"Mr. Mayor, it's not April Fool's Day!" Ruti abruptly stood up from her seat and shouted into the other end of the phone with a trembling voice. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info He had heard it, and the person on the other end of the phone was none other than the mayor of Turku. Although Ruti did not think that the other party would be delirious with him at this juncture, the situation he reported to himself was too unbelievable: the Soviet Union had just declared war on Finland early this morning, why did the Italian arms ship enter his country's harbor in the afternoon?

"Your Excellency, there is indeed an Italian flag ship in the harbor right now. The owner of the ship was an Italian merchant I knew, who claimed that there was enough ammunition on board to arm three regiments ready to be sold to us. I have sent someone on board to inspect it, and the reserves of weapons and ammunition are indeed extremely rich, and they are all Russian-made munitions! Because of the enormous amount, I must report to you that if we wish to make a deal with them, I would ask His Excellency the Prime Minister to send a plenipotentiary to negotiate with them. The mayor of Turku explained. Ruti froze where he was. He slowly sat back in his seat, his face already full of disbelief and shock.

There is no doubt that today's entry of the Italian ship into the port of Turku is definitely a deliberate act that the Italian side has been planning for a long time. Otherwise, it is impossible to explain why the Italian arms ship appeared in the Baltic Sea, which is about to freeze, and it is still loaded with all Russian-made weapons. What shocked and puzzled Ruti even more was the timing of the ship's arrival in Finland. With the English Channel and the North Sea designated as war zones by Britain and Germany, the sea range from the Mediterranean Sea to the Gulf of Finland has skyrocketed to 4,000 nautical miles; Except for a very small number of large high-speed cruise ships, it takes at least half a month for ordinary ships to cover this long distance. This means that Italy knew about the inevitability of Soviet-Finnish war as early as early November and began to raise Russian-style weapons - and at that time the territorial negotiations between the Soviets and Finland had not yet broken down!

"This astonishing insight into the situation of the Italians is even more exaggerated than that of the German Führer, right?" Rutti pondered to himself in awe, and the more he thought about it, the more he realized that Italy's control of the situation was simply wonderful. If the munitions had arrived a week earlier, she might not have paid much attention to the cargo she was carrying, and if her journey had been delayed by about ten days, not only would the port of Turku be completely frozen, but even the Baltic Sea would have been almost impossible to sail the ship again. It's just that Rueti is a little hard to imagine when the Italian leader, who has been completely overshadowed by the light of the German Führer since 1933, has become so terrifying?

"Your Excellency Prime Minister, do we need to buy this equipment from the Italians?" The mayor of Turku, who was on the other end of the phone, was silent for a long time, and couldn't help but ask again. Lu Ti suddenly woke up from his thoughts and replied categorically: "We have to buy all these arms!" I immediately contacted Marshal Mannerheim and asked him to send military professionals to Turku to join the negotiating team. In another three hours, the plenipotentiary of the government will arrive at you. We need to get this batch of arms into our hands as quickly as possible. ”

Under the watchful eye and supervision of Prime Minister Ruti, the Finnish side acted extremely efficiently: in the evening of the same day, the Finnish negotiating team, including government officials and military personnel, gathered in the port of Turku and sat down in front of the Italian businessman Franz. Originally, according to the normal transaction process, the Finnish side should first dry Franz as the seller, so as to obtain a more favorable position in the next negotiations, but at this time, Finland was already on the precipice of life and death, and there was no spare time for them to squander. Just as Mannerheim had expressed his hope upon learning of the news: if the munitions had arrived at the front a day earlier, hundreds of Finnish soldiers would have been saved by the guns of the Soviet invaders!

Seeing the almost imminent gesture of the Finn, Franz couldn't help but feel ecstatic. Today's thorough seller's market is a perfect situation that Franz, who has been doing business for decades, has never encountered; This means that he can unscrupulously offer high prices that are simply unattainable in normal times, and make a big profit. Although the money ended up in the Swiss bank account of the Italian Fascist Party, and Franz was completely unable to manipulate it, Foreign Minister Ziano promised him that he would receive a commission of 1% of the transaction value after the deed was completed - which was enough to make Franz enthusiastic. Franz, who sat at the negotiating table, secretly made up his mind that he must sell the arms at the best possible price.

