"However, whether my Führer, Bonomy can be trusted, we are not sure at the moment. I suggest that he be put to the test, at least by making his attitude towards Germany clear. "Don't look at Keitel, who is not very sensitive to strategic issues, but he has an unusual sense of smell for such political issues.

"He certainly can't be trusted, as do the rest of the Socialists. The situation was even worse in the Fascist National Party, with a large number of opportunists, crooks, scoundrels and psychoses. Borman added indifferently.

"I have to remind you, my Führer. This is not a good idea, the current situation in Italy is very worrying, and I think the most effective way to deal with the current chaos in Italy is to use force to suppress or completely eliminate all the forces that are dissatisfied with Germany. Yodel suggested.

"Yes, like we did in Poland, it seems to be working at the moment, isn't it." Ribbentrop nodded in agreement with Yodel.

"That is the case, I also do not think that there is any need to give the Italians any preferential conditions, they have been defeated, of course, subject to the will of our victorious country." Brauchitsch said excitedly as he knocked on the table.

"My Führer, we also have to take into account the thoughts of the allies, what will happen to the French and British sides if Italy does not pay enough for their actions." Goebbels respectfully reminded.

"The French and British governments are currently very concerned about the post-war treatment of Italy, and they both want to make up for the huge losses caused by the war in Europe." Ribbentrop said to the Minister of Propaganda.

"I know all these problems you are talking about, and I hope you will put your vision on a higher level, because this is not a simple question of how to deal with a defeated country, in fact, these problems are directly related to the follow-up implementation of our Soviet strategy." Xu Jun waved his hand and stopped Weierle, who was about to speak.

"Italy is ostensibly a dictatorship, but in reality there is a large opposition lurking underwater. After this war, all these forces were exposed, which has to be said to be an unexpected gain, allowing us to clearly see the real situation in this country.

Ultranationalists, who believe in fundamentalist fascist ideas, oppose Mussolini's reforms to the policies of the National Party after coming to power, and oppose the compromise of the old Italian powers, including the royal aristocracy and the capital plutocracy in the north.

The Italian Socialist Party, including the reformist Socialist Party, these are realists, who will compromise, who will make concessions, who will superficially submit to the powerful forces, but who must not relax their guard against them, who are naturally experts in conspiracies, like this Bonomy.

There are also communists, who have been severely attacked in recent years, but still have a large number of supporters in the towns and villages of northern Italy, and there is intelligence that many of them have infiltrated the Italian government and army.

In addition, there are royalists, groups of nobility loyal to tradition and the royal family of Savoy, papal groups in the Vatican, groups of Italian capitalists and plutocracy, local separatists in Sicily, mafia .... And so on and so forth.

And we must note that there is also one of the most powerful forces, and that is the members of the Fascist National Party, who remain loyal to Mussolini. From the confessions of the prisoners of war, we can see that at least sixty percent of the members of the Italian army remained loyal to the leader and his fascist theories.

There was also the Montenegrin Army, who were Mussolini's loyalists, which is why Badoglio tried his best to transfer them away from Mussolini's side. As long as these people remain loyal to the leader, no one will dare to force him to step down. Xu Jun picked up a document on the table, and then threw it on the table.

"We have studied this issue specifically, and without Mussolini's leadership, these forces will quickly split and confront each other." Weierle said to everyone present.

"That's what worries me the most, and if we don't let it go, a civil war will soon break out in Italy." Xu Jun picked up half of the cigar in the ashtray and struck a match.

"It is in our interest and that of our allies that only by maintaining political stability in Italy can we do now." Xu Jun pointed to the document in front of him with a cigar.

"Of course I remember the cases of tigers in history, and I am not one of those stupid Roman emperors. I will not give Mussolini a chance to make a comeback, he can only play the role of a puppet of the Third Reich. He must understand that his retention of the post of Prime Minister is entirely due to my mercy and generosity. We need to make this leader understand that full cooperation is his only option, and not to try to negotiate any terms with the Third Reich. As for Bonomy, I don't trust him, he's just an insurance to deter the leader, a Socialist who doesn't have much real strength other than seniority and fame, and of course it would be another matter if he had our support.

What I have asked of Italy is that the Italian army must be reduced to a third of its pre-enlargement period, nine infantry divisions and one armored division, enough for them to maintain security at home and in the colonies. As for Italy's national security, there is no need to worry at all, and the governments of Germany, France and Britain will provide adequate protection.

