Expedition to Europe

The name "Foreign Legion Headquarters" sounds quite high-end, but in reality it is extremely short, poor and ugly.

There is no house over three stories high in the entire Foreign Legion Headquarters. Almost all of them are one-story bungalows. It's just that because it is built on the mountain, the houses look scattered and seem to have a certain scale.

People in this era have no concept of tourism, let alone the concept of city image. The exterior walls of the houses are almost unpainted. In the evening, it is gray and not very real. Everything seems to be hidden in the fog.

For safety reasons, there are almost no trees in the barracks, which guarantees the wide field of vision to the greatest extent, but it also leads to a very serious problem.

Standing on the spires of the "churches" outside the barracks and looking at the Foreign Legion Headquarters, you can really see everything.

I really don't know if the former commanders-in-chief were kicked in the head by a donkey. They actually allowed these locals to build buildings higher than the walls of the Foreign Legion outside the barracks. Is this to prove their honesty?

Honesty is bullshit!

You are a bunch of war hounds, why do you want to be honest? If you really want to be honest, just tear down the wall.

The first thing Qin Zhiyuan did after entering the Foreign Legion headquarters was to build an airport. Perhaps because airplanes had just appeared and the Foreign Legion had not been organized in this way, there was not even an airport in the barracks. This made Qin Zhiyuan, who was used to transport planes, unbearable. Building an airport, even a simple airport, was imperative.

Building an airport requires people. After Qin Zhiyuan made this request to Marco, he actually got a very unexpected answer.

"Of course we can build an airport, but we don't have enough manpower or enough funds..." Marco looked calm.

No one has no money, so what's the point.

"How can there be no money? Doesn't Congress allocate funds every year? Is there no share for our Foreign Legion?" Qin Zhiyuan was curious.

Like Corsica, Algeria also enjoys financial subsidies from the French government. Before the discovery of oil fields in Algeria, this was the largest income for the Algerian government. But as the largest overseas territory of France, Algeria's position in the French government is obviously much more important, and it receives more financial subsidies.

Corsica's annual subsidy is about 2 to 3 million francs, while in Algeria, the French government's financial subsidies here are in the hundreds of millions.

These financial subsidies are used to pay civil servants' salaries, and also to subsidize agricultural products. Of course, more of them will be used for social infrastructure, such as the railway from Sidi Bel Abbas to Oran, and the port groups of Oran and El Kebir, which were built using these subsidies.

Under normal circumstances, after these financial subsidies are allocated to Algeria, a part of them will definitely be allocated to the Foreign Legion, and it should be a considerable part. After all, the Foreign Legion not only undertakes external combat missions, but also has internal stability maintenance tasks.

"Originally, there were, but now the situation is special. You know, we are already busy dealing with the war at home, and it is really difficult to take care of this place. The situation last year was better, but this year's funding is even less, and we can only maintain basic staff salaries. For this reason, we have to live frugally. The staff of the Legion Headquarters is just enough to maintain normal operations. Many locals have been laid off, and we don't have more money to buy those locals' things, so the contradictions have been further intensified." Marco said a cruel fact with difficulty.

Although the French government has always wanted to assimilate Algeria, it seems that the effect is not very good. Algerians still insist on their culture and religion so far, and there is no sign of integration with France. On the contrary, some Europeans who migrated from Europe to Algeria converted to the local fetishism in Algeria.

In this way, France's assimilation of Algeria is simply a joke.

Now is the World War. In order to maintain the war, the French have already owed a lot of debts to the Americans. Naturally, they have no time to take care of Algeria, so the financial appropriation is neither timely nor sufficient.

This is not just the case for Algeria. The French government is also reducing the size of its funding for Corsica this year. However, Qin Zhiyuan does not care about this. Unlike Algeria, Corsica under Qin Zhiyuan's rule is less dependent on these funding. It is good to have them, but it doesn't matter if they don't. Anyway, the annual funding is not enough to pay the monthly salary of Qin Zhiyuan's people. It is really a drizzle.

"If it was in the past, how to build an airport with a 1,000-meter runway?" Qin Zhiyuan didn't know much about the procedures here.

"First, establish the project, do a feasibility study, then do the project cost, and then report it to the Governor's Office. The Governor's Office will send people to check it. After it is passed, they will request additional funding from Congress. Then we will get the money and go to the locals to hand over the project to them. All we need to do is acceptance." Marco is quite proficient in the business.

"How long will this process take?" Qin Zhiyuan asked.

Just listening to this procedure, Qin Zhiyuan felt that it was really complicated. After going through this circle, maybe Christmas has passed.

"It's hard to say how long it will take. It depends on the efficiency of those officials. It may be five months or half a year. The key is that the locals here are extremely lazy. They work less than six hours a day. Even in these six hours, they have to perform three religious ceremonies every day, each of which takes half an hour. If we ask them to be faster, they will go on strike and say that we don't respect their habits and traditions." Marco was helpless. It seemed that he had racked his brains when dealing with these locals.

