Rome, Italy.

Mussolini was leaning against his exclusive room in the San Giovanni Hospital, humming and singing.

With Balbo's reliable henchman going to North Africa, Mussolini felt that he could be a little more relieved.

Balbo is an Italian star recognized by both the United States and Germany, and with him in the North African war, nothing will go wrong.

However, Mussolini's beautiful illusion was shattered by his assistant, who rushed into the ward in a panic with a telegram in his hand.

"Leader! No........ Oh no. The short male assistant didn't even have time to knock on the door before he barged in and said, "Something is wrong!" ”

Seeing this, Mussolini said to his assistant with disdain: "What are you panicking about? Look at what you are anxious about, say something slowly, the sky will not fall. Stay by my side all day long, don't you know how to learn from my heaviness and stability? ”

But the assistant didn't seem to listen to Mussolini's words at all, and he still said with a panicked expression: "Leader, bad ....... Broken......."

"Panic what! Go out and come back in when you're calm. Mussolini was clearly angry because his assistant didn't listen to his instructions.

The leader didn't listen to his personal teachings, and this dwarf assistant was too uninteresting.

The assistant was very helpless, so he could only retreat outside the door, enter Mussolini's office again, suppress his panicked emotions and pretend to be calm and said: "Prime Minister, General Balbo ......."

He took a long breath and said coherently, "General Balbo has an accident!" ”

After Mussolini heard this, he just sneered.

He just sent Ziano to send Balbo to the plane to inspect North Africa this morning, what could happen?

So, Mussolini said to his assistant indifferently: "Marshal Balbo has a cold?" Or did you accidentally fall while walking? Or was he afraid that the British would want to avoid the war? You're not going to tell me he crashed, are you? Hahaha......"

"Prime Minister, General Balbo........ The plane he was on did crash, just half an hour ago. The assistant swallowed and replied.

The assistant couldn't believe that the Prime Minister actually guessed the crash of Marshal Balbo casually, this is too accurate, right?!

It is worthy of being the leader of Italy, the assistant secretly admired in his heart.

However, it was the opposite of what the assistant thought.

In fact, his answer really scared Mussolini.

In shock, Mussolini's face quickly showed a look of fear.

He timidly and cautiously confirmed to his assistant: "Who, who did it?" Didn't Marshal Balbo just leave in the morning? Tell me who did it! Was it the troops of the British, or, the French troops of Belante? ”

"Yes....... It was the cruiser Giltio of our army who did it. It was almost with tears in the assistant's voice that this nonsense came out of the mouth: "They mistakenly shot the marshal's plane as an enemy plane, and there were no survivors on the plane in which Marshal Balbo was traveling, and there were eight people killed, including Count Florio." ”

The assistant continued: "At the moment the clean-up of the wreckage of the aircraft continues, and the body of Marshal Balbo has been found......"

Mussolini was speechless.

For a long time, he held his head in both hands, leaned against the wall, and knocked on the wall with the back of his head from time to time.

One, two, three......

About ten minutes later, Mussolini was still repeating his incomprehensible self-mutilation.

Suddenly, he looked up and started laughing.

"Hahaha....... You must be lying to me, aren't you? Tell me, you just played a joke on me! Fast! Tell me! Mussolini went mad, pulled his assistant by the collar, and yelled at him.

It looked like I was going to eat the assistant.

But in turn, he seems to have discovered his honorable prime ministership again.

So he immediately loosened the assistant's collar, turned to the side, straightened his tie, cleared his throat and said, "Okay, I see." You....... You....... You go and inform all the high-ranking generals in Rome, and in half an hour my ward will be in meeting. ”

"Yes, Prime Minister! I'll do it right away. With that, the assistant quickly ran away. He was frightened by the prime minister today, and he had long wanted to find an opportunity to slip away.

More than half an hour later, in Mussolini's hospital room, almost all the senior generals of the Italian army arrived and crowded into this small hospital room.

Truth be told, the San Giovanni Hospital was not a small room for Mussolini. It's just that accepting dozens of high-ranking generals to enter together in one go will naturally seem to be insufficient.

Among the many generals, only Admiral Lefer, who had just returned to Rome, buried his head and did not dare to speak.

Because, the cruiser Giltio was directly responsible for him.

Mussolini naturally knew about this, so he asked Lefel directly: "What is going on with your navy?" So many British bombers have never been shot down by you, but our air marshal's plane passed by your warship, and you just happened to shoot it down! ”

Leffel knew that he was at a loss, but he couldn't help but explain: "Prime Minister, this is an accident, a big accident. I have ordered the captain of the cruiser Gildio and the gunners who shot down Marshal Balbo's plane to be suspended from their duties and investigated, and this matter must be investigated. ”

"Accidents? You told me it was an accident?! ”

Mussolini's fiery eyes were almost out of his sockets.

I saw him shouting with tears in his eyes: "In my opinion, it was an accident that your group of rice buckets appeared here!" Your dad and mom gave birth to you back then, it was an accident, right? Don't let my plane be shot down by your navy. You ran to my tombstone again and told me it was an accident! ”

Mussolini was furious, apparently not accepting this as an unexpected explanation.

After all, the one who died was the famous Italian pioneer aviator, the leader of the Black Shirts, the colonial ruler, or his designated successor and personal friend of Mussolini, the most important of the four central figures under his command.

Such a key figure under him, he said that he would die, and he died so unjustly, it was impossible for anyone to accept it!

"Well, from today onwards, you'll be flying back and forth between North Africa and Rome every day, and see when you can have an accident!" Mussolini said coldly.

He did not hide his anger in front of the generals of the three armies without any scruples, which was enough to see Balbo's important position in his heart.

Although Leffel was aggrieved, he still did not dare to speak in the face of Mussolini's indiscriminate bombardment.

He kept his head down and endured it all in silence.

Fortunately, at this time General Rudolfo Graziani stood up and spoke for him: "Leader, it is also sad that Marshal Balbo has left us, but this has become a fact, and we have no way to change it. Besides, Admiral Lyfel had just defeated the British fleet at the Battle of Oran and captured the British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, the most advanced aircraft carrier in the British army. It can be regarded as a great achievement, because this accident will not be rewarded and punished, but I am afraid that it will shake the morale of the officers and men of the navy. ”

"And all we can do now is to silently accept the results, and then try our best to make up for what we have lost after Marshal Balbo's departure." Graziani continued.

Mussolini squinted his eyes and glanced at Graziani, who interceded for Lefer, and snorted coldly: "Well, then I will officially appoint you General Rudolfo Graziani as the new governor of Libya now." ”

"This ......." Graziani really didn't expect that the position of the governor of Libya would fall to him. Isn't it just that if you put him in this position now, you want him to go to North Africa to fight the British?!

Graziani, who had always been afraid of Britain, hurriedly shook his head, ready to excuse himself.

It's a pity that before he could say no, Mussolini preemptively spoke: "In addition, to the outside world, the news that Marshal Balbo was accidentally injured and killed by our own navy should be strictly blocked to the outside world. Just say...... He was killed by the British! ”

And then ....... Then Mussolini fainted and collapsed in his hospital bed.

After all, the last time he was stunned by Reinhardt was not long ago.

Now, it didn't take long for Italy's own people to continue to anger him.

Even if Mussolini had a strong psychological quality, it would be impossible to stand it!

Looking at Mussolini, who fainted on the hospital bed, Graziani was also dizzy.

When the leader finished his task, he didn't have the place to refuse the drudgery of fighting the British.......