The news of the Italian dispatch finally gave Zhao Zeyong a sigh of relief. If these pigs had brains and thoughts and were not here for the British, it would be difficult. Even if he killed the British army in Jiujiang, the Italians would not be able to handle it. What should we do in Shanghai? We can't take risks. Let's send the army to Shanghai. They stay in Shanghai and finally draw a concession in accordance with the standards of the great powers. By then, will the top of the revolutionary government be able to withstand the pressure? Now it is finally confirmed that the Italians are coming. Zhao Zeyong breathed a sigh of relief and became happy at the same time. This time it would not be like the British did last time. They would never let them reach Jiujiang calmly. They would let the Italians be buried in the Yangtze River on the way. Their so-called rescue army would never There will be a chance to meet the people they rescue, but of course meeting them in a prisoner of war camp does not count. The first line of defense to contain the Italians is Anqing. During the British occupation of Anqing, a large number of military facilities, airports, warehouses and even hospitals were built. In addition to seizing a large amount of supplies from the British when Li Zongren occupied Anqing, Li Zongren also completely inherited various facilities built by the British because he almost took over Anqing peacefully. After Li Zongren left, the federal provincial army continued to build and improve various military facilities using supplies from the British. It took more than a month to expand and expand Anqing Airport. It can now park a thousand aircraft, and has reserved enough aircraft. Fuel, as soon as the Italians come to Anqing waters, they will be given an impressive meeting gift. Outside Anqing, the United Nations has built a number of small airports on the north bank of the Yangtze River, which are used to track and trace ships on the Yangtze River. We will never tolerate the British occupying Jiujiang like last time. If the Italians try to land this time, they will be stopped by the United Provincial Air Force as soon as possible. The Italians did not surprise anyone. They did not try to land anywhere along the coast and then advance by land and water. Instead, they went straight to Jiujiang. Perhaps it was because the Italians were full of confidence, or perhaps because the troop transports pulling them and the warships escorting them were all British troops, anyway, they just ran straight towards Jiujiang. The federal provincial officers were dumbfounded at this sight. I have seen people who are not afraid of death, but I have never seen people who are so eager to die. You should attack Anqing after all. Don't you know that there are a large number of joint provincial troops there? You don't know that if you don't capture Anqing, your retreat will not be guaranteed. You must know that when the British army occupied this place, didn't it have the strategic intention of ensuring their retreat? After being captured by the United Provinces. The old British general almost died of anger. But the Italians, on the other hand, turned a blind eye to this place and drove straight upstream without even looking at Anqing. The Anqing garrison was also quite surprised. They had already drawn up a battle plan on how to defend themselves against the Italian army's attack. How to counterattack and how to eliminate the Italian troops to the greatest extent possible. It's better now, people don't pay attention to you at all. Seeing this situation, Zhao Zeyong suddenly had an idea and asked the Anqing troops to let the Italians go. Li Zongren is a sensible person after all, and he will not be like Tang Yuzong, who always cannot control his ambition. Li Zongren obeyed the order very well. When the mighty Italian troop transport ship and the British convoy sailed past Anqing and marched upwards for more than ten kilometers, the second order came as scheduled, as Li Zongren expected. The federal air force began to roar, starting from Anqing and heading straight for Italian troop transports and British warships. Li Zongren couldn't help but shake his head at this moment. He used to think that the Western army was very powerful. He had seen the British army and thought it was nothing more than that. Now it seems that in many aspects, the armies of the great powers are child's play. Originally, according to the battle plan, when Jiujiang lured the armies of the great powers, Anqing would be responsible for blocking them. If the Italian army attacked Anqing, the complete fortifications built by Anqing during this period would come into play, while defending against the Italian attack. . The Air Force began to bombard their troop ships desperately, causing the Italian troops on the ship to fall into the water, and those who landed would have no ship to go back to. In other words, the United Provinces intends to completely eliminate the Italians in Anqing. But I didn¡¯t expect that their fleet did not attack Anqing at all. Then an order came from Zhao Zeyong telling them not to attack either. Li Zongren saw the root cause at a glance. This was another big game the United Provinces wanted to play. Letting everyone go in Italy meant that their troop transports and escort warships would sail safely between Anqing and Jiujiang. These two cities will be like two locks, tightly locking their fleet. In other words, the senior officials of the federal province, or Zhao Zeyong, have an appetite that not only wants to eat tens of thousands of Italian troops, but is also very interested in more than a dozen British escort warships, and wants to eat all the British warships as well. Seeing that the British and Italian naval forces made such low-level mistakes, Li Zongren guessed that this plan should have come from Zhao Feng. Zhao Zeyong had only a little knowledge of military affairs, and it was probably impossible for Zhao Zeyong to think of making such changes to the military plan in a short period of time. Come. It would be easier to explain if it was Zhao Feng. The last time he sniped at the British fleet in Qizhou, he ended up destroying the troop transport and letting the warships escape. In the end, Hu Wan scolded all the officers under his command as useless, and Zhu Yu De and Hu WanThere was a falling out. Zhao Feng was also one of the senior officers who commanded that time. At that time, Tang