Syria and Lebanon, these two places are really poor and remote, and the situation in Syria is better, with oil, phosphate, natural gas, rock salt, bitumen and other resources. Especially oil, but in terms of reserves, not to mention Iraq and Iran, even Kuwait can't compare, but it's not surprising that after all, Kuwait's reserves are also among the best in the world...

Syria's resources are not much, but at least they are still valuable, but Lebanon is...

Compared to Syria, Lebanon is truly poor.

Lebanon's mineral deposits are mainly iron, lead, copper, lignite and bitumen. There are few mineral resources, and there is not much mining.

In terms of resources alone, these two places really don't have much value to occupy, and of course no one will dislike more land, at least Japan will not dislike it...

Seriously, the little resources in Syria and Lebanon are not at all looked down on, as for the land? After taking control of Iran, China's territory is not necessarily smaller than that of Russia.

What really made Yan Guang look at them was the geographical location of Syria and Lebanon.

Although neither Syria nor Lebanon has many resources, they are next to the Mediterranean, so Yan Guang can have a say in the Mediterranean as long as he occupies these two places. Prior to this, although Yan Guang had established the "Black Sea Fleet" in the Black Sea to confront Russia, Turkey and other countries in the Black Sea, the strait from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea was guarded by Turkey...

Think about the Battle of the Dardanelles launched by the British, although the strength of the Turks is not strong, but with geographical advantages, it is not easy to capture Istanbul with the navy alone, and for this reason, Yan Guang has not been able to set foot in the Mediterranean...

But now...

With Syria and Lebanon, and especially with ports like Beirut, Yan Guang has a reason to meddle in the Mediterranean.

And excluding the value of resources, Syria and Lebanon are of great value in other respects.

Geographically, it would allow China to set foot in the Mediterranean, and economically, it could lay oil pipelines in both places, and then export oil from places like the Caucasus and Iraq directly to Europe―――――― so that there would be no need to follow the path of the Gulf of Oman and the Suez Canal, and the risk of being pinned down.

As for the military ones?

After taking the two places, Yan Guang has already begun to consider whether to change the name of the "Black Sea Fleet" to the "European Fleet", and then let the renamed "Black Sea Fleet" take charge of the affairs of the Mediterranean, or simply set up a new "Mediterranean Fleet" to protect China's interests in the Mediterranean...

It can be said that before taking the two places, although China had expanded its sphere of influence to Europe, it could only speak in Eastern Europe at most, and the rest of Central and Western Europe had no room for him to speak, let alone Northern Europe.

However, after taking the two places, through the Mediterranean, Yan Guang could justifiably expand his influence to a small half of Europe.

What's more, after acquiring ports in the Mediterranean, Yan Guang can also send supplies to the Allies and the Axis powers through these two ports at the same time―――――― what is Yan Guang's ultimate purpose? Isn't it just for Caucasian people to fight each other to the death?

With the blood transfusion of the two camps, Yan Guang can just achieve this goal.

And in the process of blood transfusion, Yan Guang can also get enough benefits by the way.

The real benefits...

The only thing that gave Yan Guang a headache was Jerusalem, after all, Jerusalem was under Yan Guang's nose, and Yan Guang could eat it at any time as long as he was willing. However, such a religious holy place is a real hot potato, and if you hold it in your hand, it will definitely attract the attention of others.

If it's just an ordinary person, Yan Guang is not afraid, after all, you can't be fierce in the five countries of the United States, Germany, the Soviet Union, Britain, and Japan, right? ..., but the problem is that only religious lunatics will worry about Jerusalem, and Yan Guang really can't afford to provoke this kind of person, after all, these people are famous for not being afraid of death and holding grudges, and if you offend them, you can't stand a few terrorist attacks.

So in the end, Yan Guang decided to leave Jerusalem alone, anyway, the people in the new territory did not have the right to speak, and those who had the right to speak either had no faith like Yan Guang, or were Buddhists or Taoists, and had little interest in Jerusalem, the holy place of other religions.

However, in Yan Guang's view, the best way is to make Jerusalem a "free city", regardless of which country, the inhabitants of the city decide for themselves, but it is still naïve to think of Jewish energy.

Anyway, for Yan Guang, as long as he doesn't touch his own interests, he really doesn't want to touch things that have anything to do with religion, especially places like "holy places" or something.

In addition, after being driven out by the Germans, although most of the Jews went to the United States, some of them came to China, and the number was more than ten times more than in history, but it is no wonder that China and the United States are rare peaceful countries now, like other places have been warned.

