My Third Empire

Time is like water, and another month passed in 1925. In March 1925, with the increasing size of the Wehrmacht, Arcardo was recently worrying about how to secretly support such a huge Wehrmacht expenditure.

Because of the existence of the Coalition Arms Control Committee, the German government cannot spend too much money on the military expenditure of the Wehrmacht. Although the Wehrmacht funds issued on the basis of the scale of 100,000 people are enough to support the regular army of more than 200,000 people, but because the actual army has nearly 320,000 people People, so the Wehrmacht's funds are still stretched thin.

Accardo's business group within the Greater Deutsche Party has donated tens of millions of Deutsche Marks to the revival of the Wehrmacht, and Accardo's private companies have also provided nearly 1,000 cars and 3,000 motorcycles for the Wehrmacht for free, but these equipment are distributed Giving 300,000 soldiers is still a drop in the bucket.

Recently, because Chiang Kai-shek led the Whampoa Military Academy Teaching Corps to organize the first Eastern Expedition, it ordered 200 million rifles and pistol bullets from Germany, and an additional 30,000 M25 steel helmets were purchased for future military expansion. The German military industry once again Funds have been obtained, and part of the payment for this batch of equipment will be settled by the Chinese side with the scarce rubber and brass in Germany.

In China, which is constantly fighting, relying on loans from the United States and the United Kingdom to purchase arms has reached a dead end. The credit of Chinese loans in the banks of these countries has been exhausted. The amount of money is no longer as huge as it used to be.

And the German Wehrmacht, which most supports the Chinese Kuomintang group, has no extra money to provide to distant China because of its own development needs. After all, Germany's own funds are also very tight, and it has long owed war reparations to France and the United Kingdom, and even owed the reimbursement of business travel expenses for its civil servants.

Therefore, China's Chiang Kai-shek and Germany's Akado communicated by telegram in private, and they understood each other's difficulties, so there was this kind of barter arms trade that used rubber and brass to buy German arms.

At this critical juncture, Akado welcomed a special guest, Konosuke Yamashita, a diplomat who came all the way from the Japanese Empire.

Hello, Mr. Konosuke Yamashita. Arkado chose the meeting place at Krupp's private apartment in Berlin, because the meeting was confidential and privately unofficial.

Hello, General Akado. As one of the right-hand men of the Japanese foreign minister, Yamashita was chosen to come to Germany to negotiate secretly, which is naturally very good. His German is first-class, and he is very polite. Cardo bowed 90 degrees, which made people feel very good.

Mr. Yamashita, bowing is not popular in Germany. You can use a handshake when you meet next time. Akado smiled and said to Konosuke Yamashita. The Japanese will not bow to a Chinese, they will only raise their butcher knives to them. On the contrary, the Japanese bow to the Germans - still have to improve themselves!

Handshake is a polite etiquette in an equal relationship, but the next time I come here, I have a request from you, so I dare not use this etiquette. Yamashita Konosuke said with his head lowered.

Akado smiled, then waved his hand: No, Mr. Yamashita, at least we can be friends in private, right? You Japanese just like to make a lot of false gifts. I'm not used to it.

Etiquette is etiquette, how can there be such a strange saying as false courtesy? Yamashita Konosuke looked at Akado and asked.

Akado laughed: My friend, to be honest, if I don't have the strength, then you won't respect me even if you bow to me, on the contrary, if I have the strength to make you jealous,

So even if you don't shake my hand, you're shaking when you talk to me, right?

General Akado is really an interesting person. You seem to know us Japanese very well. If it weren't for your handsome Western face, I would even suspect that you are our Japanese. Yamashita Konosuke nodded in agreement. .

I rely on! You are Japanese! Your whole family is Japanese! Akado scolded angrily in his heart. After scolding, he found that it was wrong. He was originally Japanese under the mountain, so Akado cursed again in his heart: You XXX, you big XXX! Your whole family is a big XXX!

Although he thought so in his heart, Arkado still had a smile on his face: We Germans don't like to be around the corner. May I ask Mr. Yamashita, what is the reason for coming to Germany this time?

Now that the Korean peninsula is under Japanese rule, did you bring back some of the habit of recognizing things in your own home from there? Akado sneered in his heart, I know why you came here, if you don't say it, I won't say it either, to see who can calm down.

To be honest, the next time I come to Germany, I'm here for the situation in the Far East and the trade between your country and China. Yamashita Konosuke bowed his head to Akado again.

