With the end of the Soviet-Finnish war, the already unpredictable situation in Europe has entered a new stage.

First of all, Germany, which sat back and watched the defeat of a pro-German country like Finland, demanded a new round of "political concession compensation" from the Soviet government after ceding Finland's interests and ignoring the Soviet army's attack on Finland.

As compensation for Germany's support of the Soviet Union's attack on Finland, Ribbentrop signed a new round of cooperation with Molotov. In the new plan, the Soviet Union would provide further ports in the Arctic Ocean, the Black Sea, and the Pacific Ocean, so that Germany could import its own war materials from various places.

Since Germany and Britain were already at war, Reinhardt's Third Reich had already been blockaded by the British Empire. Germany would not have been able to obtain imported supplies from the blockade of the British Royal Navy than with the help of the Soviet Union. This is also an important reason why Reinhardt accommodated Stalin's demands as he did in history.

On the other hand, even during the Soviet-Finnish war, the Soviet Union did not forget to supply supplies to Germany in accordance with the cooperation agreement. During the more than 100 days of Germany's selective silence, the Soviet side sent a total of 500,000 tons of grain, 200,000 tons of wheat, 400,000 tons of oil, 50,000 tons of cotton, and a considerable amount of various other important raw materials.

The Soviet Union, which had a request from Germany and needed Germany to give up its assistance to Finland, only received a small number of locomotives and some old machine tools from its partner Germany during the war.

It is worth mentioning that the locomotives sent by Germany are produced according to the standards of German railways. In other words, these locomotives could not be used on the railways built by the Soviet Union before, and could only be used on the standard European railway network that Germany helped build.

The Soviet-German cooperation also made Mussolini, a decent ally of Germany, more and more dissatisfied.

The day after the Soviet Union won the Finnish War, Mussolini admonished Reinhardt in the tone of his predecessors: "As a born revolutionary, I tell you, do not sacrifice our long-standing revolutionary principles for the sake of a momentary political strategy." If Berlin and Moscow go any further, it will cause extremely negative repercussions in Italy......."

Mussolini's mood when he said this was actually quite complicated. After all, he originally thought that Germany should be inseparable from the Soviet Union, so he actively made many anti-Soviet remarks.

Now, Italy has offended the Soviet Union to death, and Germany, which was recognized as the main anti-Soviet force at the beginning, suddenly said that it would not play. This, this, this........ Isn't this a pit man!

He, Mussolini, did not want to take the title of German anti-Soviet vanguard. How can this kind of hatred-pulling thing be the first to rush?

In the end, Mussolini was relieved after receiving a letter from Reinhardt himself, and Reinhardt's own commitment that Germany would not deepen its cooperation with the Soviet Union.

However, Reinhardt, who had always regarded his commitment as a bad habit, did not slow down his cooperation with the Soviet Union in the slightest because of his assurances to Mussolini.

Mussolini, on the other hand, was still selling war materials behind Reinhardt's back to Britain, which had declared war on Germany.

These two half-hearted allies are not good people who help others, and they only care about the interests of their own countries.

In addition to the above two leaders, the most aggrieved is Churchill, the prime minister of the British Empire.

Churchill, who had long planned the plan of "False Expeditionary Force" and was ready to use the name of the Finnish Expeditionary Force to borrow the route from Norway, took the opportunity to occupy the major ports of Norway, and finally persuaded the President of the Allied Forces of his own country and France, Marshal Gammerin, to ask for a British and French expeditionary force to land in Norway in the name of aiding Finland, but the original plan ushered in a change.

As the expeditionary force was about to depart, they had already surrendered to Finland, the object of Norway's assistance.

Don't play like this. It was hard to get the stubborn Congress and get the authorization to send troops to occupy Norway, a neutral country. finally persuaded the small Gan Malin to come to a regiment.

In this way, Churchill pieced together an expeditionary force and obtained authorization to occupy some of Norway's ports. After all the formalities were worked out, the reason for borrowing disappeared!

Churchill had a saying, "Fuck you," and it's going to be said now!

"We can't wait, I heard that the Germans have fished in troubled waters and quickly took all of Denmark while the Soviet Union's defeat of Finland diverted our attention." Churchill paced back and forth anxiously and said to the members of the wartime cabinet: "I came up with a plan three months ago, but I have not been able to implement it until now. In contrast, it took the Germans all of Denmark in just one morning. With such a huge gap in efficiency, shouldn't we reflect on it?! ”

Just as the British wanted to invade Norway and "use the channel to help Finland" to build momentum, Germany had long begun to build momentum for revenge against Denmark. The difference was that before the British troops set foot on Norwegian soil, the German troops had already occupied all of Denmark.

"Reflection is definitely something to reflect." Chamberlain, who was sitting on the side, said lightly: "It's just that we have now lost the reason to enter Norway." For the sake of the British Empire's reputation and international influence, we cannot afford to send troops rashly. ”

In contrast to Churchill's focus on strategic significance, Chamberlain was more focused on political influence. He did not want Britain to be in a passive position in international public opinion by going to war against a small neutral country.

Churchill was already annoyed that the plan had been postponed again and again, and now when he heard that even the plan was going to be canceled in its entirety, he immediately stood up from his seat: "The plan cannot be canceled!" ”

In Chamberlain's astonished eyes, Churchill plucked up the courage to continue: "Big deal, we, together with France, send troops in the name of the League of Nations. In any case, our two countries are the only two remaining permanent members of the League of Nations, and it is not impossible to do so. ”

Pulling the entire League of Nations to bear the charge of invasion, Churchill's hand can be regarded as an expedient measure to reduce the pressure of public opinion. At least, all the members of the main battle faction present who supported him were willing to think so.

Of course, Churchill did not forget to analyze the politician Chamberlain from a military point of view: "First of all, the existence of a neutral Norway is supporting Germany in disguise. Because Germany could strengthen itself by using neutral Norway to import Swedish iron ore from their ports. ”

"The strength of Germany means an increase in the probability of victory for our future opponents. Therefore, neutral Norway is what our country does not want to see! ”

"As long as we want to fight, we can always find a hundred, ten thousand reasons that make sense. The question is, is it worth fighting? Churchill made a final impassioned statement: "While we are bound by rigid morality, the Germans who do not comply with all this have enjoyed the benefits they need." It shouldn't be so, and it can't be so! ”