Chapter 854: Cooperation Between the Strong and the Weak

This officer didn’t know if he would be the next to die in this kind of shady transaction, but he was certain he wouldn’t be the last. Colonel Wei Jino had been hanged under the military flag by the SS’s own internal affairs troops for smuggling diamonds. But before he, as the successor, had even arrived, he had already been ordered to continue this trade.

He had sworn an oath under the national flag. He had once thought he would spend his life following the great Führer of his country. But the current situation was that he had not followed his original ideal to the battlefield, to shed blood for his country, but had instead become an officer in charge of liaison in North Africa, forced to bring back precious diamonds or gold from Africa for the wives of countless high-ranking officials and nobles in Germany.

He was not allowed to refuse. The people who came to him were mostly small fry, and behind these people in the country were even bigger figures, and above them, even bigger ones. In the end, behind all these people was almost the entire nobility of the Empire, including those who often shouted “Long live the Fatherland!” on the radio.

Let alone a small colonel like him, even Heydrich of the SS or Brauchitsch of the Wehrmacht would feel a flicker of fear when facing these behemoths. As for the Führer he had sworn to be loyal to, he probably wouldn’t fall out with so many people over such a small matter.

In fact, many of these transactions were not conducted on the books. As long as the army in North Africa slightly altered a number when counting the captured enemy equipment, then a few dice-sized diamonds would enter the pockets of the high-ranking officials and nobles. This caused almost no loss to the interests of the Empire, but it allowed countless people to have gifts for their mistresses.

No one would remember the unlucky Colonel Wei Jino, because the cause of his death was not his participation in diamond smuggling, but his attempt to secretly withhold and monopolize it after participating. No one would acquiesce to this. The big shots could tolerate their subordinates being a little greedy, but they would not allow their subordinates to threaten their channels of greed.

It was precisely for this reason that Colonel Wei Jino had died, and that he could take over such a tempting business. And he, Colonel Kilvir, was no pushover. His backer was the one who called the shots in North Africa, the commander-in-chief of the German-Italian joint forces, the Afrika Korps, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.

That was why he dared to be so brazen, so blatant, so impatient. That was why he had directly said, “Those worthless little handicrafts you mentioned, I want 20 of them! A lot of people are waiting, you understand?”

Because he knew that these 20 diamonds were not something requested by some small fry. Among them was a birthday gift from Field Marshal Erwin Rommel to the Führer’s wife, the First Lady of the Empire, Mercedes Cassia; a wedding anniversary gift from Gustav Krupp to his wife; and one was for the Imperial Chancellor, old August, to be set in his walking stick.

“No problem! Colonel, sir! I am very happy to exchange these things for your country’s friendship! God bless you! May the friendship between us last forever,” General Fkuman said with a smile as he signaled his men to bring the diamonds to the German colonel.

At his command, countless black men began to load bundle after bundle of crude rubber onto the German trucks. These materials were all consumables that were waiting to be used in Germany. Cars, ships, planes—almost no modern industrial product could do without a substance like rubber. And in 1939, an era when the production of artificial rubber was insufficient, the reserve of natural rubber was still a very important part of the industrial chain.

Although Germany had begun to mass-produce synthetic rubber in cooperation with the chemical giant I.G. Farben before 1927, due to limited production capacity and certain technical defects in quality, it had not yet been able to completely replace natural rubber.

Because the German Navy had gained the upper hand in the Atlantic, Germany could import a large amount of rubber from the distant South America. But due to the interference of the U.S. and British navies, and the German Navy’s inability to use its carrier fleet for long-range escort, this rubber supply line could not completely meet Germany’s needs.

It was for this reason that Germany had begun to seek to supplement its urgently needed rubber in Africa. This was the fundamental reason for supporting the African agent, General Fkuman. On the other hand, Germany hoped to use Africans to fight or produce for it, but now it seemed that the results of this effort were very limited.

The Germans had hired, or rather, directly trafficked, 20,000 black Africans, hoping to make up for the labor shortage and to pioneer the use of mercenary combat. But after a series of experiments, both the German army and the German government had found that these natives of the ancient African continent were simply unusable.

