At that time, Italy, in order to invade Albania, sent the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Count Ziano, to meet with the Yugoslav ambassador Buska? Khristic, assured him that Italy would not have any bad intentions against Yugoslavia. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

It has not been a year since this assurance, and the Italians are ready to attack Yugoslavia and Greece.

In true history, Italy declared war only on Greece, not against Yugoslavia. However, because of Li Le's historical behavior, Mussolini finally decided to "sweep the entire Balkan Peninsula".

His decision was hasty, because in real history, the Italian army was beaten all over the ground simply by declaring war on Greece.

This time the Italian forces were to cross the border and use their unfinished logistics to invade two countries that had received British reinforcements, which in itself sounded irrational.

In the Balkans, the British had more than 40,000 soldiers. Greece, on the other hand, has 150,000 troops deployed on its already precarious borders.

Excluding Yugoslav troops, Italy would have faced nearly 200,000 enemy troops. This was not an enemy that Mussolini's army could face.

The Italian army, in this case, division by division, went to the front, ready to attack a group of enemies who had already prepared everything.

Sadly, they themselves were not ready to fight such a war -- many of the troops had just been drafted into the army, and they had not even completed basic combat training.

The only advantage that these Italian soldiers had was that they had numerical superiority, but it was up to God to tell how much of these advantages they could exert.

If you look at what happened to the superior Italian 10th Army in North Africa when it was finally defeated by the inferior British army, you can see what kind of situation they would encounter in the Balkans.

Italy's foreign minister, Count Ziano, was once again on the move, this time with Minister Ribbentrop of Berlin.

The Germans were clearly not as foolish as the Yugoslavs, and Count Ziano had just arrived in Berlin, and Ribbentrop and the Führer behind him had guessed what the Italians were thinking.

But to Ribbentrop's dismay, the Italian Foreign Minister, Count Ziano, had not come to Berlin to discuss matters, but only to inform Germany.

On the way to Count Ziano, the Italian troops were already preparing to cross the border, so everything was impossible to stop.

"Mussolini may have gone mad." Ribbentrop stood in front of Li Le, and with a depressed face, he reported to his Führer the news of the failure of diplomatic efforts.

Originally, the Yugoslav regime, which was close to Germany, is now crumbling. And Ribbentrop, who was still making his last efforts, found that all his work had been in vain.

The Italian army was preparing to invade the Balkans, into Yugoslavia and into Greece. Such an offensive would push Yugoslavia towards the Soviet Union and Britain.

Li Le didn't care about the attitude of Yugoslavia and Greece, and in his plan, this place had to be a place of German influence.

It's just that he is depressed that it is easy to deduce from history that the Italians will once again fail to attack this time.

Italy's defeat would eventually put Germany in a disadvantageous position where it had to intervene. A forced involvement in a war and a prepared entry are two different things entirely.

"Mussolini wasn't crazy, it was a series of decisions we made that made him more uneasy." Li Le looked at his foreign minister and spoke.

He tapped his fingers on the huge desk in front of him, weighed it, and said, "The Italians are rushing to war this time without adequate preparation. I think they're going to fail again, and that's what we need to think about. ”

Ribbentrop was visibly stunned for a second when he heard the Führer say this, and then suddenly came back to his senses and looked at the Führer in surprise.

You know, the last time the Führer decided that the Italians were going to lose was before the British launched Operation Compass - that time the Italians lost badly, resulting in what is now North Africa, which became dominated by Germany.

This time, the Führer again said that the Italians were going to lose, and Ribbentrop felt that he should trust his Führer's judgment.

Moreover, there is little reason why he should not trust the Führer's judgment - it seems that the Führer has never been wrong in judgment since he became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, has he?

"Then, my Führer, diplomatic matters, I will go back against Italy and the Soviet Union, and even Yugoslavia, and make contingency plans." Ribbentrop made up his mind and spoke.

