"General Debono." Rossi, who was about to go to Ethiopia with Debono, communicated with his future colleague behind the balcony of the Palazzo Venezia: "The leader has made up his mind to declare war on Ethiopia immediately."
Debono, who was standing next to Rossi, glanced at Mussolini who was standing on the balcony giving a mobilization speech, nodded and said: "Yes, for more than half a year, we have established 6 military bases in Eritrea and Italian Somalia.
There is a military airport and more than 300,000 troops have been mobilized. It would be strange if the leader has not ordered a general attack."
"A solemn and sacred moment in the history of our motherland is approaching! All over Italy, 20 million people have gathered in squares across the country to declare their determination and will." Mussolini on the balcony of the Palazzo Venezia, inciting mobilization
Said: "The wheel of fate is moving smoothly towards the goal. Now, its speed is getting faster and faster, moving forward unstoppably! This is a symbol of the 44 million people of Italy expelling the shadow of injustice that hangs over us!"
Looking at the passionate and confident Mussolini, Debono whispered to Rossi beside him: "The leader did not give any military instructions at all. He just stubbornly ordered us to defeat the Ethiopian army within a month.
The army occupied its capital, Yasbeba. There is intelligence that Ethiopia has entered into an agreement with France, purchased arms from France, and used French military officers to train its army, which already has extremely strong combat effectiveness. But the leader turned a blind eye to this and only knew how to fight against us.
Make demands, make demands, make demands.”
The implication of Debono's words was very clear. No matter how many Mussolini's demands were, they must be realized. But the Italian army obviously did not have the ability to realize these demands.
Rossi smiled lightly and comforted his future colleagues: "It is not impossible for the general to achieve the leader's strategic goal. At that time, I will only need to lead 5 divisions of black shirts to act as the vanguard."
"You can just play forward... Are you so sure?" Debono frowned and said, "This is no joke. I don't think your team is completely sure. Although the Black Shirt Army's battle
The will is generally higher, but this is only a relative term. Once the war situation takes a turn for the worse, our entire army will have low morale and a decline in combat effectiveness. I have no doubt about this."
Rossi clapped his hands and applauded: "Yes, your analysis is completely correct. That's why we have to come up with secret weapons to enhance the combat effectiveness of the army."
Debono reacted very quickly and said in surprise: "God, do you want to use poison gas?!"
"Of course," Rossi said sternly after receiving Reinhardt's reminder: "Instead of waiting for our army to be blocked by the so-called indigenous army, and then having to use poison gas to open the way in despair, it would be better to use poison gas from the beginning.
.At least this can guarantee our victory and avoid possible embarrassing situations."
On the balcony of the Palazzo Venezia, Mussolini was still shouting enthusiastically: "We have tolerated the situation that Italy does not have enough say because of the lack of colonies for 13 years. We have even tolerated Ethiopia's provocation.
It has been 40 years, and it has reached the point of being intolerable! Our respected Caesar once ruled the entire world here, and now it is my turn to lead you to restore the glory of the Roman Empire. The glory will definitely belong to Italy...
."
"Okay, I agree with you. It is more cost-effective to use secret weapons earlier than later." After seeing Mussolini's enthusiastic speech, De Bono made a compromise: "Because the leader...
...Failure will not be allowed."
In October 1935, the Italian Army launched an attack on Ethiopia in two groups.
On the southern front, Italian Army General Rodolfo Graziani led a second-rate force with a total of 110,000 people to advance from Italian Somalia along the direction of Grahe - Harar - Diredawa in southern Ethiopia. Their mission
, is to contain Ethiopia's elite southern troops and prevent them from moving north.
The Northern Front Group in the main direction of Italy's attack deployed a full 250,000 Italian main legions. Five of them were the main black shirt troops brought by Rossi and were used as forwards. The remaining five divisions were commanded by Debono.
The division is also the main first-level unit in the Italian Army.
Due to the black shirt army's unscrupulous large-scale use of poison gas, the Ethiopian army, which lacked gas masks, was defeated one after another. This made the Italian army's offensive on the northern front extremely smooth, quickly occupying the strategically important Adignat in northern Ethiopia, and stormed to Adignat.
The two important cities of Mewa and Aksu formed a pincer attack on Asbeba, the capital of Ethiopia.
With the cooperation of the Royal Italian Air Force, Rossi, who was not good at fighting, actually commanded the two fastest divisions of the Black Shirts to fight all the way to Asta, less than 5 kilometers away from the Ethiopian capital. At this moment, only a few seconds passed before the start of the war.
One month.
In contrast, Graziani's 110,000 troops on the southern front, not to mention the loss of troops, only slowly advanced 10 kilometers in a month. Originally sent by Mussolini to replace the commander of the northern front, Debono.
General Badoglio, this time became the successor of Graziani, commander of the southern front.
After arriving, Badoglio immediately learned from Rossi's approach and launched a gas war. As a result, Italy's Southern Front Army barely advanced another 20 kilometers a week later.
Just as Reinhardt predicted for Rossi, the League of Nations, which Ethiopia expected in return, did not provide any useful help to this poor country.
Because Italian Prime Minister Mussolini assured the French government that it would give up its claim to French Tunisia and agreed that France would also enjoy privileges in Ethiopia. Not only did the French government fail to condemn Italy for using poison gas, it also gave up 110,000 square miles of the Sahara Desert.
to Italy, allowing Italy to use the port of Djibouti at will, and in disguise supporting Italy's military invasion of Ethiopia.
The British government even issued a public statement at Mussolini's request: "Being friendly to Italy and helping Italy has always been the goal of the British government."
The United States, which passed the Neutrality Act in August 1935, cut off Ethiopia's ability to purchase weapons from the United States.
Under the appeasement policy of Britain, France and the United States, although the League of Nations had to declare Italy as the aggressor in the end, it did not implement an embargo on oil and other strategic materials against Italy, which hardly caused any obstacles to Italy's invasion. Italy could even rest assured that Britain would control it.
The Suez Canal transports supplies.
On January 9, 1936, Italy ended the Ethiopian War four months earlier than in history. As Italian Prime Minister, Mussolini received Italy's highest medal of honor from the King of Italy in recognition of his "contribution to creating a new empire."
”.
As Mussolini became more and more powerful, he had already vaguely planned to abolish the king and proclaim himself emperor of the New Roman Empire. Under the secret control of his most trusted fascist No. 2, Rossi, he was under the control of the king's supporters in the fascist party.
of opposition.
However, Mussolini still used this achievement of opening up the territory to have the right to sit on an equal footing with the King of Italy and became the uncrowned king of Italy.
