In the face of the aggressive posture of the Italians, the Greeks were also not to be outdone, and publicly issued an order for the partial mobilization of the army, but Mussolini reacted quickly, and on the second day of the Greek order for partial mobilization, that is, on November 17, he issued a "general mobilization order", the red line of the war is getting closer and closer, in order to show that he is not empty words but really intends to put into action, the Italian railways directly entered the military management mode, and all military personnel of the armed forces were canceled on leave and ordered to return to the troops immediately, The Air Force began its major exercises on 18 November, with hundreds of planes taking off for drills and air raid sirens sounding on the streets of Rome.

To whom are these postures displayed? Of course, it was for British and French diplomats to see.

However, Contini knew that Greece's partial mobilization order was true, Italy's grandiose and fanfare general mobilization order was fake, and the Italian army was not full at all, except for the most basic baseline materials, there were no other weapons, ammunition and material reserves, but Mussolini seized the opportunity and thought that this was a good opportunity: to conduct a surprise inspection of the army by announcing the general mobilization order, and use "low training and slow response" as an excuse, He got rid of all the old aristocrats and liberal officers in the army that he was not used to, and vigorously promoted the pro-fascist officers, and then under the pretext of insufficient soldiers, he tried to increase the number of troops - 50,000 blackshirts were added to the ranks, and a perfect turn was achieved.

Of course, he will not forget Contini, and the United Group demanded that the group's guards be expanded from 320 to 600 on the grounds of "tense situation and corporate self-defense", and recommended himself to become the "Volunteer Army of the Young Italian Alliance". Mussolini immediately agreed, and the War Office immediately re-allocated a batch of weapons – and now the Coalition has promised 200,000 lire (about $10,000) a day, of course, in return.

Through the confusion of the War Department, Contini not only smoothed out all the arms gaps handed over to Goering last time, but even got 8 German-made Maxim MG08 heavy machine guns and more than 3,000 German standard long-handled grenades. The greedy Contini is still muttering that if there are a few more French Miss 75s, it will almost be enough to meet the standards of an elite infantry battalion - but unfortunately not for the time being.

As the news of "partial mobilization" and "general mobilization" broke, clouds hung over the whole of Europe - and observers of public opinion were horrified that this was almost a copy of the opening of the last war, and that the last war was fought because the Serbs had assassinated the Archduke Ferdinand, the Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary. This time it was almost the same, the assassination of the Italian army general in Greece, could it be that only five years after the end of the war, would the war be rekindled? Britain and France were very nervous, and on the surface they wanted to pressure Italy to make concessions, but in fact, as Contini estimated, they had shed enough blood in the First World War, and it was impossible to sacrifice themselves in the war with Italy for the trivial matter of Greece, so there were also internal arguments.

What made the British and French governments even more disturbing was the statement issued by the Italian Foreign Ministry on November 19, announcing that Italy and the Republic of Turkey would establish diplomatic relations with each other at the ambassadorial level with immediate effect, and Prime Minister Mussolini invited Turkish President Kemal to visit Rome at the end of the month, and the latter happily accepted the invitation.

Many veteran diplomats suspect that this is a ploy to exert further pressure on Italy, and that only 13 years after the Italian-Turkish war, the contradictions between Italy and Turkey are no less than those between Italy and Greece, but Contini and Mussolini made it clear that no one dares to risk such a thing. In order to improve the embarrassing diplomatic situation of his country after independence, Kemal even seized the opportunity to establish diplomatic relations and mutual recognition with the Soviet Union, which had just completed the communist revolution. Even Russia can be friendly, so what's so strange about making friends with Italy?

Once Italy and Turkey cooperated, the whole situation in the Mediterranean would be completely changed: Italy would not even have to use too many land forces, as long as the navy covered the Turkish forces to attack from land. After the Greco-Turkish War, the Turkish forces had a psychological advantage over the Greek army, and the Italian navy also had an absolute advantage over the Greek navy, and it was not necessary to send out the army, which the Italians were not good at. If this situation is to be changed, only the Mediterranean Fleet of the British Empire will be able to save the situation?

Field Marshal David Beatty, the hero of the First World War Navy and the First Minister of the British Navy, immediately pointed out that if the Italian Navy and the Mediterranean Fleet were to fight and lose both, the French would have no rivals in the Mediterranean to restrain or contain them.

The more terrible prospect is that if the merger of Italy and Turkey is realized, and Italy is not much angry with Germany, it is easy for the two sides to get back together, after all, there is no Austria-Hungary between Germany and Italy now, and Austria's strength is not worth mentioning at all, if Germany, Italy, Turkey and Bulgaria reorganize the Central European Union, the situation in Europe will be completely chaotic, this time there is no Russian steam roller as a meat shield, and the Americans have just been pressed back to the other side of the Atlantic by Britain and France, and only Britain and France will grit their teeth to fight- At least another 10 million casualties! This is simply unimaginable for Britain and France, with a combined population of only 80 million.

By the end of November, the diplomatic winds had begun to change, and the voices of the British and French media were very clear: Britain and France had quietly retreated from accusing Italy of "impulsiveness", "escalating regional tensions", and "immoral use of force" to calling for the intervention of the League of Nations to mediate the conflict between Italy and Greece.

A few days later, Kemal also arrived in Rome, and the two sides soon signed the "Memorandum of Economic, Military and Diplomatic Cooperation between Italy and Turkey", stipulating that Italy could build warships for Turkey, transfer aviation technology, and Turkey would compensate with chrome ore, iron ore and coal - although Turkey's coal and iron resources are not abundant, they are still much stronger than Italy, and chrome ore is Turkey's fist product in Europe.

There was even gossip from "insiders" in Italy: Mussolini not only intended to transfer four Queen Elena-class battleships to Turkey, but also promised to repair the battlecruiser Yavos for Turkey.