The dinner will certainly not be set up in the Metropolitan Hotel, where the guests are staying, because it is not in accordance with diplomatic etiquette, and in order to make the visitors feel the generosity and hospitality of the French, let. For this purpose, the Doge's office chartered a high-end French restaurant called the Champs-Élysées. The dinner time was set at 8 o'clock that night, because it was late in the summer and autumn in Vietnam, and it was the time when the lights were on.

Due to the development of modern transportation and information industry, the culture and life of French Indochina are not too disconnected from the French mainland, and all the fashions that are trending in Europe will surely appear in this land in a few weeks. Within a month, a large number of French and German troops arrived in the local area, which completely calmed the hearts of the local people in Annam, and the worries and fears on the faces of the people had been swept away, and the rulers of the colonies could continue to indulge in a life of comfort and luxury.

The development of the war in Europe was a rollercoaster for all French expatriates, and many officials still have lingering feelings about the situation at that time. Compared to Japan's aggressive and explicit performance, the Kingdom of Siam's troop movements along the border were more worrying to them. The French colonizers could tolerate their choice to back down under the strong force of the Japanese, but it would seriously hurt the French pride to seek a compromise with a South Asian country that they had beaten to the brink more than 30 years ago.

Today's French Indochina is no longer what it used to be, the French regular army transferred from the European mainland has reached three infantry divisions, and the colonial air force has also been supplemented by one hundred and twenty French fighters of the latest model, and all of them are piloted by pilots transferred from the mainland.

The expatriates also saw the French heavy tanks landing from the port of Haiphong, and the huge and heavy steel hulls made the ignorant colonial civilians feel the greatness of the French Republic. Hundreds of medium and light tanks arrived at the same time, all of which were the mainstays of the French Army, and even the paint was new and reflected in the sun. As a result, the colony's only armoured company submitted an application on the same day to scrap the twenty Renault tanks they had originally treasured.

Now the French Indochina Federation can be described as a strong army, especially when a group of German army, navy and air force units are stationed, which has added a bit of confidence to all federal officials, and now they no longer have to be careful around with their tails between their legs. Many people even began to hope that the Kingdom of Siam had better launch an armed provocation at once, so that the great French Republic could once again teach the monkeys of the jungle how to behave.

The official mood can easily affect the people in the world, Kong Xiangxi and his party can clearly feel the changes in the temperament of the people around them, not only those French expatriates, but even the locals of Annam are now full of confidence, and the spiritual outlook of today's society is completely different from what they saw earlier.

"Look, that's what the Great Powers are all about." Tan leaned against the window of the sedan and watched the endless stream of pedestrians on the street. Already one of the busiest areas in the city centre, it is home to a large number of shops and restaurants, as well as entertainment venues, theatres, nightclubs and a variety of premium members' clubs.

"There is still a big gap compared to Shanghai Tang." Secretary Xia disembarked from Shanghai when he returned from his studies in England, and he still remembers the extravagance and modernity he witnessed in that bizarre metropolis in the Far East.

"Shanghai is prosperous, but it has not yet fallen into the hands of the Japanese, but now life in the concession should be much better than in the previous two years." Tan also spent some time in Shanghai in his early years, but his impression of the city was not very good.

"You have to think about it now, and how you should behave at the banquet in a moment. In addition to getting the Germans to clear up misunderstandings and unblock the lines of communication with our country, it would be better to test the Germans' ideas about cooperation between the two countries, if possible. Kong Xiangxi took his eyes back from the window, and he said solemnly to the two subordinates.

"Sir, the specific content of the letter of intent submitted by Germany was rather vague, so I guess I don't want to expose their intentions too early." Sharp Bear replied.

"The current situation in the national government should be very clear to the Germans, and I think that at most it is a continuation of the Hebu Building plan, and there will not be much breakthrough." Tan Guang replied that although he was working as a translator on this trip, he was also the official secretary of the official residence secretariat.

