Five Hundred and Seventy-Two Gifts

Italy, Rome, the residence of the leader. Mussolini stood on the balcony with his hands behind his back, listening to his beautiful secretary reading a telegram from Berlin. Mussolini has been very upset recently, because Italy's position in the Axis group has slipped from the first all the way to the current second place in ten thousand years.

Don't doubt, in fact, when Mussolini saw Akado, he completely regarded himself as 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 national alliance, how tough one's waist is depends entirely on how strong one's own country is. This is especially true in the era of war. As long as you intuitively compare the achievements of the Allied countries, you can easily arrange the affiliation of each other.

Thinking of this Mussolini sighed, and under the current situation, I really don't blame him for sighing. Look at the Germans: they flattened Poland, swept France, marched into England along the way, and now they are fighting the Soviet Union... Damn, I feel like a rainbow when I think about it. Let’s look at my history of blood and tears: I was beaten to death when I invaded Ethiopia;

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

A few days ago, he knew that Accador was about to import more people. He originally wanted to congratulate him in person, but because Rommel of the German North African Army complained that the supplies from Italy were not delivered in time, and Mussolini was embarrassed. A congratulatory trip once again ended up being nothing.

"Berlin hopes that within the next 3 to 5 days, we will arrange 70 transport ships other than normal supply ships to set sail, and send some equipment and important supplies of the 12th Armored Division to General Rommel. "The secretary's sweet voice continued, interrupting Mussolini's thoughts.

"This Rommel, in order to supply his troops, I have starved almost half of the Italian troops, what else does he want?" Mussolini said angrily, and there were obviously other people in the room besides the secretary. , and many people.

An admiral complained while wiping his sweat: "Leader, we are not a transport team. Now in the entire Mediterranean, we are crowding out our fleet for transport every day. Even the destroyers are transporting personnel, but there is still no way to satisfy the Germans." There are endless requests for supplies."

"Yes!" An air force general also nodded: "An army needs more things than our group army. Since the number of their fighter units has increased, our air force has begun to limit the number of take-offs except me- !"

Apparently the air force commander was a victim of a German-dominated military,

In the eyes of the German Air Force commanders, except for a small number of me-fighters that are still considered combat effective, the heavy and slow aircraft of the Italian Air Force are simply not considered a qualified strike force. So with a swipe of the pen, the Germans allocated all of Italy's aviation fuel to their own Stuka and d0-217 bomber units.

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

Everyone smiled embarrassingly. Compared with the grievances suffered by the Italian Navy and Air Force, the Italian Army is simply a pissed off daughter-in-law, and life is never easy. In order to meet the huge amount of supplies of the German army, the daily food of some Italian troops has dropped a lot, and some troops even cannot distribute ammunition in time.

In fact, Mussolini had sought the opinions of the German side. He even privately revealed his dissatisfaction to Marshal Brauchitsch, asking the German front-line commanders to maintain the traditional friendship between Italy and Germany. However, his protest was easily pushed back by Brauchitsch. The German Marshal sneered, and then said: "Mr. Leader, except for your black shirts, which Italian army should I hand over the arms to? Give the Germans the same way they beat the British?"

"Move out 70 ships! Send the supplies to Rommel! I don't care what you think of a way! But this order must be carried out to the letter! Do you understand?" Mussolini finally gritted his teeth and said fiercely. He must give an explanation to the German General Staff and the Supreme Command, because the German-Italian coalition forces in North Africa are trying to win the interests of North Africa for Italy. If he doesn't work hard, the Germans can pat their butts and go home, leaving an unmanageable mess to the Italians.

Italy is also adapting to the war situation little by little. Mussolini passed the temporary wartime act in April and established the Italian logistics supply department, which can be regarded as temporarily stabilizing the originally chaotic logistics support work in Italy. However, Italy's preparations for participating in the war are really terrible. Up to now, the whole of Italy is not ready for a war.