"Tradition? My tradition is simplicity and efficiency. Before talking to me about tradition, first consider whether his tradition conflicts with my tradition. If I respect him, who will respect me?" Qin Zhiyuan hates those who always talk about tradition.

If everyone returns to tradition, humans should go hunting naked. If anyone wants to live like that, let him go. People who will not adjust themselves because of changes in the objective environment can only be eliminated by society.

"But Paris requires respect for their traditions..." Marco was a little contradictory.

Intellectually, Marco was right, but legally, what Qin Zhiyuan said could not be realized. The French national policy towards Algeria was familiar to Qin Zhiyuan. Regardless of whether this policy of "respecting tradition" was right or wrong, it was itself a disrespect for another part of tradition. Qin Zhiyuan was powerless and could only passively accept it, but now Qin Zhiyuan is different. He has become one of the people who make the rules and may be able to do something.

"They should all be hanged!" Qin Zhiyuan did not specify who should be hanged, but his opposition to this policy was obvious: "Okay, no matter who the Parisians are, we have the final say here. Marco, your task is to find me a piece of land that must not be less than one thousand meters in length and five hundred meters in width, and leave the rest to me."

Qin Zhiyuan did not want to build an airport in the "traditional" way. He felt disgusted when he thought about going back to Paris and having to use the "train-ship-train" method for a week.

If you take a plane, it only takes about six hours to get from Sidi Bel Abbas to Paris, and the difference is obvious.

"Yes, Mr. Commander." Marco saluted at attention, then turned and left.

This was the first night at the Foreign Legion headquarters, and there were not many things to do. In fact, whether there is a commander or not, the Foreign Legion headquarters will continue to operate according to inertia. This is the advantage of the system. As long as there is a strict system, even if a dog sits in Qin Zhiyuan's position, it will not cause any big trouble. At most, it will not develop in a better direction, but it will not develop in a worse direction.

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The protesting women and children in front of the door have left. They have been shouting for a whole day, and they probably need to rest their throats. Qin Zhiyuan was exhausted after a day of traveling, and his body was also extremely tired. He slept very well that night.

The next day, Qin Zhiyuan officially took office and began to perform the duties of the commander-in-chief of the Foreign Legion.

The commander-in-chief's office is a two-story single-family villa, which is a rare duplex structure in the legion headquarters. The decoration inside the villa is extremely wild, with animal head specimens and whole beast furs everywhere. Even Qin Zhiyuan's office has a huge bull head. These specimens are not handicrafts, but real things. It seems that the former commander-in-chief is a hunting enthusiast.

Qin Zhiyuan's office occupies the entire second floor, with an independent lounge and an entertainment room that is no smaller than the office. There is a small bar and wine rack in the entertainment room, as well as various entertainment facilities including a billiard table. Qin Zhiyuan even found a set of mahjong cards, which is really speechless. It seems that the former commander-in-chief has a wide range of hobbies.

These things are the "legacy" left by the former commander to Qin Zhiyuan, and also include a whole cellar of various fine wines... It is in line with the consistent style of French generals.

Sitting in the office with a huge world map, Qin Zhiyuan first paid attention to the current situation of the Foreign Legion. After reading the information compiled by Pierre and Gao Hongshi, Qin Zhiyuan could only shake his head and sigh.

The current situation of the Foreign Legion is really not good.

The Foreign Legion originally had fifteen recruitment points in North Africa and West Africa, but after the "Gagging Day" incident, these recruitment points were abolished one after another, and now they are waiting for Qin Zhiyuan to restore them one by one. At the same time, the Legion Headquarters now only has about two companies of garrison troops. The remaining people have either died in battle, are serving sentences in prison, or have been dismissed.

The number of officers is not optimistic. At present, the Legion Headquarters has only more than ten officers headed by Marco. The highest rank is Marco's colonel, and the second highest is only a captain.

No wonder only Marco went to greet Qin Zhiyuan yesterday.

The problem of officers is not serious. There are enough officers among the people Qin Zhiyuan brought.

The key issue is to restore those recruitment points immediately. If those recruitment points are not restored to normal, the Foreign Legion will not be able to replenish fresh blood in time, and it will be a long way to restore the glory of the Foreign Legion.

It is not difficult to restore those recruitment points. Although the recruitment points have been temporarily closed, the staff have not evacuated. They just need to resume normal work. Qin Zhiyuan ordered that only some of the recruitment points in Central Africa and West Africa be restored. The recruitment points in North Africa will temporarily stop recruiting and wait for Qin Zhiyuan's next order.

Marco's work efficiency is quite good. In just one night, Marco found a suitable place to build an airport. This is thanks to the fact that the corps headquarters covers a large enough area.

Africa has nothing but a large enough land area.