Ciano's authority in Italy has long been no secret. Even Mussolini knew very well that his son-in-law, relying on his father-in-law, the prime minister, had been pretending to be powerful for a long time.
Indeed, Ciano is a good foreign minister, but he is not a good subordinate.
Although Ciano gave Mussolini advice, solved many troubles, and avoided many risks. However, his utilitarianism was too strong, and even a foreign minister could not satisfy his ambitions.
But this time, Ciano prepared a further plan, and even his two most trusted cronies felt that he was too impatient.
Because Mussolini was hospitalized several times in the past, his control over most domestic government affairs has indeed declined. However, the decline did not fall into Ciano's pocket, but was completely eliminated by Italian Deputy Prime Minister Rossi.
Packed in the bag.
Now, the domestic political situation in Italy is actually very complicated.
On the one hand, although Mussolini was divided twice in power by Ciano and Rossi, he was still the leader of Italy after all, with a strong voice and many close friends.
On the other hand, Rossi took advantage of Mussolini's repeated hospitalizations to take over some important domestic institutions.
During the "Operation Ballista" when the British army attacked the French port of Oran, Rossi even single-handedly supported Admiral Leifer of the Italian Navy, dispatching 2 main battleships, 2 Dreadnought-class battleships, and 3 "Zara" ships.
"class heavy cruisers, 4 "Giusanno" class light cruisers, and 12 destroyers of various types, which severely damaged part of the British Mediterranean Fleet, plus the entire British task force, and captured a large number of aircraft carriers including the Ark Royal.
Excellent warship.
This battle was Rossi's toughest battle ever.
What Rossi used various means to piece together at that time was also the essence of the entire Italian Navy.
During the First World War in the Mediterranean, Italian Admiral Leifer became famous and became a famous admiral in the Italian Navy. This most belligerent admiral in Italy also established a certain degree of friendship with Rossi.
In addition, Mussolini later punished Leifer, a great hero, without reward, and Rossi specially sent people to greet him and win over him. Now Leifer is obviously leaning towards Deputy Prime Minister Rossi.
And with the support of Leifer, who is increasingly famous in the navy, Rossi will undoubtedly have a lot of help from the navy.
As for Mussolini, he relied on the Italian Blackshirts who had many of his cronies to control the Italian army, which meant that he had the Italian Army as his backing.
Now, only Ciano's manpower remains in politics.
For Ciano, his popularity and connections in the military were almost zero.
Fortunately, Ciano is also a scheming "shepherd", and he will naturally not allow himself to have no backup plan.
Therefore, during last year's Italian-French war, Ciano took the initiative to secure the position of commander of the Italian Air Force's bomber squadron in Pisa, working part-time as half of the "Soldier Minister."
On the surface, this was Ciano expressing his loyalty to Mussolini and using practical actions to express his support for Mussolini's determination to launch a war against France.
But in fact, Ciano, who had always opposed war with France, adopted this second policy after he was convinced that Mussolini would never agree to avoid participating in the war.
The Navy has always been the target of Deputy Prime Minister Rossi, and the Army is controlled by leader Mussolini through the Black Shirts. If Ciano wants to get help from the military, he can only start with the Air Force.
Fortunately, although Army General Gambara suffered a humiliating defeat in the Italian-French war, the air force commanded by Ciano was still progressing smoothly in all its set goals.
Although it was taken because the French Air Force was almost contained in the north by the German Air Force and had no time to go south. However, this also made Ciano famous.
At least, since Ciano was in the Air Force, the Air Force did not lose.
Afterwards, Ciano boasted privately: "The main force of the French army was also contained in the north by the Germans. Our army used 32 divisions to attack 5 French divisions and failed. In the end, I still
The Air Force made a lot of contributions to the victory."
The reason why Ciano said this was precisely to prepare for his future relationship with the Air Force.
Ciano saw clearly that in today's Italian military, Rossi and Mussolini were actually practicing nepotism. Of course, this is something that any high-level leader would do. Ciano himself was in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The same is done.
After all, the most important thing to lead a group is performance. The most basic thing is to be able to command everyone under you.
If people can’t direct people, it’s impossible to achieve results.
As for the theory that ability is paramount and talent is the priority, that is all nonsense.
Ability is always ranked lower than loyalty. Isn't this the same not only in Italy but also in Germany?
As a member of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is in contact with the international community, Ciano also knows a thing or two about Germany's internal personnel arrangements.
He could see that although the German head of state Reinhard also promoted capable generals such as Guderian and Manstein.
But at the most core position, such as the commander-in-chief of the SS, Steve, although his abilities are there, he does fall behind most of Germany's senior generals.
Let’s talk about the German Minister Ross who had a lot of contact with Ciano. This person is known as Reinhard’s first confidant. But in Ciano’s eyes, it is not difficult to find out after contact that he is just a crazy person.
The abilities of the fanatics who worship Reinhardt are really limited.
It can be seen from this that only fools are meritocratic and do not try to promote their own confidants at all.
Ciano, who has been full of ambition since childhood, believes that to be a leader, he has more or less abilities. To be a good leader, what he needs is not to promote a group of people to be his brains and to serve him.
Thinking. What he wants is some useful hands and feet, so that he can faithfully carry out his instructions.
But for now, both Ciano and Deputy Prime Minister Rossi are still eyeing the title of Mussolini's confidant. In the final analysis, their confidence is still a little low.
In the Royal Italian Air Force, Ciano has spent a lot of money and won over a group of generals.
But this is not enough!
Now that time has passed, he can slowly continue to win people's hearts. The best option is to first obtain the support of the King of Italy and use this relationship to further connect the Royal Italian Air Force with himself.
Finally, if a bomber squad can be mobilized from the Air Force, Mussolini can be eliminated at the right time.
When the king appoints a new prime minister, it will be his chance to rise to the top!
