Although Chen Qiang is not proficient in the history of World War II, he still has basic historical knowledge, he knows that in the next month, that is, in May 1940, the Germans will launch an attack on France, the German armored forces bypassed the Maginot Line, a wave of blitzkrieg directly into France, France did not hold on for a month and fell, and the British and French troops ran to Dunkirk to come to an epic retreat.

The Anglo-French troops withdrew, but all the supplies remained in France, and eventually became the spoils of war for the Germans.

The French had been preparing for war much longer than the Germans, as early as 1928, the French began to build the Maginot Line to defend against the German attack, and in 1937 the French built the Daladier Line to continue to strengthen the defense.

After Europe recovered from the Great Depression, France began to hoard all kinds of materials, and strategic material resources were continuously transported from the colonies to the French mainland, a process that lasted for about six or seven years, and the materials hoarded by France = can be said to be an astronomical amount.

According to the French idea, once the war began, the situation would evolve into a World War I, and the two sides would enter a long tug-of-war, and even a situation similar to the Battle of Verdun, which would be constantly attrition in the war. Therefore, before the war, France had to prepare enough strategic materials.

After Britain and France declared war on Germany, in addition to sending expeditionary forces, Britain also began to transport some supplies to France, from the declaration of war on Germany in September 1939 to the retreat of Dunkirk in May 1940, Britain sent countless supplies to France.

So it is certain that at the outbreak of World War II, the French were more prepared for war than the Germans, with the Maginot Line and sufficient supplies.

However, the French generals did not expect that Germany used blitzkrieg to quickly occupy France. The strategic materials prepared by France, which were ultimately cheap to the Germans, became German trophies and gave the Germans a mouthful of old blood.

At the beginning of World War II, Germany's navy was like dumplings, and Germany's armored forces in the North African theater were also as if they didn't need money, and Germany's war potential was much stronger than that of Britain. However, although Germany had strong industrial capacity, it did not have overseas colonies, and the reason why it was able to exert such a large war potential was due to the huge strategic materials left by France. The French had saved up for seven or eight years, enough for the Germans to squander for a long time.

If during World War II, the Italians dragged the Axis powers, then the French clearly dragged the Allies.

It is precisely because France has lost all its family foundations, so at the beginning of World War II, the Allies were faced with a serious shortage of resources, the European continent was occupied by Germany, and Britain itself was so big, how much war potential could there be? Even though the British colonies are all over the world, it takes time for the resources of the colonies to be transported to the British mainland, taking steel as an example, it takes time for the iron ore in the colonies to be mined, transported, and then smelted, and what Britain lacked most at that time was precisely time.

Therefore, after the occupation of France, Britain could only buy supplies from the United States, and at that time only the United States had the industrial capacity to supply supplies to Britain.

The importance of steel for the war industry is self-evident, when Germany occupies the European continent and Britain retreats to the British Isles, the American industry will supply Britain at full capacity, but the materials are still in short supply, and steel will be out of stock in a short period of time, as Chen Qiang said, not to mention scrap iron, even iron slag is also rushed to ask!

At this time, there was only a little more than a month left before the retreat from Dunkirk, so Chen Qiang's idea of reselling scrap iron could actually only be implemented for a month, and when the dust settles in Europe, the industrial orders of the British will fly to the United States like snowflakes, and then the American scrap iron will not have to be sold to the Japanese, and the United States will be able to digest it itself.

Of course, it cannot be ruled out that Japan will pay a higher price to buy American scrap iron, but the Japanese money is not blown by the wind, and because of the war, Japan's economic situation is already very bad, and if Japan's economy can support its war, they cannot touch the mold of the United States and attack the Pearl Harbor of the United States.

……

It was May 1940.

The Japanese troops assembled in southern Henan finally made a move, and the Battle of Zaoyi began.

Two months ago, the Fifth Theater had just won a great victory in southern Henan and regained Xinyang, and after a lapse of two months, the Fifth Theater was once again facing the attack of the Japanese army, and this time the Japanese army also drew a large number of troops from the Third Theater and the Ninth Theater.

In the Battle of Zaoyi, the Japanese army not only captured Xiangyang, an important town, but also occupied Yichang, which is the gateway to Sichuan, only 480 kilometers away from Chongqing.

Two months ago, the Fifth Theater had just won the Japanese victory in the frontal battlefield, which showed that there was no problem with the combat effectiveness of the Chinese soldiers, but the Battle of Zaoyi failed, and the only reasonable explanation was that the Fifth Theater was strategically led by the Japanese by the nose and tactically led by the Japanese step by step.

