Compared to the wealth and prosperity of Yenching, London is certainly the most miserable capital in the world, and the supply of food and textiles has been restricted, and most children have not seen tropical agricultural products such as bananas and sugar cane in the past two years, and sugar and butter are even more limited.

It's a black London.

People were always hurrying through the streets in black clothes and black umbrellas, and every day there was a massive air raid siren that sounded throughout the city, and occasionally a few air battles broke out over the suburbs of London.

The Germans' planes are always unhit, but they seem to never be able to hit.

Gentlemen would stop at a kiosk on the side of the street with a civilized cane and take out two pennies to buy a newspaper, and unlike in the previous two years, the newspapers were full of all kinds of news about China's imminent entry into the war, and if the newspaper published such news, it would always be sold out.

When the Londoners were looking forward to it, the East Asian Free Alliance Army had taken root in the northern suburbs of London, and these East Asian Free Alliance forces were almost all air force formations, and most of them came from China, and the J4\5\6 series of fighters were pouring into Britain on a large scale to assume the main force against Nazi Germany.

On the streets of London, the number of Chinese wearing the uniforms of the British Royal Air Force seems to be increasing every day, and when there is no combat mission, they will also appear in the city of London in a hurry to handle some messy business.

Although the British always hoped that China would send troops, when they really saw the Chinese in London, they couldn't help but feel uncomfortable.

Britain is so poor that the government can only rely on massive borrowing and the indiscriminate issuance of pounds to sustain its spending, and the cheques that the foreign secretary has painstakingly borrowed from China and the United States often run out within a few months and have to borrow again.

They didn't even pay the leases for fighter planes and aircraft carriers from China, but only with newly printed government bonds that they didn't know if they could cash in.

General Liu Gung-yun, who has been appointed China's military chief in Europe, travels between Britain and Spain almost weekly for two months, and sometimes to Morocco to meet President Reynaud and General de Gaulle, commander-in-chief of the French Free Army, in Casablanca, to provide them with new advice and support.

Every day, a large number of French people fled across the border into Spain to join the Free French Army, and the Reich continued to re-equip and train the Free French Army to ensure that these recruits could become suitable pilots and gunners.

Although the French Free Army has so far reached the size of nearly 700,000, in a world war of this scale, they are more and more like companions, without any brilliance.

The surrender of France made the military industry and modern industry invested by the Reich in France become a new base for Germany, and a large number of enterprises were cheaply annexed by the German industrial giants, and as a retaliation, the Reich was also confiscating and confiscating all German assets in Asia, and the relationship between the two sides was reduced to the lowest point in history, even after the start of the First World War, the two sides were not so hostile to their opponents.

Yes.

The French surrender was a heavy loss to the Reich, and the Reich's investments in Sweden and Spain began to become dangerous, and after ceasing all trade with Germany, it became clear that Germany intended to attack Sweden and Spain further, and in Norway, Germany also reinstated the local heavy water refinery to continue to produce heavy water to provide security for Nazi Germany's nuclear weapons program.

There really could be no more incompetent and stupid ally of France than Italy.

Even so, General Liu Gungyun had to fly to Morocco to discuss a new round of aid with President Reynaud and Commander-in-Chief de Gaulle, and General de Gaulle, commander-in-chief of the French Free Army, who was anxious to seek assistance, personally went to the airport in Casablanca to greet him.

To be honest, Liu Gengyun doesn't like to deal with this General de Gaulle, in his opinion, this General de Gaulle is really a little out of his position, is it still France the same as before?

Regarding the list of assistance proposed by General de Gaulle earlier, General Liu Gengyun always felt that this person was really a little ignorant of current affairs, or too idealistic, where in this world is there such a cheap thing?

Considering that the French repeatedly refused his kind reminders, which eventually led to the defeat of France, as well as the surrender of France without a fight, which led to heavy losses for the empire in France, and so on, Admiral Liu Gengyun was full of too much hatred for the French.

When he stepped out of the plane, Admiral Liu Gungyun still tried to maintain that kind smile, even if he was too tired of these self-righteous Frenchmen.

He raised his hand to greet General de Gaulle, who had come to greet him, and walked briskly down the escalator to shake hands with the new French commander-in-chief.

For the sake of each other's domestic and foreign propaganda efforts, the two had to maintain this mutually dissatisfying posture, smiling and letting reporters and videographers take black-and-white photographs.

