As Blomburg and others arrived, the oil guards began to be recruited and trained in an orderly manner, and according to the agreement between Contini and Mussolini, the oil guards were recruited in three systems: officers were mainly recruited from the Italian Army, junior non-commissioned officers and veterans were recruited from the Black Shirts, and other recruits were recruited from the members of the Youth League, which he fully agreed. The backbone of the original Roman guards, such as the Brave, the Black Paratroopers, etc., will also be in this sequence.

In terms of numbers, Contini made a slight move: some of the engineers were recruited under the name of the Joint Group Engineering Corps, some of the pilots and air-ground liaison officers were recruited under the name of the North African Air Force of the United Aviation, some of the staff and logistics personnel were recruited under the name of the North African Preparatory Office, and at the same time a supplementary battalion was set up in the country. In this way, the number of oil guards is actually far more than 6,000, almost nearly 7,800, and it is all paid by the United Group anyway, and Mussolini is too lazy to deal with it, so he is happy to pretend to be confused.

The army and navy bosses don't even bother to take care of the 200,000 blackshirts, so naturally they won't care about this complex mercenary army. Besides, the United Group has just integrated the domestic rifle machine gun military factory, not to mention increasing capital and shares, and has also launched new machines, rushing to do what the army and navy were originally going to do, so they naturally have to turn a blind eye in this regard.

In late November, the first members of the oil guard had begun training, and Contini was about to go to inspect it, when Antonio told him that representatives of Ansaldo wanted to see him.

"Ansaldo wants me to take a stake?" Contini was a little stunned, Ansaldo is the second oldest military industrial enterprise in Italy, the first in Italy in terms of artillery strength, and it is also one of the few in Europe.

"No, no, no, you misunderstood...... We didn't say anything about the shares, we just want to sell the aircraft factory to you, you now have United Airlines on hand, and the Breda aircraft plant, and we think you ......"

"Stop!" Contini was surprised, "Didn't the Ansaldo aircraft plant stop production?" How did I not know that there were still companies operating normally? ”

The other party said embarrassedly: "We originally had our own aircraft factory, and later we acquired the Pomirio Aircraft Company......"

After saying this, Contini finally remembered: the Turin-based Pomirio company developed the PD/PE armed reconnaissance aircraft in the late stage of the war, and their competitor was the SIA type of Ansaldo, although the performance was slightly more advanced, but due to the structure and center of gravity problems of the PD/PE armed reconnaissance aircraft, there have been instability and many accidents in use, which has been strongly opposed by the pilots. By the time these problems had been solved in June 1918, the company sent the plane to the United States, where it was well received, so it decided to stay in the United States and sell the domestic industry to the Ansaldo company for 13.5 million lire.

After Ansaldo took the company, it immediately integrated with its own aircraft factory, hoping to design a better reconnaissance aircraft on the basis of PD/PE, but unfortunately with the end of the war, not to mention the new order demand, the old orders were also cut by half, so the aircraft factory fell into the embarrassment of no rice under the pot, in recent years has been relying on repair, maintenance to make some money, the new aircraft has been trying hard, but basically not able to get it, in the accounts have been losing money. The boss of Ansaldo's company couldn't stand the situation of continuous losses, and wanted to clean it up for a long time, but he couldn't find a receiver for a long time, but now Contini is here, like a whirlwind sweeping away leaves, integrating domestic military enterprises, so they are eyeing this unjust boss.

"How much are you going to sell?"

"All the equipment, venues, personnel, technology and patents are packaged together, 50 million lire ......," said the representative of Ansaldo company very unconfidently, in fact, there are many losses, not to mention 50 million lira, 35 million can be sold is to burn high incense.

Contini did not directly agree or disagree, but asked something else: "You still have a branch for the manufacture of tanks and armored vehicles?" ”

"Yes...... But we don't have our own design, we use all the design drawings and chassis of the Fiat company, the engines are also Fiat's, and of course the guns are ours - whether they are Fiat or our tanks. ”

What the representative of Ansaldo said was the truth, the Italian imitation of the Renault-17 tank became the Fiat-3000 in Italy, and because the production capacity of the Fiat alone was insufficient during the war, the Italian army conveniently let the Ansaldo company jointly produce it. But now, these tank and armored car manufacturing companies and aircraft factories are also in trouble - Fiat is enough to fulfill the army's order requirements, and if it were not for the sake of Ansaldo's face in supplying artillery, they would not bother to divide the order.

Contini nodded: "You go back and talk to the board of directors, and I will say that I want your tank, armored vehicle branch and aircraft branch, give you a 1 point Algerian oil shares plus 10 million US dollars, and if you agree, sign the contract as soon as possible." ”

Hearing that there were oil shares, the other party's eyes suddenly lit up.

