Agitated, Mussolini immediately summoned his cabinet ministers to discuss how to assert Italy's presence in the war in order to reassert itself as a central European power. However www.biquge.info the ministers' response was to pour a basin of ice water on his head, which instantly cooled Mussolini's newly hot and eager heart.

Hearing Mussolini's words about the intention to start a war adventure, Italian Finance Minister Revel was so sad that tears were about to fall. In 1939, Italy's fiscal deficit had reached 6 billion lira, and the government's total revenue that year was only 27.6 billion lira, a huge 20% spillover. Counting the new 8 billion lire that will be allocated to the army this year, the normal order of Italy's finances has long since collapsed. The reason why the current state financial system is still struggling to operate is that it is simply relying on large-scale domestic borrowing to get by!

In order to open up financial resources, Revel has already tried all his means, but the country's GDP is there, and no matter how much he knocks on the bone and sucks the marrow, he can't get a few mosquito legs. In 1939, Italy's GDP was around 176 billion lira, and government revenue accounted for nearly one-sixth of all output. Even if the status quo is maintained, Revell is troubled by the huge deficit hole of the moment, and if the army wants to make any big moves, either the country will enter a wartime economy that hurts others and hurt itself, or it will break the jar and print money, and there is no other way out!

What made Mussolini particularly angry was that the finances were already too poor to be revealed, but the army, which had taken a lot of money every year, was still unable to fight against foreign countries. Marshal Graziani, Chief of the General Staff of the Army, shook his head like a rattle at the mention of war against Britain and France; He said a lot of things, but in summary, he lacked equipment, training, and logistics, and basically had no chance of winning a fight with the French.

The Air Force is the territory controlled by the Fascists, but the problems are no less than those of the Army. Commander Balbo reacted that a large number of aircraft models are old, and the crew is seriously understaffed, and it is okay to face abuse in the face of third-rate countries, but it is completely inadequate to fight with first-class countries.

Although the situation of the navy is the best, and Minister Cavaliani claims that pulling the fleet out and opening the film with France is not a problem at all, the war has always involved the whole body, and it is obvious that the navy alone will not be able to obtain the desired political gains. What's more, the lineup of the Italian fleet is only similar to that of France, and there is no obvious advantage, and it is impossible to predict who will die if it really wants to fight with this old opponent who has been competing with each other for many years. Mussolini was angry, and he couldn't help but feel a strong sense of frustration and resentment that "the pig teammates can't take it".

After exchanging information with his son-in-law Ziano about the situation in the Balkans, Mussolini's last hope of brushing his face in front of the world was dashed. The water in this area is too deep, and behind the intricacy of ethnic groups, there is also a hidden manipulation of the big powers. Judging from the current situation in Europe, it is far from politically high for Italy to violently set off the situation in the Balkans and expand its territory. If nothing else, the Soviet Union will not agree to it: in recent years, the Soviet forces have returned to the Balkans in a big way, in order to break through the shackles of Constantinople on its southern flank!

Thinking of the red polar bear, Mussolini's heart suddenly moved.

Speaking of which, from November 30 last year to the present, it has been 2 months since the war launched by the Soviet Union against Finland. However, the main front of the two sides is still deadlocked in the Karelia region at the beginning of the war, and there is almost no change. It is reported that the Finnish army showed amazing valor, killing and wounding tens of thousands of Soviet soldiers who came in a tidal wave, while losing little of their own. Such a situation really shocked countless people in the world who were originally optimistic about the Soviet Union, and Mussolini himself was no exception. Who would have imagined that the result of the tiger pounceing on the chicken would be the outbreak of the chicken's small universe, instantly transforming into a brave griffin, but pecking the tiger blind?

At the beginning of the Soviet-Finnish war, Italy strongly condemned the Soviet Union's aggression and sold weapons to Finland in the name of private trade, but it was more out of natural ideological opposition and political propaganda needs, and Mussolini did not expect the Finnish mantis arm to stop the iron horse of the red bear. Now, however, Mussolini suddenly found himself able to do something about it.

If Italy can create a positive image of Finland's success in withstanding the impact of the red tide, then even if it is not as dazzling as Germany, which has won successive wars in the past, it can largely change its embarrassing situation of retreating from the outbreak of the European war, and let Italy reappear in front of the world as a major power. It was Italy that helped Finland resist the Soviet invasion, which sounds exciting! More importantly, with this halo, Romania and Bulgaria, which are also facing the threat of the Soviet Union, do Eastern European countries need to talk about their political and economic positions in the future?