When you have a request for others, you are humble, but when you stab a knife, you are ruthless. Akado raised his eyebrows, pondered for a while, and then said: The Chinese market is very large and attractive. I think companies in any country would like to do business with generous Chinese businessmen. We in Germany also do business. No exception.

With all due respect, General Accardo, your country and China are engaged in the arms trade, recently we received information that a German Hercules-class transport ship loaded with ammunition was unloading in Guangzhou, which gives us the strategy of the Empire of Japan in the China region. It had an impact. Yamashita Konosuke said angrily.

Where did the news come from? We did provide China with a lot of arms, but I don't know much about the recent sales of arms to China. Are you sure the news is accurate? Akado pretended to be confused, looking at Konosuke Yamashita and asked .

Yamashita nodded: We have our intelligence channels in China, this information is very accurate, we even know that Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang troops actually have more than 900 cannons instead of the 100 claimed by the outside world, and they sold close to 500 to warlords everywhere. cannon.

Yamashita glanced at Akado, and then said: And most of these cannons are advanced howitzers produced by the German Krupp company. Chiang Kai-shek also has dozens of planes in his possession and is secretly building an airport near Guangzhou. I want to Go on, General Arcador?

It is time to hang those traitors and traitors. Akado thought bitterly that the Japanese could get all the information they wanted in China. The accuracy of this information was astonishing. The total number of artillery pieces that Germany sold to China was even the number of aircraft to Japan. Everyone already knows.

What exactly did Chiang Kai-shek's counterintelligence departments do? They have no secrets in front of the Japanese like naked women. Akado thought it might be better for him to open up the list of weapons secretly traded with China and read it in front of the Japanese. The Japanese in the province imagined China's power too much.

Mr. Yamashita, I said that Germany did sell some weapons to China, and your country has no right to interfere with our businessmen's foreign trade. These trades include arms business. Akado said a little displeased: Even if Even the Coalition Arms Control Commission cannot stop the profit-making activities of our arms dealers.

Japan can cooperate with Germany, including cooperation in many aspects. We can buy a lot more arms and materials than China. Yamashita took out the biggest bargaining chip he brought this time.

We can earn more. If we continue to sell Chinese weapons, and you will also buy our weapons to suppress China, this is two dollars, right? Akado said with a smile.

How do you know that we will buy your weapons? Our Japanese Empire can produce our own weapons! Yamashita retorted excitedly.

Akado sneered: You? Your weapons are not good. Our German weapons are the best in the world.

What a relief! Just like in my previous life, saying that Japanese cars were not good was always sour, but now that Japanese car weapons are not good, there is always a sense of righteousness! Cool! So cool!

What if the navy of the Empire of Japan strengthens its patrols in the southeastern coastal areas of China, catches suspicious smuggling ships, and happens to catch some of your country's transport ships? Yamashita threatened.

He glanced at Arcardo and said with a sneer: After checking, Krupp may not have produced the German arms we seized at all. The Allied Arms Control Commission can intervene in this matter.

Hahahaha. Then why don't you try it? What are you doing here? Arcador laughed for a while before saying, I can send a car to take you there, it's not far from here, it's only about twenty minutes away. journey.

If I can go, I will go! Yamashita Yukichi's teeth were itchy, but he couldn't speak. The Japanese intelligence department followed the clues from the information on the smuggling of German arms from China, and knew that the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union were all tied to a chariot by Germany’s interest chain. If Japan revealed this, it would break Germany, Britain, the United States, China, the Soviet Union, and even the Netherlands, etc. The country's financial path - what's the difference between that and courting death.

Then, may I ask General Akado, how can we stop Germany from exporting arms to China? Yamashita finally sat back on the sofa and looked at Akado helplessly.

Don't always think about China's problems, Japan actually has its own friends in the far west, right? Akado said with a smile, with a hypocritical smile on his face.

Yes! General Akado, you are a loyal friend of the Empire of Japan far away in the western world. Yamashita almost vomited out of disgust after saying this. Fortunately, he is a diplomat, a qualified diplomat.

So, there's nothing you can't talk about between friends, right? Arcador continued to ask.

Yes! Exactly right, Your Excellency General Arcador. Yamashita was a little dumbfounded.

Then let's have a good talk about Chinese weapons. Akado smiled and stretched out his hand.

Yamashita Konosuke was very helpless, so he also stretched out his hand and held it tightly with the hand stretched out on the opposite side.