The sun never sets

"A hundred thousand more? If it's only a hundred thousand, it's not a big deal. What about the troops of the Belarusian Military District and the Ukrainian Military District? Have they increased?"

"According to the intelligence we received, the People's Revolutionary League's major military regions in Europe have increased their troop strength and are constantly updating their weapons and equipment."

"........What about the French Commune? Have they made any unusual moves?"

“After the People’s Revolutionary League disbanded its mobilized forces, the French Commune’s troops stopped cross-border reconnaissance, and the French Red Navy returned to the port of Brest.”

The French Commune had a strong desire to attack. While vigorously assisting the American Commune, it was also eyeing Germany covetously, as if it was ready to start a fight at the slightest disagreement.

During the World War, France lost a greater proportion of its population than Germany, but because of syndicalism, the French offensive spirit was much stronger than that of the Germans.

The military exercise held by the People's Revolutionary League gave the German government a great shock. This exercise proved that the mobilization ability of the People's Army was not inferior to that of the German Army, and that it had surpassed the German Army in terms of army weapons and equipment. Even according to the optimistic estimates of the German high-level officials, the quality and combat effectiveness of the German Army were higher, but the People's Revolutionary League had more eligible population. So, the German Army was still at a disadvantage.

German military attachés took a large number of photos and video materials during the People's Army exercise, and military experts later analyzed those photos and obtained many useful details. For example, through the appearance and layout of the fighter jets photographed, it is possible to get a glimpse of the alliance's fighter development ideas.

Before computer technology developed to a high level, the design of aircraft shape needed to be tested in wind tunnels. Large wind tunnels are expensive to build and use. Various aerodynamic layouts need to be tested in wind tunnels, and each additional layout costs a lot of money.

As I said, every bit of savings counts.

In addition, the Germans obtained the Union's semi-automatic rifles through some channels and at a great cost. After testing, it was found that the Union's semi-automatic rifles were not as accurate and had a lower range than the German army's latest Mauser rifles, but their firepower continuity was far superior. The German army's submachine guns were also far behind the Union's semi-automatic rifles.

If we ignore the factors of rapid ammunition consumption and excessive logistical pressure, the People's Army's semi-automatic rifles can completely crush the German Army's rifles and submachine guns.

After the test, the German high command was shocked again. The People's Revolutionary League had followed closely behind Germany, copied Germany's work in heavy industry and military industry, and introduced many technologies from Germany.

Thirty years later, the People's Revolutionary League has surpassed Germany in many ways. German engineers claim that German weapons are more sophisticated, which makes sense. The staggered road wheels on the Panzer IV tank bring better mobility, but what about the semi-automatic rifle? How about this?

Chapter 869 Dark Clouds Over the City

After the Germans obtained the semi-automatic rifles, they could not immediately start large-scale production. They had to adjust the original production line or build a new production line, and also adjust the production process and upstream and downstream supporting factories.

This is a huge project and requires considerable resources.

Even though it was such a hassle, the German high-ranking officials still thought it was worth it. What William III and other German high-ranking officials did not know was that the semi-automatic rifles that were lost were deliberately stolen by the intelligence department of the People's Revolutionary League.

Germany was already developing semi-automatic weapons, and the alliance just made the Germans determined. Once Germany invested too many resources in semi-automatic weapons, it would have to pay more sunk costs if it wanted to switch to automatic weapons in the future.

The Alliance's General Armament Department originally planned to produce semi-automatic rifles at the same time as automatic rifles, but after many exercises, it was discovered that the accuracy and range advantages of semi-automatic weapons were of no use, and their firepower was completely suppressed by automatic rifles.

The Alliance initially planned to replace bolt-action rifles with semi-automatic rifles, but this plan was eventually abandoned. The production of semi-automatic rifles requires a lot of improvements in machine tools such as gunneries, lathes, and grinders. After the new technology comes out, it takes time to promote it before the next round of technological progress.