Yuzong was just an officer in charge of execution. If it hadn't been for that failure, maybe Tang Yuzong would not have taken on the big responsibility of commanding the attack on Jiujiang, but Zhao Feng would have continued to command. Bar. This time Zhao Feng must want to avenge his past humiliation. It seems that the British warship is doomed. The British and Italians really shouldn't have made such a stupid mistake. Zhao Feng would be damned if he didn't seize this opportunity. For a moment, Li Zongren was a little worried about the enemy. "But why the British and Italians made such low-level mistakes is not without reason. Under normal circumstances, these two armies would not make such a mistake. Because both the British and Italian armies are armies that have gone through a series of World War I. No matter how unbearable they are, they will not really have no military knowledge at all. But the bad thing is that this time it is a joint operation between two countries, with the Italian army and the British navy. "If it were just the Italians, they would definitely capture Anqing. Similarly, if it were the British, they would not let Anqing be the nail behind them. But now there are two armies fighting, which have different strategic intentions and interests. The fact is that for their own interests and intentions, the British deceived the Italians. The British always believe that the reason why they failed. The fundamental reason why the army was surrounded in Jiujiang was because they underestimated the enemy. The fact is that part of the reason is indeed due to underestimating the enemy. If they had not underestimated the enemy, the British would not have placed only a few troops in Anqing, and finally let Li Zongren steal his retreat. If they had not underestimated the enemy, they would not have only sent 10,000 troops. Go attack Ruichang. They were defeated by Tang Yuzong and then took the opportunity to attack Jiujiang. If they had not underestimated the enemy, they would not have dared to send only 100,000 people to confront the 300,000 troops of the United Provinces. The British underestimated the enemy because they had never encountered the federal army and had no experience fighting against the federal army. Now it's the Italians' turn, and the Italians have no such experience. Therefore, the Italians also underestimated the enemy. A large part of the reason why the British despise the federal army is due to racial prejudice. White people have been running around the world for hundreds of years and have never encountered an opponent. Therefore, all kinds of disgusting theories of racial superiority are ingrained in their blood. , full of contempt and discrimination against other races. Among the yellow people, let alone China, which has been in decline for a hundred years, even the newly rising Japanese, they don't take it seriously. Italians also have this problem, and they are more serious than the British. The Italians have always been a soft persimmon in Europe. Historically, they have been bullied by the French, bullied by the Austrians, and have been unified by the Germans. After beating the Austrians and the French one after another, they took the opportunity to unify their country. But then they were ranked at the bottom of the European powers, and they could only bully Africans. They were vulnerable to any great power, whether it was Austria or France, not to mention Germany. Coupled with the weakest economy, it got the nickname of pauper imperialism. Italy is nothing in Europe, but they are still white, and they still look down on other races. And because they have been unable to hold their head high in Europe. On the contrary, their racial discrimination is very prevalent, and their suppressed inferiority complex is vented on other races without reservation, showing a hysterical sense of superiority. Even in later generations, Italians have the strongest tradition of racial discrimination, stronger than the United States, France, and the United Kingdom. Although Italy¡¯s status in Europe is somewhat embarrassing, they have a glorious history, and the glory of the Roman Empire is what they yearn for. Now that they have a madman like Mussolini in power, they have even set restoring the glory of the Roman Empire as a goal. It further fueled the ambitions of the Italians and made them look down upon the Chinese. So this time when the Italians arrived in China, they did not fight first, but gave the troops a holiday so that they could have fun in Shanghai. The officers had another mission. They also inspected Shanghai, inspected the economy of the concession, inspected Shanghai's people's sentiments, and Shanghai's geography. Before Mussolini sent troops, he gave the officers a task to examine the feasibility of Italian expansion in China. Shanghai is the best place for Italy to expand its power. The Italian officers were very envious of the prosperity of the French Concession, the British-American Concession and even the Japanese Concession in Shanghai. They called Mussolini back and said that Shanghai is undoubtedly the center of the East and the center of Eastern power. Italy should have a piece of its own here. The concession must demonstrate its power here like Britain, the United States, France and other powerful countries. The officer¡¯s report was very pleasing to Mussolini. He could not tolerate that in Shanghai, the center of the Eastern world, Britain, the United States, France and even Japan had concessions, but the Italians did not. Therefore, Mussolini had decided that after rescuing the British army, becoming the savior of the British, and showing his force in front of the Chinese, he would immediately seize a piece of Shanghai as an Italian concession. So when the Italians left Shanghai, they were reluctant to leave.From their point of view, a certain area here has become their place. But getting back to the subject, even if the Italians look down on the Chinese and have great confidence in their own army, for the Italians, the British army is a lesson learned from the past. It was because of the fall of Anqing that they became passive. Now the Italians are making the same mistake, ignoring Anqing in the rear and going directly to Jiujiang. Do they think that the British army, who are also white, will be defeated by the Chinese army, and they will not have the same fate? On this issue , in fact, the Italian commander communicated with the