Paris Conference

  When Zhou Tianlei and Langmei arrived at Chinatown in their car, they found that the place had become very chaotic. German soldiers were already confronting Chinese people there.

  Zhou Tianlei felt very strange and called over the German commander on the scene, Major Brautzsch, to ask him what was going on.

  Major Blauzi said, "General, after you took away those two Japanese and the two Chinese women, the people here started to get restless after a while. I don't understand their language, so I don't know why they're getting restless."

  The Chinese overseas saw the two German generals come and go, and then they started shouting loudly.

  "Where did you take our sister?"

  "Where are those two Japanese? Hand them over."

  "They are actually in cahoots with the Japanese, and taking the Japanese away is just a show for others to see."

  "You damned German, return Xiazi to me."

  "Give me back my sister."

  Zhou Tianlei looked ahead and saw that Li Xia's father and brother had already walked to the front of the crowd, and everyone made way for them.

  Zhou Tianlei saw the situation and picked up the microphone, speaking in Chinese to the Chinese overseas community: "Ladies and gentlemen, please listen to me." The crowd slowly began to quiet down.

  "After the crowd had quieted down, Zhou Tianlei said: 'The Japanese who hijacked your sisters earlier have been sent to our intelligence department for investigation. The rest of the Japanese have been arrested by us and will be imprisoned for violating the orders of our temporary Paris military command. As for the two Chinese women held hostage by the Japanese, we have sent them to our German army hospital for treatment. One of them can be discharged tomorrow, but the other one needs to stay in the hospital for a few more days due to serious injuries. Alright, everyone can disperse now. Additionally, I would like to ask the families of the two Chinese women to wait here at 9 o'clock tomorrow morning. Our car will take you to the hospital to visit them.'"

  The Chinese overseas in Chinatown also dispersed after hearing Zhou Tianlei say so.

  Zhou Tianlei and Rommel got into the carriage to return to their hotel, in the carriage Rommel asked: "Gautier, where did you learn Chinese? It's so good that I have a feeling when I listen to it beside me. If I couldn't see you, I would think you are a Chinese."

  Zhou Tianlei said: "That was when I was in military school, at that time the Chinese government sent many students abroad."

  "Right," said Long Mei, nodding her head, "at that time, the Chinese government sent many Chinese students abroad."

  Zhou Tianlei said: "My Chinese was learned with the Chinese students who were sent to our submarine school, really miss them. Only my Chinese has not been used for a long time, and I stuttered when I spoke just now."

  The two returned to the hotel together, and some German generals who had gone out to play surrounded them and asked about the handling of the Japanese people's disturbance in Chinatown. The two casually gave a few sentences to get by.

  After Zhou Tianlei returned to his room, his deputy, Lafen, reported to him that the German Navy Command would hold a meeting in Paris tomorrow morning to summarize the naval battle of Dunkirk and deploy the next target and corresponding training. Zhou Tianlei remembered his promise to Li Xia's family and asked Lafen to take a car to the 13th arrondissement of Paris, Chinatown, to pick up Li Xia's family members and take them to the Army Hospital tomorrow. He also said that he would visit the patients at the hospital after the meeting.

  The next day, Zhou Tianlei took another car arranged by Deputy Officer Lafen to attend the meeting, while Lafen drove to Chinatown in Paris' 13th district to pick up Li Xia's family and take them to the military hospital.

  When Zhou Tianlei arrived at the meeting place, he saw his direct superior, German Admiral Raeder, getting out of a car.

  Zhou Tianlei immediately went up and saluted, and Lede replied with a salute: "Gao Te, I heard that you, Erwin Rommel and some others went to the bustling area of Paris last night and got into trouble?"

  Zhou Tianlei smiled and said, "I was with Erwin Rommel last night, we went out to have some fun. We thought of going to the Chinatown in Paris to try some Chinese food, but unexpectedly we saved a Chinese woman on the way. Then we ran into some Japanese people in Chinatown who were violating our temporary military command's orders and causing trouble. Erwin Rommel and I had to mobilize the troops stationed in Paris to quell the disturbance. However, inside, we found two suspicious Japanese men who were not ordinary Japanese expats in France. They were holding hostages and trying to escape to their embassy. After being subdued, they were sent to the Gestapo for interrogation. We suspect that they might be spies on an important mission."

  At this time, Karl D?nitz's car also entered the venue of the meeting. After D?nitz got out of the car, he saw Zhou Tianlei and Lederle had already arrived, and after a brief exchange with them, several people entered the conference hall together.

  The meeting was opened under the chairmanship of Raeder, who proposed that all present rise and observe a minute's silence for thirty seconds in memory of the German naval officers and men who had fallen in the action.

  After the minute of silence, Raeder opened the formal proceedings. The first part was to have been given by Admiral Lütjens, but he had died in action, so it was delivered instead by his successor as Commander-in-Chief of the German Fleet, Admiral Otto Schniewind.

  Zhou Tianlei briefed the senior German naval officers present on the situation before and after the sea battle using maps and reports.

  "From the successful aspects of our operations in the Battle of Dunkirk, we successfully utilized the false intelligence transmitted by Admiral Canaris, former head of the German Naval Intelligence Service, to the British, and our actions in Norway reinforced the British conviction in this false intelligence. Therefore, we were able to weaken the strength of the British Home Fleet in the first two naval battles, with a larger force defeating a smaller one, and a stronger force defeating a weaker one, so that in the final battle, the British Home Fleet was unable to deploy forces that could absolutely overpower us."

