"Marco... Marco. Corstantino, Corporal Costantino! "The company commander, Captain Quintto, called out Marko's name, he was a nice guy in normal times, but when he got nervous, he would become babbling and annoying.

"Here it is, Lieutenant!" Marco stuffed the half-eaten dry bread into his arms, stood up, took the rifle leaning against the stone wall beside him, and ran briskly towards the company commander.

"We should be in this position now, and the three companies should be following us."

Captain Quintor crouched beside a rock, and the company orderlies spliced together several pieces of German individual tarpaulins to prop up a canopy above the company commander's head, and the two platoon commanders and several staff non-commissioned officers formed a circle under the canopy, watching the company commander chart the current march route on a waterproof map.

"It was supposed to be like this, but now that the third company is gone, I've sent soldiers back to look for it, and now no one knows when they started running with us."

"Are we on the wrong track? I see that the terrain is a little different from the map. The communications non-commissioned officer interjected.

"Every damn mountain here looks the same, there's only one way to march, how could you go in the wrong direction." The deputy company commander, Lieutenant Sabatino, was a straightforward fellow, and only an officer of good character such as a company commander could tolerate him.

"Sir, you call me." Costantino trotted outside the canopy, stood still, and saluted several of the chiefs.

"Corporal Costantino, you immediately take your squad and go to the front to reconnoitre, the map shows that there is a mountain village two kilometers ahead, if there is no problem, occupy that village, the company is going to go there to rest, the rain is starting to fall heavier and heavier, you must find a place to shelter from the rain before dinner, otherwise many people will catch a cold tomorrow, and it is no joke to fall ill in such a place." Captain Quintor gave the order to the company's most capable infantry squad leader.

"Yes, sir." Marko replied unequivocally, and after giving another military salute, he turned and ran towards his men.

The Italian Army's 23rd Filana Infantry Division, also known as the Broadsword Infantry Division, is the result of Mussolini's blind expansion of the army, a new unit formed in April last year.

The infantry division, from officers to soldiers, was new, like their uniforms, and most of the soldiers were recruited from the Adria Mugo region, and consisted of ordinary city dwellers, businessmen, and peasants from rural farms. These men were transported to Albania by the Italian government as an occupying force as soon as they had received the most basic infantry training, and many were even armed after they arrived.

The 23rd Infantry Division was formed as a standard Italian infantry division, including the 47th and 48th [Filana] Infantry Regiments, the 14th Artillery Regiment, the 82nd National Volunteer Regiment (also known as the Black Shirts), the 23rd Mortar Battalion, the 23rd Anti-Tank Company, the 23rd Communications Company, the 58th Reconnaissance Company, the 127th Sanitary Company, and the 3rd Bread Company, with an establishment of 9,200 men, as well as an Albanian auxiliary regiment of 3,500 men to help guard and transport the baggage. Eventually, when the war broke out, the 23rd Infantry Division had more than 12,700 troops on paper.

This is already one of the few fully equipped infantry divisions in the Italian Army, and at present, there is a serious shortage of infantry divisions in Italy, because the soldiers have temporarily retired home to help with the autumn harvest, and many infantry divisions have only an empty shelf left, waiting for the end of the autumn harvest after the soldiers return to the team and then re-organize.

This is what only a strange government in Italy can do, because Mussolini expanded his army too quickly, taking up a lot of rural labor, and these peasants had to be sent back to work during the busy season, otherwise the Italians would have to starve the next year.

The invasion of Greece was the only thing Mussolini could do at the moment, and he had tried to unite Bulgaria and move Yugoslavia, but the Bulgarians ignored him. The tsar was not stupid, a group of French remnants could beat the Italians, and now who in Europe dared to believe the words of this big chin.

Italy had contracted and strengthened its defenses along the Alps, and the Gauls were already the apparitions of the Roman gods before they rushed to the side of the mountain to smash the field, and Mussolini dared to think of anything else at this moment.

The road to expansion in the Balkans has been blocked, and the African colonies are caught between Britain and France, and it is difficult to protect themselves at present. Mussolini could foresee that once Britain and France relented, they would inevitably attack these colonies, and it was impossible to hold such a large area with Italy's current strength.

Unless Italy can get the support of Germany again, but now it seems that this hope is very slim, the relationship between Germany and Italy is already on the verge of rupture, and the top brass on both sides do not seem to be willing to make amends, Mussolini would rather die than let go of his body and bow to the "blonde boy" in his eyes for help.

There are already many forces in Italy that have expressed their dissatisfaction with the current situation, whether explicitly or implicitly, and they see the contradiction between Italy and Germany as purely a struggle between Mussolini's wills, so that they have now abandoned their troops and humiliated the country, and have watched a lot of interests slip away from their eyes.

With the defeat of the Italian army, Mussolini's popularity at home began to slowly decline, and he had to find a breakthrough as soon as possible to reassert his authority in the hearts of the Italian people.

Looking around, Mussolini took a fancy to Greece around him. Greece did seem weak compared to Italy at the time, and the country had few resources, let alone any industry. The Greek army relied on imports of all its weapons, equipment, ammunition and even clothing, and as long as it cut off its external channels, the country would even be in chaos without a fight.

