Battle of the Third Reich Chapter 62: Decision

Some people say that Laval is an extreme pacifist. He is willing to do anything to avoid war, even if he knows that it will harm his country's interests. Others say that he is a flatterer who likes to vote for his superiors. Compared with his political ability, this person is more good at speculating people's hearts.

He is a socialist. Laval never denies this. As a representative of the French Socialist Party, he participated in the parliamentary elections in the Seine district of Paris and won a high number of votes, but regardless of the socialists at the time They opposed, and ultimately failed to prevent the outbreak of World War I. Laval's younger brother Jean died on the front line in the first month after the outbreak of the war.

Laval was once enthusiastically involved in the wave of left-wing revolution, surrounded by a large number of socialists and anarchists. He is a very good lawyer, often providing legal assistance to laborers, and even personally They defended in court.

French senior officials also noticed this active socialist, and the dignitaries began to woo him. Laval's political status rose rapidly during that period, and he soon became a rising political star.

After the war, the French Socialist Party split. Some radical left-wing members established the French Communist Party under the influence of the October Revolution, while the rest of the Socialist Party members turned to a more moderate Workers’ League.

At this time, Laval has become a qualified French politician. In order to get the support of the high-level government, he did not hesitate to part ways with his former comrades in arms and betrayed his previous beliefs. But he still considers himself a socialist, he ran as an independent candidate and won a seat in the National Assembly.

Since then, Laval has been out of control. He served as the Minister of Public Works for one term, then the Minister of Justice, then returned to the Sena District as a councillor, and then as the Minister of Labor. In just three years, Laval Er’s property has grown exponentially. He has colluded with a group of private financiers and investors, and unscrupulously used the power in his hands to fill his own pockets. As an excellent lawyer, he has ways to erase the traces, even the insiders cannot. With his handle, his personal wealth soon exceeded forty million francs, which was a considerable fortune at the time.

Before the outbreak of the European war, he still spared no effort to oppose France's declaration of war. After the outbreak of the war, he began to desperately encourage and support Petain to come to power in order to cease the war with Germany.

He is a hard-core appeasement policy supporter. He even agreed time and time again to cede territory to Italy in exchange for the "harmony" between Italy and France. After Petain came to power, Germany and France quickly signed an armistice agreement. Laval was overjoyed that the Germans were still willing to form an alliance with France, which meant that war between Germany and France might never break out again.

At the same time, what he did not expect was that Germany took the initiative to hand out an olive branch to the new French prime minister, stating that if Petain is no longer suitable for the post of head of state, he intends to take a step towards this throne. , Germany will provide him with all-round support. The meaning is very clear. As long as he is willing to cooperate with Germany, Germany will support him as the president of France. Laval could not refuse this temptation. The Germans thus obtained a firm collaborator.

Betain's position in France is very stable at this time, but after all, he is already an 84-year-old man with very limited energy. At the same time, Betain lacks experience in governing the country, so a lot of work is left to Laval. , France’s internal affairs are actually mostly controlled by the prime minister. But who wouldn't want to go further, Laval is looking forward to becoming a true leader of the country, not a vassal of the elderly President.

This time he was appointed by Petain to go to Rome to attend Mussolini's funeral. As Xu Jun had previously guessed, this was just a cover, and the main purpose was to come and meet the German head of state.

So when the German head of state issued a call, Laval and his party had just moved into the Imperial Hotel near the Quirinale Palace. Before they had time to wash and rest, the French Prime Minister rushed to meet them.

Laval, accompanied by Dogen and Ribbentrop, walked into the ornately decorated living room and found that the German head of state and Attlee were already standing in the hall waiting. Seeing the French prime minister entering the door, Xu Jun took the initiative to send greetings to the other party.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Prime Minister." Xu Jun smiled and stretched out his hand.

"Good afternoon, honorable head of state." Laval held Xu Jun's hand tightly.

"This is Mr. Attlee, you should know him." Xu Jun introduced.