As for the Hebu Lou plan, it should be an achievement that Kong Xiangxi was very proud of in his early years, although he is very suspicious of picking fruit after the fact in this matter, but after all, he signed the agreement on behalf of the Chinese government.

As for the Hebu Lou Company, there are a lot of surviving materials in later generations, but due to the different starting points of the researchers, the data is also mixed with too many personal consciousnesses.

Here we need a brief introduction, the founder of the company Hans. Crane was a veteran trader who had been involved in the import and export business in the East African colonies, and had a lot of connections there. After the war, the East African colonies were dismembered and partitioned, and Crane lost most of his local industry and business. Together with other German expatriates, Crane returned to Germany with his life savings, and then, through a friend's introduction, took a stake in a bank called Engelhardt and started a financial business.

I never thought that this bank had a military background, and it had been bypassing the surveillance of the League of Nations and quietly doing arms export business. Crane has since joined the ranks of the Dead Traders, and with his great business acumen and skilled trade, Crane's arms business has grown from strength to strength, and his sales have spread to more than a dozen countries in Eurasia. At that time, his main trading partners were Russia and Turkey, and he sold the same murder weapons to two sworn enemies, which shows how well the arms dealer knew the industry.

It was then that he became acquainted with the former commander-in-chief of the German Army, General Seckert, and through Seckert's introduction, began to engage in trade with the Chinese side. The first Chinese force to cooperate with him was Li Zongren, the king of Guangxi was colluding with Chen Jitang in Guangdong to conspire against Chiang, in order to develop military strength, specially hired a former German army captain Mader as a military adviser. Crane.

At this time, Crane was interested in expanding his business in the East, and Li Zongren was looking for a stable source of arms, so the two hit it off, and Crane began a more than ten years of cooperation with the Chinese side. After entering the Chinese market, Crane's business and network began to flourish, and there were some twists and turns, culminating in the signing of the Hebu Lou Plan, a trade package between China and Germany, with the Chinese government during the honeymoon period of Sino-German cooperation.

However, at that time, he was no longer an arms merchant with a private banking background, but the owner of a German industrial products trading company, which was backed by the German Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Economy, which was actually an official institution in the vest of a private company, and Kran's status also rose to become the general charge d'affaires of German military enterprises in China's trade.

The Chinese government, which lacked foreign exchange reserves, was unable to repay the purchase of arms, and in the first year of cooperation between the two sides, the Sino-German trade deficit exceeded 22 million marks, which would be an unbearable burden for the government if all cash trade was used.

At that time, Germany was also trying its best to stop the outflow of foreign exchange reserves, the transformation of the German state was not yet over, and the full arming of the army was nearing completion, how could Hitler tolerate these foreign traders coming up to shear sheep and suck up the wealth that the German government had worked hard to accumulate for many years. The German Nazi Party did not have the ability to flip the table at this time, so it could only try to use some means within the framework of international trade rules.

Hitler decreed that Germany would no longer trade directly with other countries in cash and foreign exchange, but would use a method called a settlement agreement to complete trade between the two sides, which was simply bartering. For example, when importing a batch of goods, the importer pays the clearing bank in its own currency, and the clearing bank in the country where it trades pays the supplier in the local currency. Finally, within the agreed time, the clearing banks of the two countries will reconcile with each other, and if there is a deficit in import and export trade, the excess part will be compensated in the form of goods.

In fact, this is beneficial to the industrially developed Germany, because it exports high-value industrial products, and the objects can often only be offset by cheap industrial raw materials and agricultural products, and Germany not only retains its foreign exchange reserves, but also receives a lot of additional differences as dividends.

Germany also moved this method to the repayment of a part of the arrears, they used the same value of the liquidation mark to repay the loan, and this mark can only be used to buy German products, which means that the other party's money turned around and returned to Germany again, and those big investors finally got only a bunch of German-produced industrial products, so that in order to compensate for the losses incurred in the process of trade, they could only increase their investment in German enterprises again.

