All afternoon, the fleet was busy mobilizing the berths of the ships, assembling and arranging for the soldiers to go ashore, and the captains were ordered to pour the keyholes of the ammunition depots with tin and remove the bolts of the deck guns.

All the high-ranking officers were gathered at the headquarters for a meeting, and the generals exhorted them with grace and authority, hoping that these subordinates would recognize the current situation and be able to distinguish between right and wrong and stand on the side of justice.

Mussolini was doomed, and in order to preserve the royal navy, he had to stand by the side of the victors, and the generals were confident that the situation would soon become clear and everything would return to normal. The Kingdom of Italy would negotiate an armistice with Germany, Marshal Badogglio would come up with a plan that would satisfy the Germans, and then Italy would make an armistice with Britain and France, freeing the Kingdom from this stupid war for good.

Italy may be suppressed by foreign countries for a while, but this is only a temporary difficulty, and when the giant bear in the East shows its fangs, the Germans will surely remember the importance of Italy, and then the kingdom will rise again and become a hero to save the nations of Europe.

This is both an opportunity and a challenge, and Italy hopes that every citizen will face the difficulties with the courage to see humiliation as the price that must be paid for the rise of a nation, because Germany is the best example of this, after so many years of hardship, finally stands at the top of Europe.

If anyone wants to blame, the Italians can only blame the choice of an arrogant leader, which has attracted a group of difficult opponents to the kingdom.

How many of the generals really listened to what they said, to put it bluntly, they themselves could not be sure, anyway, these captains could only stay ashore for the time being, waiting for further instructions from the Roman command.

As a result, the Romans did not hear back until the evening, which made the admirals of the coup faction in the navy begin to be unsettled.

It stands to reason that the coup d'état in Rome should have ended at this time, and the overall situation of Badoglio had been decided, but Rome seemed to have disappeared from the face of the earth, and no matter how many telegrams of inquiry were sent, there was no news.

This was an anomaly, and according to the original agreement, Badogglio should announce Mussolini's resignation to the whole nation through the radio station in Rome after the successful formation of the government. But no matter how it was adjusted, all that was received on the frequency of the Roman radio station was noise.

The Commander-in-Chief of the Navy did not want to wait just like that, and he sent a liaison team to Rome on a Navy transport plane, and their mission was to contact the Marines in the city of Rome to find out what was going on in Rome.

Cavliani felt a little irritated, he didn't know what was wrong, what Badogglio was doing, why there was no response.

But at this time, the former chief of the general staff of the navy still did not think that the coup would fail, he and Badoglio and his gang had conducted several deductions, each step was very detailed, and Mussolini's troops had been transferred out of Rome, and the prime minister had no ability to resist at all.

Cavliani believed that the coup d'état must have been successful, and the current situation may have been due to some accidents during the operation, such as Mussolini noticing some clues, not entering the pre-set trap, and even fleeing from the city of Rome.

If that were the case, Badoglio should have been searching for the leader with all his might, so it was too late to announce the news of the government reshuffle, and the former chief of staff of the Navy thought his reasoning was quite logical.

They waited until midnight, when the liaison officers sent to Rome came back with the astonishing news that the German Afrika Korps had landed at Anzio and had now completely captured the whole city. It is said that Badoglio and members of the command were captured on the way to escape, and that His Majesty the King was temporarily missing, and it was the "former Prime Minister" Mussolini who now stepped forward to control the situation in Italy.

This was really the worst joke that God had played on them, the rebels were completely lost, and the generals refused to believe the veracity of the information, believing that the liaison might have fallen into the hands of Mussolini's henchmen, and were finally forced to send the fake message.

At three o'clock in the morning, a secret telegram came from the radio station of the Roman high command, which finally shattered the dreams of the coup d'état.

In a telegram, Mussolini, in the name of the country's prime minister, declared a state of emergency in the country, that all naval vessels must remain in the harbor and that no warships should be dispatched until his next order arrived. In the end, Mussolini also told Admiral Iyaquino in the telegram that the coup d'état in Rome had failed, that all the masterminds of the rebel gangs had been arrested, and that these traitors would be tried by the people, hoping that the navy would recognize the facts and finally return to their lost path.

