Chapter 538: Franco-Siam Armistice

On November 10, 1940, when the sky in Berlin began to darken at five o'clock, the press conference scheduled for the Chancellery was temporarily cancelled, and the Führer's press officer, Slitz, did not explain the reason to the media, and in fact he did not need to do so, and all the German press and media were under the control of Goebbels' press department.

"This is a report that has just been translated by the Communications Service, would I like to help you make another pot of tea?" My Führer. Tysenhofen put a document in Xu Jun's hand.

"No, is Ribbentrop outside?" Xu Jun stood on the windowsill of the private office of the headquarters with his hands behind his back, looking down at the heavily guarded headquarters compound downstairs, a lit cigar between his fingers.

"Mr. Deputy Minister has been waiting for your summons." Tysenhofen packed up the tea set on the table and carefully put it in the cart.

"Let him in, and call Weirle again." Xu Jun turned his head to Tysenhofen and said.

"Yes, my Führer, do you need anything?" The adjutant asked respectfully.

"No need, I'm going to have dinner with a few generals later, what time is it?"

"Eight o'clock, my Führer."

"Got it, then hurry up and call them in." Xu Jun took a cigar in his mouth, walked back to his desk, sat down, and opened the newly delivered document.

"Hey! Reinhart! Welle and Ribbentrop walked into the office one after the other, and stood in the doorway with their arms raised in salute to the ruler of the empire.

"You may be seated, gentlemen." Xu Jun raised his hand and flipped his wrist in response.

"I've already thought about it just now, so let's send a report to Brumberg according to the original meaning." Xu Jun closed the file and placed it in the file box on the low cabinet next to the desk, and the document placed here would be left in this office for the time being, so that he could consult it again.

"Did the French side reply the same? My Führer. Ribbentrop asked, leaning forward.

"Again, there will be no problem with Petain." Xu Jun spat out a puff of smoke and waved his hand at the vice minister of foreign affairs.

"And over there in London..."

"I would like to express my gratitude to Prime Minister Chamberlain, and don't forget to ask him about his health problems in the telegram, saying that I hope he can recover as soon as possible." The Reich Führer tore a page from the toilet notebook on his desk, picked up the pen and examined the nib, and began to write on the paper.

"At the same time, the Third Reich was satisfied that the border conflict between Siam and France could finally be resolved peacefully. In order to effectively maintain peace in South Asia, Germany will send a joint observer group to the United Kingdom to monitor the ceasefire between France and Siam and the post-war situation. Xu Jun said to Ribbentrop, but turned his head and handed the note to Weierle.

"This is my request to you, I agree with your previous suggestion, the Eye of Odin can recruit some local employees in Southeast Asia, and I need to set up a surveillance network in Siam within half a year."

"My Führer, a hundred may not be enough." Wehrle looked at the raft and frowned.

"Then increase to three hundred, make a list for me if you need anything, is there any difficulty in terms of funds?" Xu Jun unscrewed the barrel of the fountain pen.

"There are no problems at the moment, my Führer." Weirle replied respectfully.

The Eye of Odin has its own independent financial system, annual profits from investments around the world, and several regular gray incomes, which add up to an astronomical amount, and the exact data is only known to the most senior executives and heads of state themselves.

"My Führer, the condition you just said needs to be added to the text or to the annexes." Ribbentrop asked.

"Add to the annex, when will the armistice negotiations begin?"

"Berlin time, tomorrow at five o'clock in the morning." Ribbentrop replied.

"Who is our representative?"

"Military attache to French Indochina, Ludendorff, and Ambassador to Siam de Ville."

"Weierle, send the files of the two of them later." Xu Jun turned his face to look at Weierle.

"Yes, my Führer." Wehrle nodded in reply.

"I didn't expect this war to end so quickly, I thought the Siamese would be able to hold out for a few more days." The Reich Führer pressed the plastic piston at the end of the barrel to fill the pen with ink.

"The French Army has taken advantage of Siam's own railway line, so the troops are moving quickly, and three hours earlier their vanguard was only fifty kilometers from Bangkok. Had it not been for the Siamese decisively blowing up several bridges over the Chao Phraya River, the French Army would have already begun attacking the Siamese capital. Wehrle replied.

"The French agree that Phibun Songkhan cannot step down for the time being, and they also believe that a military dictator is easier to deal with than those cunning politicians." Xu Jun said to Ribbentrop.

"That's what you think, my Führer." The foreign minister's face was full of flattery.

"Hmm." Xu Jun nodded slightly.

"The French are ready to announce their great victory to the world in the front-page headlines of tomorrow, and Petain's position has become more secure, my Führer." Weirle said on the sidelines.

"Don't worry about that, Verle, Petain has a great deal of hands on us, and as long as the Imperial Army continues to win, the French will be the most loyal collaborators. If Petain had any other ideas, then consider initiating a replacement. Now that the French have tasted the sweetness of cooperation, the situation at home is beginning to improve, and Petain's physical condition shows that he will be in power for at least five years. After speaking, Xu Jun picked up the cigar on the edge of the ashtray and took a puff.

"The solution proposed by the Japanese, as long as it does not conflict too much with our plan, can be given in a little concession. Brumberg should leave for Japan today, so don't worry too much about the Japanese. Xu Jun said to Ribbentrop.