The Alliance's technological progress was so fast that the automatic rifles were already available just as the semi-automatic rifles were being produced. The automatic rifles designed by the Alliance based on the AK47 were not only powerful, but also very reliable and could fire normally in very harsh environments.

Of course, automatic rifles also have disadvantages. Some generals in the alliance believe that

Because automatic weapons fire too fast, consume too many bullets, and put too much pressure on logistics supply. During the World War, the warring parties came up with equipment such as magazine blockers to prevent soldiers from firing too quickly.

Similarly, some German generals believed that semi-automatic weapons had too fast a rate of fire and were not suitable for the strategy of total war. They could only be equipped to the most elite troops, and not all troops should be equipped with semi-automatic rifles.

Moreover, Germany had produced too many weapons and equipment before, and the warehouses were filled with Mauser rifles, 37mm anti-tank guns and various obsolete weapons. Those weapons could not be destroyed directly, but had to continue to be used.

In the eyes of the generals, soldiers and weapons are consumables. The Mauser rifle is behind the times, but it is not unusable. The bullets fired by the Mauser rifle are just as deadly, or even more deadly.

Some German generals claimed that the Mauser rifle was the best rifle in the world and refused to use semi-automatic rifles because they knew that Germany did not have the resources to fully switch to semi-automatic weapons;

Others were too old, had rich military experience, had made many achievements in the world wars, and were unwilling to let go of the things of the past. Indeed, the German army was able to beat the British, French, and Russian armies many times in the world wars, relying on the system of total war, not one or two advanced weapons.

The German army once placed its hopes on various new weapons, such as poison gas bombs and flamethrowers, but they were all useless and in the end they still had to deplete each other's national strength.

More people refuse to use semi-automatic rifles because of their own interests.

The current squad tactics are all centered around machine guns, and the German army is no exception. The German army is equipped with a large number of light and heavy machine guns. Whether it is machine guns or rifles, the corresponding arsenals have mature production systems and skilled workers. Those arsenals have many interests with the German top leaders, and some of them do not want to spend a lot of money to purchase new equipment and retrain workers, which means that the profits of the factories will decrease.

No matter what you do, there will always be opposition. In Germany, a country dominated by conservatism, the opposition is very strong. The country has launched a variety of military projects, covering the army, navy and air force, and Germany's finances are almost unable to support it.

If we launch more new projects, we will have to spend more money.

Where did the money come from? Naturally, they had to raise taxes at home. Ordinary workers and farmers had been exploited to the point of leaving their homes, and many Germans fled to the League. The People's Revolutionary League recruited many intelligence personnel from German immigrants and formed a German infantry battalion.

Ordinary people could no longer squeeze out oil, so they could only collect taxes from Junker landlords, the bourgeoisie and factory owners. In many cases, the identities of these three groups were combined, and it was extremely difficult to collect taxes from them.

The Junker Officers Corps infiltrated every aspect of the German Empire and controlled the country's politics, military, and diplomacy. They were the real rulers of this country, and even William II was almost sold out by the Junker Officers Corps.

Although there were many struggles within the Junkers' Corps, they were always united in maintaining the interests of the Corps. If it was a new tank or a new aircraft, the Junkers would bite their bullet and keep up, but a semi-automatic rifle? It might not be of much use.

The alliance caused some trouble to the German Empire through its comrades on the secret front, but it did not have much impact on the overall situation. What really frustrated the Germans was the strong strength of the Human Innovation Alliance, its unprecedentedly large territory, the world's largest population, and the world's largest industrial strength. These made the Germans both envious and worried.

Not long after the military exercise ended, on October 1st, the Alliance held a grand military parade in Chang'an City, with many meritorious troops appearing.

At the parade, the alliance displayed more advanced equipment, including new medium tanks and transformable vehicles, as well as 122mm cannons and 155mm howitzers towed by vehicles.

As the tank formation drove slowly through Chang'an's 16-lane two-way road, the rumbling sound of the engines overcame the discussions on both sides of the road. Behind the tanks of an entire armored division were an equal number of anti-tank destroyers and assault guns.

