In fact, the Finnish army has mobilized nearly 650,000 armed forces, including combat troops, native defence units and border guard units, of which 470,000 are combat troops.

This is already an unusually heavy pressure on Finland, with a total population of only 3.5 million.

A force of this size, which accounts for a huge proportion of military expenditure, is absolutely impossible to sustain for a long time.

Therefore, the Finnish government must seize the opportunity to join the war between the Allies and the Soviet Union at the peak of its military power and regain lost territory. Both Mannerheim and Finnish President Risto Ruti understood that if they did not seize the historical opportunity to regain their lost territory at this time, when the dust of the Soviet-German war settled, there would be no chance to regain their lost land, or expand more territory.

Since the Finns were in a hurry to take the land from the Soviets, then the German side was not so anxious, at least, to behave no more than Finland.

Ribbentrop clearly said that the German and Norwegian armies would help Finland regain lost territory and help Finland occupy more Soviet lands.

But in reality, because Reinhardt was worried that the Finns would not take much military responsibility for the Allies later in the war, he intended to let Finland take on the responsibility from the beginning.

Reinhardt was not a good man, and he didn't care about helping Finland regain lost territory and establish a greater Finnish territory. In the final analysis, Reinhardt would never make the slightest decision that would affect the interests of Germany for the benefit of the Finns.

Although Finland in this life has already agreed to an alliance with the German army, the two sides are allies rather than comrades-in-arms. However, Reinhardt's trust in the Finns did not increase much.

Reinhardt was well aware that neither the Finns could have been involved in the war for long, either in terms of their historical performance or in terms of the economic pressures and hardships caused by the fact that all the Finnish soldiers had been enlisted.

To put it bluntly, even if the Finnish generals wanted to, their national strength would not support a long war.

The Finns were definitely not going to do their duty for the sake of "the sacred cause of defeating the Soviet Bolsheviks." "Their politicians only care about the actual interests of their country.

Therefore, in order to make the best use of Finland's early and late paddling ally, Reinhardt had no choice but to let the Finns bear more pressure and sacrifice at the beginning.

Didn't Finland deploy 15 infantry divisions, 1 cavalry brigade and 2 pike brigades on the front? Didn't Finland form 8 armored battalions using the No. 3 assault gun imported from Germany and the original backward tanks, captured Soviet tanks? Didn't the Finnish Air Force still have 300 warplanes and a large number of border airfields built with German aid?

Then let the Finns use it, and let them use the hundreds of thousands of native defense troops and border guards in the rear, let their soldiers shed blood and sacrifice, let their tanks and assault guns rush to the head of the Soviet-Finnish border, and let their air force, which has suffered a slight loss in history, increase casualties in this life because of the sudden increase in pressure.

Reinhardt never considered Finland a partner.

In his speech, he compared Mannerheim to the Finnish generals as comrades, claiming to be good comrades-in-arms of Germany.

But in reality, Finland, Bulgaria, Italy, and even the loyal and reliable Romania and Norway, all German allies, were nothing more than props for Reinhardt.

In this big war with the USSR, Reinhardt did not care what the process was, and no matter how much sacrifice the allies would pay, for the Third Reich, only his own victory was everything!

It doesn't matter how heavy the losses of the allies are, it must be the country they lead that wins in the end.

That way there will be no problems!

In the original historical time, too many allies eventually betrayed Germany and eventually became enemies of the German army. The reason for this was that Germany's own strength eventually weakened.

Therefore, Reinhardt had to do the opposite, making his allies bear more sacrifices and bloodshed, so as to preserve the strength of the German army as much as possible.

In the case of the Allied forces that fought alongside the Finnish army, Germany no longer sent German troops to work seamlessly with the Finnish army, as it did in history.

Reinhardt prepared to give the troops of Army Group North to Germany, compared with the historical reduction of the 12th Infantry Division, the 32nd Infantry Division, the 121st Infantry Division, the 126th Infantry Division, the 122nd Infantry Division, and the 123rd Infantry Division, a total of 6 infantry divisions.

The combat mission of the German Army Group North in this configuration was still to cross and liberate the Baltic states and attack the northern part of the Soviet Union.

Army Group North, commanded by General Wilhelm Ritter von Loeb, now consisted of 14 infantry divisions, 3 pantry divisions, 2 motorized infantry divisions, 1 SS infantry division, and 3 garrison divisions.

Although compared to the historical Northern Army, 6 infantry divisions have been reduced. But on the other hand, the infantry used by the Allies in the direction of the three Baltic countries was replaced by more Finnish infantry divisions.

Basically, the reduced German troops were filled with more Finnish troops.

In addition to the Finnish troops, two small Norwegian divisions, totaling about 8,000 Norwegian infantry, will also be thrown into the north.

Originally, Army Group North was equipped with very few armored troops, most of which were infantry units, which was determined by the terrain and combat missions faced by Army Group North.

Reinhardt saw this precisely and fully committed the Norwegian and Finnish infantry. Anyway, it's all infantry, and it is better to sacrifice the infantry of the allies than to sacrifice the infantry of the allies.

Moreover, infantry combat, even if the infantry of the allies is replaced by the German infantry, the impact will not be too great.

Although the infantry of the allies is not as elite as the German infantry, the essence of the results that can be achieved by bearing the sacrifice remains the same.

At the very least, it is very cost-effective to use the troops of the allies to bear the northern strength of the Soviet army, to encircle Soviet cities such as Lelingrad in the future, to consume them in street battles, etc.

"Rest assured, I will try to get as much aid as possible for Finland." When the motorcade of Mannerheim and Ribbentrop arrived at the Finnish government building, Ribbentrop, who got off the car, smiled and assured.

"I believe that in the future, we will fully cooperate and jointly defeat the brutal Soviet aggressors." Mannerheim did not yet know what sacrifice the Germans were prepared to make them bear, and at this moment he spoke to Ribbentrop with great sincerity.

"We will definitely cooperate fully, which is in the common interests of both countries." Ribbentrop concealed Reinhardt's "policy of maximizing the use of allies" to him, and nodded and smiled with a feigned goodwill.