On June 11, 1937, the French general Hensig signed the armistice agreement with the Central Powers on behalf of Petain's government. Two hours later, the government in London sent a statement that it was willing to accept the conditions, just 19 minutes before the deadline set by Germany for the breakdown of the negotiations. For the British, this decision was undoubtedly extremely painful, because it meant that the whole country was exposed to Germany in an almost undefended form; And in the final peace treaty, Britain will also be reduced to fish on the chopping block to be slaughtered. However, in the current situation, they have no choice: surrender still has a chance to keep part of the family property, and stubborn resistance is only to destroy miè, and insist on dying knowing that they are desperate, which is by no means something that everyone can accept fearlessly!

With radio broadcasts broadcasting over and over again on the French plains with the news of the armistice, the rumbling artillery fire that had lasted for a month finally subsided. Deafening cheers rang out from the locations of the German troops, and the excited soldiers, led by the officers, respectfully sang "Long Live the Laurels of the Victors." Although the Germans were confident of victory before the battle, they were still dazzled by the magnitude of their achievements. In just one month, Britain and France, which had saved face in the last war, suffered a complete defeat, losing more than a million soldiers before and after; And the total number of casualties on their side is only a little more than 80,000, which is not even half of the number of a battle on the Marne! The reputation of the Hohenzollern dynasty, ruled by the Qing Ying, reached a new peak after this victory. When Qing Ying announced the victorious end of the war against Britain and France on the balcony of the palace, the cheers of hundreds of thousands of people below him seemed to drown him out.

While Germany was plunged into a scene of jubilation, there was a deathly silence on the other side of the battle line. The British and French soldiers began to silently pack their bags. Prepare for a general retreat from the front-line battlefields - according to their armistice treaty with Germany. About sixty percent of France's land will be occupied by Germany. For the purpose of fighting against the United States, coalition soldiers who did not leave these areas within the time limit were to be arrested as prisoners of war. Large quantities of arms were surrendered by coalition forces as a guarantee of armistice, and their remaining armed forces shrank to a very low level. In the process of retreating, they were also stipulated that they could not destroy the various facilities in the area in any way, and all the materials stored in the area must also be retained, otherwise Germany would be deemed to have violated the armistice and had the right to take any action. In fact, this was only a small part of the total provisions of the 1918 armistice agreement made by the other Allied powers, taking into account the efficient use of industry in the occupied and controlled areas. Qingying is already extremely merciful.

Over the next week, the Germans began to take over the lands from which the French had withdrawn. The black, white, and red iron cross flags of the German Empire were fluttering one after another, such as Paris and Rouen, familiar old places they had occupied 24 years ago, and unfamiliar cities such as Brest and Saint-Nazaire, which they had never set foot in. The French people watched with bitterness and sorrow as these conquerors flexed their power on their land, defiling places of interest. The only thing that gave the French some comfort was that the German soldiers' discipline had not yet deteriorated, that they lined up in order in front of the restaurant and the barbershop, and that they were paying the owners real francs.

"The French probably haven't realized yet that we're using their own money to garrison our troops." When he received the news that all the French towns under German control were in a harmonious atmosphere, Prime Minister Aikman couldn't help but sigh. According to the bylaws of the Franco-German armistice entente. France had to pay 400 million francs a day for the German troops in the occupied territories; And it is this equivalent of about 1.95 million pounds that makes millions of French people unknowingly. It became a cheap and even free source of labor in Germany.

"The next step is to put their industrial power to use. The French, despite the economic crisis, produced more than 6 million tonnes of crude steel last year; The British figure was 12 million tons, and the combined number of the two was half that of the Empire. By giving appropriate orders, the factories in Britain and France produced the necessary industrial goods for Germany in a continuous supply of energy. Although this will allow some of the industries in Britain and France to be protected and even grown, it is still necessary from the perspective of the current war against the United States: after all, the production power of the United States is still higher than that of Germany, and we must integrate the forces at our disposal to confront them. Qingying, who was in the main seat, added.

Aikman smiled yes. As the monarch in front of him said, the use of British and French industry would inevitably preserve the production capacity of their factories, but Germany's absolute military and political superiority was completely capable of preventing any adverse consequences that might be brought about by this. The new British and French governments are almost exclusively moderate pro-Germans, and radicals such as Churchill have long since left office and are being severely prosecuted; As long as Germany weighs their industrial output on the balance of terms in the final peace treaty, then in order to salvage more of the British and French governments, Britain and France will inevitably urge their own industries to cooperate fully with Germany. In addition to this, Germany could have taken the opportunity to carry out economic penetration into it and gradually cause the British and French industry to gradually lose its complete independence; When Germany became the dominant factor in the production process, such as the supply of raw materials, these industries were completely used for their own purposes.

