The war in Europe has entered its fourth year. Even the British Empire, which was once rich and poor, has become even more unbearable, so France, which is not as rich as Britain and France.

Of course, the French that cannot be sustained here is not the French government in Paris, but the free French government in London.

In June 1940, the German army occupied Paris, and the French new cabinet signed the surrender letter, while General Charles de Gaulle led some of the French troops to London and established the Free French Army. Britain immediately recognized the Free French Provisional Government, and then the Allies also recognized the Free French Provisional Government of Charles de Gaulle.

However, this Free French Provisional Government did not have its own territory and fiscal revenue, and it was entirely supported by the British. But one thing is very important, that is, France's colonies in Africa still obeyed the Free French Provisional Government.

At that time, France had about 70,000 French troops in African colonies such as Chad, Cameroon, and Congo. This was a combat force that should not be underestimated. After Charles de Gaulle gathered the French troops in this colony, the first thing he did was to launch an attack on the Italians in Ethiopia.

The level of the Italian army was really bad. Even the French colonial army could not defeat it and was eventually defeated by the French army, resulting in the complete chaos in the African strategy of the Axis powers. So Germany had to send Rommel to North Africa to eliminate this part of the French army. It can be said that this group of French troops restrained a large number of German armored troops on the battlefield in North Africa.

In 1943, the US military intervened in the North African battlefield and gradually reversed the situation on the North African battlefield. Seeing that the counterattack against Europe was expected, Charles de Gaulle also planned to expand his army to prepare for the future regaining France.

The French mainland is still under the control of the Germans, so Charles de Gaulle's military source mainly comes from French colonies in Africa, that is, those African indigenous people. Although these African indigenous people are black, after years of French colonial rule, their language has long become French, and their culture is also biased towards French culture. In addition, Charles de Gaulle promised them to be a French citizen, people from the French African colonies enthusiastically signed up for the army.

Before the landing in Normandy, there were about 400,000 troops in Free France, of which 300,000 were recruited in the colonies. It was precisely because the blacks in these colonies performed very well in World War II that after World War II, France formulated some immigration policies that were relatively open to African colonies, which also led to a large number of blacks in colonies immigrating to France. Now France has so many African-American populations. That’s because of this. Having said that, it’s time for others to sell their lives for you, and it’s also worth giving people some benefits.

Recruiting 300,000 African-American troops requires money. The amount of food and drink, training costs, weapons and equipment, and even pensions of 300,000 people all require a lot of money. It is already enough for the British to support the French army that fled to London. It is obviously impossible to ask the British to pay money to help France arm the 300,000 troops. If the British government has that money, it is better to buy more planes from the United States, which can at least ensure the safety of the British Isles.

Moreover, the British were definitely not as enthusiastic as the French in counterattacking France. For the British, defending their own country first was the main business. As for helping the French recover their territory, that was a matter for the future. De Gaulle also knew this very well, and he knew very well that regaining France had to rely on the French himself.

Therefore, the current free French government is extremely short of money and needs money extremely. They use a lot of money to arm the troops and counterattack France in the future.

Moreover, the current free French government has a relatively awkward international status. France has fallen. The so-called free France basically needs to rely on Britain to survive. The French have no say in the Allied forces. It can be seen from the various meetings of the Allied forces. For example, the Trident meeting is the meeting between Britain and the United States, and the Cairo meeting is the meeting between China, Britain and the United States, the Tehran meeting is the meeting between the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union. These important meetings of the Allied forces did not bring France to play.

Even Chongqing could send people to Cairo for a party, but Charles de Gaulle could only stay in London and stare at him because Charles de Gaulle had no soldiers and had no right to speak. Compared with that, although the Chinese army at that time lacked weapons and ammunition and the quality of soldiers was not satisfactory, at least there were millions of people, which restrained the Japanese army's large number of troops, so the right to speak was much higher than that of the French.

Charles de Gaulle had long realized that France had to form a huge army to enjoy the right to speak among the Allies and to safeguard France's interests in the subsequent wars. Therefore, he did not hesitate to give many promises from the colonies and recruited 300,000 Africans to join the French army.

Now, Charles de Gaulle is trying every means to raise money to form an African-American French army to gain the right to speak among the Allied forces. As for the funding to form an army, the French colonies could raise part of it, but it was still far from enough. So Charles de Gaulle thought of the United States. In 1943, only the Americans could take out the money to help France form an army.

Charles de Gaulle sent a special envoy to the United States to meet President Roosevelt for financial support while lobbying the US Congressmen. Knell is one of the members of the special envoy.

After Knell came to the United States, he got a news from French immigrants that someone in New York was buying Chinese antiques in a big way, and the antique buyer was very rich and had spent more than 200,000 US dollars on purchasing antiques. Knell was instantly thinking because the French had a lot of antiques in their hands. If they could sell these antiques, they would get a lot of money.

So Knell immediately sent a telegram to the London Free French government for instructions, and London quickly responded to the message, which was just one word: "Sell"!

De Gaulle is really short of money nowadays. If the seller can exchange money for production, De Gaulle will be willing to be 100,000. I guess if someone is willing to buy French colonials, as long as the price is appropriate, France will be willing to sell it.

What's more, the Chinese cultural relics in the hands of the French are all stolen. What they originally did was to trade without a foundation, and they would make money by selling them. Do you have to feel sorry for selling other people's things? Besides, the British have not lost an inch of their territory yet, and they have started to sell the stolen cultural relics to raise money. The French mainland has fallen, and the selling of the stolen cultural relics does not have the guilt of being sorry for their ancestors.

After the Opium War, the two countries that stole the most cultural relics from China were Britain and France. There were more than 30,000 Chinese cultural relics in the Louvre alone, and French people estimated that there would be more than 30,000 Chinese cultural relics. If the French sold all the stolen Chinese cultural relics, they could indeed make a lot of money.

