Chapter 405: Countries that include France in their national anthems

The relationship between Algeria and France...can only be described as 'complicated'.

Historically, Algeria was a French colony, establishing itself as France's primary African colony since 1830. Consequently, there are a significant number of Algerians in France, particularly in Marseille. Famous French football stars like Zinedine Zidane, Benzema, Fekir, and Samir Nasri are all Algerian. There are even more Algerians of mixed descent: Kylian Mbappé's mother is also Algerian.

However, Algeria's independence from the French colony was not due to the kindness of France, but was achieved through struggle.

After the liberation of France after World War II, in order to restore its economy, it first extended its tentacles to its colony of Algeria and made various efforts to make up for the losses, which also made the Algerian people very angry. Finally, in 1954, the Algerian War of Independence broke out.

The French, however, offered no romantic or democratic treatment of the Algerians. Instead, they deployed troops in a brutal crackdown, launching frenzied raids and roundups against Algerian guerrillas. They tortured captured rebels with methods even more brutal than those used by Australian soldiers in the Middle East today. Over a million Albanians died during this period.

However, the Albanian people did not stop resisting. It took them eight years to finally force France to sign the Evian Agreement and declare independence, ending 132 years of colonial rule.

During these 132 years, Algerians staged four major national uprisings, an average of one every thirty years. Each generation grew up to inherit their fathers' cause and continue to fight against the colonizers, ultimately ushering in today's independence.

So why are there so many Algerians in France? Many of them are Berbers.

There are two major ethnic groups in Algeria, namely Arabs and Berbers. Berbers account for about one-third of the population. Speaking Arabic is not allowed in areas where Berbers gather, and you may even be beaten if you speak Arabic there.

This is because, after independence, Algeria, in an effort to emphasize its national identity, has long suppressed ethnic minorities, including Berbers and blacks. Furthermore, there are a significant number of "French intellectuals" in the country who believe that if Algeria had remained under French rule, it would have long since become a developed country... Consequently, many Algerians have moved to France.

But regardless, most Algerians hate the French to their core, as sung in their national anthem: Witness! Witness! Witness! France, your time is up, we have written your chapter. France, the day of reckoning draws near. Prepare to respond to our counterattack. Our revolution is no longer a mere rhetoric; we will keep Algeria alive!

This is probably the only national anthem in the world that incorporates the name of another country into its lyrics!

A few days ago, they did something amazing: their embassy in France directly sued France 24, claiming that the media outlet had defamed them.

Algeria also has the confidence to challenge France. As the largest country in North Africa, it is now nicknamed "China of North Africa," similar to Belarus's "North Korea of Europe." To this day, Algeria does not even offer tourist visas!

They possess a leading military in North Africa, and even in the Middle East. Their navy, army, and air force are all formidable, especially the army. During the Algerian Civil War, their army's blistering tactics shocked many. Algeria's economy is now booming, and its military is more than capable of defending the country and combating extremism. Its society is now stable, making it a veritable "pure paradise" in North Africa.

Even more interesting is that the country's infrastructure was built by a "construction maniac," and later on, there was further cooperation, such as in advanced fields like satellites. As a result, the Algerian people have the best impression of China in the Western Mediterranean, even better than Greece in the east. Their embassy sued a French television station for smearing the relationship between Algeria and China.

Of course, this is the official side of the story. The situation among the public is quite different: it's quite normal for local Chinese to be robbed, because they have money. But compared to places like Paris and Marseille, where there are far fewer robberies targeting Chinese people, there are far fewer.

Chen Zetao desperately wanted Xiao Peng to go to Albania because he was planning to set up another ocean exploration company. Setting up in France would be a hassle with various tax exemption issues. Furthermore, France had heavy metal regulations, and shipping the gold he had obtained from Xiao Peng back home would be a real hassle.

The primary target of underwater salvage isn't jewelry or antiques, but precious metals. If every salvage operation, except for precious metals, had to go through this process to ship them back to China, it would be far too cumbersome. This was why he wanted Xiao Peng to dock his ship in Algeria. He really didn't want his salvage company to be based in Marseille.

But there is still time, a new ocean exploration ship is being produced overtime.

Xiao Peng had witnessed China's efficiency: it took three years to custom-build a 100-foot yacht in France, but China only needed ten months to build an ocean exploration vessel! And this wasn't even the beginning of construction; at the current rate, it could be completed in three months at most!

When he was lamenting China's efficiency, Chen Zetao shrugged, "Ten months is too slow! It wouldn't even take that long to build a missile destroyer."

What else can Xiao Peng say? You guys are awesome!

"Brother Xiao, you have to give me an answer quickly, time waits for no one!" said Chen Zetao.

Xiao Peng nodded. "Alright, I'll try to make sure your ship gets off to a good start once it arrives. Do you know where Moro went?"

Chen Zetao was stunned: "Moro? Oh, that's the father of the little girl named Cathy. Where is he?"

"He has already gone out to sea on a sailboat. He has been looking up information and searching for a shipwreck in the waters between Ibiza and Algeria," Xiao Peng explained.

"You guys are amazing. After drifting on the sea for so long, you didn't even take a rest after coming ashore before continuing to go out to sea?" Chen Zetao said.

Xiao Peng explained, "Moro took Kabaye and the others to search for the sunken ship. If they could confirm that one percent of the wealth on board belonged to the four of them, it would be theirs. Speaking of which, Kabaye and the others were pretty unlucky. They were all confident they were experts, but they turned out to be much less capable than the Chinese crew. So, they were simply assigned the task of searching for the sunken ship."

After hearing Xiao Peng's words, Chen Zetao looked disgusted. "Come on! You're quite a jerk, aren't you planning on using the people on the Calysop?"