Chapter 26: The Airline Company That Comes to Your Door

As Blomberg and others arrived one after another, the oil guards began to recruit and train in an orderly manner. According to the agreement between Contini and Mussolini, the oil guards were recruited in three systems: officers were mainly recruited from the Italian Army, junior non-commissioned officers and veterans were recruited from the Black Shirts, and other recruits were recruited from members of the Youth League. He fully agreed to this. The backbone of the original Roman guards, such as the Brave and the Black Paratroopers, will also be in this sequence.

In terms of the number of people, Contini made some adjustments: some engineers were recruited in the name of the United Group Engineering Team, some pilots and air-to-ground liaison officers were established in the name of the United Aviation North African Air Force, and some staff and logistics personnel were recruited in the name of the North African Preparatory Office. At the same time, a supplementary battalion was set up in the country. In this way, the actual number of oil guards was far more than 6,000, almost 7,800. Anyway, the United Group paid for it, and Mussolini was too lazy to care about it, so he was happy to pretend to be confused.

The army and navy bosses were too lazy to care about the black shirts with 200,000 soldiers, so naturally they would not care about this mercenary army with complicated members. Besides, the United Group had just integrated the domestic infantry and machine gun military factory, increased capital and expanded shares, and launched new machines, rushing to do what the army and navy were supposed to do. Naturally, they had to turn a blind eye to this.

In late November, the first batch of oil guards had started training. Contini was planning to go and inspect it, but Antonio told him that the representative of Ansaldo wanted to see him.

"Ansaldo wants me to invest in it?" Contini was a little surprised. Ansaldo is the second oldest military enterprise in Italy. Its artillery strength is the best in Italy and it is also one of the best in Europe.

"No, no, no, you misunderstood... We didn't say anything about buying shares. We just want to sell the aircraft factory to you. You now have United Airlines and Breda Aircraft Factory. We think you..."

"Stop!" Contini was very surprised. "Didn't Ansaldo Aircraft Factory stop production? How come I didn't know there were still companies operating normally?"

The other party said embarrassedly: "We originally had an aircraft factory, and later acquired the Pomilio Aircraft Company..."

After hearing this, Contini finally remembered: Pomilio, based in Turin, developed the PD/PE armed reconnaissance aircraft in the late stage of the war. Their competitor was Ansaldo's SIA type. Although the performance was slightly more advanced, due to the structure and center of gravity problems of the PD/PE armed reconnaissance aircraft, it had always been unstable and had many accidents in use, which was strongly opposed by pilots. It was not until June 1918 that these problems were solved. The company sent the aircraft to the United States, where it received good reviews, so it decided to stay in the United States and sold the domestic industry to Ansaldo for 13.5 million liras.

After Ansaldo took over the company, it immediately integrated it with its own aircraft factory, hoping to design a better reconnaissance aircraft based on PD/PE. Unfortunately, with the end of the war, not to mention the demand for new orders, most of the old orders were cut, so the aircraft factory fell into the embarrassment of having no rice to cook. In the past few years, it has been relying on repairs and maintenance to make some money. New aircraft have been trying hard, but basically nothing is good, and the accounts have been losing money. The boss of Ansaldo couldn't stand the situation of continuous losses and wanted to clean it up a long time ago, but he couldn't find a buyer. But now Contini is here, integrating domestic military enterprises like a whirlwind sweeping fallen leaves, so they are eyeing this sucker.

"How much do you plan to sell it for?"

"All equipment, sites, personnel, technology and patents are packaged together, 50 million lira..." The representative of Ansaldo said very unconfidently. In fact, it has suffered heavy losses. Let alone 50 million lira, it would be a blessing to be able to sell it for 35 million lira.

Contini did not directly agree or disagree, but asked other questions: "Do you have a tank and armored vehicle manufacturing branch?"

"Yes... but we don't have our own design. All we use are Fiat's design drawings and chassis. The engine is also Fiat's. Of course, the artillery is ours, whether it is a Fiat-made or our tank."

The Ansaldo representative said the truth. The Renault-17 tank copied by Italy became a Fiat-3000 when it arrived in Italy. Because Fiat's production capacity was insufficient during the war, the Italian army asked Ansaldo to produce it together. But now, these tank and armored vehicle manufacturing companies are in trouble just like the aircraft manufacturing plants. Fiat is enough to complete the army's order requirements. If it weren't for Ansaldo's face of supplying artillery, it would be too lazy to share the order.

Contini nodded: "Go back and tell the board of directors that I want your tank, armored vehicle and aircraft factories. I will give you 1 point of Algerian oil shares plus 10 million US dollars. If you agree, sign the contract as soon as possible."

When he heard about oil shares, the other party's eyes suddenly lit up.

