Compared with the prosperity and prosperity of Beijing, London is definitely the most miserable capital in the world. The supply of food and textiles has been restricted. Most children have not seen tropical agricultural products such as bananas and sugar cane in the past two years. Sugar and butter are even limited. The supply is great.
This is a black London.
People always wore black clothes and hurriedly walked through the streets holding black umbrellas. Every day they would encounter a large-scale air raid siren, and the harsh sound would ring throughout the city. Occasionally, there would be several air battles. erupted over the London suburbs.
The Germans¡¯ planes are always shot, but they seem to be endless.
Gentlemen will stop at the newsstand on the street with a stick of civilization and take out two pennies to buy a newspaper. Different from the previous two years, today's newspapers are full of news about China's upcoming participation in the war. If there is a newspaper If such news is published, it will always be sold out.
While Londoners are eagerly looking forward to it, the East Asian Free Alliance Forces have taken root in the northern suburbs of London. These East Asian Free Alliance Forces are almost all Air Force personnel, and most of them are from China. J4\5\6 series fighter jets are emerging on a large scale. Entered the United Kingdom and assumed the main force in the fight against Nazi Germany.
On the streets of London, the number of Chinese wearing Royal Air Force uniforms seems to be increasing every day. When there are no combat missions, they will also appear in a hurry in London to handle some messy business.
Although the British have always hoped that China would send troops, when they actually saw Chinese people appearing in London, they couldn't help but feel uncomfortable.
The UK is really too poor now. The government can only rely on large-scale borrowing and issuance of pounds sterling to maintain expenditure. The checks that the Foreign Secretary has worked hard to borrow from China and the United States are often exhausted within a few months. , and have to borrow money again.
They didn¡¯t even pay for the lease of fighter jets and aircraft carriers from China. They could only pay for it with newly printed national bonds that they didn¡¯t know whether they could be redeemed.
General Liu Gengyun has been appointed as China's military chief in Europe. In the past two months, he has been traveling between the UK and Spain almost every week. Sometimes, he has to fly to Morocco to meet with the French Liberal Government in Casablanca. President Reynaud and General de Gaulle, commander-in-chief of the French Free Army, provided them with new advice and support.
Every day, a large number of French people flee across the border into Spain and join the French Free Army in Spain. For this reason, the empire must continue to re-equip the French Free Army and provide them with training to ensure that these recruits can become suitable pilots. gunner.
Although the French Free Army has been approaching 700,000 in size so far, in a world war of this scale, they are more and more like guests, without any glory.
The surrender of France made the military industry and modern industry invested by the empire in France become Germany's new base. A large number of enterprises were merged cheaply by German industrial giants. As a form of retaliation, the empire also confiscated and searched all German assets in Asia. , the relationship between the two sides dropped to the lowest point in history. Even after the start of World War I, the two sides had never been so hostile to their opponents.
Yes.
The surrender of France caused heavy losses to the empire, and the empire's investments in Sweden and Spain began to become dangerous. After stopping all trade with Germany, Germany had obvious intentions to further attack Sweden and Spain. In Norway, Germany also resumed local control. The heavy water refinery continued to produce heavy water to support Nazi Germany's nuclear weapons program.
Except for Italy, France really cannot find a more incompetent and stupid ally.
Even so, General Liu Gengyun still had to fly to Morocco to discuss a new round of aid with President Reno and Commander-in-Chief De Gaulle. General de Gaulle, Commander-in-Chief of the French Free Army, who was eager to seek assistance, personally went to the airport in Casablanca to greet him and walked out of the special plane. When he got off the escalator, General Liu Gengyun saw General de Gaulle, who was definitely very young compared to him.
To be honest, Liu Gengyun doesn't like to deal with General de Gaulle. In his opinion, General de Gaulle is really not in the right position for himself. Do you still think that France is the France it used to be?
Regarding the aid list previously proposed by General de Gaulle, General Liu Gengyun always felt that this person was really ignorant of current affairs, or too idealistic. How can there be such a cheap thing in this world?
Especially considering that the French repeatedly declined his kind reminders, which ultimately led to France's defeat, and France's surrender without a fight, which caused the empire to suffer heavy losses in France, etc., Admiral Liu Gengyun was filled with too much hatred for the French. .
When he walked out of the plane, General Liu Gengyun tried his best to maintain that kind smile, even though he was too tired of these self-righteous French people.
He raised his hand and greeted General de Gaulle who came to greet him.He greeted him and walked quickly down the escalator to shake hands with the new French commander.
