The night is dark and the moon is high in the sky, and Bucharest, the capital of Romania in southeastern Europe, is also asleep, leaving only the few street lamps on both sides of the long street, still emitting a dim halo. Next to the royal palace in the center of the city, the tall and heavy army headquarters building crouches like a giant beast, but unlike the usual situation, the central office on the second floor is brightly lit in the dark.www.biquge.info

Antoniscu, chief of general of the Romanian army, stood at his desk, staring at the new map of Europe on the wall: Poland, which once bordered Romania to the north, had completely disappeared and been replaced by a red map that symbolized the territory of the Soviet Union. By this time, the length of the border between the Soviet Union and Romania had surged from 820 km to 1,163 km, like a giant bear spreading its arms and encompassing half of Romania. A slight night breeze blew into the room, bringing with it the gloomy chill of late autumn, and Antoniscu suddenly felt a chill deep in his bones, and he could not help but feel a strong anxiety and fear for the future of his country.

As a member of the Entente in World War I, Romania caught the victor's chariot and made a lot of money in the post-war distribution process: with the support of the Entente bloc, Romania not only seized a total area of 103,000 square kilometers from Hungary, but also ceded the rich South Dobroga from Bulgaria, and the land area became the fifth in Europe, after Russia, France, Germany, and Poland. However, the Romanian authorities, like the Polish government of that era, had been completely ignited by the glorious victories of their own country; While brandishing their guns, they have forgotten the lesson and truth revealed in the German annexation of Alsace-Lorraine in the past—too much.

In order to establish a "pan-national state" that would include all the lands in which Romanians lived, Romania took advantage of the Russian Civil War to brazenly send troops to Bessarabia under Russian rule in late 1919. Since the Red and White armies were engaged in an existential decisive battle in the heart of Russia, and neither had time to take care of the situation on the Black Sea coast, Romania was able to swallow up the whole of Bessarabia and make it the northern province of the country. This laid a fatal curse for the security of northern Romania.

Who in any country that is mixed up on the road does not know what role Russia is? The saying that "when the Russian flag is raised on a land, it will never fall" is an excellent portrayal of this offensive and aggressive nation. This time, Russia was so nakedly slapped and insulted in the face by a small country in Bessarabia, which is simply unbearable! If this audacious bed bug is not pinched to death, what face does Russia have to mess around in the global village?

Thus, although Romania's territory swelled from 134,000 at the beginning of the war to 296,000 square kilometers from 1921, it became one of the few land snakes in Eastern Europe, but it also had a life-and-death feud with the Soviet Union, Hungary, and Bulgaria. In order to preserve the precious fruits of victory, Romania tried its best to curry favor with Britain and France, the leaders of the Versailles system, for a long time after the war. In order to prevent the spread of the Bolshevik virus to the West, Britain and France did not treat Romania, a small Eastern European country, badly in the 20s.

Under the leadership of France, Romania first established a defensive alliance with Poland, a lackey of Britain and France, against the Soviet Union, and then joined the Yugoslav-Czechoslovak Entente in Eastern Europe. With these gold medal protections, Romania has indeed lived a few years of moisturizing peace of mind. However, the good times did not last long, and with the deepening of the world economic crisis, Romania's favorable situation in the international strategy soon disappeared.

In the mid-30s, the situation in Europe changed dramatically compared to a decade ago. Germany, under Hitler's power, was so sharp that Britain and France retreated step by step in front of it; The industrialization of the Soviet Union also began to unfold vigorously, and the country's strength has taken off by leaps and bounds. In particular, the German annexation of the remnants of Czechoslovakia on March 17, 1939, made Romania feel a great and imminent threat: the Czechs were finished, and who would suffer next? Will Germany invade itself, or will it exploit the bitter hatred in the hearts of the Hungarians and Bulgarians to push for the division of their territory?

In the second half of 1939, the fear in the hearts of the Romanians reached its peak with the signing of the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact on August 23 and the successive bad news of the Soviet Union sending troops to cooperate with Germany in the partition of Poland on September 17. Post-war Poland was in many respects the same as Romania: both were lackeys propped up by Britain and France through the Versailles system in order to establish a bridgehead against Germany and the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe, and more importantly, both had irreconcilable old enmities with the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union never recognized Romania's annexation of Bessarabia, even after the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. If Germany and the Soviet Union had carved up Romania as they had done with Poland, there would be no chance that Romania would have been spared at all!

