Italian Field Marshal and Chief of the General Staff of the Army Bardolio, Foreign Minister Ziano of the Kingdom of Italy, German Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Donghua Nuwright, Japanese Ambassador to Donghua Akikuni Koiso and others could all hear the threat implicit in the words of Gu Weijun, the Foreign Minister of the Donghua Empire. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

The Donghua Empire was obviously a little impatient, and in order to take care of the emotions of the Italians, it specially used this form of private banquet to issue an ultimatum to Italy: either accept our conditions, or meet the high and low on the battlefield!

Hearing that the Donghua Empire finally stopped insisting on Ethiopia and North Sudan, Bardolio couldn't help but secretly breathe a sigh of relief.

Seeing that Ziano wanted to open his mouth to say something with an indignant expression, Badolio hurriedly stopped Ziano from speaking, and said: "I am the plenipotentiary and the supreme person in charge of this negotiation, and we accept this condition put forward by your country!" ”

Hearing Badolio say this, Ziano could only swallow all the words that came to his lips back into his stomach, raised his glass and drank most of the red wine in one gulp, obviously in a very bad mood.

Nuwright and Koiso Akikuni glanced at each other and exchanged glances.

As long as Italy could endure this humiliation and not take the lead in declaring war on the East China Empire, it would be very advantageous for the Axis camp.

In any case, it was the interests of the Italians that were sacrificed, not the interests of Germany and Japan.

Based on the principle of dying and not dying and poor, Newright and Xiaoiso Zhaoguo toasted to Gu Weijun and Shi Zhaoji to celebrate.

Compared to Germany, Italy really does not have the ambition of Germany.

After the end of World War I, Germany, as a defeated country, was subjected to economic exploitation and sanctions by the Allied powers led by Britain and France, and the national economy declined sharply and unemployment soared.

After Hitler came to power, he took a tough foreign policy and vigorously developed the economy at home, which brought the German people out of the trough and predicament. Thus the whole of Germany formed a whole will: that is, to collect debts! Take back everything that the Allies have stolen from the Germans, and take it back with interest!

Under this common national sentiment of hatred and hatred, a particularly large number of German soldiers joined the army. Strong productive forces have led to the development of the military industry. With the source of soldiers, the united national will, and the rigorous, precise and meticulous character of the Germans, the overall quality of the generals and soldiers is very high, and the combat effectiveness of such an army is of course amazing.

Italy, on the other hand, was also a defeated country in World War I, but it was not the focus of the Allied sanctions. Therefore, the domestic contradictions are not very prominent, and the people are still getting by.

Mussolini also did not possess the strategic vision of Hitler, had courage and no strategy, and had great personal ambitions, but he was never able to unite the people of the whole country. Soldiers are forcibly conscripted, and the economy is barely strong. The military industry is half-defeated. Such an army, with no soldiers and no talents, is completely like a mercenary, forced to go to the battlefield, completely subservient to the German horse, and its combat effectiveness can be imagined.

To tell the truth, the Italian army has been able to fight to the situation it is today, and it has been blessed by God.

The main reason for this is that both Germany and Japan have been strengthened too much by Emperor Cheng's golden hand, so that Britain and France suffered heavier losses under the blows of the German and Japanese armies than in the same period in history, which in turn led to a significant reduction in the war potential of Britain and France.

Italy, on the other hand, took advantage of the victories of Germany and Japan to fight a tailwind in the North African theater.

And with the urine nature of the Italian army, the more favorable the battle, the more wonderful and beautiful they fought.

It's a pity that this kind of "invincible" illusion immediately showed its original form when it encountered the Donghua Empire's army.

You must know that even if the German army and the Japanese army come to fight head-on with the Donghua Empire army, there is no chance of victory. The Donghua army fighting Italy is simply an adult beating a child, and there is no suspense.

Germany and Japan, of course, could not figure out the real combat effectiveness of the Italian army. After all, the Italian army's performance since the beginning of the war has been quite eye-catching, and its results can be called brilliant.

