.“ Caesar, Caesar, here is the 16th Hussar Reconnaissance Battalion! We have arrived outside Zaragoza and we have been able to see the spire of the Cathedral of Pilar! Complete! ”

On the rotating turret of a fully riveted four-wheeled armored car, a lieutenant wearing a black boat-shaped cap and a large headset is reporting to his superiors on a circular intercom, while behind him are about 20 armored vehicles and military vehicles. These vehicles are invariably painted with the most popular yellow-green camouflage of the moment, but they do not have the conspicuous Iron Cross logo on the side like the German Army vehicles, and the only thing that can identify them is the green, white and red logo under the headlights and the steel stamp made by Fiat.

Of the modest convoy, there were five with rotatable turrets, but only two had antennas erected on their bodies, some of which looked like one-man turrets were equipped with small-caliber guns, some were equipped with only one machine gun, and they also had a spare tire on the left and right sides of the middle of the body, which looked like the third pair of tires from a distance. The rest of the armored vehicles were also four-wheeled, with one or two machine guns, some armed with medium-caliber mortars, and their compartments housed six to ten infantrymen depending on the size of the space.

As for the military cars that were basically unarmoured, the carriages were basically equipped with more than sixteen infantrymen, most of whom held a Charliman-Carcano rifle, a famous 6.5mm rifle with a history even older than Mauser 1898, although it was a purely manual rifle, but it was lightweight, durable and highly accurate, mainly equipped with the Italian Army.

Although the Italians were the first to invent the submachine gun, they lagged far behind other countries, especially Germany, in the practicality and development of this weapon, and when the purchase price was too high, they had to equip their soldiers with a copy - the Beretta 1930 submachine gun manufactured by the old gunsmith Beretta Company.

However, although its appearance is similar to the MP24 in service with the German Army, there is a certain gap in performance.

After receiving a response from his superiors, the Italian captain, who was sitting in the first armored car, turned around and shouted:

"The infantry got off and prepared for battle. The 1st Combat Reconnaissance Squad is advancing towards Zaragoza! ”

Amid the sound of equipment clashing, the infantrymen armed with Charriman rifles and Beretta submachine guns jumped out of their vehicles and approached to find a shelter for the battle.

This small hill next to the Ebro River is so close to the city of Zaragoza that you can walk through a long gentle slope to enter the city!

With the rumble of engines, the four armored vehicles broke away from the line and headed towards the city of Zaragoza, but their speed was not comparable to the roar of the engines - they were moving so slowly that a puppy could easily overtake them.

At this time, the city of Zaragoza was as quiet as a city of death, and people seemed to be able to hear the sound of the wheels of the large bell on the bell tower of the Cathedral of Santiago. Of course, the wide Ebro River did not stop flowing because of the uninvited arrival.

The Italian infantrymen who remained in the rear silently watched the city of Zaragoza in front of them, and instead of a trace of anxiety on the face of the Italian captain sitting on the turret, he raised his chest high, as if he was about to accept the surrender of this important Spanish town to him.

It was more than 300 kilometers from Barcelona to here, and the Spanish armed forces put up little decent resistance; With just over 300 kilometers to Madrid, the Italians felt they could retake the Spanish capital from the rebels within a week, and they would rightfully become Spain's saviors and protectors.

While the four armoured vehicles were still moving in the middle of the gentle slope, another plane with pale yellow paint flew from the direction of Barcelona and saw this plane. Many Italian infantrymen rose from the ground, roaring and screaming with joy. Although it was nothing more than a reconnaissance aircraft that was basically incapable of attacking!

"Sea breeze! Sea breeze! Hear me? Please reply! Please reply! ”

The one in the armored car was busy again.

"It's the sea breeze! It's the sea breeze! Hear me, done! "There was some noise in the headphones, but I was able to hear the content most clearly.

"Scout the city of Zaragoza ahead of me! Repeat. Scout the city of Zaragoza ahead of me! Complete! ”

"No problem! Complete! ”

At the end of the call, the yellowish plane lowered its altitude and circled twice over the city of Zaragoza, during which the Italian infantry on the ground were worried that their reconnaissance chances would collide with some of the famous spires of Zaragoza, but fortunately, the pilot's skills looked pretty good!

"The reconnaissance is over, and no anomalies have been found! Complete! ”

"Let's attack right away, over!"

After putting down the microphone, the captain waved his hand happily. "Warriors, forward!"

After the reconnaissance by their own reconnaissance planes, the Italian infantry was not at all worried. If there are really Spanish rebels in there, they should run away with their tails between their legs now! With this in mind, everyone rushed in the direction of the city, and they now had only one thing on their minds: "as long as it is unmanaged, the Italian army will kindly take care of it".

