My Italy

The battle on Crete is still continuing, but despite the guidance of the leading party, the intensity of the defenders' resistance has not diminished at all. These Austrian officers and soldiers wearing round hats simply live and die with the position. This made the attacking Guards and Marines very troubled.

In fact, anyone with a clear eye can see that the Ottoman defenders can no longer resist for much longer.

Because the right time, place, and people are not on their side, defeat is inevitable sooner or later.

But the Ottoman army just didn't understand and must surrender conditionally. The only thing they did was to ensure the safety of their lives and property. Personal safety is okay, but Italy cannot guarantee the safety of property.

This is not because Italy must want their property, but that the Cretans, who are about to become independent, do not want the Ottomans to leave with their property.

Because a lot of the property of these people was looted from Crete. This is the people's wealth of Crete, and the Ottomans must spit it out.

So how big are these properties?

Take Lieutenant General Mukhtan, the commander of the island, as an example. He currently owns 2.6-3.1 million Ottoman liras in property in Crete. As for other officers at all levels, their property ownership varies according to their positions, but at least it is Starting from 50,000 Lira. The highest property owner is Edisi, the governor of Crete, who owns property worth 6 to 8 million Ottoman lire.

According to Cretan estimates, these Ottomans owned property worth no less than five million pounds.

Well, since the Cretans demanded so strongly, it was natural for the Italian army, as the liberator, to reject the other party's request.

Some may ask, why did the Ottomans leave so much property behind? Shouldn't they have transferred it after the war broke out?

The person who asked this obviously didn't know the composition of his property, as most of his holdings were various real estate properties. For example, houses, manors, mines, or shares in factories and workshops, etc. How can this be moved away?

Moreover, even if they want to sell it at a low price, it won't work, because the Italians only gave them more than ten days from the declaration of war to the landing on the island. And who would buy these from them after the war breaks out, there is a high chance of losing all their money.

Therefore, in order to protect their property, the local Ottoman army fought desperately. After all, as the old saying goes, people die for wealth and birds die for food. The ancients did not deceive me.

However, in the view of General Grovey, who commanded this battle, these Ottomans were obsessed with money and were completely concerned about money and not their lives.

Of course, if General Grovey did not discuss with Solari and others in Crete how to distribute this wealth, then his words would be more credible.

After a while, Hibok and everyone on Crete walked into General Grove's headquarters.

Hibok now serves as a bridge for negotiations between Italy and the Cretans. Basically, if you have any requirements, just ask him. The previous task of finding a guide was General Grover who asked him to do it. The effect was very good, and the officers and soldiers on the front line recognized it very much.

Of course, this is mainly due to General Grove making demands on behalf of Italy, and the Cretans currently have demands from Italy, so they seldom mention them. However, I have mentioned it once before, hoping that Italy can try to take care of the local Cretans when fighting the Ottomans.

Faced with such a reasonable request, General Grovi certainly agreed. He then asked Italian officers and soldiers not to go too far if they saw people wearing civilian clothes during the offensive battle.

"General, this is a treaty of friendship and trade signed between our country and the Autonomous Government of Crete."

Before Hiback finished speaking, he handed a document to General Grove.

Facing the handed document, General Grove put it on the table and looked at the Cretans behind Hibok.

These people are the members of the provisional Cretan Autonomous Government, including Solari, the head of the provisional government, Hibok the Speaker, and others. These people are basically the achievements of Italy before.

Of course, judging from the job titles, Solari came out on top and got the position of leader, followed by speaker, minister and so on.

One more thing, the provisional government was established on the day of the landing in Italy. Although this was strongly opposed by the Unionists who wanted to merge with Greece, it was

Of course, no matter what their duties were, they all nodded and bowed to express their goodwill when facing General Grover's explanatory gaze.

Faced with the goodwill of these people, General Grover did not respond and opened the file and read it.

This document is not just about the Ottoman wealth distribution plan, it is also a crucial condition that was negotiated before, and was also required by Italy to be formally signed on the grounds of the establishment of a new government.

General Grove opened the document, and the first page read that Italy and the Republic of Crete were good neighbors and friendly, and the two countries unanimously decided to unify the tariffs between the two countries at 10%. Although this is not as good as the 5% tariff of our warm and hospitable Qing Dynasty, in Europe, this is already the lowest between the two countries.

In addition to the tariffs, of course, the nascent island of Crete would hire various advisors from Italy to guide the establishment of its government. In addition, the Cretans will also listen to Italy's opinions on the formation of the military and police in the future.

It can be said that apart from the fact that Crete has no garrison, the gap between Crete and Italian custody will not be too big. However, Crete is nominally an independent country. This is very important. It is also the reason why Solari and others are facing the United Nations This is a confident word to say when sending a message.

However, General Grovey is not completely at ease with the Cretan people who respect him now. After the overall situation is decided, the government will add a chain to these people. Of course it's none of his business.

"It's very good. I hope our two countries will have good neighborliness and friendship in the future."

After a quick glance at the papers, General Grover greeted them.

"sure!"

Seeing the looks of these people, Grover didn't even want to say a few more words. After waving his hands, these people left.

After these people left, Grovi began to pay attention to the war situation. Although the Ottomans in Crete were currently fighting a trapped beast, he still hoped to deal with the enemy in front of him as soon as possible. You must know that the Praetorian Guards and the First Marine Division he led were not just trying to capture Crete, they had many other things to do.

But he was not kept waiting long, as a staff officer hurried in. "General, the news just came from Chania. We have captured the city and the enemy has fled."

"good, very good."

Hearing this news made Grover burst into laughter.

"Immediately order the transport ship to go to Chania to unload heavy equipment, and then reinforce other places."

"As you command, General."

With the capture of Chania by Italy, a chain reaction seemed to have started. In the following three days, other cities were captured one after another. The defeated Ottoman troops of more than 6,000 troops retreated under the leadership of their commander Lieutenant General Mukhtan. Go to the mountain in the center of the island.

Although the Ottoman army has not been completely eliminated, these defeated soldiers have not affected the fact that Italy has captured Crete, and it will be a matter of time before it is eliminated in the future.

Although Crete was captured by Italy, this news was not too serious for Istanbul because there were more serious things that required its attention.