Chapter 4 Seizing Power
On October 28, a shocking scene appeared on the streets of Rome. The students were originally hiding from the police to paste slogans, big-character posters, and distributing flyers. From this morning, the students completely ignored the police's faces and swaggered to post and deliver them at the Roman joints. The police seemed to be all insidious and turned a blind eye to these actions. In the afternoon, the places where the people were surging were filled with slogans, and even the doors of the police stations were covered with big-character posters, but no one was torn or destroyed.
In the evening, something even more puzzled by Roman citizens and shop owners happened. Radical students began to distribute flyers from door to door in major commercial areas. The police not only ignored them, but even took the initiative to help the students open the shop door and ordered the shop owners, clerks and even customers to cooperate obediently. In the cinema, there were students distributing flyers at the entrance of the theater, and the police also took the initiative to help maintain order, fearing that those who came to watch would not take them.
Of course, this is not because the police have changed their temperament, but because Glendini received information: Fakda tried to reorganize the cabinet and give up several cabinet positions to the Blackshirt leader as an official to appease Fascisti, but this request was directly rejected by Mussolini, and he even made a public speech in Milan:
"Dear gentlemen, this time it is not a frivolous political party or a change of cabinet. This march has a larger and more serious nature. In the past three years, small battles and small plunders have made the people live in poverty, so I will never put down my butcher knife and must win all the victory. I not only hope to change the policy of the Italian government, but also change the direction of the life of the Italian people. How can we allow dirty politicians to trade in this moment that concerns Italy's future and destiny?
The war has been announced, and we will continue to give it a result. Do you know this? The curtain of war has been revealed, the civil war spread across the country, and the young people have been armed. I am now in the position of leadership, as a leader, not a follower. I do not want to tarnish the history of the resurrection of Italian youth through compromise. This is the last battle - it will accomplish the feat in our history, and it cannot die in the middle of the process due to compromise..."
All figures with understanding politics know that the Fakda cabinet cannot suppress the Blackshirts by martial law and suppression, nor can it tolerate the Blackshirts by compromising. His fall has entered the countdown, and the abnormal performance of the police has also reached the ears of King Emanuel III:
"Your Majesty, the situation in Fakda has completely lost control over the situation. Now even the police in Rome are completely on the side of the Blackshirts... As for the secondary school in Rome, students from higher education institutions announced their support for Mussolini a few days ago..." General Sidardini, the king's adjutant, reported everything he had.
"Grandini is smarter than him." Emmanuel III muttered. He didn't know that these trends were created by Contini, and asked, "What should I do now?"
"If the army is not dispatched, the Blackshirts will not be able to suppress it."
"The army cannot be used, absolutely not! The Blackshirt Army has hundreds of thousands of people, and most of them are armed. The fight will be a protracted civil war..." The king thought for a moment, "Just let Mussolini form a cabinet, hoping that he can restore stability again."
"Is this OK?"
"If he can't do it, then we have nothing to say if we change people."
On the morning of October 29, the king summoned Fakda and suggested that he voluntarily resign, saying that this was a need of the situation. In fact, Fakda already knew the news. His Liberal Party held an emergency meeting last night. The left decided to take risks, but the right thought that it could cooperate with Mussolini. After all, the Blackshirts were an opposition. Mussolini had never even done a serious bureaucrat or parliamentarian. It would be easy to undermine him if he had to be the prime minister at once.
Due to the disagreement of the two factions, the exhausted Fakda neither dared to let go of suppression nor was he willing to fall under Mussolini, so he simply resigned.
As soon as he received his resignation request, Emmanuel III immediately agreed and instructed General Siddini to call Mussolini and invite him to form a cabinet as soon as possible. Because he was afraid of fraud, Mussolini was not satisfied with a call and asked the other party to notify himself of the same message in the form of a formal telegram. Two hours later the telegram came. Although it was only sent in Siddini's name, the telegram was very clear:
"I'm anxious. Mussolini. Milan.
The king summons you to Rome quickly and plans to hand over the important task of forming a cabinet to you. This is the greeting."
"Hahahaha, have you seen it? 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, and the compliments and congratulations were like they didn't have money, and they kept saying to Mussolini.
Although Mussolini was happy, he was not completely lost in his mind: on the one hand, he immediately notified Perugia's headquarters and Milan's Blackshirt Party headquarters to accelerate his march, and on the other hand, he ordered the Italian People's Daily to inform the entire royal telegram of the whole country in the form of "outside the sign". After deploying these two points, he suddenly remembered the pieces of Ziano and Lord Grandini, and asked someone to take the telegram.
"Mr. Glendini, Mr. Ziano, I will be ordered to form a cabinet. During this period, the Roman order and welcome ceremony will be hosted! Mussolini."
This telegram vaguely acknowledges the identity and status of Ziano and Glendini, and even has the meaning of being comparable.
The two of them actually knew the news that the king ordered Mussolini to form a cabinet. Glendini was not only shocked by the situation's rapid development, but also by Contini's amazing prophecy - he said that in 5 days, there was earth-shaking news in just 2 days.
Now that this telegram is in hand, a big stone in his heart falls to the ground: he is most afraid that Mussolini and others will destroy the bridges and turn their backs on their faces.
"The situation is very obvious now, and the leader will come to Rome soon - maybe in 3 or 4 days, our time will be very tight." Contini said to Glendini, "I am responsible for hosting the organization of the welcome ceremony of the Roman citizens, but I need you to give me the necessary help and maintain social order and stability, but you must take charge of yourself... In particular, some thorns may jump out at this moment. They must be disciplined to prevent them from making trouble for you!"
Glendini nodded calmly. The so-called "thorn" naturally refers to media journalists and public intellectuals who opposed Mussolini. During the Farkda period, he turned a blind eye to these people in order to fight for power and altruism. Now that he has made up his mind to surrender to Mussolini, these characters naturally have to "properly" arrange them.
He nodded: "I'll do it."
After saying this, a strange feeling suddenly surged in his heart, as if Contini in front of him was not a 19-year-old college student, but like a friend who could make with his peers. He felt very uncomfortable when he thought about the incompetent dandy boys in his family, but he thought about it, but he said something different: "This...my eldest son Boji is also in college...this..."
He originally meant that Contini could arrange it and show his face to Poji, to raise his relationships and pave the way, but he couldn't speak any more.
After hearing that he was hesitant for a long time and did not express it clearly, Contini smiled. Of course he knew what kind of virtue Boji was, but he still said in surprise: "It turns out that Boji is your son? No wonder he is so outstanding! He is the vice chairman of our alliance and is an expert in organizing activities. This must be learned from you..."
Contini turned his foolish words from being a lie outside, who was still fooling around and from not knowing what student sports was to his own deputy in the league. Of course, it would be impossible to count on such a young man to do things, but it would be fine to arrange a false name to make him appear at the welcome ceremony.
Chapter completed!