Due to the needs of each other's domestic and foreign publicity work, the two must maintain this mutually dissatisfied posture, smiling and letting reporters and cameramen take black and white photos.
No matter how hard the other side tries, in the view of General Liu Gengyun, France has been completely eliminated in this war that will become increasingly cruel. It is a completely unnecessary waste to provide more assistance to France. , this was his point of view, and he was also responsible for commanding the military in Europe with his point of view.
As the highest military representative of the Empire and the Asian Alliance in Europe, his opinions are basically the decision-making of the Empire.
This is the main reason for the serious discord between General Liu Gengyun and General de Gaulle. Prior to this, General Liu Gengyun had rejected many large aid requests from France.
The two did not even take the same car to the headquarters of the French Free Government. After arriving in a Red Flag car at the French Free Government in Casablanca, General Liu Gengyun met President Reno accompanied by General de Gaulle.
Journalists from China, Britain, the United States, France and other countries gathered here, and everyone wanted to hear the latest news from the Chinese Empire from General Liu Gengyun.
Surrounded by reporters, General Liu Gengyun made a brief statement, expressing the empire's support for the French free government and his hope that Germany and France would hold peace talks to promote the restoration of France's basic policy of peace, independence and freedom.
After dealing with these reporters, General Liu Gengyun, accompanied by President Reno and General de Gaulle, went to the president's temporary office in Casablanca for a secret meeting.
The French activated the local colonial government's Governor's Palace in Morocco as the presidential palace of Free France and retained France's last naval forces here. With the assistance of the Empire and Spain, the French Free Army captured two ships from the Vichy government. Battleships and several destroyers formed the French Free Navy.
But in this era of aircraft carriers, these two battleships are not enough to guarantee Free France's status in the international world. Therefore, the French hope that the empire will assist with two aircraft carriers. Prior to this, Admiral Liu Gengyun had approved the British lease of four Northeast-class ships. The aircraft carrier requested assistance, but he refused without hesitation the French's request.
In President Reno¡¯s office, General de Gaulle and President Reno quickly talked about this matter, hoping that General Liu Gengyun would reconsider his previous request for French military assistance.
Admiral Liu Gengyun listened silently to General de Gaulle's arguments, seemingly listening carefully to the voices of his allies. In fact, he would not change his decision at all, because he concluded that Free France simply did not have enough strength to control these aircraft carrier fleets. He has no experience in this area and cannot bear the cost. If the empire ultimately has to fund and maintain this assistance to France's aircraft carrier fleet, he would rather continue to provide such assistance to Britain.
He just listened to General de Gaulle's argument, and opposite him, President Reno was also silent.
General de Gaulle¡¯s aggressive demand that President Reno completely give up the supreme command of the military and give him all the highest authority of the French Free Army not only made President Reno feel helpless and weak, but also made China¡¯s allies angry.
General Liu Gengyun is such a person. He hates soldiers using this kind of national disaster to seek maximum real power, even though President Reno may not be a suitable candidate.
After listening to General de Gaulle's statement, General Liu Gengyun was silent for a moment, and suddenly asked President Reno: "What do you think, Mr. President?"
President Reno paused for a moment and replied: "Our request is reasonable, General Liu!"
Liu Gengyun replied without mercy: "No, I think this is unreasonable. France has neither experience nor tactical training in this area, but also lacks the corresponding expenditure. Instead of such assistance, we would rather directly send a fleet to North Africa, or Providing more aid to the UK and ensuring the balance of war and military expenditure items have always been very important issues."
After he finished speaking his opinion, the two of them were left with endless silence and embarrassment.
For the former French Empire, this was truly an unprecedented shame, but it was none other than the great French nation itself that caused today¡¯s shame.
After a period of silence, Commander-in-Chief de Gaulle asked General Liu Gengyun: "Your Excellency, General, what role do you think the French Free Army will play in this war that determines the fate of mankind?"
Liu Gengyun felt the counterattack in this question and immediately replied: "We support the French Free Army to play a decisive and greater role, but it depends on how much strength and fighting spirit you can muster. Your Excellency, Commander-in-Chief, we should all understand Military?It is judged by strength and courage! "
His answer left Commander-in-Chief de Gaulle with no room for counter-questions. This answer was very exquisite and full of diplomatic cross-examination.
Liu Gengyun¡¯s meaning is very simple. He did not see the strength of the French Free Army, nor the courage of the French.