As if affected by this emotion, several armored vehicles that were still slowly swallowing up just now also sped up sharply, and their tires quickly walked on the stone road carefully laid by the Spaniards. Although the commanders were still a little apprehensive, their eyes had already looked at this relatively modern Spanish city.

However, the Italians were clearly too underestimated, and after the first shots broke the silence, black muzzles appeared in countless windows along the street, and a few grenades blew up a thin-skinned armored car in the front, and the remaining three, although desperately reversing, could not escape the fate of being destroyed. In less than three minutes, the Italian vanguard detachment had been wiped out, and the Italian infantry and the remaining armored vehicles had not had time to enter the city and retreated to the seemingly safer hill at lightning speed.

In the next two days, the Italian air force, which had absolute air supremacy, bombed the industrial town in northeastern Spain nine times, and two Italian infantry regiments also arrived outside the city, and with the support of more than 20 cannons, they used armored vehicles to cover the infantry to advance again towards the city of Zaragoza. Instead, four more armored vehicles and three dozen infantry were lost.

On the third day of the bombing by the Italian Air Force, an Italian tank battalion equipped with Italian-made Fiat 20 light tanks and Almato M23 medium tanks finally arrived belatedly, and the morale of the Italian infantry rose at the sight of the all-steel combat vehicles with their tracks clanging. After lunch, they eagerly followed their tanks far away towards the city of Zaragoza.

At the head of the armored queue were five 10-ton Fiat 20s armed with a 37 mm gun, a light tank modeled after the German Ground Stone 2 tank and powered by a Fiat 120 hp gasoline engine. The level of protection and maneuverability are all higher than those of Stone 2.

After Mussolini came to power, the size of the Italian army's armored forces increased fivefold in three years, and this simple and inexpensive light tank became the first choice for the Italian army, which had a small budget.

Before getting close to the city, the three Almato M23s behind the Fiat 20 couldn't wait to fire with their 75mm short-barreled guns, this tank was jointly developed by Italy and the United States during the Italian-American honeymoon period, the engine still uses the gasoline engine made by the Italian Fiat company, and the transmission system and artillery technology are provided by the Americans, although the U.S. Army is not equipped with this tank, but their M-1923 heavy tank uses a structure very similar to the Almato M23, That is, the configuration of a rotating turret plus a small-caliber gun, and a short-barreled large-caliber gun on the front of the body. It's just that the total weight of the Almato M23 is only 18 tons. With an 8 mm machine gun and a 75 mm gun, the M-1923 was one size larger, with a total weight of 28 tons. A 20 mm cannon and a powerful 105 mm gun were used.

After three cannon shots, smoke erupted on the edge of Zaragoza's city, and a large hole was blasted out of the façade of a three-story house, a shell made a hole in the paved stone road, and another fell farther away. In the face of the menacing Italian tank forces, the Spanish ** armed forces, as before, were not fortified at the street corners. No matter how provocative the Italians were, none of the Spaniards took to the streets.

In desperation, the Italians had no choice but to slow down and bombard all the suspicious buildings on both sides of the street with tank guns, but compared to the results of the Italian air and artillery units in the past few days, all they did was add some rubble and broken glass to the city.

When the Fiat 20 appeared at the first street corner. The Spaniards opened fire from the other side from a gun emplacement hidden in the corner, a 37-mm anti-tank gun hailed as the nemesis of lightly armored vehicles. In the past 20 years, countries have produced no less than 30,000 of these light and durable guns, which can be used to fight tanks, but also to attack non-armored targets and ordinary infantry fortifications, plus the ease of transportation, so it is widely used by the second- and third-rate military state forces, Spain and Italy are important users of this artillery, but this time it is the Italians who are injured.

At a distance of less than 200 meters. The Spaniard's first shot hit the Fiat 20 in the lead, and the armor-piercing shells easily tore through its side armor, which was only 16 mm thick, and after a muffled bang, it collapsed in place, and soon turned into a ball of fire.

Immediately after that, another Fiat 20 quickly turned its muzzle towards the Spanish anti-tank gun, and it was a race against the clock, as the Italian tank turned its muzzle - the Spaniards reloaded and aimed at a new target, but the Fiat 20's 37mm gun still took the lead. At that moment, the bodies of the Spanish gunners who were exposed to the gun position were pierced by merciless shrapnel, and this bloody scene could not help but make people feel nostalgic for the end of the warriors. Immediately afterwards, another Fiat 22 frontal 8mm machine gun fired, and the bullets swept past the last two wounded Spanish gunners who were preparing to flee, and the precious lives ended in an instant.

A Fiat 20 did not hesitate to push the body of its companion aside, and then continued its advance towards the center of Zaragoza, where the Italian army was fulfilling its obligation to regain lost territory in place of the incompetent Spanish government forces without restraint.

