Chapter 779： Finnish arms purchase

"These Yugoslav ladies are really interesting."

After reading this telegram, Edel was somewhat satisfied with the attitude of these Yugoslav ladies.

In fact, this is nothing. The Yugoslav government is sending a telegram to allow Romania to recruit volunteers to join the army in Yugoslavia. Although there is no clear text, Yugoslavia has given enough hints.

That's right, after Germany's diplomacy hit a wall, Yugoslavia actively showed its favor to Romania and Italy. Not only quickly signed a friendship treaty with Italy and Romania, but also frequently dispatched senior officials to visit the two countries. Prime Minister Svetkov alone visited Romania three times in just a few months. Except for the first time, there was no chance to meet Edel at other times.

Of course, it cannot be said that the visit to Yugoslavia was ineffective. The continued visit has changed Romania's attitude towards Yugoslavia a lot. At least the Bulgarians have changed their attitudes. Although they still obsess over Macedonia, they are not always clamoring for the use of force. It can be said that the results of the Yugoslav visit are remarkable.

When it comes to another territorial issue, Yugoslavia is much more stubborn. Whether in discussions with Italy or in negotiations with Romania, Yugoslavia is extremely stubborn about territoriality, and they refuse to discuss territorial issues. Even willing to compensate financially, but not willing to talk about it.

This made Edel a little uncomfortable, but although it was uncomfortable, it was not enough to make Romania decide to start a war against Yugoslavia.

Although Yugoslavia seems to be a bit stubborn at present, Romania and Italy are too busy at the moment and are not interested in any aggressive actions against them.

And this also confuses Edel as to what Yugoslavia will encounter in history from a German attack. Judging from the performance of the Yugoslav government, it does not look like a filial son and grandson of Britain and France.

In fact, there is no doubt about it, because Britain and France have greater influence in Yugoslavia, especially Yugoslav King Peter II, who has not yet grown up, is the number one British fan.

After defeating France in Germany, Peter II launched a coup d'etat in the tide of the Axis powers on Europe, and abolished the crazy act of daring to slap Hitler in the face of the two-day Yugoslavian Axis agreement, which is not true love of Britain and France. How could fans do such a move.

It's just that Edel doesn't remember it at all, and the time is too long to be the focus of attention.

But although Edel can't remember this, it doesn't affect his good mood, because it can allow Romania to expand its influence in Yugoslavia in a fair manner.

Since Yugoslavia is so witty, how could Edel disagree, and naturally he readily allowed it. And his good news is more than this one. A telegram from Finland appeared in front of him two days later.

In fact, this is just a telegram that the Finnish government intends to purchase Romanian ordnance. The Finnish government wants to purchase a batch of artillery, guns, ammunition and other weapons from Romania, but the most important thing is that Finland wants to purchase 120 R20 fighters. This arms purchase amount reaches 6000. Ten thousand U.S. dollars.

Now Finland is purchasing weapons all over the world in response to threats from the Soviet Union. That's right, the Soviet-Finnish war that had been fought in the original history has been delayed until now, and the main reason is the influence from Romania.

Among them, the cross-cutting from Romania has dragged down the industrialization of the Soviet Union, and its scale is about 10% lower than that in history as a whole.

Therefore, the current Soviet army is larger than in history, but its equipment is still inadequate than in history. After all, there is insufficient equipment to make up for it.

In addition, although Romania has acquiesced to the German-Soviet terms, its military strength at the border still hit a new high. At present, Romania has deployed 34 divisions on the Suro border, with a total strength of 830,000.

In the face of Romania’s pressure, the Soviet Union also deployed 1 million troops in the Kiev Military District. Excluding the troops in the Far East and the border troops, plus the newly occupied Polish eastern territories, the speed of the Soviet Union's assembly of troops is naturally much slower.

Therefore, after the resistance in eastern Poland was wiped out, the Soviet Union was ready to talk to the little Finnish brother Haosheng. The Soviet Union has always been concerned that Finland’s territory on the Karelia Isthmus is too close to Leningrad. The Soviet government has always believed that Finland’s territory is likely to be used by a third country as a springboard to attack the Soviet Union.

