The new United Kingdom and Austria-Hungary, which had just signed an armistice agreement with the Italian government and would receive huge war reparations, also did not want the current Italian regime to be overthrown, so as to affect Italy's fulfillment of the terms of the armistice agreement.

In the war that had just ended, the coalition forces were determined from the outset to crush Italy with a quick blitzkrieg, so they only bombed Italy's military and transportation facilities intensively, and did not cause large-scale destruction of its main industrial facilities. Since it was impossible for the Italian government to pay enough cash reparations in the coming years, the Allied forces designated industrial equipment that was more technologically advanced, more practical, and even unique to Italy to cover part of the war reparations.

After the armistice, surveyors and statisticians from the new United Kingdom and Austria-Hungary, as well as international observers from the member states of the League of Nations, formed dozens of joint working groups, accompanied by Italian officials, went to various places to take stock of the industrial equipment and facilities. However, the sudden political upheaval in Italy brought not only the repair of damaged transport facilities to a standstill, but also the normal use of many railway lines and port terminals, which left Italian officials either fed for themselves or simply had no news, and many joint teams had to leave Italy on their own because they could not continue their work.

Faced with this situation, the initial idea of the Austro-Hungarian leadership was simple and crude: send troops directly across the armistice line, take over Italian cities and ports one by one, dismantle the available industrial equipment, and finally withdraw troops from Italy.

There is no doubt that this kind of military action is a ruthless violation of Italian sovereignty and a brutal looting of all Italian nationals, and once the plan is carried out, it will be difficult to guarantee the safety of the lives and property of the Italian people. Strictly speaking, such military action is also not permissible under international law. Moreover, the strength of Austria-Hungary alone, crushing the "remnants of the defeated army" of Italy was not enough to ensure that it was foolproof.

As a result, the Prime Minister of Austria-Hungary visited Berlin and Limerick in succession, and on behalf of Emperor Karl I, he held meetings with the high-level leaders of Germany and the new United Kingdom, and made clear the general principle that the terms of the armistice agreement must be fulfilled and the interests of the victorious countries must be protected. Under this general principle, the General Staff of the Austrian Army drew up a number of military action plans, preparing to use a large number of elite combat forces, including the main fleet, airborne troops and armored forces, to forcibly occupy part of the territory of northern Italy, seize the main Italian fleet, and use this as collateral to ensure that the Italians pay huge war reparations. After the Italians paid the war reparations and reparations as agreed, they returned the pledge in full.

In order to gain the full support of the new United Kingdom, a powerful ally, the Chief of the General Staff of the Austrian Army, who had only made one trip to Ireland during the war, flew to Limerick twice in five days to secretly negotiate with the military leaders of the New United Kingdom on the plan of sending troops.

After repeated consultations, the general staffs of the two countries finally finalized two joint action plans, which were named Predator A and Predator B respectively.

After the Germans were consulted through informal channels, the two countries conveyed the new request to the Italian government through the Italian liaison officer of the Armistice Supervisory Committee.

It took three days for the Italian authorities to reply: they agreed in principle to use the Italian fleet as collateral for the provision of war reparations, but there was serious turmoil in Italy, and for the sake of maintaining order and protecting the bases, they could not assemble the naval ships scattered in various bases, and at most they could only use the main fleet stationed at the Taranto naval base as collateral.

That sounds like an acceptable option, but the coalition forces sent long-range reconnaissance aircraft to conduct an aerial reconnaissance of the port of Taranto before making a statement. After identification, the so-called Italian main fleet currently deployed in Taranto is mostly old warships, and the two Emanuele II-class battleships with the strongest combat effectiveness are not among them, and only 5 cruisers that have been in service in the past ten years are moored here, and 4 of them are still lying on the slipway in a state of overhaul......

The military and political officials of Singapore and Austria were very dissatisfied with such a perfunctory attitude of the Italians, and they issued a solemn warning to the Italian officials: If the Italian side fails to fulfill the terms of the armistice agreement, the allied forces have the right to take necessary military action, and even the possibility of resuming the war cannot be ruled out.

The Italian government was slow to give a clear answer to the threats raised by the coalition forces, which completely annoyed the Habsburg rulers. The Austro-Hungarian detachment and the naval fleet deployed in the border occupation zone were secretly instructed to make substantial preparations for the upcoming military operation: the army units were to cancel their leave, recall their personnel, distribute combat provisions, and senior officers and staff officers to study and rehearse the planned march routes of the headquarters; The Navy's main ships also canceled their vacations and recalled personnel, and their ships loaded ammunition, fuel and supplies at their respective bases before assembling at the port of Rijeka in the southern Adriatic Sea.

