The urgency of rearming the army has become a consensus among the French government, and the first thing that must be done is to rebuild the confidence of the people in the French army and to boost the morale of the French army, which has fallen to the valley as a result of the defeat.

The French government did a pretty good job in this regard, and Petain and his cabinet were so adept at guiding public opinion in France that the government of the Republic tried to convince the French people by all means of propaganda that the defeat was not because the French soldiers were incapable of fighting or were not brave enough, but because of the incompetence of the previous government, and the country was manipulated by a group of international war brokers, and was forced to fight a terrible and terrible war that could have been avoided without being ready for war.

The former cabinet and parliamentary members were investigated by the Ministry of the Interior one after another, and some were even arrested and tortured, and all the "evidence" seems to point to a certain "cabal" that has been hidden in the French government for a long time. Renault was the agent that the organization put on stage.

Renault's previous attitude towards the establishment of a "Franco-British alliance" has become the most irrefutable major "incriminating evidence". In Sir Van Stadt's proposal, he suggested that Britain and France could unite as one country to fight the German threat at the cost of the French Third Republic cease to exist and lose all its overseas colonies and national sovereignty.

This proposal was strongly opposed by the French cabinet at the time, and as a fuse, it triggered a series of subsequent political defeats for Renault, his attitude towards Britain, aroused the dissatisfaction of a large number of political allies, including the French left-wing workers' groups that had always supported him, coupled with the defeat of the French army on the battlefield, the prime minister's previous promises became full of lies, Renault's personal credibility was almost destroyed, even to the point of betrayal, which directly led to his defeat in the political game with the Petain group, In the end, he was forced to resign as prime minister and handed over the power in his hands to the French marshal (Petain's official military rank was actually that of the French Army Lieutenant General, and the French marshal was an honorary title awarded to him by the National Assembly, so when he was tried by a military tribunal after the war, the court could only deprive him of the rank of lieutenant general and other honors, and could not deprive him of the title of French marshal, so Petain was a French marshal until his death. ）。

Today, Reynaud and his remnants are still active, and his left-wing allies have realized their mistakes, but it is too late to remedy them.

The French workers' organizations had suffered heavy losses in the war, and now they did not dare to go toe-to-toe with Petain, who held the military power, especially when the other side was backed by foreign allies. If they still had the opportunity to form a group to go into exile after engaging in street politics before, now this road is completely impassable, because the governments of all Europe no longer take in such exiles, unless they have a way to flee to the Soviet Union, otherwise the usual result is to be imprisoned in concentration camps on the outskirts of Paris.

Before the war, the left-wing forces in French politics were once very strong, when the French were tired of appeasement and conservative clichés, and the French economy fell into a global Great Depression, Renault's political slogan of deregulating the economic sphere, reducing the exploitation and oppression of workers by entrepreneurs, and turning the national strategy into a comprehensive pro-Soviet and anti-German political slogan was welcomed by most of the French left-wing forces, and as a result, a large number of French workers and political parties voted for this high-spirited middle-aged politician. In one fell swoop, he was put on the throne of Prime Minister of the French Third Republic.

On the other hand, because of Reynold's political ideas, it has aroused widespread dissatisfaction and hostility among French conservative forces and right-wing political groups, who believe that the greatest threat to France comes from the Soviet Union rather than Germany, and the French consortium system, which represents bureaucratic capital, is even more strongly opposed to Renault's liberal economic and labor policies.

These contradictions led to a serious crisis in Reynolds' cabinet, with the government and the left and right factions of parliament battling each other, and policy-making often mired in a never-ending wrangling.

Historically, the sluggishness and confusion of the French government and the war cabinet after the German army broke through the French border did not fail to include this factor.

Now that Petain had finally found an opportunity to legitimately crack down on those potential political opponents, he did so without mercy, and all the mistakes made by the government during the war had now become the crimes of those "conspirators and traitors", and there was no better candidate for the blame than these opposition politicians, and this defeat was the greatest original sin of all.

However, to the surprise of the French government and Petain, at a time when conspiracy theories were in the air in society, the spearhead seemed to deviate from the government's direction and gradually pointed at the Jewish community in France.

The French Jews, as they have historically suffered, were angered and attacked by the whole of French society, except that this time there was no pressure from the Germans, and it was no longer the Gestapo and SS in leather clothes who stormed their homes.

The Jewish community and left-wing workers' organizations in France became the center of popular attacks, and seemingly overnight countless "evidence" of these people and groups betraying the Republic for profit, and interestingly enough, the French also understood that this group could not cooperate with the Germans, so they betrayed their homeland to the Soviet Union and the British, their century-old enemies.

