My Italy

Dolo is located in the upper reaches of the Juba River, where the Dawa River, which originates from the Ethiopian plateau, intersects with the Ghana Ledoria River. The intersection of the two rivers makes this place fairly good in terms of water and soil, so the Saha who live here The Bu tribe (a small Somali tribe) cultivates the small flat land in the river valley and still has a considerable harvest.

Since this place is not bad, then of course, as the commander of the Italian Expeditionary Force, Colonel Crowley would not let such a place go. Not only did he take the main force of the expeditionary force, 1,500 people, to occupy Dollo.

But he didn't know that his move to occupy Doro made Vanis Vasquez, Duke of Alaaba, feel threatened.

This ruler ruled most of the Bakool region (now most of Ethiopia's Somali Province). Although he remained neutral during the Abyssinian Civil War, in the face of the Italian invasion, the Duke lost his good temper.

After sending an envoy to demand Italy's withdrawal from Dolo but being rejected, the Duke of Ala'aba took most of his troops along the Canaledoria Valley and pressed on Dolo.

How many troops did the Duke of Ala'aba bring?

Its direct troops are 21,000, equipped with some front-loading guns and a small number of breech-loading guns. The tribe mobilized 24,000 troops, mainly bows, arrows, javelins and spears, as well as a small number of muzzleloaders.

These 45,000 troops are not a small number for the Italian army stationed in Dolo. Colonel Crowley, who served as the commander for this reason, had many times thought of withdrawing from Doro to avoid his sharp edge. However, considering the impact this would have on my career future, I held back.

However, although he temporarily resisted the idea of ​​​​retreating, Colonel Crowley did not intend to rely on this small force to block the incoming enemy. He sent three waves of messengers in succession, asking Lugar, Garbahare, Bulbore and others to be in the rear. The Italian garrison in the area mobilized troops to support Dollo.

Speaking of which, it was his negligence. Since he had been successful in the past and had always faced small tribes, the expedition force he led gradually reduced from 3,500 people at the beginning to 1,500 people. After all, such a large place requires troops to be stationed to declare sovereignty. Put two hundred in this place and three hundred in that place, and the number of the army will naturally be much smaller.

In addition, they were invaders, and Duke Ala'aba was a local snake, so when the spies reported the enemy's attack, Duke Ala'aba's army was already less than 150 kilometers away from them. This is less than a week away.

At this time, Colonel Crowley could only get support from the nearest Lugar garrison. Its commander, Captain Cooney, transferred a hundred men from his own two hundred men for emergency support.

Faced with such meager support, Colonel Crowley also knew that the captain had tried his best. He must know that Luger was his escape route. If someone cut him off, he would have nowhere to run. After all, there is desert everywhere, and except for the Juba Valley where we can march, there is no water source anywhere else.

"Are you sure the enemy has arrived at Reawa?"

"Yes, sir, I can confirm that the enemy has arrived at Leava. There are huge crowds of people there, all of them are the troops of Vanis Vasquez, the Duke of Alaaba."

The person being questioned by Colonel Crowley was Mensah. The most successful businessman in Kismayo was now using his advantage to become Colonel Crowley's intelligence spy.

He recruited several locals under him, all of whom were familiar with the local terrain, so they could provide intelligence to Colonel Crowley. And the Reava in his mouth is the intersection of a small river called Weib, 20 kilometers away from Doro, and the Canaledoria River.

"Okay, thank you for the information, it's very important to us."

After dismissing Mensah with a few words, Colonel Crowley called for the orderly. "Call Major Tovani here. I have something to talk to him about."

We will not mention the conversation between the two Italian officers.

The next day, Dollo's Italian army was already well prepared because a large number of troops appeared in front of them. Although half of these black indigenous troops were armed with cold weapons, the other half were armed with muzzle-loading guns and a small number of breech-loading guns produced in Europe.

There were even natives pushing 6 front-loaded bronze cannons. The style was definitely Napoleon cannon, 2 were 6-pounder cannons, and 4 were 12-pounder cannons.

