The Rise of the Third Reich

On June 14, 1944, the European Community leaders' meeting was to be held the next day, including Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Russia, Croatia-Hungary, Spain, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Romania, Ireland, Bulgaria and Greece. Political leaders have gathered at Fort Europa.

The formal meeting has not started yet, but private meetings with important figures from all parties have been going on for two or three days.

Imperial Marshal Hersmann also came to Fort Europa with his wife Chloe. On the afternoon of the 14th, he and Dr. Schacht sat in a conference room in the European Commission building to discuss with representatives from France and the United Kingdom. Meet the guests.

Coming from France and the UK were the presidents of the Paris and London branches of the European Union Bank. The president of the Paris branch was named Pierre Fournier. He was a round, fat man wearing a pair of gold-rimmed glasses. Go up like a scholar. He was originally the president of the Banque de France, the central bank of France. After the "Franco-German unity", he became the president of the Paris branch of the European Union Bank. He also served as a member of the Joint Monetary Committee - the Joint Monetary Committee is the head of the European Union Bank. The highest decision-making body, the members are from European Community countries such as Germany, France, Britain and Spain.

The president of the London Branch of the European Union Bank was also an ex-officio member of the Monetary Committee. He was an old acquaintance of Hersman and a very famous figure in later generations, named John Maynard Keynes.

I don’t know if it’s because the British economic mess is too difficult to deal with. Keynes, who is only in his early 60s this year, looks very old and depressed. However, Hirschman's words cheered up this old man who was almost desperate for the future of the British economy.

"Do you want the United States to pay compensation?" Keynes seemed to have considered the issue of war compensation. He immediately said, "If it can really be realized... I think this is the best way to save the British and even European economies. But we can't ask for too much. "It would be unwise to impose another Treaty of Versailles on the United States, and compensation should be within the limits that the U.S. economy can bear."

"How much gold is there in the United States?" Hirschman asked Keynes.

"Between 14,000 and 17,000 tons." Keynes gave an approximate figure. "Before the war broke out, they held most of the world's gold reserves, and this number continued to increase after the war began."

"France still has 2,000 tons of gold stored in the United States!" Pierre Fournier gritted his teeth and added, "This gold is the vast majority of France's gold reserves accumulated over the centuries, and was shipped to the United States before France and Germany united. Yes, but these damn Americans refuse to give it back to us!”

The gold was actually transported in batches by French warships to the United States for storage under the auspices of Fournier himself. It was originally just an emergency plan to prevent the gold from being stolen by Germany, but unexpectedly the Germans did not rush into Paris to steal the money, but the United States refused to return it for various reasons until France followed Germany and declared war on the United States.

"That's 16,000-19,000 tons...that's really a lot!" Keynes said with some emotion. "In addition, the United States also has a large amount of silver, which was purchased according to the Silver Purchase Act in the 1930s."

"There may also be gold and silver from the Soviet Union." Fournier added, "This part of gold also includes more than 600 tons of gold that the Soviet Union defrauded Spain from during the Spanish War, and the total will not be less than 1,500 tons."

"If you include the gold accumulated during the war, there are more than 20,000 tons." Keynes counted on his fingers. "If the United States can be made to hand over 10,000 tons of gold and at the same time forgive the debts owed by European countries, Europe The economy will be stable, and the U.S. economy will not collapse..."

"Why should we leave 10,000 tons to the United States?" Hersman looked at Keynes. "Do you think the big guys on Wall Street and Washington will be grateful for our tolerance and readily hand over 10,000 tons of gold?"

"This is impossible," Keynes shook his head and said, "No one will hand over 10,000 tons of gold easily, but if we take away all the Americans' gold, the U.S. dollar will lose its foundation, and the United States will lose its foundation due to the defeat of the war. With the loss of huge overseas interests, the U.S. economy may collapse, just like... like Germany in the early 1920s!”

"so what?"

"How is it?" Keynes smiled mockingly and glanced at the Frenchman Fournier, "Mr. Fournier, what do you think?"

"No, there will be no problem." The fat French man shook his head with a smile, "Mr. Keynes, you are overly worried. Our military is extremely powerful, and we also have super bombs that can destroy the United States. There is nothing to worry about."

