Mediterranean hegemon

On October 28, a shocking scene appeared on the streets of Rome. Originally, students were hiding from the police to paste slogans, big-character posters, and distribute leaflets. But starting from this morning, the students did not care about the police's expressions at all, and swaggered in Rome joints openly posted and delivered goods, and the police seemed to be possessed by them and turned a blind eye to these actions. By the afternoon, every place with a large flow of people was covered with slogans, and even the door of each police station was posted. Big-character posters, but no one seems to tear them down or destroy them.

In the evening, something even more puzzling to Rome citizens and shopkeepers happened. Radical students began to hand out leaflets door-to-door in the main business district. The police not only ignored them, but even took the initiative to help the students break open shop doors, ordering shopkeepers, shop assistants and even Customers were obedient and cooperative; there were students distributing leaflets at the entrance of cinemas and theaters, and the police actively helped maintain order, fearing that people who came to watch would not take them.

This is of course not that the police have changed their temper, but that Grandini has received intelligence: Fakda tried to appease Fascist by reorganizing the cabinet and giving up several cabinet positions to the leaders of the Black Shirts, but this The request was bluntly rejected by Mussolini, who even made a public speech in Milan:

"Dear gentlemen, this is not a frivolous matter of political parties or cabinet changes. This march is of a much broader and more serious nature. In the past three years, small battles and small robberies have made life difficult for the people, so I will never put down my butcher knife. , we must win all the victories. I not only hope to change the policy of the Italian government, but also change the direction of the Italian people's lives. At this moment when the future and destiny of Italy are related, how can we allow dirty politicians to deal?

War has been declared and we are going to go ahead and bring it to a conclusion. Do you understand this? The war had begun, civil war spread across the country, and young people were armed. I am now in a leadership position, leading rather than following. I do not want to taint the history of the resurrection of Italian youth with compromises. This is the last battle - it will complete the feat in the history of our country and it cannot be aborted by compromise..."

All people who understand politics know that the Fakda cabinet can neither suppress the Black Shirts with tough measures such as martial law and suppression, nor can it tolerate the Black Shirts with soft compromises. His downfall has entered a countdown, and the police Their unusual performance also reached the ears of King Emmanuel III:

"Your Majesty, Prime Minister Fakda has completely lost control of the situation. Now even the police in Rome are completely on the side of the Black Shirts... As for students in secondary and higher schools in Rome, they announced their support for Musso a few days ago. Rini..." The king's aide-de-camp, General Siddardini, reported everything he had.

"Grandini is smarter than him." Emmanuel III muttered. He didn't know that these trends were completely created by Contini, and asked, "What should we do now?"

"If we don't send out the army, the black shirt army won't be able to suppress it."

"You can't use the army, absolutely not! There are hundreds of thousands of black shirts, and most of them are armed. It will be a protracted civil war..." The king thought for a moment, "Let Mussolini form a cabinet. I hope he can regain stability."

"Is this okay?"

"If he can't do it, then we won't have anything to say about making another substitution."

On the morning of October 29, the king summoned Fakdah and suggested that he resign voluntarily, saying that this was the need of the situation. In fact, Fakdah already knew the news. His Liberal Party held an emergency meeting last night, and the leftists decided to take a desperate risk. However, the right thought that they could cooperate with Mussolini - the Black Shirts were in the opposition after all. Mussolini had never been a serious bureaucrat or parliamentarian, so it would be easy to ignore him if he suddenly became prime minister.

Due to the disagreement between the two factions, the mentally and physically exhausted Fakda did not dare to let go of the suppression, nor was he willing to succumb to Mussolini, so he simply resigned.

Upon receiving his resignation request, Emmanuel III immediately agreed and then instructed General Siddardini to call Mussolini and invite him to come to Rome to form a cabinet as soon as possible. Fearing fraud, the scheming Mussolini was not satisfied with a phone call and asked the other party to inform him of the same news in the form of a formal telegram. The telegram did arrive two hours later. Although it was only sent in the name of Siddadini, the message was very clear:

"Urgent. Mussolini. Milan.

The king has summoned you to come to Rome quickly, and plans to entrust you with the important task of forming a cabinet. That’s it. "

"Hahahaha, did you see that? The king invited me to form a cabinet!" Mussolini said to the people around him in surprise, "We succeeded!"

"Long live the leader!"

People around him rushed forward, showering compliments and congratulations on Mussolini as if they were free of money.

Although the elated Mussolini was happy, he was not completely carried away: on the one hand, he immediately notified the headquarters of the Perugia and the Blackshirt Party in Milan to speed up the march, and on the other hand, he ordered the "Italian People's Daily" to use the fastest speed to report the royal family. The full text of the telegram was notified to the whole country in the form of "extra number". After deploying these two points, he suddenly remembered the chess pieces of Little Ciano and Monsignor Grandini, and asked someone to send the telegram.

"Mr. Grandini and Mr. Ciano, I am about to be ordered to form a cabinet. During this period, the order and welcome ceremony in Rome are entrusted to you! Mussolini."

This telegram vaguely recognized the identity and status of Ciano and Grandini, and even meant to compare them.

In fact, the two of them already knew the news that the king had ordered Mussolini to form a cabinet. Grandini was not only shocked by how quickly the situation developed, but also shocked by Contini's amazing prediction ability - he said it would take five days, but it took only two days. There was earth-shaking news.

Now that he had this telegram in hand, a big stone fell to his heart: he was most afraid that Mussolini and others would cross the river and burn the bridge, and turn their backs and refuse to admit their mistakes.

"The situation is obvious now. The leader will come to Rome soon - maybe in 3 or 4 days. Our time will be very tight." Contini said to Grandini, "Organize the Roman citizens to welcome I am responsible for presiding over the ceremony, but I need you to give me the necessary help. To maintain social order and stability, you must personally take charge... In particular, some thorns may jump out eagerly at this moment, and they must be properly disciplined to prevent them. They're causing trouble for you!"

Grandini nodded calmly. The so-called "thorns" naturally refer to those media reporters and public intellectuals who opposed Mussolini. During the Fakda period, they turned a blind eye to these people in order to fight for power and altruism. , now that he has made up his mind to defect to Mussolini, these characters must naturally be arranged "properly".

He nodded: "I will do it all."

After saying this, he suddenly felt a strange feeling in his heart, as if the Contini in front of him was not a 19-year-old college student, but a friend he could make with his peers. He thought of the few incompetent people in his family. The playboy felt very uncomfortable, but when he thought about it, what he said was different: "This... my eldest son Poti is also studying in college... this..."

His original intention was to hope that Contini could make some arrangements, show his face to Poti, build relationships and pave the way, but he couldn't say anything anymore.

After listening to him hesitating for a long time, Contini smiled. Of course he knew what kind of virtue Poti was, but he still pretended to be surprised and said: "So Poti is your son? No wonder he is so outstanding! He is the deputy director of our alliance. Sir, I am an expert in organizing activities. I must have learned this from you..."

With just one word, Contini turned Poti, who was still fooling around outside and had never known what a student movement was, into his deputy in the league - of course, it is not possible to expect such a young man to do things, but arranging a false name, There's no problem letting him show up at the welcome ceremony.

Grandini laughed. It was a pleasure to deal with smart people. He patted Contini on the shoulder: "Send a telegram to greet your father and say that I am waiting for him and the leader in Rome!"