Cairo after the Battle of El Alamein was completely different from the previous one.

The crushing defeat of the Allies. The whole Cairo people were terrified, the Egyptians, the French, the British, everyone was worried that the Germans would attack Cairo.

Fortunately, such fears did not happen, and the Germans seemed to have temporarily lost interest in Cairo.

But God knows when those Germans will appear in Egypt.

There was some faint rumor that Farouk I and the English seemed to be very unhappy, probably for the war, and the last Farouk I had to succumb to the coercion of the British.

However, this again caused discontent among the Egyptian military.

Khamlemu, the chief of the general staff of the Egyptian army, who wielded a lot of power, was a hardliner who believed that Egypt should be more independent and self-reliant, rather than completely subordinate to the British.

On this point, he and Egyptian Defense Minister Emn have completely opposite opinions.

Emne believed that Egypt's strength alone could not resist the German attack, and that a one-sided approach must be adopted in policy, relying on the strength of the British to resist the German invasion.

Khamlemu, on the other hand, retorted, arguing that Emne had completely forgotten the glory of Egypt and that he had only bowed down to foreigners.

The British were annoyed by Khamlemu's attitude, but they could do nothing about the Egyptian man. Khamlemu has a strong presence in both the civilian and military sectors, and it is said that Queen Farida is his distant relative. He enjoyed the general support of the lower middle class in Egypt.

Once shaken his position. It was bound to cause great opposition from the Egyptians, and there was even a possibility of mutiny in the army

Emin, on the other hand, represents the interests of the privileged class in Egypt. He also has a little-extensive, but deep-rooted support. For example, Farouk I was a staunch supporter of him.

Of course, this time the British went too far, not only asking the Egyptian army to participate directly in the war, but also asking Egypt to take on the main supply task of the Allied forces in North Africa.

Such a request made Farouk I, who usually did not manage political affairs very much, very disgusted

Everything was caused by the defeat of the "Second Battle of El Alamein".

It is said that the Allies lost more than 80% of their supplies in North Africa in this campaign, and the supply of the entire army was the most serious problem.

Right now. For a long time, the Allies had to rely on the Egyptians

On several occasions, Khamlemu met separately with the British ambassador to Cairo, General Alexander, the commander-in-chief of the British forces in the Middle East, and the commander-in-chief of the British 8th Army, General Montgomery, without informing Farouk I. And expressed his strong dissatisfaction with them, demanding that the Allies must find a way to solve the supply problem on their own, and not throw this heavy burden to Egypt.

But whether it was Stolly, Alexander, or Montgomery, they all strongly rejected Khamlemu's request. And told this Egyptian chief of the General Staff. It was completely illegal for him to meet with His Majesty the King and the Egyptian government without their permission

This was the case with the British, especially with the quick-tempered Alexander and Montgomery. They even dared to refuse the orders of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, not to mention an Egyptian chief of the General Staff.

The face-loving Kannele left the British in a rage, believing that he had suffered a great humiliation from the British.

In Cairo, and indeed throughout Egypt, Khamlemu and his family had always been widely respected, but now it seems that the British did not show him the respect they deserved.

That's the way it is. Usually, some contradictions accumulate there and are not easy to detect, but once a major event is encountered. For example, if there is a fiasco in the war, such a contradiction will completely erupt.

The disastrous defeat of the allies in the "Second Battle of El Alamein" was the fuse for the outbreak of contradictions between Egypt and Britain

Not only that, but something that annoyed the Egyptians even more happened without warning: in Egypt, there were a large number of Egyptian pounds and coins Piast and Milim!

Lots of them!

This is not a good phenomenon in just a few days, as the Egyptian currency plummets and prices skyrocket as these currencies proliferate.

Originally, with the progress of the war, the price of goods in Egypt had reached a very high level, and now, it has reached the point where it is impossible for ordinary people to survive

These things are happening very weirdly.

And when Egypt was in chaos, "Baron Andrew" Toksen - Wang Weiyi, and Mrs. Toxon - Elena re-entered the historic city of Cairo

"Barbecue, thank you. How much? 1250 Piast? God, it's so expensive."

Wang Weiyi shook his head and took the Egyptian barbecue, and handed a skewer to Elena: "God, the things here are really expensive. It's overwhelming."

