When Cheng Ruofan pointed out that the British government had issued official orders for massacres, the reporter from *Le Figaro* was not surprised. The governments of colonial powers had all issued such orders; the British government had been doing it for centuries, as had the French.

Seeing the reporter from *The Times* temporarily silenced, the *Le Figaro* reporter asked, "I wonder what China considers to be the standard for decolonization?"

Cheng Ruofan replied, "We believe the standard for decolonization is that the local people possess full citizenship rights. Of course, this standard is best discussed with France."

Hearing this, the *Le Figaro* reporter laughed out loud, completely ignoring the *The Times* reporter beside him. Citizenship was a system unique to republics; Britain had subjects and nationals, but no citizens. China currently had no monarchy, and France was the same. When it came to the concept of citizenship, the French were filled with pride.

However, Cheng Ruofan's next words caused the French reporter's expression to change.

"Let's take Algeria as an example. If the local people of Algeria possessed French citizenship and the right to hold seats in the French Parliament, we would consider Algeria not a colony, but an integral part of France itself."

In Africa, there was one country that had remained consistently independent: Ethiopia. Similarly, Algeria was considered the most 'Frenchified' region of Africa. There were over a million white people born in Algeria, nicknamed the "Pieds-Noirs" (Black Feet) in France. These Algerian "Pieds-Noirs" held French citizenship. However, the native Algerians did not.

Furthermore, the *Le Figaro* reporter knew very well that no matter how much France claimed Algeria was a French province, neither the French government nor its people would ever accept the decision to grant French citizenship to the local Algerians.

Cheng Ruofan was well aware of this point, which was why he specifically mentioned Algeria. Seeing the other party remain silent, Cheng Ruofan continued, "The people of Africa will obtain independence and establish their own nations. The nationals of each African country will possess the citizenship rights of their own nations. This is the prerequisite for independence and liberation. Without these, there can be no talk of the liberation of the African people."

The reporter from *The Times* quickly asked, "But according to the news we've seen, China has made the decision to place Africa under long-term trusteeship. I find it difficult to reconcile such a decision with so-called independence and liberation."

The decision for China to act as a trustee for Africa was not fabricated news; the World People's Liberation Army (WPLA) had indeed petitioned the Chinese government to take Africa under trusteeship, and the Chinese government had accepted.

Cheng Ruofan, however, did not see this as an issue at all. He replied solemnly, "In the process of partitioning Africa, Europe drew the control lines of colonial nations entirely based on the needs of European colonialism. These lines completely ignored the needs of the local people; many Africans who originally spoke the same language were forcibly divided into different countries.

"China's trusteeship of Africa is not for the purpose of colonizing Africa, but to redraw reasonable new national borders based on Africa's geographic environment, as well as ethnic, cultural, and historical factors. The history of colonialist colonization and plunder in Africa must never become the foundation for Africa's liberation. Evil colonialism must be eliminated, and its malignant influence must be thoroughly eradicated!"

At this point, Cheng Ruofan's voice turned cold. "These sins must be punished!"

Given China's current strength, especially the troop numbers and logistical capabilities possessed by the WPLA, Cheng Ruofan did not feel in the least that what he was saying was a threat. At this stage, the reason the WPLA had not made a thunderous advance was primarily because its logistics and manpower were not yet sufficient to destroy the European colonial governments.

To resolve these issues, the WPLA had spent enormous human and material resources to enhance the productivity of the African people. Based on the rapid increase in African productivity, they aimed to generate the supplies and manpower necessary to liberate European nations.

In the eyes of the colonialists, this choice undoubtedly seemed like taking the long way around, but in the eyes of the WPLA, only this kind of liberation would allow Africa to truly be free. If African soldiers could not liberate cities like London and Paris, and could not put the crimes of the colonialists on trial, then Africa's liberation would never be truly complete.

The reporter from *The Times*, seeing Cheng Ruofan speak so resolutely, felt his blood boil. He asked loudly, "How does China plan to judge the crimes of the colonialists? Is it to kill all the descendants of the colonialists? Or to dig up the bones of the colonizers from their graves and behead them in public?"

