Chapter 279 Negotiation

In fact, these things are exactly what the British and French did in history... They promised these colonies that they would give them independence and freedom after defeating Germany. For example, France controlled the Algerian colonial army, the Zoaf Corps, to fight against the German army.

However, the French shamelessly broke their promise after the war. Not only did they not allow Algeria to be independent, but they exploited the Algerians even more in order to restore France's economy and its status as a great power, so there was an eight-year Algerian War of Independence.

These contradictions have always existed. The relationship between the colonizer and the colonized is one of oppression and oppression, so of course there will be resistance from the colonized, and even the relationship between Italy and Libya is the same.

Germany's advantage is that it is neither a colonizer nor a colonized. It only participated in this war as an ally of Italy. It can even be said that the German army has a good reputation here... As mentioned before, the Germans encouraged agricultural production, maintained public order, helped irrigation, etc.

This allowed the German army to accumulate a certain degree of credit in North Africa. On the contrary, the British and French had been oppressing and exploiting Africans in this land, leaving a very bad impression on Africans.

Of course, Italy was also notorious in Libya... No colonizer would be welcomed by the locals.

Historically, Germany could have made good use of this, but most Germans did not play politics. They thought more about conquest and war, just as they were more accustomed to working hard and not doing business to make money.

Rommel accepted Qin Chuan's suggestion in its entirety, so the preparations were quickly launched.

The first to bear the brunt was Egypt.

Egypt was the easiest one to deal with because it was originally a British colony. The Egyptian people had long been dissatisfied with British rule and oppression, but they temporarily put aside these contradictions because of the invasion of the German and Italian armies.

Rommel immediately found General Shreve, the Egyptian guerrilla commander who had been in contact with the German army, and expressed his support for Egypt's independence, provided equipment for the Egyptian guerrillas, and returned the Egyptian territory to the guerrillas in a step-by-step manner... Although Germany had provided equipment to the Egyptian guerrillas before, it was always cautious because Germany also wanted to occupy and rule Egypt, so it did not want Egypt to become stronger.

But now...

Anyway, Germany is about to withdraw, and the stronger the Egyptian guerrillas are, the better, because it means that the British will have more trouble.

This is a big pie in the sky for General Shreve, and of course he will not refuse it, so he accepted Rommel's proposal without any hesitation.

Greece is not difficult either, to be precise, the scope is limited to Crete.

Because Colonel Dennis has contact with Qin Chuan, Qin Chuan is responsible for the negotiations on Crete.

"What are you doing?" Colonel Dennis said to Qin Chuan with some dissatisfaction: "Have you forgotten that our relationship cannot be exposed? They will suspect that I have any relationship with the Germans!"

"Then let them suspect!" Qin Chuan said.

Colonel Dennis was stunned, then laughed: "Second Lieutenant, this is your method, right? Threaten me with this secret?"

"No, Colonel!" Qin Chuan said: "As I said before, Germany and Greece are not enemies, we plan to return Crete to the Greeks."

"What?" Colonel Dennis couldn't believe what he heard.

"You heard it right!" Qin Chuan said: "Of course it is gradual, and it is temporarily limited to Crete, and even the factories on Crete. What? Not interested? Then maybe I can consider talking to the government army!"

"No, no, second lieutenant!" Colonel Dennis hurriedly stood up to retain: "Of course we are interested, but... what's the benefit of this to Germany?"

"Colonel!" Qin Chuan replied: "You know, we fought the Soviets on the Eastern Front and the British in Africa, so we are not interested in Greece. If it weren't for defeating the British, we wouldn't even occupy Crete!"

Colonel Dennis stared at Qin Chuan blankly, and after a long time he said: "Well, I always thought this was Lies to deceive us, but now..."

"Do you believe this is true now?"

"No, until the moment you return Crete to us!" Colonel Dennis said: "I hope you can keep your promise!"

"Of course!" Qin Chuan replied: "If necessary... you can go to Alexandria to talk to General Rommel!"

"No!" Colonel Dennis thought about it and shook his head: "It doesn't matter who you talk to, what matters is what you will do next!"

"We hope that you can be independent and build a country that truly belongs to you!" Qin Chuan said: "This is what you hope for, isn't it?"

Colonel Dennis nodded slowly, he still couldn't believe it all.

But he couldn't help but believe what happened next, because the German army released a group of prisoners of the National Liberation Front soon after, of course, the prisoners of the Greek government army were still locked up.

At the same time, the German army also handed over a part of the machine to Colonel Dennis, and even circled several larger villages for the National Liberation Front as a base.

This caused a sensation throughout Crete. Coupled with the propaganda of the National Liberation Front, the people of Crete and even Greece got the message: "The Germans are different from the Italians. They have no intention of being enemies with Greece!"

The most difficult thing was Libya, the Italian colony, because it was Italy's "property" and the Germans had no right to decide.

Moreover, the German army's actions on Crete were quickly passed from the Italians to Mussolini, and then from Mussolini to Hitler.

So Hitler sent a telegram to Rommel asking: "My general, I am very happy that you have defeated the British attack again in North Africa, and I also believe that you will handle all affairs in Africa. However, the Italians are somewhat dissatisfied with your actions on Crete. They think you are helping their enemies. Can you explain it?"

In response, Rommel had already thought of the rhetoric: "Dear Führer, we have reached a certain degree of agreement with the Greeks and Egyptians. They are likely to stand on our side to resist the British together, so I don't think they are enemies!"

Hitler looked at Rommel's telegram and nodded repeatedly.

Hitler was very clear that with the United States joining the war, Germany needed allies rather than enemies, so Rommel's approach was undoubtedly correct.