When Roque left Europe, about 250,000 officers and men of the Southern African Expeditionary Force were still stranded in France waiting to be evacuated in batches, and the Federal Government of Southern Africa requisitioned all ships capable of ocean navigation to fully cooperate with the expeditionary force's evacuation.

The evacuation of troops is not as simple as imagined, the heavy weapons used by the Southern African Expeditionary Force belong to Britain and France, fortunately, these heavy weapons do not have to be brought back to Southern Africa, otherwise the evacuation will be more complicated.

At the end of the World War, Southern Africa had 4 artillery divisions, 1 armored division, and 15 infantry divisions in France, and the whole army was equipped with a total of 1,100 tanks and armored vehicles, 5,500 artillery pieces, and 1,300 aircraft.

Regardless of how the British government and the French government dealt with these heavy weapons, when the officers and soldiers of the Southern African Expedition left France, in addition to the self-defense weapons they carried with them, there were also various trophies and souvenirs obtained during the world war, and all kinds of bags sold by the military service were in short supply, and the soldiers sold large items that were inconvenient to carry directly to the military service agency, and many French people also walked into the military service and exchanged valuable gold jewelry for necessary living materials.

Although the Allies had established the Relief and Reconstruction Agency and appointed Smalls and Hoover to report it directly, the progress of the Relief and Reconstruction Agency had been slow in view of the efficiency of the Allied government agencies.

But the French and Belgians, who had been devastated by the war, were waiting to be fed, and after the end of the World War, the people who had fled their homes during the war were gradually returning to their homes, only to find that they had been left homeless, their houses had been destroyed by the war, the land had been completely destroyed because they had not been cultivated for several years, many roads and bridges had been completely destroyed by repeated tug-of-war between the Allied and German armies, and many cities had become huge ruins, and there was no time to rebuild their homes on the ruins.

During the World War, in order to alleviate the financial crisis of the government, the participating countries were desperately printing money, the gold standard implemented before the World War was completely abolished, gold coins were stopped in circulation, and the exchange between currency and gold was forced to stop, and the pound and the franc were depreciated to varying degrees, and the pound was considering restoring the gold standard, but because of the lack of gold reserves, it is estimated that it cannot be realized in a short time.

Bartering becomes the most common way to deal with money when the value of money is unstable, but this raises the question of the value judgment of goods.

For example, before the outbreak of the world war, a gemstone worth 100 pounds is worth now, and the right to speak is in the hands of the Military Service Society.

"Lady Tamara, this necklace of yours, according to the value before the outbreak of the world war, is about 150 pounds, but I can't give you 150 pounds, you know, the price of jewelry has depreciated very much now, so I can only give it to you-" Second Lieutenant Tom of the Military Service looked at Mrs. Tamara's expectant eyes, hesitated for a moment and still offered ruthlessly: "-I can only give you 30 pounds, you can also choose to exchange 30 pounds worth of goods directly at the Military Service Agency, believe me, this is the best choice." ”

During the World War, many people pinned their hopes on everything would be fine after the war, but now it seems that although the war has ended, it is still far from the return of society to normal, on the contrary, compared with the war, the situation has deteriorated to a certain extent, so there are more and more pessimistic and disappointed people.

During the war, although life was also difficult, because there were a large number of soldiers with relatively abundant supplies, the materials were not too scarce on the whole, after all, many soldiers would take the uneaten individual soldier food to the black market to sell.

Now that more and more troops are withdrawing from France, the French government is beginning to disarm, and millions of people are returning to their families without their uniforms, and their supplies are disappearing.

"Mr. Ensign, this necklace is not 150 pounds, it cost me 400 pounds when I bought it, 400 pounds you know? You are only giving me 30 pounds now, you are a shameful blackmail! "Lady Tamara was very emotional, if it was 150 pounds to 30 pounds, then Lady Tamara might be acceptable, but now 400 pounds to 30 pounds is too much.

"Lady Tamara, don't get excited, you should know that there is a certain level of premium when the goods are sold, so if you spend 400 pounds on this necklace, it does not mean that the actual value of the necklace is 400 pounds-" Ensign Tom is patient, many people always think that what they spend on is worth what they buy, but in fact it is not, for example, the diamonds sold by Itno, no matter what the price is when they are sold, Itno is not recycled.

In other words, even if a customer buys a diamond ring from an Itno store for 10,000 pounds, if the customer wants to sell the ring to Itno again, Itno will only recycle the precious metal part, and the diamonds will not be needed.