When the Battle of Zaoyi began, on the European side, Germany also began to implement the Manstein plan to conquer the European continent.

On May 10, Germany invaded the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, and then Germany would turn its main attack to the Ardennes, with massive tank clusters breaking through the Ardennes Pass, bypassing the Maginot Line, and rushing directly to the Atlantic coast, splitting France in two.

It was also on May 10 that the British began their attack on Iceland.

At this time, Iceland was still part of Danish territory, and in fact, after Denmark surrendered to Germany, Iceland declared its neutrality and did not want to get involved in the war, but the British still did not let Iceland go.

During World War II, the United States and Britain occupied Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Iceland in Denmark, and after World War II, the United States returned Greenland and the Faroe Islands to Denmark, but Iceland gained independence with the support of the United States. So in general, Denmark lost its territory in World War II. And the reason why the United States returned Greenland and the Faroe Islands to Denmark was also because Denmark was willing to side with the United States against the Soviet Union.

Germany's attacks on the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg also changed the political situation in Britain, with British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain resigning under pressure and Churchill becoming the new British Prime Minister.

On 14 May, the Queen of the Netherlands fled to London, and now that the Queen had fled, the Netherlands had no courage to resist, so the next day the Netherlands formally surrendered to Germany.

The Belgian government fled to France, and the Germans directly captured Brussels, and the surrender of Belgium was inevitable.

On 16 May, US President Roosevelt spoke to Congress and asked Congress to approve a special credit of $900 million, which was mainly used to build airplanes, and Roosevelt hoped that the US fighter production could be expanded to 50,000 per year.

I have to say that Roosevelt was quite far-sighted, if the United States had not started the war machine in advance, the future Pacific theater would have been beaten by Japan for a long time.

At this time, the special envoy sent by Chongqing also arrived in the United States.

This time, Chongqing's special envoy was the Minister of Finance Song of the year, the head of the Song family, one of the four major families, and now Minister Song is no longer the Minister of Finance, but he still holds important positions such as the chairman of the Bank of China.

Special Envoy Song made a special trip from Chongqing this time, of course, for more American aid, and to put it bluntly, he asked Roosevelt for money.

……

At the dock in New York City, people from the embassy in the United States were welcoming the arrival of Special Envoy Song, and Hu Shi, as the ambassador to the United States, was naturally present in person.

The Chinese community in New York also prepared a welcome banquet for Special Envoy Song, and Chen Qiang, as a well-known figure among the Chinese in New York, naturally had to attend this welcome banquet.

Chen Qiang and this Song envoy are also old acquaintances, as early as when they were in China, when Song envoy was still the Minister of Finance, the two met. At today's welcome banquet, Chen Qiang was also arranged at the main table, and sat at the same table with Special Envoy Song, Mr. Situ, Hu Shi and others.

This is mainly because Chen Qiang knew the relationship of US President Roosevelt, and Special Envoy Song obviously hoped that Chen Qiang could help do Roosevelt's work, so that he could get assistance from the United States, so Chen Qiang sat at the main table.

After three rounds of drinking, the polite words that should have been said were almost done, and then the envoy Song spoke: "The situation in the country is very severe, Chongqing's finances are becoming increasingly short, the fiat currency is difficult to maintain, the Japanese have invaded our country's land, and traitors have also appeared within us, and a puppet government has been established in Nanjing. As you are all aware, the main purpose of my visit is to seek assistance from the United States. So this time, I'm here with a difficult task. Before leaving, the chairman of the committee personally told me that this trip was very important, and I also assured the chairman that I would definitely complete the task and return with the assistance of the Americans. ”

"I wonder what Chongqing expects from the United States?" Mr. Szeto asked.

"Before I left, the chairman of the committee put forward four demands: first, I hope that the United States can lend 200 million to 300 million US dollars to China; The second is to hope that the United States can sell 500 to 1,000 fighter jets to China every year, and this time it is better to sell 300 fighters immediately; Third, it is hoped that the United States and Britain can send military and economic delegations to China to form cooperative organs, whose members will be hired by the Chinese government as advisers. Fourth, once Britain and the United States go to war with Japan, the Chinese Army will all participate in the war, and the coalition forces can use all the sites of the Chinese Air Force. Envoy Song replied.

After Special Envoy Song finished saying these four demands, everyone at the table immediately looked at each other, and it was obvious that everyone realized that Chongqing's idea was simply a lion's mouth, and the United States would not agree to such conditions at all.