At the same time, a dense formation of aircraft flew over Chang'an City, including huge four-engine heavy bombers, tactical bombers and fighters. A cursory look showed that there were a large number of aircraft in the sky at the same time, at least 300, almost covering the entire sky.

Amid the majestic military music, the planes and tanks passing by Chang'an Avenue created an atmosphere of "dark clouds pressing down on the city, ready to destroy it". Among the crowd of onlookers were military attachés, intelligence officers and journalists from various countries. The alliance also arranged more than a dozen cameras to record every detail of the military parade.

Germany sent dozens of officers, including two German field marshals, who looked very serious after seeing so many tanks and planes. The German Panzer III was defeated in the Indian battlefield. The Panzer IV was much stronger than the Panzer III, but the Alliance also brought out new tanks.

Compared with the new tanks of the Alliance, which tank has better performance? Because it continues to use staggered road wheels, the mobility and road passability of the Panzer IV are very good, and it should be more maneuverable than the new tanks of the Alliance.

As for armor, firepower and reliability, that's hard to say.

Chapter 870 New

The goal

The Human Reform League used a military exercise and a military parade to show Germany, the trade unions and the whole world that the fighting power of the People's Army remained strong and had not been weakened by economic development.

The alliance has placed most of its resources and energy on economic development, and the proportion of military expenditure to fiscal expenditure has been declining. However, due to the rapid growth in the total amount, the absolute amount of military expenditure of the People's Revolutionary League has been growing slowly or rapidly each year.

Military parades and military exercises are effective. They are used to boost morale at home and to deter disobedience abroad. After showing off their muscles, the patriotic enthusiasm of the people of the Union has increased a lot. Some regions with separatist tendencies, such as Hungary and India, have temporarily calmed down. Internationally, the Union has also found it more convenient to interact with other countries.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the League's Ministry of Foreign Affairs proposed to Germany, Commune France and Syndicalist Britain to establish the United Nations "to resolve the current disputes and frictions in the world and avoid the occurrence of large-scale wars again."

Lin Yongchang did not think that the United Nations could be established smoothly. Even if the United Nations was established, it would not really prevent war, but someone had to do it. If it was not possible now, then he would lay a foundation first to prepare for the establishment of the United Nations in the future.

The establishment of the United Nations is a precursor to globalization, and globalization is the further deepening of human division of labor and cooperation, which has advanced and progressive significance. In another world, globalization was initiated by the Americans after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and it caused a lot of messes, but it is undeniable that globalization has positive significance for human development.

Therefore, he still supports talks with Germany and the trade unions. As long as the three countries of Britain, France and Germany can reach an agreement, they can form an overwhelming force in the world. The United States is caught in the civil war and can't take care of itself. Other countries, such as Italy, Spain, and Türkiye, are not strong enough.

Just as Lin Yongchang expected, both the Anglo-French alliance and Germany were interested in the UN proposal, but their interests differed so much that they could not reach an agreement.

During the negotiations between the alliance and the various parties, news suddenly came from Europe that Austrian Chancellor Dollfuss was shot to death in his office. It was reported that the assassins were a group of fascist gangsters.

During his time in office, Dollfuss suppressed both the left-wing syndicalists and the right-wing fascists, and was a center-right political figure. When he was alive, he maintained Austria's independence, resisted the control of Italy and Germany, and worked hard to develop the economy. Overall, Chancellor Dollfuss was a relatively accomplished politician.

But now everything is over. Several gangsters broke into the government office building and killed him. After the news came out, Austrian people were boiling with anger. Some citizens declared that they would "repay tooth with tooth" and "repay blood with blood" and wanted to shoot those fascist gangsters in the street.

This assassination caused a great disturbance in Austria. Influenced by this incident, the German government announced the banning of the German fascist party and suppressed fascist members.