Although Romania issued an emergency war ****** at the end of September, ordering all reservists to immediately enter active duty and begin training, the army's general staff, General Antoniscu, understood that this was just a stopgap measure to keep the country on track. Poland's 1,000,000-strong army could not walk in front of Germany for more than two weeks; After all the reservists are called up, there are only 700,000 people, how long can they last? Romania and Poland had been allies for a long time, and there were considerable military contacts between them, and Antoniscu knew that his army had no advantage over the Polish army in terms of quality, equipment, or combat philosophy, and was even inferior in courage. No matter how you look at it, your own enemies with the Soviet Union and Germany are hitting stones with eggs!

"Could it be that my great Romania is going to die after only 20 years of existence?" Antoniscu looked at the map on the wall in pain, his heart full of powerlessness and despair. At this time, Yugoslavia was also trembling with fear of Germany's victory on the Polish battlefield, and did not dare to anger its northern neighbors; France, on the other hand, sat in sit-in with Germany across the Rhine and did not hear the sound of gunfire for a month. Romania's foreign aid has been cut off, and only a group of neighbors who are more vicious than tigers and wolves are left to snar at them. Perhaps it will not be long before Romania will follow in the footsteps of Poland and become a historical term under the partition of Germany, the Soviet Union, Hungary, and Bulgaria.

"Jingle bell!" A shrill phone rang suddenly in silence. Antoniscu was shocked, pulled back to reality from his pessimistic speculation. He walked briskly to his desk, held the earpiece to his ear, and a moment later Antoniscu heard the familiar voice of his adjutant: "Honorable Admiral, the German Ambassador, Mr. Claude, would like to meet you in 30 minutes." Would you like to accept his request? ”

Are the Germans coming? Hearing the adjutant's report, Antoniscu, who was full of worry, couldn't help but tremble. However, the disaster that should come cannot be avoided after all. After a moment of silence, Antoniscu slowly spoke, "It's glad to be." Please inform the Ambassador that I will be waiting for him in the conference room of the Army Headquarters. ”

The pendulum was ticking, the lights were bright, and when Antoniscu entered the hall half an hour later, he saw Ambassador Claude in a suit and leather shoes appearing in front of the hallway with his head held high. The black leather boots made a crisp and loud sound on the floor, as if to announce that their owner was the true master of the building. Antoniscu, who was secretly gritting his teeth, noticed that behind Claude, there was a thin German lieutenant colonel officer. In his gestures, he showed his condensed demeanor as an elite professional soldier.

"Welcome, Mr. Honorable Ambassador." Antoniscu smiled and extended his right hand to the German who had come up to him. And Claude, who raised his head slightly, also removed the arrogant look on his face, and shook hands with the other party with standard etiquette. In today's Romania, Antoniscu, the chief of staff who wields all the power of the army, is in fact the second most important person after King Carol II; Although Claude represents the most powerful country in Europe, he still has to give enough respect to the snake in front of him.

"Your Excellency, on behalf of the German Empire, I am today sending you a sincere gift that condenses the friendship between our two peoples." In the face of Antoniscu, who is a soldier, Claude did not have any nonsense, and directly said to the other party about his visit today, "Just an hour and a half ago, Your Excellency Manuilescu, Minister of Foreign Affairs of your country, reached an agreement with our country: your country will use oil, grain and other products of equal value to purchase from our country the munitions and materials captured in the Polish campaign. As for the size of the deal, it all depends on the needs of the army under your command, so I need to get an approximate figure from you. ”

Antoniscu was stunned for a moment, he had no idea when the government would negotiate such an agreement with the Germans again; He apologized to Claude and dialed the Foreign Office. It took nearly twenty minutes for Antoniscu to get an affirmative answer from the special line after several times. Looking at the Germans sitting on the sofa waiting quietly in front of him, Antoniscu, who felt that his face was damaged, couldn't help but angrily scold the relevant personnel who were lazy and derelict in their duties on the night shift. However, when he hung up the earpiece, Antoniscu's mood quickly turned cloudy, because he had already reflected on what the Germans meant to him and Romania. (To be continued.) )