Compared to Churchill's predicament on the Anglo-German battlefield, Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini, who was far away at the southern tip of the European continent, was no better.

The Italian leader had been lying in the hospital until he heard of the Soviet surprise attack on Germany and the breakthrough he had made.

Because he felt that he was finally not alone in defeating the war, although as an ally of Germany and Reinhardt, now Mussolini did not want Reinhardt to continue to win.

Because such a thing would overshadow the glory of Italy, Mussolini, as an ally of Germany, was under too much pressure, and whenever the Italian army encountered suffering, there would always be German troops, and as soon as the German army appeared on the battlefield, the situation would be reversed dramatically.

Before that, the Italian army had always lost battles, but the German army was almost invincible. The comparison between the two is really heart-wrenching.

Mussolini had enough, and it was because of this that he became ill and ended up in the hospital.

Now that Reinhardt had suffered defeat in the campaign against the Soviet Union, Mussolini's heart disease was gone, and his illness was naturally cured.

Immediately after his discharge, Mussolini took back power from Rossi and carried out drastic reforms in the government, punishing successive Italian generals who had fought unfavorably, and likewise punishing a large number of officials for inaction in the government.

It was during this period that Mussolini rewarded a minister of food at a time when Italy was defeated and punished by generals and government officials one after another.

The reason for the award is said to be that the Minister of Food, at such a critical juncture, made a proposal that Mussolini considered to be very beneficial to the current situation in Italy.

In fact, since Italy's entry into the war, Mussolini's life has become increasingly difficult.

Although he appeared to be calm and seemed to be confident in Italy's future, in fact, he secretly admitted Italy's current predicament, and he also said that Italy had suffered three serious losses so far.

The first is that Italy's national military prestige has been severely damaged, the second is that the presence of German troops in the Italian colony (Libya) has had a serious impact on Italy's dominance in the region, and the third is that Italy's defeats in various battlefields around the world have had a very negative impact on the confidence of the soldiers. ”

Yet, even so, Mussolini still saw himself as a "superman who could see everything".

He regarded the invasion of Africa and Greece as his "political masterpiece", and attributed the failure to his subordinates who had nothing to do with him.

"The Italians are immature, untenacious, and can't stand such a severe test." These are Mussolini's exact words about his army.

But despite Mussolini's efforts to belittle the Italian army and even use violence to indirectly maintain his "tall image", the inexorable reality is that in the minds of his disciples, his image as a "leader" has begun to waver.

And in the hearts of ordinary Italians, the anger of rebellion is growing stronger.

This is because Italy's successive years of aggression and expansion have brought down the already fragile economy at once, and then the people's livelihood cannot be guaranteed, the problem of food and clothing cannot be solved, and all problems follow.

And since 1930, Italy's economic budget has never been balanced. By 1940, the deficit had reached 6 billion lire, and the 20 billion lire spent outside the regular budget had not been accounted for.

In order to make up for the shortfall, the Italian government has not considered the slightest consideration for the indiscriminate issuance of currency, public debt, and excessive taxation.

Due to the war and the blockade of the Allies, all the rubber and 70% of the grain and 40% of the wood that Italy needed were cut off, so that there were no raw materials for production in Italian factories, which also led to the paralysis of Italian civilian industry.

What followed was the consequence of one butterfly effect after another. Civilian industries are paralyzed, factories are shut down, workers are unemployed, family incomes are not guaranteed, people are hungry, domestic revolts are surging, and the situation is in turmoil.

Even more serious is the shortage of food, Italy is poor in land resources, after the start of the war, because young and middle-aged people went to the front to join the army, the country's arable land was basically abolished, and most of the food was imported.

Even the last few imported grains were now mostly shipped to the Italian army at the front, and feeding the common people became a big problem.

At this time, the Italian Minister of Food, Žižić, made a unique "ingenious" proposal to Mussolini - a grain rationing system.

The system stipulates that each Italian has a daily ration of 200 grams of bread, and those who work hard can get an extra 300 grams or 400 grams.

Although this system caused a strong resistance from the Italian people as soon as it was introduced, Mussolini still insisted on using this system, not caring about the complaints of the people.

At the same time, in order to suppress the people's resistance, he also gave a speech in public. The general message of the speech was to ask the Italian people to understand what the government was doing and to come together to support Italy's expansion plans.

But the results of the speech did not seem to be very good, and some people have even privately scolded Mussolini as "a fool who lives and dies for the people".

Mussolini, however, did not seem to take the people's words to heart, and on the contrary, he threatened to say to them: "No one should think that the ration will be cancelled after the war, and I will keep it for as long as I want."

Only then will those who have money eat as little as their employees. If anyone says 200 grams is less, then I tell you, around spring, the ration will be even less. ”

As soon as these remarks came out, they caused panic among many people in private.

Mussolini can be said to be a swollen face and fat man for this policy, and he said that he wanted to implement food rationing by his will, but even his henchmen did not trust him.

During this period, many Italians pushed the belt of their trousers to the limit, the last eyelet, and because Mussolini insisted on implementing the advice of the Minister of Food, Zhižich, they also called this eyelet "Mussolini eyelet".

In Italy, the majesty of the prime minister is very different from that of the beginning of the war. In the same dilemma, the Germans were still mostly loyal to the Führer, but the Italians were becoming increasingly disillusioned with their leaders.

In this case, Ziano, who had always regarded himself as Mussolini's son-in-law and Mussolini's largest confidant, suddenly found that his opportunity to go further had come......