The French believed that these men had colluded with Churchill, the British warmonger, and the Red Soviets of the East, to betray France's national interests and intelligence to each other, and ultimately led to the defeat of France on the battlefield.

For example, one of the most popular rumors in Paris today is that when the Battle of Dunkirk broke out, the British were bent on escaping, so they put the French army on the periphery as cannon fodder, and paid the lives of French officers and soldiers in exchange for them to escape safely back to their islands. The French cabinet must have been aware of this plan, which was tantamount to the murder of French officers and soldiers, and Prime Minister Renaud may have been one of the masterminds, and the French Army Command was also his accomplice.

Another rumor was that traitors within the French government had betrayed vital information about the French Army to the Soviet Union, and the Soviets had given these battle plans and intelligence to their allies, the Germans, which ultimately led to the collapse of the Western Front.

The paranoid pride of the French nation has found a certain catharsis here, and the proud French citizens have invariably lost the most basic logical thinking skills in such matters, and have not listened to any objections, and certainly cannot have any reason to speak to them.

As for the chaos in French society in the past two months, the German side had been informed by Petain early on, and was aware of the marshal's aims, and at the same time, on certain issues, the German side was actually optimistic.

Don't think that if the German Führer's Jewish policy is eased, the German people will have a favorable opinion of the Jews, and how can the grudge between the two sides that has accumulated over decades be over.

The German concentration camps in Poland still housed more than 100,000 Polish Jews, all of whom were so-called pure-blooded "Hebrews."

The land and possessions of these men had been divided between the Germans and their Polish collaborators, and much of it had fallen into the hands of the local Polish civilians, so that if the Jews were to be returned to their places of origin, they would probably not survive even one night.

The question of how to settle these Jews became a thorny one, and this ethnic group was almost universally rivaled in Eastern Europe except for Poland itself. There was not much way out for these people, and Xu Jun was ready to find a suitable time to transfer them to Germany, and these people were generally highly educated and could become qualified industrial labor with a little training.

Turning to the question between France and Spain, the most immediate contradiction between the two sides at the moment was not the ownership of the port of Ceuta, and Franco knew that it might not be possible to get it back unless he could get the support of the Germans.

What frustrated and even maddened Franco now was the discovery by his Interior Ministry that the French were quietly reaching into Catalonia.

Catalonia was first born as a regional state in the Frankish era, and over the course of five centuries, through several marriages between monarchs, it eventually became an important autonomous province in the Kingdom of Spain, and the feud between the territory and the Madrid regime began.

In the history of the Catalans, France played an inglorious role, in the War of the Spanish Succession, the Catalans sided with the Spanish Bourbon royal family, and were betrayed by their allies in the war, so that they suffered the most ferocious revenge and attack from the Madrid regime, not only lost the most important autonomy, but even the Catalan language passed down from generation to generation was banned.

These orders were given by Felipe V, who was born into the Bourbon family of France, and the rule of the Spanish Bourbon dynasty was started by this person.

Centuries later, the Catalans had the opportunity to overthrow the dictatorship of General Rivera and oust the Spanish royal family in 1931.

Revolutionaries established the Second Spanish Republic, and Catalonia, a symbol of royal oppression, regained its status as an autonomous province.

But the good times did not last long, the tragic Spanish Civil War broke out, and the Catalans stood firmly on the side of the republicans, with the result that with the rout of the Popular Front and the coming to power of the dictator Franco, Catalonia was once again stripped of its autonomous status, and the Catalan language continued to be banned, and everything seemed to be back to square one.

The value of France to Catalonia was clear, after all, the two sides were separated by only one border, but it would be a bit wrong to say that the Gauls had the idea of annexing this region.

It is ridiculous that the French have never thought of conquering Catalonia at all, and they have been fighting with Madrid for 150 years for autonomy, and the French do not have so much patience for themselves.

In addition, in addition to the relatively rich agricultural products, the other natural resources of this land can be described as barren, the raw materials of industry must be allocated from other provinces, and the development of production and commerce is far from the level of France, so why should the Gauls take this burden and trouble.

France's involvement in Catalonia was largely motivated by distrust of Franco's regime, and Spain was at least one of the destabilizing factors within the region, if not a threat to the republic.

In order to find something else for the dictator to do, French intelligence began to secretly support the Catalans' independence movement, not only providing funds for the activities of underground organizations, but even secretly transporting a number of decommissioned standard weapons.

Franco was unable to leave Madrid for the New Year's parade this time, mainly because the situation in Catalonia tends to be riotous, and he must be in control of the situation in Madrid.

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