Italy's ambitions towards Abyssinia have become obvious, and causing trouble is just to create an excuse for large-scale aggression. Mussolini also frequently threatened in Rome that he would teach Abyssinia a lesson and make these Africans
Barbarian tastes the power of Italy.
Compared with Italy, Abyssinia, which still retains serfdom, is indeed a very backward country. The emperor who currently rules Abyssinia is Haile and Selassie. This emperor once visited Europe and took with him
It also brought zebras and lions, which greatly attracted the attention of Europeans and became a joke.
In fact, China's top leaders do not think highly of such a country. People including Jiang Baili and others believe that the Italian army can turn Abyssinia into its own colony as long as it passes by. There is really no need for China to offend Italy for such a country.
You must know that Italy is still recognized as a powerful country. It has no shortage of aircraft, artillery, tanks, warships, and even chemical weapons. Another important factor is that Italy is too close to Abyssinia. Although China dares to fight in the Far East,
The main reason for any country to compete is that China has the home field advantage, and Abyssinia is located in East Africa, thousands of miles away from China. It is too difficult for China to interfere.
However, Qiao Yu definitely doesn't see it that way. Qiao Yu, who is familiar with history, knows very well that Italy is a typical silver-forged country with useless characters, and Abyssinia's resistance is beyond the imagination of the world.
, this war that was originally without any suspense actually lasted for seven months.
In the end, although the Italians occupied Addis Ababa, the capital of Abyssinia, there were still a large number of guerrillas, which continued to consume the Italians' combat effectiveness.
For Qiao Yu, as long as this country still knows how to resist, it is not hopeless and definitely worth helping. However, this time Qiao Yu's old assistant Jiang Baili is extremely opposed.
"President, Italy has no colonial interests in the Far East and has no direct conflict with us. We really do not need to make too many enemies; and Abyssinia does not even have a regular army, and most of its weapons are swords and spears. We must arm them
How much wealth will it cost, how many tanks and artillery are needed, and these weapons need to pass through the Strait of Malacca before they can be transported to Africa. Will the British agree? Even if we transport it, Abyssinia has enough people to cao
What the hell, don’t we still need to send military volunteers?”
China has sent volunteers to Vietnam and other places. In fact, China's regular troops were forced to retire and join the Vietnamese army under the banner of volunteers. Jiang Baili undoubtedly supports this in the areas surrounding China, because China is also planning to do so.
For these lands, Jiang Baili is absolutely unwilling to cross the ocean and let the blood of his soldiers spill in Africa!
"Brother Baili, you are wrong this time. I never planned to arm the Abyssinian army with advanced weapons. That would have no value other than wasting a lot of money. Moreover, it is indeed
As you analyzed, it is difficult for us to pass the restrictions of the Strait of Malacca, and China will not spend huge sums of money for an unrelated country."
Hearing what Qiao Yu said, Jiang Baili was relieved that the president was indeed not hot-headed, but then he had even bigger questions.
"President, how can we fight against the Italian army if we don't arm them? Just relying on a statement won't do it!"
"Brother Baili, you are so smart and confused for a moment. When will I confront the Italian army head-on? My aid to Abyssinia is not to hope that they will defeat the Italians, but to let them persist. We are going to fight."
It’s an asymmetrical war!”
World War II is used as a boundary between the behavior styles of major countries. There is a big gap between before and after. Before World War II, countries were straightforward. Whoever had a bigger fist was justified. Except for Europe and the United States, most other regions were colonies or semi-colonies. They were completely
There is no room for resistance at all.
After World War II, the situation suddenly changed. All countries have a nuclear sword hanging over their heads. And with the rise of nationalism, even the most powerful country in the world cannot easily expand its territory. Other big countries will definitely use it.
Various means are used to hold back.
Qiao Yu is very clear about the strength comparison between Italy and Abyssinia. In addition, the gap in the quality of personnel between the two countries is also unimaginable. Although Italy is a waste among the great powers, it bullies Abyssinia who is in a semi-primitive state.
Xenia is enough.
In this case, why does Qiao Yu support Abyssinia, which is doomed to fail? In fact, the secret lies in continuing the fight. As long as Abyssinia persists in fighting, the Italians will not be able to escape from the war and will continue to consume arms and wealth.
, soldiers will continue to be sacrificed, and they will be in absolute passivity in terms of international morality. If they continue to persist, sooner or later there will be a day when Italy cannot bear it.
This method has been repeatedly proven in later generations. Wasn’t the Red Empire also brought down by a small Afghanistan?