"It doesn't hurt to tell you the truth, we have just reached an agreement with the British (Iranian) oil company, and they will buy shares next month, 55 million US dollars in exchange for 10% of the shares, 1% of the shares are worth 5.5 million US dollars, I will still calculate it for you according to 5 million, after all, we cooperated very happily on the last trip to Russia, and the United Group hopes to reach a strategic cooperation agreement with your company - I also plan to entrust Ansaldo to develop new artillery."

Speaking of this, the other party smiled: the hull and artillery technology on the Caracciolo class The Italian Navy originally asked for 2.3 million US dollars, with a minimum of not less than 2 million, but Contini directly negotiated 3 million, and returned to the Admiralty to report 2.5 million, and Ansaldo's share of the money also rose with the tide. That's not all, thanks to the injection of other funds from the United Group and the generous purchase of ships, the Admiralty's intention to launch the second Caracciolo class in 1927, and the Army's intention to update its own artillery system, all of which brought a lot of orders to Ansaldo. As a result, the artillery industry in Ansaldo was the only sector that was operating at full capacity, and it was very profitable.

"I'll go back and report back to the board."

Two days later, Ansaldo agreed to the deal, but on one condition: if United Defense procures artillery for tanks and armored vehicles in the future, Ansaldo should have priority under the same conditions.

"Of course that's no problem, don't say it, I have a weapon that needs to be commissioned for development, and it seems that your company is more suitable." Contini took out a drawing he had drawn, outlining the appearance of the Brand 27 mortar, but adding some technical details of the Schneider 82 mortar, "This is a curved weapon, which can also be called a mortar, with a caliber of 60mm...... It's much lighter than the mortars you've seen so far, and I think it's especially suitable for the Italian Army, and I hope you can develop it soon. ”

Because Italy is mountainous, Italy's mountain artillery and light army artillery are very strong in Europe, and the level of large-caliber heavy artillery above 150mm can only be said to be general (army artillery), which is just the opposite of Skoda, Skoda's heavy army artillery above 150mm is good, and small and medium-caliber artillery and mountain artillery are not good at it.

The development of a mortar, weighing no more than a dozen kilograms, is very suitable for the use of Italian troops, which everyone knows, originally Contini wanted to hand over these designs to German companies, but then thought that Italy's local design capabilities should also be preserved, so he left it to Ansaldo, who of course expressed his gratitude for this - this thing looks like a product that needs to be equipped with a lot of equipment, as long as there is an order, no matter how difficult the requirements have to be made.

Perhaps the United Group has a reputation for not being able to take over the two branches of Ansaldo for nothing, when the United Shipyard in Asia came to the door again, this time on even more terrifying terms: it was willing to give the company's aircraft manufacturing department to the United Group for nothing.

"Give it away for free...... Contini touched his nose, the free things are the most expensive, it is better to ask some clearly.

"And what do you want?"

"We've heard a piece of gossip," said the other ...... in a rambling voice, "that you intend to build a Blue Ribbon cruise ship for Miss Ada, and that we are one of the best shipbuilders in Italy to take on this role." ”

"But I have my own shipyard......"

"We know that you do, and we know that the shipyard's ultimate goal is to be able to build a new 40,000-ton warship, but at present, your shipyard has not been expanded; Second, the designers and workers under your command have not even built 40,000 tons, and even 10,000 tons of ships have not been built, and when they have the ability to build a blue ribbon cruise ship with higher technical requirements, they are afraid that it will take as little as 5 years and as much as 10 years. A young and promising president like you, you can't wait 10 years for a commitment, right? ”

Contini got goosebumps from the hand, and he couldn't say he didn't make it: otherwise Mussolini would have called tomorrow.

He complained: "I've been spending a lot of money lately, and I'm ...... on hand"

"It doesn't matter, we can sign a memorandum and start work next year or the year after, so that we can use it before your wedding." The person who came smiled, "The aircraft factory can be delivered tomorrow, and we can trust the credibility of the United Group." ”

It's going to kill me!

"You say shipbuilding...... I do want to build a ship, I don't know if you can take it. Contini took out a blank piece of paper, quickly sketched it and handed it to the other party, "Do you understand?" ”

The other party smiled bitterly after taking a closer look: "Don't be kidding, this is clearly an aircraft carrier, not a cruise ship." ”

"Does anyone dictate what a cruise ship has to look like?"

"Nope!"

"Is there a rule on how many passengers a cruise ship must carry?"

"Nope!"

"That's it." Contini slapped the drawing, "That's it!" This is the world's first cruise ship with a maximum speed of 32 knots and a displacement of 30,000 tons, exclusively for family members, with 72 aircraft and a considerable number of anti-aircraft guns to protect it. ”

"Deserved, deserved, you are the only one in all of Italy!"

"That's it, tomorrow we will hand over the aircraft factory, and then we will sign a memorandum and start building this Blue Ribbon aircraft carrier next year...... Oh no, the Blue Ribbon Special Cruise Line, the name is Ida. Contini smiled, "You're going to send engineers and designers to visit the floating sea airport with me, maybe the drawings will be useful for the design!" ”