"Italian military power may be weak compared to other European powers, but the geographical environment of Italy makes this problem less prominent. In the mountains in northern Italy, the Italians can consolidate their defense with very little force. The Italians divide the Mediterranean into two halves like a sharp sword. If Italy stands on our side, with the power of the Italian fleet and the Austro-Hungarian fleet, we can control the entire Eastern Mediterranean and cut off the Suez Canal at the beginning of the war."

"As long as we prepare, we can take advantage of the opportunity to enter the Eastern Mediterranean and turn the entire Mediterranean into the inland sea of ​​the allies. We will no longer face the Balkan defense line, and the Bavarian army will not have to fight bloody battles between Turkey and Britain and France. The war will also be greatly advanced, but unfortunately, for some special reasons, Italy is not on our side. If we chose to be inclined to Italy or neutral at the beginning, then wouldn't we have two allies, Italy and Turkey at the same time? After all, because of the Russians, Turkey will not join the Allies." After Prince Albert finished speaking, he looked at the crown prince in the main position.

"The geographical location of Italy is indeed very important, and as you said, because of geographical factors, the entire Italy is easy to defend and difficult to attack. That is why Italy will vigorously develop its navy. If the Italian Navy and our Mediterranean fleet join forces, it can indeed easily obtain the sea control of the Mediterranean. Prince Albert, from a military point of view, what you said makes sense." Ruprecht said slowly.

"But, I want to say, you have too many subjective factors! Why are you sure that Italy will stand on our side? You should know that Italy not only has territorial disputes with Turkey, but also with the Austro-Hungarian Empire. So, is it good that we choose to harm the interests of our two allies in order to allow Italy to join us? If so? What is the meaning of such an allies?"

"Italy pursued a strait since its founding. They will not be bound by treaties, nor will they completely stand on one side because of morality. The famous Italian Prime Minister Count Gafur is a very good politician. For Italy, friends and enemies have never been static. He can cooperate with the French or Prussia. His foreign policy is changeable and elusive. This is not a problem for a country, but for Germany and Austria, it feels really terrible to have such an allies!"

"There is a very true saying, that is, to stand on the side of the winner, and this is how the Italians consider it. No matter how we suppress Italy before the war, as long as we can show a huge advantage in the war, then Italy will not easily choose to be enemies with us. Therefore, instead of trying every means to win over all the allies who did not know whether they were on our side or on the side of the enemy during the war, we might as well do our own things. Fortunately, in the months after the war, we showed a huge advantage, whether on the Eastern Front or the Western Front." said the crown prince.

"But no one would ever feel that they have too many friends in the war. If we can get Italian support, we will win more easily. After all, you just admitted that Italy's geographical location is indeed of great help in the military, and the Italian navy can also play a very important role." Prince Albert said.

So now the two sides of the debate have entered the stage of quarrels. The crown prince said that even if Germany tolerate Italy, Italy would not easily stand on its own side, while Prince Albert insisted that if Italy stood on its own side, victory would come back faster... So this matter entered a deadlock, both sides used if assumptions, and assumptions were the most difficult to apply! The crown prince could not say that he was a time traveler, so he knew that Italy finally joined the Allies after hesitating for 9 months, right?

Such a debate is meaningless, so if the crown prince wants to convince Prince Albert, he must change his thinking. As an excellent mixed military and political talent, the crown prince naturally has other ways to argue his argument.

As the highest level of Germany, both the German Emperor and Ruprecht carefully considered whether Italy is worthy of winning over. In the end, the fundamental reason for not winning over Italy's joining the Allies was not Italy's capriciousness or the crown prince's disgust of the Italians, but strategically, it is better for Italy to be neutral than to stand on the side of the Allies! The German Emperor also agreed with this issue, but William II did not mention these things to Prince Albert for some purpose.

"Let's reorganize our thoughts. First of all, we don't need to assume that Italy is on the side of the Allies. After all, in history, even if we are not friendly to Italy's behavior, the Italians did not choose to join the Allies because of the deterrence of the empire. We don't have to consider that the empire has to pay as much as a price to buy Italy. We just need to simply calculate if Italy is on our side, then our war costs will be enough." Ruprecht said.

"First of all, we need to make sure that Italy has a population of nearly 40 million, but their food self-sufficiency rate is less than 70%. In other words, if Italy is on our side, then we will be responsible for the meals of at least 14 million Italians! Well, now answer me, where does this food come from?" Ruprecht asked.

"In fact, we need to provide Italians with more than just food. The iron ore and coal mines in Italy are very rare. If we choose Italy as an ally, we will have to give Italy at least 8 million tons of coal every year to barely smooth out Italy's fuel gap, and then we also need to provide Italy with a series of raw materials such as rubber, non-ferrous metals, manganese ore. So good, have you ever thought about how much additional materials and manpower we need to consume if we transport these materials from the German Empire to Italy? You should be clear that there is no convenient railway transportation channel between us and Italy."

"This..." When Ruprecht mentioned the food issue, Prince Albert was actually a little confused because he knew very well that under normal circumstances, only grains could meet the demand in a good harvest year. At least one-third of Germany's wheat needed to be imported from abroad. What's more, during the war, as various resources were invested in the military and related industries, it was inevitable that grain production would be reduced.
Chapter completed!