A curling puff of green smoke slowly floated, and the old Ciano with his cigar frowned, trying to recall the moments of the day's meeting:

"That day I did talk about your party membership, but I didn't talk about the merger of the Young Italian Alliance into the fascist, and your party membership was not raised at the meeting, it was inadvertently talked about during the casual conversation during the intermission, and then the leader said to me that he could be your party introducer, I thought it would be a good thing for you personally, so I agreed to it, and the other party introducer was Balbo, who was about to cooperate with the leader in charge of the air force, and you happened to be the assistant to the Minister of Aviation and in charge of the second air force of civil aviation. Justifiably. I didn't ask for your opinion on the whole thing, and I don't think you would object to it, but I haven't had time to tell you yet. ”

Contini's face suddenly became ugly: "It's no problem for me to join the party, the key is which guy came up with the idea of merging the Young Italian Alliance into Fascisty?" That's not a good thing! ”

"Are you worried about being stripped of your place in the Youth League?"

"Nope! I'm worried that the Youth League will fall apart! "Father, the Youth Union is almost entirely composed of young Italian students and intellectuals, and now has more than 10,000 members, and we are the only organization capable of connecting in the Italian academic community, almost all of which have overtaken the joint organization of student unions in secondary and higher schools." In any case, the Youth Union is still only an inter-student organization, and although the overall guiding ideology is the same as that of the fascists, there are differences in the end. The reason why we are so active is that this is an independent non-power political organization - we have our own political pursuits and ideals, but we do not have the goal of chasing power for the time being, and it does not mean that every member of the Youth Alliance has accepted and joined the fascist ladder. ”

"You mean, if you force this organization to merge in, a lot of people will leave the alliance?"

"It's not all." "We are still a self-governing organization among students, not a strict political party, and we do not have a clear programme and participate in political struggles, and it is precisely because of this political tendency that the school management has acquiesced in our attitude and does not restrict us from expanding and recruiting personnel, and because of this attitude of the school authorities, including the Socialist Party, the Liberal Party and other parties, want to reach out to the school!" This is our only advantage, and joining Fascist as a whole will weaken it! ”

The elder Chiano immediately felt the seriousness of the situation: if the news of his son joining the fascist and becoming a youth leader and the attitude of the youth alliance as a whole to be included in the fascist situation became clear, other political parties would surely follow suit, and at that time all the political parties would put their hands into the school, which would inevitably form an impact of a variety of ideas, and the other parties might have gained, but the youth alliance would lose his dominant position in the political position of the school - there are so many schools in Italy, not every school management is pro-fascist, if it can be divided up with hands, There will certainly be schools that will defect to other political parties, and then the entire middle and higher education institutions will become a competition ground for various political parties.

"Then why didn't you make this opinion clear to the leader on the spot?"

Contini spread his hands helplessly: "First of all, I don't know the specific situation of the meeting at that time, so it is inconvenient to rashly oppose it; Secondly, the leader promised me benefits and status, and immediately dismissed it is to refute his face, and you know the leader's temper better than me, even if you can't do it, it's best to follow his wishes first; In the end, I always thought that this matter was not so simple, and that someone must have slandered me in front of the leader, or rather, thought that we were a threat to his position, and secretly released cold arrows. ”

Old Ciano shook his head: there is no need to slander his son, everything he is doing is actually instructed or implied by Mussolini, as long as you have a brain, you can see that Contini is really doing something inconvenient for Mussolini, and slandering can only bring shame on yourself. The only plausible explanation was that there was a belief that the Ziano family was too powerful to cause unease among others, and that this man was clever enough not to openly say anything about merging the youth union at the meeting, but only communicated with Mussolini alone and obtained the latter's support.

Who has such energy? Who is necessary?

"Obviously, this person is targeting your father,......" Contini smiled, "I am not a member of the party so far, and I am also a young person, so I can't threaten anyone, and if I take another 10,000 steps, the children of other high-ranking people can't threaten my position!" I'm so much better than them. ”

Ziano nodded: This is not an exaggeration, as far as Contini's current ability to toss is concerned, he is also the assistant to the minister, the president of the United Group, and the leader of the Youth Alliance, which is far from being comparable to the other second generations, and many high-level second generations are still very young, not at all at the same level, to say that the real threat can only be because the rapid growth of his son's strength continues to expand the prestige and influence of the old Ziano - this will pose a threat to others.

When I think about it, the scope is immediately narrowed: in the fascist system, Mussolini is the leader, and below the leader are the four elders of the Roman army, and under the four elders are other high-ranking senators such as Ziano. This figure who hides to the side and releases the cold arrow is either one of the "Four Elders" or other senators who are on the same level as Ziano.

However, the old Chiano excluded the other senators after repeated thinking, because among the other than the 4 senators, he is almost the highest ranked, and his qualifications and political experience are also the deepest, and his ascent will not threaten these people, but the four senators are not good here, it seems that anyone is possible, but the old Chiano first excluded Balbo and de Bono, and excluded Balbo because he knows this person better, thinks that his political ambitions are not too big, and he is usually very low-key, and prefers to focus on development in the army- Now that Contini is helping the Air Force to raise people, how can he be stupid enough to dismantle his own platform?

As for de Bono, a veteran army general, older than the elder Ziano, he thought that the other party could not be as knowledgeable as himself, so the remaining candidates were locked in the other two.

Old Ziano said strangely: "I am so low-key and indisputable, and I was almost scolded by your mother for being an unenterprising minister, why did I suddenly become a thorn in the side of others?" ”

"Because you're in the limelight......"

"Limelight?" Old Chiano was puzzled, "What kind of limelight am I, I say in a low-key manner." ”

"It's low-key, but it's not low-key." Contini smiled, "Who was it who sat at the train station for more than a month in order to alleviate the train delay?" Who sent the more than 300,000 Blackshirts stranded in Rome home safe and sound in a week? Who repaired the bridges and railways damaged during the fascist campaign in half a year? Who organized the construction of civil aviation? Who started the Roman Tram, the Second Bus Company, the Milan Bus Company? Who came up with the plan for the systematic construction of the Italian transport layout? Who came up with the idea for the construction of the Rome Metro? ”

Old Chiano touched his scalp and thought about it, and smiled embarrassedly: "It seems that they are all from the Ministry of Communications!" ”

"That's right, the leader spoke in parliament last October, hoping to spend a year to show the great changes in Italy, and now it's almost July, and it's time to give an account to the parliament in another quarter, except for the Ministry of Transport, which other department has achieved remarkable results?"

"It seems that there really isn't, they have only completed the regular work, at most the Ministry of Aviation has established the Air Force, and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce has solved some employment problems - in fact, many of them are driven by your joint group."

"That's right! Father, I can't help you pull you down, isn't this the norm in Italian political life in the past? …… Now it's better, you can use the method of releasing cold arrows! Contini sneered, "It's not that simple, I have to find out......