Chapter 44: A Knife in the Back (4)

"He said that the UK used to be indifferent to Libya, but now it is more interested in Libya. The reason is not because it truly sympathizes with or supports the independence and freedom of the Libyan people, but because of oil..." Chamberlain smiled, "Exact words ”

Baldwin shrugged: "Interesting, interesting...getting to the bottom of things in one sentence, and then preparing to reject our friendship?"

"No!" Chamberlain laughed. "He accepted, but gave his price."

"What does the other party want?"

"We are required to support weapons, supplies, and provide intelligence... If necessary, the guerrillas can retreat to Egypt to rest and recuperate. There are two conditions: first, recognize that Libya has become a truly independent country; second, the United Kingdom will provide Libya with economic, defense and other aspects In return, Libya can give us the oil exploration rights in the country-the condition is 55:45, Libya will take 45%, and the term will be 40 years.”

"Their conditions are harsher than the French!" Baldwin laughed. "Don't he know that United Group got 62% in Algeria?"

"He knows, but it's 30 years over there and 40 years here. He thinks it's enough to change."

"What do you think?" he asked Chamberlain, "how we handle this."

"Of course, it is to provide appropriate and necessary help. As for his extra request..." Chamberlain smiled slyly, "As far as the future situation is concerned, without Great Britain taking over and protecting it, how can Libya hope to gain complete independence?"

Baldwin immediately laughed: This is Great Britain's consistent national policy - first falsely agree to your conditions, and then return when it is almost ready - Britain and France promised a lot of conditions in order to attract the Italians to join the Entente. As a result, many of them were not implemented later. Even Italy, a major power, dares to do this. What else do they dare not do?

"I think it's possible, but the action needs to be more concealed, so that the Italians can't directly see the flaws." Baldwin thought for a while, "Don't we have a lot of captured old German weapons? I think we can provide this to them."

"I also considered this. I planned to provide 300 rifles and corresponding ammunition for the first payment, but he also wanted a radio. I didn't agree to this, and they don't know how to use it. Once they are seized by the Italians, they will be exposed immediately."

Baldwin shook his head: "You and I have different opinions on this..."

"What do you mean?"

"If we want to equip a radio station, we can send our people in. This will make it easier to grasp trends and results in a timely manner, and we can also better judge the strength and response strategies of the Italians. Maybe there will be other better discoveries... "Baldwin smiled and said, "For example, besides this Mukhtar, are there other people who can influence the tribal armed forces? We don't need to limit our attention to one person."

"You always think far enough."

"What's going on with the Italians now?"

"The Italian Army has dispatched two divisions, and together with the command and logistics system, there are nearly 30,000 troops... In addition, we have just received news that the first batch of Ciano's oil guard troops has also entered Libya."

Baldwin knocked on the table: "This is a very interesting thing. To be honest, I can't understand what he is doing? He hired German officers as mercenaries?"

"Yes, the amount is quite a lot." Chamberlain smiled, "This is his unique way of burning money. We cannot infer it based on common sense. But there is one thing that may not be wrong to infer - the reason why he does this is because Libya has great interests, so it must send troops.”

"But what combat effectiveness does this kind of force have? If a company can also become an armed force or even counter rebellion, then he takes the military too simply - there was no such precedent during the East India Company period."

"We can weigh his quality and let him burn more money: he recently prepared to build railways and power plants in Tripoli and Benghazi, and everyone who heard the news laughed - to build in such a barren land, he Do you really think of Libya as your homeland? But Italy can still be poor..." Chamberlain sneered, "The industrialized north and the agriculturalized south are simply two countries in the world. God knows they came together and became Italy. ?”

"Don't Italians just like to tinker with something?" Baldwin laughed, "It's even better now. There's a little Ciano, who is greedy for big things and wants everything, and he swarms around. Not to mention huge losses every year, he also spreads stalls all over the country. ——Does he really think that those loans don’t need to be repaid? Not to mention that Mussolini is just the prime minister, so what if he doesn’t pay back Wall Street?”

"I really don't understand what he is doing, but I have a bold guess - Libya's oil reserves may be more than what the United Group revealed. It should be that the production is concealed or the area is reduced."

"Let's take a closer look after we take it down..." Baldwin rubbed his temples, "Let's just leave it like this in the forward market. We should let the capitalists suffer a little, and don't think that everything is under control."

"Shell and Romania accused the Anglo-Iranian company of double-dealing - on the one hand, it took a stake in United Petroleum, and on the other hand, it speculated in New York. They suspected that there was something fishy here!"

"There are no tricks, but their ambitions are much greater than everyone thinks - Yingyi Company has a grand idea, do you want to hear it?"

"certainly!"

"The first step is to use the influx of United Petroleum and Baku crude oil to crowd out the supply of Romanian oil fields, in other words, to start a price war; the second step is to suppress oil prices while using Ciano's purchase and storage system to start dumping Crude oil, let’s see how much he can collect!”

"Wait a minute, they want to continue selling the products extracted by United Petroleum to Little Ciano?"

"No, expanding the production of Iranian oil fields and selling Iranian crude oil to the Italians will aggravate the financial constraints of the United Group." Baldwin explained, "You know, the quality of Iranian crude oil is inferior, and the cost is not high. At least it is higher than the oil from East India." Cheap."

"The third step is to take advantage of United Group's financial difficulties, strive to acquire the remaining shares of United Petroleum, and then control this company..." Baldwin smiled, "By then they will control Iranian and Algerian crude oil, and then we will cover the Libyan front line - "The entire Mediterranean crude supply will be transformed."

"If they do this, they will form a monopoly and become the second Standard Oil." Chamberlain reminded, "At that time, they will be too big to lose."

"I know..." Baldwin suddenly lowered his voice and said, "Americans can break up monopolies, why can't we break them up when the time comes?"