While Berlin and Tokyo were busy with large-scale package deals, Kesselring was also engaged in a large number of sizable and important deals in North Africa and the Middle East.

On the one hand, he annulled all treaties with Britain, and at the same time confiscated all British official and private property in Egypt on the grounds that British colonial rule had caused a lot of losses to Egypt, and at the same time appallingly proposed a "10 billion pounds" reparation claim; On the other hand, he readily issued a statement stating that Egypt was completely independent and joined the Axis camp, and that the most important rights of the British in Egypt before the war, including control of the canals, the right to garrison troops, and the control of the major ports, were all handed over to the Germans.

Even Egyptian Prime Minister Maher did not expect this, he thought that Egypt would still have a chance to "strictly maintain" neutrality in the storm, but since the king had signed it, he could only be forced to countersign the terms.

In the face of Maher's complaint, the fat king was not annoyed, and only told his reasons: "Teacher, the British will not come back in a short time, but the Germans will stay here for a long time, they are only a little better than the British at best, if we don't express our stance quickly, do you think they will have good endurance?" Won't someone come up? There have always been a lot of rebels and rebels who want to kill me, and the Germans can just find a reason to do it, and then change someone and not do it? I'm not that naïve. This kind of thing is like life, since you can't resist it, then enjoy it. ”

Maher was speechless.

Under such a smooth current, the agreement between Germany and Egypt was quickly reached. In fact, the Egyptian government still made a lot of money from it, and after a large amount of British property was confiscated, it was sold to powerful people in the country who were inextricably linked with the government, and only a few unlucky people who failed in the struggle were dealt with as "traitors", and the Egyptian government's original situation of high debts was immediately alleviated a lot, and the trading price of public bonds and the stock prices of Egyptian domestic enterprises also rose a lot -- at least now the situation is stable, and Egypt has not suffered too many losses in such a storm. It's simply Allah forbid.

The big bourgeoisie was satisfied with everything, not only because they had been able to control many of the industries and plots that had been controlled by the British, but also because they had finally found a market for the long-standing accumulation of cotton, which was bought by the government by issuing public bonds. Cotton is Egypt's largest producer, and Germany and the Axis powers used to be very important buyers of Egyptian cotton, while Britain did not urgently need Egyptian cotton because of its cheaper supply of Indian and American cotton.

After the start of the war, at the request of the British, Egyptian cotton was gradually cut off from selling to the Axis powers, but the British side only purchased some of the surplus share, and the Egyptian government and the big bourgeoisie repeatedly demanded that Britain underwrite it, and Britain was only willing to pay the price of American cotton - the price index was less than 70% of Egyptian cotton, and how could the merchants whose interests were damaged be willing to do it. After a backlog of 420,000 tons of cotton, it has become a serious social and economic problem.

Now, not only did the backlog of cotton immediately have a market, but even the subsequent production was booked in advance, and Kesselring told these capitalists that Germany would be fully involved in the production of agricultural products as soon as possible. Under the terms of the agreement, Egypt bought cotton through the issuance of public bonds, and then entered into an arms deal with Germany - the two sides discounted the sale price to each other. Egypt has always used British weapons, and after the establishment of the Independent Defense Force, in order to match the original weapons, it is still ready to use British equipment, which makes the capture of German troops in Alexandria and Cairo immediately have a market, except for some of the equipment in short supply (such as Sherman tanks, trucks, jeeps, etc.) after being taken away by the Germans for their own use, Kesselring said that the rest can be sold to Egypt, and the price is discounted by 9% according to the price sold by Britain to Egypt and then 8%.

The Egyptians accepted the German offer without hesitation, and even took advantage of it, and the young soldiers were very supportive of the king's generous agreement to expand the army and enrich the equipment, when the British were in power, they could not touch the tanks, let alone the position of senior officers, the Germans ate much better than the British, at least they would not forcibly insert officers to control the army, even the advisers and instructors were only arranged for each battalion, as the Egyptian army expanded to 5 divisions like balloons, Even Farouk I's prestige has increased a bit.

Kesselring knew very well that the arms sold by Britain to Egypt over the years were not only of poor quality but also of high price, and even if they were discounted in this way, their prices were still inflated, while after the discount was completed, the cotton was only a little more expensive than the fair price in the market, and the German side actually got enough of it, not to mention that these arms were bought and sold without capital, which was equivalent to 420,000 tons of cotton for Germany for nothing. Of course, such a low-level industry as the cotton spinning industry has long been emptied in Germany, and this cotton is nothing more than going around France, Italy, and some countries in Western Europe and then turning into clothing and then returning to Germany, but it is very helpful in solving the problem of unemployment in these countries -- the European Union will become more attractive only after the society has settled down.

