Six Hundred and Seventy-Five Clowns and Protagonists

In order to keep the absolute advantage of the Italian fleet in the Mediterranean, Mussolini spent the most money he could find: he brought a full 30,000 Italian assault medals to be awarded to all German paratroopers and pilots who participated in airborne operations, He even brought a large sum of money to condolences to the families of the German paratroopers who died in the battle. In short, Italy's approach is that as long as they are not allowed to fight, other things are easy to discuss.

When meeting Akado, Mussolini showed his utmost sincerity, and even laid a wreath and bowed to the German paratrooper martyrs cemetery in front of the cameras of many media. And all the pensions for the disabled and dead soldiers-the standard is twice the normal situation.

"My head of state, 400,000! 400,000 Italian volunteers joined the German army to fight for the Third Reich! They were completely assigned to the German command, and we sent another 300,000 people to be trained by the German Wehrmacht to fight with the German army. "Mussolini said to Accardo almost begging: "In fact, Italy's war preparations have never been completed. It is obviously unrealistic to deploy 2 million troops now. It is already possible to find a way to take out 700,000 troops. It's all about us."

What Mussolini said was indeed true. After all, part of Italy’s troops are still in North Africa. It is quite a sincere move to move 700,000 troops to Germany on the Eastern Front. In fact, Italy’s territorial expansion has already It can be said that it has reached its limit. Even if it sends its own troops to participate in the war, it is impossible to obtain more peripheral interests.

Germany has no excessive demands on the Mediterranean, but Germany signed the "Balkan Peninsula Fast Track Agreement" with Turkey and Italy. The agreement stipulates that Germany can build and use a railway-road composite transportation line extending from Germany to Athens. Oil and gas pipelines on this line can be developed independently or jointly.

This ensures that Germany has a convenient transportation channel into the Mediterranean Sea, together with and enough for it to control Crete, the crucial unsinkable aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean Sea. And once it controls the Suez Canal, Germany can also continuously transport oil from the Middle East to Germany itself. What no one knows is that Germany actually has an unknown North Sea oil and gas reserve card. If the supply from Romanian oil fields is added, Germany's future oil and gas resources will be enough to meet the country's oil and gas consumption.

Mussolini put on a posture of wanting to kill or be beaten, but Accardo had no reason to add insult to injury. He even offered a sky-high price for Mussolini's compensation for the paratroopers who died in battle. The idea of ​​holding the Italian admiral accountable was abandoned.

Of course, Akado asked for the port of Alexandria in Egypt and the Suez Canal, and Mussolini also nodded in agreement, but used this important bargaining chip to take a certain amount of oil shares in the Middle East. This kind of exchange is even a bit The meaning of groveling made Akado feel that the Italians really realized their mistakes this time.

After sending off the returning Mussolini, Accardo stood on the Berlin platform with his hands behind his back. He felt that the meeting this time was somewhat beyond his expectations.

He couldn't tell what was wrong, but he had a hunch that something was wrong. So he stood there in a daze for a short time, hoping to recall the flaws in the whole meeting process.

Augustus stood beside him, with an expression of an old god on his face. In the end, he decided not to let Akado worry about such trivial matters, and opened his mouth to break the secret: "The Italians are so confused, this time they admit defeat so much. It's not unexpected at all, but they didn't show any unwillingness, this matter deserves our attention."

"What do you mean? The Italians have expert advice?" Accardo frowned, and really didn't think of any commendable strategic masters in Italy during World War II. This nation is just habitually falling on both sides by virtue of the wind direction. As for the strategic vision, it seems that there is nothing special about it.

"If there were an expert by Mussolini's side, then the Italians would not hastily send troops to France, and would not defeat Ethiopia in a muddle-headed way. Now there are such a bunch of crap going on." Augustus shook his head. He shook his head and said, "It's very simple. If the Americans were not behind this incident, it would be hell."

"Americans? You mean? The Americans are in contact with Italy?" Accardo's intelligence agencies deployed in Italy had reported this. Turned their faces, so the performance of the US embassy in Italy is still quite active. At least they meet frequently with high-level Italian officials, and they seem to have signed some small contracts such as inconspicuous economic agreements.