On the Italian side, due to the deteriorating situation in the country, the heads of the Italian royal family and the current government did not bother to pay attention to the various movements of the coalition forces, but racked their brains to maintain their position. In the case of military repression, they began to seek cooperation with the ** forces, and were even willing to hand over royal power, and the monarch only existed as a national symbol, but with the support and instigation of the French, the provisional government led by Candelone rejected the proposal of the Italian royal family, and they demanded that the king abdicate, completely end the rule of the Savoy dynasty over Italy, and only allow members of the royal family to continue to live in Italy as ordinary citizens.

In the case of hopelessness of reconciliation with the ** faction, the Italian **** Umberto flew to the Rome airport with a number of Italian generals and personally commanded the government army to suppress the ** forces entrenched in the city of Rome. However, the best opportunity to turn the tide was missed, and in just a few days, Candrone had gone from an obscure little man to Italy's savior, the new leader of the republicans.

At the suggestion of the French, Candrone quickly pinched together several of the most important ** forces, and gathered all the National Guard forces to gather in the city of Rome, so that the ** faction used to defend the capital was far stronger than the Italian government army that intended to recapture Rome!

The government officers and soldiers who arrived on the outskirts of Rome did not want to be enemies of the National Guard, and they also knew that a civil war would only lead to the complete collapse of Italy, which had just experienced the heavy losses of the foreign war. Helplessly, Umberto personally went to the front line to supervise the battle, and tens of thousands of Italian troops only scored three ways to drive into the city of Rome.

Without the support of aircraft and tanks, the Italian government offensive was already lacking momentum, so when heavily armed soldiers were surrounded by people in the streets, the vast majority chose not to resist. Of more than twenty infantry regiments, only two or three officers gave the order to open fire, but there was no response from the soldiers, and the result was obvious. With the exception of a few units that were able to escape, the rest of the troops were either left to the disarmament of the population or simply defected to join the ranks of the National Guard.

In just one day, the Roman front that **** Umberto personally supervised the battle completely collapsed, and seeing the huge National Guard approaching the Roman airport from all directions, he and his generals had to flee back to the north in embarrassment.

With Rome's airport back in the hands of the National Guard, the defeat of the Italian royal family and the current government was irreversible.

Upon receiving this news, the coalition command ordered the launch of "Predator A program".

A few hours later, more than 400,000 Austro-Hungarian ** troops, led by chariot troops, crossed the armistice line with the morning dew. Except for a slight resistance from the Italian troops stationed at several important military positions, the Italian government troops stationed in the northern region retreated, and some units even broke up during the retreat. In just half a day, the Austro-Hungarian ** team penetrated deep into the depth of dozens of kilometers from the armistice line, and according to this trend, it seemed that it would not be a problem for the troops to move south to the Apennine Peninsula and penetrate directly into the hinterland of Italy.

In the early morning of the same day, the fleet of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, which was on standby in the port of Rijeka, arrived at Taranto Bay, and for the first time in its history, it appeared in such a strong formation at the gates of the First Naval Base of the Italian Navy. After communicating with the Italian naval commander in the port of Taranto, the Austro-Hungarian navy did not force its way into Taranto, but blocked the port, allowing only ships to enter, not allowing any of the Italians to leave.

At the same time that the Austro-Hungarian Navy was blockading the port of Taranto, the new United Kingdom fleet from the Spanish naval base in Cartagena also arrived in Malta, and more than 2,000 officers and men of the 6th Marine Regiment accompanied by transport ships forcibly landed on the islands of Malta and Gozo under the cover of aircraft and naval guns.

Since the Italian government did not agree to the Allied Forces' demand for Malta as one of the pledges for war reparations, it was entirely possible that the landing operation of the New United Kingdom ** would be strongly resisted by the Italian army, but the strong deterrence of the New United Kingdom Navy's four aircraft carriers and six patrols and the terrible consequences of rekindling the war made the Italian defenders on the island admit at a critical moment. They surrendered their military strongholds outside of Valletta, and all their forces shrank to the Valletta Fortress.

At that time, there were a total of 22 Italian ships stationed in the port of Valletta, but the total tonnage of the ships was barely equal to that of an aircraft carrier of the opposing side, and there was no chance of winning against a strong enemy head-on. In this case, the Valletta fleet, without the approval of the naval command, decisively took a breakout operation. Two light cruisers, three destroyers and six torpedo boats left the port of Valletta in the afternoon, ignoring warnings from the ships of the New Kingdom, breaking through the naval blockade and heading straight for Sicily. With the exception of the destroyer "Serra", which suffered a mechanical failure and was forced to return to the port of Valletta, the rest of the ships were able to successfully break through.