The French fleet was preparing to organize a joint exercise with the German Mediterranean detachment, and at this moment this highest-level naval base on the Mediterranean coast had concentrated more than half of the elite main forces of the German and French naval vessels, and there were as many as five battleships alone, and all kinds of light and heavy cruisers and destroyers were like carp crossing the river.

The French did not give up their intention to scare the Italians at any time, and the French core formation led by the Richelieu had forced their way to Sicily several times that month, which caused the Italian coastal defense force to jump by surprise overnight.

Mussolini seemed to have lost his confidence after his relations with Germany had become so stiff that the Italian fleet seemed to have lost his temper in the harbor, no matter how provocative the French were. This unusual reaction of the Italian navy has attracted the attention of the Eye of Odin, which is not in the temperament of the living Caesar, and the German intelligence agencies in Italy have already found some clues, Italy seems to be planning a large-scale military operation, and the main army corps is retreating from the Italian-French border and beginning to move towards the east of the peninsula.

This joint exercise between France and Germany has a very clear purpose, claiming to be a military command and technical exchange, but in fact it is keeping a close eye on Spain and Italy, and in the event of a sudden accident, this fleet will be the first wave of intervention forces.

Xu Jun could no longer tolerate problems in the Balkans, and these intricate nation-states had more than enough success and failure, and the combination of these chicken-ribbed states constituted a chaotic quagmire, and Germany must not afford to waste precious troops and energy in such a place until the next war broke out. The High Command and the Army Command agreed that the crisis should be struck at the moment of its outbreak to kill the root cause of the crisis in its infancy. The Germans had now assembled a rapid reaction group on the Austrian border to monitor movements along the Apennine line.

However, at present, the part of the country that has historically taken refuge in Germany is still handing out an olive branch to Germany in this time and space, Romania and Bulgaria have clearly expressed their intention to join the new European order, although they are not very interested in the Nazi theory, but they are more worried about the threat of the neighbor in the north, they hate Soviet Russia more than they hate the German Nazis, and every breath of the red bear will make them tremble.

Xu Jun's Germany had already dominated Europe at this time, and politically there was no longer a need to co-opt the small Balkan countries, and he had been thinking about whether he should pull them into the alliance as he did in history, these countries had a pile of internal problems and contradictions with each other, and there must be a strong enough alliance to unite them, but this alliance leader would be very, very hard. Xu Jun was ready to hold a discussion with the leaders of Britain and France, which, in his opinion, were suitable as buffers, but he feared that direct co-optation would eventually become a burden.

It is already clear that these countries do not provide much of the resources that Germany needs, that they are struggling to supply even their own goods, and that many poor regions still dominate the economy with ancient agriculture. Unlike Hungary and Poland, which have a large amount of farmland for irrigation and reclamation, and do not have a large amount of pasture for the development of animal husbandry, although some basic industries have been developed in various countries, they can only be classified as third-rate industries in Europe in terms of technology and scale. To support them, it will take a lot of manpower, material resources and funds to invest, not to mention that European countries are still busy rebuilding on their own, just looking at the current situation, Europe simply does not have so much time to wait for them to complete these upgrades. These drawbacks have caused Xu Jun to have been unable to make up his mind, and he can only take one step at a time and look at it slowly.

"I replied to him at the time, although I did feel some regret to leave Europe at such a critical moment, but the Führer's order was indisputable, and as German officers, we could only resolutely obey it." Standing on an extension trestle in the port of Toulon, Klaus. Feng. Captain Stauffenberg said to his companion with a firm expression on his belt, holding the belt around his waist.

"So you just came here with a marching bag?" Binz. Captain Horn smiled and dusted his hair off and put on his soft-capped combat cap again.

"It's a pleasure to work with you again, Captain Horn." Stauffenberg smiled at Horn.

"I'm glad to work with you, Lord Earl." Horn winked playfully at the other.

"You're really joking, okay, is this the big guy we're going to ride? I've seen her drawings before, and I've never seen an airplane this big in my life. Stauffenberg didn't like to joke about his title, so he quickly tried to change the subject.

"Of course, the newest long-range water transport aircraft in Germany, they nicknamed him "Viking", and I always thought it should be called "giant" or "flying fast sailer" or something like that. Captain Horn helped Stauffenberg with his luggage and walked with the other side to the huge seaplane.

"We'll leave in the afternoon, fly directly to Cairo from here, then stay for one night, fly directly to Mumbai, India, early tomorrow morning, and if the journey goes well, we'll be able to reach Saigon the afternoon the day after tomorrow, and I'll put your luggage on the plane first, and I'll take you to the French naval officers' canteen in the port of Toulon, where all kinds of delicious food are served twenty-four hours a day." Captain Horn gave an enthusiastic introduction.

