My Italian: Chapter 139 Battle of Mara 4

The carriage with the Maxim machine gun that Simeone mentioned came up accidentally when he was observing the transport convoy.

For Simeone, fighting the Abyssinians most need to pay attention to their raids and various harassments. Instead, it is the kind of large-scale assembly, and he is not worried about the head-to-head battle.

Especially that kind of sudden attack is extremely dangerous for the Italian army or the army of each country. This doesn't give the soldier much reaction time, and for Simeone, it's especially important to focus on that. So he has always had the idea of ​​moving the Maxim machine gun faster.

In fact, not only him, but the military also has this idea. For this reason, they started from two aspects. On the one hand, they reduced the weight of the Mark Qin machine gun. Regarding this, Mr. Mark Qin of Beretta Weapons Company is already doing it. On the other hand, before Maxim loses weight, he is looking for a way to make him move quickly.

And Simone took this path. In view of the demand for the Maxim machine gun on the battlefield, he came up with the doctrine of using a horse-mounted machine gun. Remove the wheels of the machine gun and attach it to the wagon, which can act as a mobile fire point.

Of course, he has not tried the specific effect, this time just to test his ideas.

In the face of Simone's idea, Bartlett immediately thought it was a good idea after some thought, which could keep the machine guns on alert at any time, and give the infantry a quick stab at the Abyssinian raid. support.

Since both commanders agree, there is nothing to say.

More than 40 carriages were temporarily refitted. They removed the carriages, installed thin steel plates on all sides, and then installed the Maxim machine guns with the wheels removed. This was not a big change, and it was fixed in less than a day. In addition, in order to allow the machine gun to be redeployed, they will also hang the removed Maxim's wheel to the rear of the car, so that when the carriage is not used, it can be quickly installed back.

As for the troop selection for this reinforcement, the two also made careful selections. First of all, the 6th Mountain Brigade, which is very good at mountain operations, will be transferred. In addition, the 7th Artillery Regiment will transfer the remaining light artillery to form a mixed battalion, and then will transfer an infantry regiment, a cavalry battalion, and some zero-to-zero from the Third Army. The total number of troops reached more than 9,500.

The commander is Major General Pascal, the commander of the Eighth Division of the Third Army, who is most trusted by Simeone. As for why Zelos, the brigade commander of the Sixth Mountain Brigade, is not the commander, Simeone can only use the most familiar one, considering the seriousness of this mission. subordinates.

Forming a support force kept Simeone and others busy for two days. Of course, it's not that they did nothing in the past two days except for the deployment of troops.

On the other hand, they spread the news that due to ordnance and other reasons, the large troops could not go to support immediately, and they could only send a team to take the lead to reinforce Mara.

Of course, how could it be possible to convince opponents of fake news alone. For this reason, Simeone specially requested that a large transport convoy be dispatched from Massawa to Mendefera. The reason is that this is the military supplies such as ammunition that the expeditionary army urgently needs.

On the other hand, they also mobilized troops to strictly seal the front line of Adiquara, so that people believe that the expeditionary force does not want this news to be known to the enemy.

After these preparations were almost completed, the reinforcements led by Major General Pascal finally set off from Adiquara.

The departure of a large number of Italian troops, naturally, could not be hidden from the Abyssinians. In fact, two hours after the reinforcements set out, the Abyssinian Emperor Johannes IV received the news.

And the emperor not only received the news of the departure of the reinforcements, he even knew that a large transport convoy was coming to Mendefera from the port of Massawa.

This is not because the intelligence work of the Italian garrison is not good, but many places in Eritrea used to be the sphere of influence of the East African empire, Abyssinia. Later, with the increase of Italian colonists, Abyssinians returned to the plateau.

Since there is a mass base, the intelligence work of the Abyssinians is relatively good, and it is also expected to know some Italian army movements.

When Johannes IV received the news, he immediately knew that this was his chance.

Although he did not know why the supplies of the Italians were insufficient, or it was a pretense of the enemy. But he knew that as long as the reinforcements were far away from Adiquara, the stronghold where the Italian army gathered, then the more than 100,000 troops in his hands would be enough to let him know how powerful the Abyssinian warriors were.

Of course, the necessary deployment is also necessary. For this reason, he summoned the princes and governors to hold a meeting together to prepare to attack this reinforcement force.

In the big makeshift tent, everyone listened to the speech of their emperor Johannes IV.

"Gentlemen, the Italians have taken the bait. Their stupid commander, only sent ten thousand reinforcements this time, to reinforce Mara. This is a perfect opportunity, we don't have to attack the Italians hiding in the tortoise shell. This The second is that they walked out on their own, so we must seize the opportunity to annihilate them in one fell swoop."

The words of Johannes IV's instigation caused a burst of cheers in the big tent. For the enemy only sent 10,000 reinforcements this time, no one thought it would fail.

Seeing that morale was high, Johannes IV then assigned the task.

"Duke Harrell, I will reinforce your 2,000 cavalry. You must bring them to harass the reinforced Italian army as much as possible, at least prevent them from walking 50 kilometers within four days."

The Duke of Harrell, named by Johannes, has a territory in the eastern part of the plateau, because there are more livestock here, and his army is mainly cavalry.

And Johannes IV just wanted to take advantage of the cavalry~www.mtlnovel.com~ to harass the reinforcements first and slow down their movement speed.

Although he very much wants the reinforcements of the Italian army to be surrounded by him, a qualified hunter knows to hide his purpose, and letting it march smoothly will definitely lead to doubts. Give them enough attacks to slow down their march and make them think they're actually attacking Mara City.

"As ordered, Your Majesty. You will see the prestige of Harrell's cavalry and fail to fall."

After receiving the reply from Duke Harrell, Johannes IV continued to give orders. "Send a message to Menelik, so that their offensive against Mara can be suspended for a while, until we have solved the reinforcements of the Italian army, and join him to take the city of Mara together."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Then Johannes IV issued orders one after another, arranging other princes to protect the flanks and protect the flanks, and break the back roads. Basically, every prince was assigned a task.

After all this was arranged, Johannes IV looked at the map again, and he needed to decide where to place the ambush according to the map.