  "Tactically, we successfully combined our submarine and surface fleets. After the British Home Fleet formed a firing line and entered the battlefield, my submarine fleet used dense torpedo attacks to force the British Home Fleet to disperse their firing formation. Otherwise, with their firepower, our Grand Fleet would not necessarily have lost, but it would definitely have suffered heavy damage. In our torpedo attack, in addition to forcing the British Home Fleet's ships to dodge our torpedoes and disrupt their firing formation, we also disabled three British battleships. My Grand Fleet then attacked the British Home Fleet after my submarine fleet's attack, thoroughly crushing the British Home Fleet's intention to annihilate or heavily damage my Grand Fleet at the Battle of Dunkirk. And forced the civilian ships requisitioned by Britain for rescue operations not to leave Britain. This created very good conditions for our army to capture the British Expeditionary Force. And severely damaged the British Home Fleet, which we did not need to consider its attacking power in the short term."

  However, we must note that in this naval battle, since we are only facing the British Home Fleet, the strength of the British Mediterranean Fleet has not been greatly weakened. Moreover, the strength of its Asian fleet has also not been greatly affected, and because our operations will definitely attract the attention of other powerful navies opposing us, our next operational plan is:

  1. Continue to strengthen the training and actual combat exercises of our Marine Corps and naval aviation. My suggestion for the configuration of our naval aviation is to have more fighter jets, fewer bombers and torpedo planes. This is because my view is that due to budget constraints, we are currently repairing and refitting the British battleships captured from the British, and now that we have occupied France, we also need to take over the French fleet's warships, including aircraft carriers. And for my own use, among the captured and self-built aircraft carriers, there will not be more than five. If we still follow the conventional configuration, when we encounter a stronger navy, such as the US Atlantic Fleet, we may not be able to seize and guarantee air superiority over our fleet due to insufficient fighter jets.

  At this time, German Admiral Lutjens spoke up: "In that case, according to your words, we will be fighting the US Navy, and the US Navy will use its naval aviation to attack us. Our planes are only enough to defend the airspace above our own fleet, even if we shoot down all the US Navy's planes, what method can we use to attack the US fleet?"

  "We have a large number of battleships and submarines, which can attack the US fleet under the cover of our naval aviation, as the US fleet's attack aircraft were almost all lost in previous attacks. Our naval aviation can smoothly take control of the air over the US fleet. Under its cover, our battleships, cruisers, and submarines will launch an attack on the US fleet. You can imagine how many tons of explosives are fired by our battleships in a single salvo, and how many tons of explosives are dropped by all the attacking aircraft. Moreover, we cannot have as many aircraft as the US fleet, so we have to use this method to counter the US Navy."

  2. We must cut off Britain's connections with its various colonies, at least greatly restrict them, and the most controllable is its Mediterranean route. If we take control of the Strait of Gibraltar and the Suez Canal, Britain's connection with its Asian territories will have to be made through the Cape of Good Hope in Africa, which will not only increase their transportation costs but also greatly enhance our control over their sea lifeline. The work I did before coming to France was to strive for our control of the Strait of Gibraltar. I hope that through our efforts, we can drive Britain's power out of the Mediterranean region and make the Mediterranean a saltwater inland lake of ours. Therefore, we must also take many areas here, such as Malta, Crete, and eliminate Britain's influence from Greece.

  3. We must work with the army to thoroughly seize control of the Middle East region and find a way to pull Turkey into our combat ranks, so that we can easily enter the Black Sea for combat.

  "My report is now over." Zhou Tianlei closed his own report.

  Next was Karl D?nitz's report on expanding his U-boat fleet and establishing a submarine base on the west coast of France. This part Zhou Zhennan had known for some time, so he just quietly listened to D?nitz's report. After D?nitz finished his report, he asked: "Karl, can the submarine squadron under my ocean fleet use the submarine base you established on the west coast of France?"

  Deng Nuo was taken aback and turned his head to look at this former subordinate of his.

  Zhou Tianlei said: "Of course, if possible, my submarine will also cooperate with you in battle."

  D?nitz knew he had lost his composure and immediately adjusted his tone, saying: "That's certainly possible. If you need my U-boat fleet to cooperate in the battle, I'm more than willing."

  Two hours later, the naval meeting came to an end. As Zhou Tianlei walked out of the conference room, he immediately saw his deputy officer, Lafen.

  Raven said, "General, the Chinese woman you saved last night has come to. However, we've found some unidentified Asians lurking around our army hospital. Of course, they don't dare enter our army hospital, but I think they're up to no good, so I left a few of your guards there to keep watch."

  "Are all of the woman's relatives in the hospital?"

  Raven said, "Yes, I went to Chinatown this morning as per your instructions to pick them up. They were initially thinking of taking the woman back, but our medic said her injuries weren't stable enough for her to be moved. And after discovering some suspicious people, now I don't dare let them go back either."

  Zhou Tianlei said: "Get in the car, we're going to the Army Hospital. Help me bring a bouquet of flowers over. Bring some food too, I couldn't possibly go visit someone empty-handed."

  "Yes, General," Raven said. "I'll go prepare."

  Twenty minutes later, Zhou Tianlei's car left the location of the naval meeting.