CHAPTER 108: CHAPTER 117: OPERATION AID THREE UNDERWAY

Just like the reorganization in Tunisia, as soon as the reinforcements arrived, they were classified according to their educational background and specialties, and then assigned to various search teams. Other matters could wait; building a sense of collective belonging came first.

Accompanying the reinforcements to Marseille was the second shipment of tungsten ore from home—6,000 tons.

It must be said, when it comes to making money, those corrupt officials are unbelievably efficient. It’s hard to imagine that they managed to prepare and ship out so much tungsten ore in just over a month.

It just goes to show that money really does motivate people. For wealth, people will risk their lives, just as birds will for food. This is true for everyone, including Pierre. While the expeditionary force entered France and the Allies were advancing north toward Paris, Pierre drove to Switzerland.

During wartime, Switzerland’s border controls were extremely strict, mainly to prevent Jews and resistance members from entering and thereby offending Germany. Swiss neutrality has always been flexible. However, such strict controls made no difference for diplomatic passports—just show the passport, and you could drive into Switzerland with ease. Thanks to Wellington Koo, Pierre’s passport was a diplomatic one.

This diplomatic passport didn’t care about national status; the treatment was the same for all. Even Pierre’s car wasn’t checked at all—it simply passed through customs.

The whole border crossing process couldn’t have been easier.

In Geneva, when Pierre met with Berlin again, this once energetic man now looked a bit haggard. It was understandable, as anyone could see that with the Allies firmly established in France, their next step would be toward Germany itself. At the same time, the Russians were also advancing into German territory.

Germany was already on the road to ruin.

The collapse of the empire was just around the corner...

Still, before the empire collapsed, there was still a chance to help them out a bit—and earn a little gold.

"How much tungsten ore did you bring?"

As soon as they met, Berlin asked directly.

"Twenty thousand dollars a ton, just as we agreed. We’ll take as much tungsten ore as you have."

His urgency was because Germany needed tungsten ore—not only for making carbide tools essential for arms production, but more importantly, for manufacturing tungsten-carbide armor-piercing shells. Without the tungsten mines of Portugal and Spain, they had neither the tools to make weapons nor the tungsten-core shells capable of destroying T-34s and IS-2s at long range.

So, as long as there was tungsten ore, gold was no object.

"Five thousand tons! The next batch should be another two thousand tons, but that will be in ten days."

Pierre had no intention of completing the transaction all at once. After all, this was a deal worth over a hundred million dollars—involving nearly a hundred tons of gold. If the Germans decided to double-cross him, it would be a disaster.

"What! Five thousand tons!"

Berlin was shocked.

"How did you get it in?"

"This is just the first batch. In the next two months, I can provide another ten thousand tons of tungsten ore, provided you have enough gold."

Ten thousand tons was the guarantee given by the Prince Consort. In other matters, these people might not be reliable, but when it came to business, they were absolutely diligent—after all, no one thinks money burns their hands. Never doubt their motivation to make money.

"There’s definitely enough gold! Don’t worry, we can settle at a Swiss bank. As long as you have the tungsten ore, that’s all that matters!"

Obviously, Berlin understood his concerns. In fact, the Third Reich was not short of gold. In recent years, they had seized thousands of tons of gold from the central banks of countries like the Netherlands, Belgium, and Norway. This gold was used by Germany to purchase all sorts of goods from neutral countries like Spain, Portugal, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Moreover, Germany had also obtained large amounts of gold from private citizens in occupied countries through various means. This gold was stored in secret accounts held by the SS, the Reich Main Security Office, and other agencies, completely independent of the German central banking system.

Of course, this gold was also used to buy all kinds of goods Germany needed, but most of the time, it was for secret trade, such as with Spain, Portugal, Turkey, and other neutral countries...

Li Guo buys the oil they import from the United States.

"How it’s transported in, you don’t need to worry about that. Just be ready. The deal will be done in the next couple of days. By the way, can you get the tungsten ore out of Switzerland?"

Clearly, Pierre’s concerns were unnecessary. As a country that made a fortune during the war, Switzerland never asked questions it shouldn’t—just like Swiss banks never cared whether the gold deposited with them came in sacks of gold teeth. To them, gold is always gold; they can’t tell which bar is black and which is white.

In fact, Pierre was the same. Gold is gold.

The tungsten ore was packed in wooden crates, each containing 100 kilograms.

Five thousand tons of tungsten ore filled several warehouses, which were located not far from the border and had been temporarily rented by Pierre.

The Germans paid very straightforwardly—so straightforwardly, it was almost surprising.

After inspecting the goods, they paid up without hesitation.

In fact, it wasn’t that much money.

Five thousand tons of tungsten ore, at $20,000 per ton.

That’s just $100 million.

Is that a lot?

But the Germans didn’t have that much cash in US dollars; they paid in gold.

At that time, the gold content of the US dollar was 0.888671 grams.

So, $100 million was equivalent to 88.8671 tons of gold.

Not even a hundred tons.

Small change!

Of course, the Germans didn’t hand the gold directly to Pierre. Instead, as he requested, they deposited the gold into hundreds of separate Swiss bank accounts. All he needed was the deposit slips to withdraw the gold.

The Swiss neither asked for the identity of the person withdrawing the gold, nor did they care about the source of the gold. Throughout World War II, Germany transferred over a thousand tons of gold through Swiss banks—that’s the amount officially documented. Later investigations revealed that Germany had transferred at least 3,000 tons of gold via Swiss banks. However, over 2,000 tons of gold went missing through the deliberately simplified Swiss bank withdrawal process.

As for where that gold ended up, and whose hands it fell into—perhaps only God knows. In any case, it remains an unsolved mystery.

Once he had the withdrawal slips, the entire transaction was complete.

Compared to actually withdrawing the gold, Pierre was more concerned about the system rewards at that moment. After all, this deal was a small goal, and in US dollars, too!

The profit was almost $90 million!

Very soon, the system rewards arrived!

At the same time, new text appeared on the light screen.

[Congratulations, user! Your experience level has successfully advanced to LV.3. We hope you continue your efforts.]