At this moment, in a conference room in Paris, France. The discussion of another group of people is also going on.

"The Germans' delay in paying us the reparations they owe is a disguised resistance to the Treaty of Versailles! France, as the main member of the victorious powers, needs to use more forceful means to claim our own interests. It's time to unite Belgium with troops to occupy the Ruhr industrial region in Germany and teach the Germans a lesson" A major general of the faction of the French Prime Minister Poincarre, who is trumpeting his radical theories.

As France's prime minister, Poincaré has not had an easy time lately. Some time ago, the parliament passed a large plan for the construction of defenses - to build a line of defense that can never be broken, the Maginot Line.

As this line of defense, which was given high hopes, the Maginot Line was arguably the most advanced combination of fortifications of this era.

The ground part is armored or reinforced concrete machine gun fortifications and artillery fortifications, and the underground part has several floors, including command posts, personnel lounges, food storage rooms, ammunition depots, ambulance stations, power stations, filtration and ventilation rooms, etc. There are passages between the fortifications and electric vehicles. The weapons in the firing fortifications were specially designed and installed.

The anti-tank obstacles in the defensive line mainly include anti-tank trenches, cliffs, cliffs, and metal and concrete piles, reinforced with minefields. Anti-infantry obstacles are generally metal piles or wooden piles barbed wire, and some sections are also set up with electrified barbed wire.

It has been said that the French nation has not produced a military wizard since Napoleon. Although this statement is biased, it also illustrates a fact from the side, France lacks good generals!

The disastrous defeat in the Franco-Prussian War had given the French an opportunity to reorganize their military doctrine and thinking, and after bearing the heavy cross of national humiliation, the French were bent on enshrined the concept of "large-scale offensive" as a classic military ideology for revenge.

The First World War proved that the French generals were not very good at applying this idea. On the contrary, it was France's old enemy, and Germany played the tactics of a large-scale offensive very smoothly.

After paying the price of hundreds of thousands of lives in the First World War, the French finally became pragmatic and abandoned those ridiculous ideas. In the end, with the help of British allies, through trench warfare, the old enemy Germany was defeated with difficulty.

The victory brought by trench warfare made the military thinking of the French jump from one extreme to the other - from "complete offensive" to "total defensive".

To this day, the French still regard the Battle of Verdun as the pride of their first war. They believed that this battle was a symbol of the national spirit of the French who had the courage to sacrifice themselves in the face of a strong enemy and persevere to the end to achieve victory.

But no matter how nice it sounds, when it comes to implementation, problems keep appearing. The most intuitive problem is that the Maginot Line is too expensive to build! To repair this line of defense, the initial investment will require 1 billion enamel, and the later stage will have to invest no less than 4 billion enamel.

As the prime minister of France, the task of collecting money naturally fell on him. However, the current economic environment in France is not good. Domestic funds are not easy to mobilize, where to get money? The only way out seems to be to squeeze from Germany.

In any case, Germany owes France reparations, and the result of drawing blood from Germany is nothing more than offending Germany. It's better to offend the Germans than to offend the French. Poincaré easily made this inverted multiple-choice question. Unfortunately, the chancellor forgot that politics is not a matter of choice, and Germany is not left to be manipulated.

Colonel de Gaulle, who belonged to Marshal Foch's faction, interrupted Poincarre's train of thought and said: "We are already very strong in our pressure on Germany, and if we continue to increase our efforts, we will provoke a German revolt. The consequences will be unimaginable! ”

Disastrous? In response to Colonel de Gaulle's concerns, Poincaré retorted: "Germany now has a total of 100,000 troops, and we can provide four divisions for this operation, plus three divisions joined by Belgium, we have nearly 100,000 troops to carry out this mission." What will Germany use to resist, and will the whole country send troops? Then we might as well send another 100,000 people, destroy Germany, and dominate Europe. ”

Prime Minister Poincaré's words drew echoed laughter from a group of colonels. De Gaulle frowned at this, and resisted the urge to continue theorizing with Poincaré and others.

This kind of psychology is normal, even Marshal Fuxi can't reverse it, let alone him De Gaulle.

