บท 15: Chapter 94 Spanish Gold
Because of the intervention of Germany and Italy, Franco's army gained air power over most of the area, and could be said to be victorious, soon controlling two-thirds of Spain and forming a siege of Madrid.
The defeated Spanish government signed a secret agreement with France and the Soviet Union to ship their own gold reserves to Paris and the Soviet Union respectively. The agreement clearly stipulated that the two countries did not have dominion over the gold, which still belonged to the Spanish government.
According to the New York Times report, before the outbreak of the civil war Spain's gold reserves accounted for the world's fourth largest, about 700 tons. At that time, the vast majority of these gold hidden in Madrid in the warehouse of the Central Bank of Spain, the rest of the very small part of the central bank in a number of provinces scattered in the branch. After Franco captured these provinces, he naturally possessed this small portion of gold.
The Spanish government first shipped 50 tons of gold to Paris, part of which was exchanged for francs to buy arms for the government forces. This part of the gold was called "Paris gold". The remaining 560 tons of gold went to the Soviet Union, which was called the "Moscow Gold". After receiving the gold, Stalin famously said at a banquet. "The Spaniards will never see their gold again, just as one never sees one's ears." The second half of the sentence is a Russian proverb.
At the end of the Spanish Civil War the French government handed over 50 tons of "Paris gold" to Franco's government. This was the only small part of Spain's huge gold reserves to return to the Spaniards. Franco sent a diplomatic delegation to the Soviet Union to negotiate for the return of the "Moscow gold", but naturally to no avail. Radio Moscow and the Soviet newspaper Pravda wrote that the "Moscow gold" had long been spent abroad by the Spanish government during the civil war.
Wilhelm, of course, would not let go of such a good opportunity, and gathered the backbone of the intelligence department overnight to discuss a plan. "Ladies and gentlemen, I have received accurate information, we all know that now Franco's army form can be said to be very good, the government forces are retreating, will be completely defeated sooner or later. The Spanish government is therefore preparing to ship abroad the gold in their treasury, which amounts to about 600 tons. Fifty tons of this is deposited in France, and the other 560 tons of gold will be sent to Moscow. This gold is at present stored in the warehouses of the Central Bank of Spain at Madrid."
Hearing Wilhelm's words, the people below couldn't help but stare in disbelief. "560 tons? The Spaniards are crazy? If that much gold was given to the Soviet Union, even if the government forces defeated Franco, the Soviet Union wouldn't be able to spit it out, right?"
The head of the Army Intelligence Office immediately suggested. "Your Highness, we can send bombers to level the place. The Stuka's precision is enough to level that bank. Then we'll keep bombing day and night without giving them a chance to dig for gold, and then inform Franco to quickly occupy Madrid at any cost."
Seeing the people around him agreeing with the feasibility of this plan, Wilhelm shook his head and dismissed his proposal. "The idea is good, but by then that gold will still be Spain's gold, what does it have to do with us?"
Reinhard asked in a small voice. "Your Highness means to secretly snatch that batch of gold? Without letting anyone find out?"
The corners of Wilhelm's mouth curved up slightly in an evil smile. "That's right."
The others snapped out of it then. "That would make it impossible to do it inside Spain." That was a whopping 560 tons, and it would take a hundred and twelve cars with a five-ton load, so how could such a large convoy go unnoticed.
This time it was the head of Naval Intelligence who spoke up. "How about attacking them at sea? We can pretend to be pirates to rob them."
Immediately, someone objected. "The Soviets will definitely send a warship to escort such an important item, right? And we can't be sure that there aren't ships from other countries around by then."
Everyone came up with two or three options, but unfortunately all of them were rejected without exception. In the end, the head of the Naval Intelligence Division sighed and helplessly said. "Why don't we just send a submarine force to sink them halfway, we can't get the Soviet Union and we don't want it either."
"..." Wilhelm felt that this proposal is not bad.560 tons of gold is not a small amount, to any country can play a huge role. The Soviet Union in the original time and space was able to win World War II, not unrelated to swallowing this amount of gold. During the entire war, the Soviet Union used up a full 473 tons of gold.