Perhaps the stimulus was too strong, and Kavliani lost control of his emotions on the spot, and the admiral drew his pistol and smashed the radio station, and tried to shoot at the commander-in-chief of the navy who stopped him, and finally the former chief of staff of the navy was subdued by several guards and sent to the ward of the headquarters hospital with their hands and feet tied.

The admirals of the Italian Navy fell into a rather embarrassing situation, and they just swore to tell their officers and soldiers that Rome had changed bosses, but these words were not spoken for a long time, and reality slapped them in the face.

At this time, they no longer knew how to explain their previous actions, and the navy's previous protests could be regarded as rebellion, not to mention that what happened at noon was the fulfillment of this crime, and they proved their involvement in the Roman conspiracy with their actions, and Mussolini had no reason to let these people go.

The generals panicked, with some hardliners voking to resist to the end and forcing Mussolini to pardon all of them by force, while others began to consider how to betray their accomplices in exchange for the leader's trust.

The latter are officers who are not deeply involved in the matter, and they are not usually treated and trusted by the commanders, who believe that they should be regarded as a coerced masses, and these people are not interested in accompanying the masterminds, so they strongly oppose the proposal of the hardliners to use force.

They reminded the warmongers not to forget the battlefleet of the Triple Alliance outside the port, which repeatedly rejected the Italian fleet's request to leave the port, turning a blind eye to the goodwill of the fleet. Even if the Germans were willing to open the net, the French would never give the Italian navy a chance, and the British cruisers and destroyers were a great threat.

At the same time, they reminded the hardliners not to forget that the coalition also has a powerful air force. Although not a single German bomber has been seen over the port so far, intelligence indicates that both Sicily and Tirana, Albania, are stationed in German bomber wings. If the Germans were willing, they could have launched a devastating attack on this military port from the east and west, and with the current anti-aircraft fire on the port and the warships, they simply could not cope with an air attack on the scale of a group or more.

In the second half of the night, the quarrels of the generals resounded throughout the building, and when it was almost dawn, several gunshots suddenly rang out intermittently in the headquarters. Later, in the hazy morning fog, someone saw the guards of the headquarters carrying some objects wrapped in curtains and sending them into the warehouse in the backyard. Witnesses vowed to look like it was wrapped in a human body, and that they appeared to see blood.

At eight o'clock in the morning of the next day, the commander-in-chief of the navy, Admiral Iyakino, gave the order to gather all the officers and men in the square of the base, and then the admiral led all the generals to the scene and gave a touching speech to the sailors.

He began by apologizing to all officers and men for the order he had issued yesterday afternoon, and claimed that it was an order that had been given under the coercion of force, and that as Commander-in-Chief of the Navy he was also one of the victims of the conspiracy.

Iyakino claimed that the cabal, led by Cavliani, the former chief of the Naval Staff, had conspired with the traitors in Rome to hijack the kingdom's navy and carry out an armed coup d'état aimed at overthrowing Prime Minister Mussolini.

Fortunately, some of the generals of the base were not bought by the conspirators, and they resolutely launched a resistance in the early morning, completely crushing the conspiracy of the traitors, and at the same time rescuing the personnel of the headquarters who were held hostage.

Now the plot of these traitors has completely failed, some of them have been caught red-handed, and the rest have fled in disarray. Among them were several core members of the traitorous gang, such as Arturo. Admiral Cardi, Riccardo. Lieutenant General Palatine and Carlo. Lieutenant General Catania, who had fled from the base with the remnants of his henchmen, had ordered the Marines to immediately go out to hunt down the traitors.

Halfway through the commander's speech, there was an uproar and the sailors were in a state of excitement, shouting slogans in support of the leader and demanding the arrest of the traitors lurking among them.

Some of the officers who had done their best to suppress the sailors yesterday were spotted on the spot, and they were treated as traitorous henchmen, and were brutally beaten by their subordinates, and it took a great deal of effort on the part of the gendarmes to carry a few poor officers out of the crowd, and two of the majors stopped breathing immediately because they were so badly wounded.

