.The Third Reich under Ten Thousand Characters  Volume 5: Battle of Britain  Chapter 41: The Next Prey

The new French Prime Minister Betten, the savior of the First World War Verdun, said to his people on the radio: "Today I told you with a heavy heart that this battle must be stopped... I have asked Germany for the conditions of the armistice."

The notice of the Vichy government was issued only one day. The French remnants of the French troops who were originally in western France, which had resisted in the north gave up resistance. Tens of thousands of French people walked out of the hidden point in groups to the SS troops stationed in western France and surrendered. The French troops near southern France also heard telegrams from the new government. They were ordered to give up more than 20,000 people in the city and retreat to the suburbs to wait for new instructions. As for what the new instructions? It may be to withdraw to southern France, or even more likely to surrender to the German Wehrmacht.

There was also a notice that caused the Parisians to have psychological conflicts. The commander of the Paris garrison, the commander of the Paris garrison who was ordered to be under 13,000 subordinates in the face of danger, advised all Parisians to be more settled and not to act excessively, as this would give the German army an excuse to slaughter Paris. At the same time, he also told all Parisians that the Parisians would cooperate with the work of the police stations in various neighborhoods in Paris and hand over all weapons to reduce the irreparable misunderstandings.

The Parisians were rational, yes, they could only describe their behavior as rationality. Men, women, young and old were invited out of their homes by SS soldiers who entered the city. They needed help SS to decorate the streets of Paris, hanging all-out iron cross stripes on towering buildings, and a large circle in the middle was painted with patterns in the battle flag of the Third Reich of Germany.

In the work of decorating the streets of Paris, the Parisians dared not speak out. They humiliatedly hung flags representing the invaders, and when they were stared at by SS soldiers, they had to laugh, and they needed to laugh harmlessly. They could not make sounds when they cried, which would cause the glare of the SS. If they angered the SS, no one knew what would happen.

Europeans were accustomed to this law of war. No matter where they were, the people of the defeated country had no dignity. The only thing the people of the defeated country could do was to endure silently and pray to God to let the victor forgive themselves. If their country failed to restore the occupied areas, they could only endure it until they stood up and resisted at the call of the ambitious people. However... the Parisians seemed to have to wait for a long time.

On the square named after Paris, this huge square, which was used by the Parisians as the best place to relax, is now full of banners.

The Eiffel Tower, a symbol of French economic prosperity, also hangs a flag with a font of more than 30 meters long. Every time the flag is blown by strong wind, it always makes a sound of a cloth being tightened, which sounds like someone being slapped in the face.

Arc de Triomphe, the main building that has been used for military parades in France. There are countless flags hanging on both sides, and the German war flag on both sides of the Arc de Triomphe is also ashamed of.

At this moment, Paris has become a sea of ​​10,000 flags. In the outskirts of Paris, 150,000 German troops were stationed in four directions, including the A, B, and C army groups of the SS, and the First and Second Army groups of the SS, who were ordered to participate in the war. These warlike troops were selected by the Supreme Command from the various troops participating in the French battle. They will step on the gravel road under their feet under the attention of the world, under the command of the head of the Third German Empire of Germany, under the gaze of the marble road of Paris under the attention of the world.

At 9:00 a.m. on June 10, a special train full of conquerors from the Third Reich of Germany arrived. The train was docked at a military train station outside Paris, which was originally a French ammunition storage point.

At the same time, a train departing from Tours also entered the main station in Paris. The train carried the negotiating delegation of the Vichy government. The leader of the negotiating delegation was a French general named Henzig, and was the commander of the French Second Corps. The members included former French ambassador to Poland, Major General Le Lüca, Chief of the Navy Staff General Berge, Chief of Staff of the Air Force, and General Parizo, former military officer in Romania.

The head of the French negotiator, Henziger, was not a traditional Frenchman, he was an Artsian. The so-called Artsians are a majority ethnic group in the Alsace and Lorraine in France. They belong to the Europa race, and the common languages ​​are German and French. Most of them are Catholics. Some people believe in the Lutheran sect in Christianity. Henziger is a Lutheran, which is a sect that is always taciturn and depressed in Catholicism and Christianity.

The Alsace people were mainly composed of the Kerte tribe who lived in Dang in BC and the Almani people who came to the 4th century. Both the Almani people and the Franks belonged to the Germanic tribe group. The former mainly entered the Alsace area, while the latter mainly entered the Lorraine area, and were both ministers of the Frank kingdom.

