Chapter 378: Having One's Own Path
Following the plan he designed, Samuel calmly launched a "surgical" strike against the Abyssinian Empire. He aimed to take advantage of the empire's internal divisions to pry away about sixty to seventy thousand square kilometers of territory in the southeast, removing it from Abyssinia's domain.
This territory includes roughly one-quarter of what would be Ethiopia's top-quality farmland in later times. Right now, though, it's completely undeveloped.
"General! This telegram just arrived from home!"
The signalman delivered a telegram sent from Italy. It traveled by ship from Egypt to Dessie and was handed over to Samuel.
Samuel read the telegram with a constant frown.
Sapeto, owner of the Rubattino Company, noticed Samuel's expression and asked, "General! What orders did the government give?"
Samuel shook his head. "It's not an order. But some people at home think my current operation is too cautious. They say I'm not aggressive enough against a 'native' state like Abyssinia."
Sapeto could barely hold back his anger. "Don't they know how much funding they withheld from us? We've spent two or three months struggling just to make sure the troops had enough food. Now they're saying we're being timid!"
Samuel said, "It's nothing serious. I expected some people at home would get impatient as soon as we made gains by taking Dessie."
Only after capturing Dessie did Samuel truly gain a foothold in the Abyssinian Empire. But the large expanse of land from Assab Port to Dessie, including the area north of the East African Rift Valley (south of that valley belongs to East Africa's Dire Dawa Garrison), is already part of the Kingdom of Italy's territory. Mostly desert and a bit of grassland, it measures over fifty thousand square kilometers.
Right now, Italy's total area is only two hundred thousand square kilometers or so. Just the territory Samuel seized is enough to excite most people, even though much of it is barren and unsuitable for human habitation.
Sapeto said, "I guess they've forgotten the lesson from the Austro-Italian War—charging into battle without first figuring out what Austria-Hungary was up to, only to run headlong into its crack troops. Abyssinia is not so easily beaten as they imagine."
Over these past few months, Sapeto had followed Samuel and broadened his horizons. He saw how tough Arab-oriented troops can be when armed with religious zeal—especially those from underdeveloped areas. Fortunately, General Samuel planned everything carefully. His every decision anticipated the natives' moves, shattering their plots one by one. Whether ambushes or guerrilla attacks, nothing worked. In daylight, Samuel's troops would strike villages, at times eradicating them completely. Samuel didn't care whether they were resistance fighters or harmless civilians; all he knew was that the guerrillas relied on these desert villages to survive.
Though the Abyssinian Empire is primarily Orthodox Christian, it has fought the Arabs for centuries. Even the powerful Ottoman Empire once struggled to deal with the fragmented Abyssinian Empire.
Samuel continued, "That can't be helped. I've heard the kingdom might send troops to invade Abyssinia from the north. They've already negotiated with Egypt, and with Britain acting as guarantor, they plan to move through northern Eritrea (Latin word for the Red Sea—Italy uses it to mean the Red Sea coast) to attack Abyssinia."
Sapeto burst out laughing. "They want to attack Tigray directly!"
Samuel, also amused, joked, "They might not even know what Tigray really is."
As the economic core and military powerhouse of Abyssinia, Tigray has always been the empire's strongest region. Axum, the imperial capital, is located there. Yohannes IV used to be commander of the northern fortress and long dealt with Egyptian armies. Tigray is heavily populated and heavily armed. This is the main reason Samuel avoided the more prosperous north to concentrate on the south.
The other major threat to Samuel lies in the west—around Lake Tana (the biggest lake on the Ethiopian Plateau) and south of it is the Kingdom of Shoa. But Shoa and the north keep each other in check. Shoa worries the north might seize the chance to invade from above, so they remain in a defensive posture.
In history, the Kingdom of Shoa was originally an ally to Italy. Menelik II managed to unify the country smoothly with Italy's help, yet in the end, Menelik II inflicted a major defeat on Italy, humiliating it in front of Europe.
But in this reality, Shoa no longer has that chance. Italy came to seize land, and with such clear goals, there's no way it would support an enemy. Right now, Shoa—or Menelik II—maintains a stance of "If they don't attack me, I won't attack them." Of course, Menelik would be delighted if Italy clashed with Yohannes IV's forces in the north, allowing him to benefit and eventually drive the Italians out, restoring the empire's glory.
Yet facing Samuel, Menelik II's plan was doomed to fail. Samuel had no intention of fighting Yohannes IV. In the Austro-Italian War, the greatest lesson he learned was not to underestimate any opponent. Even if you intend to defeat them, you should go from the easier targets to the harder ones. In short, he noticed that every time Austria-Hungary lost, it usually began by targeting Hungary's army first.
And the easiest part of Abyssinia to subdue is the southeast, where many factions exist but there is no single strong warlord. No one there can unify local Abyssinians. Once Samuel cuts their links to the north, they become leaderless.
Samuel said to Sapeto, "It doesn't matter which officers the kingdom sends to share the spoils in Abyssinia. We don't have to care. If the kingdom chooses to open a new front in the north, that has nothing to do with us. Any orders from outside my territory can be ignored."
He was annoyed by the officials back home. Samuel knew very well how those nobles and bureaucrats acted. The moment he had some success, they imagined everything would be easy.
He went on, "No doubt the officer they appoint to lead those new troops must have important connections. People like that love turning trifles into commands. Our best move is to pay no attention and find excuses to brush them off. After all, with our limited army, it's normal we can't break through the heavily fortified Abyssinian strongholds north of Dessie. The kingdom can't say we aren't trying."
Sapeto agreed wholeheartedly—at this point, he believed in Samuel completely, because Samuel was always "right."
It's not that Samuel was deliberately resisting orders. It's just that in the Austro-Italian War, he'd suffered often. His superiors and colleagues tricked him time after time, telling him, "Hold off the enemy for a short while; reinforcements are right behind you," only to vanish, sometimes even retreating without telling him. His comrades also frequently failed to help or even watch him struggle.
After a few such incidents, Samuel learned: never trust a superior or colleague's words—no matter how nice they make it sound, you should find a reason to refuse.
This caused friction with colleagues and made him unpopular with his superiors during the war, but at least it kept him from being dragged into their disasters. His army stayed intact; he even managed to strike back a few times. And by the war's end, when Italy looked for a "winning general," they only found Samuel, who had never lost. The noble-born commanders had to hold their noses and praise him as the army's rising star. Samuel would only say it was all thanks to his companions making him look good by comparison.
So this time, with the kingdom opening a new front, Samuel had no intention of taking part. In fact, he was already planning to collect taxes within the territory under his control and recruit Italian immigrants to strengthen his forces.
From his experience, if he didn't cooperate with those colleagues, they would surely give him a hard time. Though they're inept, they have powerful fathers and stand united. At that rate, the already withheld military funding might disappear entirely, just like back in Italy. Fortunately, in Italy he could recruit local troops on the spot and rely on the neighboring Hungarian forces for grain.
But here in Abyssinia, where everything is unfamiliar, he has to rely on himself. Ever since Samuel rose to prominence, he's been able to say with a clear conscience that he earned all his success through his own efforts.
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