"Although Britain and France have withdrawn from the war, our arms production cannot be slowed down in the slightest. On the contrary, the factories within the empire should continue to transition to war, further reducing the output of consumer goods. In the proportion of resources allocated among the various branches of the military, the navy should occupy the best position, followed by the air force, and the army equipment can be placed at the bottom for the time being. Qingying paused, and then said again, "Our next war mission is to use Guyana as a base to gradually attack the many islands in the Caribbean Sea; Not only would too many army forces be able to deploy on these islands, but would put enormous pressure on logistical supplies. ”

"Rest assured, Caesar. In the field of increasing the production of armaments, I have recently discovered a young man with great potential: he is an architect, but he has shown extraordinary coordination and organizational skills, and I think he is more than qualified for the post of State Secretary for Equipment Production. I'm going to appoint him as Toth's deputy to assist him in the production of equipment. The youth of Speer will not disappoint you. Aikman replied respectfully.

While Germany was busy counting the population, stockpiles, and wealth of the French occupation zone, on June 21, Japan, which had been delayed for six weeks, finally declared war on the United States. Although Germany only agreed to include Malaysia in Japan's sphere of influence, much to the disappointment and anger of the ambitious warmen in the Tokyo base camp, they resolutely drew their swords against the long-cherished enemy on the other side of the ocean, who had been looking at each other for 30 years. In a private meeting with the Japanese ambassador, German Foreign Minister Newright said that Germany fully supports Japan's "establishment of its own order" in Asia, and that it is only because the current US power is still in place and Germany cannot cause more trouble in Europe, so it has temporarily retained Japan's "reasonable demands" for Singapore and Burma. In the event of a defeat for the United States, Germany would immediately put pressure on Britain to surrender these two Asian territories to Japanese rule. This gave the Japanese some comfort.

In addition to the somewhat empty check to carve up the United States with Japan, Newright also threw an even more tempting bait to the Japanese: that is, if the United States was defeated and withdrew from the war, Germany would support Japan's actions in Dutch Indochina. This guarantee immediately turned the anger of the Tokyo base camp into joy. These more than 10,000 islands are home to not only a population of 50 million people and a large number of plantations, but also oil, which is desperately scarce in Japan's national machinery: with Dutch Indochina, oil production is 18,000 per day, and Japan no longer imports fuel from the Netherlands and Germany! Feeling profitable, Japan no longer maintained false neutrality, but threw itself into the front line of war.

On 28 June, the Japanese fleet began a major attack on the United States-controlled southern Philippines. In the previous month or so, Germany and the United States had hardly engaged in a major confrontation over the island nation divided by the sea: Germany's army and navy forces in the Philippines were very limited, while the United States, in order to avoid Japan from entering the war, was careful not to take any drastic action in the western Pacific. However, the situation in the Pacific, which the White House had painstakingly maintained, was unilaterally broken by Japan, which was determined to fight a war. Under the cover of a large number of warships, the Japanese army of five divisions landed on the island and immediately launched a wolf-like attack on the American troops defending the island.

To the surprise of the Japanese base camp, the other side did not seem to have any intention of holding on to the colony. The Japanese Navy's "nine-stage operation" plan, which had been painstakingly formulated, was now completely bankrupt because of the US Navy's immobility: The Zero fighters on the aircraft carrier spread out a reconnaissance radius of more than 600 kilometers to the east, but they never saw a sampan flying the Star-Spangled Banner. The Japanese Army faced the enemy in all of its fortifications, and rarely launched a resolute counter-charge. Since the strength of the US Pacific Fleet is still quite far behind that of the Japanese Combined Fleet, the US military has wisely made the decision to abandon the Philippines, which is far away from home. They decided to rely on the air base in Hawaii for defense first, and then fight a decisive battle with the Japanese after the follow-up warships were built and put into service and the fleet strength was expanded.

The Japanese base camp was clearly not satisfied with the victory in the South Philippines. Soon, they set their sights on important U.S. island bases in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. (To be continued......)

PS: Thank you for the tips of book friends Golden Crab and zhouyu1976~~~