So Knell practiced the antique shop owner through relationships, and then met Chen Qiang again.

...

Knell claimed to be the special envoy of Free France. Chen Qiang was somewhat confused, but this kind of thing was easy to verify. After all, Knell was an official sent by Free France, and his identity was easy to verify.

Chen Qiang was also very interested in the Chinese cultural relics snatched by France. The French are short of money nowadays and deserve to be a fat sheep to be slaughtered. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reclaim Chinese cultural relics. After passing this village, there is no such store. After the end of World War II, the French recovered and even if they gave money, the Louvre might not be willing to sell those Chinese cultural relics.

So Chen Qiang said, "Mr. Knell, I am very interested in the Chinese antiques you mentioned."

"That's great. I wonder how many pieces Mr. Chen plans to buy?" Knell asked immediately.

"How many you have, how much you want, the more you want, the better." Chen Qiang paused and continued, "I wonder when I can see the goods?"

"Well..." When talking about seeing the goods, Knell seemed to be squeezing. He hesitated for a long time before he spoke; "Mr. Chen, it's really not to be hiding these antiques are not in the United States now."

"Not in the United States? Is that in Europe?" Chen Qiang pondered for a moment, then said, "Europe is in a state of war now, so I can't go to Europe to inspect the goods. This way, you can ship these antiques to the United States. At worst, I can pay the shipping fee."

"This is also difficult," Knell said.

Chen Qiang nodded: "That's right, the German submarines are raging in the Atlantic Ocean, and transportation is indeed not suitable at this time. Otherwise, you can give me a detailed list of antiques and let me know the antiques I want to sell first. If the list is enough, one folder should be enough, right?"

"It can't be done either." Knell said helplessly.

"Mr. Knell, you are not kidding me, right? You want to sell me antiques. As a buyer, it would be fine if I can't see the physical antiques, but I can't even see a list of goods? I should always know what I want to buy, right?" Chen Qiang said with some displeasure.

"Mr. Chen, I'm very sorry. Your request is very reasonable, but we can't do it." Knell sighed and continued: "Tell you the truth, the Chinese antiques we want to sell are still in France."

"I'm buying things with you French people. What's so strange about the goods in France? Wait, do you mean France? Do you mean the local French?" Chen Qiang asked with surprise.

"That's true." Knell nodded.

Chen Qiang suddenly laughed, his laughter filled with sarcasm.

France is still under the control of the Germans, but those antiques are in the French mainland. In other words, on the German territory, Free France wants to sell the things on the German territory to itself. What is the difference between this and selling other people's things!

Knell also heard the sarcasm in Chen Qiang's laughter, and he said, "Mr. Chen, although those antiques are still preserved in France, after our free French army counterattacks France and drives away the Germans, these antiques will be taken back by us. As long as you buy these antiques now, after we drive away the Germans, we will send all these antiques to you."

"Mr. Knell, I have heard of soybean futures, wheat futures, and iron ore futures, but I have never heard of antique futures. What's more, your futures antiques do not have a specific delivery date." Chen Qiang said with a smile.

Knell smiled awkwardly. He also knew that he was making money by nothing and was completely unreasonable. He didn't know how to respond to Chen Qiang's jokes.

After thinking for a long time, Knell finally spoke: "Mr. Chen, you may think what I said is like an illusory promise, but the current battle situation is developing in a good direction. On the battlefield of North Africa, the Allies are winning step by step, and the Germans are about to be unable to hold on. In the Soviet Union, the Germans have been blocked in Stalingrad and they are no longer able to continue the attack. I believe that it will not take long for the counterattack to come. We can definitely recover the French mainland and drive away those German invaders!"

"Mr. Knell, I believe all that you said, and I also hope that what you said will come one day earlier. I am Chinese. In this war, our two countries are allies, we are allies, and we are allies. Our position is the same. I also hope that the Allies can win as soon as possible. But the position is the position, and reality is the reality. The advantages on the battlefield of North Africa and the Battle of Stalingrad can only be regarded as the turning point of the war at best. We are still far from the final victory."

Chen Qiang said with a long sigh and continued: "Mr. Knell, you should know that my motherland fell into war earlier than Europe, and we have also experienced many war turning points. As early as 1938, our Chinese army won the victory of the Changsha Battle, which was a major turning point, but we still could not stop the Japanese invasion, and only temporarily slowed down their attack. The Changsha Battle has been five years since now, and we have not yet won. Even after the outbreak of the Pacific Ocean, the Japanese army will face two-line battles. After such a major turning point, my country is still losing its territory."

"Mr. Knell, I say these to tell you how far the turning point of the war is from the victory of the war is actually an unknown, maybe one or two years, maybe three or four years, or maybe more than ten years. I believe that the soldiers of free France have the courage to drive away the Germans and have the ability to regain the French mainland, but I also know that no one can give an exact time."

Chen Qiang's words made Knell bow his head and say nothing. He knew that what Chen Qiang said was the fact that the Allies' victory in the North African battlefield and the German defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad can only be regarded as a turning point in the war, and does not mean that the Allies have won. In the current European battlefield, the German army is still strong, and the Allies have not set foot on the European continent. At most, the two sides are in a state of equal strength.

"I'm very sorry, Mr. Chen, I'm disturbing you." Knell sighed. He knew that it was too whimsical to want to get money from Chen Qiang with a blank check of antique Chinese.

Knell's depressed look fell into Chen Qiang's eyes, but Chen Qiang couldn't help but feel a little happy.

Because Chen Qiang knew that the empty check of the antique Chinese cheque issued by the French could actually be cashed out!
Chapter completed!