Rome, Italy, Leader's House. Mussolini stood on the balcony with his hands behind his back, listening to his beautiful secretary read a telegram from Berlin. Mussolini has been very unhappy lately, because Italy's position in the Axis group has slipped all the way from the first place to the current position of the second in 10,000 years.

Don't doubt it, in fact, Mussolini saw Accardo as if he were the boss, but after just a few years, he could no longer hold his head up in front of the Germans.

In fact, in the alliance of countries, how hard their own waist pole is depends entirely on how strong their own country is. This is especially true in times of war, where a direct comparison of the achievements of the Allied Powers makes it easy to arrange their subordination to each other.

Mussolini sighed when he thought of this, and he really didn't blame him for the current situation. Look at the Germans: along the way, they swept Poland, swept France, marched into England, and now they are fighting with the Soviet Union...... Damn, it feels like a rainbow when you think about it. Look at your own history of blood and tears: the invasion of Ethiopia was half dead, the robbery of France was only beaten back, North Africa was defeated all the way and begged the Germans to stabilize the situation - not to mention others, I feel ashamed.

Such a huge gap caused Mussolini to postpone his visit to Berlin for a goodwill visit, and he did not even attend the inauguration ceremony of the special liaison office of Turkey, a new member of the Axis powers, in Germany.

A few days ago, he knew that Accardo was about to import Timdin, and he wanted to congratulate him in person, but because Rommel of the German North African Army complained that Italy's supplies were not transported in time, which made Mussolini lose face, this time the Daoxi trip was finally ruined again.

"Berlin wants us to arrange for 70 transport ships in addition to the normal supply ships to set sail in the next three to five days to deliver some of the equipment and important supplies of the 12th Panzer Division to General Rommel. The secretary's sweet voice continued, interrupting Mussolini's thoughts.

"This Rommel, I've starved almost half of the Italian troops in order to supply his troops, what else does he want?" Mussolini said hatefully, there were obviously other people in the room besides the secretary, and there were quite a few people.

An admiral wiped his sweat and complained: "Leader, we are not a convoy, now in the whole Mediterranean, we are crowding our fleet every day for transportation, even destroyers are transporting personnel, but there is still no way to meet the endless supply requirements of the Germans." ”

"Yes!" an air force general also nodded: "An army wants more things than one of our group armies, and since the number of their fighter units has increased, our air force has begun to limit the number of takeoffs except for the ME-109C!"

It was clear that this air commander was a victim of a German-dominated military, and in the eyes of the Luftwaffe commanders, the heavy and slow aircraft of the Italian Air Force were not a good strike force, except for a small number of ME-109C fighters. So the Germans waved their pens and allocated all the Italian aviation fuel to their own Stuka and D0-217 bomber units.

The Italian army general on the side glanced at the complaints of the navy and the air force, and was obviously even more aggrieved, but before he could speak, he was interrupted by Mussolini: "Okay! I know that the life of the army is even more difficult, and you don't have to squeeze out a stomachache to show me!"

Everyone smiled wryly, compared to the grievances suffered by the Italian Navy and the Air Force, the Italian Army is simply an angry little daughter-in-law, and there is no better time for life. In order to meet the huge supply volume of the German army, the daily food of some Italian troops has dropped a lot, and even some units have not even been able to distribute ammunition in time.

In fact, Mussolini had sought the opinion of the German military, and he even privately revealed his dissatisfaction to Field Marshal Brauchitsch, asking the German front-line commanders to maintain the traditional friendship between Italy and Germany. However, his protest was lightly rejected by Brauchitsch, and the German field marshal sneered, and then spoke: "Mr. Leader, apart from your black shirts, which Italian unit can I give the arms to defeat the British as if they were German troops?"

"Move 70 ships, send supplies to Rommel, I don't care what you think, but this order must be carried out to the letter! See?" Mussolini finally gritted his teeth and said fiercely. He had to give an explanation to the German General Staff and the High Command, because the German-Italian forces in North Africa were seizing North African interests for Italy, and if he didn't work hard, the Germans could go home patting their butts and leaving an untidy mess to the Italians.

