It wasn't just the United States that had designs on the British; the Mustache's strategy actually didn't include the destruction of Britain as a primary option either. In the Mustache's mind, France had to be taken out, but he genuinely wanted to make peace with the British. His ideal state was to form a massive empire spanning Northern, Central, and Eastern Europe, ally with Britain, and then take out the Soviet Union together. Thus, occupying the center of the world.

As for China and the United States, they were not yet within the Mustache's strategic vision at this time. This wasn't because the Mustache was afraid of these two countries, but because his near-term strategy simply couldn't factor them in. Having cooperated for so many years, Germany understood China's military and economic strength very well. The feeling China's leader, Chen Ke, gave the Mustache was, "That is a terrifying man!" The Mustache had merely saved Germany from the Great Depression, while Chen Ke had saved China from the abyss of destruction when it was on the verge of being carved up by the Great Powers.

As for the United States, in the First World War, America's entry eventually led to Germany's destruction. If the American GIs hadn't blocked Germany's all-out offensive, perhaps the outcome of WWI would have been vastly different. The Mustache was also very clear about America's industrial strength. Perhaps the combat effectiveness of the American military wasn't much of a deterrent, but the Mustache simply didn't want to have a war with that bunch of Americans right now.

The Mustache also hoped to take the Middle East. Germany had been trying to rope in Iran, and Göring had even come up with a "Liberate the Middle East" plan. The Mustache was equally aware of the British attempt to establish a "Continental Line of Communication." For such a bullshit plan, the Mustache welcomed it from the bottom of his heart. He wished for nothing more than for all of Britain's navy and army to enter the Indian Ocean region to fight; that would only be of immense benefit to Germany.

However, the Mustache had another kind of unease. No matter how he lobbied China to form a military alliance with Germany, China "politely declined" Germany's request. The Mustache always firmly believed that the Soviet Union was "harboring evil intentions," and the Soviet Union's strategic interests for China were obviously more valuable than those with Germany. Since China was unwilling to form an alliance with Germany, the Mustache had to once again consider the issue of a future war with the Soviet Union.

It is truly said that he who does not plan for the future will find trouble at his door. The Mustache had been in power for a rather short time, and Germany's war preparations were still insufficient. Even in cooperation with China, the German Army had adopted more advanced maintenance concepts, but *On Practice* stated very clearly that everything had to be continuously perfected through practice.

During the Polish Campaign, German artillery frequently shelled their own armored spearheads. This blood-bought price forced the German army to adjust its armored forces. Similarly, after the Polish Campaign ended, even though Germany had ideas for maintaining armored forces, when actually faced with large-scale armored unit maintenance, Germany was still flustered. The army-wide equipment maintenance that was supposed to be completed by early 1940 dragged on until March 1940.

In addition, the military plan to attack France, which Manstein had reported by skipping levels of command, received the Mustache's approval. Even though the Mustache forcibly ordered the Army to adopt Manstein's plan, these plans weren't things that could be implemented immediately after reading. The Army had to refine the tactics and conduct targeted training. Armored forces would also incur considerable wear and tear during large-scale training. To maintain and adjust thousands of tanks, planes, and artillery pieces before the war was indeed a terrifying task.

By early April 1940, the German army had finally completed its war preparations for attacking France in terms of equipment and personnel. What disappointed the Mustache somewhat was that during this stage, no matter how much Britain clamored, its troops in Europe did not move towards the Indian Ocean. The so-called "Continental Line of Communication" plan turned out to be all thunder and no rain. Britain only used a small portion of its troops in India.

What the Mustache found very incomprehensible was that after China fought to the border of Burma and India, they did not continue to advance into India, but only continued to strike at British naval power in the Indian Ocean. The entire Asian theater seemed to have stabilized. But the arrow was on the string and had to be fired; Germany's war against France officially began on April 10, 1940.

Equipped with better tanks and planes, the German offensive was much sharper than in history. Just like in history, when the British and French Allied forces facing Germany's Army Group B learned that the Germans had rushed through the Ardennes, crossed the Meuse River, and were charging through the French heartland towards the coast, this bunch of allied troops jumped onto cars and trucks and ran for their lives towards the English Channel.

