Early the morning of the next day after the war between the new United Kingdom and the Austro-Hungarian Empire on the war against Italy, a small and capable delegation arrived at the Spanish capital Madrid under the leadership of the new United Kingdom Prime Minister Emon Di Varira. In 1949, the old king Alfonso XIII was still alive, and the national power had gradually been transferred to the young and powerful Alfonso and the ambitious Prince Juan. The former was the eldest son of Alfonso XIII. He was decent, fair and frugal, and he was very popular with the people. Unfortunately, he was a hemophilia patient, and his physical condition was sometimes good and sometimes bad; the latter was Alfonso XIII's third son, the most intelligent and visionary member of the Spanish royal family, and received wide praise for promoting Spanish economic reform. He became Prime Minister in 1947 and became the steward of Spain's internal and diplomatic direction.

At the prince's residence in the suburbs of Madrid, Prince Juan met with the visiting guests in casual clothes. When shook hands with Hualila, he greeted him: "I haven't seen you for half a year. Your Excellency the Prime Minister has become much haggard. It seems that he has been worrying about national affairs recently!"

Compared with Prince Juan in his thirties, Emon Di Varira, who is nearly 70 years old, does look old and haggard. The reason is not that the government affairs of the new United Kingdom are difficult to manage. In fact, except for some small changes, this country has basically followed the operational model of the Kingdom of Ireland. The Welsh people, who are at an absolute disadvantage in population, economy and even military status, have gradually become accustomed to new identities and roles, and enjoy various social benefits after the merger with Ireland. On the contrary, Prince Juan wants to rack his brains to problems such as unbalanced economic development in various regions of Spain, underdeveloped transportation, medical education, and class revolutionary thoughts.

So, the Irish politician smiled calmly: "Thank you to the Prince for your concern, but I have caught a cold in the past few days, and I have no taste of it, no taste of it!"

Prince Juan invited visitors to sit down with a kind look on his face, and then asked: "I heard early in the morning that your navy won two crucial victories yesterday, and it was a great congratulation to teach the arrogant Italians a lesson!"

The Prime Minister of the New United Kingdom responded calmly: "I have little research on the military field. I have no clear concept of how victory can be called "critical". In fact, war is not what I want, but the will of the country is supreme. Once a war begins, I have to support the army without hesitation."

Prince Juan was stunned, and then smiled and said, "The government and the army perform their duties on weekdays and work together in wartime. How can there be such a tacit understanding?

"I believe this is the truth of His Highness the Prince. If that's the case, we don't have to go around the corner." Hualira paused, "The two military forces had already launched a wartime agreement as promised. Spain will provide great convenience for its navy and air force's combat operations in the Mediterranean. This move will inevitably be criticized and countered by Italy. Based on the considerations of all parties, we sincerely invite the Kingdom of Spain to join the war camp and fight against Italy together! In this way, Spain can not only share the fruits of victory with just a legitimate reason, but also wash away the reputation of weak national strength and weak military over half a century, and also obtain the assistance we provide to participate in the war. This is an investment that cannot be missed!"

"Investment?" Prince Juan laughed heartily, "The Irish people are worthy of being the most business-oriented group in nearly half a century. Everyone regards war as a disaster, but you only regard war as an investment. Well! As you said, Spain does need an opportunity to re-realize. I personally tend to join hands with you in the war. Many military generals are also ready to fight. However, I need strong evidence to prove that we will win the victory of this war and that we can get rich returns from the Italians. In this way, we can convince the stubborn members of Congress to vote for the war bill."

Hualila was not in a hurry to respond. Seeing this, the soldier sitting beside him spoke loudly: "In one day, we damaged the Italian naval and air force! In one day, we changed the strategic pattern of the Mediterranean! Now, we can easily block Italy's trade routes, but it is difficult for the Italians to pose a threat to our maritime routes!"

Prince Juan looked at the soldier who spoke up and down and felt confident. He wore a blue-gray military casual outfit without a military rank ornament, and wore a gold three-leaf clover medal on his left chest.

As the Prime Minister, Prince Juan has almost no less influence in Spain and even the international field than Alfonso. However, for the needs of national stability, he has always consciously kept a distance from military personnel and rarely appeared on important military occasions. He also only talked about government affairs and did not talk about military affairs, and had little contact with the other party's top military leaders. The only ones who could name the first and second ministers of national defense and chief of general staff of the army. Regarding the soldier with a high nose bridge and deep eye socket in front of him, Prince Juan still obtained a little information through mutual introduction at the beginning of the meeting. This person was named Sean McCowan, the general of the army, and his position was the New United Kingdom Army.