The Alsaceans have similar ethnic origins to the Germans, and are greatly influenced by France in culture. Regarding language, the native language of the Alsaceans is a type of German. The Alsaceans live in France, but only a few people know the best. Their main language is Alsace, but it is very strange. Most of them choose to use German when reading books, reading newspapers and listening to radio.

By sending a German who was not a German to negotiate with the German conquerors, we can probably guess the attitude of the Vichy government towards negotiations.

At this time, the Vichy government had no bargaining chips, and even the Vichy government could not completely represent France. A gentleman named De Gaulle in southern France, learned that the Vichy government sent a negotiation team to Paris and was about to negotiate with the mortal enemy in the former capital of France. De Gaulle felt heartbroken and finally made a move that hesitated for a long time. He used all channels to call on the German Third Reich to violently invade, holding high the banner of Free France, and vowing to show that the invaders would not retreat for a day, and the soldiers of Free France would never stop resisting!

No one knew what Charles de Gaulle was thinking at this moment. He also understood that his own strength alone could not compete with the Third Reich of Germany. He frequently contacted the consulars of various countries in southern France, but unfortunately there were too few countries that made the promise. Except for Britain, the answer given by the countries was that they were preparing and they could not take any action until they were ready. The United Kingdom just said that Britain would do its best to attract the attention of the Third Reich of Germany. Britain would drag the main force of the Third Reich in the English Channel, and in turn hoped to represent the free France De Gaulle. Let Charles de Gaulle lead the rebels to destroy the German supply line in the rear.

Can the current power of Charles de Gaulle cause any trouble to the Third Reich of Germany? The answer is very obvious. Charles de Gaulle has no ability at present, and he does not even have any armed forces. The only thing he has is a flag: Free France!

What made him even more heartbroken was that when he raised the banner of Free France, there were only a few responders, and only a few capitalists who were confiscated by the Third Reich of Germany expressed their support for him to continue to resist. The common people were busy confirming whether they were safe. They were busy driving away refugees from the west and north of France, just because these refugees who were once compatriots might rob their jobs.

Since the Third German Empire implemented the Huairou Government in the French-occupied area of ​​France and Germany for more than a thousand years, two countries that had been fighting for more than a thousand years could no longer breed new hatred. They had been fighting for too long, and their nerves should be numb and not feel too strong. If there had not been a large number of German massacres of the French, the French would not have had a deep resentment towards the German army. For the citizens of the two countries, if France occupied a certain piece of land in Germany today and Germany would occupy a certain piece of French territory tomorrow, this was normal. (This was definitely the current situation in Europe at that time. It was not the author's own country)

A country, a nation, its foundation, that is, if the people living at the bottom cannot hate the warring parties, then what can the top leaders of the nation decide? Especially in this country, most people of this nation only want to protect themselves at this stage, so what can they ask this country and the leaders of this nation to do?

From a certain perspective, both Betan and Charles de Gaulle are sad. Betan's sorrow lies in his being selected to take on the responsibility of the loser. De Gaulle's sorrow is his determination to save a country and nation on the brink of collapse. The two sides first contacted the outskirts of the north of Paris. In contrast to the high spirit of the German Third Reich Negotiation delegation, the French negotiator has an inability to cover up both appearance and emotions. The members of the French delegation still held their heads high, and they could not bow their heads in front of the invaders. They lost, and they lost completely and convinced, but this does not mean that they have no self-esteem.

Kettle shook hands with Henzig with a spring breeze. Apart from the diplomatic greetings between countries, the two looked at each other for a long time without saying a word. Henzig smiled bitterly and said bitterly: "You have won the war between France and Germany. I will ask for a ceasefire on behalf of France."

Keitel looked at Henzig with a bitter face very seriously, and announced proudly: "We have won! The French war is over!"

Yes, for the German-France battle, the German Third Reich won. France had already failed after the A-War Army of the National Defense Forces crossed the legendary insurmountable Ardennes, occupied the French fortress city of Seandang and controlled the Maas River. In addition, the B-Term Army had completely occupied Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.

Henzig speaks German smoother than French, but he uses French, and Keitel's language is of course German. The two speak different languages, but this does not prevent them from communicating, just because they are proficient in German and French at the same time. This is a dialogue between countries, and language represents dignity.

This is not a good conversation. They stood on a bare slope, with Paris on the right and a forest on the left, and the name of the forest was Compiène. Before formal negotiations, the most important thing for informal conversations was to understand the other party's ideas first so as to shorten the negotiation process.

