Code Name: Spain (1)

  On the second morning after arriving in Spain, Zhou Tianlei returned to the villa after a physical recovery training session outside the villa, washed up and sat at the breakfast table tasting milk, German sausage, small bread, Spanish pastry, when a German naval staff officer hastily walked over and placed a naval command war report that had just been sent by wireless telegraph on Zhou Tianlei's desk.

  Zhou Tianlei nodded and thanked the naval staff officer, picked up a piece of bread with one hand and held the battle report in the other.

  The first message above is that the armored forces of the German 'B' Army Group have broken through the hastily constructed 'Weygand Line' along the Somme and Aisne rivers, named after French World War I General Weygand, and are approaching Paris. His good friend Rommel's 7th Armored Division was the first to break through the French defense line, and then split the French 10th Army defending the Abbeville-Amiens line, and began to advance towards Lyon.

  Heinz Guderian recalled that Rommel was very bold in the Battle of France, during the crossing of the Meuse River, he led the 7th Panzer Division to cross the river under the cover of German artillery fire, but they were met with fierce resistance from the French army on the other side and were forced to stop. Only a part of the 7th Motorized Infantry Regiment and a battalion of the 7th Infantry Regiment managed to cross the river. The situation was critical, with more and more French troops gathering on the other side, posing a great threat to the vanguard that had crossed the river first. Rommel ordered all tanks and artillery to fire wildly at the French army's hidden areas on the other side, suppressing their firepower, while he led the 2nd Battalion of the 7th Regiment to cross the Meuse River under the cover of his own artillery fire. After a bloody battle, the 7th Division broke through the Meuse River and advanced deep into enemy territory.

  In the process of breaking through the 'Little Maginot Line', this future 'Desert Fox' showed off his 'fox tactics': all tank crew members - gunner, radio operator, loader and commander (including himself) sat on top of the tank, advancing while frantically waving white flags. The French army was bewildered by this celebratory procession-like unit and did not open fire, only turning around in surprise and looking around in dismay. After crossing the first line of defense of the French army in the forest, Rommel ordered the last battalion to cover the rear, then with his own tank leading the way, the entire division deployed into combat formation and charged towards the core area of the Maginot Line. The French army resisted fiercely against the German armored forces' impact by relying on the built-up fortifications, and for a time, guns and cannons were fired loudly, and the sound of tanks shook the sky. The French army opened fire intensely from the left flank's fortification group towards the 7th Division, and two tanks were destroyed by the French army. Rommel ordered the entire division to intensively bombard the French army's fortifications with firepower, and engineers carried out explosions on the fortifications under the cover of artillery fire. The fierce battle lasted until midnight, when the 7th Division broke through the French army's fortification group, and the entire division crossed over the railway near Solre-le-Chateau, speeding towards another line of defense of the French army. The Maginot Line was thus breached.

  The Japanese were planning to expand the scale of the upcoming Zhangjiakou Campaign, mobilizing more ground troops. The bombing raids on Chongqing would be even larger in scale and more frequent. They were also moving troops around in Shanxi, Suiyuan, and the Northeast, preparing to enter northern Henan from two directions and launch a pincer attack on Shaanxi, aiming to capture Xi'an. Furthermore, they claimed they would send troops to occupy Kunming, forcing the British and French to blockade the Yunnan-Burma Road and the Yunnan-India Road. Through various channels, they were also in contact with representatives of the GMD, discussing 'peace' terms and policies. At the same time as negotiating with the GMD, they would intensify their 'mopping up' campaign against the GCD's anti-Japanese base behind enemy lines in northern China, implementing an even stricter 'cage' policy, severely threatening the GCD's anti-Japanese base behind enemy lines.

  What further enraged Zhou Tianlei was that Japan also requested in this military situation report that Germany cooperate with its Chinese combat operations and send submarines to the Indian Ocean to help the Japanese Navy blockade British sea transportation lines. Although this request conformed to Zhou Tianlei's ideas, it was raised by the Japanese side.

  Zhou Tianlei's good mood, which had just started to improve after reading the battle report, was ruined by the last sentence. He slammed his fist on the table in anger, causing the cup of milk he had only half finished drinking to be knocked over. The cup fell to the ground with a crisp cracking sound.

  The aide outside heard the noise and ran in, finding his superior's face full of anger. The smile he had on his face when he delivered the war report earlier was gone. He didn't dare ask what happened, silently picking up the broken glass pieces from the floor and sweeping away the remaining milk.

  Zhou Tianlei pushed open the window, and a gentle breeze with a hint of sea salt blew in. As the breeze caressed him, his excited mind began to calm down. He reminded himself that he was now a German, not Chinese. He was still within Germany's sphere of influence; what could he do to help his troubled homeland? The thought made him sigh involuntarily.

  He knew that many things in this world were gains and losses for people, but what he didn't expect was that his own planning and participation in the comprehensive victory of Germany inside and outside the port of Dunkirk, France would have reported the side effects to his own country. However, worrying too much now is not very useful, as he can't influence Japan's actions at all, just like Hitler has no way either. He shook his head, trying hard to drive away the thoughts swirling in his mind.