"Brother Baili, the key to the so-called asymmetric war is that we use relatively simple weapons to make the Italians pay a greater price. For example, we don't have to give the Abyssinians tanks, but we can give them mines, and also
To teach them to use local methods to make landmines, we don't have to send them large-scale guns and artillery, but we can provide them with a small number of sniper rifles, select a small number of elites from their army, and after training, we can give them
The Italians are causing constant losses. We don't have to teach them to fight head-on, but we can let them destroy water sources and poison them..."
Qiao Yu said what he was thinking, and Jiang Baili figured it out in an instant. He was not a fool. In history, Jiang Baili proposed a theory of national defense, in which the core of dealing with the Japanese was three words: as long as they did not surrender,
There will eventually be a day when he will be brought down. For the weak, this is indeed a very good method.
"President, the method you proposed is good, but do the Abyssinians have such a strong determination to resist? I'm worried that they will collapse at the first touch, and they will not be able to help them up!"
"It's up to you to evaluate it. If the people of Abyssinia can support it, we might as well make this place a trap and let the Italians get stuck in it and find it difficult to extricate themselves!"
Africa is a fertile continent with an astonishing amount of resources buried under it. In the process of China's industrialization, Africa's resources are absolutely indispensable. However, now that Africa has long been divided up, it has become extremely difficult for China to intervene. Therefore, at present
This is an opportunity that Qiao Yu is absolutely unwilling to miss. As long as China helps Abyssinia resist Italian aggression, China will successfully establish a strong stronghold in East Africa.
The Chinese intelligence agency also conducted detailed investigations and finally concluded that Abyssinia is more tenacious than imagined, and Emperor Haile and Selassie are also strong leaders. After confirming all this! China quickly
The policy of aiding Abyssinia was finalized.
This was the scene where the Chinese representative strongly condemned Italy in Geneva. China's attitude shocked Britain, France and other countries. In fact, Britain, France and other countries also had predictions about war, but the painful memories of World War I made them dare not face the war at all.
And the current international order is also very beneficial to them.
Therefore, they only condemned Italy's expansionary actions. No matter how nice the words were, the top leaders of these two countries had been frightened by the war, and they did not dare to face the challenge of the war.
Selassie, who originally had some hopes for international justice, was counting on Britain and France to uphold justice. He even went to Geneva in person to seek support. However, it backfired. Britain and France were only willing to provide some free help, and nothing else.
no.
At this time, China stood up and strongly condemned Italy. At the same time, it also expressed its willingness to support Abyssinia’s just struggle. This was undoubtedly great news for Selassie. The two countries
The country quickly reached an agreement.
China dispatched an officer corps of less than a hundred people to train the Abyssinian army, and at the same time transported large quantities of landmines through secret channels. China also sent some military industry experts to teach them how to produce bombs and gunpowder using indigenous methods.
Mussolini was definitely a rare arrogant man and did not take China's warnings seriously. In recent years, China's strength has continued to increase. Britain, France and other countries have suffered losses at the hands of China. But in Mussolini's view
This is just cowardice and incompetence on the part of Britain and France. Italy will never be intimidated by the yellow-skinned monkey.
In particular, the Italians did not find out that China was providing weapons to Abyssinia, which made him even more relieved. The Italians made careful preparations for this invasion and concentrated a total of 300,000 troops from the north and east.
, and entered Abyssinia from three directions from the south.
At this time, Abyssinia mobilized a total of more than 400,000 troops, but 95% of them were temporarily summoned militiamen. They had more courage but less experience, and the equipment was even worse. A considerable number of soldiers did not belong to the army.
Their own rifles, as for artillery, are even rarer.
In the initial battle, Selassie insisted on fighting a regular battle with the Italians! After less than ten days, although the Albanian army fought bravely and caused great losses to Italy, the Italians were well-equipped and the militiamen suffered even greater losses.
Dead bodies littered the battlefield.
At this time, Selassie took China's suggestions and decisively shifted the focus of the war, putting the main force on the offensive. The focus of the attack also became the Italians' logistics lines. At the same time, Albania
The army also adopted a scorched-earth strategy, destroying wells and poisoning streams during their retreat.
You must know that Abyssinia is located in the plateau of East Africa. The water source is already very scarce. Now that it is destroyed, Italy's situation suddenly becomes worse. These Italians have no water even if they want to cook noodles!
In addition, the landmines secretly sent by China played an incomparable role. At the beginning of the war, more than 20 Italian tanks were destroyed by landmines, especially as the Italians' tank defense capabilities were indeed not very good.
, many tanks directly turned into a pile of scrap metal, and even burned and exploded, giving Italy a headache.
They tried to use engineers to clear mines, but China would never make it easy for them. Under the anti-tank mines, anti-infantry jumping mines were often arranged. Some major intersections would even form a large chain, often with engineers excitedly
They dug out the mines, but what awaited them was a series of violent explosions. In an instant, there were no bones left, and they became the scapegoats of the tanks!