Kesselring also paid special attention to the performance of the Egyptian free officers, the older Mohammed Najib served as the commander of the Egyptian 5th Division, and the young Nasser and Sadat became the battalion commander and company commander respectively.

According to the agreement secretly reached between Germany and Egypt, after Egypt joined the Axis and declared war on Britain and the United States, it would cooperate with the German army to march into Sudan - Kesselring promised that they would only fight in Africa, and they would not interfere in the rest of the war, and the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Egyptian divisions were scheduled to cooperate in the war, and according to the agreement that northern Sudan was assigned to Egypt, the two sides were ready to make a formal announcement at an appropriate time.

After settling down in Egypt, Kesselring went to Baghdad without stopping.

Although the Egyptian ruling class tried its best to grit its teeth and hate the British in the face of the British, it still had a little twisting and fear in its heart, but the Iraqi side obviously did not have this concern, and Iraq had a good battle with the British more than a year ago, and although it lost, when Germany expelled the British forces, the whole country was basically jubilant, and there was no idea of breaking the thread. Rashid himself had fled to Germany and fought alongside the German and Italian armies, so he was even more merciless in his treatment of the British - the British in Egypt were sent out of the country by courtesy, the British in Iraq were all imprisoned and prisoner of war camps by Rashid, and all the Anglophiles were washed in blood, just as the Anglophiles purged the pro-Germans after his defeat.

But to Kesselring's headache, the Iraqis are clearly more eager to fight. The Iraqi government represented by Rashid not only promised to hand over all oil fields and facilities to Germany, but even generously stated that any plot of land in Iraq could be developed immediately for a period of 100 years if Germany saw it, and Iraq would only receive half of the output or at a discount, even if the Germans could offset it with equipment or industrial equipment, but Iraq had a small demand: if Kuwait could not be annexed to Iraq, then at least a little land should be taken from Saudi Arabia. In order to express his sincerity, he not only quickly adopted a declaration of war against Britain and the United States, but also took the initiative to submit an application to join the Axis -- at this time, the two sides had not even fully negotiated the major conditions for the follow-up.

In order to make this seem plausible, Rashid not only launched a massive public opinion offensive in the Iraqi media, but even prepared ready-made reasons for Kesselring:

First, the Saudi king hugged the thighs of Britain and the United States the tightest, and there are a large number of industrial and exploration blocks of the American Mobil company in the territory, and in the situation that Germany has swept the Middle East, it still twists and pinches the shelves and refuses to lean over, in Rashid's words, to sober them up;

Second, there is a border dispute between Iraq and Saudi Arabia, there is a dispute between the two sides, the British have always favored the Saudis, and he hopes that the German side will uphold justice;

Third, Saudi Arabia was originally composed of multiple countries. Aziz (aka Ibn?) Saudi) wrested supreme power from the hostile Rashid family and annexed neighboring countries, in his words - the country was not justified.

Strictly speaking, the Iraqis did not lie about the relevant issues, the nomads have no territorial boundaries in their minds at all, and now all the national borders are drawn by the British, and there must be "problems" in this, so Iraq not only has disputes with Saudi Arabia, but also Syria, Kuwait, and Persia, but Rashid is very smart, he knows that Syria and Kuwait are now Germany's established results, and it is not ideal to take food from the German population, although Persia has not yet taken it, but the Persians claim to be the Aryans on the plateau. Germany attaches great importance to race, but Saudi Arabia, who is not obedient and close, is ready to attack Saudi Arabia.

Of course, the current Iraqi army cannot defeat the Saudi army, and it must have the support of Germany, and in order to obtain support, it is necessary to first honor Germany, which he believes is absolutely necessary -- to give Germany only economic benefits, and once he can open up territory for Iraq, he will be a national hero of the Iraqis.

He had spent time in Germany, had many friends in German political circles, and knew enough about German politics and economics to see how hungry Germany was for oil in those huge coal-to-liquid projects, and he believed that he would be able to impress Kesselring and the Führer behind him with excellent conditions.

When he heard that the Germans were interested in building an oil pipeline in Iraq, a smile unconsciously appeared on his lips, and he felt that he was very close to success. (To be continued.) )