Germany is the Germany of the Junkers. No matter if it is the trade unions or the fascists, anyone who wants to seize power will face repression from the state apparatus. If the fascists cannot be used by the Junker nobles, they will never have a future.

In the past, the German government mainly suppressed the workers' movement, syndicalism and Lin Yongchangism, and tolerated and even supported fascism. At that time, Germany wanted to befriend Italy, but now, the situation is different, and fascism has also become the target of suppression by the German government.

Mussolini protested the German government's actions to suppress fascism, but the protest was ineffective. Germany, in turn, put pressure on Italy, demanding that Italy stop plotting against Austria.

Austria is German Austria, not Italian Austria.

Mussolini felt the fickleness of the world. Five years ago, he was still the defender and leader of the civilized world, but now Germany was ordering him around and had no respect at all for Mussolini, who claimed to be the leader.

Feeling humiliated, Mussolini was determined to accomplish something great. He turned his attention away from North America and began to focus on Africa again.

In the North American battlefield, the Italian army performed very poorly, and the Confederate Army, the United States Army and the German Army all had a low opinion of the Italian army. The Italian army's combat effectiveness was weak, mainly because of its poor weapons and equipment.

Take the Italian infantry division as an example. Its troops are more of a two-by-two structure. That is, one division has two infantry regiments, one regiment has two infantry battalions, one battalion has two infantry companies, plus an artillery regiment, a mortar battalion, an anti-tank artillery company, and service personnel, totaling nearly 2 people. On the surface, it looks like that, but the actual situation is not the case.

The first problem was that the Italian infantry divisions were seriously lacking in motorized transport capabilities, and even mules and horses were very limited. Most units still had to march on foot like in ancient times.

Secondly, let's take the basic tactical squad of the Italian infantry. Unlike other countries, each Italian infantry squad has up to 20 people, but their equipment, such as the Beretta M1930 light machine gun, is notoriously bad. The surface of this machine gun is full of protruding pits and holes, and it will jam if you are not careful.

What's worse, its strange magazine is also very troublesome to replace, which means that although the entire infantry squad is equipped with machine guns, in fact, in many cases there is not much difference between them and pure riflemen.

All the above factors led to the Italian army's serious inability to adapt to modern warfare. Moreover, the Italian army lacked advanced anti-tank guns. It was normal for it to be defeated when it encountered the armored cluster of the military government.

Although he suffered a defeat in North America, Mussolini did not give up his ambition to expand his territory. The ordinary Italian army was weak in combat effectiveness, but the black shirts belonging to the fascist party were much more elite.

As the Black Fung Army carefully built by Mussolini, its system absorbed a considerable number of retired veterans and passionate young people instigated by fascism. Therefore, compared with the Italian Royal Army, the Black Fung Army generally dared to fight and was able to fight.

经过北美的战事后，黑衫军进行了一定的改革，现在黑衫军一个典型的师级编制下辖3个步兵团、1个炮兵营、1个工兵连、2个补充营、1个野战医院、1个后勤补给中心（主要补给食物）、1个骡马运输部队（1600匹用于牵引火炮用的骡子）、1个混合卡车编队（80辆轻型卡车）。

It is worth mentioning that the rifle battalion of the Blackshirts has no independent machine gun company except for the three rifle companies under it. Each rifle company has three platoons, each platoon has three squads, and each squad has a light machine gun. This is probably the reason why the ancient Roman legion focuses on the 3-man battalion while taking into account the modern infantry squad tactics.

In general, the organization of the Blackshirts' supplementary battalions is similar to that of the rifle battalions, but each platoon is overstaffed (60 people) and each platoon has only one light machine gun. In addition, the weapons of the Blackshirts are often allocated first, so their performance is generally much higher than that of the general Italian Kingdom Army.

Finally, the Kurosugi Army mostly adopted a recruitment and volunteer system, so nationalism was very strong among its troops, morale was very high, and combat effectiveness was relatively strong.

