On January 1, 1940, at the beginning of the new year, all countries in Europe were busy preparing for the arrival of the new year.

On the Finnish battlefield, although the Soviet army and the Finnish army were bounded by the Mannerheim Line, they entered a state of stalemate. But the skirmishes never stopped, and Finnish snipers such as Simon's group always liked to pick on lone Soviet soldiers, and occasionally dared to snipe three high-level divisions in public.

In order to deal with it, the Soviet Union also found many fighters with excellent marksmanship to form an anti-sniper team. The aim is to fight and eliminate those troublesome Finnish snipers.

The first sniper duel between the two sides actually involved 2 future Soviet super snipers at one time, that is, Fyodor and Vasily. At the same time, it also involved Simon, the No. 1 sniper of World War II, who was finally named the White Grim Reaper.

At the same time as the war was raging on the battlefield in Finland, the League of Nations, under the joint auspices of Britain and France, announced the plan to aid Finland, claiming to send 100,000 elite British and French expeditionary forces to the Finnish battlefield to fight in coordination with the Finnish army.

However, the so-called 100,000 elites, in the final analysis, are actually only 2 British infantry divisions and a French infantry regiment, with a total strength of less than 40,000. And even this French infantry regiment was reluctantly agreed to be transferred by Churchill under the condition of Gammelin and his reluctance.

It's not that Gan Molin's defensive line layout really lacks the strength of this regiment, he is just simply stingy.

The narrow-minded Allied commander-in-chief was unusually reluctant on the spot when he heard that Norway was to be commanded by the British. In the end, Churchill came up with a way to give up the nominal title of commander to Gammerin, with the British general as the aide-de-camp, and the actual command of the Norwegian war on Ganmarin's behalf.

Upon learning of the announcement of the Anglo-French troops, the Swedish government immediately emphasized its neutrality and reiterated that they would not allow the Anglo-French forces to pass through Swedish soil. Of course, the Swedish government's main purpose is to tell the Germans and make a show.

However, the Swedish side dispatched a volunteer army of about 8,000 people to aid Finland, plus a small air force, in the name of civilian armed forces, ready to be sent to the Finnish battlefield to fight against the Soviet army. In this regard, it is clear that Swedish politicians are showing the League of Nations their loyalty to the League of Nations.

Compared to Sweden, the Norwegian government is somewhat inadequate. They learned from the Swedish government's dispatch of less than 1,000 volunteers to Finland and submitted a protest application to the League of Nations.

However, the League of Nations did not receive the affection of the less than 1,000 Norwegian troops. In other words, in the eyes of Britain and France, the benefits of occupying Norway's major ports far outweigh the rest!

Sure enough, Norway's protest was rejected by a unanimous vote of the permanent members of the two coalition powers, and the British and French forces decided to "borrow" Norway.

Interestingly, neither Britain nor France mentioned the issue of "borrowing" Sweden. Passing only through Norway but not through Sweden is obviously inconsistent with the intention of Britain and France to help Finland as soon as possible. As for what exactly is going on here, the Norwegian royal family has probably guessed something by now.

On the German side, Reinhardt set the SS vs. Wehrmacht small-scale exercise on January 2 on the outskirts of Munich on the pre-opening ceremony of the exercise, which is today, January 1, to the Munich Tavern.

The speech was attended by almost all the officers of the Wehrmacht Army, so many people speculated that this speech might have some other purpose.

The most interesting is the statement made by Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini at the party meeting at the beginning of the year: "In the new year, we must do something big." Since we in Italy have more than 40 million people living in more than 300,000 square kilometers, why not send 4 million people to Ethiopia, which has more than 1 million square kilometers? In this way, in a few years, we will have a rich land larger than the mainland area! ”

The Ethiopian War was Mussolini's proudest war of foreign expansion since he became prime minister. The victory in this battle allowed Italy to occupy the strategic position known as the "Horn of Africa", greatly expanded Italy's military bases in Africa, and obtained Ethiopia's rich minerals and fertile land.

Although several years have passed since this battle, Mussolini still talks about it whenever he has time, fearing that someone will forget his historic achievement.

Knowing the leader's thoughts, Ciano, as Mussolini's son-in-law and Italian foreign minister, cleverly followed Mussolini's will and said: "The Ethiopian war has brought great benefits to the kingdom, which is a blessing for the leader, and we really can't waste the success that the leader has brought to the kingdom!" ”

After glancing at Mussolini and confirming that his father-in-law's expression was very satisfied, Ziano slightly hooked the corners of his mouth and said, "Leader, leave this matter to me!" ”

"Well, my dear Ziano, you are indeed an excellent person, and you can always do things as I want." After listening to Ziano's sycophancy, Mussolini said with an intoxicated face: "I will leave this matter to you with confidence, and handle it well." After the meeting, I will go and give orders to the finance side and ask them to do their best to meet the needs of your side. ”

Catch a big deal! Ziano was ecstatic in his heart, but his face was respectful, and he said loyally: "Leader, don't worry! I'll do my best. ”

Previously, Deputy Prime Minister Rossi led the construction of the northern defense line at the behest of Mussolini, and it was a lot of money. This matter is well known at the top level of Italy, and it is estimated that Mussolini himself is in the dark.

As for the reason why everyone is blindfolded by Mussolini, of course, it is that they hope that this situation will continue, so that they can also wait for the opportunity to get rich.

Anyway, even his own son-in-law Ziano didn't say it, why should other people bother with this?

And Deputy Prime Minister Rossi put the cement, concrete, mines, barbed wire, and fortress artillery that should have been used in the northern defense line........ Even about the sale of reserve ammunition to Germany at a low price, few people were idle and ran to debunk it. At most, everyone sighs at Rossi, the loser's deputy prime minister - he sells it too cheaply, it's the same as giving it away for nothing, he really can't do business!

Anyway, I heard that Germany and Italy have become military allies, and northern Italy has a Germany and a Switzerland. Since the Germans are allies, it is useless to repair this defensive line, is it possible to use it to defend against Switzerland, a small country?

Selling to Germany is also selling to allies, as long as you don't block yourself from getting rich, who will have the leisure to care what he Rossi does.

Under this atmosphere, Rossi, the German high-level Gestapo who was installed in Italy's high-level, not only installed a large number of Gestapo members in Italy's high-level for Germany, but also used his power to protect officials and officials to seek a lot of benefits from Italy for Reinhardt's Third Reich, and he himself made a lot of money.

As for Rossi and his group of "old comrades-in-arms", which are known as Mussolini's "old comrades-in-arms", which are actually the German Gestapo branch in Italy, the "son-in-law faction" headed by Ziano has not heard anything else, but they have learned a lot about this method of reselling materials.

As for Mussolini's grand immigration plan, in the hands of Ziano's subordinates, it was only a plan, and there would never be a chance to realize it.