The Italian Air Force was limited to five fighter wings, with a limit of 200 aircraft, and was prohibited from developing any new aircraft for five years.

The Italian Navy had to disarm and hand over all the large ships to the Germans as reparations for the war, which was absolutely non-negotiable.

However, we also know that it will not be easy to achieve this goal, so we will have to get the cooperation of the Italian side, and it will depend on whether Mussolini is smart enough, but I believe that he must know what to do, and he hates the navy that betrayed him. Xu Jun paused and looked left and right.

"We're going to be on the lookout for the Italian navy, my Führer." Brauchitsch said.

"Indeed, we must be prepared for the unexpected, the Italian navy is likely to force a breakthrough, or even sink itself in the harbor, and anything can happen until they are disarmed.

So we had to be prepared for both, and if the plan failed, we would have to settle for the next best thing, seizing all the ships on the slipway, and confiscating all the shipyards and related materials of the Italian Navy. Xu Jun took a puff of his cigar and spit out a ball of smoke.

"The manufacturing system in this country is different from ours and even most of the countries in Europe. They lack raw materials for production, and almost all materials need to be imported from abroad, especially in recent years Germany has become his largest supplier of materials. Their production has always been limited in scale, with the exception of a few large manufacturing complexes, many of which are small factories run by private and family owners in the nature of artisanal workshops.

Therefore, the Italian industrial system does not help us much in our current strategy, but on the contrary, we have to ensure the supply of energy and raw materials to maintain the domestic production operation in Italy.

However, Italy has a fairly complete technology research and development system, they have a lot of interesting creative products, and Italian universities have trained a large number of talents in chemistry, physics, medicine, and architecture. After the defeat, these people will not have an easy time, and we can recruit Italian scientific research groups and organizations and absorb them into our scientific research and development system.

They also had a lot of good precision manufacturing workers, which we lacked, and after the war the Italian industry would shrink, and we could hire a large number of these people to work in Germany.

And we can foresee that when Italy is disarmed, there will be the largest group of unemployed laborers and bankrupt peasants in Europe, and these surplus labor will also be urgently needed. We can bring in Italian laborers, especially those with higher education and technical training, in large quantities, and let them produce weapons for us in German factories and work for us on German soil, and we will pay only a little for them. After Xu Jun finished speaking, he showed a smug smile.

"And the money to hire them will come from the war reparations of Italy, my Führer." Borman laughed too.

"Genius thoughts, my Führer." Brauchitsch never misses any opportunity to be touted.

"We also want to get the right to explore and exploit the mineral deposits in the Italian colonies, and at the same time Italy wants to open their markets to us, which the British and French will certainly propose, if we don't mention. Gentlemen, according to my research, the central region of Libya in Italy may contain large oil resources. Xu Jun stood up and walked to the map again.

"It's in this area, looking at the mountains, and the shape of this coastline. Notice the boundaries of this desert? Look here, here and here, see this highland, these geological formations clearly show that there must be oil underneath this area. "Faced with a group of laymen, the Reich Führer began to talk nonsense without any scruples.

"I see, is this what he's really trying to do?" Goebbels sighed secretly, and the slightest doubt about starting the Italian war suddenly became clear at this moment.

"As a Führer, he even has a knowledge of geology." Keitel didn't understand a word, but he felt like he was powerful.

"It's fantastic, congratulations, it's going to be a great discovery that can go down in history. My Führer. Borman took the lead in applauding, and began to think about whether he could invest in an oil company.

"It will take at least a year or two to develop this field, and in that time we will need to improve our drilling technology and equipment, and we have received some technical support from the United States in this regard. The burial sites are generally deep, and our technical experts are developing drilling equipment capable of drilling up to two to three kilometers, and we are developing more advanced drilling rigs and bits, as well as more efficient extraction techniques. I am proud to tell you that Germany has already achieved some gratifying results in petroleum technology, and I believe that a major technological breakthrough will be reached soon. Xu Jun patted the map and turned back to the conference table.

"Okay, this is my preliminary plan, you can think about it when you go back, and if you have any questions or different opinions, you can put them forward to me at tomorrow's meeting." Xu Jun glanced at both sides and vigorously pressed the cigar butt in the ashtray. (To be continued.) )