With a soft breeze and a warm sun, Fang Yan spent a milestone in his life with happiness and joy in a newly built beautiful manor on the outskirts of Hamburg, accompanied by his wife and daughter. At the end of his life, he already had his own business, and his second daughter, Ivy, had come into the world more than half a year ago.

Occasionally, Fang Yan couldn't help but feel the rush of time passed, but before the next day, his sentimental mood disappeared into Sylvia's smooth and soft soft fragrant body, and the graceful moan of the yellow warbler.

By the summer of 1938, the power of the Brom family had become increasingly unshakable: not only because the Rudolfin-controlled conglomerate was fulfilling a large number of arms orders and its production capacity was expanding wildly, but also because ****** had firmly established itself in the cabinet through his two years at the helm of the economy.

In the past 1937, Germany's gross national income exceeded 90 billion marks, an increase of 14% over the previous year's 79 billion marks. Although this is a significant drop from the 20 percent annual average of Schacht's rule, it was achieved against the backdrop of Germany's wartime trajectory and a sharp decline in overseas trade compared to the first few years.

This was matched by a surge in munitions production, with the Army's new divisions being equipped weeks to a season ahead of schedule. Fang Yan faintly felt that the production speed of German equipment in his plane was stronger than that of the same period in history; After some careful consideration, he was pleased to find that this was most likely because the position of head of the four-year economic plan was held by a more professional ******, and not by Goering, an air force layman!

With this in mind, Fang Yan was even more at ease with the situation in the army. You must know that in the past two years, in order to make up for the weakening of the land combat power caused by the establishment of naval aviation, Fang Yan not only provided several key equipment for the army, but also exerted influence on his cheap uncle ******, so that he canceled the budget for continuing to add capital ships to the navy during this period. This year. In addition to the 3,050-ton armored destroyer, the largest of which is the 750-ton Type VII submarine. This kind of procurement scale close to historical facts will undoubtedly ensure that the army still has the strength and confidence to sweep across the European continent.

Seeing that everything was on the right track, Fang Yan's nerves also relaxed. He devoted himself physically and mentally to his life with his wife, daughter, and family, while watching Hitler's actions in peacetime for more than a year as an ordinary citizen. As a traverser, he understands better than anyone that Hitler's appetite is stronger than that of the Tyrannosaurus rex; The latter, who had just swallowed Austria, could not wait to take advantage of the strategic advantage of encircling Czechoslovakia on three sides to attack that country.

Go back 20 years. After four years of world war, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was already in turmoil and was about to die; The Bohemian Czechs, who had been ruled by the Habsburgs for two centuries, finally ushered in the dawn and opportunity of independence. With the support of the Entente, Czechoslovakia was the first to gain independence from Austria-Hungary. The Treaty of Trianon signed in 1920 gave the Slovak region of the Kingdom of Hungary to this country; Prague, a thousand-year-old city, has just appeared in front of the world as a new capital.

Due to the inheritance of 60% of the former Austro-Hungarian industry, the top Skoda military industry in Europe is also located in the Czech Republic; The nascent Czechoslovakia, carefully cultivated by France, soon became the most nourishing of the four states founded from the Austro-Hungarian corpse. Today, Czechoslovakia is one of the world's eight undisputed industrial powers. More powerful than Spain, Poland, and Sweden; The quality of its personnel and equipment performance are also first-class in Europe, and they are not inferior to those of Britain, France and other industrial countries. Many foreign observers claim that the Czech military is even stronger than Poland; Although it is not fully credible, it shows the strength of its war industry.

However. This seemingly flowery and fiery country has the same fatal drawback as Austria-Hungary in the past: that is, as a multi-ethnic combination, it inevitably has ethnic disputes.

Czechoslovakia currently has a population of 10 million, including 1 million Hungarians, 500,000 Lucinians, and 3.25 million Sudetenland Germans. It accounts for nearly half of the total population. These peoples are attached to their "motherland" - Hungary, Russia and Germany. Although the Sudetenland never belonged to Germany, but only to Austria. To make matters worse, even the 2.5 million Slovaks, who are the majority ethnic group of the country, demand a considerable degree of autonomy. And then consider that there are still more than 400,000 Jews living in the diaspora in this country. The number and proportion of the Czechs in the total population can be imagined.