No matter how hard the other side tries, in the view of Admiral Liu Gengyun, in this war, which will become more and more cruel, France has been completely eliminated, and it is completely unnecessary and wasteful to give more aid to France, which is his point of view, and he is also responsible for the military work in Europe from this point of view.

As the highest military representative of the Reich and the Asian League in Europe, his opinion was basically the decision of the Reich.

This was the main reason for the serious discord between General Liu Gengyun and General de Gaulle, who had already rejected a number of large French requests for assistance.

The two did not even travel in the same car to the headquarters of the French Free Axe, and after arriving at the French Free Axe in Casablanca in a red flag car, General Liu Gengyun met President Reynaud accompanied by General de Gaulle.

Journalists from China, Britain, the United States, France and other countries gathered here, and everyone wanted to hear the latest news from the Chinese Empire from Admiral Liu Gengyun.

Surrounded by reporters, Admiral Liu Gung-yun made a brief statement expressing the Reich's support for the French liberal axe and the hope that Germany and France would hold peace talks to promote the restoration of France's basic policy of peace and freedom.

After dealing with these reporters, General Liu Gengyun, accompanied by President Reynaud and General de Gaulle, went to the president's temporary office in Casablanca for a secret meeting.

The French inaugurated the Viceroyalty of the local colonial political axe in Morocco as the presidential palace of the Free France, and retained the last of the French naval forces here, and with the assistance of the Empire and Spain, the Free French Army seized two battleships and several destroyers from the Vichy political axe to form the French Free Navy.

But in this era of aircraft carriers, these two battleships were not enough to guarantee the position of Free France in the international world, so the French hoped that the Reich would assist two aircraft carriers, and before that, Admiral Liu Gengyun had approved Britain's request for assistance in leasing four Northeast-class aircraft carriers, and he did not hesitate to refuse the request of the French.

In President Reno's office, General de Gaulle and President Reynaud quickly discussed the matter, hoping that Admiral Liu Gungyun would reconsider his previous request for French military assistance.

Admiral Liu Gungyun listened silently to General de Gaulle's arguments, as if he was listening carefully to the voices of his allies, but in fact he would not change his decision at all, because he concluded that the Free France simply did not have the strength to control these aircraft carrier fleets, had neither the experience nor the cost of doing so, and if in the end it was up to the Reich to pay for the maintenance of this aircraft carrier fleet to France, he would rather continue to give such assistance to Britain.

He listened to General de Gaulle's arguments, and across from him, President Reynaud was silent.

General de Gaulle's aggressive demand that President Reynaud completely relinquish his supreme military command and cede all supreme authority of the Free French Army to him not only made President Renault feel helpless and weak, but also angered China's allies.

Admiral Liu Gung-yun is one such person, and he hates that soldiers take advantage of such a national disaster to gain the most real power, even if President Reynaud may not be a suitable person himself.

After listening to General de Gaulle's statement, General Liu Gengyun was silent for a moment, and suddenly asked President Reynolds: "What do you think, Your Excellency?" ”

After a moment's pause, President Reynaud replied, "Our request is reasonable, General Liu!" ”

Liu Gengyun replied mercilessly: "No, I don't think it's reasonable, France has no experience and tactical training in this area, and it also lacks the corresponding expenses. Rather than such assistance, we would rather send a fleet directly to North Africa, or give more aid to Britain, and the balance of the items of expenditure on military spending in the war has always been an important issue. ”

After he finished his opinion, the two of them were left with endless silence and embarrassment.

This was an unprecedented shame for the former French Empire, but it was none other than the great French nation itself that caused the shame of today.

After a period of silence, Commander-in-Chief de Gaulle asked Admiral Liu Gengyun: "Your Excellency, what role do you think the Free French Army will play in this war that will determine the fate of mankind?" ”

Liu Gengyun sensed the counterattack in this question, and immediately replied: "We support the French Free Army to play a greater role in determining the surname, but it depends on how much strength and fighting spirit you can gather." Your Excellency Commander-in-Chief, we should all understand that military affairs are judged by strength and courage! ”

His answer, which left Commander-in-Chief de Gaulle with little room for rhetorical questions, was brilliant and full of diplomatic rhetoric.

Liu Gengyun's meaning is very simple, he did not see the strength of the French Free Army, nor did he see the courage of the French.

