My Italy

By the time Istanbul received the telegram that Italy had landed on Crete, it was actually already too late.

With the assistance of the Italian Navy, the 1st Marine Division and the Praetorian Guards landed on the island yesterday from Chania, Heraklion and Siddia respectively.

The Italian soldiers and soldiers who have landed in three places are still fighting with the defenders. The fighting between the two armies has caused a large number of local people to flee their hometowns, but this does not affect the determination of the two armies to fight.

"Pull quickly, hurry up!"

Cosentz, who was sitting in a small boat, was ordering the soldiers to row hard. They were almost approaching the beach. Surrounding their boat were officers and soldiers belonging to his battalion. They were rowing as hard as the boat Cosentz was riding.

Yes, this is the ship currently used by the Italian First Marine Division to land. Various human-rowed wooden boats are the vehicles they ride on. This kind of wooden ship can transport 20-30 fully armed soldiers and their equipment at a time. Although it is a bit slow to use manpower, marines from various countries currently use this method to land, and everyone has no choice.

In front of them, many officers and soldiers have landed on the beach. Those officers and soldiers, led by commanders at all levels, quickly left the beach with weapons in hand. It was the second battalion of friendly forces.

Behind them, a large number of transport ships were hung with landing ropes, and densely packed officers and soldiers were climbing off the ships and boarding the waiting boats.

As for the places farther away, there were warships patrolling. Among them, tall battleships were firing close to the port. Their deafening cannons could be heard even from such a distance.

But these have nothing to do with Cosentz. He just wants to get ashore quickly, because the period before setting foot on land is the most dangerous moment for himself and the soldiers. Although this area has long been occupied and cleaned up, he just doesn't like this state. Janine Blois

I heard that the group that landed yesterday fought here for a long time with the guarding Ottoman troops and suffered a lot of casualties, but there are no traces of the battle now.

Without letting Cosentz think about it, the soldiers rowing hard had already rowed the boat to the beach. Cosentz jumped off the ship in one swift motion, stretched out his hand to pull the cable, and worked with the soldiers to stabilize the ship. After all the officers, soldiers and equipment got off the ship, they worked together to push the ship back. The few sailors on the ship who are affiliated with the navy will continue to pick up the next trip.

There were other ships docking that had the same action as Cosentz. After unloading soldiers and equipment, they were eager to return to the transport ship to pick up the next group of officers and soldiers.

Of course, this seems very fast, but the round trip basically takes an hour. This is all because the speed of human rowing is too slow.

Of course, this doesn't matter what Cosentz has to do, he still has important things to do.

After the first battalion was reorganized, Cosentz immediately led them towards Heraklion, because they needed to help the friendly forces capture the largest port city in Crete.

Within the city, a tough battle is raging.

"An enemy is approaching, fire."

An Ottoman officer was in a building and immediately shouted loudly when he noticed that intentional officers and soldiers were approaching. Under his order, Ottoman officers and soldiers used hand rifles from windows, behind doors and other positions to fire at the incoming Italian troops.

The fierce hail of gunfire and bullets overwhelmed the Italian officers and soldiers, who could only seek bunkers to escape. They were so suppressed that they could not even lift their heads.

Captain Hall, who was observing the battle from the sidelines, saw this scene and knew that the attack had failed again. He threw the military hat on his head to the ground angrily.

"Company commander, company commander!"

But then someone suddenly called him, and Hall, who was upset by the failure of the attack, raised his head after hearing the voice calling him. This was the messenger from the camp calling him, and behind him were two men dressed as ordinary people.

"What's up?"

When the battalion commander called him, he asked impatiently.

"Captain Hall, these are the locals the battalion commander asked me to send. They are very familiar with this area. The battalion commander said that if there are any difficulties that cannot be attacked, you can seek help from the locals."

Scenes like this are not unfamiliar to Crete. This is the result of many years in Italy. In order to achieve their own goals, local leading figures have given directions to the Italian army, informed them of the deployment of the Ottoman army, and some even boldly took up arms to directly attack the Ottoman defenders. So Crete and Italy are home.

While the messenger was talking, the two locals kept nodding and bowing to Hall.

Seeing their performance, Hall looked confused.

"But none of us understand Greek!"

Unexpectedly, as soon as he finished speaking, one of them spoke. "We know some Latin. We learned it when doing business with merchants from your country."

This man's words made Hall's eyes widen. Just give me a pillow if you want to sleep. Then he took the other person, came to the corner and pointed at a tall independent building at the intersection outside.

"Have you seen that building? Is there any way to get around to the back?"

The man spoke after seeing the building he was pointing at. "Oh, that's Mr. Cáceres's construction company you're talking about. It might be a bit far to go around because it requires walking through two blocks."

As soon as he heard the other party's words, Hall knew that there was a way out. The other party was indeed a local snake, and he could immediately tell the truth.

And when he was about to let the other person lead the way, another man gave him another surprise.

"I know a route that doesn't have to go that far."

As soon as he heard what the other party said, Hall immediately wanted to ask how to go. Unexpectedly, the man who showed the way just now immediately counterattacked the other party. "What do you know, you smuggling gophers are not doing your business."

"Don't think you are clean. Even the poor know that you like to be short on weight."

Being told about his bad qualities, the profiteer named Blois immediately said something like a machine gun in Greek. Judging from the red face of the smuggler opposite, it must not be something good. Of course, this person was not a vegetarian, and he immediately burst out with amazing fighting power at the same speaking speed.

So a smuggler and a profiteer had a machine-gun quarrel, leaving Hall and his soldiers stunned.

Seeing that the two people were getting more and more noisy, Hall, who felt dizzy from the quarrel, immediately took out his pistol and stood between the two. "Okay, everyone, stop."

Perhaps it was Hall's identity, or perhaps it was the gun in his hand that finally calmed down the quarrel between the two.

Hall waited for the two to calm down, then pointed at the smuggler. "You just said you knew a shorter route, now you can say it."

"Yes, sir. Because of my usual business, I know some unobtrusive small passages..."

As the smuggler tells it, he finally learns what the road is. It was a sewer, but it could lead directly to the building that gave him a headache.

"Then you lead the way for us and leave now."

Hall pointed at the smuggler and spoke out his choice.

"As ordered, please follow me, sir."

Situations like Hall's can be seen everywhere on the island. In order to give Crete a chance to become independent, the locals have put in a lot of effort, and leading the way is just child's play.