82 Chapter 160 The Battle of Poland (23)

Because of the "Oles Village Massacre", many people believed that Germany was the victim, and it was understandable that they should teach Poland a lesson.

But now Britain and France have actually brought their younger brothers to declare war on Germany. This is a bit unlike something done by humans. As a result, Goebbels's speech won the support and approval of many people, and anti-war demonstrations took place in many cities in Britain and France.

There were even many "hot-blooded youths" who sneaked over from neutral countries and asked to join the German army, vowing to defend justice in Europe.

"Your Highness is really a genius of public opinion." Faced with Goebbels's admiration, Wilhelm smiled disapprovingly. "It's just a little bit of scratching the surface."

You must know that the most important thing our ancestors in China paid attention to when fighting was "being famous".

After all, war is not a fight. The strength of both parties in the war is largely related to their ability to rule.

No matter how rich and powerful you are, if you lead a group of people with evil intentions and disloyalty to fight, you may not be able to defeat a weaker opponent. Especially in ancient times, without high-tech communication equipment, combat units would be trapped in a state of fighting independently 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 betraying for a small profit is very risky. Things that are easy to happen, you must know that fighting is a life-threatening battle with real swords and guns. If you are not strong-willed, you will not be able to continue.

How to make the people below believe that the chance of victory is relatively high at the beginning of the war? Of course, you convince people with reason. If you fight rationally, the soldiers will be more likely to believe that they will win. Because people's ideology can be infected by group consciousness. For example, as long as you let the middle-level soldiers roar a few times, everyone will soon feel that you are protecting your country and avenging your blood. In this atmosphere, every individual will feel that others have the desire 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 binding force, and this binding force will affect everyone's decisions 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 a bloody fact.

Of course, your reason can also be that you want to steal money, food, or women. This reason is actually quite valid, but the premise is that you are really powerful and have many successful cases of doing bad things. Otherwise, if you try to rob someone else out of nowhere, won't they resist desperately?

Soldiers will still feel guilty and fearful if they do bad things. Unless you actually give money to everyone, who can really get high?

Even with the support of a moment of bravery, there is no guarantee that military morale will be stable in unpredictable and difficult situations. Sometimes even if one side gains a temporary advantage, it may fail because some generals surrender to the enemy. Because people are not game NPCs, they will judge the situation fundamentally, they will be affected by wrong information, and they will also consider their own interests. If you can't provide a reason and a belief, you can't guarantee what decision they will make.

This kind of "famous" 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 justifiable reasons. Although most of these reasons sound ridiculous, they can at least be regarded as reasons and achieve the purpose of "being famous".

Goebbels asked worriedly. "Your Highness, what if Britain and France really send troops? Wouldn't we be caught in a three-nation attack by Poland, Britain and France?"

Wilhelm said with great confidence. "Don't worry, the declaration of war by Britain and France is just to scare people." Whether it is Britain or France, they hope that after Germany takes Poland, it will continue to advance eastward and attack the Soviet Union. How could they sacrifice one soldier for a country like Poland that had no interest in them at all? Their declaration of war was 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 single friend in such a big country in Europe. According to the historical process of time and space, within a few days Lithuania would announce a border closure and order a ban on the flow of domestic materials to Poland. At the same time, all Polish public and private properties in Lithuania would be seized. The Swedish government will announce the abolition of all trade agreements with Poland (this country continues to trade with Germany at the same time) and refuse to open shipping lanes to Poland and lease transport ships for the Allies! In just a few days Soviet troops would cross Poland's eastern border and advance westward! During the entire Polish campaign, its allies, the British and French armies, had been vacationing on the Western Front!

But this was also done by Poland itself. Poland is a very restless country, always causing trouble everywhere. Historically, it has been known as the "footband of Europe". That is to say, whether it is Germany, Russia, Austria or Sweden, the surrounding countries will step on them and repair them severely when they go out. The reason is that Poland has always dreamed of being a great power. Everyone wants to invade and cause trouble whenever there is an opportunity. Even Germany and Russia have been bullied by it in history, and everyone hates Poland.

"However, the declaration of war by Britain and France has helped us a lot. Otherwise, after defeating Poland, we would have to find excuses to challenge Britain and France." Since Britain and France have taken the lead in declaring war, whether they send troops or not, they will give Germany a good excuse. Start the war on the Western Front.

A very interesting thing happened during this period.

After declaring neutrality, Spain suddenly protested to the Soviet Union and asked Moscow to return the 560 tons of gold 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 newspapers. United Nations Special Envoy Orlov, accompanied by representatives of the Spanish government, visited the vault of the Central Bank of Madrid. Boxes of gold were moved out of the bank and loaded onto trucks. Finally, the gold was loaded onto a Soviet transport ship at the port of Cartagena, every photo is taken clearly. There is even a letter written by Assania, the former government leader in exile in France, specifically mentioning the whereabouts of this batch of gold; there is also Orlov's "personal" signature certificate.

Stalin, who was far away in Moscow, had another hysterical attack and overturned everything in the office. This evidence made him even more convinced that it was all Orlov's fault. It was this bastard who betrayed the great Soviet mother and stole the gold that should have "belonged" to the Soviets.

He ordered the dismissal and execution of a large number of intelligence personnel, including Jan Karlovych Berzin, and ordered the new intelligence chief Filipp Golikov to find this traitor who had been stabbed a thousand times within one month. And the missing batch of gold!

This order put Filipp Golikov under tremendous pressure. It has been two years since the gold robbery. During this period, the intelligence department has not been idle. It has searched almost every corner of the earth and lost money as a result. A lot of agents. But Orlov and the gold were nowhere to be found, not even a clue, let alone a trace.

But facing the furious Stalin, he did not dare to refuse face to face, so he could only agree tremblingly. He lamented with great sadness that he only had one month left to live.

As for Spain, the Soviet Union could only insist that the evidence was forged and that Moscow did not know about the gold at all.

Such a shameless denial aroused the indignation of the Spanish people, and the war of words between the two sides continued until the later Soviet-German War.