"Hmph. British history is indeed so barbaric," Cheng Ruofan sneered. "You actually dug up Cromwell's corpse for post-mortem flogging and execution. Oh, and you also burned Joan of Arc to death."

Hearing Joan of Arc, the French reporter immediately nodded.

Cheng Ruofan continued, "The African people and the Chinese people are not so barbaric. We only demand that those still living take responsibility! Those still alive whose hands are stained with the blood of the African people must be punished. If the British Colonial Office has not burned the documents recording the numerous crimes of colonialism, once we capture those documents, we will conduct trials of the living colonizers based on them.

"Please rest assured, the British people; the African people will not carry out genocide against ordinary people. In this regard, the African people are much more civilized than the colonialists!"

The reporter from *The Times* was terrified by the future Cheng Ruofan described. He questioned loudly and indignantly, "Are you planning to kill all British people?"

Cheng Ruofan immediately barked with displeasure, "Are you qualified to represent all the British people? I believe you have no such qualification at all!"

With both sides bickering to this extent, the interview could no longer proceed. Moreover, by this point, the basic stance of the WPLA and their goals had been made very clear.

Not only did Cheng Ruofan's interview end in such an unpleasant manner, but the interviews of other European reporters were much the same. Although Europe prided itself on being civilized, it was cowardly at its core and dared not admit its crimes.

The Belgian reporter, in particular, upon hearing that the WPLA intended to punish colonialist evils, cursed the Belgian members of the WPLA in a rage, "You damn traitor, you turncoat!"

The Belgian member of the WPLA being cursed did not get angry. He waited pitiedly for his compatriot to stop his tirade before asking, "In other words, you believe that the 15 million Congolese black people massacred under Belgian colonial rule are existences of no significance?"

"That is no reason for you to attack your own motherland! As a Belgian, you must be patriotic!" the Belgian reporter questioned in a voice that was almost a scream.

"To someone like you who supports genocide, I really have nothing more to say. Even the people massacred by Nazi Germany were not as many as those by Belgium. Such crimes must be settled! Go back and wait for the arrival of the judgment of justice." After saying this, the Belgian member of the WPLA stood up and left, leaving the almost demented Belgian reporter in the reception room.

After all the interviews were concluded, the WPLA members who had participated were no longer interested in discussing the news drafts. The reason everyone had accepted the interviews was the hope that, seeing European colonialism on the verge of total collapse, the European nations might express a realization of their crimes out of a desire for self-preservation.

The members of the WPLA had not devoted themselves to the world revolution because they hated their motherlands; rather, it was precisely because they loved their countries that they hoped their nations could be liberated from backward cultures.

When they saw with their own eyes that their countries, instead of shedding the colonialist phase through judgment, continued to cling to colonialism, the revolutionaries felt a sense of sorrow.

Seeing his comrades' spirits flagging, Cheng Ruofan encouraged them, "Comrades, we oppose genocide. Even those who persist in colonialism—as long as they have not committed crimes or met the WPLA on the battlefield in arms—the people of European nations will be able to survive and live on in a new era where colonialism has been eliminated."

Cheng Ruofan was not lying. He Rui had repeatedly emphasized that the WPLA was not a retaliatory organization. China supported the world revolution so that revolutionaries of all nations could liberate the world—not so that the Chinese army could conquer it! No matter how reactionary or backward someone's thoughts might be, that was not a reason for their execution.

After re-emphasizing these basic principles, Cheng Ruofan turned the discussion to their work. The liberation movement in Africa was going exceptionally smoothly, proving that the African people were perfectly normal human beings, not the naturally stupid, backward, and barbaric race described by the colonialists.

Low productivity could be resolved through methods like "the veterans teaching the newcomers." At this stage, the WPLA was in direct cooperation with over 100,000 African tribes, large and small. In the past few months, a large number of African families had voluntarily requested to become *Bianhu Qimin* (Registered Households). Combined with a semi-forced model, the number of *Bianhu Qimin* who had entered the early stages of agricultural development had reached 10 million households.

