After Garibaldi's defeat at Sedles, Rommel reported to him the performance of the Italians on the battlefield at Reinhardt's request, taking into account what he knew and what he had received from the French.

In his report, Rommel said: "This is truly a horrific force, I can't imagine how they fought until now!" ”

Of course, this is not a compliment to the Italian army, but a mockery. Reinhardt had long heard of the fighting power of the Italian army, not only now, but also in the era before he crossed over, and the Italian army was always able to find some fun for the troops of both armies on the battlefield.

After reading General Rommel's report to him, the corners of Reinhardt's mouth rose slightly, and a bad idea came to his mind - to give the Italian leader a small gift that inspired him.

And this small gift is not a precious physical gift, but an Italian gift that can make Mussolini angry and aggressive.

After all, Mussolini had always been known for his cheekiness, and if he hadn't been given a little bitterness and a long memory, he might have really thought that the victory in the Battle of the southern tip of Algeria had something to do with the participation of the Italian army.

He may even be immersed in the dream of reshaping the new Roman Empire on the horizon.

In order to sober up the Italian leader, Reinhardt immediately sent people to contact the major German newspapers, preparing to send this "malicious ridicule" to the Italians in the newspapers.

And in order to carefully prepare this small gift, Reinhardt also sent someone to find the famous German writer Hermann? Hesse came to write the content of the article - the original report that mocked the Italian army.

The next day, the article was on the headlines of major German newspapers led by the Social Work Daily, and the content of the reports in different newspapers was mostly the same, but the small details in the article were modified.

The report, titled "Not Even Shooting Can Stop the Italians from Surrendering," said in the introduction: Be braver than the Italians, which is something that most cowards in the world can do, and the accompanying picture is a picture of the British commander smiling and talking next to the Italian captive.

I have to say that every part of the report is very incisive and reasonable, and each pierces the fragile heart of the Italians.

Soon, the news report received a lot of praise for its humorous and mocking language, as well as the many quotes of hilarious battlefield stories of Italian soldiers, and even spread to countries around the world – except, of course, Italian newspapers.

The German social worker newspaper once had a dispute with the Washington newspaper in the United States over copyright issues.

Later, almost all the official newspapers of major countries in Europe and the United States included this report on the front page.

The Washington Post commented: The Italian army is an interesting army.

And the London Metropolis newspaper said: The Italian army is the army I have ever seen that can enjoy the battlefield the most.

The reason why the London Metropolis Daily said this is because Germany gave an example in the report: Sir Forbes of Britain once decided to imitate Germany's "Operation Rainbow" and scuttled the aircraft carrier Ark Royal in the hands of the Italian army, and with the help of Otto, a captain officer of the German submarine force, he foiled Sir Forbes's conspiracy......

The first half of the report undoubtedly demonstrated the reliability of the German army, and the fact that a German captain foiled the conspiracy of an entire British fleet top brass was undoubtedly a very ambitious propaganda.

And the second half of the report, that is, purely to belittle the allies, to set off the height of the German army.

It mentions that Sir Forbes, believing that he was going to be executed, received a lavish Last Supper after the matter was revealed. As a result, he later found out that it was the Italians' compensation for Forbes' aristocratic status, in order to allow him to enjoy better treatment than ordinary soldier prisoners!

In addition, the official reason for the surrender of the Italian fortress Tobruk was actually because the crowbar of the ammunition box could not be found.

When Wavell's men reported the results of the battle, they announced that they had captured 5 acres of officers and 200 acres of soldiers. (Although this was to contrast Rommel, who led the French with two battalions and defeated two British divisions, it still blacked out the Italian troops.) ）

......

All sorts, with or without them, hilarious black material of the Italian army, are all listed one by one.

In fact, Mussolini immediately saw the newspaper reports from Reinhardt's malicious ridicule through the intelligence agents scattered in Italy.

At first he endured it, but then when more and more countries reprinted and commented on this report, he couldn't sit still!

He didn't want the Italian army to become an inaccessible army in the eyes of the world.

After all, Italy will establish a new Roman Empire in the future, and there will be an important place in this world, how can you not save face?!

Mussolini quickly found Reinhardt's theory, and in a phone call with Reinhardt, he strongly condemned Reinhardt's malicious slander of the Italian army, and it was clear from the tone that Mussolini was indeed very angry.

But instead of apologizing, Reinhardt asked Mussolini with a smile: "Leader, do you think you need to add more material to the report, so that your generals will feel humiliated, and then work hard to change the status quo?" ”

Actually, Reinhardt meant what he said. He did feel the need to stimulate the Italians further so that the sleeping "lion" could wake up. To put it bluntly, he wanted Mussolini, the leader, and the Italian generals to be ashamed and courageous.

But...... What Reinhardt didn't expect was that Mussolini, who was known for his thick skin in his mind, fell unusually fragile this time.

"Shouldn't it?" Listening to the slamming of Mussolini on the other end of the phone, and the panicked screams of his secretary, Reinhardt fell into deep thought.

This Mussolini is already the master he found in this world, second only to himself in terms of face.

Even he can't stand this stimulation?!

Later, according to the intelligence reported to Reinhardt by Italian Deputy Prime Minister Rossi, it was Mussolini who relapsed because of the rebellion and was admitted to the San Giovanni Hospital for the fourth time.

And Mussolini, as soon as he came to his senses, ordered a complete blockade of news of his hospitalization.

After all, being hospitalized by anger is not a glorious thing.

But what Mussolini never expected was that the German side seemed to know about his hospitalization the next day, or even earlier.

Reinhardt, the German Führer, personally offered to visit Mussolini in Rome the next day, but was politely rejected by the Italian Foreign Ministry.

Ziano had the courage to resign Reinhardt for Mussolini this time. Otherwise, it is estimated that after the two meet, the leader will have to faint again.

Although Reinhardt offered to visit Mussolini, he did not mean to laugh at him, on the contrary, he really felt a little guilty about Mussolini.

Zhuge Liang was angry with Zhou Yu at the beginning, but Mussolini was already angry in the hospital for the fourth time, and two of them were due to Reinhardt's work!

"Mussolini, don't be really angry." Reinhardt silently said in his heart: "You are dead, where can I go to find a fool who is willing to go the same way with Germany to the black?" So don't die. ”

This time, Reinhardt's original idea was really just to use the newspaper to ridicule Italy, further stimulate the Italian high-level, make Mussolini and the Italian generals ashamed, and make the Italian army have fewer generals who rely on connections.

After all, Reinhardt didn't want to see that when Rommel was besieged in the future, the Italian army in charge of supporting it would also fire empty guns into the sky on the periphery.

But what I never expected was that Mussolini, who has always been cheeky, couldn't bear the blow this time.

And the famous San Giovanni Hospital in Italy was also powerless to deal with this disease and could not make Mussolini recover in a short time.

Next, Italy's domestic affairs had to be put in the hands of Deputy Prime Minister Rossi.

After learning the news, Reinhardt, who had just felt a little guilty, was immediately overjoyed again.

This time I was really a blind cat and ran into a dead mouse, and the Italians actually handed over the leadership to him and placed it in the hands of Rossi, a Gestapo cadre in Italy?!

It just so happened that taking this opportunity, Rossi, a puppet of Germany, could take the opportunity to cooperate with Reinhardt to carry out a lot of work and steadily improve the strength of Italy's allies.