My Italy

The hard work of building roads did not last long. As two engineering regiments rushed from Rome to Eritrea, and the local people enthusiastically signed up to join the road construction army (the salary was thirty lire per month), the Guards had no time to do it. The army was the first batch of troops to be freed from it.

Of course, after getting rid of their status as road construction workers, there will inevitably be things handed to them. Simone asked them to drive to the Adi Kwara front line and pay attention to the actions of the Abyssinians at all times.

Although the Abyssinians pretend to be stubborn, they are afraid of everything, so necessary defense and protection are things that every qualified commander should pay attention to.

Of course Simone would not wait until the roads were completely repaired before taking action against Abyssinia, after the loaded carriages could barely reach Adiquora. Simeone immediately asked the 3rd Guards Regiment, the 3rd Mountain Brigade and a mountain artillery battalion of the 7th Artillery Regiment to form an advance force and cross the border line (defined by Italy) to advance towards Mara.

Maratha is located on the edge of the Abyssinian Plateau and is a key point on the road connecting the country with Eritrea. Sixty kilometers behind it is the important town of Adua in the northern part of the plateau.

Two roads branch off from Adwa to the southeast. To the west is the road to Gondar, its old capital on the side of Lake Tana. To the south is the road to the current Abyssinian capital Dese. If you continue southward, you can reach Shoa.

It can be said that Adua is a strategic key city in the north. Simeone's attack on Mara was obviously a test to see if he could attract the main force of the Abyssinian army.

Of course, if it fails to attract the main force of the Abyssinian army, it will not be a loss to Simone, because this can continue to build the road to the plateau. This time he made up his mind that he would not launch a large-scale offensive unless the road was built onto the plateau.

"Boom, boom, boom!"

The artillery kept bombarding the stone fort on the ridge, and the blown stones scattered in all directions, revealing the earthen walls wrapped inside. And this ferocious shelling made the Abyssinian soldiers hiding in the stone fort dare not show their faces at all.

Major General Wagman, who is the commander of the 3rd Mountain Brigade and the commander of this advance team, is carefully observing the results of the shelling with high-powered binoculars.

He was very satisfied with the artillery skills of the officers and soldiers of the 7th Artillery Regiment. It was indeed a veteran unit, and its artillery skills were much better than those of the artillery battalion in his brigade.

However, he was not satisfied with the result of the shelling. The round of shelling just now hit the stone castle and failed to cause enough damage.

It seems that the artillery in his hands is not powerful enough. He only has two types of mountain guns, 75 and 57 mm, so the power is naturally not much greater. However, he wanted a more powerful artillery and thought of the hardships along the way, so Wagman intuitively gave up the idea.

Since artillery cannot directly defeat the opponent, let the infantry attack. Anyway, we have fought against such a fortress many times before, and this time is not bad.

"Let the infantry attack."

Following Major General Wagman's order, a battalion of Italian soldiers immediately formed a skirmish line and moved toward the bunker.

After seeing the Italian troops approaching, the Abyssinian soldiers in the fortress stepped forward and picked up their weapons and began to fight back.

For a while, the officers and soldiers of the two sides were fighting lively, but the fierce battle did not attract the interest of Cosenz, who was responsible for performing security duties. He did not even look at the battlefield.

"Cosentz, how long do you think it will take to capture this fortress this time?"

His friend appeared next to him, and what he said seemed not to worry about friendly forces at all.

"I don't know about this, but based on the intensity of the firefight, it should not exceed three hours."

Faced with Barry's inquiry, although Cosentz felt that it was not good to speak of friendly forces like this, he still gave his own judgment.

"Ok, I see."

But then Barry's words almost made him fall down.

"The betting is now open. Let's bet on whether we can capture this fortress in two and a half hours this time, starting from the time of launching the attack."

Unexpectedly, someone would respond to Barry's words.

"Count me in, I'll bet a pack of cigarettes."

"Me, two packs."

"I'll bet on a bottle of wine."