"The recent espionage cases that Gascoll has cracked, including fringe espionage cases such as bribery of small capitalists, have some shadows of Americans behind them." He walked up to the stairs beside the platform, and Akado followed suit, walking beside the old man.

"The Axis group accounts for almost half of the world's industrial base, and sits on the granaries of Ukraine and Poland, and controls most of the ores and industrial raw materials... If the integration is done, it can even be said to be invincible Already." Augustus said as he walked: "If it were me, a huge alliance that cannot be broken by external force, the best way is of course to disintegrate internally."

"Isn't this a bit funny? Although Italy is in the heart of Germany, the Mediterranean Sea is in my hands. As long as Gibraltar and the Suez Canal are still under our control, even if Italy rebels, how big a wave can it cause?" Ah Cardo felt that he would not draw up such a plan. At least on the surface, this kind of doomed rebellion was meaningless.

"It's not about letting Italy really defeat us." Of course, Augustus didn't think that only one Italy could cause any unmanageable crisis in front of Germany. But he went on to say: "Shaking the alliance system of the Axis powers is already a good business with less investment and quick results. After all, the Americans just set a bunch of conditions, just like Australia changing its flag. Disgusting, we actually That's enough for Ben."

He stopped at the stairs, and then turned his head to look at Accardo: "My head of state, what I worry about is not what is going on in Italy now, but that once the war situation reaches a stalemate, it will stand up again and cause trouble. Our good deeds. Although the success is not enough, the failure is more than enough."

Akado nodded, agreeing with Augustus's idea. He thought about it carefully, and then said: "There are two options, either to do it now, to do it once and for all... or to keep Holt to wait." They make moves first, and we will make a proper name."

"Focus on those hostile forces operating in Italy, and then draw up a feasible contingency plan and adopt the second plan." Augustus also thought about it, and finally chose the second plan: "Now we take the initiative to do it , there is no evidence to speak out, and it will seriously affect the trust within the Axis powers in the end. After all, it is not a good thing for many allies to think that we are too tyrannical."

After Augustus finished speaking, he and Akado walked down the steps and walked into the underground passage, where the lights became slightly dimmed. Akado waved his hand, signaling the guards and followers behind him not to follow. Come, some people guarded the entrance, while others immediately turned around and ran to the other side of the passage.

In the passage, Augustus seemed to suddenly think of something, and said to Akado: "I almost forgot, earlier today, the formal protest sent by the United States asked us not to try to get close to the Middle East. In private, they He revealed to our diplomats that he is willing to give up part of the oil share and hopes that we can maintain the current line of actual control between the two sides in Egypt."

Akado laughed loudly after hearing this, and then said with a smile: "The Americans are really getting more and more funny. When they can beat them, they say they want to fight, but when they can't beat them, they feel that they will give us a little money. , you can end the war if you want to. Do you think our Third Reich is a beggar?"

"Then us?" Augustus' eyes lit up, knowing that Akado might have a bigger move this time.

"Keep playing dumb!" Akado gave a solution that has been used for a long time without thinking deeply: "Since they didn't mention why the American troops in the Middle East appeared in Egypt, we will continue to fight towards the Suez Canal! They can either pinch their noses and admit this dumb fault, or they can turn the table over and fight us with real knives and guns!"

The two of them walked out of the underground passage while talking. The exit was already full of SS soldiers maintaining order and security, as well as military generals and foreign reporters who were not official media such as the Gross Deutsche Zeitung. I have been waiting here for a long time, and pressed the shutter on the most powerful person in the Third Reich.

"Mr. Führer, what do you think of the outcome of the meeting with the Italian leader, Mr. Mussolini? Is it satisfactory?" "Mr. Führer, do you think the military cooperation in North Africa will extend to the vicinity of the Suez Canal?" Everyone They kept asking about the topics they were interested in, and stared at the protagonist being questioned with anticipation.

"The meeting between Mr. Leader and I was very pleasant. We have cooperated and negotiated on many issues. The specific content is confidential and it is not convenient to disclose, but the friendship between the two countries is unchanging." Akado smiled and faced the reporter's flashlight , speaking in a nasty official accent.

Now that the dirty performance has kicked off, let's all make our debut together! Akado waved at the camera while thinking: When the curtain falls, we will see who is the clown and who is the protagonist!