These black people were lax and had strange beliefs. They were ugly and barbaric. Most of them couldn’t even speak the language. So the German high society was unwilling to accept these Africans for jobs like servants. And because they had limited knowledge and could not engage in industrial production, the Germans could not let them join in the industrial production chain.

For all these reasons, these black people could only work as porters and laborers in Germany. They were either distributed to the front lines as consumables or served at the ports and docks. They could not be considered proper labor at all, and a good number of Germans had to be assigned to guard these strangely behaved black people.

The Germans’ idea of supplementing their human resources had completely failed, but they had received an unexpected return in rubber and natural resources. In the eyes of the local people, these rubber products were not as valuable as those advanced weapons. Because with weapons and advanced tactics, they could plunder more useful things.

Due to different beliefs or some trivial matter that had happened on a certain day, the attacks between the various tribes had not stopped since the dawn of civilization. And the great powers, due to their own needs, had not interfered too much with these ancient African tribes. They did not have a modern economic plunder system like Germany’s, so they had not allowed these ancient lands to show their proper vitality.

The new capitalists of Germany were different. They were more accustomed to and adapted to the cruel capital plunder concealed under the shadow of economic aid. They took the oil and rubber they needed, as well as gold and gems, and in return left behind railways and gradually prospering cities, as well as a huge market for their products.

Compared to the blatant plunder of colonialism, this economic development model from fifty years in the future had an unparalleled superiority. It aimed to help the local economy to revitalize and to create a market, while at the same time obtaining raw material resources. Then it would dump the produced goods back into the market it had created to obtain profits or international prestige.

The difference was that after the year 2000, everyone had become much smarter. While doing so, the advanced countries also had to provide loans and other conditions to win the hearts and minds of the people, in order to gain the support of the local government. But at a time like 1939, when Akado came up with such a model, it immediately made the local natives regard the Germans as their best friends.

Want arms? The Mauser rifles, MG42 machine guns, and even the tanks and armored cars of the invincible army of the Great German Third Reich can all be provided! Want daily necessities? All kinds of daily necessities are available, enough to improve the living standards of General Fkuman’s tribe! Is there anything you’re not satisfied with? Not enough money? Easy! Oil, rubber, timber, minerals, gems, gold… all of these can be used as items of exchange! Aren’t Germany and Africa one big family? Isn’t Germany helping its African friends by selling the pot to buy iron?

A hundred tons of rubber were thus handed over to the German SS, without even a single signed contract. The Germans left behind guns and ammunition, as well as some gasoline, and then, just as they had come, they quickly left. Many had seen the heads piled up on the side of the road and felt a strange smell of plague in the air.

“The tanks you want, and the armored cars, we will provide them to you, along with five of our battlefield observers. If they think it’s necessary, we can even provide more arms, and even send planes to help you eliminate your enemies,” Colonel Kilvir said to the black general opposite him before walking back to his car. “Thank you for your local products. I think my superiors will like them very much.”

“My men will be waiting here. More than 400 of the tribe’s bravest warriors will guard this trading post,” General Fkuman said with a smile. He then took a diamond of about one carat from his aide and slipped it into Colonel Kilvir’s hand. “We are friends now! Colonel Kilvir, I hope to see you again.”

Who knew if coming here was right or wrong? And who could know if he would live to see the next time he came here to trade with these black people? Colonel Kilvir gave a helpless smile, dispelling the strange thoughts in his mind, and said goodbye with a smile, “Then goodbye, my friend. If you are interested in coming to Cairo, I will treat you to a drink, the best wine in Cairo.”

Watching the departing cars, a black man leaned in behind General Fkuman and asked in a low voice, “General, why don’t we cooperate with the Americans? They seem to be offering a higher price. As long as we annihilate this convoy, the Americans will provide us with more arms and supplies.”

General Fkuman said nothing, just gave a cold laugh. Then his aide shot and killed the subordinate who had come to persuade him. Just as General Fkuman was killing his own man, behind a dense forest not far away, three German Odin armed helicopters began to slowly climb.

He spoke to the corpse on the ground, which could no longer hear him, his tone tinged with a hint of mockery, “The Americans give more, but you have to be alive to take it.”

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