Seeing that the other party was speechless for a moment, General Liu Gengyun sighed with some emotion, and reminded Commander-in-Chief de Gaulle: "The goal of the empire is to ensure the final victory, not to simply restore the situation as you think. France's independence and freedom, because the former can determine the latter, and the latter cannot determine the former at all. This determines our principles in support distribution. Efficiency is always the most important, and one penny needs to be treated as two cents. Every penny used by the empire in Europe comes from citizens' taxes. Therefore, we must be more objective and loyal to the facts and status quo, and use citizens' taxes effectively instead of deciding based on the relationship between the two countries. The allocation of support funds and supplies. To put it more simply, our relationship with France is better, but we can only support the UK more. This is no choice. Our previous support to France was very positive. As a result How, you and His Excellency President Reno have also seen it.¡±
Commander-in-Chief de Gaulle immediately defended: "Such a situation will never happen again. What you see now is a brave and fighting French people who are striving to restore national sovereignty."
Admiral Liu Gengyun no longer answered the question, but simply said yes, waving his hands to indicate that the issue would be put on hold for the time being. It is impossible for the empire to continue to provide more assistance to France, especially on the issue of aircraft carrier formations. This is simply without any Negotiation is necessary.
He understands that even under such circumstances, the French will not give up their determination to catch up with the world's military trend, but he feels that it should be spent on the French's own money, rather than relying on connections to obtain free assistance from China.
Whether the French can keep up with the changes in the aircraft carrier era is a very important issue for the French, but it is of no importance to the Chinese. As for counting on the heroic struggle of the French Free Army to liberate France, this issue Probably only Commander-in-Chief de Gaulle still holds such a beautiful assumption.
How can it be?
General Liu Gengyun no longer has any illusions about this.
His judgment is simple. France currently does not have the ability to become an important assistant to the empire in Europe. In addition to maintaining the French colonies and continuing to ensure the supply of war resources, the French Free Government and the Free Army do not have much other value.
The Empire is willing to sell four aircraft carriers to the United Kingdom because the Empire is preparing to replace a new generation of aircraft carriers and fully adopt jet carrier aircraft. At least the United Kingdom can pay a lease fee and pay for daily maintenance out of its own pocket. What does Free France have? ?
The world situation has worsened as never before. Nazi Germany has occupied almost all of Europe. It is so powerful that it has no rival except China. And without China participating in the war, the United Kingdom and Free France alone cannot even claim a quarter of the strength. , where was Nazi Germany's opponent? If the empire had not supported the navy and air force to help Britain maintain sea and air power, even if Britain and Germany fought for losses, Germany would have bombed the British mainland within half a year and wiped out the British. All fighters are consumed.
Nazi Germany is now able to manufacture more than 400 short-range V1 missiles to bomb the UK every day, and this number is added almost every day. Last month, the average was more than 300 missiles per day, and this average increased by 100 per day. Multiple missiles. It is expected that by June, relying on the industrial strength and resources of the European continent, Nazi Germany will be able to reach a production capacity of nearly a thousand missiles every day.
Of course, the German missiles at this time were large rockets. Not to mention the accuracy was not up to standard, and the reliability was not more than 40. If the weather is bad, it is normal for the error to exceed more than ten kilometers.
When it is difficult to seize air superiority, this is almost the only means for Germany to threaten the British mainland.
Relying on the aircraft carrier technical data previously transferred from China, Germany produced its first aircraft carrier. Like the aircraft carriers leased by China and the United Kingdom, it can only use propeller aircraft for the time being.
Germany now relies on its quantity and production capacity advantages to consume the UK, while the UK relies on a single strait to compete with Germany.
Although Admiral Liu Gengyun rejected the French Free Army's aircraft carrier lease request, there is still a lot of room and necessity for mutual help between China and France in other areas of cooperation. He listened carefully to Commander-in-Chief de Gaulle's remarks about the French Free Army's Recent formation work.
At this stage, the French Free Army is mainly divided into two parts. One part is located in Spain, which is mainly composed of the main army troops withdrawn from France to Spain, as well as refugees and anti-German youths who continue to flee from France to Spain. This part is mainly supplied by Rely on Spain to solve it, by?Most of the main force of the French mechanical forces located in the Porto area has been withdrawn to Spain, and overall it still retains relatively strong combat strength; the other part is composed of colonial armed forces in France's overseas colonies, and has also recruited a large number of French overseas citizens. and mercenaries from colonial countries.
On the issue of military supplies, the French liberal government can continue to persist, but after losing its industrial base, all military equipment and ammunition supplies can only rely on Chinese assistance.
At this stage, the most important task of the French Free Army is to maintain its rule over the French colonies and to assist Spain in resisting threats from Germany and Italy. Protecting the Iberian Peninsula has become the last line to limit German rule in Europe.
