On 20 June, the German task force, which had not caught up with the French fleet and was wandering the waters off the Bay of Biscay, received the latest order from Lyon to sail through the Strait of Gibraltar to the Mediterranean, preparing to receive the port of Toulon, the largest military port in France.

After receiving supplies from Spanish supply ships, the task force then set sail for the Strait of Gibraltar, but on the way the fleet encountered air raids by the British Royal Air Force deployed in North Africa, but with two aircraft carriers in the fleet, the British air raids did not achieve any results, but were attacked by the Germans in a wave of air bases, destroying more than a dozen bombers.

At noon on the 20th, an F200B passenger plane took off from Berlin, Germany, and under the cover of more than 20 F190D fighters, German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop flew to Bordeaux, 1331 kilometers away.

1,331 kilometers is less than four hours for the F200B airliner, which has a maximum speed of 360 kilometers per hour.

At about 5 o'clock in the afternoon, the German flight formation arrived in Bordeaux safe and sound, and French President Albert Lebrun, French Prime Minister Henri Philippe Pétain, French Commander-in-Chief Maxime Weygand and other high-ranking French officials all went to the airport to meet the plane.

After a sumptuous dinner, the two sides entered the conference room and began a negotiation that was much the focus of the world.

At the beginning of the negotiations, the French side said that they were willing to surrender to end the war, but they demanded that all German troops be withdrawn from France, and in order to demonstrate their sincerity, they were willing to provide a pension for all German casualties, and they were also willing to provide the German government with a war reparation of no more than 500 million US dollars, and promised never to go to war with Germany again.

Ribbentrop directly silenced these demands put forward by France, shook his head and said: "These truce demands put forward by you give me the feeling that you are not defeated, but that we are defeated. The German government could never agree to such an armistice. ”

As he spoke, Ribbentrop pretended to get up and leave, and said, "If your government can't afford to be sincere in the face of me, then I'd better go back and replace it with someone else—I think the barrel of our Tiger tank may be a little more powerful than my mouth." ”

"Hey! Other! Seeing that Ribbentrop was leaving, Lebrun and Petain hurriedly stood up and said, "Monsieur Ribbentrop, the conditions are easy to discuss, why bother to leave." ”

"But your request is completely unreasonable, which makes me feel that there is no possibility of this negotiation going forward." Ribbentrop spread his hands.

Anyway, it is completely impossible for the current French army to resist the German offensive, so he doesn't mind being a scoundrel, and the big deal is that the talks will collapse and go back to change tanks and planes to continue talking with them.

"Why don't you tell me about your conditions?" Wei Gang, who had been silent, hesitated.

"Okay." Ribbentrop sat back in his seat when he heard this, "First of all, your country should pay a pension to our dead and wounded soldiers, 50,000 Reichsmarks for each of the dead soldiers and 30,000 Reichsmarks for each of the wounded soldiers, is that no problem?" ”

Petain and Lebrun bowed their heads and calculated for a while when they heard this, so far, the German army has about 40,000 killed and about 100,000 wounded, so they need to pay compensation totaling about 5 billion Reichsmarks, which is converted into about 10 billion francs, and France's current GDP is about 195 billion francs, so they still have no problem with a pension.

"Absolutely." After making calculations, Petain and Lebrun shook their heads at the same time.

"Secondly, your country should pay compensation for the economic losses caused by the war in our country." "This amount should be 50 billion Reichsmarks, or 100 billion francs," said Ribbentrop. ”

This may seem like a lot, but it is not difficult for France to pay, because the French government now has a fiscal revenue of about 50 billion francs a year, and it is perfectly fine to pay 20 billion francs a year to Germany after excluding the necessary fiscal expenditures. So about this payment, Lebrun also nodded and agreed.

Ribbentrop saw that the French side was very cooperative, so he nodded with satisfaction and reported Germany's next request: "Third, France needs to withdraw all active troops, and future national defense construction needs to obey Germany's command." ”

Wei Gang and other soldiers listened to this condition and immediately nodded and agreed, anyway, the war with Germany has ended, France continues to keep the army and it is meaningless, the withdrawal of the army can also save a sum of money to pay war reparations, and as for the future national defense construction to obey Germany - to be honest, they do not believe that Germany will allow France to rebuild the army in the future, so it doesn't matter whether they listen to their arrangements or not, there will be no anyway.

"Fourth." At this point, Ribbentrop paused, for he knew that the next Frenchman might not easily agree.

"Fourth, all the coastal and northern areas of France shall be entrusted to the German government, and at the same time, the production of all French enterprises shall be subject to the dispatch of the German Ministry of Industry, and in order to show our friendship with Germany, we will send troops to protect the security of these places, but the resulting military expenses need to be borne by France, in fact, the military expenditure is not much, only 400 million francs per day."

"What?! Let's cut the ground? "400 million francs a day for military spending?!" Lebrun and Petain shouted directly when they heard this condition.

"Yes!" Ribbentrop smiled and nodded.

"It's impossible! France will not cede even an inch of land! Lebrun angrily refused.

"400 million francs a day? Where did we get so much money? Pétain also said angrily, "You might as well shoot us with one shot!" ”

"Ladies and gentlemen, we didn't say that we wanted you to cede the land to us, we are just responsible for 'escrow', and when the time comes, we will naturally return these lands to you, and as for the military ......expenses," Ribbentrop smiled treacherously, "If you really can't afford to pay, we can not let you pay cash, and it is okay to use ore and other resources to pay." ”

"Impossible!" Lebrun shook his head and said, "I will never be a sinner in France!" ”

"Is that so?" Ribbentrop said regretfully, "If you do not agree, then we will have to choose to continue this war, and I think that when we conquer and annex all of France, you will not be a sinner of France—for even the name France will cease to exist!" ”