The current leader of Greece is Giannis. Metaxas, is an out-and-out military dictator, under the rule of this prime minister, the Greek royal family has become a rubber-stamp existence, if it were not for the fact that the royal family still has many followers among the people, and at the same time has a marriage and blood relationship with other European royal families, plus a very well-behaved expression of full support for the current government, this has not been overthrown by the prime minister who actually holds the power of the country.

The prime minister's attitude was biased towards Germany, and before the outbreak of the war, Greece and Germany had extensive trade contacts, and the Greek king was a pro-British element, so after the war Britain immediately announced that the security of Greece would be protected by the British Empire.

In the eyes of ordinary people, just by virtue of Greece's previous performance, it is equivalent to standing on the opposite side of Germany, which obviously will not stand out for this country. After the defeat of Britain, although the Royal Fleet was still active in the Mediterranean, the British army and air force suffered great losses in the war, and the strength of the British army and air force in the Mediterranean region was only enough to maintain the security of Africa and the colonies such as the Canal Zone for the time being, and it was obvious that it could not use too much strength to interfere in the Greek problem.

When the two biggest obstacles were removed, in Mussolini's eyes, Greece became a piece of meat on a chopping block, and he only had to stretch out his hand to easily take this territory into his pocket. By occupying Greece, Italy would occupy a third of the Mediterranean, a big step closer to Mussolini's goal of rebuilding Rome, and the Roman army would surely win the hearts of the Italian populace when it once again set foot in the city of Athens.

Between Italy and Greece, there had long been a number of disputes over islands and territories, and although relations between the two countries had eased in the twenties and thirties, with the rise of Mussolini, these issues were once again put on the table.

The dictator was full of territorial ambitions and aspirations to become a new generation of Roman emperors, and in order to achieve this, he did not hesitate to send an entire generation of Italians to the bloody battlefield.

The plan to invade Greece was sloppy and crude, and the Roman staff did not even complete the preliminary data calculation, so they directly handed over the task to the 25th Army stationed in Albania.

However, it is also understandable that when Mussolini's intention to fight was issued, Italy was in the busy agricultural season, a large number of soldiers were going through the procedures for temporary retirement, and the country roads were full of soldiers wearing military uniforms who had returned to their hometowns in groups of three or five, and many troops had already grazed sheep and had no way to regroup.

According to the information obtained by Odin's Eye before, a large number of troops on the northern Alpine front were transferred back to southern Italy, but in fact, most of them were transferred for this purpose, which made the Germans think that the Italians were preparing for some large-scale military operation.

"Everyone, listen, pack your gear, and set off in five minutes." Corporal Costantino walked up to his squad and gave orders to the soldiers.

It was a standard ten-man infantry squad with six riflemen and two machine gunners in addition to the squad leader, and carried a Beretta M1930 light machine gun, a complex weapon known for its breakdown.

The riflemen each carried a 6.5 mm caliber Carcano M1891 rifle, which you can tell how old it is by looking at the model number, and it has hardly been improved since it was finalized.

As a corporal squad leader, Costantino was given a Carcano M91 cavalry carbine, which was only two-thirds the length of a standard rifle, and was not only issued to cavalry and the standard equipment of the Orpine mountain hunters, but also to the chasseurs of the infantry sequence and the middle and lower rank army non-commissioned officers.

God knows why the Italians issued carbines to snipers, perhaps initially with the intention of lightening the weight of the gunners, but the result was that the Italian hunters suffered heavy losses in the confrontation with French and British shooters armed with standard rifles.

"God, spare me, they won't send anyone else, is there only one infantry squad of ours available in the entire company?" Machine gunner Ottokino grumbled loudly.

"Shut up, private, someone has to do this job." Giuliano, the deputy squad leader, stopped the machine gunner's grumbling, and he lowered his head to check the armed belt around his waist, on which in addition to the two standard bullet boxes were hung, there were two OTOM35 grenades with red shells, which looked round like a baby bottle with a lid.

"Line up!" Castellino commanded loudly. Braving the dense drizzle, nine soldiers stood in a line along the mountain road.

"Maricino and I are the spearheads, the others are in the middle, the deputy squad leader with the machine gun team is the tail, the target is the mountain village two kilometers ahead, we are going to occupy that village, we may camp there today, everyone must be vigilant, there are likely to be Greek skirmishers nearby, do not fire at will without my orders, so as not to expose the whereabouts of the team. Do you understand everything? The class leader asked loudly.

"Understood, squad leader." The soldiers replied loudly.

"Very well, let's go." Costantino is satisfied with the current morale of his men, and although this group of guys are all rookies with no combat experience, they can still be trusted in critical moments.

Braving the icy autumn rain, a group of Italian soldiers staggered along the mountain road to re-embark on the journey, no one knew what awaited them in front of them, and everyone was now confident of winning the war.

PS: It's still a little hot today, but I've finally finished this chapter, thank you for your understanding and support.

Ask for votes, ask for clicks, ask for recommendations, ask for subscriptions.

Thank you. (To be continued.) )