Early the morning after the new United Kingdom and Austria-Hungary went to war against Italy, a small but capable delegation, led by the new United Kingdom Prime Minister Aemond di Warlila, arrived in Madrid, the Spanish capital. In 1949, the old King Alfonso XIII was still alive, and the power of the country had gradually passed to the young Alfonso and the ambitious Prince Juan. The former was the eldest son of Alfonso XIII, and he was well-behaved, fair, and frugal, so he won the hearts of the people, but unfortunately he was a hemophilia, and his physical condition was sometimes good and bad; The latter, the third son of Alfonso XIII, was the most brilliant and visionary member of the Spanish royal family, widely praised for his promotion of economic reforms in Spain, and became prime minister in 1947, becoming the stewards of Spain's domestic and foreign affairs.

At the Prince's Residence, located on the outskirts of Madrid, Prince Juan met with visitors in casual clothes. When shaking hands with Warren, he greeted: "I haven't seen you for half a year, Your Excellency is a lot haggard, it seems that you have been worried about national affairs recently!" ”

Compared with Prince Juan, who was in his thirties, Aemon-du-Warlila, who was nearly seventy years old, did look old and haggard. The reason for this is not how difficult the government affairs of the new United Kingdom are, in fact, except for some changes that have little impact, the country basically follows the operation model of the Kingdom of Ireland, and the Welsh people, who are at an absolute disadvantage in terms of population, economy and even military status, are gradually getting used to the new identity and role, and are enjoying various social benefits after the merger with Ireland with peace of mind. The ideological trends of class revolution have risen and fallen, and so on, racking their brains.

So, the Irish politician smiled calmly: "Thank you for your concern, Your Royal Highness, I just have a little cold in the past few days, and I have nothing to worry about, no teeth to worry about!" ”

Prince Juan kindly invited the visitor to a seat, and then asked: "It is gratifying to hear early in the morning that your navy had won two crucial victories in succession yesterday, and had taught the arrogant Italians a hard lesson! ”

The new United Kingdom responded calmly: "I have studied very little in the military realm, and I have no clear idea of what kind of victory can be called 'crucial'. In fact, war is not what I want, but the will of the country is supreme, and once war starts, it is my duty to support the army. ”

Prince Juan was stunned for a moment, and then said with a smile: "The government and the army perform their respective duties on weekdays, and work together in wartime, how can such a tacit understanding be invincible?" ”

"I believe that this is the sincere words of His Royal Highness the Prince, since this is the case, we don't have to go around the bend." Warren paused, "The two sides have launched a wartime agreement as agreed, and the Spanish side will greatly facilitate the combat operations of its navy and air force in the Mediterranean, and this move will inevitably be criticized and countered by the Italian side." Based on the consideration of all parties, we sincerely invite the Kingdom of Spain to join the war camp and fight against Italy together! In this way, Spain will be able to share in the fruits of its victory, and in one fell swoop will be able to wash away the notoriety of half a century of national weakness and military weakness, and will also be able to receive the assistance we have provided to participate in the war, which is really an investment not to be missed! ”

"Investment?" Prince Juan laughed heartily, "The Irish are the most business-savvy people in the last half century, everyone regards war as a disaster, but you are the only one who sees war as an investment. All right! As you said, Spain really needs a chance to regain its name, and I personally prefer to join forces with you, and many of the generals in the military are gearing up, but I need strong evidence that we will win this war, and that we will be able to reap a good reward from the Italians. to convince the stubborn members of Congress to vote in favor of the motion to go to war. ”

Warrena was not in a hurry to respond, and seeing this, the soldier sitting on the side said loudly: "In one day, we have greatly damaged the vitality of the Italian Navy and Air Force!" In one day, we changed the strategic landscape of the Mediterranean! Nowadays, we can easily block the Italian trade routes, and the Italians can hardly pose a threat to our sea routes! ”

Prince Juan was looking at the soldier, who was speaking in a low voice and feeling full of confidence, dressed in blue-gray military casual clothes, without rank, and wearing a gold clover medal on his left chest.