British naval commander Cunningham, but Cunningham did not tell the truth. At first, it was because it was too embarrassing to tell the truth. It was hard to say that the majestic British Empire was defeated by the Chinese. Later, it was because he deliberately wanted to deceive Italian fools. When the Italians first inquired about the situation, Cunningham, for the sake of the honor of the British Army, shifted all the responsibility to the colonial Indian soldiers in the British army, saying that it was their betrayal that led to the fall of Anqing. This is indeed the case. However, in the Jiujiang area, the British were really defeated head-on. Although Cunningham had to take care of the honor of the British, as a navy, he did not need to excuse the army too much. But later he also lied about the Jiujiang issue. Because the United Provinces suddenly launched a fierce attack on Jiujiang at that time, Cunningham believed that the arrival of the Italian army made the Chinese feel the crisis and tried to capture Jiujiang as soon as possible. So Cunningham wanted to trick the Italians into going to Jiujiang quickly and not waste time on Anqing, so he panicked. Cunningham told the Italian commander that the reason why the British army in Jiujiang also suffered a defeat was actually for unspeakable reasons. For this reason, the British military wanted to save their own face. It has never been made public. The reason was the rebellion of Indian soldiers. Since most of the troops garrisoned in Anqing were Indian soldiers, it was really difficult to suppress it. However, under conditions in Jiujiang, the military blocked the news. After all, it sounded very strange for troops in their own colonies to betray the mother country. Not nice. After the Indian soldiers rebelled, the Chinese took the opportunity to mobilize several times their troops. A shameless sneak attack on the British army led to the defeat of the British army. However, despite the defeat, the heroic British army still used a small number of troops to save Jiujiang. This is enough to show that the combat effectiveness of the Chinese army is low. The reason why they were able to gain a slight advantage before was entirely due to the British army's bad luck, civil strife and their shameless sneak attack. The Italians accepted this statement. Because they could not think of a reason why the white army, the British Army, would fail. In the eyes of Italians, the combat effectiveness of the British army should be comparable to that of the Italian army. Are we all forces of the great powers? Therefore, after the British concealed and deceived, and finally added flattery and deception, the Italian commander finally accepted the idea of ??not wasting time in Anqing and directly transported the troops to Jiujiang, and then eliminated the main force of the Chinese army. A wave shocked the Chinese. If Zhao Zeyong knew the British style, he would definitely scold the British for being shameless, even though the British deceived Italy, their current enemy, the Italian army. But Zhao Zeyong still wanted to scold. The British have a habit of deceiving and betraying their allies. During World War II, the British never gave guarantees to the French. As a result, the French never dared to be tough on the Nazis. They appeased the Nazis step by step. He became stronger and eventually launched World War II. In the Asian theater, the British continued to betray the Chinese Expeditionary Force in Burma. When the Japanese invaded Burma and the British needed Chinese reinforcements, they still did not allow the Chinese army to enter Burma in large numbers. Only a small number of Chinese troops were allowed to enter. The British thought that it would be enough for a small number of Chinese troops to enter. We gave them cover, and they kept running away. In the end, the Chinese army suffered a heavy loss and had to accept the failure of the first battle into Myanmar. The British withdrew their troops from Myanmar as they wished, at the cost of tens of thousands of casualties of the expeditionary force. By using the sacrifices of the Chinese people to create opportunities for them to retreat or escape, the selfish and despicable humanity of the British was fully revealed. And that is a matter for later generations, and it is the history of another time and space. This time and space will definitely not happen. But in this time and space, because of the arrival of Zhao Zeyong, the British had another opportunity to cheat their ally. At this time, this ally was the Italians. The interests and strategic intentions of the British and Italians are different. They were different from the beginning. The Italians raised their international status and influence by rescuing the British army, and at the same time showed their force by sending troops to China. Let the Chinese surrender and then carve out concessions from China. Then the Chinese will not dare to object, and the British will not be able to object. Their goal will be very easy to achieve. As for the British, they just want the Italians to help them rescue their besieged troops. After rescuing their own people, they don't care what the Italians like to do. The British even thought that after Jiujiang was relieved of the siege, they would immediately send them back to Shanghai because their own troops were tired and leave the Italian troops in Jiujiang. The Italians mightIn order to show force, they will be willing to stay. As for how they will be beaten by the Chinese later, it is none of the British business. If they need British warships to rescue them at that time, it depends on the mood of the British. There is still a chance. Therefore, the British did not care about the Anqing issue at all, because they did not think about how long they would stay in Jiujiang. In other words, just like the British allowed the Chinese Expeditionary Force to enter Burma during World War II, their intention was to run away. It was for them to cut off the rear, and the one who took on this role at this time was the Italian. ¡°There is no doubt that the Italians were deceived, by the shameless British. ps: It¡¯s another big chapter. I¡¯ve become used to writing big chapters recently. It seems that one less page means one less click. People are asking me whether I should split it up and post a few more chapters. Based on the word count of the recent chapters, there should be four chapters a day. no problem.