Chapter 160: Polish Campaign (23)
Because of the "Oles Village Massacre", many people think that Germany is a victim, and it is understandable that they teach Poland a lesson.
But now Britain and France actually bring their little brothers to declare war on Germany, which is a bit unhuman. As a result, Goebbels' speech won the support and approval of many people, and even anti-war demonstrations appeared in many cities in Britain and France.
There are even many "hot-blooded young people" who secretly ran from neutral countries and asked to join the German army, vowing to defend the justice of Europe.
"Your Highness is really a genius in public opinion." Facing Goebbels' admiration, Yannick smiled disapprovingly. "It's just a little fur."
You should know that the most important thing for the ancestors of China to fight is "to have a legitimate reason for the war."
After all, war is not a fight, and the strength of both sides of the war is largely related to the ability to rule.
Even if you are rich and powerful, if you fight with a group of people with ulterior motives and disloyalty, you may not be able to beat a weaker opponent. Especially in ancient times, without high-tech communication equipment, combat units would be trapped in a state of fighting each other at any time. If you can't convince the people below that you have a greater chance of winning, then surrendering, running away, or even turning against the enemy for a little profit is very likely to happen. You must know that fighting is a life-and-death struggle. If you are not determined, you can't play it.
How to make the people below believe that you have a greater chance of winning at the beginning of the war? Of course, convince them with reason. If you fight reasonably, the soldiers will be more likely to believe that they will win. Because people's thoughts and consciousness can be infected by group consciousness. For example, if the reason you fight is to defend your country and take revenge, as long as the middle-level soldiers shout a few times, everyone will soon feel the atmosphere of defending your country and taking revenge. In this atmosphere, every individual will feel that others have the heart to win, and then they will be deeply inspired and inexplicably feel that they should win.
In this way, during the war, this belief will also have a certain restraint, and this restraint will affect everyone's choices at many critical moments, and these choices may directly determine the outcome of the war.
In ancient times, a nail destroying a kingdom was not a fable, but some bloody facts.
Of course, your reason can also be nakedly robbing money, food and women. This reason is actually quite effective, but the premise is that you are really strong and have many successful cases of doing bad things. Otherwise, if you rob others for no reason, won’t others fight to the death?
Soldiers will still be guilty and afraid of doing bad things. Unless you really give everyone the money, who can really get high?
Even if there is the support of temporary blood and courage, it cannot guarantee that the morale of the army can be stable under unpredictable and difficult circumstances. Sometimes even if one side gains a temporary advantage, it may fail because some generals surrender the city to the enemy. Because people are not game NPCs, they will also judge the situation fundamentally, be affected by wrong information, and consider their own interests. If you cannot provide a reason and a belief, you can't guarantee what decision he will make.
This kind of "going out for a reason" is not limited to ancient times. Even if the "world police" in the 21st century wants to teach a country a lesson, they must find some reasonable reasons. Although most of these reasons sound absurd and ridiculous, at least they are reasons, and the purpose of "going to war with a legitimate reason" has been achieved.
Goebbels asked with some concern. "Your Highness, what if Britain and France really send troops? Wouldn't we be caught in the three-way attack of Poland, Britain and France?"
Yannick said with great confidence. "Don't worry, Britain and France's declaration of war is just a scare." Whether it is Britain or France, they are eager for Germany to take Poland and continue to move east to confront the Soviet Union. How could they sacrifice a single soldier for a country like Poland that has no interest in them. Their declaration of war is just to fulfill the treaty with Poland to maintain their dignity as a great power.
Speaking of which, Poland is really pitiful. It doesn't even have a friend in such a big Europe. According to the course of the original time and space history, Lithuania will announce a border blockade and order a ban on the flow of domestic materials to Poland within a few days, and seize all public and private property of Poland in Lithuania. The Swedish government will announce the abolition of all trade agreements with Poland (while the country continues to trade with Germany) and refuse to open a route to Poland and lease transport ships for the Allies! In a few days, the Soviet army will cross the eastern border of Poland and advance westward! During the entire Polish campaign, its allies, the British and French troops, have been on vacation on the Western Front!
But this is also Poland's own fault. Poland is a very restless country, causing trouble everywhere, and has been known as the "foot binding cloth of Europe" in history. That is to say, whether it is Germany, Russia, Austria or Sweden, the surrounding countries will step on it when they go out and give it a hard beating. The reason is that Poland has always dreamed of becoming a great power, and everyone wants to invade. Whenever there is a chance, they will cause trouble. In history, even Germany and Russia have been bullied by it, and everyone hates Poland.
"But the declaration of war by Britain and France has helped us a lot, otherwise we will have to find an excuse to pick on Britain and France after defeating Poland." Since Britain and France have taken the lead in declaring war, whether they send troops or not, they give Germany a good excuse to launch a war on the Western Front.
During this period, a very interesting thing happened.
After declaring neutrality, Spain suddenly protested to the Soviet Union and asked Moscow to return the 560 tons of gold that was secretly transported to Moscow during the civil war.
Of course, the Soviet authorities denied it, but the Spanish government immediately published a lot of evidence in the newspaper. From the Soviet envoy Orlov visiting the vault of the Madrid Central Bank accompanied by the Spanish government representatives, to the boxes of gold being moved out of the bank and loaded onto the truck, and finally the gold being loaded onto the Soviet transport ship in the port of Cartagena, every photo was taken clearly. There was even a letter from the former government leader Azania in exile in France, which specifically mentioned the whereabouts of the gold; there was also Orlov's "personal" signature certificate.
Stalin, who was far away in Moscow, had another hysterical attack again and again, overturning everything in the office. These evidences made him more convinced that all this was Orlov's doing. It was this bastard who betrayed the great Soviet mother and stole the gold that should have "belonged" to the Soviet Union.
He ordered the dismissal and execution of a large number of intelligence personnel, including Yankarlovich Berzin, and ordered the new intelligence chief Philip Golikov to find this traitor and the missing gold within one month!
This order put Philip Golikov under great pressure. It has been two years since the gold robbery. During this period, the intelligence department has not been idle. It has almost searched every corner of the earth and lost many agents. But Orlov and the gold were not found, let alone traces, not even a clue.
But facing the furious Stalin, he did not dare to refuse in person, and could only tremble and agree. He lamented in his heart that he only had one month left to live.
As for Spain, the Soviet Union could only bite the bullet and insist that the evidence was forged and Moscow did not know about the gold at all.
Such a shameless denial aroused the indignation of the people of Spain, and the war of words between the two sides continued until the later Soviet-German War.