Father of France

Chapter 148 King of Cakes, Koman
The Army General Staff replied earlier than the government, almost immediately after seeing the military buildup plan in French Indochina, and gave an affirmative answer.

It's not hard to tell without much thought that this plan to build an army by incorporating Catholic groups is very similar to the operation a few years ago in which various Christian factions were recruited around Syria.

Admiral Dragon knew that Coman was currently in French Indochina, and upon seeing the plan, which had only had the subject changed, he could immediately tell who it came from.

However, this plan involves more aspects, including land reform, making it more complex than the one in Syria.

The arable land included in the land reform alone amounted to 300,000 hectares, which is about one-tenth of the current arable land in southern Vietnam. As for northern French Indochina, France had no jurisdiction over it for the time being.

This land reform plan was clearly designed to deal with the current alliance between the left-wing Socialist Party and the French Communist Party. In the area of ​​progress, Koeman was not targeting anyone in particular; he was not incapable of progress.

Land reform was not a necessity for Soviet-style countries. In fact, many Eastern European countries did not carry out land nationalization movements, or at least not thoroughly. In Poland, more than 80 percent of the land is privately owned, and only a little over 10 percent is state-owned.

Another example is Yugoslavia, where Tito, in an effort to gain domestic support, abandoned the mandatory collectivization policy. Yugoslavia then shifted to a unique system of "workers' self-government," and relatively relaxed control over agriculture.

The government allowed farmers to leave collective farms, effectively abolishing the collectivization movement.

Later, the mixed farms in Yugoslavia were actually similar to farms in the United States, with individual farmers still dominating and owning most of the arable land.

In fact, even after the Vietnam War ended, unified Vietnam had not completed land reform. Vietnam's unification came too late, and many socialist transformations were not completed. The Soviet-controlled system was already gradually losing ground. Moreover, Vietnam was caught in a two-front war in the late 1970s.

It can be said that Vietnam simply did not have a good environment to complete its land reform policy. The Soviet Union was too busy to help and could not provide assistance. Vietnam's land reform was only half completed. Simply put, North Vietnam completed it, while South Vietnam did not have the time to complete it completely.

Land reform in North Vietnam began in the 1950s, with the land and some property of landlords being confiscated and distributed to agricultural laborers, poor peasants, and some middle peasants. In theory, landlords should generally receive as much land as their former tenants and should be allowed to retain their houses and most of their other property.

But now Corman is preparing to take the lead in implementing land reform in southern French Indochina before the Viet Minh. This land reform is limited to the Catholic community. If a full-scale land reform were to be implemented, France wouldn't even have to wait until 1954; it's questionable whether it could have gained a foothold by now.

Another problem is that land reform through redemption requires money, and Koeman doesn't want to pay for it. He doesn't even want to pay for Catholic land reform, let alone a full-scale land reform.

Land reform, especially one involving 300,000 hectares, made Lefebvre worry for his superior, Corman, especially since he knew Corman had no intention of having the governor's office cover the costs of the redemption. Where would the money come from? It couldn't just magically appear out of thin air.

“It’s not a big problem.” Faced with Lefebvre’s concerns, Koeman calmly gestured for people to calm down. “Whether it’s privatization or nationalization, it’s all about making money. It just depends on how we shift the blame.”

It may seem that land reform through redemption would place a financial burden on the French Indochina Governor-General's Office, but this is a solution.

There are at least three ways. The first way is to refer to North Vietnam and eliminate the landlord class. Then the land reform can proceed smoothly without incurring any costs, the costs of which are the landlord class.

However, this method was only available to the Viet Minh, which did so during the land reform in Vietnam in the 1950s.

But France can't use that approach. Both countries carried out land reform. If France also eliminated the landlord class, what would be the difference between them and the Viet Minh? They were still the Vietnamese people's own people. Either way, they would die, so they might as well die at the hands of their own people.

So, besides eliminating the landlord class, there was another way: abolish Vietnam's local currency and have Paris start printing francs, following the gold yuan route to exhaust the resources of Vietnam.

However, this method is time-sensitive. If France wants to make a quick buck before leaving, then it is certainly a good method.

However, France did not want to leave too soon. Considering the time it would take for more colonies to gain independence, this method of printing money and plundering was actually very suitable for British India, which was about to gain independence.

After all, India was set to gain independence in 1947. If the British did this, they could accumulate enormous wealth in a short period and then leave all the problems to the post-independence Indians. However, if French Indochina were to follow the timeline of 1954, printing money to promote land reform would certainly fall into French hands, making this method extremely risky for Coman.

