The undercurrents of Crete have not yet been revealed, but they can be seen at dawn in Durrës.

However, the dawn of Durres was more for the Italians, because the Italian troops who had landed from Zhnea, six kilometers from Durrës in the north, and Golemi, six kilometers from the south, had already invaded the city of Durrës.

The 21st Division of the Ottoman Army, which was responsible for the defense, and the local garrison, were putting up a stubborn resistance in the city with the help of buildings.

"Retreat, retreat!"

In front of a street fortification, the Ottoman officer leading the group shouted at his soldiers to retreat. They had already repelled three enemy attacks, but at no small cost, and now there were only a dozen of them left in a team of more than forty men, and they were also joined by the recruits assigned to them.

At the sound of his shouting, more than a dozen soldiers in khaki Ottoman uniforms poured out from different buildings. They bent over with their weapons in their hands and trotted all the way to the officer's side.

Behind them, several young men in civilian clothes, also armed with weapons, ran with the soldiers. However, judging from the upright bodies they were standing upright and with a panicked look on their faces, they must have been local signifiers.

"Smack!"

Suddenly a gunshot rang out, and the bullet that came from nowhere hit one of them, and the recruit who was shot in the thigh fell to the ground with a scream, which frightened the recruits behind him to stop. As for the soldiers who ran in front, they quickened their pace, and there was no intention of stopping at all.

"Don't stop, keep up and keep running."

Seeing the performance of the recruits behind him, the commander shouted anxiously.

Stopping at the battlefield, what it means, no one will know. It's just that these recruits, who have been in the army for less than a week, should not go to the battlefield at all. It's just that the defenders are too weak to have time to train them.

The officer's shout attracted the fire from somewhere, only to hear a gunshot, and a puff of smoke and dust bounced on the ground in front of the officer.

This frightened the officer and immediately crawled behind the obstacle in the corner, which caused an Italian soldier in a building four hundred meters away to shake his head and quickly turn his gun to another position.

But thanks to the officer's shout, the recruits immediately hurried over to this side, just like the other soldiers. There were even two people carrying the wounded recruit and trying to bring him with them.

In the face of such a sudden burst of bravery? The officer swallowed back the words that came to his mouth.

But although these two people are commendable? But it is clear that they did something reckless.

"Smack!"

Another gunshot that hit one of them in the neck? Blood rushed out of his neck in an instant? stained the ground beneath its feet red. And he could only fall to the ground helplessly without saying a word, and the whole person began to convulse.

Everybody knows? He's hopeless.

As for the other, pale with fright? The sight of death striking? Let him hurry to the officer's side, ignoring the wounded soldier he saved earlier.

"The enemy is over there."

And this gunshot made one of the sharp-eyed soldiers immediately find the target.

Now that the enemy's position is known, it will be easy to do, and the officer immediately gives the order. "Shoot at it at once? Go and pull the man who is not dead. ”

With his orders? For a while, the gunfire was so loud that the Italian soldier in charge of sniping could not raise his head at all. Knowing that he had been exposed, the soldier quietly left with his beloved M88 Carcano rifle, and he was not willing to continue to stay in the exposed position.

Only after the wounded soldier was brought in did the officer continue. "I received an order? We were asked to leave Waddell Street, where we were stationed, and to retreat to Walsh Street. ”

Faced with an officer's order? Some soldiers were puzzled. "Why are we retreating to the edge of the city?"

"Where is so much nonsense, follow orders."

After the complaining soldier was reprimanded by the officer? Immediately there was no sound.

The others, led by the officers, retreated along the area still under their control towards Walsh Street. The sound of gunfire fighting along the way? Never stopped at all? The battle on both sides is still going on.

In the whole city of Durrës? There were not a few teams like this officer, and they all continued to retreat after resisting for a while.

And in the face of the actions of the defenders, how could Major General Pascal, the commander in charge of leading the attack this time, not feel it.

"It seems that the enemy wants to slip away."

In a safe area of the city, Major General Pascal looked at a newly hung map of the city of Durres in the temporary headquarters and spoke his judgment.

Colonel Babor, chief of staff of the Eighth Division, asked as he spoke. "So what do we do?"

The meaning of the Chief of Staff's words, of course, Major General Pascal knew. This is asking him whether to stay with the enemy, or to release?

If you stay, then there is nothing to say, and directly send troops to surround the whole of Durrës. In this case, if the enemy wants to break through, he will pay the price of blood. However, if you surround the enemy, it will be more difficult to capture the city, and it will also delay their time.

As for the release, there is nothing to say, increase the offensive on the front and both flanks, so that the enemy will feel that he cannot stay and flee immediately. Advantages and disadvantages and retention are reversed.

However, this will also make Pascal a little unwilling, you must know that in the last war in the colony, he took the Eighth Division and made great achievements, making himself famous in the army. And in this war, his expectations for himself are still quite high, and after gaining the trust of the army commander, he was appointed by his juniors to play the vanguard, but the results were not great, how could he stand it.

So in the face of his own words of chief of staff, Major General Pascal hesitated. On one side is the task, on the other side is the military exploits, and the two cannot be both.

"Hey, forget it."

After a long time, Major General Pascal let out a sigh that he had made his choice.

"Ordered the troops to intensify their offensive and drive these Ottomans out of Durrës. In addition, a message was sent to the follow-up 14th Division, asking them to speed up their pace and give priority to the reinforcements of the landed troops. ”

In the end, he aimed to complete the task and suppressed his expectations.

"I'll give the order."

After receiving Major General Pascal, the chief of staff immediately prepared to give orders to the troops.

Following the order of Major General Pascal, the officers and men of the 8th Division at the front immediately launched an even more fierce attack. And the offensive of the Italian troops, the defenders immediately felt it.

In the face of the attacking Italian army, the defenders desperately fought back with various weapons, but the Italian side had an absolute advantage in firepower. Although the performance of the new Italian rifle in close-range street combat was not much better than the old weapons of the Ottoman army, the Italian small-caliber artillery became a weapon of mass destruction after the army advanced into the city.

With the exception of a few fortress-like buildings, the others looked like papier-mâché in front of them. The 37 and 57 mm small-caliber guns made the Ottoman officers and soldiers suffer a lot.

Faced with such a situation, Major General Atatürk, who was defending the city, knew that it was time to retreat. So that night, the local garrison, of more than 7,000 people, took advantage of the darkness to withdraw from the west.

Faced with the retreat of the defenders, the 8th Division had no intention of stopping it back at all.

So the next morning, the 8th Division captured Durrës, and Italy received its first port in Albania. This will greatly promote the next battle.