It was a terrible riot, but it was what the generals wanted to see, and when the junior officers were under siege, they were easily freed from suspicion.

The attitude of the generals on the sidelines made the soldiers think that the commanders were on their side, and they felt that their actions were tacitly approved, so they became even more unscrupulous.

The aristocracy within the Italian Navy was on par with that of the British Navy at the time, and the treatment of officers and soldiers was far from the same.

Because of the particularity of the navy, the officers on the ships have absolute authority, and the officers are like parents, and they can even physically punish soldiers for no reason. The abuse of soldiers in the Italian Navy was more serious than in the Army, but due to the Navy's favorable treatment and fear of cruel military law, Italian sailors had to silently endure the bullying of their superiors.

Now that there is suddenly an opportunity to declare personal vendettas, how could the sailors give up in vain, many officers who usually treat sailors harshly have finally been retributed at this moment.

In the Italian Navy, there is a serious estrangement between officers and sailors, and they usually rely on some non-commissioned officers to maintain the relationship between the two sides, at this time, those non-commissioned officers who like to please the officers are also besieged by sailors, these non-commissioned officers who are usually as ferocious as beasts, but at this time they are so frightened that they are paralyzed like mud, and they only know to hold their heads and let the soldiers around them punch and kick.

Feeling that the goal had been basically achieved, the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy finally gave the order to stop the continuation of the atrocities, and a group of loaded marines rushed into the group of sailors and carried the officers and non-commissioned officers who had been beaten to death out of the assembly square.

At this time, the dissatisfaction of the soldiers was vented, justice was served, the traitors got their due end, and the generals were freed from suspicion, which was really a happy ending.

However, the sailors were still not allowed to return to the ship, and Admiral Iyaquino said that this was Mussolini's order, and that no ship should leave the port without the permission of the prime minister.

The sailors now resolutely obeyed the same order, preferring to live in spacious quarters rather than in the rickety hammocks.

The admiral then announced that all sailors would have a day off and that they would be allowed to enter the city of Taranto and only need to return to camp before midnight. The generals need to spare a day to figure out how to clean up the current mess.

The Commander-in-Chief of the Navy sent a telegram to Mussolini, first congratulating the Prime Minister on the thwarting of the coup plot and declaring that the Imperial Navy remained a solid backing for the other side. The traitors who had suspicions about the prime minister had been purged by this time. The admiral swore to Mussolini that the Italian sailors were still loyal to the leader and the kingdom, and he gave a detailed account of what happened in the square, as evidenced by this.

Mussolini did not reply quickly, and did not reply for a whole day, which made the commander-in-chief of the navy nervous, which was somewhat unconscionable, unlike the usual reaction of the leader. It stands to reason that with the character of this prime minister, whether he believes his words or not, he will react immediately.

Finally, on the morning of November 1, Mussolini finally sent a reply, saying that he would send a team to thoroughly investigate the Navy's problems. At the same time, he comforted the commander-in-chief of the navy, who still trusted the admiral and never doubted the loyalty of the other party. Believing that the Navy's previous disobedience was entirely the responsibility of Cavliani, he had long since removed the chief of the General Staff, and the Prime Minister ordered the admiral to immediately arrest the prisoner and send him to Rome by a processing team, and he would personally bring the traitor before a court-martial.

At the same time, he praised the commander-in-chief of the navy for being decisive in his disposition, but not thorough enough, and that all sailors should be evacuated from the ship, and no one should be left on board. It is necessary to prevent traitors from lurking among the sailors, or from sympathizing with traitors, and to prevent these people from taking risks and destroying the warship in a desperate situation. Mussolini specifically reminded that these warships were Italian treasures and could not be harmed in the slightest, and that no one could board the warships until the investigation team had completed the screening of personnel.

At noon on 2 November, the anticipating admiral greeted the investigation team at the train station, accompanied by an Italian Army infantry regiment that arrived in Taranto at the same time. What surprised Iyakino even more was that he saw Mussolini at a glance in the crowd of people who got out of the car.

PS: The 4,000-word chapter is presented, asking for monthly tickets and recommended tickets, thank you for your support. (To be continued.) )