It is impossible for the Spanish and French troops alone to resist the German army. The empire also dispatched a large number of troops to be stationed in Spain and established a large number of air force bases and naval bases in Spain.
With the large number of Imperial Defense Forces stationed in Europe, it is inevitable that China and Germany will have a war.
General de Gaulle had many unique ideas about the reorganization of the French Free Army. His core idea was to complete a major mechanization change of the entire French Free Army with the support of China. However, General Liu Gengyun did not support this because the French army lacked sufficient military industry support, and China cannot provide all needed assistance free of charge.
The two discussed this for several hours, but their differences grew. Although General Liu Gengyun tried his best not to show any arrogance, in General de Gaulle's view, he still felt that General Liu Gengyun had harbored feelings for France. There is a deep prejudice that the French cannot defeat the Germans.
General de Gaulle was very dissatisfied, but he still patiently emphasized to General Liu Gengyun that without the efforts of the French army, the British would not be able to stop Germany's iron heel, and it would be even harder for China and Britain to win the final victory of the war. The French army is needed, and a strong French army is needed.
I have been listening to the other party repeatedly emphasizing the importance of the French army. In the end, it is nothing more than asking China to provide more free assistance.
General Liu Gengyun was not angry. He even drank tea and smoked a cigar very elegantly. It seemed that he no longer wanted to argue with General de Gaulle. He neither rejected General de Gaulle's views nor expressed clear support.
He was conflicted because he knew that the core policy of the empire had been introduced, which meant that the empire could completely defeat Germany without the help of Britain and France, and it would completely eliminate all German military forces, but he could not reveal this. information, and also encourage Britain and France to continue fighting bravely until China finds a legitimate reason to send troops that can convince the domestic people.
There are differences in cognition between the two sides. The French Free Army believes that it is very important and deserves more assistance from China, but China does not think so, but there is no need to break out and make it clear.
¡°All General Liu Gengyun can do is not to refute General de Gaulle¡¯s judgment, and at the same time he cannot fully agree with the various demands of the French Free Army.
No matter how much General de Gaulle emphasized the situation and the importance of the French Free Army, General Liu Gengyun still cut the French Free Army's assistance request in half and only agreed to continue to support the French army in preparing a mechanical group army.
Prior to this, the empire had provided the French army with more than 4,000 tanks and a large number of armored vehicles and trucks, helping the French army to establish the French First Free Army, plus the large number of troops that had previously withdrawn from the Porto region of France into Spain, and With the increased assistance the empire has agreed to this time, the French army will have three mechanized armies.
Of course, with these military forces alone, France is far from being able to fight Germany and Italy and can only serve as a second-line force.
After negotiating the amount of future military supplies and equipment assistance, General Liu Gengyun, accompanied by General de Gaulle, inspected the local French Free Army.
Casablanca is a hot and exotic North African city full of colonial atmosphere. The French liberal government has established a solid dominance here. The French army here has six divisions and two air force divisions, but the entire equipment system is very chaotic. There are equipment from the French army, equipment aided by China, Britain and the United States, as well as various old equipment that France had previously eliminated. Even the firearms and artillery from the 19th century were reused by the French.
After an inspection, General Liu Gengyun was even more emotional, feeling more and more that it was difficult for the French to play much role in this war.
In Spanish, Casablanca's original meaning is "White City". For Free France at this time, it was a city of hope. French people gathered here, and various military aids arrived from China, Britain, the United States and French colonies. Concentrated in this white port city.
Huge ships shuttle back and forth, even here far away from the German Navy?There were concerns about Germany's submarine force and the Italian navy's inability to penetrate the Mediterranean and the Strait of Gibraltar.
This seems to be the most peaceful and prosperous port city on the Atlantic Ocean. Even so, the French Air Force continues to send aircraft to patrol the surrounding waters because this is their last habitat.
The empire¡¯s military deployment in Africa is mainly concentrated in Ethiopia, where the empire maintains twenty divisions to prevent the Italian army from attacking Egypt. The importance of Egypt lies in the Suez Canal. Once the Italian army attacks Egypt, it also means that China will definitely join the war.
The situation has developed to the point where China is bound to join the war. Germany has no doubt about this. Unless they can quickly force Britain to defeat and really promise not to attack Switzerland and Spain, otherwise, the Sino-German war will be It¡¯s inevitable again.
At this time, both China and Germany are actively preparing for war. (To be continued. Please search Piaotian Literature, the novels will be better and updated faster!)