Colonel Crowley put down the telescope, his face turned ugly. "Damn it, these British people are so shameless. There are other church people who dare to give anything just for the sake of proselytizing."

Well, Colonel Crowley was right. The two 6-pound cannons were bought by the Catholic Church who were eager to preach and were given to the Duke of Alaaba. The remaining four 12-pound cannons were bought by the Duke from the British. Bought.

As for the muskets, a small half were gifted by the British, most of which were purchased by the Duke, and some of them were purchased from Italian merchants.

But now facing such a situation, fortunately, the Italian army also has artillery on its position. 12 breech-loading rifled cannons are enough to let the Duke of Alaaba know that he cannot take advantage of the artillery.

Throughout the morning, the Italian army watched the Duke's troops arrive at the gates of Dolo. As the saying goes, if there are more than 10,000 people, there is no limit. This army of nearly 50,000 must put a lot of pressure on the 1,600 soldiers stationed there.

The enemy's attitude of attracting and refusing to respond put double the pressure on every Italian officer and soldier.

Fortunately, in the afternoon, these indigenous troops finally took action. About three thousand indigenous black people armed with cold weapons came towards Doluo City.

When the enemy was still 300 meters away from the position, Colonel Crowley, who was responsible for commanding the battle, immediately issued an order. "Fire."

The Italian soldiers immediately used the Vitri M1870 rifles in their hands to let these indigenous people armed with cold weapons know what modern warfare is.

"Bang, bang, bang~"

After a burst of gunfire, nearly a hundred natives fell on the land.

Of course, the natives were not without the ability to fight back. After being hit by three waves of Italian fire, they had already rushed to a distance of 100 meters. At this time, the musketeers hidden behind immediately took the Minie muzzleloader and rushed to the front row to fire. Afterwards, several Italian soldiers were shot. This lets the soldiers in the position know that the other party also has weapons that can threaten them.

However, the indigenous soldiers who fired this round of volleys suffered greater losses. Their upright posture became a good target, and half of them fell in front of the Italian position.

Of course, it was unrealistic for three thousand people to capture the Italian army's entrenched Dolo. After a short while, they were defeated and left behind hundreds of corpses, and the attack was considered over.

Of course, the commanders of both sides knew that this was just a test, so no one took the offensive seriously.

Subsequently, the Duke of Araaba launched several probing attacks, but Colonel Crowley blocked them one by one.

Perhaps considering that his army had just arrived, the indigenous army did not attack again. Instead, they began to set up camp and prepare for a long battle.

Faced with the opponent's actions, Colonel Crowley was very happy to see it. This at least gave him one more day to wait for reinforcements.

Neither side made any move to harass them at night, but Colonel Crowley still did not dare to neglect, leaving nearly a battalion of troops to guard the area at night.

By the next day, Duke Alaaba's troops appeared on three sides of Doluo. This made Colonel Crowley's face heavy, because it meant that the enemy was about to launch a general attack. It seemed that his move to set up camp yesterday afternoon was just to confuse himself, and the enemy was even more stupid and did not want to give him any time to delay.

However, he is not a vegetarian. He dares to defend Doluo with more than a thousand troops and block the enemy's nearly 50,000 troops. He also has his own trump card.

"Push up those six Maxims."

Yes, as the terminator of Zhennan Pass, this machine gun purchased by Italy also appeared in Somalia, a primitive place in Africa.

Regarding the use of machine guns, the Italian army has already explored cross-fire shooting. So there is no need to worry about its use. The only thing that worries him is that his machine gun carries a total of 250,000 rounds of ammunition. He doesn't know if it can last until the enemy collapses.

Without letting him wait any longer, Duke Alaaba's army launched an offensive from three sides.

Each army of tens of thousands of people charged with great momentum. Compared with the hundreds of Italian officers and soldiers stationed in the position, they were like a huge wave against a stubborn rock. A single wave could submerge them.

At this time, the position commander no longer cared about the optimal shooting range. After entering the effective shooting range, he immediately ordered to fire.

"Bah, bah, bah~"

Bursts of gunfire knocked down the charging indigenous soldiers, but others still bravely continued to charge towards the position.