"I want the Americans to pay 500 billion Euromarks!" Hersman said. "Do you think the Americans can afford it?"

"500 billion!? This is impossible."

Now even the French were stunned. 500 billion European marks, converted according to the current official exchange rate (exchanged for gold), is approximately equivalent to 200 billion U.S. dollars. The value of 20,000 tons of gold is less than $26 billion. Even counting the silver in the hands of Americans, they can only spend up to 30 billion U.S. dollars. Where can they find the remaining 170 billion U.S. dollars?

Hersman glanced at Dr. Schacht. In fact, Schacht did not agree with asking the United States for so much, but both Hitler and Hersman were a bit "greedy" and did not seem to be worried about an American version of Hitler in the future...

"The United States can also pay with oil, grain, livestock, cotton, various non-ferrous metals and ships." Dr. Schacht said helplessly, "If the United States is unable to pay in full, they can still be asked to repay in installments."

"Just like Germany back then?" Keynes asked coldly.

"Yes," Hirschman nodded seriously, "It is to let them taste the bitter fruit of the Treaty of Versailles! But the United States will not become another Third Reich of Germany."

"Because the United States does not have so many blond and blue-eyed supermen?" Keynes asked sarcastically.

"Because the era of conventional wars is over," Hersman said, "the currency war between us and the Americans will be decided by atomic bombs. In the future... the number of atomic bombs will be enough to destroy the world. Even if the United States becomes a militaristic country, the threat to Europe is limited. And we can't let go of the real enemy because of future risks. In order to ensure that the European mark can become the world currency and that London and Paris can become the world's financial center again, the United States must suffer.

In fact, the conditions for compensation of 500 billion European marks are still very favorable. If it is us, Germany, who lose in this world war, I am afraid that the United States will destroy our entire Aryan race."

The number of atomic bombs that Germany has now is limited, which is not enough to destroy the United States. But referring to the changes in the number of nuclear warheads in the United States in history, Germany will definitely have thousands of atomic bombs in the mid-1950s. And ballistic missiles that can hit the east coast of the United States from Europe will definitely appear and be equipped.

So Hersman's idea now is to make a one-shot deal and blackmail the United States for a large sum of money, so as to extort enough wealth to settle various troubles within the European Community.

As for whether the United States will become fascist, Hersman doesn't care at all.

Keynes and Fournier looked at each other, and Keynes said: "I thought you Germans wanted to lead the world, but I didn't expect you only wanted to take care of European affairs."

"It's good to be able to take care of European affairs," Hersman raised his eyebrows and spread his hands, "After all, the German-speaking population is not the largest in Europe. If North America is also included in our world empire, we Germans will really become a minority."

Hersman doesn't mind turning the future world into a "Gauchburg world", but the reality is that the German people have complained a lot about Slavic migrant workers from Eastern Europe and the Balkans (because the flow of people within the European Community is relatively loose, and there are many war refugees, so there are many cheap laborers from Eastern Europe and the Balkans in Germany and France at present), and Hitler and the Nazi Party are even more terrified by the prospect of complete integration with Russia.

If we add 100 million English-speaking American migrant workers, maybe the German working people will dissolve the European Community themselves...

"Mr. Keynes," Dr. Schacht, president of the European Union Bank, asked at this time, "Under what circumstances do you think Wall Street will accept a "Versailles Treaty"? "

Schacht's question was exactly what Hirschmann and Hitler were unsure of, because they didn't know enough about the top group of people in the United States. Although Keynes was British, he was a big shot in the British and American economics and financial circles in the 1930s and 1940s, and he knew more about the United States and Wall Street.

"Well..." Keynes shrugged, "I don't know either, how about I go ask someone?"

"Go ask someone?" Hirschmann was very surprised by this answer, and he looked at the Frenchman Fournier.

Fournier smiled elegantly and explained, "Your Excellency, the Imperial Marshal, American capital is different from German capital. They have no borders...so they will not choose to perish with America. Although the decline of the United States is not a good thing for these multinational capitals, they still have ways to minimize their losses." "They will leave and abandon the United States." Hirschman already understood the thoughts of the two British and French economics experts, "and then choose a new investment direction, perhaps investing capital in France and Britain, is that right?" Fournier and Keynes nodded at the same time.