A ring worth 10,000 pounds may cost 9,990 pounds for the diamond itself, but at the time of recycling, the ring may only be worth 10 pounds.

Of course, if the customer feels that he is at a loss, he can take down the diamond and keep it for himself, for the customer, the value of the diamond is 9990 pounds, but for Itno, the diamond itself is worthless, it is just a stone dug out of the ground, and the South African company is so much, and even the cost of the diamond itself is not as high as the processing cost.

"So how much do you say it's worth? The price of 30 pounds is too low—"Lady Tamara did not accept the price, but she would not walk away, and the military service gave the price of 30 pounds, and when she left the door of the military service, the necklace that had been bought for 400 pounds could not even be sold for 30 pounds."

There was a pawn company opposite the Military Service, and Mrs. Tamara had just come out of the Pawn Company before she came to the Service, and the price offered by the pawn company for the necklace was only 20 pounds.

"Lady Tamara, this 30 pounds already includes the price of the gem itself, and if the gems are not included, then this necklace is probably worth 15 pounds!" Second Lieutenant Tom doesn't let go, Itno doesn't recycle gems, military service recycles, and of course don't expect the price to be high.

Gemstones are actually non-renewable resources, but because of different processing technologies, some gemstones with low craftsmanship are indeed not sold at a price.

Just like the gems on this necklace, because the previous processing technology is not advanced enough, so from the current technical point of view, if the new technology is used to re-process and polish the gemstones, then it can also be put on the counter and sold again, as for the price-

It will definitely be higher than 400 pounds.

It smells so good!

In the mouth of Itno's salesman, at the moment of 1917, the world's gem mines were on the verge of being exhausted, so the non-renewable resource of gems was a little less dug up, and the opportunity would not come again -

This is the same as oil, oil experts in 1917 predicted that the world's reserves would be enough for 30 years.

Then, ten years later, with the emergence of new oil fields, experts were surprised to find that there was enough oil for the world for 40 years.

And what experts never say is the fact that even if the world's oil is exhausted, there will be new energy sources to replace it.

So the value of oil --

It's Schrödinger's cat, too.

"More, sir, I have four children to raise, and my husband died during the World War, and this is my only possession—" Lady Tamara pleaded, hoping that Ensign Tom would give me more.

Perhaps, in the eyes of Mrs. Tamara, pleading is the ultimate that Mrs. Tamara can do, after all, it is very unseemly for a person of status to plead.

But in the case of Ensign Tom, every guest he faces will plead at the end, so it's not that Ensign Tom is ruthless, if this is an exception for Lady Tamara, maybe Lieutenant Tom will give Lady Tamara a price that is relatively satisfactory, but everybody is like that-

It's really pitiful.

"Lady Tamara, I really can't offer you a higher price, we have a rule—" Ensign Tom's eyes were still sincere, and his words were still cold.

"Okay, 30 pounds is 30 pounds, but I want to exchange all of them for canned braised pork, and not a single box is missing!" The plea was ineffective, and Mrs. Tamara immediately put away her tears, and the speed with which she changed her face was breathtaking.

"I'm sorry Lady Tamara, we also have a quota for food, if you want to exchange supplies for a total of 30 pounds, it can't all be braised pork, you know, canned braised pork is always in demand." At the end of the World War, the British Expeditionary Force still had nearly 2.5 million tons of surplus supplies in France, which had to be digested as much as possible in France.

"And what about canned beef? Chicken or luncheon meat is fine, but in short, it should be nutritious. "Lady Tamara didn't bother with it this time, she knew that this was also the rule of the Military Service, but everyone hoped that a miracle would happen.

"I'll do my best to arrange it for you, but canned green beans and canned fruit taste good—" Ensign Tom strongly recommended, and in the British Expeditionary Force, it was actually a variety of canned vegetables that were more popular.

"I want to eat green beans and exchange them with shopping vouchers?" Mrs. Tamara is not fooled, nutrition is indeed to be balanced, but for the current French, nutritional balance is not the most important thing, it is serious to fill the stomach first.

When Mrs. Tamara walked out of the military service club, her box was full of all kinds of food, canned food is of course indispensable, there is canned braised pork that Mrs. Tamara requested, but the quantity is not much, there are also canned vegetables that Mrs. Tamara does not want, this must be exchanged, otherwise you canned braised pork, and there is also a quota for canned food in the military service club.

ps: I just suddenly found out that it has been four years since I opened my first book, 1494 days, and 3.21 million words have been written.

(End of chapter)