Morocco served as the current headquarters for the General Logistics Department of the World People's Liberation Army. Marshal Cheng Ruofan, the Director of General Logistics, was presiding over an internal meeting concerning supply and disposal. As everyone in attendance was a Chinese officer, the atmosphere was particularly somber.

Not a single trace of a smile touched Cheng Ruofan’s face. Every task, every report, seemed to trigger memories of He Rui, and with those memories came waves of uncontrollable pain.

Nevertheless, Cheng pushed forward with the pre-arranged work. His voice was low as he asked, "I have reviewed the latest equipment plan. You wish to utilize European laborers. Is anyone prepared to take direct responsibility for any issues that may arise?"

The officers exchanged glances but remained silent. As the war entered this final phase, the WPLA General Logistics Department was forced to confront the problem of the organization’s eventual dissolution—adhering to He Rui’s definition that the WPLA was not a permanent entity.

Joining forces is easy; parting ways is far harder. If the dissolution were handled crudely, former partners could instantly become rivals. He Rui’s goal was to disband the WPLA, not to see it fragment into competing factions.

Cheng Ruofan, however, was not tasked with these high-level political considerations. His responsibility was technical. Since the outbreak of the war, He Rui had been extremely restrained in approving military production plans. Even so, China had manufactured 300,000 propeller fighters along with their necessary components.

Excluding those shot down or scrapped due to service life, China still possessed 120,000 propeller aircraft. Maintaining such a vast fleet was an enormous drain on resources, requiring daily upkeep. Consequently, the General Logistics Department of the Chinese National Defense Forces hoped that the WPLA’s logistics arm under Cheng Ruofan could help "consume" this surplus.

One proposal from the WPLA logistics team was to establish maintenance plants in Europe. Using local labor, they would dismantle aircraft reaching the end of their service life and use the salvaged parts to maintain the active fleet.

He Rui’s grasp of the war's timeline had been characteristically precise; the last dedicated components for these 120,000 fighters had been manufactured at the end of 1942. Thinking of this, Cheng Ruofan felt another pang of sorrow.

He forced himself to focus and issued the orders: "Instruct Italy and Spain to immediately organize enterprises to participate in the bidding for the dismantling work. For other liberated European nations, conduct tenders based on available intelligence and categorize the participating firms. For those only capable of basic dismantling, we shall send our own personnel to handle the more precision-oriented tasks."

With that concluded, Cheng adjourned the meeting and walked out alone.

Morocco is a North African nation on the western edge of the Mediterranean. Stepping out of the WPLA Logistics office, which was situated on a slight elevation, one could see the brightly painted houses of the capital, Rabat.

Although Morocco was not a desert nation, rainfall was scarce. The relatively dry climate meant the paint on the walls did not easily fade. At some point, the citizens had begun using a riot of vivid colors for their homes. From a distance, the multicolored buildings created a city scape that resembled something out of a fairy tale.

Cheng Ruofan stared at the exotic scenery for a while before he managed to suppress his grief. Being on active duty abroad meant he had missed seeing He Rui one last time, and he had even been unable to attend the funeral. It was a source of profound regret. Although he knew he had to remain calm and return to work with maximum efficiency, he found himself repeatedly unable to do so. The harder he tried, the more the pain seemed to redouble.

Just then, a flight of fighters roared overhead. Somehow, the sight seemed to clear his mind. He returned to his office immediately and drafted a telegram to the capital. In it, he made no attempt to gloss over his condition, but frankly admitted that he was currently emotionally unstable and unable to work at full capacity. He requested that the Military Commission send someone to replace him.

In ordinary times, such a telegram—even from Cheng Ruofan—would have invited severe criticism. But no one dared criticize him now. Everyone was aware of the depth of Cheng’s feelings for He Rui; it would have been more surprising if he *had* been able to continue as if nothing had happened.

Thus, the telegram was forwarded directly to the Chairman of the Military Commission, Li Runshi. After reading it, Li felt that someone was trying to test him. In the old days, such an emotional display would be labeled "loyalty," and one would engage in the ritualized game of "three refusals and three invitations."