Chapter 871 If Nothing Unexpected

After Mussolini became the Prime Minister of Italy in the 20s, he began to plan a war against Ethiopia. This was certainly due to his long-standing dream of restoring the glory of Rome, but also due to the reality of the coexistence of many European powers.

Looking around Italy, the neighboring countries are either great powers or backed by great powers. After years of thinking, Mussolini found that the only way to be sure is to attack Ethiopia.

在1895年的时候，意大利就跟埃塞俄比亚打过一场战争。战争的结果是意大利最终败给埃塞俄比亚武装力量。出征的1.7万意大利军，死伤1.1万人，被俘4000人。埃塞俄比亚军死亡在4000—5000人之间，受伤6000—10,000人。

Italy and Ethiopia finally signed the Treaty of Addis Ababa again on October 1896, 10, in which Italy recognized the integrity of Ethiopia's sovereignty.

Although Italy suffered a crushing defeat in the last war, Mussolini believed that there was a reason for that. At that time, Italy misjudged the enemy's strength and sent less than 10 troops, while Ethiopia concentrated troops. With such a huge disparity in strength, it seemed understandable that the Italians suffered a defeat.

Although Ethiopia is an African country, it is far from the image of "holding a spear". During the war with the Italians, the Ethiopian army was equipped with a lot of muskets and artillery.

In that war, the Italian army won many victories in the early stages, but in the final decisive battle, it lost all the previous victories.

Although it was called a decisive battle, the scene was not that exciting. The Italian army was well aware that they were not at an advantage in numbers, so they prepared to form an encirclement with fortifications, lure the Ethiopian army in, and then annihilate it in one fell swoop.

However, the Ethiopian army fought very conservatively. They refused to enter the encirclement, but kept bombarding from outside. In this way, the two sides spent three months. After three months, the situation changed. The Italian army ran out of food and grass. In order to save the situation, the Italian army chose to take the initiative to attack. But it was this move that led to the complete defeat of the Italian army.

The scene was extremely chaotic. The Italian troops divided into three routes were all attacked by the Ethiopian army, with countless casualties and prisoners. At this point, it was proven that Italy had been completely defeated.

Mussolini had an in-depth understanding of the failure of the previous war and believed that it was entirely possible for Italy to win the war. If tens of thousands more troops could be sent, if there could be more food and fodder, and if the commanders of the Italian army could be more cautious, the outcome might be different.

He believed that his black army could defeat the African natives, take Ethiopia into their possession, and contribute to the great revival of the Roman Empire.

The only thing worth worrying about is that Ethiopia will ask for help from abroad. Both the Labor Union and the Human Revolutionary League are capable of intervening in the war in Africa. However, the Labor Union is now deeply involved in the North American battlefield and should not have the time to take care of African affairs. The Human Revolutionary League has interests in most of the world and may not care about African affairs.

Mussolini felt a sense of urgency. The People's Revolutionary League was too large, and if the Ethiopian problem was not solved now, it would be even more difficult to solve in the future.

The Italian government secretly communicated with Germany and received the secret support of the German government. In this case, let's do it! The reason why the People's Revolutionary League is so powerful is because it has swallowed up Japan, Russia, Southeast Asia and

Australia?

Oh, and now add Bangladesh and India to the mix.

The monk can touch it, but I can’t?

By 1934, the defense of the Kingdom of Italy was mainly composed of two parts. One was the Italian Royal Army, which was nominally loyal to the King of Italy, but in fact, because Mussolini and his party controlled the government, the actual control of the army was still the responsibility of Mussolini.

The other was the Black Forest Army, which was created by Mussolini. In general, the Italian army adopted a conscription system, requiring all Italian citizens between the ages of 18 and 55 to serve in the army, which was euphemistically called "Roman Warriors", but in fact most of the elite recruits would be immediately transferred to the Black Forest Army.

