"War is not an end, but a means, and now we should think about how to end it." Wehrle put a stack of reports on his desk, took off his glasses and rubbed his brow.

"How the Führer intended, we have invested much more than originally planned." Kirsten placed a cup of coffee on Wehrle's table.

"Don't speculate, the Führer seems to have a new idea." Wehrle took a sip of his coffee and turned his gaze to the wall clock on the wall.

"It's already three o'clock?" Wehrle hurriedly put down his cup and stood up.

"Get my car ready, there's a meeting at half-past three, and it's about Italy. What about my package? I'm going to take these things with me, Miss Jessica, and find for me the one that came yesterday from Zurich, the one with the yellow label. I'm sorry Kirsten, I'll leave it all to you, if there's any news, call me at the Chancellery immediately, and I'll stay there until dinner. ”

Wierle took the report from the secretary and stuffed it into a black leather briefcase along with several papers on the table.

"Extension 14, I see." Kirsten smiled and saluted goodbye to the teacher.

The internal structure of the new German Chancellery is not very reasonable, as an ornamental building, it does show the prestige of the Third Reich everywhere, the problem is that as a core department of the Reich, it must take into account practicality and functionality, obviously as a government office, the new Chancellery is not very qualified.

Xu Jun was still thinking about this problem before he walked into the conference room, these tall and lengthy corridors had no other purpose than to bring mental pressure to people. The actual utilization rate of this building is less than 40%, and the rest of the space is used to render a solemn atmosphere, which has to be admired by Speer, who is indeed an incomparable genius.

The meeting was held in a small conference hall, a small room of more than twenty square meters, with a round table in the middle, a wall cloth with a crimson background and a gilded arabesque pattern on the walls, and a large scarlet velvet curtain hanging on the wall directly opposite the main seat.

"Hey! Reinhart! The participants had already arrived, and when they saw the arrival of the head of state, they hurriedly stood upright, whether they were officers or officials, they all raised their right arms to greet Xu Jun.

"You may be seated, gentlemen." Xu Jun walked to the throne left for him, raised his right wrist and saluted everyone present.

He found himself now more and more accustomed to this fascist etiquette, and his earlier resentment had slowly dissipated with it. This salute has become a part of German life, representing the interests of Germany and its people above all else, as well as a symbol of the Führer's dictatorship. As with Hitler, this is now seen by the German people as a way to show loyalty to Xu Jun, who could not find a reason to prohibit it, he could only tell himself that it was just a retro Roman military salute, and that it did not have any special significance, and that it did seem to be quite imposing, as long as the people did not object, why bother to make extraneous branches.

In a few months, Xu Jun has integrated into his current identity, and he believes and must believe that his actions are all righteous, because with his current position and the responsibilities he bears, he cannot be allowed to play any game of self-denial.

"Mussolini has begun to lose influence in the government, which I expected." After a few idle words, the Führer began to discuss today's topic.

"The conditions proposed by Badoglio are in the document before you, and I am sure you have already known about this before. General Weirle and Field Marshal Brauchitsch were direct handlers, and if there was anything they didn't understand, you could ask them privately. Now this is a supplementary text, and there was an initial agreement before that, which I agreed to at the time, and the initial agreement is in the last part of the document. Xu Jun propped his elbows on the armrests of his chair and watched as the secretary handed out documents to the attendees.

"Now, Mussolini's grip on the Italian government has reached an all-time low, and his orders are no longer binding outside of Rome. Witter, tell us a little bit about it. The Reich Führer's finger tapped on the table, alerting everyone.

"Mussolini had lost control of that country, not only because of the defeat on the battlefield, but also because of the fact that his political opponents never gave in, but only hid in disguise, and the current situation is the result of the united efforts of these opposition forces. The Savoy royal family and the top of the military have formed an alliance that wants to scapegoat Mussolini, try to use his ouster to make a deal with Germany, and are willing to hand over a portion of their interests to appease our anger. Weirle reported.

"I agreed to Badoglio's request that he prepare a coup d'état in Rome and that the Wehrmacht cooperate with his actions and will not interfere. Afterwards, on behalf of the royal family, he would ask for an armistice with Germany to end the war in a more dignified way. Xu Jun picked up the crystal bottle in front of him and poured himself a glass of French natural mineral water.

"My Führer, Italy is not willing to surrender unconditionally?" Marshal Rundstead asked.

"It seems that they have put forward a lot of conditions, but in fact we can completely ignore them, and from the current progress, the Wehrmacht can occupy all of Italy in three months." The field marshal was confident that he would achieve this goal.

"Indeed, as you think, Your Excellency, we have enough strength to bring down Italy once and for all. However, we may have to pay a considerable price for this, they have a fairly capable fleet, and a large number of troops remain in the overseas colonies. Taking into account the amount of material that we would need to pay and the possible losses if we were to completely eliminate these forces, it is clear that this option is now the most convenient.