Most of the Jews may have been taught a lesson, so they have become much more honest in China, and they have no objection to these people settling in Yanguang, and there are no Jews in the country anyway.

But if these guys want to do something that they don't have, Yan Guang doesn't mind doing the same thing as Hitler, but Yan Guang is not really worried about this.

After all, China is the only country in the world that has successfully assimilated Jews...

What's more, for the Jews, Yan Guang doesn't need to pay attention to democracy...

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Politicians are incompetent, but few are idiots, and usually idiots and incompetence are two different things.

Just like France, their politicians may be incompetent, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're idiots.

The same is true of Britain, although Chamberlain's "appeasement policy" messed up everything, but it is not necessary to say that he is an idiot, not to mention that it is Churchill who is now the prime minister of the United Kingdom.

Post-World War I Britain was fascinated by a pacifist atmosphere, with disarmament advocated by everyone from party leaders to ordinary people. Churchill was one of the very few in parliament who opposed disarmament and warned Germany that the Treaty of Versailles was being torn up. Churchill warned that Hitler's fascist dictatorship would spell disaster for Europe and could even lead to the destruction of civilization if not stopped immediately, urging Britain to rearm and encouraging its ally France to strengthen its military power instead of "cutting your weapons and increasing your obligations." But most people dismissed his warnings as alarmist.

On March 7, 1936, Adolf? Hitler announced in the Reichstag that the German ** had reoccupied the Rhineland demilitarized zone. Neither Britain nor France strongly objected to this clear violation of the Treaty of Versailles, except that Churchill warned that it would not only violate the treaty, but also pose a threat to the Netherlands, Belgium and France. Churchill reiterated his call for Britain to provide assistance to France in order to maintain the balance of power on the continent.

On March 11, 1938, Nazi Germany annexed Austria; In April, at the instigation of Hitler, the Nazi leaders in the Sudetenland, a Germanic area in Czechoslovakia, proposed autonomy. British Prime Minister Nevelle in July? A delegation sent by Chamberlain visited the Czech Republic to discuss a peaceful settlement of the Sudetenland. On 15 September, Chamberlain, who pursued a policy of appeasement, personally visited Munich to discuss the Sudetenland question with Hitler. During the talks, Hitler explicitly asked Czechoslovakia to cede the Sudetenland, and Chamberlain agreed, and after obtaining France's approval, the envoys of the two countries in the Czech Republic called on President Benes on 20 September and vigorously lobbied him to accept Hitler's demands. Upon learning of the news, Churchill made a statement to the press in London: "This is nothing less than a complete surrender of Western democracies to the threat of Nazi force ......". …,

But the situation deteriorated further by 22 September, and Hitler set a specific time frame: the Czech government had until 2 p.m. on 28 September, or Germany would attack, which the British cabinet said could not accept.

On September 28, Mussolini invited the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, and Italy to Munich for a meeting, and Chamberlain, who had always fantasized about avoiding war, was overjoyed and rushed to Munich the next day. Churchill, recognising the possibility of Chamberlain's concessions, wanted to propose a joint statement by the opposition and the dissidents of the Conservative Party, urging Chamberlain to hold his position, but no one seconded it. On September 30, the Munich Conference ended, and Britain and France accepted Hitler's demand and forced the Czechs to withdraw their troops from October 1, otherwise Britain and France would not support the Czechs in the event of a war. Chamberlain returned to London with a statement from Hitler assuring that there would be no further territorial claims, and accepted the cheers as victors: "For the second time in the history of our country to bring glorious peace from Germany back to Downing Street." ”

In Parliament, only a handful of people, including Churchill, are still attacking appeasement, saying that "we have suffered a complete and complete defeat." His speech sparked a chorus of protests, but Churchill ended his speech with boos. Because of his opposition to appeasement, Churchill was also impeached by the Conservative Party in his constituency, and finally retained his seat by a vote of confidence of 3-2.

On March 13, 1939, Germany annexed what was left of the Czech Republic, and Slovakia became independent with German support, declaring the complete failure of appeasement. In his speech to the House of Commons on March 31, Chamberlain pledged that Britain would support Poland if it was invaded. Five months later, World War II officially broke out. Churchill later referred to World War II as an "inevitable war", arguing that the war could have been easily stopped at the outset, but the British people had been "unwise, careless and well-intentioned to rearm the bad guys."