German Army Group B didn't have many tanks or trucks, and Army Group B hadn't expected the British and French Allied forces to be so decisive. The commander of Army Group B and the frontline commanders were still suspecting that the Allies had set some kind of trap, preparing to hit them with a counterattack while the German army was pursuing. In this moment of hesitation, the Allied forces had already run without a trace. By the time Army Group B received the order to urgently pursue the Allies, the commander of Army Group B was worried.

In theory and practice, the pursuing force is never stronger than the fleeing party. But the problem now was that Army Group B had a total of less than ten divisions of troops under its command. They had to occupy Belgium and the Netherlands, and also pursue the British and French Allied forces.

The British and French Allied forces, adding the retreating Dutch army, totaled over three hundred thousand men. These three hundred thousand troops brought hundreds of tanks, tens of thousands of trucks, and thousands of artillery pieces. As long as the commander could recover slightly from his panic, he could organize a powerful counterattack of infantry, artillery, and tank forces at any time. The area the Allies retreated to, Dunkirk, was a canal zone, crisscrossed with waterways, easy to defend and hard to attack, and extremely unsuitable for armored warfare.

The number of infantry in German Army Group B was small to begin with, and two legs could never outrun four wheels. Asking a group of infantrymen who were dead tired from marching to carry rifles and attack an area of over twenty square kilometers defended by hundreds of thousands of people and thousands of artillery pieces... was there anything more bullshit than this?

Even so, Army Group B spread their legs and chased after them. The brave German infantry did not hesitate to march all night, striving to engage the British and French Allied forces a day sooner.

At this time, over 60% of the tanks and armored vehicles in the German armored forces had already suffered serious damage and completely lost combat effectiveness. The Mustache and the German General Staff both believed they couldn't let the armored forces bang their heads against a wall. The German armored forces also made attempts to attack, but the defensive positions laid out by fifty thousand Frenchmen caused not insignificant damage to the German armored forces in very traditional trench warfare.

The armor of German tanks could not withstand the concentrated fire of the 75mm and larger caliber artillery at Dunkirk. The artillery on German tanks, less than 50mm in caliber, was also helpless against Dunkirk's defensive positions. To eat up the British and French Allied forces, they could only wait for the German infantry to drag their artillery over to participate in the siege.

This was a race against time. Would the German large-caliber siege guns arrive first? Or would Britain be able to evacuate these personnel from Dunkirk by sea? At this moment, fate clearly did not favor either side.

Air Force Commander Göring commanded the German Luftwaffe to fiercely attack the beaches of Dunkirk, but Germany had no strategic bombers. After bombs fell on the beach and blasted up a cloud of sand, their lethality was greatly reduced. The British and French Allied forces could also use various artillery pieces to form a dense anti-aircraft fire net; German Luftwaffe dive bombers would just be courting death if they rushed in. Göring didn't have any good solutions either.

At this time, Manstein, who had formulated the military plan, was squatting in Poland as an infantry corps commander, being punished for reporting over his superiors' heads. In fact, the General Staff had not failed to seriously study the battle plan submitted by Manstein; they had conducted detailed studies three times. But at that time, everyone didn't believe that German armored forces could cross the Ardennes and fight their way to the English Channel. This plan was too risky; any mistake would lead to the total annihilation of the German armored forces.

In the matter of punishing Manstein, the General Staff had already been very kind. They only kicked Manstein to Poland to be an infantry corps commander, but didn't blacklist him. If Manstein were allowed to participate in the French campaign, and if this plan succeeded, Manstein would surely achieve fame and success. But then the young officers below would follow suit, and if everyone reported over their superiors' heads whenever they had a plan, would military discipline still be observed? If the battle plan failed, would Manstein have any way out other than suicide?

Manstein, originally born von Lewinski, was the tenth child of an artillery general. Von Lewinski's brother-in-law, Infantry General von Manstein, had no children, so Manstein was adopted by his uncle-in-law. Both of Manstein's grandfathers were German generals, and Manstein's other uncle-in-law was Field Marshal Hindenburg. No matter what Manstein did, the German General Staff was still very protective of one of their own who was very capable and promising.