For some developed Western countries, Germany's method is a bit too scoundrel, but for China, which is in a state of ruin, it is simply pie in the sky.

China's national conditions are different from those of Europe and the United States, or the vision of China's rulers is different from that of European and American countries, at that time, China's most labor was labor, and the cost of manpower in the process of collecting minerals and raw materials was the lowest.

However, the problem facing Kong Xiangxi now is that even if China wants to barter at this time, it may not be able to produce items of sufficient value. Because after the Sino-German cooperation was interrupted, the government pinned its hopes for foreign aid on Britain and the United States, and then signed a large number of arms trade contracts and loan agreements with Britain and the United States, using payment methods and collateral that were the "strategic materials" that had been traded with Germany before.

China, which is industrially backward, does not have any products that can attract these developed countries, and with the occupation of a large amount of territory, many high-value goods have lost their raw materials. By the year 40, the only hard currency that the government could get its hands on was tung oil, pig bristles, and tungsten sand, and eighty percent of the share had been booked by the British and American governments, and now even if Germany wanted to trade with the government, it could only get the remaining share.

"If it hadn't happened, I would have gotten a loan from a German." Kong Xiangxi rubbed his eyebrows and sighed, his precious second daughter is really a cheat.

"Germany has just won the war in Europe, and has received a large amount of war reparations and booty, and if they are willing to lend us a sum of money and let the government turn around a little, we will have a much better life next year." Kong Xiangxi said in a deep voice.

He had hoped for a German loan, and even a plucking of the nose of the Great German Empire at this time would be enough to tide the government through the current difficulties. In addition, the talented man of the Song family is said to have made some progress in the United States, and if he can get an overseas loan before the other party succeeds, it is equivalent to directly slapping the little brother-in-law's face, and see if he dares to show himself casually in the future.

However, all of this was messed up by her own precious girl, if it weren't for her little girl who had been spoiling her, Kong Xiangxi would have been eager to drive that troublemaker out of the house.

"This kid is so worry-free, he only knows that he causes trouble outside every day, and he doesn't wear men or women, which simply corrupts the style of the Kong family. Or go back this time and simply find her someone to take care of her marriage, but her reputation is already stinky, and now where can I find a warrior who dares to marry her in China. It's really not good, so send her to study abroad to harm foreigners, which is a good way, but who will manage the business she is responsible for, this girl has a good mind, and she can do business better than her eldest brother" Kong Xiangxi sat there full of thoughts, and the car he was riding slowly turned into a garden on the side of the street, and stopped in front of a beautiful baroque building.

"Sir, we have arrived." Secretary Xia reminded.

A German Army captain stepped forward quickly to open the car door, and Kong Xiangxi stepped out of the car with a top hat in hand.

This time, Kong Xiangxi's visit was to secretly meet with the German envoy in his private capacity, so the French side did not notify the local reporters and media, and at the same time did not arrange a particularly grand scene.

Of course, basic security is a must, and just because Brumborg and Jean Degu are present, the highest level of security is required. The restaurant had been chartered, except for the staff, who forbade any idlers, the paths around the garden were littered with armed guards with military dogs, a tight sentry was set up along the fence, a wheeled armored vehicle was parked on the lawn, and the angular turret pointed to the garden gate.

Dressed in gorgeous military uniforms, Blumberg and Jeandegu stood at the door of the dining room with solemn expressions surrounded by their staff and subordinates. When he saw Kong Xiangxi walking towards the gate under the guidance of the captain, Brumberg took a few steps forward to meet him and took the initiative to stretch out his hand to the other party.

"Long time no see, my old friend." Looking at the face that hadn't changed much from what he remembered, a smile appeared on Brumberg's face.

PS: In the end, it's still asking for a monthly pass, this book is very laborious to write, piracy is rampant, the subscription is surprisingly small, it's not even two thousand, some friends persuaded me to learn other books to update anti-piracy, I'm still hesitating, now I just want to ask you to give me some support and encouragement.

Thank you all for your support (to be continued.) )