After the German invasion of Poland, Chamberlain stepped down and was replaced by Churchill.

After taking office, Churchill made an extremely famous speech.

"I have nothing but blood, toil, tears and sweat for everyone...... You ask: What is our purpose? I can reply in one word: victory, to fight for victory at all costs, no matter how terrible, no matter how far and difficult the road, to strive for victory, because without victory there can be no survival. ”

The House of Commons ultimately showed its support for the Churchill government by an overwhelming majority of 381 votes to 0.

Poor Churchill visited France not long after taking office, but at this time he learned that the French government was ready to surrender, in other words, Britain would be the only one facing Germany for some time to come.

Fortunately, the later retreat from Dunkirk preserved some strength for Britain.

It was in this context that Churchill made another very famous speech.

"We will fight to the end. We will fight in France, we will fight in the oceans, we will fight in the air with more and more confidence and more and more power, we will defend the homeland at all costs, we will fight on the beaches, we will fight on the landing sites of the enemy, we will fight in the fields and streets, we will fight in the mountains. We will never surrender, even if our island or a large part of this island is conquered and starved―――――― I never believe that this will happen―――――― our imperial subjects overseas, armed and protected by the British fleet, will continue to fight until the new world, in such time as God thinks fit, with all its might, to save and liberate this old world. ”

Perhaps intentionally, or unintentionally, China did not appear in this speech as in history, but not long after Churchill's speech, news came that China had sent troops to occupy French Syria and Lebanon. Syria and Lebanon may not be of much value to the Mediterranean countries, but for China they are more important than several oil-producing regions in the Caucasus, as Churchill was well aware.

Not only Churchill knew it, but even other European leaders knew it.

After the occupation of Lebanon and Syria, China's influence was no longer limited to Eastern Europe, but extended to half of Europe through the Mediterranean.

What does it mean for an East Asian yellow country to expand its influence into the Mediterranean?

After learning the news, Churchill had to painfully admit that Yan Guang's timing was really good.

If it had been before the war, even if China had become very powerful, Britain and France would have decisively pushed China out of the Mediterranean, because China had already violated the core interests of Britain and France in Europe.

In fact, not only Britain and France, but also Italy will come up to help. After all, after expanding its power into the Mediterranean, Italy was the first to bear the brunt besides Greece.

And yet, now...

With the surrender of France, the British were already too busy to take care of themselves, and they could not afford to look east...

At this time, even if the British had an opinion in their hearts, they were unable to express it, and they did not dare to show it.

In fact, until now, Churchill has been thankful that he had earlier purchased large quantities of weapons from China and the United States. After the surrender of France and the retreat of Dunkirk, the price of arms exports from China and the United States has risen a lot.

And this is also an important reason why Yan Guang waited until after the surrender of France.

In any case, Britain and France are old imperialist powers, and Italy has been operating in the Mediterranean for many years. Coupled with the Turkish-controlled Dardanelles, British-controlled Gibraltar and Suez, if you really want to do anything, as long as these three places are locked, neither the Black Sea Fleet nor the Indian Ocean Fleet will be able to enter the Mediterranean.

At that time, without the support of the navy, even Yan Guang would suffer.

But it would be different without France, and England itself is now too busy to take care of itself, Italy alone? To be honest, Yan Guang really didn't take Italy seriously.

Consider the history of the Italians attacking Greece, only to be repulsed within a few days, and even quickly pushed back to Albania.

To be honest, Italy is so scummy that even if the navy is much stronger than the army, it's useless...

As for Hitler? When diplomats in Germany made a suggestion to send supplies to Germany through the Mediterranean, Hitler had little to say. After all, Germany's resources are still too small, so after China has mastered Lebanon and Syria, Germany can be regarded as having one more blood transfusion line...

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"Toot!"

With the sound of a whistle, a transport ship loaded with assorted munitions left Beirut.

If before the defeat of France, the Nationalist government was only in the arms business for the first time, then after taking over Lebanon and Syria, it was a real big sale.

And just like the United States after the outbreak of the war, Yan Guang also adopted the measure of "buy and ship".

To put it simply, the so-called "cash and self-transport" is to buy in cash and ship it away.

At this time, due to the retreat from Dunkirk, Britain returned to the homeland and the army was seriously short of weapons, so it also began to take various measures to purchase weapons, among which China and the United States are the only two countries in the world that can buy weapons in large quantities, so they naturally became Britain's first choice.