This time, after seeing Italy's failure in the anti-landing war in Mogadishu, it immediately sued for peace with the Donghua Empire, which invisibly caused the military and political leaders of Germany and Japan to overestimate the military strength of the Donghua Empire again.

Based on this "correct" judgment, Germany and Japan were even more reluctant to see the disadvantage of Italy declaring war on the Donghua Empire, which would lead to the Donghua Empire declaring war on the entire Axis camp.

Japan's current strategic focus is on the Asia-Pacific region, while Germany's strategic focus is on Europe and southern Africa.

In the North African theater, not only the Anglo-American allies fought stubbornly in Egypt, but also the Free France led by Charles de Gaulle was active everywhere in Algeria.

Since Italy could shrink its front and concentrate its Afrika Korps forces on the border with Egypt in Libya, Ethiopia, and North Sudan, and without giving the Donghua Empire every reason to declare war on the Axis powers, Germany and Japan certainly did not mind sending a big deal to the East China Empire.

If Germany and Japan had been able to support Italy, perhaps Mussolini would have gritted his teeth and declared war on the East China Empire. The problem is that even Germany and Japan regard the East China Empire as a beast, and Italy certainly will not be foolish enough to act as a major wrongdoer.

Although Italy has been aggrieved in the current "Somali military conflict", the Italian government has obtained a series of military technology development opportunities from Donghua, such as XXI submarines, Keeling-class destroyers, Changxing Island-class aircraft carriers, turbojet six engines, second-generation aluminum-lithium alloys, Jian-5 fighters, 59 modified tanks, and C37 gun families.

Obviously, the Donghua Empire played the foreign policy of "sticks and sweet dates" quite a lot.

In the international political circle, the Italian government claimed that it had exchanged the interests of Somalia, South Sudan and Kenya for a large number of advanced military technologies of the navy and army of the Donghua Empire, which won valuable development opportunities for Italy in the next war.

With the stationing of the Seventh Fleet of the Emperor Donghua Navy in the Gulf of Aden, the activities of the British Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet, which already had absolute superiority in the Red Sea Strait, have become even broader.

With the Royal Navy's fleet of Donghua to provide escort protection, the ocean-going fleet between the British mainland and the Indian subcontinent has become busier and the various routes have become more lively.

Since protection fees were charged to British merchant ships, the Royal Navy of Donghua naturally had to fulfill its obligation to protect.

As a result, the activities of the German Navy's submarines in the Indian Ocean were repeatedly curtailed. Eventually, it had to withdraw from the Indian Ocean entirely, focusing tactically on the Atlantic Ocean to deal with allied merchant ships on the British-American route.

At the repeated demands of Hitler and Mussolini, the Japanese Navy finally made up its mind to prepare to settle the US military and the US Navy Pacific Fleet in the Philippines at one time.

On September 18, 1941, the Combined Fleet of the Japanese Navy and the U.S. Pacific Fleet fought a head-on battle in the Sulu Sea.

Before the decisive battle between the Japanese and US navies began, the battle between the Japanese Air Force and the US Air Force for air supremacy over the Sulu Sea was extremely fierce.

The Japanese Air Force's "Gale" jet fighter and the U.S. Air Force's F86 "Sabre" jet fighter, which was developed and improved on the basis of the Jian-5 fighter, appeared one after another in this air battle, which later generations called the "Great Air Battle in the Sulu Sea."

In this campaign, Japan and the United States launched a total of 3,000 fighters of various types, which lasted from September 18 to September 28.

The bloody battle between the Japanese and US air forces in the sky, which lasted for more than 10 days, was even more brutal than the "Battle of Britain" fought by Germany and Britain before.

The Japanese Air Force pilots drove the wounded fighter plane to ram the US Navy warship on the surface of the sea, and this spirit of fighting to the death with all the jade and stones burned to the end deeply shocked all the American pilots.

When the morale of the US Air Force was shaken by the frenzied fighting spirit of the Japanese pilots, the balance of victory began to tilt in favor of the Japanese Air Force. (To be continued.) )