After Mr. President's remarks, the diplomats of all the countries present were a little surprised, not to mention whether it would be too late to ask Italy for a supply port close to the Red Sea to be converted into a military base, but to talk about the request itself, this move is actually tantamount to asking Italy for a leased land, and with the current position of the Italian Mussolini regime, it is almost impossible to agree to this demand, because in the eyes of proud Italians, the current "Horn of Africa" is Italy's "homeland". And there can be no foreign leased lands on the mainland, and for those fascists who preach the "glory of Rome", this is an important criterion for them to distinguish between "patriots" and "hostile elements", Mussolini is arbitrary,

Moreover, considering that Britain and France also have colonies in the Somali region, once Italy gives a Somali port under its control** to China as a naval base, no one can guarantee that Britain and France will not organize a joint army to attack the military fortress that belongs to China, and at this time, how should the Italian government choose?

Even Gu Weijun was a little strange, so he hurriedly went to look at Qi Yano to see how he answered.

Ziano hesitated for a moment, and then said something, basically negating the feasibility of Zhao Bei's proposal.

"Mr. President, it seems to me that your proposal for a naval base is very difficult for the Italian people to accept, and the Somalia region was seized by the Italian army after a bloody struggle from the conspiracy of the international powers, and the Italian people are afraid that they do not want to see the presence of other armies. However, from the point of view of the Italian government, your proposal is very sincere, and I will convey your proposal to the Italian leader for his arbitration. ”

"If it doesn't work, don't force it."

Zhao Bei nodded, and then the conversation changed and proposed a workaround.

"In fact, I have another suggestion, and that is that the Italian government agree to let our merchant ships fly the Italian flag and anchor in Eritrean ports through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden, and I hope that the Italian warships there can provide the necessary escort for these merchant fleets. If the Italian Government is willing to do so, I think that the people of Japan will be very grateful to the Italian Government for its benevolent gesture, and it will not be very difficult to raise the issue of an alliance between the two countries in the future, and there will be nothing to say from the Diet. ”

Hearing this, Ziano understood, no need to ask, these "merchant fleets" must be transporting naval supplies to supply those Chinese submarines that are active in the Red Sea, if the Italian government agrees to do so, it is undoubtedly indirectly providing logistical support for these submarines of the Chinese Navy, and for Britain, this is enough to constitute a pretext for declaring war on Italy.

To tell the truth, as an Italian, Ziano opposed Mussolini from the beginning to challenge the interests of Britain and France, and after the war between China and Britain, when he heard that the submarines of the Chinese Navy had begun to cruise in the Red Sea, Ziano was almost subconsciously worried about Mussolini's position in this Sino-British war, and later facts also proved that Ziano's worries were not unreasonable, In the face of the British government's "rude request" to the Italian government to open the waters off the coast of Eritrea so that British Navy destroyers and submarine hunters could enter the waters to search for Chinese submarines, Mussolini refused without the slightest room for accommodation.

Now, when China's "mad president" actually proposed to use Italian naval ships to escort the supply convoy of the Chinese Navy flying the Italian flag, Ziano was not only surprised, but also worried, because he had never underestimated this Chinese military and political strongman, and he even doubted that there was any conspiracy here.

However, the decision is not in the hands of Ziano, but in the hands of Mussolini, and before visiting China, Mussolini carefully told Ziano that no matter what kind of quid pro quo and demands the Chinese put forward, Ziano must report to the leader himself "at the first time", cannot conceal it, and cannot delay, in any case, it must achieve the two goals of this visit: First, ask China to transfer to Italy the complete set of design drawings and production technology of the "Falcon" fighter; Second, it reached a secret agreement with the Chinese government that if Italy clashed with a certain "European power" in the future, it hoped that the Chinese government would at least maintain "goodwill neutrality" and not impose trade sanctions and an embargo on raw materials on Italy.

In fact, in order to take advantage of industrial raw materials from China and Asia, the Italian government began to establish a "reserve military-industrial system" in Somalia and Eritrea several years ago, intending to directly manufacture arms and ammunition locally for the Italian East African Corps in the event of a British blockade of the Suez Canal.

It can be seen from this that Mussolini did not want to go to war with Britain and France, but wanted to find a reliable backing and ally first, and this backing and ally was China and Japan, according to the "leader's" assumption, the ideal situation is that Italy and China and Japan jointly sign a military alliance treaty to jointly deal with Britain and France, and the unideal situation is that Italy cannot seek a military alliance with China and Japan, so it can only retreat to the second, as long as it is exchanged for the "friendly neutrality" of the two countries in wartime, the "leader" I was also fully convinced that relying on the "holy warriors of Rome", Italy could completely defeat the "dead" Britain by fighting alone.