Henziger knew that he had no bargaining chips for negotiations. His only hope was that the Third German Empire of Germany had no intention of fighting with France anymore. The Third German Empire wanted to draw strength to concentrate on dealing with Britain. As Bedton said before moving forward: Henziger, I don’t expect you to rely on negotiations to get back the lost territory. Even if it is an inch of land, I dare not imagine. I hope you understand the current situation in France. What we need now is to cultivate and rest rather than war. As long as the Germans are willing to truce, France can ced the territory in the north and west to the Germans, and we are even willing to temporarily sell the interests of the country in exchange for the existence of France!

The existence of France, what is the existence of France? Henzig understood the meaning of this sentence. The Third German Empire had occupied the western and northern France, and Italy sent one million troops to attack southern France from the Alps. Even the hateful Spaniards and Portuguese took advantage of the weakness of France and sent one million coalition forces to cross the Pyrenees to attack southwestern France. France had no strength to defend the security of the country. As long as the head of the German Third German Empire was interested, the unique head of the Axis power could command the four-nation coalition to swallow the remaining southern France into its belly.

The Vichy government was gambled in a life-and-death gamble. The head of the German Third Reich wanted to destroy the British Vichy government. The southern part of France was not a gambling capital. The French colonization in Africa also became less important after the German Third Reich took over Belgium's colonization in South Africa. The only thing she had was compromise, a complete compromise, even if France under the leadership of the Vichy government became a puppet of the German Third Reich in the future.

Henzig suddenly had the urge to cry. But he had to hold back, his self-esteem did not allow him to act weak in front of the conqueror. At this moment, Henzig took a deep breath and stubbornly straightened his slightly hunched back. He wanted to defend his remaining dignity and make his voice louder. Unfortunately, the pretended strength is always so vulnerable...

"I don't know if the following news is a threat..." Keitel looked at Henzig seriously. Then he turned his eyes to the Compiène Forest not far away, as if he could see through the trunks and see the extraordinary train carriages arranged on the forest rails: "You have 500,000 troops idle in the Maginot Line, surrendered to Marshals Leb and Marshal Rondestedt of our army respectively. As a soldier, you should understand that you have lost that last hope and left France with little time to think."

Henzig's body shook. His originally straight waist instantly came down again. For any Frenchman, the collapse of the Maginot line was not surprising. It was just that the time when the negotiations were about to begin came.

The 500,000 French troops on the Maginot Line had no chance to choose. They had been in that damn place for nearly two years. During that time, they touched the bridge with their hands more than they touched the rifle. Just imagine, the whole world was fighting, and the defense line, which claimed to be never captured, had no movement. The French people who were ordered to go to the front line to defend France could only listen to the radio every day, and listen to which line of defense in their own country was broken by the German army, and their own country

What would they think of which army was in which direction the German surrendered? What was the most deadly thing was not these. The French senior leaders stubbornly ordered the army on the Maginot line to not move. To be more precise, they could not move even if they wanted to. They longed to fight, but they wanted to fight bravely, but the German army always flew and didn't shoot. What should I do? Let's just have a cold hand! The commander is not allowed to move, and you don't fight. We are worried about our family. It's okay to surrender very wronged!

More than 400,000 troops in northern France were gone, and more than 100,000 troops in the west were gone. The 500,000 troops in Maginot, who was so aggrieved that he cried, also surrendered on June 9. France lost more than one million elite troops less than a month after the war started. All the more than 300,000 troops sponsored by French allies were also ruined. What if it would be possible without requesting a ceasefire? In just 50 years, France lost more than 3 million soldiers in two world wars, and the casualties among the people were uncountable. The national economy suffered the most thorough blow. For the França nation, her blood had been exhausted by two generations of German empires (the first generation was the First World War during the Second Empire, and the second generation was the war during the Third Empire). The French chariot was already full of holes, so the French negotiating team came, and they came to ask for peace from the conquerors...

If we ask the Germans, did they get what they want? They will answer: When the French negotiator signed the 24 armistice clauses that were enough to make France doomed, we were slightly satisfied and we got what we deserved.

There will be the first question, and of course there will be a second one. Then the Germans, you have defeated France and have obtained French resources in the true sense. Why are you not satisfied? The answerer will not hesitate and will immediately answer: Our head of state tells us that this is just a small victory. The will of our great head of state represents Germany. For us, Germany is above everything else. We will never stop moving forward until our head of state gets the desired result!

France admitted that she was defeated and lost everything she could lose, including the 2229 tons of gold displayed in the French bank vault.
Chapter completed!