Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

After the Battle of Harar, Giuseppe Garibaldi decided to suspend the offensive in order to avoid suffering a greater defeat.

However, this made Italian Prime Minister Luigi Carlo Farini feel a lot of pressure on his shoulders. He was ridiculed by waves of European colleagues, and he met Emmanuel II several times. Your Majesty, although the other party did not blame him, his tone was no longer as friendly as before.

So on January 12, 1863, he telegraphed an order asking Giuseppe Garibaldi to capture Harar as soon as possible and then advance to Addis Ababa.

Giuseppe Garibaldi did not obey Prime Minister Luigi's orders, but adopted a policy of appeasement, asking the Ethiopians in Harar to accept advanced Italian rule, which would bring them a better life. Instead of living like a slave like now.

However, this heart-attacking strategy had no effect.

The Ethiopians chanted slogans of "unyielding till death" and cooperated with the army to continue to attack the Italian invaders.

The combat effectiveness of the Italian invaders was greatly weakened by the lack of food and fresh water resources.

After the failure of Giuseppe Garibaldi's appeasement policy, under the repeated urging of Prime Minister Luigi, after the arrival of 3,000 people supported by Djibouti, 6,500 people directly launched an attack on Harar on January 14. Total attack.

As a result, they encountered stubborn resistance from the Ethiopian army commanded by Ethiopian Crown Prince Menelik. After three days of fierce fighting, with a one-to-one military outburst, Giuseppe Garibaldi occupied the city on the evening of January 17. , but due to heavy casualties, the soldiers' nuclear weapons and equipment could not be replenished, and they lost the ability to continue advancing towards the capital, Addis Ababa.

At this time, the Western Front was also hindered, because at Desai, they encountered the Ethiopian Army Minister De Boser, who led 15,000 men to fight against Alfonso Ferrero Lamarmora's 10,000 men. People, and the other side was still defending the city. Although the weapons were advanced, the manpower gap was too big. From the beginning, the Italian army was at a disadvantage.

This is why Luigi repeatedly urged the Eastern Front to advance.

On January 19, when the royal families of various European countries sent their royal members to attend the engagement of William IV of the Netherlands, Italian Prime Minister Luigi, when the evil army sent by Italy again arrived at the Eastern Front and went south from Djibouti, joined Giuseppe. When Garibaldi's army arrived, Prime Minister Luigi sent an order again, asking Giuseppe Garibaldi to advance to Addis Ababa immediately after capturing Harar.

However, Giuseppe Garibaldi once again refused to carry out Luigi's orders.

However, when the order from Emmanuel II arrived, the military veteran carried out the king's order.

However, when the army was not fully reconciled, when Gota was again occupied, the Ethiopian military-civilian integration model caused the Italian army to lose more than 2,000 people, which was instantly reduced to 20,000 people. Chara, the losses combined exceeded 5,000, and the closer they got, the stronger the resistance, and the losses were Yoda, and by the time they reached Nazret in front of Addis Ababa, only 15,000 of the Italian army was left. people.

On January 25, from 30,000 people to now, in just 20 days, more than half have been lost.

This kind of loss has never happened since Giuseppe Garibaldi joined the army. Even when he resisted Austrian rule, there was no such huge loss.

The strength of this African native is evident.

By this time, Europe was looking at Italy's invasion as a joke.

The Western Front is still holding down Ethiopia's 20,000-strong army, but the Eastern Front cannot seize such an opportunity.

Many insiders lamented this, and were also frightened by Ethiopia's combat power. They were all wondering whether Italy had encountered a strong opponent, or whether it was too weak.

But when the news reported by Italy's "Milan newspaper" appeared, all countries were stunned.

Because this report said that Prussians were training the Ethiopian army, and many of the weapons they used were purchased from the Netherlands.

As this article became more widely read, other newspapers followed suit.

Countries finally understood that Ethiopia actually received the support of Prussia and the Netherlands after paying a lot of price.

When Prime Minister Bismarck was asked about this in Berlin, he said: "I don't know what you want to know, but what I can tell you is that Prussia was already developing relations between the two countries before Italy attacked Ethiopia. , Ethiopia has even handed over a lot of places in the eastern part of the country to Prussia in order to conduct military exchanges with us and convince Prussia of their sincerity.

In line with the practice of reciprocity, Prussia began to teach self-protection military training to Ethiopia half a year ago. As a result, everyone is probably aware of it now. Let me reiterate that we are not targeting anyone or any country. This is a transaction. Remember. Live, we are willing to trade, including anyone”

"Prime Minister Bismarck means that even if Italy wants to, Prussia is willing to send instructors to Italy to teach Prussian experience. Is that so?"

"Yes, you can understand that"

When the Prime Minister of the Netherlands Tolbeck was also asked about this matter, he said: "The scope of transactions in the Netherlands is very wide. We now have transactions with various countries, including the United Kingdom, and we are doing business in the north and south of the United States. Some time ago, We have just sold 10,000 guns and 10 cannons to the North. While the South is buying from Britain, it is also asking us for prices and doing business. These are all natural things. If you don't make money, you will be a fool. ,Right?

The Dutch military industry is huge and does not affect the local area. In the Far East, our arms business is also good. Some time ago, France purchased 100,000 rounds of ammunition from our arms dealers in East India due to a shortage of ammunition during the South Vietnam War. To this end, we have also created many new jobs.

As the global arms business becomes larger and larger, we have begun to develop various arms production chains in the Australian continent. The arms produced there will be built into arms arsenals specially supplied to buyers in Africa, the Far East, and North and South America. This time Ethiopian arms are arms produced in Jakarta, the Dutch East Indies in the Far East. As for the war between Italy and Ethiopia, we will not participate in it. We are just doing business."

Just doing business?

Just pay it back?

Selling arms in such a large quantity, how can you claim that you are not participating in the war?

The words of the Dutch Prime Minister made both Emmanuel II and Prime Minister Luigi of Italy so angry that they both had the urge to curse.

Bismarck's words at least stated the time, which was set as half a year ago, but the Netherlands still expressed unabashedly that they did not mind the time. It was obvious that the Netherlands did not care about Italy's reaction, which made them very embarrassed.