Seeing that the leader's jealousy had flare-up, his good son-in-law Ziano hurriedly changed the subject and said: "If you want me to say, the Germans can achieve such great success today without the help of our Kingdom of Italy. 【】”

Hearing this, Mussolini's mood was a little more relaxed, and his face became better: "Well, my dear Ziano, you can tell me how much we have helped the Germans." ”

"Yes! Great leader. With a flattering smile, Ziano gave an example: "First of all, we have been sending agricultural and industrial workers to and from Germany for several years, even during the war in Poland. In this regard, I think the specific loser, Deputy Prime Minister Rossi, has done a good job. ”

Because he didn't know that Rossi, who was reassured that he was appointed as the No. 2 person in Italy, he had already become an insider who was bought by the Germans, and Ziano thought that Rossi was relying on his long-term vision to maintain cooperation with Germany under great pressure. That's what he's getting now, with the benefit of hindsight.

Mussolini also felt that it made sense: "Rossi has done a good job in this matter, and he has been trying to maintain the friendship between Italy and Germany for several years, and I will reward him well in the future." ”

Finding that the leader was in a much better mood, Ziano decided to strike while the iron was hot and continue to vigorously exert his sycophant skills: "And the decision of your leader, Chen Bing in the Alps, is simply a relief in the snow!" This move directly frightened the French to their stomachs, and they evacuated the troops attacking Germany and returned home, relieving the Germans of the major crisis of the loss of Saarland. ”

Although Mussolini's original intention was to secretly display troops and wait for an opportunity to attack France. However, due to the poor execution of orders by the subordinates, the deployment was leaked, and almost all of Europe became aware of the movements of the Italian army.

It was supposed to be a humiliating joke, but Ziano was ashamed to call this mistake intentional and the most powerful solidarity with the German army.

Sure enough, the power of Italy was terrifying, and Mussolini was quite satisfied to take the blame for the unrelated withdrawal of the French troops: "Yes, yes! Reinhardt, in the final analysis, is all thanks to my help to get to where he is today. ”

Seeing that Ziano was about to turn black into white, the other two groups of people in the conference room finally couldn't sit still.

With a war-avoidance faction like Chiano, there is naturally a main battle faction. If the theory of the war-avoidance faction finally makes sense, how can the main battle faction be mixed.

Coincidentally, the representative of the war-avoidance faction is the governor of Libya, while the representative of the main war faction is the governor of Somalia.

Admiral Rudolfo Graziani, the feudal official touted by the Italians as "the Italian version of Guderian", can be said to be one of the generals in Italy who knows the role of armored forces the most.

In the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, he led the Italian Legion in Somalia, relying on highly mobile troops to fight, and achieved amazing results with a small number of troops.

As one of the few Italian generals who knew how to defend himself, Graziani was not lightly represented in Mussolini's heart. A few days ago, he thought that he had the talent to make bold speeches about the main battle before the war, and he had just been appointed chief of staff of the Italian army by Mussolini.

In order to demonstrate the necessity of his main battle theory, Graziani also boasted: "Honorable leader! Our Italian Army has 152 divisions, some of which are armored divisions equipped with the latest weapons. In addition, we have a huge reserve of 12 million to back up. To have such force, but not to participate in the war because of timidity, to spread it is simply an insult to the whole of Italy, to you, the leader. ”

In fact, only 15 divisions were now available in Italy at any given time, and most of them did not meet the quota. The equipment is even more outdated and in short supply, and there is no division that can be called a veritable "armored division".

However, Mussolini liked to listen to this kind of good news and not bad news, and since Graziani, the Italian "armor master", had spoken, he could naturally believe with peace of mind that Italy did have a powerful armored force like the Germans.

"The Germans can defeat Poland, it's nothing. If we in Italy want to, we can even defeat both Britain and France at the same time! "Since both the main peace faction and the main war faction believe that Italy is strong enough, Mussolini's confidence is even stronger.

If you're happy, that's the common sentiment of all the current Italian executives. As long as the leader doesn't make any trouble, it doesn't matter how he likes to dream.

"Under my leadership, the Kingdom of Italy will be invincible." Since the beginning began, Mussolini had to revel in it for a while: "If I had gone west out of the Alps and had been defending against the German French army on the northern front, I would have been caught off guard by the surprise attack of the Italian army. When the time comes, I will send another hundred divisions, and the Germans will only need to follow our footsteps and drive out those troops in the Siegfried Line to match us, and France will be destroyed! ”

As if there was something unfinished, Mussolini went on to fantasize: "As for the self-righteous British, if we hadn't restrained ourselves, Africa would have been ours long ago!" ”

Britain can't beat Italy? In fact, there is a source for this statement.

As the third faction within the Kingdom of Italy, a group of Italian generals in Africa led by Badoglio, the commander-in-chief of the Italian army that invaded Ethiopia, believed that Italy should not participate in the war first, and wait until Germany and Britain and France were both defeated, and then send troops to collect the benefits of the fisherman.

What a man is Badoglio, that is the old Italian field marshal!

In the last world war, the 2nd Corps led by Badoglio disgraced the Italian army and played a textbook classic failure, after being captured by the Germans as many as 265,000 soldiers at one time, Badogglio was not punished but was promoted to lieutenant general in the same year. Finally, he also served as the Italian representative in the armistice negotiations, signing the agreement that symbolized Italy as the victorious country in World War I.

Just as the SS generals learned the brazenness of the German Führer, the Italian field marshal also learned from the words of the Italian Prime Minister. He also laid out a blueprint for Mussolini's future in Africa: "With Italy's nearly 500,000 troops stationed in Africa as the backbone, and an additional army composed of 2 million black soldiers, we can completely defeat the tens of thousands of British troops left in Africa, and then achieve control of Africa!" [This chapter was first published. Love. Yes. sound., remember the URL ()]