While finding an ambulance to take care of Duke Matafaria, Li Xiuping gave orders to several heralds one by one in front of the duke.

"You, go to the artillery barracks, pass on the order of the Duke, let them see the two red flares, shoot all the shells to the top of the slope, and then immediately retreat to Korahi."

"You, find a fast horse to catch up with the 11th Brigade, pass on the orders of the Lord, tell them that the original mission has been cancelled, and ask them to fire all the shells at the Italian army, and then immediately turn around and return to the north mouth of the valley, ready to meet the Lordship."

"You, go to Taniguchi to find Lord Hatu's decoy troops, and tell him that Lord Duke is wounded, and our army is about to retreat, and lead him here to respond."

"You, you, and you, give orders to the regiments, concentrate all your machine guns and open fire on the enemy until you run out of ammunition, and under this cover, the whole army withdraws from its positions and retreats along the valley to Korahhei."

After the words were closed, Li Xiuping turned to the Duke of Matafaria and asked, "Is this okay?" ”

The Duke just waved his hand slightly, and a few heralds nodded and dispersed.

"You can't die here anyway." Li Xiuping made up his mind at that time.

In the early morning of September 28, Li Xiuping escorted the light carriage carrying the Duke of Matafaria back to Korahhei. At this time, the Second Field Corps only had the 11th Brigade, a complete regular infantry brigade, left, the other three brigades lost more than half of their soldiers, almost all the officers, and basically lost their combat effectiveness, and the two originally powerful plateau cavalry regiments were only 600 people, the commander of the regiment, Duke Matafaria, was seriously wounded, and most of the 23,000 feudal private soldiers of Matafaria's family who were brought to the battlefield were killed and scattered, and half of the 48 cannons they brought with them were lost - there is no doubt that this was a crushing defeat that the Ethiopian army could not bear.

As soon as he entered the city, the Duke was immediately sent to the Legion Field Hospital for surgery, he had seven wounds on his body, and it was a miracle that he did not bleed on the way back to the city.

Li Xiuping's forehead was grazed by shrapnel, and the doctor gave him a few stitches (without anesthetic), applied medicine, and bandaged things indiscriminately.

Back in the room, Li Xiuping lay down on the simple wooden bed like a deflated ball.

What happened a few hours ago was replayed like a movie film, all the blood, the shredded flesh, the wailing, the moaning......

Four years ago, Li Xiuping, who was still a second lieutenant in the army artillery under the city of Chita, had not seen what tragedy was, but this time, it was the first time for him to stand in the ranks of the infantry, charging forward in the face of the falling artillery fire and the rapid rain of bullets......

This is his wealth, and with these, he is the wealth of the motherland.

Although I was tired, I didn't want to sleep yet, and the wound on my forehead that had just been stitched up was still painful.

Li Xiuping got up and sat down at the desk, unfolded the notebook, thought about it, closed it again, and took out a small black notebook from the luggage bag he carried, which was his private diary.

The tap water fountain pen inserted in the right breast pocket of the military uniform was given to the members of the advisory group by Her Royal Highness Princess Yuehua before leaving, and when he remembered that the beauty with a peerless style and elegant temperament was actually an unprecedented crown prince in the history of various Chinese dynasties, Li Xiuping couldn't help but sigh in his heart that the world was changeable.

After drinking saliva and calming down, Li Xiuping wrote casually in the diary.

"Today, I have experienced the limits of life and death, and I am still half asleep and half awake......"

"But the life and death of an individual is a small matter, but the righteousness of the empire is the most important...... The empire is the most righteous place in the world, saving the good people of the world from the hands of white bandits, and seeking a fair and good international order. However, there are priorities, there are strong and weak situations, and there are advantages and disadvantages at the time. ”

"Abyssinians have always been feudal and divided, with many princes, the strong are emperors and cannot centralize power, and the weak are subservient and detached. However, after the victory in the last war of resistance, the prestige of the current Ethiopian emperor Menelik II has greatly increased, the princes are united, the country is unified, the imperial power is unprecedentedly strong, the emperor has gathered all powers, preached the divine authority of the monarchy, ruled the provinces with a governor who is also a courtier, and did everything possible to strengthen the centralization of power. During his reign, Menelik II abolished the slave trade, built banks, built roads, set up posts and telecommunications, opened schools, reorganized his armament, and did everything according to old customs......

However, the feudal system of this country has not changed, the situation of the princes has not changed, each duke and marquis, often have tens of thousands of private soldiers, and the land and population under the leadership have life and death to seize power, and the emperor has to rely on the princes, the courtiers, and the governor, so as to show the imperial power in various places. Although the European cabinet system was introduced in the country last year, it was only artificially grafted on the traditional system, with the intention of maintaining the stability of the imperial throne, and the ministers used were all cronies of their hometowns, and there was no way to recruit them by merit, nor did they have a system of electing and forming a cabinet, which ran counter to the true intention of the Western cabinet system. Its various modernizations, because of the existence of the feudal land system and the disadvantages of the slavery system of the princes, are often mere formalities and in vain, just like clothes, shoes and hats are renewed, the skin and bones are black and white, and when the strong enemy presses the border, the clothes are slightly stripped off, and the real materials are unobstructed at a glance......"

"I boldly speculate that if Britain and France are determined to block the border, and Germany and Italy add three or two more divisions, the country will perish. The backwardness of the country lies first in the system, second in industry, and the third in armaments. If the empire cannot change its system, it will not help its industry and commerce, and if industry and commerce do not prosper, its national strength will weaken, and it will be difficult for its armaments to stand alone. ”

"The empire can sell its ordnance, train its soldiers and horses, and help build several factories, but the country's system is so flawed and the people's consciousness is so low that it cannot reverse its decline unless it is a major operation."

"Just as the great powers have evolved to the highest ape, they can do everything from heaven to earth, and the country is still crawling on the ground for reptiles, only foraging for food and surviving every day. Such inferior creatures naturally have their own way of surviving in the world, and are finally not immune to the control of the wisest creatures. Originally, the country was independent of the surface, but it was actually subject to the great powers, and if the empire wanted to break the status quo, the great powers wanted to conspire to deal with it. The empire could not allow reptiles to leap into man, but let them destroy themselves, and instead do all its aid to the apes of the earth, which are closer to intelligent men, such as revolutionary Persia, like the constitutional Ottomans, like insurrection India......"

"Thinking about it, foreign aid is only a temporary strategy, in order to weaken the effect of containing the great powers, but it is only a supplement to distant relations, and the lord of distant relations should seek a powerful European and American allies. The Empire's plan for a thousand years, in the South Seas and in Siberia, is to establish a policy of long-distance diplomatic relations on the basis of close attacks on these two places, which is the right way......"

The following year, the Imperial Army's weekly "Army Soul" published the diary in its entirety, entitled "In a Foreign Country, Thinking of the Country: The Inner Monologue of a Military Adviser in Abyssinia."