In terms of arms construction, in addition to the complete navy and air force, the Italian Army has infantry divisions, mountain divisions, armored divisions and motorized divisions. Yes, Italy has also formed an armored division. However, although the concept of Italy's armored division is quite advanced, its equipment is really rudimentary. For example, its early main CV33 tank, the main firepower is a 1 caliber water-cooled machine gun (later changed to a twin 6.5mm Breda 8 machine gun), the whole vehicle is 38 meters high and 1.32 meters long, often not as tall as a war horse.

The combat weight of the CV33 tank is only 1.7 tons, and its off-road performance is also very poor, often breaking down while running. However, although the performance of this series of tanks is very limited, the Italian Army still has high expectations for it, and even developed the first flamethrower tank based on it.

Objectively speaking, although Italy developed and formed armored divisions very early, it never formed real armored forces. Why? Because the Italian armored divisions were more of an administrative agency than a combat unit, and their backbone was based on battalions. Secondly, the Italian armored forces were not a joint combat force with multiple arms as their counterparts in Germany and the People's Revolutionary League.

Regarding this point, the Italians themselves actually realized the need to add infantry, artillery and even engineering forces next to the armored forces, but they never made any real adjustments.

The main reason for this is that the Italian armored forces have multiple orders. In name, the Armored Forces Inspectorate of the Italian Ministry of War is responsible for overall coordination, but in fact, the Fuel Committee under the Italian Supreme Command and the Motorization Office under the General Staff often exert influence on it.

This led to the fact that the reforms of the Italian armored forces were very weak, because not only did they lack authority, but they also inevitably suffered from the division of interests that the reforms inevitably brought about, making all measures that were beneficial to development difficult. In comparison, although Germany's military reforms were also difficult, they were still much better than Italy's. At least, the generals and officers of the German army really knew how to fight.

In this regard, to some extent, although the data of the Italian armored division on paper was not too bad, its combat effectiveness was undoubtedly very questionable.

If it were on the North American battlefield, the Italian army would only be a supporting role, but the enemies they would face were not equipped with Allied aircraft and tanks, nor did they have a lot of money. As long as nothing unexpected happened, defeating the Ethiopians should not be a problem.

Chapter 872 Ethiopia

Twenty years ago, Ethiopia was still a feudal empire, a true feudal empire with many semi-independent feudal lords. In 1920, some of the lords launched a rebellion with the support of Italy, but were defeated by the Ethiopian Central Army.

Since then, Regent Tafali*Makonnan managed to eliminate the numerous separatist forces in the country while stabilizing the domestic situation. He changed the autonomy of provinces to the unified jurisdiction of the central government; the civil service implemented a salary system and local financial resources were concentrated in the central government.

Money makes things easier, and Tafari subsequently strongly advocated the development of education and the expansion of national schools. In 1925, he founded the Tafari Makonnen School, and he also encouraged prominent royal families to establish and fund schools.

In terms of diplomacy, in order to ensure a peaceful external environment for national development, Tafari advocated participation in international affairs and the use of multilateral cooperation to increase strength. After efforts, Ethiopia signed peace and friendship treaties with the People's Revolutionary League, the United States, and Italy in 1925, 1926, and 1928; in 1930, it signed an agreement with the People's Revolutionary League, Germany, and Italy to supply arms to Ethiopia, and negotiated with the People's Revolutionary League to build a dam.

These are all major diplomatic victories for Ethiopia, an African country. Among a series of reforms, Tafari paid the most attention to military reform. He spent huge sums of money to import advanced military equipment and hired foreign consultants, mainly Belgians, to build and train a new army.

At the same time, Tafari also established an air force, which was unprecedented in Africa at that time, because although history has long shown that the military development of African countries has lagged far behind the world, there are basically no countries that dare to spend huge sums of money to build an air force like Tafari, and even Tafari’s court has many complaints about his actions. But soon, the following series of events showed Tafari’s foresight.

In early 1930, the governor of Gondar and Begumdir provinces, Duke Gugsa Wali, led tens of thousands of rebels equipped with machine guns and field artillery to approach Addis Ababa, receiving full support from the feudal lords of Tigray and Gojam provinces along the way.