Capítulo 342: Chapter 419 The Secret
As Churchill anxiously awaited, a submarine loaded with 200 tons of gold arrived at a Spanish port.
The Spanish leader, Arias, and Salazar, who were in the midst of negotiations, couldn't help but burst into laughter upon receiving the news. "Hahaha, this is too amusing! I wonder if His Excellency Churchill will explode with rage when he finds out." Last time, Britain sent 270 tons of gold, of which 200 tons were transported back to Germany; this time, the entire 200 tons will also be sent to Germany. If Churchill knew he was giving away his own gold to Germany for nothing, he might just die of anger on the spot.
After laughing for a while, Salazar wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes and stood up. "I must go back, lest our Ambassador Samuel grows impatient. I wonder if they can still come up with so much gold this time."
"If there's no gold, we can take other things—jewels, diamonds, antiques, paintings, anything valuable except for British pounds. Isn't King George VI's crown studded with many gems? Perhaps for the sake of the British Empire, a few might be pried off and sent over." As one of the oldest and most prestigious royal families in the world, the British royal family possesses the largest number and most valuable collection of rare treasures.
In the 1980s, then British Prime Minister Thatcher dispatched a team composed of accountants, gem experts, historians, and gemologists to inventory these jewels, a task that took fifteen years to complete.
When Salazar returned home, he indeed saw an anxious Ambassador Samuel pacing back and forth in the living room. "Sorry, sorry. I had some urgent matters tonight and came back late."
Ambassador Samuel couldn't bother with pleasantries and went straight to the point. "Your Excellency, the gold has arrived. What about the secret you mentioned?"
"Of course, I always keep my promises," Salazar reassured the ambassador, pouring two glasses of wine and placing them on the coffee table.
"Your Excellency, you must also know what the Germans rely on for their Blitzkrieg," Salazar said, not waiting for Ambassador Samuel to speak and holding up two fingers. "Tanks and airplanes." Blitzkrieg is not just about tank warfare or armored warfare; it's a combined arms operation. In addition to tanks, airplanes play a key role, and the air force's role is even more significant than that of the tank units.
When Germany struck Poland, the first to deploy was the air force. As soon as the war broke out, bomber groups took off from German territory and entered Poland, focusing their attacks on Polish troops, armories, airports, railways, roads, and bridges. Then the German ground forces, led by tanks and armored vehicles, launched a full-scale offensive. By then, Poland's transportation hubs and command centers had been destroyed, and the army was thrown into chaos. Thus, the German tank units easily broke through the Polish defenses and advanced rapidly.
"What drives these tanks and airplanes? It's oil! Without oil, planes can't fly, tanks can't move, and a whole lot of advanced weapons become scrap metal."
Ambassador Samuel frowned slightly, interrupting his long speech. "Your Excellency, is this the secret you're talking about? You're not playing a joke on me, are you?"
"Of course not," Salazar said earnestly. "As I just said, oil is the lifeblood of Germany. Cut off Germany's oil supply, and not only will Germany's war machine be paralyzed, but the entire country will fall into disarray, and the war situation will naturally turn around."
Ambassador Samuel's face had already turned quite ugly. "You're not talking about the Romanian oil fields, are you?"
Salazar shook his head. "The output of the Romanian oil fields is continuously shrinking; that little oil is not enough for Germany's extravagance." In '36, Romania's oil production was 8.71 million tons, in '37 it was 7.2 million tons, and in '39 it was 6.2 million tons. "If Germany relied on Romanian oil fields, they would probably have run out of fuel by now. The secret I'm talking about is," Salazar leaned forward and lowered his voice, "Germany has discovered new oil fields, very large oil fields."
"New oil fields?!" Ambassador Samuel was shocked, nearly jumping off the sofa. "New oil fields? Are you serious?! How big?! Where?!"
"Libya, the Sirte Basin."
"Libya?!" Ambassador Samuel's face was full of disbelief. More than 95% of Libya is desert and semi-desert, and although it had been explored before, no useful resources were found; nothing but sand.
Salazar smiled slightly. "Your Excellency, are you thinking what oil could possibly be in that broken place of Libya? Unfortunately, the Germans not only found it, but the reserves are frighteningly large. As far as I know, it's enough to support Germany and its allies in ten years of high-intensity warfare."
"Ten years?" Ambassador Samuel's face turned extremely ugly. Could it be that even God was on the side of the Germans?
Before World War II, the world's oil production was still concentrated in a few countries, and the oil lifeline was still controlled by a few oil powers like Britain, America, and the Soviet Union.
First was the United States. At that time, the US was the world's largest oil-producing country, accounting for more than half of the world's production, reaching 170.946 million tons in '39. During World War II, US oil production accounted for over 70% of the world's oil production, and it could be said that the Americans drowned Germany and Japan in oil.
Second was Britain. Although the oil production in Britain and its colonies was not prominent, the British used their substantial capital and influence to penetrate the world's major oil fields, and the British presence could be seen from extraction, transportation to sales. The British were the biggest competitors of the Americans in the oil field, and the competition between the Americans and the British was very fierce until they shook hands and made peace with the "Red Line Agreement" in 1928.
Third was the Soviet Union, the world's second-largest oil-producing country, with an oil production of 30.3 million tons in '39, but only one-sixth of that of the US. Additionally, the Soviet Union's refining capacity was slightly insufficient.
Fourth, Venezuela; fifth, Iran; sixth, Indonesia; seventh, Mexico; eighth, Romania; ninth, Iraq; tenth, Colombia. (At that time, Middle Eastern oil did not have a high status in the world market; before '39, Middle Eastern oil only accounted for 5% of the world's total oil production)
Of the top ten countries, only Romania could continuously provide oil for Germany.
And now Germany had found such a large oil field in Libya, effectively breaking free from the shackles of oil, the consequences of which were unimaginable.
A somewhat dazed Ambassador Samuel heard Salazar say, "As long as your country destroys Libya's oil fields, Germany's defeat won't be far off. How about it, is this secret worth 200 tons of gold?"
Ambassador Samuel didn't bother to respond, stood up to leave, and Salazar spoke up. "I heard London was attacked by a strange flying bomb? Coincidentally, we have an engineer who also participated in the production of this flying bomb. I wonder if your country is interested? There's another secret that comes free of charge—I heard that the Germans have enough missiles stored to bomb London for a year."
Ambassador Samuel stumbled, nearly falling to the ground. Without a word, he bid farewell and hurried back to the embassy to send a telegram to London.
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