"Are all the personnel and equipment ready?" Talking about the task, Stauffenberg immediately stepped into the role.

"It's all here, I'll introduce you one by one later, this time you are the commander, and my task is to fully cooperate with your command." Captain Horn carried Stauffenberg's marching bag and expertly jumped onto the gangplank that connected the cabin to the trestle.

"Be careful, it's going to be a little shaky here." Captain Horn reminded.

Count Stauffenberg, the famous "traitor" in the history of the Third Reich, is still controversial in the 21st century, with some people seeing him as a hero who sacrificed his life against the barbaric Nazis, but also a large number of survivors who lived through that era and regarded him as a traitor who betrayed his homeland. But by this time in the '40s, the count was a staunch Nazi supporter, and undoubtedly one of the most hardcore supporters and admirers of the new Reich Führer.

Stauffenberg was born into a noble family, with the hereditary title of Counts of Stauffenburg, but he also had an additional hereditary title of Schenck (i.e., Governor), and the Counts of Stauffenberg had a long history and produced many talents, which can be regarded as a model of a famous family. During the Weimar Republic, in order to appease popular anger against the privileged classes, the government ordered that all German nobles be stripped of their privileges and decreed that no nobles would ever be granted to anyone in Germany again. Originally, the nobles were only allowed to have their own titles in their names to show the honor of the family, so Stauffenberg's full name should be Klaus. Philip. Maria. Justinian. Schenck. Earl. Feng. Stauffenberg.

The young earl, who was haunted by the defeat of Germany in the last war, joined the 17th Cavalry Regiment of the Wehrmacht at the age of eighteen, where he was a traditional son of his family, and then studied cavalry command tactics at the Dresden Infantry School, then at the Hanover Cavalry School, and finally entered the Berlin Military Academy, where he graduated with honors and was assigned to the 6th Panzer Division as a second class staff officer.

Because of the close personal ties between the Junker aristocratic officers, he was soon transferred to the Army Command Gilded, where he showed excellent administrative skills and was almost recommended as an adjutant to Brumberg, who was then the commander-in-chief of the army. But he smelled the intrigue in this appointment, and resolutely refused to appoint it at that time. The motivator behind this was a group of people led by General Baker, who was then chief of staff of the army, who believed that the count should have been born to be their ally, because Hitler was known for his contempt and dislike for the nobility of the old Reich in the army.

How did they expect that the Count had become a staunch Nazi supporter, and that Stauffenberg was convinced of the Nazi propaganda doctrine and that Hitler was a great man capable of rebuilding Germany. He raised his hands to welcome the invasion of Poland, as the old Prussian aristocracy, hatred for the Poles was already engraved in the blood, not to mention the fact that Poland occupied a large part of German territory at this time. It was necessary to colonize and rule Poland systematically, and the young Stauffenberg carefully recorded these words in his diary after the Polish campaign.

After the start of the French campaign, he was even more excited, and he could finally lead the German army to avenge the defeat of the last battle. Hitler's sudden death once made him feel at a loss, the birth of the new Führer let him see the light again in the confusion, what surprised him was that the former deputy Führer, who had kept a low profile, turned out to be a war genius, his strategic vision and tactical literacy were hundreds of times stronger than Hitler, not only turned the tide of the war that began to turn sharply in one fell swoop, but also continuously gave the main army of Britain and France a devastating blow, which was simply a great figure like Frederick the Great, and what made the count even more excited was that The young Führer also had Feng in his name.

Before the outbreak of the English War, he was transferred back to the Army Command, and then transferred to the High Command as an administrative officer, responsible for the organization of the army, a crucial position, often seen as the road to the high command, at which point everyone could see that the thirty-two-year-old earl had a bright future.

This time, Xu Jun personally sent him out by name, not for any precautions. His Excellency was indeed taken aback by this name when the earl came to his office to hand in the report, and he didn't even know that this person was actually working in the headquarters, and the Führer Xu couldn't help but glance under the desk to see if there was a briefcase at the foot of the desk.

After flipping through the personnel investigation report handed in by the Eye of Odin, Xu Jun found that this earl turned out to be his fanatical supporter at this time, which was simply a great irony given by reality. However, given the historical change in his thinking after the fiasco at Stalingrad, the most critical trigger was after his injury in North Africa, when he was transferred from the front-line troops to the officer reserve battalion, a transitional body that converted officers into reserves, and this treatment made him feel abandoned and betrayed, although he was later reused through connections within the organization, but by then he was deeply involved in the coup plot and could not turn back.

This time Xu Jun's appointment of Captain Earl is actually an experiment for him, Xu Jun wants to see if he has changed the history of this time and space, whether the fate of those famous people in history will also be changed, whether the environment changes people's hearts, or the character determines fate, Xu Jun wants to see the difference in Captain Stauffenberg. (To be continued.) )