First of all, it is a loan of 200 million to 300 million US dollars, which is absolutely impossible, and the money of the Americans does not fall from the sky, Hu Shi has worked so hard to borrow 20 million US dollars from the United States, and this Song envoy wants 200 million US dollars with one mouth, how can the United States borrow it! Therefore, the loan of 200 million to 300 million US dollars, you don't have to think about it, the United States will definitely not give it.

The second is to sell 500 to 1,000 fighter jets to China a year, this requirement is actually not excessive, with the current industrial capacity of the United States, it is still very easy to increase the production of 1,000 fighters, after all, the fighter structure at that time was relatively simple, not the high-precision and sophisticated products of the F22, and the output will be relatively large.

And this premise was that Germany did not occupy France. However, when Germany occupied France, it launched an air attack on Britain, and the air battle on the British Isles would last for a long time, and the British fighter consumption would be very large, and Britain would have to buy fighter jets from the United States. Before the outbreak of the Pacific War, the United States would certainly give priority to supplying fighter planes to the European theater, and if China wanted to buy fighter planes, it would have to wait for the United States to increase fighter production.

As for the third point, the United States and Britain should send military and economic delegations to China, but this is the simplest one, because the British will soon be too busy to take care of themselves, and it is certainly impossible to send a delegation to China, but the Americans can still send people. However, once the United States sends a military delegation to China, it means that the United States will begin to directly participate in the war between China and Japan, and for those isolationists in the United States, they will certainly not want to intervene in the Sino-Japanese war.

Therefore, the main resistance to sending a delegation to China comes from isolationist parliamentarians led by Arthur Vandenberg. With the ability of US congressmen, by the time Congress approves the dispatch of a delegation to China, it is estimated that the Pacific War has broken out, so this article has no practical significance.

Article 4 is even more ridiculous: Chongqing proposed that once Britain and the United States go to war with Japan, all the Chinese Army will participate in the war, and now China and Japan are already in a state of war, and the Chinese Army is already in the midst of a full-scale war. Moreover, Chongqing must wish that Britain and the United States could quickly fight with the Japanese, so that the pressure on Chongqing would be less. But Americans are not stupid, how can they be used as gunmen by you!

Therefore, when Special Envoy Song said these four unrealistic demands, everyone present knew that Special Envoy Song would inevitably return empty-handed when he went to Washington for help this time.

I have to say that Chongqing is really stupid enough to treat the Americans as the main wrong. Now that they have come to ask for food, they should be content if they can get two steamed buns, and they have to ask for abalone and ginseng wings, isn't this a brain cramp!

……

In fact, after the Song envoy went to Washington and told Roosevelt about the requirements of Chongqing, Roosevelt almost did not directly scold out, are you Chinese crazy!

So without even thinking about it, Roosevelt directly said that the United States would not agree to any of these four demands!

Roosevelt refused very resolutely, without the slightest room for negotiation, and the Song envoy was completely depressed, he came all the way from China to the United States, and before leaving, he also boasted of Haikou, if he couldn't catch anything, he would go back in disgrace, and he couldn't help it. Although he will not be punished by Chongqing, if he fails to ask the United States for help, his political status in Chongqing will plummet.

Perhaps for Envoy Soong, preserving his political position was more important than receiving U.S. assistance.

……

Late at night, Special Envoy Song sat alone in the house room and drank coffee, and the reason why he didn't sleep so late was not because he didn't have a jet lag, but because the United States refused to provide assistance, which made Special Envoy Song feel troubled.

"What should I do, I didn't get help, and I couldn't explain it when I went back to Chongqing." Envoy Song looked distressed.

Putting down the coffee cup, Special Envoy Song looked at the documents on the table, the top one was the text of the "Huaxi Loan Treaty" signed by China and the United States not long ago, that is, the contract that borrowed 20 million US dollars with the mortgage of Yunnan tin mine.

"Fortunately, I just borrowed 20 million US dollars from the Americans a few days ago, and if I can go back with 20 million US dollars of supplies this time, I will not return empty-handed!" Envoy Song said secretly in his heart.

The $20 million loan has nothing to do with Envoy Song, it was all Hu Shi begging his grandfather to tell his grandmother in front of Roosevelt, for the sake of this $20 million, I don't know how many New Year's greetings Hu Shi said in a low voice. If this is placed in the live broadcast industry in the future, I will definitely have to say to the camera with a moving face: "Thank you Roosevelt for the 20 million US dollars, I love you!" "And then compare a heart or something.

However, the Song envoy, who failed to assist him, planned to snatch the credit of 20 million US dollars and count it on his own head.

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