As a prime minister, Prince Juan's influence in Spain and even in the international arena is almost not inferior to that of Alfonso, but for the needs of national stability, he has always consciously kept a distance from military personnel, and rarely appears on important military occasions, and with his country's important ally, the new United Kingdom, he also only talks about government affairs, not military affairs, and has little contact with the other party's military high-level, and only the former defense ministers and military chiefs of staff can be named. Prince Juan still got a little information about the soldier with a high nose and deep eye sockets at the beginning of the meeting through mutual introductions at the beginning of the meeting - this person is named Sean McCown, the rank of general of the 6th Army, and the position of deputy chief of staff of the new United Kings ** team and secretary general of the National Defense Mobilization Committee. As everyone knows, this thin and tall general is a veteran who participated in the Irish War of Independence, and has been engaged in army construction since the independence of Ireland, successively serving in the staff department, logistics department, military academy and even the Ministry of Defense, until 1943, at the age of fifty, he was promoted to the rank of general, and served as the deputy chief of the general staff of the army and the secretary general of the National Defense Mobilization Committee, and officially entered the ranks of the military high-level. This time, the new United Kingdom entered the war with Italy, and he was not only an important planner of the battle strategy, but also the main executor of the mobilization plan, and he really had enough authority to "judge the war situation" in front of the Spanish prime minister.

Since ancient times, it has been the dream of every king to have an elite army that can be called, able to fight, and able to win in battle. In the past 30 years, the Irish have followed Germany to participate in World War II and all armed intervention operations before and after World War II, and participated in the war operations of Soviet Russia against Japan and the United States against Japan by indirect participation in the war, thus forging a modern army born for war. The time for the Navy 6 Air Force to complete full mobilization was 9 days, 7 days, and 7 days respectively, that is, it only took more than a week for them to recruit reservists and reorganize reserve forces at most, and it only took six weeks to realize the wartime transformation of the industrial system.

Prince Juan pondered for a moment: "We are not here to discuss specific military deployments and combat plans, that is the duty of a soldier, and it is also the mission of a soldier, as a cabinet minister appointed by His Majesty the King, I am concerned about how long this war will last, how much it will cost, and in what form it will end." ”

Warlira quickly responded: "This is also my primary concern, and the answer I have received is: this war is likely to end within a month, not more than three months at most, our war goal is to make the Italians no longer our competitors in aviation, automobiles, shipbuilding, shipping, and the goal of the Austro-Hungarian war is to recapture rich Venice, expand its territory into northern Greece, and claim control of a North African port from Italy." If Spain entered the war, in addition to obtaining war reparations and being in an advantageous position in trade competition, we believed, it would be possible to claim certain resource-rich overseas territories from Italy. ”

General Sean McCowan followed suit and added: "In this war, the sea and air battles are mainly carried out by us, and the operations on the 6th are mainly carried out by Austria-Hungary, and if Spain enters the war, it will only need to be on the defensive militarily, and it will be able to obtain a large amount of military supplies from us, so there should not be much pressure on the cost side." ”

Prince Juan said: "In recent years, although Spain's economic situation has improved to a certain extent, there are too many historical debts, the industrial base is too weak, and the extreme revolutionaries have been threatening to overthrow the government. ”

At Warren's suggestion, McCoon said unhurriedly: "Through secret cooperation with some Eastern country, the Italians' nuclear weapons program is progressing very quickly - it may have entered the countdown stage, and the German top brass firmly believes that Italy's possession of nuclear weapons is a great threat to the stability of Europe and the world, and they want to use a war to stop Italy's nuclear weapons program, so ...... We have in fact received assurances of Germany's goodwill neutrality. Taking a step back, if the war deteriorates, Germany may intervene directly, but in this case, Italy may be ruthlessly dismembered. ”

Prince Juan paused for a moment to digest his words, and then said in a calm tone: "It may not be good for a divided Italy. The turmoil of the situation may well make it the cradle of the revolution, and a neighboring country that explodes the revolution may bring us a terrible catastrophe! If possible, we would like it to be a short, punitive war, and that the Italian royal family will remain in power after the war is over. ”

"The disaster in Spain is also our disaster." Warlira wisely responded that we would take all the factors into account and do everything we could to keep this war under control, but ...... As you know, war is like a Pandora's box, and once opened, there are many things that mortal wisdom cannot predict and calculate, so we always devote ourselves to work and pray at the same time. ”

Prince Juan let out a long breath: "Okay, I'm going to meet His Majesty the King and His Royal Highness, where the fate of Spain will go depends on their will after all." ”

(End of chapter)

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