"It's okay to tell you the truth. We have just reached an agreement with the British (Iranian) Oil Company. They will invest next month. 55 million US dollars in exchange for 10% of the shares. 1% of the shares is worth 5.5 million US dollars. I will still calculate it for you at 5 million. After all, we had a pleasant cooperation during the last trip to Russia. The United Group hopes to reach a strategic cooperation agreement with your company. I also plan to entrust Ansaldo to develop new artillery."

Speaking of this, the other party smiled knowingly: the Italian Navy originally asked for 2.3 million US dollars for the hull and artillery technology of the Caracciolo class, with a minimum of no less than 2 million. As a result, Contini negotiated directly to 3 million, and reported 2.5 million to the Navy Department. The money Ansaldo received also rose. That's not all. Due to the injection of other funds from the United Group and generous purchase of ships, the Navy Department planned to launch the second Caracciolo class in 1927, and the Army planned to update its artillery system, which brought a lot of orders to Ansaldo. Therefore, Ansaldo's artillery industry is the only department that is relatively fully loaded, and the profit is also considerable.

"I will go back and report to the board of directors."

Two days later, Ansaldo agreed to the deal, but there was a condition: if United Defense purchases artillery for tanks and armored vehicles in the future, Ansaldo should have priority under the same conditions.

"Of course, that's no problem. You know what, I already have a weapon that needs to be commissioned for development. After looking around, your company is more suitable." Contini took out a drawing he had drawn, which outlined the appearance of the Brand 27 mortar, but added some technical details of the Schneider 82 mortar. "This is a curved-fire weapon, which can also be called a mortar, with a caliber of 60mm... It is much lighter than the mortars currently available. I think it is particularly suitable for the Italian Army. I hope you can develop it as soon as possible."

Since Italy is mountainous, Italy's mountain artillery and light army artillery are very strong in Europe, but the level of large-caliber heavy artillery above 150mm can only be said to be average (army artillery). This is exactly the opposite of Skoda. Skoda's heavy army artillery above 150mm is good, but it is not good at small and medium-caliber artillery and mountain artillery.

Everyone knows that the mortar weighing only a dozen kilograms is very suitable for the Italian army. Contini originally wanted to hand over these designs to German companies, but then he thought that Italy's local design capabilities should also be retained, so he left them to Ansaldo, who of course expressed his gratitude for this. This thing is a product that requires a lot of equipment. As long as there are orders, no matter how difficult the requirements are, they must be made.

Perhaps the United Group is well-known. Just two days after taking over Ansaldo's two branches, the Adriatic United Shipyard came to the door again. This time the conditions are even more terrifying: it is willing to give the company's aircraft manufacturing department to the United Group for free.

"Free..." Contini touched his nose. Free things are the most expensive. It is better to ask more clearly.

"So what do you want?"

"We heard a rumor..." the other party said hesitantly, "You plan to build a blue ribbon cruise ship for Miss Ada. Our company is the best among Italian shipbuilding companies and can take on this role."

"But I have my own shipyard..."

"We know you have one, and we also know that the ultimate goal of the shipyard is to be able to build a new 40,000-ton warship, but firstly, your dock has not been expanded yet; secondly, your designers and workers have never built a 10,000-ton ship, let alone a 40,000-ton ship. It will take at least 5 years and at most 10 years for them to have the technical level to build a blue ribbon cruise ship with higher requirements. A young and promising president like you can't wait 10 years for a promise, right?"

Contini was flattered to the point of having goose bumps, and he couldn't say he wouldn't build it: otherwise Mussolini would call him tomorrow.

He complained: "I've spent a lot of money recently, and I'm short of money..."

"It doesn't matter. We can sign a memorandum and start construction next year or the year after. I guarantee that it will be used before your wedding." The visitor smiled, "The aircraft factory can be delivered tomorrow. We trust the reputation of the United Group."

This is a sure win for me!

"You said shipbuilding... I do have a ship I want to build, I wonder if you can take it." Contini took out a piece of white paper, quickly sketched it out and handed it to the other party, "Do you understand?"

The other party looked at it carefully and smiled bitterly: "Don't be kidding, this is clearly an aircraft carrier, not a cruise ship."

"Does anyone stipulate what a cruise ship must be built like?"

"No!"

"Is there a regulation on how many passengers a cruise ship must carry?"

"No!"

"That's it." Contini patted the blueprint, "This is it! This is the world's first cruise ship with a maximum speed of 32 knots and a displacement of 30,000 tons. It is a ship exclusively for family members, with 72 aircraft and a considerable number of anti-aircraft guns for protection. Of course, there is no soldier on it. It is a civilian ship. Do you think it is worthy of my identity and status? "

"Yes, worthy, you are the only one in Italy who is worthy!"

"That's it. The aircraft factory will be handed over tomorrow, and then we will sign a memorandum and start building this Blue Ribbon aircraft carrier next year... Oh, no, the Blue Ribbon special cruise ship, named Aida." Contini smiled, "You should prepare to dispatch engineers and designers to visit my floating offshore airport. Maybe the drawings can be used in the design!"