Father of France

Chapter 173 International Perspective
Of course, even as the French Prime Minister, Georges Pitoull could not have predicted the future. For Germany and many European countries, 1946 was the darkness before dawn.

After a year of evaluation, the United States' assessment that these old European imperialist powers are nothing special is quickly becoming the mainstream view.

At that time, the Marshall Plan will be used to prevent these old imperialist powers from becoming hopeless and stuck in the mud, and to prevent them from being reddened by the Soviet Union.

However, as the prime minister of a country, George Pidur was certainly aware of what use this shipment of rice from the Indochina Peninsula would be if neighboring countries were suffering from disasters.

As a country in Europe renowned for its superior agricultural conditions, France unsurprisingly avoided a reduction in grain production this time. However, this is no reason to refuse this batch of rice. Who would refuse to demonstrate French leadership? Not to your liking? Modern Europeans don't have that many fuss oversights. Do they want to starve?

The rice from the two major rice trading centers in Saigon and Bangkok easily helped France quell the Dutch food shortage, and the rice even crossed the border into the German-occupied territories.

Koman continued to immerse himself in Thai culture, even attending a Thai wedding to broaden his horizons, as he had never attended a wedding in an Indian-influenced country before.

Buddhism has such a great influence in Thailand that Buddhist elements are unavoidable during important life events.

A highly respected monk first scooped up holy water with a conch shell and sprinkled it on the hands of the newlyweds.

Then, other elders and relatives stepped forward one by one, dipped lotus petals connected to the holy water basin in water, and gently sprinkled it on the newlyweds' hands, offering their blessings. This symbolizes washing away misfortune and bringing purity, happiness, and prosperity.

Seeing the bride approach and greet her with "Sawasdee ka," Koman nodded politely but indifferently, while also acknowledging the groom. This wedding was a marriage alliance, a powerful union between the Liao family, the rice king, and the Wu family, the timber king, a common practice among overseas Chinese.

Koeman and Louis F. F.'s French Indochina representative, Ekda, were invited to the event, and of course, he didn't refuse, so he pulled the other party over.

“Judging from this wedding, I wouldn’t doubt it if you said it was in a wealthy country,” Akda whispered to Koman after the bride and groom had gone elsewhere. The meaning in her words was unclear—whether it was jealousy or envy, or perhaps both.

Although Louis F. Fauci represented French Indochina, Ekda's personal wealth was likely less than that of any of the wealthy Chinese who had left the country during that period.

“Don’t underestimate these Chinese merchants. Aren’t the Chinese merchants in Saigon quite wealthy?” Coleman took a sip of brandy and remarked on how thoughtful his host was to have prepared such a foreign liquor. “There’s something Louis Fida might be qualified to help our army, which is one of your businesses.”

"Your Honor can speak frankly, it was you who helped our company first," Akda said solemnly. Koman's minor innovations in subprime lending were actually a revival of the greed of usury imperialism, making Thailand, which was in ruins, a hotbed of activity.

Based on current development projections, both Louis Fida and the National Bank of France are the winners.

In fact, if any country with considerable financial power at this time, not to mention the United States or even the United Kingdom, had taken notice of the situation in Thailand and had done something bad to France, it could have given the Bank of France a hard time.

But the United States is not paying attention to tiny Thailand, and Britain is busy with British India, so France has no rivals.

In the post-war reconstruction period, Corman helped important institutions in two key sectors of French society to expand their business and capital against the odds, and Ekda no longer considers Corman an outsider.

One's position often determines one's perspective, and Koeman now has proven results that are not easily questioned. Whatever he says, Akda is willing to listen first.

“Then I’ll be frank. As a long-established grain trading company, I hope Louis Fuda can plant some experimental rice fields in some parts of Africa, that’s all,” Coman said bluntly. “Of course, we hope to see seeds that can be grown on African soil.”

There are three main types of staple foods in the world. France currently only has an advantage in rice, and at this time it controls the two major trading centers of Bangkok and Saigon.

However, for the other two commodities, wheat and corn, France's natural conditions would never result in a wheat shortage, and it also has a certain export capacity.

As for corn, it is impossible for it to defeat the agricultural empire of the United States. Moreover, corn is the main crop grown in Latin America, and the influence of the United States in the Americas is self-evident.

In terms of global staple food production, corn has an overwhelming advantage, with total production almost equal to that of wheat and rice. However, corn serves as feed and meets some industrial needs, and most of it is not for human consumption. Therefore, wheat and rice are the world's mainstream staple foods.

Comparing the yields of wheat and rice, these two crops are roughly equal, and many countries cultivate them simultaneously, especially large Asian countries.

Rice yields exceed those of wheat, and in areas with abundant rainfall, such as Java in Indonesia, it can even produce nine harvests in two years.

Because rice needs to be hulled, and because fewer countries grow it due to its high water requirements, the total yield of rice is reduced by 30% after hulling.