From Cheng Ruofan's experience, a scale of *Bianhu Qimin* like this would inevitably lead to numerous problems. Thus, Cheng Ruofan emphasized, "At this stage, the establishment of the state must not be relaxed in the slightest. We have already eliminated the local African elites who were in full collusion with the colonizers. In order to better mobilize the African masses, the urgent task is to establish local African nations."

The Commander of the WPLA, Maurice Thorez, was French. Although he greatly respected Cheng Ruofan, he still raised a different view. "If our strength is primarily focused on this area, it will affect our military struggle."

Cheng Ruofan felt that Thorez was perhaps not bureaucratic enough. However, the members of the WPLA were more idealistic; meticulous work was not their forte. Since Commander Thorez had not grasped the key point, Cheng Ruofan replied, "Perhaps I didn't make myself clear. I don't intend to completely divide the new map of Africa right now. However, the conditions for one or two African nations already exist at this stage."

Hearing that Cheng Ruofan did not mean to weaken the military struggle, the members of the WPLA Committee were all relieved. Currently, the work of building Africa was primarily handled by the Chinese side. Aside from the Chinese comrades, even the black comrades had little interest in such tedious and arduous work. If they were made responsible for these tasks, the comrades from other countries felt it would be asking a bit too much.

The discussion then turned to the war of liberation. Rainfall in Africa was very unevenly distributed, concentrated mainly in the central-western regions. North Africa had the world's largest desert, the Sahara. The proportion of arid regions in East and Southern Africa was also very high.

Currently, the WPLA had essentially liberated Southern and Central Africa. To continue pushing north, they would have to enter the Sahara region. From a military perspective, this was very inefficient. Therefore, the Committee believed it was necessary to launch a "leapfrog" offensive escorted by the navy. This involved using the Marine Corps to continuously seize port cities in West Africa, quickly establishing a shipping line reaching the western coast.

This was how the Europeans had done it back then, except the European colonialists had launched their attacks from north to south. The WPLA would do the opposite.

Cheng Ruofan immediately voiced his opposition. "Comrades, from a military standpoint, doing this will only result in our spearhead units coming into contact and engaging in combat with Allied forces earlier. If we adopt a leapfrog approach for our offensive, our logistical lines will not be sufficient to support a large-scale war with the European Allied forces. I believe we need to continue with a comprehensive liberation of the African colonies. This choice may seem inefficient, but it is actually the most efficient one."

In terms of such strategic considerations, even though Cheng Ruofan was not the Commander of the WPLA, his voice carried immense weight. After all, in terms of military capability, Marshal Cheng Ruofan's track record and seniority were incomparable to anyone else. Cheng Ruofan had truly fought large-scale wars against the Great Powers of the world.

However, these committee members still did not want to follow blindly. They asked about the question of "what is fast and what is slow." Cheng Ruofan was forced to answer this somewhat naive question.

"The Chinese troops in North America are China's elites, and even they have been unable to completely open up the situation on the plains; they can only gain advantages in mountainous areas that are not suitable for large-scale operations. The most important reason is that logistical capacity has limited their performance.

"If we continue pushing into North Africa, the combat environments will be wasteland and desert. The terrain is flat, with not much usable cover. Fighting in such an environment will cause our logistical pressure to become prominent. The Chinese troops fighting in North America cannot utilize North American resources, especially since the indigenous population is too small. But we have a huge advantage in Africa. To not utilize these advantages now, and instead choose to go head-to-head with the European Allied forces, is a very inefficient way of doing things.

"The most efficient method is precisely the model of thorough liberation that appears most inefficient. This is equivalent to giving us a solid foundation, so that when the time comes, it will be the European Allied forces being consumed, not us."

Although he had explained his views, Cheng Ruofan knew that these youths dedicated to the world revolution had not received systematic state-level management training, nor did they have experience managing hundreds of millions of people.

Sure enough, most of the WPLA Committee members did not agree with Cheng Ruofan's view. These young people were not acting out of malice; they truly believed that as long as they had sufficient troops and equipment on the front lines, they could defeat the enemy. Although they knew that logistical supplies were indeed not smooth at this stage, it was always China that solved such troublesome problems. And indeed, these problems were being solved by the Chinese.