Therefore, even if all this gold was thrown into the sea, it would not be cheap for the Soviets.
And as long as the sinking site is clearly recorded, the gold can still be salvaged later. A later salvage company even salvaged dozens of tons of silver coins from a World War II shipwreck carrying about 100 tons of silver coins at a depth of more than 5,000 meters in the Atlantic Ocean.
But is there a better way? After all, salvage is also need to cost, and also can not guarantee that the ship transporting gold complete sitting sinking, in case of being burst, those gold scattered that will aggravate the difficulty of salvage.
Standing in front of the huge world map, pondering the original time and space carrying route, a bold plan gradually took shape in his mind. "Do you guys think we can grab this gold within the Soviet Union?"
"... " The crowd couldn't help but look at each other in disbelief upon hearing this, this plan was much crazier than grabbing it within Spain.
Wilhelm said to himself. "If I get the information is correct, then the ship loaded with gold will be loaded from the port of Cartagena, and then across the Mediterranean Sea into the Black Sea to the port of Odessa to unload loaded onto the train straight to Moscow. Gee, the USSR is a big, sparsely populated country, no less. Three of the places this railroad passes through are unpopulated or sparsely populated within 100 kilometers. Maybe we can start in those places."
Reinhard wondered. "Your Highness, even if we looted the gold there, it is after all Soviet territory. There's no way we can ship that gold out."
"What the hell is this?" Wilhelm muttered in a low voice, picking up a magnifying glass and scrutinizing the map. It turned out that the railroad was accompanied by a river for a section of its journey. The railroad was not even thirty meters away from the river.
The plan in his mind grew more and more mature, so mature that he no longer needed others to come up with ideas. "This is the end of today's meeting, and when you leave this room, forget about the gold. Understood?"
"Hail Hohenzollern! My honor is loyalty!" The plain sentence made the bigwigs of the intelligence department jump out of their chairs as if they had springs growing out of their asses. They didn't dare to have the slightest bit of disobedience, one was their loyalty, and the other was that they knew how ruthless this young future emperor was in dealing with his enemies, and just thinking about it was silencing.
Wilhelm nodded, signaling Reinhard to stay for now. Pointing to the area of the map he had just observed after everyone else had left. "Reinhard, look at this stretch of road. The curves here are so steep that the train's speed will inevitably drop as it passes by. If you ambush both sides of the railroad tracks beforehand, it shouldn't be difficult to pickpocket the train at this time, right?" In his later life, he hadn't watched too many movies and TV dramas about railroad guerrillas pickpocketing a train.
Reinhard observed for a while and nodded. "With the curvature of this section of the road, I'm afraid that the speed of the train passing through will not exceed 30 kilometers per hour, even an ordinary person with a bit of agility can easily pickpocket up."
Wilhelm paddled forward a bit along that curve. "Get on the train and take out the guards on it, then stop the train here. And here we dig the big pit beforehand, throw that gold in and bury it." These places were still no man's land in the afterlife and were not developed, and there was no worry about being dug up during construction.
Reinhard froze after hearing this. "You mean bury it in place? Not transported out?"
Wilhelm shook his head. "Like you said, that's Soviet territory, so I'm afraid it's harder than hell to ship out that gold. So I'm going to bury it there first. As long as it hasn't been discovered, we'll naturally go and dig up that gold in the near future. The railroad we laid with the Soviet Union is there?"
Reinhard was such a smart man that he immediately understood Wilhelm's meaning, and after searching on the map for a while, he pointed to a place in the Ukraine. "It should be up to here now. This is also just over a hundred kilometers from the point you selected for the carjacking."
"Are there any checks on the Soviet side when our engineering team enters or leaves the Ukraine?"
"No. In the beginning they registered the names, but then there were so many people on the move that they didn't bother to ask them all. Now it's as easy to get in and out of your house as it is to get in and out of your own house with an arm band of the Corps of Engineers on your arm. We've sent several sets of agents through there into the Soviet hinterland."
Wilhelm snapped his fingers. "Very well, send a company of Special Forces there immediately!"
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