The deputy chief of staff and secretary-general of the National Defense Mobilization Committee. Little did he know that this thin and tall general was a veteran who participated in the Irish War of Independence. He has been engaged in military construction since Ireland's independence and served in the staff department, logistics department, military academy and even the Ministry of National Defense. Until 1943, when he was in his fifties, he was promoted to the rank of general and served as deputy chief of staff of the army and secretary-general of the National Defense Mobilization Committee, and officially entered the ranks of senior military leaders. This time, the new United Kingdom devoted himself to the war against Italy. He was not only an important planner of combat strategy and the main executor of the mobilization plan, but he really had enough authority to "comment" on the battle situation in front of the Spanish Prime Minister.

Since ancient times, it has been a matter of every king's dream to have an elite army that comes when it comes, fights when it comes, and wins when it fights. In the past 30 years, the Irish people have followed Germany to participate in the armed intervention operations around World War II and before and after World War II, and participated in the Soviet Union against Japan and the United States against Japan indirectly, thus forging a modern army born for war. Unlike Spain, countries with a long history and an outdated system, the new United Kingdom, which has a cornerstone, has a highly complete military mobilization system. According to the defense mobilization schedule of the new United Kingdom, the time for the navy, army and air force to complete full mobilization is 9 days, 7 days, and 7 days respectively. That is to say, it only takes more than a week to recruit reserve personnel and organize reserve forces at most, and only six weeks to achieve the wartime transition of the industrial system. Even the Germans are beyond the reach of such efficiency!

Prince Juan thought briefly: "We will not discuss specific military deployment and combat plans here. That is the duty of the soldiers and the mission of the soldiers. As the Prime Minister of the Cabinet appointed by His Majesty the King, what I care about is how long the war will last, how much it will cost, and in what form it will end."

Walila quickly responded: "This is also what I care about the most, and the answer I got was: This war is likely to end in a month, and should not exceed three months. Our goal is to prevent the Italians from becoming our competitors in the fields of aviation, automobiles, shipbuilding, and shipping. The goal of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was to regain the wealthy Venice, expand its territory to northern Greece, and take control of a North African port from Italy. If Spain joins the war, in addition to obtaining war reparations and taking advantage of the trade competition, we think we can also ask Italy for some resource-rich overseas territory."

General Sean McCowan followed and added: "This war is mainly carried out by us, and land operations are mainly carried out by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. If Spain joins the war, it only needs to take a defensive military force and can obtain a large amount of military supplies from us, so there should not be too much pressure on consumption."

Prince Juan said: "In recent years, although Spain's economic situation has improved a certain extent, it has too many historical debts and too weak industrial foundation. Extreme revolutionaries have been threatening to overthrow the government. Based on these considerations, the consensus between His Majesty the King and His Highness **** is that Spain will not participate in the war. If it is necessary to participate in the war, all the expenses must be borne by your country and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and we hope to see Germany make a commitment to maintain neutrality."

At the warning of Hualila, McCowan said in a hurry: "By secretly cooperating with an Eastern country, the Italian nuclear weapons program progresses quickly and may have entered the countdown stage. The German top leaders firmly believe that Italy's possession of nuclear weapons is a great threat to the stability of Europe and the world. They hope to use a war to terminate Italy's nuclear weapons program, so... we have actually obtained the guarantee of Germany's goodwill neutrality. Take a step back and say that if the situation deteriorates, Germany may directly intervene, but in this case, Italy may be ruthlessly dismembered."

Prince Juan paused for a moment to digest the other party's words, and then said in a gentle tone: "For us, a split Italy may not be a good thing. The turmoil of the situation may make it the cradle of the revolution, and a neighboring country that broke out in revolution may bring us a terrible disaster! If possible, we hope this is a short, punitive war, and after the war is over, the Italian royal family will still maintain their dominance."

"The disaster in Spain is our disaster." Warrior responded smartly, "We will fully consider all factors and do our best to keep this war within controllable range, but... you also know that war is like Pandora's box. Once opened, there are many things that cannot be predicted and planned by the wisdom of mortals. Therefore, we always devote ourselves to our work and pray devoutly."
Chapter completed!