In fact, emotionally, Britain is still more inclined to the United States, after all, the United States is very cooperative with Britain in various measures, and they are both Caucasian countries. ..., but now the Atlantic is already full of German submarines, and it is too dangerous to pull arms back to Britain from the United States. On the contrary, in the Mediterranean, although there are Italians active, but the Italians are too scum, and they are not at all comparable to the Germans...

And after starting to buy and sell arms in the port of Beirut, Yan Guang also declared that the waters near Syria and Lebanon were non-war zones, not only did not allow any firefights, but also did not allow the fleets of the Axis and the Allies to enter―――――― of course, if it was just talking, naturally no one would care, but not long after, Yan Guang not only deployed hundreds of fighters of various types near Beirut, but also transferred dozens of light and heavy cruisers and destroyers from the Ocean Fleet, the Indian Ocean Fleet and the Black Sea Fleet to the Mediterranean. Even an earlier "aircraft carrier" was transferred by Yan Guang.

Although some of the ships were still on the way, even if it was only part of the fleet that had already arrived, it was enough for the British and Italians not to act rashly.

Because of such a lineup, even compared with the main fleets of Britain and Italy in the Mediterranean, it is not inferior. Of course, Britain and Italy have been operating in the Mediterranean Sea for many years and are quite familiar with the geography and water potential here, so if they really want to do it, it will be the newly established "Mediterranean Fleet" that will suffer, but even so, the two countries still dare not act rashly.

At this time, coupled with China's sensitive identity, although the various types of ships of the "Mediterranean Fleet" entered the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal, which was controlled by the British, the two local snakes, Britain and Italy, did not dare to say a word...

"The two cowards of Britain and Italy really didn't dare to say anything..."

Lying on the office chair, Yan Guang said with a smile while looking at the form in his hand.

Due to the defeat of the British expeditionary force and the return to the mainland, the British were now in urgent need of various weapons, including rifles, so after weighing their already somewhat shy wallets, they finally gritted their teeth and ordered a large number of arms from China and the United States.

Although the Americans had cheaper arms and various preferential policies, it was obviously safer to carry out cargo missions in the Mediterranean than to cross the Atlantic under the hunt of German submarines.

And not only Britain itself, but also colonies like India need weapons to defend themselves, and in this case it is clear that China is much more suitable than the United States...

What's more, under the same price, the quality of Chinese goods is also relatively good, so the amount of arms purchased from China is about the same as that of the United States.

In addition, with the gradual expansion of the battlefield, the Japanese demand for weapons and ammunition has also increased, and in the case that they cannot provide sufficient equipment, imports to China have naturally increased a lot, but fortunately, at this time, the South Sea Islands and French Indochina have been almost occupied by the Japanese, plus the way of "exchanging resources for weapons", so at least so far the Japanese do not have to worry.

However, the Japanese were very annoyed that they were exporting equipment to Britain at the same time as exporting equipment to the United Kingdom, after all, the weapons exported to Britain were used by the British to defend against the Japanese in Burma and India...

For this reason, the Japanese even approached Yan Guang and asked him to stop arms exports to Britain and France.

However, Yan Guang's sentence of trade freedom left the Japanese with nothing to say, in the final analysis, although China is the largest financier behind Japan, China at this time is still hanging a "neutral country" brand.

Unlike Britain and Japan imported finished products, Germany mainly imported various raw materials, such as steel and oil, mainly oil, after all, Hitler's armored forces were very oil-intensive, and whether it was the Black Sea in the Caucasus or the Mediterranean Sea in Beirut, it could provide Hitler with enough oil, which was the main reason why Hitler would tolerate Yan Guang stepping into the Mediterranean.

Of course, after Britain and Russia are settled, it is difficult to say whether Hitler will settle accounts after the fall...

Yan Guang also knew that even if the war ended and a madman like Hitler would not have peace, so Yan Guang never considered the feelings of Mussolini and Hitler.

Of course, the lack of time is also a reason, because now Yan Guang is thinking about a problem...

"It's time to take back Hong Kong and Macau, right?"

Raising the income slip in his hand, Yan Guang looked at Cai Yi and the others.

Of course, Yan Guang didn't think about taking it back by forceful means, but he also didn't plan to buy it with money

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Your sister, I hate power outages!!

Our family lives on the 13th floor, and we can only walk up and down the 13th floor as soon as the electricity stops, and the 1st-5th floors not only have no lights nor windows, so we can only touch the darkness up and down, really your sister!!

PS: We had snow here yesterday