Seeing that the other party was speechless for a while, and groaned slightly, Admiral Liu Gengyun also sighed with a certain sense of emotion, and reminded Commander-in-Chief de Gaulle: "The goal of the empire is to guarantee the final victory, not to restore the reading power and freedom of France as you think, because the former can decide the latter, and the latter cannot decide the former at all." This determines our principle in the distribution of support, efficiency is always the most important, and one penny needs to be used as two cents. Every penny spent by the empire in Europe comes from the taxes of the people, so we must be more objective and faithful to the facts and the status quo, and use the people's taxes effectively, rather than deciding the allocation of aid and materials based on the relationship between the two countries. To put it more simply, we have a better relationship with France, but we can only support Britain more, which is no choice, and our support for France has been very positive, and you and His Excellency President Reynaud have also seen the result. ”

Commander-in-Chief de Gaulle immediately defended: "That will not happen, and what you see now is a heroic French people who are trying to restore the country's reading." ”

Admiral Liu Gengyun no longer answered this question, but simply hummed and waved his hand to put this issue on hold for the time being, it was impossible for the Empire to continue to give more aid to France, especially on the issue of aircraft carrier formations, which was simply not necessary to negotiate.

He understands very well that the French will not give up their determination to catch up with the world's military tide even under such circumstances, but he feels that it should cost the French their own money, rather than relying on connections to ask for free aid from China.

The question of whether the French can catch up with the changes in the aircraft carrier era is a very important matter for the French, but it is not important for the Chinese, and as for the goal of counting on the heroic struggle of the French Free Army to liberate France, this matter is probably only Commander-in-Chief de Gaulle still holds this beautiful hypothesis.

How can it be?

Admiral Liu Gengyun no longer has any illusions about this.

His judgment was simple, the current France was not capable of becoming an important assistant of the Reich in Europe, and the Free Axe and the Free Army did not have much value other than maintaining the French colonies to continue to guarantee the supply of war resources.

The Reich is willing to sell four aircraft carriers to Britain, because the Reich is preparing to replace a new generation of aircraft carriers, fully using jet carrier-based aircraft, and Britain can finally pay a lease fee, and the maintenance fee is also paid out of its own pocket, and what does the Free France have?

The situation in the world has deteriorated unprecedentedly, Nazi Germany has occupied almost all of Europe, the strength is so strong, except for China, there is no opponent, and in the case of China not participating in the war, only Britain and 1/4 of the strength of the Free France, where is the opponent of Nazi Germany, if it is not for the Reich to support the navy and air force, to help Britain maintain sea and air power, even if Britain and Germany fight for attrition, Germany can bomb the British mainland within half a year, and consume all the British fighters.

Nazi Germany is now able to manufacture more than 400 short-range V1 missiles every day to bomb Britain, and this number is increasing almost every day, last month the average was more than 300 per day, and this average increased by more than 100 per day, and it is expected that before June, relying on the industrial strength and resources of the European continent, Nazi Germany will be able to reach nearly 1,000 missile production capacity every day.

Of course, the German missiles at this time were large rockets, not to mention that the accuracy was not up to standard, and even the reliability was not more than 40%, and if the weather was bad, it was normal for the error to exceed more than ten kilometers.

In a situation where it was difficult to seize air supremacy, this was almost the only means by which Germany threatened the British mainland.

With the technical data of the aircraft carrier transferred from China, Germany produced its first aircraft carrier, which, like the aircraft carriers leased by China and Britain, can only use propeller aircraft for the time being.

Germany is now consuming Britain by virtue of its numerical and production superiority, and Britain is confronting Germany with a bay of straits.

Although Admiral Liu Gengyun rejected the request of the Free French Army to lease the aircraft carrier, there is still a lot of room for China and France to help each other in other areas of cooperation, and he listened very carefully to Commander-in-Chief de Gaulle's report on the formation of the Free French Army in the near future.

At this stage, the French Free Army is mainly divided into two parts, one part is located in Spain, mainly by the main army forces withdrawn from France to Spain, as well as refugees and anti-German youth who continue to flee from France to Spain, this part of the supply is mainly solved by Spain, because the main force of the French army mechanical forces located in the Porto area is generally withdrawn to Spain, and the overall combat strength is still relatively strong; The other part was formed by the French colonial armed forces in the overseas colonies, and also recruited a large number of French citizens abroad and mercenaries from the colonial powers.

On the issue of military supplies, the French free government can continue to hold out, but after losing its own industrial base, all military equipment and ammunition replenishment can only rely on Chinese assistance.

At this stage, the most important task of the Free French Army was to maintain its rule over the French colonies, as well as to assist Spain in defending against the German and Italian threats, and the protection of the Iberian Peninsula became the final line to limit German domination over the whole of Europe.