In other words, France currently holds an advantage in the area with the lowest yield among the three major staple grains. The United States has an absolute advantage in corn cultivation, which is almost unshakeable.

France can only try to find solutions for wheat and rice. Among the three staple crops, the order of water demand is rice, wheat, and corn. Corn is the most drought-resistant of the three, while rice is the most water-demanding.

There are only a handful of places in the world with abundant water resources. Southeast Asia is one, the Amazon rainforest is another, but you could also say the Amazon rainforest isn't.

The Amazon rainforest has so much water that even in the 21st century, there wasn't a single bridge across it, and its estuary is no smaller than the Bohai Bay. That area had virtually no agriculture in the 21st century.

So, the only place left that doesn't lack water is French Equatorial Africa. Could rice grown in French Indochina be directly transplanted to other French colonies? Of course not. The soils are different. Seeds that thrive in black soil can't be directly planted on the Loess Plateau; direct transplantation would most likely result in total crop failure.

Koman has a friend who went to China and couldn't adapt to the local vegetables. He brought seeds from his hometown and planted them there, but they only grew tall but didn't bear fruit. If this is the case in one country, imagine how it is between two continents.

It will definitely take several years of cultivation to find seeds suitable for African soil before large-scale planting can begin.

While the soil quality in French Equatorial Africa is indeed somewhat poor, conditions are much better in other aspects. Rain and heat typically occur in the vicinity of the equator, with Java, which has nine seasons in two years, being a typical example.

While the land area of ​​French Equatorial Africa certainly cannot compare to that of Java, the island nation with the highest agricultural potential, other conditions are not too different. Furthermore, Africa's population had not yet exploded at that time, and limited development could indeed bring about a huge leap in production.

If France is to see the first rice varieties suitable for African soil before Chang Gong is stationed on the isolated island, then preparations should begin now.

"Our army will certainly defend French sovereignty to the death, but it's not wrong to consider the worst-case scenario. The Gendarmerie Command will definitely cooperate with Louis-Fuda's experiments in Africa." Koeman made his demands of Louis-Fuda with such confidence, as if he were giving orders to Bokassa. He had greatly expanded Louis-Fuda's business; were his demands excessive?

In the 21st century, apart from Asian countries accounting for 90% of rice production, the remaining 10% is primarily produced in Africa, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. This is because rice yields per unit area exceed those of wheat, and southern Africa has ample water resources.

With the cooperation, or rather, the supervision, of the Gendarmerie Command, Louis Fuda was confident that he would not outwardly comply but inwardly defy them. Sure enough, these words made the already serious Ekda even more serious.

Louis Fida and the French National Bank in Saigon continued to expand their business in Bangkok, but Coman, a soldier, could not stay long in a country unrelated to France, and soon set off for Saigon.

At this time, the first large-scale conflict between the French army and the Viet Minh broke out in Haiphong. After Thuong Gong withdrew from North Vietnam, Haiphong was controlled by the Viet Minh, which was unacceptable to the French Indochina authorities.

Ultimately, Dassanliu decided to take a military approach to the Viet Minh forces. He knew this would lead to the breakdown of negotiations in Paris, but he didn't care. The first dialogue between the French army and the Viet Minh began on the battlefield.

Previously, the French army did not have a completely harmonious relationship with the Viet Minh, but there was no fighting involved.

In the past few months, the French army's operations in Vietnam have been going very smoothly. They have swept away the poorly equipped so-called Viet Minh armed forces with overwhelming force. Apart from a few symbolic resistances, the Vietnamese have not really inflicted much damage on the French army.

Their so-called battles were nothing more than sniping from the jungle or launching surprise attacks under the cover of night. In face-to-face positional warfare, the French army often only needed a few rounds of artillery fire to break down their defenses.

But this time was different. In the battle of Haiphong, the French army's strong firepower was a huge advantage, so the troops advanced relatively smoothly. The Viet Minh, who were resisting on the front, seemed to be relatively weak, and the advancing troops suffered few casualties. But this was not expected to be an illusion.

When Coman returned to Saigon, the battle for Haiphong had been going on for two days. Although the local French forces reported that they had taken control of Haiphong, the resulting casualties of over a hundred were the first of their kind since returning to French Indochina.

This result is hardly optimistic. France is thousands of miles away; how can it possibly compete with the Viet Minh in terms of resource exchange?

Although the French battle reports stated that they had inflicted more than 400 casualties on the Viet Minh in the past three days of fighting, this number was four times the French losses.

The fourfold casualty figures and control of the coastline might seem to justify calling this coastal defense battle a victory, but the key question is whether General Leclerc believed it, and clearly he did not.

Therefore, he and Dassanio discussed the issue of French Indochina again. "A short war is possible, but after we gain the upper hand, we should still consider peace talks."

“I think that before resolving the Viet Minh issue, the issue of peace talks cannot be considered, and we also need to take into account the international impact.” The international impact that Ta Sanliu was referring to was the city on the hill.

(End of this chapter)