"Of course, good afternoon, regardless of your minister." Laval held out his hand.

"Good afternoon, long time no see, you look good, Prime Minister." Attlee shook hands with Laval.

"Please sit down, Prime Minister." Xu Jun stretched out his left hand and invited him to sit down.

"Thank you, honorable head of state." Laval sat on the sofa opposite Attlee stiffly.

"The road is going well, right."

"Very smooth and quite enjoyable journey." Laval stroked the beard of his upper lip and replied with a smile.

"There is good coffee here, do you need a cup?" Xu Jun picked up the coffee pot on the coffee table.

"That's great, I just need this now." Laval replied.

"Mr. Attlee also likes to drink this. I didn't expect to be able to drink such high-quality coffee here."

"After all, this is the palace, and His Majesty Emmanuele III will not treat himself badly, Your Excellency." Attlee quipped.

"Yes, when I see him tomorrow, I will express my gratitude to him." Xu Jun nodded and said.

"You are going to the Vatican tomorrow? Your Excellency." Laval picked up the sugar bowl and tweezers, and put sugar cubes in the cup.

"When the mourning ceremony is over, I don't have much time, and I will leave Rome the day after tomorrow." Xu Jun picked up half a cigar from the ashtray.

"I had heard about the assassination of Marshal Blumberg when I came just now. This is really terrible." Of course, Laval understood that Xu Jun didn't invite him to drink coffee. Nine is about what happened in the Far East.

"Your news is a bit late, and the Japanese army subsequently invaded the public concession with arms." Attlee said with a coffee cup.

"Is there such a thing? When did it happen?"

"About four hours ago." Xu Jun finished smoking a cigar.

"What exactly is going on?"

"I don't know yet, and we are all waiting for a detailed report." Xu Jun shrugged.

"How is the situation in the French Concession?" Of course, Laval must first care about the problems of the French Concession.

"There is no definite news yet, there shouldn't be too many questions." The German head of state replied.

"So what does France need to do?" Laval was very clever, and he asked the question straightforwardly.

"His Excellency Attlee and I have just discussed and have a preliminary plan." Xu Jun raised his hand and gestured to Ribbentrop, and the Deputy Foreign Minister hurriedly passed the sugar bowl in front of him.

"The two previous armed conflicts in French Indochina have fully exposed Japan’s ambitions for colonies in Southeast Asia. With their current situation, if they can’t completely conquer China in a short period of time, they are very likely to lose. The best result of this war is a tie, and the front is restored to the state it was before 1938." Xu Jun put a piece of sugar in his cup.

"This is equivalent to wasting so much manpower and material resources, and two full years of time, but in the end nothing was obtained, but a large amount of debts at home and abroad." It is worthy of being a lawyer, look at the problem Hit the nail on the head.

"So the Japanese senior officials will not allow this to happen, and will carry out this war to the end at all costs." Attlee interjected.

"You are right, Lord Attlee." Laval agreed.

"This is not what I want to talk about now. Lord Attlee and I have a plan to teach the Japanese a lesson." Xu Jun said.

"Do you mean ~IndoMTL.com~Germany is going to use force in Asia?" Laval said hesitated.

"No, no, no, it's just using economic means to force Japan to recognize our interests in Asia. Let them regain their sense of being dizzy by the war. During this time, they have done a little too much. It is necessary to give They have some warnings." Xu Jun said, waving his hands.

"So why not try diplomacy first?" Laval asked.

"You mean protests and negotiations? It's useless. The Japanese will throw out one or two scapegoats, pay a sum of money, and then after a week, they will start to return to their old habits." Attlee replied .

"I see. I don't have any personal opinion on this. I just need to tell me what France should do." Seeing that the German head's face was a little strange, Laval made no hesitation.

"Very well, Prime Minister Laval, I’m very happy to reach an agreement with you. Now we can start discussing specific details. First, we have to convene a meeting of European countries. The meeting place is temporarily set at Paris." Xu Jun leaned on the desk and made his suggestion.

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