In addition, the Leningrad region is too important to the Soviet Union, and its enterprises are unparalleled in importance to the Soviet Union.

It's just that the results of the conversation are not very satisfactory to Comrade Steel, because Finland rejected the Soviet Union's friendly request. This time the Soviet Union came with great goodwill and proposed that Finland move the border between Russia and Finland 40 kilometers north of the Karelia Isthmus. In addition, several islands in the Gulf of Finland and Finnish territory on the Rybach Peninsula should be ceded to the Soviet Union. , And the Hanko Peninsula is leased to the Soviet Union at the cost of 8 million Finnmarks per year for 30 years, totaling approximately 2,000 square kilometers.

In order to compensate for the territorial loss of Finland, the Soviet Union expressed its willingness to hand over land to Finland (4000 square kilometers) in the northwestern part of Lake Onega, which is twice as large as the area ceded by Finland.

But the goodwill of the great Soviet was disappointed by the remnants of the Finnish white bandit army, and they refused the Soviet goodwill without hesitation.

But from Finland's point of view, the Soviet Union's request was extremely vicious, and it happened to pass the Mannerheim Line, the most dangerous defense in Finland. This is equivalent to lifting Finland's defense against the Soviet Union. It did not put Finland under the threat of the Soviet Union, so it was naturally rejected.

In the face of Finland's rejection, the Soviet Union naturally did not intend to just let it go. The Soviet Union uncovered its army, and it continued to provoke friction between the two countries.

Faced with this situation, the Finnish government naturally knew that this matter could not be done well, and they sought diplomatic help on the one hand. Although in the face of the Soviet Union’s oppression of Finland, people all over the world sympathized with the weak Finland, but at the national level, not many countries supported Finland.

Although Britain and France agreed to send 100,000 troops to support Finland, there are indications that the 100,000 troops of Britain and France are more to occupy the iron ore in Sweden and northern Norway, and cut off the iron ore supply of the two countries to Germany. So Hitler made a public statement about this, if the two countries allow British and French troops to enter, then Germany will declare war on Sweden and Norway. Therefore, in order to avoid falling into war, the two countries did not dare to let British and French troops enter.

In addition, the mutual aid alliance signed between Finland, Norway and Sweden was rejected by the two countries for various reasons. Although the two countries do not plan to provide reinforcements at the national level, they still organize volunteers in private while giving some weapons to help Finland.

As for why Finland will find Romania, this is another question. In the early days, Romania and Finland did not overlap. The distance between the two countries was too far to form a friendly relationship.

After Romania became stronger in the 1920s and 1930s, the relationship between Finland and the Soviet Union heated up. At that time, in order to avoid stimulating the Soviet Union, the relationship between Finland and Romania, the enemy of the Soviet Union, did not have much development.

So when Finland asked for help all over the world to no avail, Romania said that it could help him, the mood of this small Nordic country can be imagined.

Of course, there is no such thing as a free lunch, and Finns know it too. It's just that when it's so critical, even if it's the bait, the Finns are going to swallow it first.

Therefore, this time Finland will spend such a large sum of money to buy Romanian supplies (the cash is only 30 million ~ www.novelhall.com ~ and there are 15 million that needs to be exchanged for raw materials, and there is a Romanian loan of 15 million).

As for why other countries are so indifferent to assisting Finland, the reason is simple, that is, the gap between the two countries is too large. Many people believe that Finland will automatically surrender as long as the Soviet army moves in. Because the gap between the two countries is too large, the gap in national power must be calculated at more than fifty times.

To give the simplest example, Finland has a population of only 2 million, while the Soviet army alone is as high as 3 million. How to fight this?

In addition, the Soviet military industry was extremely developed, while Finland basically relied on outsourcing. In addition to being better than per capita, Finland is nothing good.

Including the Romanian military, which is most familiar with the Soviet Union, also think so. They relied on the experience of the previous two wars with the Soviet Union that Finland would surrender one month after the Soviet Union launched its offensive, because the Finnish army had been exhausted. So this time to help Finland, it can be said that Edel will go his own way.

When Edel signed his name on the terms of arms sales, the arms sales to Finland on behalf of Romania began. I hope that the performance of the Finnish army this time is worthy of Edel's full support this time.