My Italy

The village of Alem is located on the road leading to Adi Kwara, surrounded by mountains. A small stream called Balal passes through the gap in the surrounding mountains. It was also because of this river that the small basin surrounded by it could be cultivated, and the village of Alem came into existence.

Alem Village is 24 km from Mara City and 60 km from Adi Kwara.

Such excellent terrain was very suitable for a large-scale siege, so Johannes IV used it as a battlefield for the reinforcements of the Italian army. So the Abyssinian army is arriving around one after another. The reason why they did not arrive here directly is because there are too many troops. If they are all crowded here, let alone ambushes, they will probably scare the Italian reinforcements. Retreat quickly.

After all, it is an army of 110,000 people. The momentum of gathering together and the sea of ​​people can be seen from a long distance away.

Besides, it’s impossible for so many people to gather like this.

Because as the commander-in-chief, Johannes IV ordered that the army not be allowed to approach the village of Alem.

This is the experience of a veteran soldier. As long as you stay in Alem Village, you will leave clues. In order to avoid being discovered by the enemy, you should not go here at all.

Therefore, after arriving here, the Abyssinian army could only move around it, and no one dared to enter this village.

Of course, the villagers of Alem have already left their homes. The war between the two countries has made them forget about the crops in the fields. They have run far away with the only food and livestock they have at home.

As the Abyssinians gradually arrived around Alem, as their target, the reinforcements led by Major General Pascal were rushing here with difficulty.

"Ceasefire."

The leading officer ordered his soldiers to stop firing. Following the officer's order, all soldiers lowered their guns.

Beyond them, the Abyssinian cavalry had fled, leaving only their backs.

But they didn't leave nothing behind. More than twenty Abyssinian cavalry fell to the ground. Among them, there is also a war horse that is trying hard to lift its owner who fell to the ground, trying to wake him up, but it is doomed to be in vain.

The defending Italian army was not without losses. Four Italian soldiers had been placed here by their comrades in the open space beside them. They were no longer breathing. These are young, awesome guys whose relatively young lives ended here. I just don’t know what it will be like when their death notices are delivered to their families.

Of course, for the current soldiers, he can't see the future scene yet. The immediate priority is to drive away those Abyssinian cavalry. These Abyssinians on horseback stick to them like candy. No matter how they are driven away, these people will soon appear again.

So under the surveillance of these people, every move of the Italian army was under their eyes.

In fact, not only the soldiers felt uneasy and irritable about the actions of the Abyssinian cavalry, but also the commander of the team, Major General Pascal, and the commander of the 6th Mountain Brigade, Colonel Zelos, were helpless.

"How many times is this the attack today?"

Standing on the high ground behind the troops, Major General Pascal put down his telescope, looked at the sun, and asked the officers around him.

"General, this is the seventh time we have been harassed today."

"This is only the morning, and we have already been harassed for the seventh time. It seems that the Abyssinians are determined to make things difficult for you and me."

Major General Pascal said this to Colonel Zelos beside him, and the commander of the 6th Mountain Brigade also put down his telescope and said. "There are not many methods we can use. The enemy is more familiar with the terrain here than we are, and the enemies are basically cavalry. We don't have a good method."

Facing Colonel Zelos' words, Major General Pascal nodded in agreement. "Yes, there are very few methods we can use. More importantly, everyone knows where we are going, which limits our performance. We can only continue along this path and continue to go down. .”

In fact, both of them didn't say a word, and they tried their best to drive away these cavalry, but in order for this operation to go smoothly, they could not reveal their true situation. Otherwise, the dozens of Maxim machine guns disguised as grain trucks would be enough for these Abyssinian cavalry to drink.

However, in order to achieve the goal, the soldiers could only brace themselves to endure the enemy's harassment.

Thinking of this, Major General Pascal stopped looking at the high ground. He turned around and gave the order.

"Order, let the troops continue to leave. We have only walked 6 kilometers today. This is too slow. We must speed up."

Following Pascal's order, the stalled Italian army began to move forward again. Its long team looked like a long snake, but Duke Harar knew that this long snake was dangerous. In just three days, he lost thousands of riders, which made him feel heartbroken.

"Sir, Marco is back with someone."

One of the guards ran to the top of the mountain and reported to Duke Harar who was observing the Italian army.

"Let him come up."

After hearing the report from the personal guard, Duke Harar turned around and spoke.

After a while, a muscular and dark man walked up. This was Marco.

"I have met the Duke."

Facing Marco and saluting, Duke Harar stepped forward to help him up personally. "Marco, how did things go?"

"It is ready. I have collected more than 300 cows from other princes and tribes. I have taken them outside the Pal Valley as per your instructions."

"Very good. Adding the more than 300 we brought ourselves, we have more than 700 cattle, which is enough."

What does Duke Harar want to do?

In fact, it was nothing. The main reason was that the previous losses were too great, which made the Duke of Harar want to use other methods to replace his cavalry in the battle.

The alternative he came up with was to use oxen instead of cavalry and charge at the Italians.

However, there are terrain restrictions when using the Niu Rushing Formation, that is, it must be in a narrow terrain. The Paarl Valley is such a place, with mountains on both sides and only one road in it.

Some people may want to ask why the cavalry was not ambushed in such terrain and rushed down in one fell swoop to completely defeat the Italians. This kind of situation usually appears in storybooks and novels. Everyone knows that the terrain is dangerous, so when people are sent to investigate in advance and troops are sent to occupy the high ground on both sides, who would just walk like this? Go in.

Therefore, it is feasible to use the terrain to ambush a small team, but it is very unrealistic to ambush a large army. Of course, the situation of encirclement is still possible. After all, in this era, no one can push the cordon to more than ten kilometers on either side.

The Italian army was not aware of what the Duke of Harar was doing. So in the afternoon, everyone felt strange when facing the enemy cavalry who never attacked them once.

It's not expensive to be weird, but it's still weird. What needs to be in a hurry still needs to be in a hurry.

Soon they arrived at a valley terrain.

"What's the name of this place?"

The commander, Major General Pascal, looked at the valley whose terrain was very unfavorable to him and asked the guide around him. "This is called Pal Valley. If you want to go to Maratha, you need to go here."

After hearing the guide's words, Major General Pascal immediately issued the order. "Send two battalions to occupy the mountains on both sides, and then we will pass."

Following Major General Pascal's order, the troops of the two battalions climbed up the mountain from both sides. Fortunately, the mountains on both sides were not high, so it only took half an hour.

After the climbing troops on both sides found nothing, Major General Pascal led his troops into the valley. However, not long after he entered the valley, he immediately heard a rumbling sound.

"What is this sound?"