And since the Czechs, who ruled the country, had just freed themselves from the oppression of the Habsburgs, they were resentful and often had a chauvinistic approach to solving these problems, so that they did not pay attention to strategy at all. The Germanic people living in the Sudetenland not only remembered their former dominant ethnic status, but also hated the Czech officials who were like local emperors, and hated the incidents of discrimination against them that occurred in Prague from time to time.

With Hitler's coming to power in 1933, the National Socialist Party's theories spread like a virus to the Sudetenland; The "Sudetenland German Party" was soon established and within two years it was embraced by almost all Sudetenland Germans. The leader of the party, Hahllein, was a fanatical Nazi who was completely obedient to Berlin's orders and was always ready to fight for the cause of National Socialism.

In Hitler's plan, Czechoslovakia was a country that had to be destroyed, alongside Austria. This was not only due to the fact that the country had millions of Germanic people who wanted Berlin, but also because of its coveted industrial base, which could greatly increase Germany's war power. Moreover, the elimination of Czechoslovakia would remove the threat to the south-east of Germany and at the same time encircle Poland on three sides, which any German government has regarded since its re-independence as a thorn in the side that must be removed!

From April 1938 onwards, Hitler instructed Haenlein to constantly stir up the situation in the Sudetenland: "The Sudeten German Party should make demands that are unacceptable to the Czech Government. At the same time, Hitler began to make a strong move, preparing to take the country by force and include everything he wanted. Against the objective background of the injustice suffered by the Sudetenland, Hitler's war actions seem to be extremely eloquent: the Germany of today is no longer the Germany of 1918. Since the Czech government was unwilling to give "fair treatment" to the Sudetenland, Germany had to do the right thing for heaven to wipe out this brutal and barbaric country from the map.

On 31 May, Hitler set a deadline for attacking Czechoslovakia: October 1, four months later. This arbitrary decision immediately caused a wave of panicked opposition among the Army. The army led by Brauchitsch was stunned by Hitler's audacity: from a military point of view, the recent use of force against the Czechs was tantamount to suicide. The border between Germany and the Czech Republic is connected by the natural Sudetenland, Erz, and Šumava Mountains, and the Czechs who have been operating here for 20 years have long built their defenses to be impregnable. Even with the current elite of the German army, it will be extremely difficult to break through this continuous position, which is widely regarded as second only to the Maginot Line.

Since the Czech government and France had signed a treaty of alliance, a German attack on the Czechs would inevitably lead to French action; Once France launched an attack on Germany, the West Wall Line, which had just been built for two years, would not be able to hold back the advance of 100 French divisions in any case. If the main German army was deployed on the Rhine, it might still have the strength to fight a war, but at that time, Germany had already used all its main forces to attack the Czechs. Moreover, it is highly likely that Britain will join France, and Germany will be caught up in a desperate situation similar to that of 1914!

Beck, Chief of the Army General Staff, was adamantly opposed to Hitler's madness, believing that it would only lead Germany into the abyss of destruction. He was convinced that if Germany attacked Czechoslovakia, it would cause a major war in Europe, that Britain, France, and the Soviet Union would all oppose Germany, and that the United States would become the arsenal of Western democracies. There was no hope for Germany to win. The mere lack of raw materials makes it impossible to win wars.

In order to gain the support of his colleagues and dispel Hitler's thoughts, Beck gave his new superior, Brauchitsch, a sharply worded statement, criticizing Hitler's arguments point by point. He also pointed out that if Hitler was stubborn, the senior generals should immediately resign; In this case, the war cannot be fought, because then there will be no one to lead the army.

What Baker didn't expect, however, was that his colleagues had lost their former pride. In the midst of Hitler's roaring threats, Brauchitsch and others quickly chose to retreat like frightened pigeons. Keitel even declared that he would never tolerate any officer in the High Command to be critical, complaining, vacillating, hesitating, and passively pessimistic about the Führer's decision. And the young Zhuang officers, represented by Jodel, completely fell under the magic of Hitler; They regarded Hitler as the greatest statesman since Bismarck, and their obedience to the Führer was almost to the point of blind obedience. (To be continued.) )