We don't need to use much force to achieve what we want. Let the Italians solve these problems for us, and many times the power to tear down the wall does not come from outside. Xu Jun squinted his eyes, with a sly smile on the corner of his mouth.

"I think I understand what you mean, and I believe you are right. It's just that I don't feel that these Italians can be trusted, they can betray their leaders, and if they find an opportunity in the future, they will definitely betray us again. Rundstead said loudly, and the result was nodded in agreement by a circle of generals.

"Of course they will betray us again, and I have no doubt that if they are given the opportunity, Badoglio will surely overturn our agreement. He was a classical soldier who valued honor as his life, and he was fiercely loyal to their king, and he was not the kind of person who could easily endure shame.

He is using us to achieve the goal of overthrowing Mussolini's government, and the power in the hands of that leader is too great to be avoided in domestic affairs, military, industrial production, civic education, religion, any policy formulation and implementation.

He was already a threat to the royal family, but his henchmen were all over the government and the opposition, and no one in Italy could shake the man's rule. Threats can only come from the outside, and we are exactly what they need. Xu Jun opened the cigar box in front of him and took out a cigar from it, and several generals and marshals also took out pipes and cigarettes from their pockets.

But he forgot, if he can use us, why can't we use him in turn? Badogglio thought I was a fool who was overjoyed and easily carried away by immediate interests, like Mussolini. Of course, I had to cooperate with him, so we took Sicily, all of Northern Italy and most of Albania at a very small cost, and then we had to take Upper Sicily and Tuscany, and when he had fulfilled the mission we had given him, we would take all of Rome. Xu Jun lit his cigar and sneered and spit out a ball of smoke.

"Anzio landing? I've seen this plan, could it be that you have already arranged it? "Feng. Field Marshal Kluge had just returned to Berlin from his recuperation ground, waiting for the High Command to assign him a new post, and the troops he had commanded on the French front were now on the Italian battlefield.

Xu Jun didn't have much of a negative opinion of Kluger, loyalty could not be considered a crime, he was an excellent tactician, he had been commanding army group size troops before, but compared to several other senior marshals, he had no experience in commanding large army group regiments. However, Xu Jun is very interested in his incomparable loyalty to his superiors, and the fifty-eight-year-old marshal will be entrusted with important tasks.

"No, no, no, this is a plan that Yodel came up with, and I just approved it. Originally, I only wanted to break through the Apennines from the center, but Yodel's landing plan was a stroke of genius, and if it was played well, it could save us a lot of effort later.

The hardest thing now is General Quchler, whose African Army has just landed in Sicily, and is now about to launch a second landing battle, which is really worrying. Xu Jun dusted off his cigarette ashes.

"We all know Admiral Küchler, and we believe that he will be able to overcome all the difficulties." Bokle said hehehe.

"The Italian navy will not come to disturb him, the air forces of Sardinia and Corsica will provide him with air support, and we have absolute air supremacy in that area. The Italians did not set up defenses there at all, and the largest armed force within a radius of fifteen kilometers was fifteen police officers from the Anzio police station.

The landing was like an exercise for us, and the greatest difficulty now facing General Quchler was how to get his 47,000 men and 70 tanks ashore safely within twenty-four hours. Werler looked very serious, teasing the Afrika Korps commander.

"I'm looking forward to receiving a report of a successful landing, now let's take a look at the direction of the Apennines, let's take a look at the map first..."Xu Jun raised his hand and signaled, and a staff officer opened the curtain on the wall, revealing a map of all Italy.

"According to the plan, when the Anzio landing took place, the coup d'état on the Roman side was almost over. Whoever wins this farce in the end, it will be our army that will ultimately control the city.

At the same time, our troops in the Apennines were about to take advantage of the situation to launch an attack, break through this fragile line of defense, and annihilate the mobile corps that Badogglio had secretly retained in Florence in one fell swoop.

By that time it would be time for General Cüchrell to complete the occupation of Rome, and he would follow my orders to arrest all the government officials and high-ranking officers of that city. Xu Jun sat there and talked eloquently, the baton in the staff officer's hand following the Führer's words on the map.

"My Führer, they are likely to flee early, I mean the royal family and the high-ranking generals." Rundstead reminded.

"I don't think so, Badoglio will be lucky, because he signed this "agreement" with me. Xu Jun waved his hand to let the marshal relax.

"In order to prevent Mussolini from escaping, Badogglio helped us annihilate the only transport force in Rome, and if they wanted to escape, they would have to retreat by land. And after the breakthrough of the Apennines, they practically had nowhere to go. ”

"Then they have no choice but to surrender unconditionally to Germany, and you have once again won a great victory, my Führer." Bock nodded to Xu Jun with admiration.

PS: Delivered on time, thank you for your understanding. (To be continued.) )