Of course Akado knows what kind of virtue Italy is, and what it does in another time and space can be described as funny. You said that a country suddenly announced its separation from the Axis powers against Germany when the war was unfavorable, and was immediately occupied by Germany without bloodshed, and then announced that we would continue to fight the Yankees with our German allies. From here we can see the mentality of the Italians: We don't really care who we fight, anyway, don't expect us to win.

"Now we have to study carefully how to maintain an inseparable ally relationship with Germany." Mussolini rubbed his temples, because there are too many facts that have made his veins twitch recently.

It is obviously unrealistic to expect his Italian troops to maintain the relationship between the two countries. It is estimated that if Italy continues to be so weak, Germany will discuss with Turkey how to divide Italy after dividing the Balkan Peninsula.

"Leader, should we spend more time with the Pope of the Vatican? Didn't the German head of state just have a son? Let's find a good name for his son. I think the head of state will not refuse this ceremony." The most excluded army The general hurriedly said that if it wasn't because he had some evil ideas, he would have been killed countless times by Mussolini based on the army's poor record.

This method made Mussolini's eyes brighten, and he nodded quickly. This gift is definitely the best choice, even more in line with Akado's wishes than ordinary physical gifts. Even if Akado doesn't like it, then Akado's wife Mercedes will definitely laugh at the good news from the Pope's Hall. After all, there are very few children in the Vatican that can alarm the whole world.

"Let the Pope give this child a title...a title of duke. Recently, the Greater German Party has been advocating that Akado proclaims himself emperor. If his son has such a title, he will accept it regardless of whether he has the intention of proclaiming himself emperor." Next." Mussolini nodded and muttered in a low voice.

Italy had paved the way for the Mercedes family before. Shortly after marrying the head of state Accardo, Mercedes became a noble recognized by the Vatican and Italy, and had its own noble title. It would now be logical to confer nobility on Mercedes' son.

So the leader of Italy, Mussolini, personally went to the Vatican once, gave a large sum of money to the archbishops in the Pope's hall, and donated more than a dozen luxury Mercedes-Benz cars to His Majesty the Pope. The public relations effect was extraordinary. Later in the day, the Pope announced an amazing news. In the Fuhrer's residence in Berlin, Germany, God's darling fell from the sky. The King of Italy and the former Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands picked out at about the same time, and recognized Akado's son—the little boy who didn't even open his eyes—as the Grand Duke of the Iron Cross.

The little guy still doesn't know that he is already a prominent grand duke, and the thin golden hair on the top of his head is as soft as brocade. He is closing his eyes, nestling in his mother's arms, enjoying the most meticulous care and love in the world. The gunpowder smoke at the frontier and the sea of ​​blood in the concentration camp seemed to have nothing to do with him. He just lay quietly and let the benevolent eyes of the people around him caress his smooth, fat-like skin.

"The little guy sleeps so sweetly. He's like a wild beast when he's breastfeeding, very hard and impatient." Mercedes smiled and whispered to the head of state and Anna sitting beside him about his son's cuteness and naughtiness.

"Look at this group of people, what are they giving as congratulatory gifts?" Anna curled her lips, obviously dismissive of the level of gift-giving by the high-level celebrities of the Third Reich. She looked at the table where gifts were piled up, picked up a golden pistol, and made a look of contempt.

Field Marshal Krupp gave the little guy a tank model, Mr. Augustus gave him a huge map of Germany, and Krupp gave him a title deed to a castle at the foot of the Alps. Jelin Nike What he gave to his grandson was 3% tax-free shares of Bailanhua Group, and there were countless gifts such as gems and famous watches and cars from dignitaries from various countries. Of course, the most frightening thing was Heydrich, the commander of the SS Army. What this guy sent was the gold-plated pistol in Anna's hand.

"There is a good gift on the way." Accardo smiled helplessly. It seems that the gift-giving level of these guys is really not as good as the Italian leader Mussolini: "A gift that neither Mercedes nor I can refuse."