Franco's asking price was too high, and Hitler did not make a deal with him, much to the surprise of the Spanish dictator, who even changed the way he looked at him. Franco couldn't understand that he had clearly grasped the key points of the Germans, and the conditions offered were also carefully considered, and would not make the other party give up easily.

Anyone who has studied the situation in Africa knows that Sierra Leone, which Franco is asking for, is really just a small piece of land. With a total area of only 70,000 square kilometres and an economy struggling to be supported by minerals and fisheries, Sierra Leone is a rockside stone compared to the rest of Britain's richness in Africa. And the reason why Franco set his sights on it was entirely due to the needs of the domestic political environment: he wanted to put on the crown of a conqueror who expanded his territory in order to subdue the manic people who had been stirred up by ***ism.

So the only thing that really stood between the two sides was the staggering amount of loan assistance. Although Franco did open his mouth, he wanted Hitler to sit on the ground and pay the money - and in Franco's eyes, Germany could afford to buy Spain. In the past 1 year, Germany has conquered 7 countries in succession, and the wealth plundered is simply incalculable: Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg are all famous for their prosperity and wealth, and France is the world's fifth largest economy.

Franco's eyes were most struck by Germany's gains in Poland. Due to historical, ethnic, ideological and other reasons, the German implementation in Poland was completely a cruel method of fishing for the sake of fishing, which of course completely destroyed the original economic structure of the latter and made it difficult for it to continue to operate, but the income in a short period of time was absolutely explosive.

With the arrival of the Germans, everything in the 200,000 square kilometers of German-occupied territory changed hands. Land, mines, factories, forests, estates, houses...... The wealth that the Poles had worked so hard for generations was taken away overnight. And in addition to the material, Germany got people in Poland: 18 million Poles and 3 million Jews were enslaved, and they were free coolies in Germany, and I don't know what a staggering value they could squeeze!

Today, Germany is undoubtedly the nouveau riche digging up the treasure mine. Franco didn't want to eat meat, but as a younger brother of the Axis powers, he also asked for a split soup, but what he didn't expect was that Hitler showed no mercy and rejected his desire to fight the autumn wind with a gesture of love coming and going. In addition to being annoyed, Franco's heart was full of doubts: Hitler was reluctant to even pay this price, could he really have something to fear?

Franco's guess was only half right. Under normal circumstances, Hitler would have haggled with him on loan aid and eventually negotiated a figure that met Franco's expectations. But the key problem is that the current economic situation in Germany is far less rosy than Franco believes.

As early as 1936, Hitler's rapid expansion of the army had already triggered a serious potential crisis in the German economy. The "Mifu" coupons used to pay for arms orders were issued indiscriminately, and the debts of the state and banks were piling up; On the eve of the war, the bubble of economic revival that had been blown by the expansion of the army was even more desperate, and it could be punctured by an external turmoil at any time, triggering a violent collapse like a storm. It was only because of this money that it had been properly invested and that it had created an army that was world-leading in terms of combat concepts and key weaponry, and that Germany was able to quickly sweep away its enemies, feed itself with their flesh and blood, and pay off its debts in large quantities, thus avoiding the tragic end of its own collapse due to economic collapse.

Because Germany's economy is already extremely large, and because it has generated too many bad debts in order to realize the "miracle of military expansion," even if it has all the surrounding countries today, it will only be able to fill the existing financial holes and not allow war expenditures to create new deficits. Now Franco wants 7 billion marks, Hitler will definitely not agree, let alone 7 billion, even 1 billion will not be able to take out. You must know that at this time, the German army and navy still have a lot of space waiting for money, and the cost of expanding the mechanized troops of the army has not yet been fully implemented!

In addition, there is another reason that cannot be ignored in the current state of German finance, and that is the embezzlement of the spoils of war by the domestic bureaucratic capitalist groups.

According to the decree issued by the Polish Governor-General, all the property of the Polish state and individuals was confiscated, but all of this wealth was not transferred to the center of Berlin, but a considerable part of it was arbitrarily divided among the top officials, army leaders, and Qatari magnates. They took possession of priceless villas, and acquired large tracts of land, mines, and factories for almost nothing, which greatly reduced the profits of the German slaughter of chickens and eggs, and did not meet the expectations of the financial authorities.