Ultimately, the Committee held a vote and decided to implement the leapfrog offensive on the West African coast. They also decided to commit 200,000 troops to Egypt, attacking westward from there to seize Italy's colonies in North Africa. This would provide a jumping-off base for the WPLA to enter Italy for combat.

Cheng Ruofan did not strongly oppose them, because the growth of young people always requires paying a price; many times, they must bash their heads against a wall before they learn. Moreover, at this stage, the WPLA indeed had the capital to learn from experience.

More importantly, the WPLA was, after all, not the Chinese army. In the future, they would be the main force liberating Europe. They had to grow faster now to perform well in the future European campaigns.

Seeing that Cheng Ruofan did not refuse but instead accepted the Committee's resolution, the WPLA members were very excited and immediately went to prepare for the upcoming campaign.

Watching the retreating figures of the committee members, Cheng Ruofan felt a sense of unease. Besides those reasons, there was one reason for his agreement that he could not state aloud: the WPLA engaging the European Allied forces in Africa would greatly affect the war sentiment in the United States.

The reason the current United States could be as stubborn as a "rock in a latrine"—both foul-smelling and hard—was largely because America and Europe still formed a North Atlantic economic circle, which gave the US a sense of security. China had indeed had the Japanese fleet launch an airstrike against the Oak Ridge nuclear research base, but that was just a single tactical action—a tactical action taken at great risk. If the Japanese fleet were to maintain continuous patrols in the North Atlantic, they would surely face extreme risks.

However, once the European Allied forces were forced to fight fiercely with the WPLA in North Africa and the Mediterranean, the United States would surely feel immense pressure. Once Europe was defeated, the US would naturally be isolated and without help. At that time, the United States would have no choice but to exit the war.

The WPLA's offensive would provide immense help to Hu Xiushan, but as a military commander, Cheng Ruofan also felt a responsibility toward the WPLA, so he could not for the moment completely shake off a certain sense of guilt.

Just as Cheng Ruofan had expected, on October 20th, the 7th Army of the WPLA, which had long been making extensive combat preparations in Egypt, began its westward offensive. On the same day, with the cooperation of the Japanese carrier fleet, the 200,000 troops of the WPLA's 4th Group Army moved north by sea, seizing cities at the mouth of the Congo River and continuing their northward advance via maritime transport. Both pieces of news put significant pressure on the US high command.

Mussolini's government in Italy, however, expressed confidence to the Allied powers. "It is merely an armed force composed of a bunch of black thugs led by a few white thugs. In essence, it is still a black army and is completely vulnerable. Since the Roman era, we Italians have been very adept at dealing heavy blows to such a motley crew."

Mussolini, who said this, was indeed full of confidence, but the members of the Allied powers did not see it that way. Even the French army, which had been thoroughly defeated by the German army in the campaign for Western Europe, was mocking the Italians for overestimating themselves. In the final stages of the Western European campaign, hundreds of thousands of Italian troops had attacked the border between Italy and France, which was held by only tens of thousands of French troops. Not only had they failed to gain an inch of ground, but they had also been driven back in successive retreats by the counterattacks launched by the tens of thousands of Frenchmen.

Even when facing a black army, the European nations did not believe Italy could win. Thus, the eyes of all nations fell upon Germany.

Hitler had genuine affection for Mussolini. Upon hearing that Mussolini was preparing to engage the WPLA, Hitler immediately summoned General Rommel.

The view within the German military was very blunt: "If Italy were our enemy, we would only need two divisions to wipe them out. If Italy remained neutral in the war, we would only need five divisions to hold them off. But if Italy is our ally, then we have to spend over twenty divisions worth of strength to help them, and in the end, we might still fail."

With such views, no one in the General Staff wanted to go fight in Africa, let alone wipe Mussolini's backside. Hitler was also very dissatisfied with the General Staff at this time and was preparing for a major reshuffle. At this moment, he needed a candidate who could prove he had an eye for talent. Rommel, a general without a General Staff background and one who had been personally promoted by Hitler, became the best choice.

Rommel did not realize he was being used politically; he simply loved war. Hearing Hitler ask if he was willing to go fight in North Africa, Rommel immediately replied, "I am willing!"