The crackling of gunfire rang out in the streets, but the bullets fired by the revolutionaries were easily bounced off by the frontal armor of the Italian tanks, and the old-fashioned French anti-tank rifles could penetrate the weak parts of the armor of the Fiat 20s, but they could not stop the advance of the tank column, behind which a large number of Italian infantry was gradually sweeping through every building here.

Behind a window not far from the front of the street. A few pairs of blood-red eyes are staring at those yellow-green painted tanks with hatred, such a cannon for a tank to fight seems to be the defense side to take advantage, but these Spanish revolutionaries do not have as much capital as the Italians to squander, a large number of Italian soldiers and equipment arrive in Spain every day, and the Spanish revolutionaries can only wait for assistance from overseas in addition to collecting through the battlefield and raiding the enemy's warehouses.

However, under the blockade of the Spanish navy and the Germans, no weapons had been delivered to the northern ports occupied by the revolutionaries for the first few months. This did not change until the Russians used miniature submarines to transport supplies from the high seas, and the first weapons that the Russians brought to their Spanish counterparts gave hope to the Spanish revolutionaries who were helpless against enemy tanks.

"Let those imperialist lackeys see how good we are!"

A middle-aged man wearing a peaked cap, who was not tall but quite sturdy, dragged a large one out from under the bed, and then picked up an iron rod and pried it open with two "clicks", and there were two huge "round sticks" inside, both with a mortar shell-shaped but larger warhead at the top, and at the end of the "round stick" there was a small line of white letters: S-30.

The cap picked up one of the "round sticks" and handed it to the bespectacled young man beside him.

"Galle, you take this downstairs and wait for me to fire before firing!"

The young man took the awesome creature with a happy face. Nod vigorously.

"Remember how to use it?" Take out another cap from the wooden box.

Skillfully turning on a switch located in the middle of the "round stick", a board-like thing immediately popped out.

"Don't worry, I remember!"

The young man ran away with a "round stick" in his hand. The other two people in the room looked envious.

"Prepare to evacuate! There are too many tanks for imperialist lackeys, we can only take out two at most! The implication of the cap was that if there were more of these weapons, none of the Italian tanks would want to escape, but unfortunately the Russians only brought a small number of these weapons this time, and not only Zaragoza, but also the revolutionaries in other offensive or defensive areas urgently needed this weapon.

At this time, the Italian tanks in the streets were still advancing while firing, and their guns were not of a large caliber, which had the advantage of carrying more shells. So he took the trouble to wear holes in one Spanish building after another.

The cap's eyes were first aimed at the Fiat 20 that was walking in front, but he suddenly felt that he should hit a bigger guy with such a new weapon, so he turned his eyes to the Almato M23 not far behind, this medium tank of the Italians has not been penetrated by the opponent from the front after coming to Spain, but its frontal armor is not as unbreakable as the German Tiger -1!

After patiently waiting for the other party to enter the effective range of 200 meters, the cap decisively pulled the trigger, and a choking heat wave suddenly rushed towards his face, and a moment later, a violent explosion came from the street in front. When he looked closely, the Almato M23 had stopped in place, a fireball rising from its turret, and several tankmen fled through the hatch in panic, only to fall under rifle bullets fired from all sides.

Immediately afterwards, the Fiat 20 that was walking in the front also turned into a ball of fire with a loud bang, seeing this, the corner of the cap's mouth showed a rare smile, he quickly put away the round stick and the rifle that was placed aside, and before the other Italian tanks retaliated against the building, he and his men quickly evacuated outside the city.

Eighteen hours later, the city of Zaragoza was "recovered", with more than 200 Italians killed and wounded, and the loss of 5 tanks and nearly 20 armored vehicles, which was less than 1 percent of the Italian troops, but made the Italians surprisingly angry. In order to appease the resentment in the hearts of the officers and soldiers, the Italian commander ordered a general purge of the city of Zaragoza, and although the "purge" was aimed at the rebels and those who supported them, it was the valuable things that were finally "arrested".

The Italians did not pay special attention to the resistance encountered in Zaragoza at first, but in the following period their offensive in all directions was hit by the mysterious anti-tank weapons of the Spaniards, and the attack on some of the target sites was even thwarted as a result. Despite the efforts of the Italian intelligence services to find the "real culprit", it was not until two months later that they bought a "round stick" from the mutineers at a high price, and then it dawned on the Italians that this was a non-standard anti-tank rocket launcher, and this weapon was also copied and equipped by the Italian Army, but it was inferior in performance.

However, the Italians never understood who made the bazookas, where they came from, and how they got to the Spanish rebels, who found that more and more Spanish rebels were equipped with such weapons, and that Italian armoured units had been in existence for less than 50 days during the era of unhindered use of the Iberian Peninsula. From then on, the Italians felt more and more difficult to move forward in Spain, but Rome was convinced that it was enough to crush the Spanish revolution on its own. In spite of domestic opposition, the Italian government again announced that it would send more troops to Spain that summer.