Aside from eliminating the landlord class and implementing unlimited quantitative easing, there is only one other way: to find a group with huge capital to help France solve the problem of land buyout reform. So, after all the twists and turns, it still comes down to working with wealthy Chinese to solve this problem.

Currently, there are five Chinese banks in French Indochina: Far Eastern Bank, Asian Bank, Nanyang Bank, Vietnam Industrial and Commercial Bank, and Saigon Bank of Vietnam. These banks were all founded by Chinese entrepreneurs who were successful businesspeople. They established these banks primarily to serve the financing and settlement needs of their own businesses, and based on this, to provide services to the entire Chinese business network of their fellow countrymen and ethnic groups.

Koeman then happily invited the Chinese bankers in French Indochina, and this time he also wanted to have a good talk with these wealthy Chinese about the issue of land nationalization.

The goal was similar to MacArthur's land reform in Japan. Koeman wanted a good reputation but didn't want to spend money, so he hoped that wealthy Chinese could solve this problem.

"The Zhu and Guo families are representative conglomerates in French Indochina. Half of Saigon's wealth, amounting to hundreds of billions of francs, is in your hands." Coman wasn't exaggerating; however, given the current exchange rate between the franc and the dollar, the so-called hundreds of billions of francs in wealth wasn't actually that enormous.

Koeman is quite good at making empty promises, and he's very bold in doing so. First, he took the initiative to propose a pilot program for land nationalization, which currently mainly involves the Catholic population, a small number.

The fact that the land was not entirely nationalized relieved the wealthy Chinese, who were assured that they wouldn't be exploited by Koeman.

"If you are proud citizens of France, I will also offer a series of preferential conditions. For example, the land purchase fee or lease fee can be paid in installments, the Bank of East Asia will provide low-interest loans to farmers, and the Bank of East Asia will help issue bonds to raise funds, etc. You will not be at a disadvantage. This is entrusting millions of Catholics and their land to you to manage. Do you understand the significance of this?"

"At the same time, in order to be responsible to everyone, the Governor's Office will issue five-year and ten-year bonds. All funds that cannot be cashed out at the moment can be converted into bonds. The French government guarantees their credit."

Everything Koeman said was sincere at this moment, but it is also a fact that the French government changes every few months.

He wasn't simply fleecing people; in fact, according to his calculations, five to ten years would be enough to recoup the funds provided by the Chinese bank, and there were still eight years until 1954. The Frenchman's words, even within eight years, still carried some credibility.

The core reason he doesn't want to take out the money is that he doesn't want to put out so much money at once and then recover it little by little through loans. In fact, he doesn't want to take any risk at all.

However, if Chinese banks were to provide this funding, the stability of French Indochina, at least in the south, would be greatly improved, and they might actually be able to profit from recovering the loan.

Of course, that wasn't enough. For the sake of France, Corman was unwilling to take any risks, but if the Chinese were willing to take the risks, he would reciprocate with gratitude. So Corman waved his hand, and Lefebvre produced a map of French Africa, beginning the second phase of his pie-in-the-sky promises.

In other words, British India had not yet gained independence; otherwise, just this map of French Africa would be enough to make any Frenchman proud.

“Actually, I can help everyone go beyond one city or one place and truly go global.” Coman spread out a map of French Africa and said in a seductive tone, “The French Empire still has some legacies, more than ten million square kilometers of vast and rich land. Your contributions will not be forgotten. I have everything arranged.”

“Sir, we need a promise.” The representative from the Zhu family of Far East Bank was the first to react, his gaze sweeping over Koman’s epaulets, clearly not thinking that a captain’s words carried much weight.

While Chinese people generally don't have conflicts with colonists, when it comes to wealth like the Zhu family, they wouldn't be so easily subdued by a French captain with just a few words.

The Guo family representative from the Asian Development Bank nodded, clearly indicating the same idea. This Guo family representative was obviously a new face, which also shows that members within such large Chinese families are likely to each manage their own affairs.

"It is indeed a bit strange for a captain to make any promises while holding land of the French Empire."

Undeterred by this rudeness, Corman slowly rose to his feet, hands on his knees, before these Chinese bankers, and said, “Let me introduce myself. I am Captain Corman of the French Gendarmerie, and my father is General Dracon, Chief of the General Staff of the Army. The new land reform and the military buildup plan in French Indochina have received the full support of the French Army General Staff. On behalf of the French Army and the esteemed bankers, I would like to discuss the issues of land nationalization, including the redemption and loan policies.”

(End of this chapter)