By the time Istanbul received the telegram of the Italian landing on Crete, it was actually too late.

With the assistance of the Italian Navy, the 1st Marine Division and the Praetorian Guard landed on the island yesterday from Chania, Heraklion, and Sidia.

The Italian officers and soldiers who landed in the three places are still engaged with the defenders, and the fighting between the two armies has caused a large number of local people to flee their hometowns, but this does not affect the determination of the two armies to fight.

"Hurry up, hurry up!"

Cosentz, who was sitting in a small boat, was ordering the soldiers to row hard, and they were already approaching the beachhead. All around their boat were officers and men of his battalion, and they were rowing as hard as the boat Kosenz was riding.

That's right, this is the ship currently used by the 1st Marine Division of Italy for landing, and all kinds of wooden boats driven by manpower are the vehicles they are on. This kind of wooden boat can transport 20-30 heavily armed soldiers and their equipment at a time, although the use of manpower is a little slow, but at present, the marines of various countries are landing in this way, and everyone has no choice.

In front of their eyes, quite a few officers and soldiers had already landed on the beach. Those officers and soldiers, under the leadership of commanders at all levels, quickly left the beach with their weapons, which was the second battalion of friendly forces.

Behind them, a large number of transport ships were hung with landing ropes, and a dense crowd of officers and men were climbing off the ships and boarding the small boats waiting there.

As far away, it was the warships patrolling, and the high battleships were firing close to the harbor, and their deafening cannon sounds could be heard from so far away.

However, this has nothing to do with Kosenz, who now only wants to get ashore as quickly as possible, because the period before he sets foot on land is the most dangerous time for himself and his soldiers. Although this area has long been occupied and cleared, he doesn't like this state very much. Janen Blois

I heard that the regiment that landed yesterday had been fighting with the Ottoman troops guarding here for a long time, and suffered many casualties, but there were no signs of the battle at the moment.

Without giving Kosenz much thought, the soldiers who were rowing hard had rowed the boat to the beach. Kosenz jumped off the boat with a lunge, reached out and pulled the cable on, and together with the soldiers, secured the boat. And when the officers and men and the equipment had disembarked, they had a combined force to push the ship back. How many of the ship's crew members are part of the Navy? Will continue to pick up the next trip.

Are there other ships docking with Kosenz who are doing the same thing? After unloading the soldiers and equipment, they rushed back to the transport ship to pick up the next group of officers and soldiers.

Surely this seems fast? But it's basically an hour to go back and forth? This is all due to the slow speed of human paddling.

Of course, it doesn't matter what happens to him in Cosenz, he still has important things to do.

After a battalion of whole squadrons? Cosenz immediately rushed to Heraklion with them, as they needed to help the friendly forces capture the largest port city in Crete.

Within the city? The battle for hardship is raging.

"Enemies approaching? Fire. ”

An Ottoman officer, who was in a building, immediately raised his voice when he spotted the approaching officers and soldiers. And under his orders, Ottoman officers and soldiers from the window, behind the door, etc., with rifles in their hands? Constant firing on the incoming Italian troops.

A fierce hail of bullets? The officers and men who were proud of the battle could only look for cover to take refuge, and they were so pressed that they couldn't raise their heads at all.

Company Commander Hall, who was observing the battle situation from the side, saw this scene and knew that the attack had failed again, so he angrily threw the military hat man on his head to the ground.

"Company commander, company commander!"

But at this time, someone suddenly called him, and Hall, who was upset by the unsmooth attack? After hearing a voice calling for yourself, raise your head. Is this the herald in the battalion calling him? And behind him were two men dressed as ordinary people.

"What's the matter?"

Facing the herald of the battalion headquarters calling himself, he asked impatiently.

"Company Commander Hall? This is the locals that the battalion commander asked me to send, and they are very familiar with this piece? The battalion commander said? If there is something difficult that can't be played? Look for help from the locals. ”

Such a scene is not new on the island of Crete. This is the result of many years in Italy, and in order to achieve their goals, the local leaders have shown the Italian army the way, informed the Ottoman army of its deployment, and even dared to directly take up arms to attack the Ottoman defenders. So Crete, Italy is the home field.

As the herald spoke, the two locals kept nodding to Hall.

Seeing their performance, Hall looked puzzled.

"But none of us know Greek!"

Unexpectedly, as soon as he finished speaking, one of them spoke. "We know some Latin, which we learned when we were doing business with merchants in your country."

The man's words made Hall's eyes widen. Just because I want to fall asleep, I send a pillow. Then he took the other party, came to the corner of the wall, and pointed to an independent tall building at the intersection outside.

"Seeing that building is not, is there a way to go around the back."

The man spoke when he saw the building he was pointing to. "Oh, you're talking about Mr. Cáceres' construction company, and it's probably a bit far to get around it, because it takes two blocks to get around."

As soon as he heard the other party's words, Hall knew that there was a door, and the other side was worthy of being a snake on the other side, and he could immediately say that he was not far from ten.

And just as he was about to ask the other man to lead the way, another man then surprised him.

"I know a route that I don't have to go that far."

As soon as he heard the other party's words, Hall immediately wanted to ask how to go, but he didn't expect the man who pointed the way just now to immediately fight back against the other party. "You know what, you smuggling ground rats, don't get down to business."

"Don't think you're clean, even the poor know you—you like to be short of pounds and two."

Being told that he was inferior, the profiteer named Blois immediately said something like a machine gun in Greek, and judging from the reddened face of the smuggler opposite, it must not be a good thing. Of course, this one is not a vegetarian either, and immediately burst out with amazing combat power at the same speed of speech.

A smuggler and a profiteer fight like a machine gun stun Hale and his soldiers.

Seeing that the two of them were getting more and more noisy, Hall, who felt that his head was swollen, immediately took out his pistol and stood between the two. "Alright, stop."

Maybe it was Hall's identity, or maybe it was the gun in his hand, which finally calmed down the quarrel.

Hall waited for the two to calm down, then pointed to the smuggler. "You said you knew a shorter road, and now you can say it."

"Yes, sir. Because of my usual business, I know some small channels that are not obtrusive......"

In the smuggler's account, he finally knew what the road was. It's a sewer, but it goes straight to the building that gave him a headache.

"Then you show us the way, and we'll go now."

Hall pointed to the smuggler and spoke his choice.

"Yes, please come with me, sir."

Cases like Hall's are everywhere on the island. In order to give Crete a chance to gain independence, the locals put a lot of effort into this, and the lead is nothing more than pediatrics.