Hitler knew about this but had no power to prevent it. On the contrary, he repeatedly gave confiscated estates to the army's senior generals in various names, so that these low-skinned Junker officers, who were reluctant to go out and grab meat, but who were desperate for property, would benefit and be loyal to him. Thousands of miles of officials are only for money, this is the common characteristic of the vast majority of people, and Hitler obviously understood this. If he wanted to change the already decaying status quo, he had to make a big effort to start a storm, but now that the war was not over, Hitler had no choice but to compromise for the time being, and stability overrode all goals.

After his meeting with Franco, Hitler left for French President Pétain. According to his plan, France would play an important role in the current German-British war and the subsequent intercontinental confrontation, and its weight would even exceed that of Italy, which was a foreign power and a strong force in the middle, and it would be Germany's second second wing, second only to Japan. And in this meeting, Hitler has occupied the absolute time and people, which is very different from the situation when he faced Franco before.

As a veteran of the battlefield, Petain had always hated French democracy. With an average lifespan of less than one year, this noisy government frequently overlaps, and various decrees are in conflict with each other, changing orders at the same time, and chaotic and inefficient. And the rapid defeat of France in May ~ June this year made Petain's hatred of democracy to the extreme: in his eyes, it was the weakness and chaos of the pre-war democratic system that poisoned the country that caused today's defeat!

Since the system of the Third Republic was regarded by Petain as the main culprit of the defeat, then Hitler's Germany, which defeated it, was naturally worthy of admiration and learning! Although Petain explicitly refused to recognize the latter, what he did after becoming president was entirely a practice of this idea: he dissolved the parliament and concentrated power in the president, and the French president was a rubber stamp with all the power in the hands of the prime minister and cabinet ministers, but now Petain has become a Hindenburg-like existence, and his political actions are strikingly similar to those of Hitler in 1934.

When Petain saw the frenzied cult of personality at the opening ceremony of the Party Congress, the marshal, who longed for a military dictatorship, was completely conquered. Petain, who had already passed the age of 80 and was planning to lead the French people through the most difficult period of the past few years, completely retired, once again ignited the long-lost fighting spirit. He has finally found the cure to save France, to revive the fallen nation and restore the glory of the Sun King. This is not only a spiritual uplift brought about by an ideological change, but also a solemn consideration based on reality: the current Germany is absolutely invincible, and the only way out for France is to cooperate with it!

This was true of the calm Petain, not to mention Reival who accompanied him to Germany. The latter was a hardcore pro-German faction in the French government, and in the face of today's situation, he tried every means to persuade and agitate Petain. After some negotiations, Hitler agreed with Petain on a number of areas, and the two sides signed a formal memorandum, and with the current system in both countries, the provisions of the minutes were the established strategy to be implemented immediately.

First, France would open some of its key overseas territories to Germany, allow German troops to enter Syria, allow the German navy to use the port of Dakar, and make Morocco in the northwestern corner of Africa a German-French condominium. These three are not ordinary concessions: the opening of Syria means that Germany will officially enter the stage of wrestling in the Middle East, and its troops will be directed at the oil-producing areas of Iraq, which are just a stone's throw away, while Dakar is France's most important port in West Africa, not only holding the shipping throat of the South Atlantic, but also stationing the Richelieu, the most powerful battleship of the French Navy.

As for the surrender of part of Morocco's rights and interests, it is even more naked curry favor with Germany. In 1911, Germany and France clashed over Morocco's ownership, and Germany suffered a diplomatic defeat and had to surrender this strategically important and economically valuable region. Had it not been for this defeat, which left Germany diplomatically irreversible, the Sarajevo crisis three years later would not have even led to a world war. France's concession is tantamount to a slap in the face of "reflection on history", and Germany has gained not only reputation, but also an ideal springboard for a superb view of the Azores in the middle of the Atlantic.

In return, Germany paid a disproportionately small price. Hitler agreed only to release 300,000 good French prisoners of war by the end of the year (this total number was 1.5 million), to ease restrictions on Vichy France's movement with the occupied territories, to allow France to carry out a limited rearmament in Africa, and to reduce the cost of occupation from 400 million francs to 300 million francs per day.

Although Petain politely rejected Hitler's offer to join the Axis and avoided the crucial question of the French fleet, Hitler was satisfied and did not ask the other side to do anything more. He had not expected to be able to solve the French problem in one fell swoop, and besides, the French fleet was in such a special situation that even if Petain nodded in approval, he could not command a single sailor without the orders of Admiral Darlan. Crucially, Petain's cooperative attitude was very good, which gave Hitler a good prospect of completely subduing the French within a few years.

。 m.