Li Runshi had no interest in such games. He replied to Cheng immediately and directly: "...Our forces must resolve the European campaign as quickly as possible at this stage. The sooner the war ends, the less pain it will cause. Therefore, I ask Comrade Cheng Ruofan to do his utmost to set aside his emotions and remain at his post. If you truly find it impossible to control your state of mind, then please identify a comrade to temporarily take over your command so that the work does not cease..."

Finishing the order, Li let out a sigh. The world was watching for the impact of He Rui’s passing. If China could not maintain its stability and strength, it would invite many unfavorable shifts. But since it was impossible for no problems to arise, Li could only hope they wouldn't become unmanageable.

Had Li known the current state of the Belgian army, he might have felt differently.

Britain and Belgium were neighbors. Before the First World War, the two had signed a secret treaty because of their proximity. If Germany occupied Belgium, it could utilize the Belgian ports to launch a landing in Britain.

Now, the Belgian army was suffering a level of bombardment they had never experienced. While German industry was capable of producing jet fighters, Belgium possessed no such capacity. Consequently, the skies over Belgium were filled with Chinese propeller aircraft. In this "low-intensity" theater, propeller planes were actually more cost-effective.

Over the heads of the Belgian army, more than ten thousand fighters conducted non-stop strafing and bombing runs. This total air superiority not only caused massive casualties but also paralyzed Belgian movement. If an army is shattered while on the march, it loses all strategic value beyond static defense. Virtually the entire Belgian military was now in such a state.

Within both the regular Chinese Army and the WPLA, many had developed a visceral loathing for Belgium after hearing their government’s vow to "fight to the last man." Many felt the impulse to simply wipe the Belgians out entirely. However, military science demanded a more rational approach. Even if the goal were to annihilate all three million Belgian soldiers, the most efficient method was to cut their supply lines and encircle them. Only after they officially refused a surrender would one employ total fire coverage.

A hot-headed, direct assault was seen as inefficient and unwise.

To maintain ten thousand aircraft in constant attack required a pool of pilots three times that number—roughly forty thousand—and a fleet of around thirty thousand planes.

During his life, He Rui had transferred China’s domestic propeller fleet to the African and European theaters of the WPLA, partly to consume the aging equipment. This transfer had indeed boosted the WPLA’s combat power to the point where it could satisfy such high-intensity operations.

However, the consumption of spare parts was staggering, and the demand had exhausted the supply of dedicated components. Parts now had to be stripped from aircraft that were grounded for various reasons and fitted onto active planes.

This work had already begun, initially handled by the WPLA’s own logistics plants. But with many WPLA members returning to their home countries and the number of Chinese personnel decreasing, they had opened the work to tenders in liberated European nations near the combat zone.

King Leopold III of Belgium was unaware of this until April 4th, when the Belgian Ambassador to the Netherlands urgently contacted the cabinet. He reported that Royal Dutch Shell had successfully secured a contract to dismantle Chinese fighters and supply the parts to the fleet currently bombing the Belgian army.

The cabinet members were silent; they didn't know what to say. In Europe, the Netherlands was synonymous with "吝啬"—stinginess or extreme pragmatism. This translated into an obsession with acquiring wealth. In this regard, the Dutch had a history of providing loans to Britain to fund the English war against the Netherlands itself.

That the Dutch would sell out Belgium now was hardly a surprise. Thus, the cabinet members hesitated to even begin cursing their neighbors.

Recrimination was useless anyway. While the cabinet members came from different backgrounds and held varying positions, they all shared one thing in common: their ancestors had participated in the colonial crimes in Africa. In present-day Belgium, finding a citizen entirely untouched by the legacy of colonial sin was a difficult task.

Ultimately, no one raised the subject of surrender. The cabinet reached a decision: appeal to Nazi Germany for aid. They hoped Hitler would invade the Netherlands to "show those European traitors some color" (给颜色看看).

When the WPLA intercepted this intelligence, the translators were astonished to find that the Belgian government had literally used the phrase "show them some color." This was a quintessentially Chinese idiom that had first become popular in the English-speaking world before being adopted by the Belgians.

Seeing the sheer reach of Chinese influence, the translators found it quite incredible.