Although Ziano is not as optimistic as Mussolini, he also believes that if he can seek a military alliance with China, it will be very beneficial to Italy's national strategy, and may be able to force Britain to take the initiative to compromise and win without a fight, just as China did during the European war, using the wars of other countries to seek war dividends for Italy, so that the dream of the "leader" to restore the glory of ancient Rome can be realized without war, and Italy will not be used as cannon fodder by the German Nazis.

If given a choice, Ziano would rather be allied with France than with Germany, and in this respect he also had a huge difference of position with the "leader", who insisted that the German Nazis had equally ambitions for Italy.

"Mr. President, your suggestion is more flexible, and I personally think it is more reasonable than directly leasing a military port, but again, I cannot directly answer your 'yes' or 'no', I can only convey your suggestion to the Italian leader and ask him to arbitrate."

Ziano carefully chose the wording, a question he really could not answer, and Mussolini had not instructed on these questions before arriving in China, and there were no ready-made answers, but Ciano also believed that if China agreed to transfer the full set of design drawings and production processes for the Falcon fighter, Mussolini would likely accept this exchange of benefits.

However, the topic of the Falcon fighter jet is not open to discussion here, and there were German and Japanese diplomats present, and Mussolini did not want others to know that Italy's industrial progress also needed to turn to an Asian country, especially this country was also the object of Italian colonial plunder.

"In this case, please send a telegram to Rome immediately, convey my suggestion to the leader of your country, and bring my greetings by the way, I have always been concerned about Italy's ** cause, I think that the leader of your country is a far-sighted international strategist rarely seen in Italy in modern times, and I think it is very necessary for China and Italy to strengthen exchanges in the future."

Seeing that Ziano's answer was not very simple, Zhao Bei immediately understood that Mussolini had not made up his mind to fight against Britain immediately, so his mood to create war was even more urgent, so he hurriedly urged Ziano to shoot a telegram.

Taking advantage of the moment when Zia UC e-book rushed to the telegraph room, Zhao Bei had a hearty conversation with the German and Japanese diplomats in China, learned about the current situation in the two countries, and by the way, inquired about the position of the two governments on the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo axis, and was not surprised to be told by the ambassadors of the two countries to China that the three countries have held several rounds of consultations on this issue, and the progress is going smoothly, just waiting for the Chinese government to officially express its position.

This lively Zhaobei will not make up, the "Three Kingdoms Axis" is great, there is no need to organize a "Four-Power Axis", these three countries can be cannon fodder for China, but do not want China to take them to the luxury camp of the European and American powers to carry out a decisive charge, Mr. President may be a little crazy, but not crazy, with the current Chinese national strength, it may be competent to resist the joint attack of the United States and the Soviet Union, but if other European countries and even American countries are pulled to the side of the hostile camp, Then no one can guarantee that China can survive this melee, these years of hard work is really not easy, Zhao Bei can't afford to gamble, not to mention, he also plans to make war money in the European war, and after the war, he will also go down the mountain to pick peaches.

Half an hour later, Count Ziano finally returned to the reception room, and although he did not immediately receive a reply from the Italian "leader", he told the president that the leader would "seriously consider" the matter of the Chinese merchant fleet anchoring in an Eritrean port under the Italian flag.

Some things are inconvenient to say in front of diplomats from various countries, Zhao Bei understands this very well, so he doesn't dwell on this topic, anyway, this Italy is the fish on his chopping board, and he can't run.

However, in order to cheer up these foreign envoys, Zhao Beirang the adjutant read out a telegram from the front that he had just received, and according to the content of this telegram, the Chinese army units have successfully surrounded Mandalay, an important city in central Burma, this afternoon, and at present, the battle of Mandalay has begun, and according to reliable information, 50,000 British and Indian troops have been encircled, and annihilation is only a matter of time.

There is no doubt that the success of the Chinese army has eloquently proved a basic fact: Britain, the former "empire on which the sun never sets", is indeed dying, and now the question remains: Who can take the greatest benefit from Britain's corpse? China is already one step ahead, and it's up to other countries.

Looking at the expressions of the envoys of various countries, Zhao Bei was very satisfied, and he also believed that this European war would definitely be created by him.