My Italian

The hard work of building the road did not last long for the three regiments of the Guards. With the emergency rush of two engineer regiments from Rome to Eritrea, and the local people actively signed up to join the road-building army (30 lire per month salary), let the guards The Army was the first unit to be freed from it.

Of course, to get rid of the identity of road construction workers, there must be something for them, Simone told them to drive to the front line of Adiquara, and pay attention to the actions of the Abyssinians at any time.

Although the Abyssinians put on a stubborn appearance, they are afraid of everything, so the necessary defense and protection are things that every qualified commander should be aware of.

Of course Simeone wouldn't wait for the road to be fully repaired before taking action against Abyssinia, after the wagon had barely made it to Adiquara. Simeone immediately sent the 3rd Guards Regiment, the 3rd Mountain Brigade and a mountain artillery battalion of the 7th Artillery Regiment to form an advance force and marched across the border (demarcated by Italy) towards Mara.

Mara 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 Aduwa in the northern part of the Plateau.

From Aduwa, there are two roads in the southeast. To the west is the road to the old capital of Gondar on the side of Tana Lake. To the south is the current Abyssinian capital Desai. If you continue south, you can also reach Shoa.

It can be said that Adua is a strategic point 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 is not a loss to Simone, because this can continue to repair 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 up to the plateau.

"Boom, boom, boom!"

The artillery kept bombarding the stone fort on the ridge, and the blasted stones scattered in all directions, revealing the earth wall wrapped inside. And this ferocious shelling made the Abyssinian soldiers hiding in the stone castle not dare to show their faces.

As the brigade commander of the Third Mountain Brigade and the commander of this advance team, Major General Wagman was using a high-powered telescope to carefully observe the results of the artillery bombardment.

He is very satisfied with the artillery skills of the officers and soldiers of the Seventh Artillery Regiment. He is indeed a veteran army, and its artillery skills are much stronger than that of the artillery battalion in his brigade.

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

Speaking of which, the artillery in his hand is not powerful enough. He only has two mountain guns of 75mm and 57mm in his hand, so the power is naturally not much. But wanting a more powerful artillery, thinking of the hardships along the way, Wagman intuitively dismissed the idea.

Since the artillery can't directly solve the opponent, let the infantry go. Anyway, I have fought such a fort many times before, and it is not bad.

"Let the infantry attack."

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

When the Abyssinian soldiers in the fort saw the Italian army touch them, they took up their weapons and started to fight back.

For a while, the officers and soldiers of the two sides fought very lively, but the fierce battle did not attract the interest of Cosenz, who was in charge of the guard duty, and he did not look at the battlefield.

"Cosenz, how long do you think the fort will be taken this time?"

His friend appeared beside him, and what he said seemed to be not worried about the friendly army at all.

"I don't know about this, but according to the intensity of the exchange of fire, it should not exceed three hours."

In the face of Barry's inquiry, although Cosenz felt that it was not good to say this to the friendly forces, he still gave his own judgment.

"Ok, I see."

But then Barry's words almost scared him to the ground.

"Now that the market is open, I bet whether I can take this fort in two and a half hours this time, starting from the time of launching the attack."

Unexpectedly, Barry's words would still be answered.

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

"Me, two packs."

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

"I……"

Facing such a situation, Cosenz felt a little overwhelmed, and he stepped forward and grabbed his friend. "You're crazy. If anyone finds out, we'll all suffer."

"It doesn't matter, we have played this kind of small bunker before, and it's basically like that. And if you don't find some fun, everyone will be uninterested."

Barry's words left Cosenz not knowing what to say.

"Be careful yourself."

Then he left, perhaps looking at other people's battle process will help improve himself.

"boom!"

A loud explosion far surpassed the previous one, attracting everyone's attention. As long as anyone with experience knows, this is the explosive pack exploding.

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

At this time, the officers and soldiers watching gave a burst of cheers, which meant that the battle had entered the final stage.

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

His words caused several soldiers to lament for a while.

Major General Wagman did not know the situation of the troops below, but seeing that the fortress blocking the road was broken, he instructed the officers around him.

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

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

What's so good about killing one or two hundred Abyssinian soldiers, capturing more than a hundred prisoners of war, and then capturing how many guns and cold weapons that are as old as copper and iron.

In order to achieve such a victory, let his troops be stuck here for half a day.

This is also Major General Wagman's biggest headache. Originally, this road was difficult to walk, and it was necessary to pull out these nails one by one. Even sending troops to surround and let the large troops pass by cannot do it, because the Abyssinians have placed one or two small artillery in this small fortress, completely blocking the entire road, forcing Major General Wagman to pull out one by one. out.

This also led to the culprit that Major General Wagman took the advance team and traveled 70 kilometers in six days. You must know that the road from Mara to Adiquara is only 84 kilometers. At this speed, he still needs to walk for two days before he can see Mara.

However, in addition to the road and the enemy, Major General Wagman has another threat, and that is the climate. The temperature difference here is extremely large at night, and the temperature can reach about 10 degrees at night, and it can reach more than 30 degrees at noon. Nearly 40 degrees, such a large temperature difference between day and night , making his troops attrition more serious. At present, the advance team he led has already lost hundreds of people due to illness. But fortunately, it was not easy to get up, and it was much better to go back. Except for some critically ill patients, others with mild symptoms were placed in the strongholds they laid down and slowly cultivated.

However, this also led him to reduce the strength of the leading contingent from more than 8,000 to about 8,000.

However, considering the next situation ~www.wuxiamtl.com~ 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 also a bit large, so the rear can also send some more.

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

Colonel Mora was the head of logistics in Adiquara, and it was not wrong to ask him for all kinds of supplies.

"As ordered, General."

The messenger took the list, gave a military salute, and immediately rode to the rear with a few soldiers.

After instructing the messengers, Major General Wagman continued to drive towards Mara with a large force.

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

It will not be pleasant to continue to pull nails to change anyone. I hope that the Abyssinians in Mara can withstand the angry Italian army.