He thought for a moment and continued to suggest: "The rest of the matter is the matter of the army, and you should also make plans in advance. ”

"You don't have to think about this matter, I will naturally make arrangements." Li Le looked at his foreign minister and commanded, "Go ahead, do your business well!" When Italy is once again in passivity, I need you to get the most out of Germany! ”

Of course, Li Le had already prepared a plan to deal with the Balkans, and his plan was drawn up by a large number of marshals such as Brauchitsch and Keitel.

The person who carried out this plan was also a very satisfactory candidate for Li Le - Marshal Liszt!

The plan to seize the Balkans naturally had the Army General Headquarters to think about it, and Li Le now put his main energy in another direction.

After he saw off Ribbentrop, he ushered in a very famous German general who was not a German field marshal, Alfred? Yodel.

This army general, who is still an artillery general, occupies an important position in the Führer's control of the army.

An important reason why Li Le continued Hitler's reuse of yodel was that this general was one of the officers in the army who supported the Führer.

In '33, Jodel stood firmly on the Führer's side and became the vanguard of Hitler's control of the German Army.

Now, he has been rewarded by his own ranks, and he has become a general in the German army, and he is only one step away from being a marshal.

Had it not been for the repeated crushing defeats of the German Army after 42 years, Jodel would have been promoted to the new field marshal.

At this moment, Yodel stood in front of Li Le and showed a cloudy and humble obedience to the Führer: "Victory! Monarch! ”

Li Le, who was sitting in the seat, waved his hand and motioned for the other party to find a place to sit down and speak: "Tell me about the plan of action for Gibraltar!" ”

After taking out the Mediterranean Fleet bases in North Africa, including Port Said and Alexandria, Li Le turned his attention to the all-important city of Gibraltar.

Here the access to the Mediterranean Sea was contained, the French fleet in the Mediterranean, and the Italian fleet in the Mediterranean.

What made Germany even more stumbling was that it was precisely because of the naval base of Gibraltar that the German navy had obtained Brest and other new outlets to the sea in the French-occupied areas were under attack by the British navy.

At the same time, the important shipping routes of the Mediterranean are also seriously threatened by this port. As long as Gibraltar is captured, the Mediterranean route will be really safe.

However, the attack on Gibraltar was a very dangerous plan, and in Gibraltar, the British deployed a large number of land troops, as well as the Gibraltar Fortress, which had been in operation for a hundred years.

In addition, the Royal Navy's H Fleet, whose home port is in Gibraltar, is now most of the Mediterranean Fleet in Gibraltar - a large number of warships provide strong cover, and the risk of attacking Gibraltar is extremely high.

However, extremely high risks are often accompanied by extremely high returns. As a traveler, Li Le naturally knew what it meant for Britain to capture Gibraltar.

As long as the fortress of Gibraltar is taken, it is possible to knock Britain out of the game at once! This huge role made Li Le frantically think about how to use existing means to seize Gibraltar a few months ago.

"A covert operation on the Gibraltar side has begun." "Our negotiations with the Spaniards were very difficult, and they did not want to completely fall to our side. ”

Spain remained neutral during World War II, which was the main reason why Gibraltar was not occupied by Germany until the end.

Franco had relied on the support of Germany and Italy to achieve success, but after his success, he cautiously rejected the co-optation of Germany and Italy, leaving these two great benefactors aside.

In real history, because of the leaks of Canaris, among other reasons, Franco finally firmly rejected Germany's request and vetoed Germany's request to occupy Gibraltar through Spain.

This time, Canaris, who Li Le dealt with in advance, found Franco with a more resolute attitude. He hoped that this time Spain could use the Germans as a passage so that Germany could easily occupy Gibraltar.

Germany had more leverage this time around, including a string of victories in North Africa. If in the real historical time and space, Germany did not gain an advantage over Britain, then now after Li Le's change, the Germans have an even greater advantage.

Having a greater advantage also makes Spain's position more hesitant. Although they did not want to see themselves with a strong neighbor, Spain was also afraid that the Germans would come back to trouble Britain after they had cleaned it up.

"Put pressure on Spain, if Spain doesn't get on the road and the threat doesn't work, then adopt a different plan!" Li Le looked at Yodel and commanded.

Yodel stood up and saluted: "Yes!" My Führer! ”