use a unit as bait to lure the opponent to an ambush, and then deployed fast columns and paratroopers to encircle them.

This was the first time that the oil guards used combined air and ground tactics. When this small team was surrounded, they did not panic. Instead, they used various terrains to fight back, and on the other hand, they urgently called for support. Since the battle took place near an oasis, the Libyan armed forces could not simply be trapped in the harsh terrain. They had to fight, so they were stuck. Then Manstein, Rommel, Guderian and other fast troops fired three arrows together. Stuart led the paratroopers to airborne to cover the guerrillas' retreat, and then all fighter jets and bombers were dispatched for air pursuit and tracking.

This battle killed more than 800 Bedouins in one go. Of course, only less than half of them were actually guerrillas, and the remaining 400 or so were ordinary people who were swept in. But the oil guards couldn't control these, and they were also divided. There was no telling who was the good Bedouin and who was the bad Bedouin. In addition, when Contini was teaching and emphasizing North African tactics, he had said that there was no need to worry about the casualties of the Bedouin, so they all started. fire. In the end, the leader of this guerrilla group, Said Mohammed Rida, surrendered with more than 30 remaining guerrillas, and incidentally captured the two British men.

Contini was shocked and angry. He was angry because the British were too bastard, not only providing weapons support, but also sending out radio stations and agents. He was shocked that Mussolini dared to even think about the Middle East infiltrating Libya. It's impossible to keep it.

So he had to end his vacation early and hurried back to Rome. Poor Ada was pulled back before she could get enough of it, and she pouted on the spot. Finally, the president had some nice words on the way, and told her that the construction of the Ada would start soon. Inviting her to attend the ceremony, the little girl burst into tears and became a girlfriend. Now she is different.

Mussolini was also surprised to see Contini come back early. Could it be that the two had a quarrel? But he didn’t ask about it. He just pulled Contini and said excitedly: “I have just reached a tacit agreement with the British side to recognize our country’s special interests in western Ethiopia, and hinted that if we attack Ethiopia, the British will not stand in the way. ”

"Leader, who said this? Is it reliable?" Contini couldn't bear to pour cold water on him, so he had to force a smile and asked.

"The new British ambassador said it." Mussolini waved his hand, looking very excited. "After communicating with the ambassador, I assured him that if there is a dispute between Britain and France, we in Italy promise to stand on the side of Great Britain. In exchange, the British side will give Of course, I know the British's wishful thinking. Their Egyptian-Sudanese colony also wants to gain some territory in Ethiopia. When we start fighting with Ethiopia, the British will do something good for themselves. How many people in Great Britain do this?”

If Contini had not been a member of the public, he would have easily been deceived by this attitude like Mussolini. History has proven that when Italy attacked Ethiopia, although the British did not directly send troops to intervene, they joined France in opposing the armed embargo. But he did a lot of things, and finally forced Italy and Germany to form a steel axis. From the British standpoint, of course Italy can get some benefits from Ethiopia, but Italy wants to swallow it? No way!

He then thought that diplomacy was directly managed by Mussolini, and he would definitely not be pleased with casual persuasion, so he smiled and said: "If we want to attack Ethiopia, the Libyan army alone is not enough, let alone 2 divisions, plus 5 I think there are some problems as a teacher. We suffered a big loss in Adua."

Mussolini nodded: "What you said makes sense. Of course, 2 divisions are not enough. We need to increase troops. 5 divisions are too many. Send 2 more at most. 4 divisions, 50,000 troops, is enough." Right?"

"Leader, I just came back from North Africa and I have some information about Ethiopia. Would you like to hear it?"

"Okay, you said..."

"Ethiopia is not the indigenous African army with swords and spears as we imagined, nor is it the poorly equipped Libyan guerrillas. They have a complete new modern army."

In 1916, the Ethiopian Royal Council deposed Emperor Eyasu, established Queen Zoditu, the daughter of Menelik II, the hero of the Battle of Adua, as emperor, and elected Haile Selassie as crown prince and regent, with the title of duke. began to ascend to the center of national power. This was the later famous Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I. Although he was the crown prince, he was not actually the queen's son. He was considered the queen's cousin. He used his power to appoint and dismiss civil and military officials and control finances to actively carry out activities that were conducive to the comprehensive implementation of reforms. He knew that only with military power could one have status, so he spent huge sums of money to purchase a large number of firearms from Europe, established the Praetorian Guard and controlled In his own hands, the instructors of this Guards were hired from Sweden for hands-on training. Even the military uniforms and boots on their feet were purchased from abroad.

Mussolini gasped: "How many are there?"

"It's not too many. There are about 12,000 people at the moment, and there may be more."

When he heard that there were only 12,000 people, Mussolini suddenly didn't care. "It's okay, it's okay, I'll send 5 times the troops!"

"However, there are still 300,000 to 400,000 tribal armed forces in Ethiopia."

"Calais, what's wrong with you? Why did you go to Africa to increase the prestige of the natives? Did you lose the war in Africa? Did the battle in Libya look ugly?"

Contini nodded: "In more than six months, from the time we dispatched the army and oil guards to the time I returned to China, we have eliminated thousands of militants in Libya, but we have also suffered heavy casualties, including various illnesses. The number of people who were injured or simply killed in battle has exceeded 1,000. I have a feeling that it may be necessary to add 2-3 more divisions and lose another 5,000 people to achieve the goal. "

"How is it possible? How is it possible?" Mussolini shook his head, "You overestimated the enemy a little. The losses in the first round were caused by our team's incompatibility with the Libyan environment and climate. It will be better as time goes by."

"But this time we almost lost more than 2,000 people..." Contini then told the story of Truz's men being led into the trap. Mussolini frowned and asked, "What do you think of Truz?" Is that okay? No, let’s replace him!”

"It's not just his problem, but we have encountered new problems." Contini silently handed the telegram about British radio and British agents to Mussolini.

After reading it, he suddenly felt bad...