"Marshal Balbo, it's the planes of the Air Force that are transporting weapons to Finland right now, right?" Mussolini turned his gaze to the tall and muscular commander of the Air Force and asked. Mussolini did not pay attention to arms sales, but heard that the Air Force was using its rich capacity to help send weapons to Finland. Little Chiano on the side quickly thought of something, and his expression showed a little nervousness.

At present, it is his father, Ciano Sr., and Balbo, who is also a veteran of the Fascist Party, who is using the resources of the army to do private business of selling arms to Finland: on the books handed over to the Ministry of Finance, Ciano Sr. writes that all arms are sold at market prices, and when they are actually sold to Finns, they more than double. Did the leader suddenly ask about this today, did he perceive something?

The older Balbo looked calm and answered Mussolini's question without hesitation. The latter is particularly interested in the current process of its own military transport to Sweden in the name of civil aviation, and then transshipment to Finland; After learning that the old Chiano was doing this, he praised his father in front of the little Chiano, saying that his plan was comprehensive and far-reaching, which was greatly beneficial to the country. Little Ziano breathed a sigh of relief, secretly thinking that the other party was indeed the leader he knew. His mind was spinning, and he already had some guesses about Mussolini's intentions.

Sure enough, Mussolini soon began to talk about the significance and necessity of aiding Finland for Italy. He said: At present, the average daily delivery capacity of less than 5 tons is really too small, and even the ammunition base of one field artillery platoon cannot be satisfied, and it should be increased to at least 30 tons. Italy can't provide heavy artillery, tanks or other heavy equipment, at least it has to get some machine guns and mountain artillery to enrich the defense of the Finnish army. Anti-tank guns, anti-aircraft guns were also the focus of assistance, after all, the armor and air superiority of the Soviet army was the biggest threat to Finland.

Hearing Mussolini's ever-increasing list of weapons to aid Finland, the chief of the army staff, Graziani, was like a coptis who had been stuffed - now the Italian army itself is desperately short of guns and ammunition, and its industrial production capacity is far from enough, so it still has to squeeze out arms to fight for the Finns? His lips twitched, and he tried to give advice several times, but after struggling and thinking, he finally swallowed the words back into his stomach.

Now Mussolini himself is resentful of the army's readiness, believing that it has spent a lot of money on it but has achieved little; Continuing to disagree with the leader would not do Graziani any good. As for why this phenomenon occurred in the army, Graziani knew it as well as a mirror. If you really go-for-tat with Mussolini and force everyone to pierce this layer of window paper, then no one can bear the consequences of Mussolini's reshuffle!

"Forget it, let's deal with the Finns with the worst old-fashioned munitions in the army." Graziani sighed to himself, his heart full of bitterness. At present, the Italian Army is in no less desperate need for old equipment, as a large number of new infantry divisions now have only men and rifles, and the rest of the machine guns, especially the artillery units, are completely empty. The old equipment from 30 years ago is outdated, but it can solve the problem; After all, on the battlefield, one has a cannon and the other has no artillery, so there is a qualitative difference in combat effectiveness!

Originally, the Italian Army was not so short of equipment. Not to mention that Italy is barely an industrial country with half of the powers, just during the First World War, Italy received a large amount of military aid from Britain and France, which is enough to arm dozens of divisions now. However, Italy launched two large-scale military operations in succession in the mid-30s, which seriously depleted the vitality of the army. In particular, the protracted Spanish Civil War simply emptied the Italian Army's stockpiles, and a total of 7 billion lira worth of arms was used up by the Franco National Army.

If the responsibility for the lack of preparation of the Italian Army is really to be held accountable today, Mussolini will definitely not be able to escape the blame. But how could Graziani, who knew that the army itself was not clean, speak?

In Graziani's silence, Mussolini's idea of a large-scale aid to Finland was approved by the cabinet. The profitable Air Force and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were naturally happy to see it, and the Ministry of Finance was counting on this operation to offset the deficit slightly; The navy, which has nothing to do with itself, is neutral, and the industrial sector does not care whether the weapons it produces are purchased domestically or exported. Seeing that he had finally finalized something, Mussolini was in a slightly better mood. After all, Italy still found an opportunity to show its face cheaply, so let's make do it myself in a short time.

Two days later, the Italian Air Force drew up a new airlift charter with unprecedented efficiency. While they have also prioritized the development of long-range forces at the bottom and ground crews have been poor in maintenance, nearly 100 of the current fleet of 1,200 available aircraft are capable of solo missions from Italy to Sweden. Balborho estimated that the plan to send 30 tons of supplies per day to Finland could be met. Mussolini was thrilled to learn of the situation and immediately ordered Balbo to get the plane ready, and he couldn't wait to play the role of savior in front of the Finns.