"I……"

Faced with this situation, Cosentz felt a little embarrassed, so he stepped forward and grabbed his friend. "You are crazy. If anyone finds out, we will all suffer."

"It doesn't matter. We have fought against small bunkers like this before. It's basically like that. And if we don't have some fun, everyone will lose interest."

Barry's words made Cosentz not know what to say.

"Pay attention to yourself."

Then he left. Maybe watching other people's battles would help improve himself.

"boom!"

A loud explosion, far louder than before, attracted everyone's attention. Anyone with experience knows that this is a dynamite package exploding.

The gate of this small fortress and a small half of its walls were blown down, revealing the scene inside the castle.

At this time, the officers and soldiers watching cheered, which meant that the battle had entered the final stage.

But at this time, Barry looked at his watch and immediately shouted happily. "Two hours and eight minutes, the fortress was breached."

His words made several soldiers lament.

Major General Wagman did not know the situation of the troops below, but seeing that the fortress blocking the road had been breached, he gave instructions to the officers around him.

"Let the front troops go, we are already too far behind the schedule."

Yes, Major General Wagman doesn't even want to read the battle results report now.

What's so cool about this is that he killed one or two hundred Abyssinian soldiers, captured more than a hundred prisoners of war, and then seized many junk-like guns and cold weapons.

For such a result, his troops were stuck here for half a day.

This is also the biggest headache for Major General Wagman. This road is originally difficult to walk, and these nails need to be pulled out one by one. It is not enough if we don't pull them out. These small fortresses are all key points that control the road, and we can't get through them unless we fight them. Even if they sent troops to surround and let the large troops pass, they couldn't do it, because the Abyssinians placed one or two small artillery pieces in this small fortress, completely blocking the entire road, forcing Major General Wagman to pull out one by one. out.

This was also the main culprit for Major General Wagman taking the advance team, which took six days to march 70 kilometers. You should know that the road from Mara to Adi Kwara is only 84 kilometers. According to this speed, he would need to walk for two days before he could see Mara.

However, in addition to roads and enemies, Major General Wagman also has another threat, and that is the climate. The temperature difference here is huge, reaching more than ten degrees at night, and reaching more than 30 and close to 40 degrees at noon. There is such a huge temperature difference between day and night. , causing serious attrition of his troops. At present, hundreds of people in the advance team he leads have become ill and have lost their combat effectiveness. But fortunately, it was not easy to come up. It was much better when he went back. Except for some seriously ill patients, other patients with mild symptoms were placed in the stronghold he had established to slowly recover.

However, this also caused the strength of the contingent he led to drop from more than 8,000 to about 8,000.

However, considering the next situation, Major General Wagman felt that it was necessary to send another batch of medicines from the rear. In addition, the consumption of artillery shells was a bit high, so he could also ask the rear to send some.

Thinking of this, Major General Wagman took out a pen and wrote a list, then called a messenger. "Give this list to Colonel Mora in Adi Kwara and ask him to send up another supply according to the list."

Colonel Mora is the head of logistics based in Adi Kwara, so there is nothing wrong with asking him for various supplies.

"As you command, General."

The ordering soldier took the list, saluted with a military salute, and immediately mounted his horse and rushed to the rear with a few soldiers.

After Major General Wagman ordered the messengers, he led the large troops and continued to rush towards Mara.

Although there were several fortresses along the way, the determined Major General Wagman pulled them out all the way. Although it took him two and a half days, he finally felt relieved after seeing Mara City.

No one will feel happy if they continue to pull out nails. I hope that the Abyssinians in Mara can withstand the angry Italian army.

Don’t think that Steamed Bun is slow to update. All the previously saved manuscripts were taken out by the leader of this guy Sudan, and I still owe him two chapters. I am still at work today, so I write all my writing secretly. Please understand this hard-working part-time writer, Mantou. In addition, I asked to subscribe again, but the first order result was not as expected, and Mantou was very scared.