Italy was also adapting to the war situation little by little, and Mussolini passed the wartime provisional law in April and established the Italian logistics supply department, which was considered to temporarily stabilize Italy's originally chaotic logistics support work. However, Italy's preparations for war were so miserable that the whole of Italy was not ready for a war.

Accardo certainly knew what Italy was, and what it did in another time and space could be described as funny. You say that a country suddenly declared its independence from the Axis powers against Germany under the unfavorable circumstances of the war, and then it was completely occupied by the German soldiers without bloodshed, and then announced that we would continue to fight the Yankees with the German allies. This shows the mentality of the Italians: it doesn't matter who we fight, you don't expect us to win anyway.

"Now we have to study how to maintain an inseparable alliance with Germany. Mussolini rubbed his temples, for there had been so much of the things that had been making him nervous lately.

It is obviously unrealistic to expect his Italian troops to maintain relations between the two countries, and it is estimated that if Italy continues to weaken like this, Germany will have to negotiate with Turkey on how to divide Italy after the partition of the Balkan Peninsula.

"Leader, are we going to walk around more with the Pope of the Vatican, didn't the German Führer just have a son, let's find a good name for his son, this ceremony must not be shirked. The most ostracized army general hastened to say that if it weren't for the fact that he still had a bit of a ghost idea, he would have been killed by Mussolini countless times with the army's cheating record.

This method made Mussolini's eyes light up, and he quickly nodded. This gift is definitely the best choice, even more in line with Accardo's heart than the average physical gift. Even if Accardo can't look at it, then Accardo's wife Mercedes will definitely laugh at this good news from the Pope Room, after all, there are very few children who can alarm the Vatican, and look at the whole world.

"Let the Papal Hall give this kid a title...... A duke's title. Recently, the Greater German Party has been advocating that Accardo be emperor, and if his son has such a title, he will accept it if he has the intention of becoming emperor or not. Mussolini muttered quietly as he nodded.

Italy had previously paved the way for the Mercedes family, and soon after marrying Führer Accardo, Mercedes became a nobleman recognized by countries such as the Vatican and Italy, and had its own noble title. Now it became logical to crown the son of Mercedes as a nobleman.

So the Italian leader Mussolini personally went to the Vatican, gave a large sum of money to the archbishops of the papal hall, and donated more than a dozen luxury Mercedes-Benz cars to His Majesty the Pope. Later that day, the Pope made a startling announcement that God's favorite had descended from the sky at the Führer's Mansion in Berlin, Germany. The King of Italy and the former Queen of the Netherlands, Wilhelmina, were singled out at about the same time to recognize Accardo's son, the little boy who did not even open his eyes, as the Grand Duke of the Iron Cross.

The little one did not yet know that he was a prominent Grand Duke, and the sparse golden hair on the top of his head was as soft as brocade. He was snuggling up in his mother's arms with his eyes closed, enjoying the meticulous care and love in the world. The smoke of gunfire on the front line of the border and the monstrous sea of blood in the concentration camp seemed to have nothing to do with him, he just lay quietly, letting the kind eyes of the people around him caress his smooth skin.

"The little one slept so sweetly, and when he fed he was like a beast, very hard and impatient. Mercedes smiled and whispered to the Führer and Anna sitting next to him about his son's cuteness and mischievousness.

"Look at this group of people, what do they give as gifts?" Anna pouted, apparently dismissive of the level of gift-giving from the top celebrities of the Third Reich. She looked at the table where the gifts were stacked, picked up a golden pistol casually, and made a disdainful expression.

Field Marshal Krupp gave the little guy a model tank, Old Man Augustus gave him a huge map of Germany, Krupp sent the title deeds of a castle at the foot of the Alps, Jerynike gave his grandson 3% of the tax-free shares of the White Lanhua Group, and there were countless gifts such as gems and watches and cars from dignitaries from various countries. Of course, the most frightening thing was the SS commander Heydrich, who sent Anna this gold-plated pistol.

"Good gifts, on the way. Accardo smiled helplessly, it seems that the level of gift-giving of these guys is indeed not as good as that of the Italian leader Mussolini: "A gift that neither Mercedes nor I can refuse." ”