  It's better to focus on implementing the Mediterranean combat plan that has been carefully thought out. Other thoughts should be put aside for now, as overthinking is useless and will only interfere with one's determination to fight. If Germany doesn't do well in the end, how can I escape the Nuremberg trials? Who would believe that I'm not actually German? Moreover, I've participated in so many battles that have caused the Allies immense pain and suffering, and directly killed thousands of British people. The British will not let me off easily. So, it's best not to be distracted by external information and focus on preparing for the first battle under my command as the commander of the German fleet.

  In a certain place in Gibraltar, there were 2 people wearing British Air Force ground personnel uniforms. They walked and chatted as they went along. When they arrived at a store run by a local from Gibraltar, the two stopped and looked at each other before walking in.

  Two men pointed to a bottle of Bordeaux wine from France in the store and asked the shopkeeper about its price. The local boss, seeing that they were two British air force ground crew members, thought they were just asking casually and wouldn't actually buy it, so he casually quoted the price of the Bordeaux wine.

  He didn't expect that the two of them would not hesitate at all after hearing the price, and one of them had already pulled out several high-denomination British pound notes from his body. They paid quickly and took their goods and left. Not a single extra word was said. The boss watched as the two turned around and left, then looked at the banknotes in his hand, pinched himself on the arm in disbelief, and let out a painful cry. Only then did he realize that he wasn't dreaming.

  In another place, three people wearing civilian clothes but speaking English with a Glasgow accent walked into a luxurious restaurant. The waiter took one look at their attire and knew they were British, so he hurriedly led them to a better seat.

  One of them took the menu handed over by the waiter, glanced at it briefly, and immediately ordered several more expensive dishes. The waiter was secretly delighted, but still maintained a professional smile on his face, asking: "Gentlemen, is there anything else we can serve you?"

  Another said: "Give us a few more of those good American cigars. We are getting used to the taste now."

  The waiter nodded and turned to leave, soon returning with a tray holding three cigars. Once the men had them in their mouths, the waiter lit them up.

  Half an hour later, several people with a very gentlemanly demeanor paid the bill and told the waiter: "Don't look for the rest, it's all your tip. Your service is really good, we'll bring friends next time."

  After a few days had passed, when the merchants of Gibraltar began to deposit their takings in local banks, they were met with the chilly response that many of the large denomination pounds they brought in were counterfeit.

  The bosses did not believe this conclusion and questioned the bank why they said that many large-denomination pounds received in the past few days were counterfeit. The bank manager came forward, took out a same-denomination pound note, held it together with a pound note taken out by a merchant from Gibraltar, and showed them against the light: "You see, this is real money, this is fake money, they have differences in printing, the fake note has the face of the British king slightly larger than the real one. Just this difference. And the counterfeit ones are really cleverly printed."

  The bosses looked at each other, none of them could say anything. Suddenly one person stood up and said: "I remembered, the few banknotes I have here were given to me by several British soldiers when they bought something from me."

  The rest of the bosses also remembered under his reminder where they received the banknotes, all pointing to the British. Several excited bosses immediately wanted to go find those British people and were pulled back by other bosses.

  After discussion among the bosses, it was decided that they would go to the British Governor's Palace and the local British garrison on the second day to clarify the issue.

  On the second day, they split into two groups and went to the British Governor's Office and the Commanding Department of the British Garrison. The British receptionists on both sides were very polite and listened to their complaints. After listening to their complaints, they told them that because they were not sure if there were really any British people involved in this incident of damaging local human rights, they would need some time to investigate. They asked these bosses to go back and wait for the results of their investigation.

  The bosses were very depressed and came out of the British gate, they discussed and decided that if there was another person like the British who used such a large bill, they would definitely detain them, at least follow them to see where they went.

  On the Spanish side, Zhou Tianlei learned through a message forwarded by the Spanish government that the British had formally made a decision to send a plenipotentiary representative to Spain to negotiate with the Germans on the issue of British prisoners of war. The person they sent was Godfrey, head of British naval intelligence, and his most trusted assistant, Ian Fleming.

  Zhou Tianlei found it strange that the British government had sent an intelligence expert to negotiate with him. Was it possible that they wanted to use the negotiation as an opportunity to gather some kind of intelligence?

  But he didn't have time to think about what the British were up to, because his aide had already begun reporting a major piece of intelligence: The Banque de France's gold reserves were being moved out of Paris. This was reported by German spies operating in Paris and passed on to the Abwehr, who forwarded it to them because of Zhou Tianlei's temporary command center handling the matter.

  The second piece of intelligence came from the submarine squadron sent to monitor French naval movements in the Mediterranean and German spies lurking near French ports, who reported that a considerable number of French warships had begun gathering in military ports, apparently refueling. It seemed they were preparing to set sail.