"On Hiroshi Oshima's side, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs prepared a gift to send to him, saying that he was thanking him for his contribution to German-Japanese friendship. That's it, and you can deal with it now. The Reich Führer pointed to the table.

"Yes, I will do it at once, my Führer." Ribbentrop stood up and bowed respectfully to Xu Jun to say goodbye.

"What do you think of this war, Weierle?" Watching the vice minister of foreign affairs close the door, Xu Jun turned his face to look at Weierle.

"Franco-Siamese War? Isn't this exactly what you want to see, my Führer? A sly smile appeared at the corner of Weierle's mouth.

"I know that the Eye of Odin has played a key role in this, and go back and hand me a detailed report that some people deserve to be rewarded." Xu Jun also laughed.

"Siam still has a lot of loyal people to the royal family, and the Bangkok dynasty has ruled the country for 158 years, and the reverence for the royal family has been deeply implanted in the soul of the Siamese people. Although Phibun Songkhan and his comrades have been trying to weaken the influence of the royal family, it has not had much effect, and the Siamese people still revere the blood of the Rama royal family.

This time it was also because of the agents of Odin's Eye, who inadvertently contacted Prince Bande, who had taken refuge in French Indochina, who had high prestige in the Siamese army, a hardcore royalist, and had launched two coups to restore the royal family, although they failed in the end, but the prince still retained many connections in the army.

Through him, we were able to contact senior officers in the Siamese Army who were dissatisfied with the dictatorship of Phibun Songkham, and obtained a large amount of confidential information from the Siamese Army General Headquarters, and the Eastern Army's battle plan was only one of them.

And we also discovered the Japanese spy network hidden in Siam, although the Japanese had different intentions than us, but they also wanted Siam to fight with France, so we pushed behind them. Werler said with a smug face.

Siam's existing nationalist ideology was imported from Japan, the only monarchy in Asia, which has always seen Siam as having many similarities with itself, absorbing Western technology and retaining its own culture.

In order to win over the Siamese royal family, Japan accepted a group of royal family members to study in the country every year, and also tried to import the Nichiren sect into Siam to transform the thinking of the Siamese people from a religious point of view, but in the end because Theravada Buddhism has been deeply rooted in the local area, this attempt failed.

However, the chauvinistic ideas spread in Japan were widely admired and touted because they were beneficial to the rule of the Siamese royal family. The young officers of the army had long been indoctrinated with radical ideas, and they learned from the Japanese not only military technology, but also how to get off the line.

Beginning with the first attempted coup d'état in 1912, the Siamese army regarded mutiny almost as a tradition, and had it not been for the extremely limited number of troops and combat effectiveness, it would have caused serious damage to the country at such a frequency.

The ground operation of this attack on French Indochina was actually an operation initiated by some middle-level officers of the Eastern Army Command privately, and it was not until after dinner that day that the Bangkok side learned of the situation, but at this time, even if Phibun Songkhan wanted to do anything to remedy, it was obviously too late.

Although the Siamese Army claims to have 500,000 troops, in fact, only two legions on the eastern border can really be drawn, so when the strongest Eastern Army is almost annihilated, the entire Siam-Cambodia border is completely opened.

The incident happened too suddenly, and the Bangkok side did not have time to mobilize troops to come to the rescue, and the order to the Northeast Army was inexplicably delayed, and when the French troops rushed across the border, the only troops that could be mobilized in the hands of the Bangkok side were a brigade directly under the headquarters, two battalions, plus three armored companies.

It is not very clear what the combat effectiveness of these direct units was, and they were all quite experts in launching a mutiny, but the problem was that they were now facing the police and citizens, but the prestigious French Army.

With only six Vickers tanks and half a battalion of anti-tank artillery left in Bangkok, there was a serious lack of heavy firepower to suppress the French army units, and the air supremacy of the capital had been seized by the French colonial air force, preventing the French army from occupying the capital had become an impossible thing to do at this moment.

Although the Japanese side took the initiative to inform them that they had sent a combined fleet, which would contain the French attack at sea for Siam. But on land, the Japanese shook their heads and said they couldn't do anything.

So the Siamese government could only pin all its hopes on diplomatic mediation, and if there was anyone in the world who could stop the French from advancing, it was only two people, one was French President Petain, and the other was the head of Germany.

The Siamese government immediately sent diplomatic letters to the two countries through diplomatic missions, asking for an armistice for the French and good offices for the Germans.

After a long day of anxious waiting, Phibun received a reply from the Germans, along with a letter of surrender from the Governor of French Indochina.

In the evening of the same day, after receiving the news of the heavy damage suffered by the main naval force, Phibun Songkhan sent an envoy to ask the French Army for an armistice. The French side knew that there were bones hidden in the fat of Bangkok, and that the city was not as easy to eat as expected, and the Paris side also issued an order, so they simply agreed to Siam's request, and at the same time issued an order to immediately stop the attack of the French army on all fronts.

At 7:30 p.m. on November 10, the Franco-Siamese War finally came to an end, and only 36 hours passed from the first bomb to the Sisophon air station until the armistice order was issued.

PS: Thank you for your support, the ranking of this book is declining, and you are in urgent need of your monthly pass support.

If you only have two tickets in your hand, then please stay on the 31st when you double and vote again, last month's results failed miserably, I hope this month can look better.

Thank you, there are too many pirated copies of this book, and the author's motivation to write the book is now on the number of votes and rankings.

Thank you. (To be continued.) )