Samuel calmly carried out surgical operations on the Abyssinian Empire according to his own plan, attempting to use the empire's fractured situation to pry roughly sixty to seventy thousand square kilometers of land in the southeast from its territory.
This area contained roughly a quarter of Ethiopia's high-quality farmland from his previous life, yet it now remained completely undeveloped.
"General! A telegram has arrived from home."
The signalman had brought the telegram from the homeland by ship through Egypt to Dessie, then handed it to Samuel.
Samuel frowned throughout as he read the telegram.
Sapeto, the owner of the Rubattino Company, noticed Samuel's expression and asked, "Your Excellency, General! What orders has the government issued?"
Samuel shook his head. "Nothing of the sort. But some people back home believe that my current actions have been too timid and hesitant, that I have not been aggressive enough in dealing with a native country like the Abyssinian Empire."
Sapeto found it hard to keep a straight face. "Do they not know how much military funding they withheld? Just ensuring the troops had food with our limited funds took us two or three months. And now we are the ones being called timid and hesitant!"
Samuel said, "It is not such a major matter. I anticipated long ago that some people back home would be unable to sit still, especially after we took Dessie."
Although Samuel had only truly gained a foothold in the Abyssinian Empire after occupying Dessie, the vast stretch of land between Assab Port and Dessie—including the land north of the East African Rift Valley, while the land south of it belonged to the East African Diredawa military town—had already been incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy. Most of this land consisted of desert and a small amount of grassland,