"It's ridiculous that a person who made up these things should say such a thing." Elena said with a smile as she took a bite of the barbecue.

"Elean, you may not know it, but a million pounds is enough for a coup d'état in a country. Ah, I don't mean the bribery of high-ranking officials in the army, but the mutiny that was organized spontaneously. Wang Weiyi was obviously very satisfied with the barbecue, and said with great interest: "For example, the Portuguese Alves. Doss. Reese, he succeeded in causing a terrible coup d'état in Portugal with counterfeit money, I don't think it's appropriate to call him a counterfeiter, he is using real Portuguese currency"

Alves. Doss. Reese, the legendary counterfeiter. He made genuine Portuguese escudo banknotes, and what he forged was just an official letter from the Central Bank of Portugal to commission the printing of banknotes.

How much money did he illegally inject into the market? By 1925, there were about 100 million escudo notes, totalling more than £1 million, equivalent to 0.88% of Portugal's total GDP. Reese, who became rich overnight, ran a bank, bought a house, and bought a farm, which brought a superficial prosperity to the Portuguese economy at that time. However, these huge amounts of currency illegally injected into the market eventually led to the depreciation of the Portuguese currency, the loss of the credibility of the government, and indirectly contributed to the military coup d'état the following year.

In 1930, Reese was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

He alone used a million pounds to get a government

"Isn't he a great man?" Wang Weiyi finished the barbecue with satisfaction: "You may not be surprised at all when the matter is revealed, and you can do it too, but the first guy who dared to use a forged official letter from the Central Bank of Portugal to entrust the banknote printing factory to print banknotes is really a great genius." Crucially, he also succeeded. ”

Elena nodded approvingly.

"He used forged official letters from the Central Bank of Portugal to make banknotes, and there is another guy in the United States who is also making counterfeit money, but he has not been detected until now." Wang Weiyi said with great interest: "This guy named Emmerich Yu Turner, immigrated from Australia to New York, USA, worked as a building administrator when he was young, and picked up scraps for a living after retirement, and his life was unsustainable. In desperation, Huttner began to use the photographic etching technique he had learned as a child to create counterfeit coins. Hultner was not greedy, and he only made $1 bills to meet the basic necessities of life. However, his technique was not very good, using cheap coated paper, the numbers and letters were blurred and distorted, and Washington's head was visibly distorted, and later counterfeit banknotes even misspelled 'Washington' as 'Wahsington'. Turner was very cautious about spending the fake money, and only spent it in the subway, newsstands, bars, grocery stores, and other crowded places during rush hour. For a 5-cent ticket, he makes a profit of 95 cents, which Hultner uses to cover other daily expenses such as rent. But the accumulation of small amounts, starting in 1938, Huetner created as many as 55 thousand dollars in counterfeit money, which, although the Secret Service had long been aware of them, remained helpless"

Elena listened attentively: "Can't you catch him all the time?" ”

"I haven't been able to catch it. It wasn't until late 1947 that a fire broke out in Turner's apartment, which brought him to his death in 1948. Perhaps everyone sympathized with this poor, ungreedy, cautious old man, who was sentenced to only one year and one day and a fine of $1, and was released from prison four months later to live with his daughter. Wang Weiyi sighed: "Can you say that this person is not a great guy?" ”

After saying that, he glanced at the streets of Cairo: "So, we are also a bunch of counterfeiters, but we are more clever than them." Elena, Egypt is very chaotic now, the Allies are short of materials, Cairo is short of materials, and prices are skyrocketing, if a large number of high-fidelity counterfeit money appears in Cairo at this time, it can completely collapse Egypt's economy in the shortest possible time. ”

"At that time, it is very likely that a mutiny like the Portuguese will take place in Cairo" Elena quickly understood the meaning of Wang Weiyi's words: "The Egyptian military and the Allied command are now full of sharp contradictions, and if they want to succeed in the mutiny, they must have the support of a strong force, and their only choice is Germany." ”

Wang Weiyi smiled: "That's the case, if I can use the economy to defeat a country, I would prefer to choose this way, and the chaos in Egypt has provided us with the best opportunity, and now, we are a group of counterfeit money makers." ”

Of course, these two counterfeit money makers can use real money in Cairo! (To be continued......)