$85 for the Mosin Nagant M1891 rifle and $700 for the Maxim M1910 heavy machine gun; $4,000 for a 37-mm M1930 battle defense gun, $12,000 for a 76-mm M1902 field gun...... These old weapons, which were not well maintained, were all priced twice as high as the high-quality equipment by Franz. Gun shells are three times the regular market price, and the price of 7.62 mm rounds per 1,000 rounds is as high as $150. During this time, the Finns tried to make a counteroffer, but Franz, whose eyes were full of money symbols, flatly refused. Franz said that he has traveled to the ends of the earth, this is the number, and if you are not convinced, you will start a military factory to produce these weapons and ammunition by yourself!

With the winter wind howling and the snowflakes flying, Rome, the capital of Italy, is shrouded in a faint silver white, which is particularly pleasing to the eye against the backdrop of the golden red and turquoise buildings. It's early winter, and this warm city on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea has been strongly affected by this year's cold snap in Eastern Europe, becoming as cold and icy as the foothills of the Alps. People looked at the snow on the streets and houses with curiosity and excitement, and it felt very fresh, and the carefree children ran out as if they were happy, and let loose their joy in the play.

In the palatial lounge, the Italian leader Benito Mussolini was silently gazing at the telegram in his hand. There were more than 100 phrases of text, but Mussolini read it repeatedly for nearly half an hour. In addition, Foreign Minister Chiano Jr. also had a solemn face, but compared to his father-in-law's composure and calmness, the eyes of the young Chiano Jr. already revealed a complex look of shock, shock, bitterness, and a mixture of sour jealousy.

"The Finns are really rich, and they raised $8.5 million worth of foreign exchange and foreign bonds in just three days."

Mussolini whispered softly, and his slightly chubby face finally couldn't help but show a little emotion. He slowly put down the telegram in his hand, looked at little Ziano next to him and sighed softly: "Gali, that brother-in-law of yours is really a genius with a unique vision in the field of strategic pattern. I can assert that he definitely anticipated this Soviet-Finnish winter war a month ago, and that is why he will try to borrow from us in order to realize his arms sales plan! This vision really deserves him to reap this wealth. Except for the part of the agreement that was assigned to us, all other foreign currencies and bonds were transferred to Jonas Jr. ”

Little Ziano nodded reluctantly, and his heart was even more depressed. This time he was obviously calculated and used by Fang Yan: Italy was inexplicably dragged into the feud between the Soviet Union and Finland, and intervened and supported the Finns in the Great Patriotic War as the initiator. However, in the end, almost all the economic benefits were taken away by Fang Yan, who was behind the scenes, and he was only left with less than a fraction of the money.

Although Italy itself was extremely at odds with the Soviet Union, and even if it did not have the incident introduced by Fang Yan, it would have vigorously supported Finland, but this feeling of being led by the nose was quite embarrassing, especially for little Ziano, who was the foreign minister and heir to the leader, felt extremely depressed. Come to think of it, I am the foreign minister of the great powers, and I completely lost to a mere soldier who is 4 years younger than me in the prediction of the situation, which is like the Italian football team being kicked 4-0 by Romania, which is simply unbearable!

However, as Mussolini said, this wave is indeed his little Ziano's inferiority. Who let him not smell the smell of gunpowder in the Nordic air before, so that Fang Yan took advantage of the loophole? As for withholding the money to vent his anger, Ciano Jr. disdained it: after all, he had promised to charge only 4% of the labor fee, and as the heir to the Italian leader, he obviously could not break his promise. What's more, the other party also has a close kinship with him. At this time, Xiao Ziano did not know the origin of this batch of arms, thinking that Fang Yan had also paid a lot of money for it; If he learned that Fang Yan had bought them for only $500,000, he was afraid that he would immediately find a spaghetti and hang himself!

Mussolini did not pay attention to his son-in-law's thoughts, but simply considered the information behind the telegram. The Finns are also quite bold, and such a large amount of valuable foreign exchange and bonds are thrown away so ruthlessly. It seems that the Finns thought very clearly: instead of being conquered by the Soviet Union and having all their wealth looted by bandits, it is better to exchange all their wealth for rifles and cannons capable of firing and fight to the death against the invaders.

Thinking of this, Mussolini couldn't help but feel a little moved in his heart. Finland's national income is quite large, and the only thing that is lacking is the military industry. If he also sold arms to Finland, how could he reap the benefits comparable to that of the German brigadier general?

In addition to the economic benefits, Mussolini also saw the political opportunity behind it. Today, Italy has maintained its neutrality in the European war for three months, which has made Italy, as one of the great powers of Europe, gradually forgotten by the world, which is extremely unbearable for Mussolini. In Mussolini's mind, Italy can and must be active on the world stage as a first-rate country, and obscurity and existence as a German servant are absolutely intolerable! (To be continued.) )