Learning of the situation at Dunkirk, Manstein burned with anxiety. He did another thing: he privately ordered someone to contact the military attaché at the Chinese Embassy in Germany. This military attaché had been a classmate of Manstein's when he was studying with the Chinese armored forces. Manstein already knew that China had used a bomb of immense power in the Southern Campaign. If he could get this bomb, he could easily wipe out the defenders at Dunkirk. Manstein's effort was a last-ditch attempt, doing what he could. When formulating this plan, he had also hoped to get this terrible weapon from China, but the Chinese side had given absolutely no response.

Manstein's classmate in China quickly gave Manstein a reply. The Chinese military attaché did not mention the fuel-air explosive, but suggested that Germany use the air force as a guide during the day and utilize large-caliber artillery captured in France to fire on ships in the Dunkirk channel. At night, they should implement interdiction fire.

This method was immediately reported by Manstein to the General Staff. Even though the General Staff was annoyed with Manstein for submitting military plans directly to Hitler, they would not ignore such an effective opinion. This time without any hesitation, the General Staff sent this suggestion to the German Army besieging Dunkirk.

The German Army was also frantic, their heads filled with thoughts of how to resolve the British and French Allied forces through frontal combat. After being reminded, they immediately organized the captured large-caliber artillery. These artillery pieces might not be able to break the Allied defensive positions at Dunkirk, but they could effectively pose a huge threat to the ships Britain used for evacuation.

Once the Germans figured it out, the British suffered. On the retreat route, a barrage of large-caliber shells would fly over every so often. Although the quantity and density weren't high, if one hit, a small boat would immediately sink with all hands, and on large ships crowded with retreating personnel, flesh and blood would fly. During the day, with the German Luftwaffe providing fire direction, the accuracy was very good. At night, the British convoys could only sail along relatively fixed channels, and the power of the shelling wasn't bad. The retreating fleet suffered heavy losses.

Fatty Churchill's painstakingly devised retreat plan only evacuated 180,000 men. During the retreat, over 600 ships of various types were lost. All the heavy and light equipment of the British and French Allied forces was left on the beaches of Dunkirk for the Germans to capture.

What made Britain feel even more desolate was that among the original Allied powers against China, Germany and the Soviet Union had joined hands to partition Poland; that country was completely destroyed, and the Polish government-in-exile was in London. The Netherlands was now also occupied by Germany, and the Dutch Queen had fled to Canada with her whole family in exile. France, the ally later roped in against Germany, was now also destroyed. Just after the Dunkirk evacuation ended, the repaired German armored forces swung south, and France was quickly taken out.

Marshal Pétain surrendered with France, and the Vichy government was established in southern France. Because the British immediately dispatched a fleet to attack the French fleet, this completely caused the French to start being hostile towards the British. The only Frenchmen standing with the British right now were the "Free France" in London, led by a division commander named de Gaulle.

Britain's former allies had all fallen to the point of national destruction; this couldn't help but make Britain feel terrified.

It wasn't just Britain that was full of panic; the American side was also frightened by Germany. Poland conquered in 27 days, Denmark in 1 day, Norway in 23 days, the Netherlands in 5 days, Belgium in 18 days, and France, with the "strongest army in Europe," conquered in 39 days.

During the war in Europe, world maps and pins with small flags of various colors to stick on the maps sold like crazy in the United States. Most Americans didn't understand geography very well; this time they were learning European geography by watching the European war.

The war between China and Britain might still be considered by the United States as a war unfolding in the barbaric and backward Western Pacific. But the war in Western Europe made the United States profoundly realize that the world had changed. Currently, the United States had only 100,000 army troops and 300 tanks. Adding the Navy and Air Force, the total number of regular troops did not exceed 300,000.

Facing China across the Pacific, the United States could still laugh and think that China could not cross the vast Pacific to attack the United States. But in modern warfare, the Atlantic Ocean did not present an insurmountable "tyranny of distance." Facing the millions of troops, thousands of tanks, and over ten thousand aircraft possessed by Fascist Germany, when the United States realized in reality that the possibility of national destruction existed, America, from top to bottom, truly felt afraid. With America's current military strength, they could not withstand the German army.

Starting in May 1940, the United States began a massive military expansion.