Moreover, de Gaulle did not think of reversing all this, and the French military is the French armed forces. As a big country with the largest army in Europe, it is impossible to be a little domineering and cautious in everything. Moreover, this did not affect the combat effectiveness of the French soldiers. Lao Tzu is the first in the world, and seeing that no one is convinced, is the momentum that a soldier should have.

But now the French military is already full of blind self-confidence. In their opinion, the Germans had been cornered and had no resistance in the short term. But de Gaulle understood that this incomplete desperation often breeds explosive power.

Poincaré, who was anxious to interrupt De Gaulle's opposition theory, put up the prime minister's score: "It's so decided, send troops to occupy the Ruhr industrial area within half a month, and improve the economic environment in the country." Colonel de Gaulle, since you are so worried, then you will be the head of the observation mission and observe the entire occupation operation. ”

With a gesture to stop de Gaulle, who was still trying to say something, Poincaré couldn't help but announce that "the relevant people stay and assign tasks, and the others will dismiss the meeting!" ”

Soon, the invasion of the German Ruhr industrial zone was adopted. One French regiment after another was transferred to the German-French border, and the relevant departments also hurriedly transferred the fuel and ammunition attached to it to the border line.

At the same time, the German parliament passed a radically opposite bill to withdraw the already small security corps from the Ruhr industrial area. On the border line of the Ruhr line in Germany, the outposts that were nervously watching the movements of the French troops received orders to temporarily remove their posts and withdraw all personnel together with the security corps.

On the other hand, the SS who reacted quickly, under the personal leadership of Steve, selected 20,000 of the most elite SS soldiers to go to the Ruhr industrial area in advance. Another 20,000 SS troops, who are still being assembled, will enter the Ruhr industrial area in four batches over the next 10 days. A proposal signed by Sickert was submitted to the Parliament, and the Gestapo-controlled media were ready to build momentum for the SS.

On the road, 15 kilometres from the Ruhr industrial area, the withdrawn security regiment met the SS troops marching in the opposite direction.

"Who are you? Why the weapon? Why drive to our rear? Looking at Steve, who was wearing a black SS uniform and holding a large number of small arms, the head of the security regiment led by him asked a series of questions nervously. After all, a team of 20,000 people was a very conspicuous force in Germany at that time, but the uniforms of this group of people obviously did not belong to the Wehrmacht. The security regiment behind him also quickly reacted vigilantly, and immediately raised their guns collectively to aim at this side.

However, there was clearly no hostility on the SS side, and Steve waved his hand, signaling the SS men not to be nervous. After several SS fighters who tried to confront each other lowered their guns, Steve politely replied to the head of the security regiment: "We are SS troops affiliated with the National Socialist German Workers' Party. The weapons were taken to defend the German border. Pay attention to the words, your rear is our front, and the SS will go to defend the German border with their lives! ”

Hearing this, everyone in the security team was eager to find a hole to get into. The guns that were raised by the security team were quickly put down. In the face of these self-proclaimed SS people, who were preparing to defend their homeland and country, they were embarrassed to question each other again when they retreated. What is a soldier, this is a soldier! In contrast, the soldiers of the Security Corps, who wore Wehrmacht uniforms, abandoned their duties in front of the enemy and strode back.

The head of the security regiment immediately changed his smile and explained to the leader Steve: "Brother, our gang has no knowledge. There was a lot of offense just now, don't be like us. In fact, we all want to go to war with you, who is afraid of who is grandchildren. It's a pity that the order from above is that we must evacuate. Speaking of this, a look of helplessness flashed in the eyes of everyone in the security group.

"Don't worry about it, I'm sure after this time everyone will know our Guardsman. You withdraw first, and Germany will need you in the future. Steve comforted the security team intimately, and then casually asked, "By the way, what's your name." Go back and I'll recommend you to Colonel Reinhardt. ”

"God, you're Colonel Reinhardt's troops, and he's our idol." The head of the security corps replied in surprise: "By the way, my name is Moder. Please help me tell Colonel Reinhardt in the future, I am more than willing to join your glorious group. ”

"Moder, okay, I remember." Steve smiled heartily and continued to lead the 20,000 SS troops on their way.

After getting out of the way, Moder looked at the endless stream of SS troops and said enviously to his adjutant: "Look at their black uniforms, they are so handsome!" ”