It was impossible to defend against the Germans by the Spanish and French armies alone, and the empire also sent a large number of troops to be stationed in Spain, and established a large number of air and naval bases in Spain.

With the presence of a large number of Reichswehr forces in Europe, it is inevitable that there will be a war between China and Germany.

General de Gaulle had many unique ideas about the reorganization of the Free French Army, the core idea of which was to complete the mechanization of the entire Free French Army with the support of China, but General Liu Gungyun did not support this, because the French army lacked sufficient military industrial support, and China could not provide all the necessary assistance free of charge.

The two discussed this for several hours, but the disagreement grew, and although Admiral Liu Gung-yun did not show any arrogant gestures as much as possible, in the opinion of General de Gaulle, he still felt that Admiral Liu Gung-yun had a deep prejudice against the French, and did not think that the French could defeat the Germans.

General de Gaulle was very dissatisfied, but he still patiently emphasized with General Liu Gengyun that without the efforts of the French army, the British would not have been able to block the iron hooves of Germany, and it would be more difficult for China and Britain to win the final victory of the war.

I have been listening to the other side repeatedly emphasize the important surname of the French army, and in the end it is nothing more than asking China to give more free aid.

Admiral Liu Gengyun was not angry, he even drank tea and smoked a cigar very elegantly, and it seemed that he no longer wanted to argue with General de Gaulle, and neither vetoed General de Gaulle's views, nor did he express very clear support.

He was ambivalent in his heart, because he knew that the core policy of the empire had been introduced, which meant that the empire could defeat Germany without the help of Britain and France, and completely destroy all German military forces, but he could not disclose such information, and he also encouraged Britain and France to continue to fight valiantly until China found a legitimate reason to send troops and convince the people at home.

There are differences in perception between the two sides, the Free French Army believes that it is very important and deserves more assistance from China, while China does not think so, but there is no need to tear its face and make it clear.

All Admiral Liu Gungyun could do was not to refute General de Gaulle's judgment, and at the same time, he could not fully agree with the various demands of the Free French Army.

The rest was a bargain between the two sides, and no matter how General de Gaulle emphasized the situation and the importance of the Free French Army, General Liu Gengyun cut the French Free Army's request for assistance in half, and only agreed to continue to support the French Army in preparing for a mechanical army.

Prior to this, the Reich had already provided the French army with more than 4,000 tanks and a large number of armored vehicles and trucks to help the French army prepare for the formation of the First Free Army of France, plus the large number of troops that had previously withdrawn from the Porto area of France to Spain, and the increased assistance that the Reich had agreed to this time, the French army would have three mechanized armies.

Of course, with these military forces alone, France was far from being able to fight against Germany and Italy, and could only act as a second-line force.

After negotiating the amount of military supplies and equipment to be provided thereafter, General Liu Gengyun, accompanied by General de Gaulle, inspected the local Free French Army.

Casablanca is a hot and exotic colonial North African city, where the French Free Axe has established a firm dominance, the French army here has six divisions and two air divisions, but the whole equipment system is very chaotic, both French equipment, as well as Chinese and British and American aided equipment, as well as all kinds of old equipment that France has previously eliminated, and even the 19th century guns and artillery have been retaken by the French.

After inspecting it, Admiral Liu Gengyun was even more emotional, and felt more and more that it was difficult for the French to play much of a role in this war.

In Spanish, Casablanca originally meant "white city", and for Free France at that time, it was a city of hope, where the French gathered, and all kinds of military aid from China, Britain and the United States and the French colonies were concentrated in this white port city.

Huge ships shuttled back and forth, far from the German Navy, and there was no need to worry about German submarine forces, and the Italian Navy was not capable of breaking through the Mediterranean Sea and the Strait of Gibraltar.

It seems to be the most peaceful and prosperous port city in the Atlantic, but even so, the French Air Force constantly sends planes to patrol the surrounding seas, because this is their last habitat.

The Empire's military deployment in Africa was mainly concentrated in Ethiopia, where the Empire maintained a strength of twenty divisions to prevent the Italian army from attacking Egypt. Egypt's important surname is the Suez Canal, and once the Italian army attacks Egypt, it also means that China will definitely enter the war.

The situation has developed to the point where China is bound to enter the war, and Germany has no doubt about this, unless they can really force Britain to defeat quickly, and really promise not to attack Switzerland and Spain, a Sino-German war will be inevitable again.

At this time, both China and Germany were actively preparing for war.

(To be continued)