"Machine gun fire."

Seeing that the enemy was not afraid of firepower, the position commander immediately brought out the killer weapon.

"Da da da……"

The obviously different sound of continuous shooting finally calmed down the heroic Ethiopian soldiers. Entire swaths of soldiers fell, fear finally arose in their hearts, and their offensive was halted.

Seeing that the offensive was blocked and his soldiers fell one after another, Duke Alaaba's heart was bleeding. Because the troops taking the lead are all his soldiers. In order to avoid Italian reinforcements and be able to attack Dolo in one go, he deployed his troops in this way. Unexpectedly, the enemy actually has such a continuous fire weapon. Its super high rate of fire makes it impossible for the warriors to rush forward.

"Return it all, return it all."

His order was issued a little late, causing at least 5,000 soldiers to fall in front of the Italian army's positions.

After counting the losses, he found such casualties unacceptable. He could bear such a huge loss without even touching the enemy.

And these are all his elite troops, how can they not make people feel distressed. This is his capital related to his status, and he must not lose it all here.

But he would never be willing to retreat like this. Not to mention losing troops and generals, such a big move of mobilizing troops and mobilizing troops must have some results, otherwise your rule will be unstable in the future.

So after resting for a while, he was unwilling to choose to test attacks one after another. He would never dare to use such a large-scale group charge again.

Since it is a small-scale battle, it is not easier to deal with. With equipment that far exceeds that of the opponent, there is only a huge gap in military strength. Now that the enemy has given up its advantage, it is even more impossible to use short attacks to reach long range.

Therefore, all the subsequent night attacks, harassments, sneak attacks and other means were used by the Duke. From this aspect, the Duke of Ala'aba was also a battle-hardened person. But these are all battles with other people in the country, battles with the modern army, and it seems that he has not experienced much yet.

After four days, the Duke had nothing to do with Doro's defenders. He only added more than 2,000 kills to Colonel Crowley.

On the fifth day, the Duke left in despair with his army. Because if I don’t leave, another defeat might happen.

Because his spies came to report that an Italian army was on the way, and the number should be about 1,200. The spies' report made Duke Alaaaba want to ambush him, but considering that if this army also had that kind of continuous fire weapon, it might lead to a defeat.

After careful consideration, the Duke decided to be cautious. In fact, he did not need to be so, because the supporting Italian army only carried two Maxims. As long as the Duke ambushed enough people, it would be enough to break through the blockade. It is said that Maxim could not fire like a rifle at will, but he did not know this Duke.

The conflict in Dolo was not an isolated case. When Italy conquered the Somali region, it encountered various forces in Abyssinia. Because it has always been a country with a long history in East Africa, it has a greater impact on surrounding tribes (not the tribute system of China, but just influence).

When these tribes were invaded by the Italian army, they naturally thought of the empire around them. Although its civil war is still going on, it is still much stronger than these tribes.

In the face of these tribes' requests for help, some gave support, while others ignored their requests for help in view of Italy's strength.

Therefore, this also caused Italy to encounter several waves of resistance in succession when it occupied the greater Somali region. Some people are like Duke Alaaaba, who gets into trouble whenever they disagree. But in general, the Italian army held most of the advantage.

However, there are exceptions. In Eritrea, an army of 500 people was attacked by the army of Emperor Johannes IV of Abyssinia in Adi Kwara. Only two people escaped from the battle.

This result shocked Major General Bart, who was in charge of command in Eritrea. On the one hand, he reported to Rome, and on the other hand, he immediately organized troops and rushed to Adiquala. But when he arrived with his army, there were no Abyssinians here.

Faced with such a situation, Major General Bart could only sigh in despair. Because the military gave them strict orders not to attack Abyssinia. Moreover, with the three thousand men in his hands, he was unable to attack the East African Plateau.

As for the next steps, we need to listen to Rome's decision.

Sudan, the Ethiopia you wanted is here. This piece counts as two chapters. Because of the word count, it counts as two chapters (justifiably). These are chapters two and three, and there are still seven chapters.