The cool breeze of early autumn breeze gently blew through the tall floor-to-ceiling windows of the Chancellery, and Adolf Hitler sat in the crimson sofa chair that belonged only to him, staring a little distracted into the night sky. The moon was bright and the stars were shining brightly in the sky, but Hitler's mood did not become relaxed, as if there were still dark clouds hanging over his heart.

Since the day of Hitler's determination to destroy the Soviet Union in early July 1940, a series of problems have always plagued the commander-in-chief. Unlike Poland, France, etc., which had been defeated earlier, the Soviet Union in the East was a completely new adversary: it had a territory almost 40 times that of France, and it was far larger than Europeans could imagine. In the 30s, the high-speed industrialization achievements in this land made this behemoth with a population of 200 million shake off the stupid and backward hat for the first time, and truly reproduced the peerless style of the "European road roller" of the year.

Although the Great Purge launched by the Soviet dictator made it much easier for Germany to defeat this enemy, it still needed the help of its juniors to defeat its opponents cleanly. A glance at the map shows that the border between Germany and the Soviet Union came to an abrupt end in the middle of the Carpathians, and to the south bordered Ukraine by Hungary and Romania, whose eastern borders were almost as long as Germany's.

As long as the German army attacked the Soviet Union, Hungary and Romania were indispensable bridgeheads. What's more, Hitler has long coveted Ukraine, which is known as the "breadbasket of Europe", and believes that it is the most ideal "living space in the East" for the Reich!

However, when it came time to take concrete measures, Hitler realized that this was a deep pool far beyond his own estimates.

Due to ethnic, demographic, historical, and religious reasons, the political landscape of Southeastern Europe has been a hadge since centuries ago. The black hands of the Soviet Union, Italy, France, and even Britain were involved, and the struggle between the parties never stopped. Today, with the defeat of France and the decline of Britain, Germany has gradually become a power authority in southeastern Europe, but the so-called strong dragon is difficult to press the snake, and the grievances and grievances that have arisen in this land for so many years can not be resolved by the will of Berlin.

On June 28, 1940, Romania was forced to cede 40,000 square kilometers of southern Bessarabia under the coercion of the Soviet Union, a move that angered Hungary to the west. Twenty years ago, Romania took advantage of Hungary's defeat to plunder and seize 103,000 square kilometers of Transylvania, a land inhabited by mostly Magyars whose resources and economy were among the best in Eastern Europe. Hungary is deeply impressed by this humiliation, and is always preparing to regain its homeland and take revenge with blood.

From the date of the collusion between Germany and the Soviet Union in August 1939, Hungary sent frequent telegrams to Romania demanding the re-establishment of the border. At first, Budapest did not do anything out of fear of the Red Empire in its neighborhood, saying that if Romania was determined to resist the Soviet annexation of Bessarabia by force, it could put its claims to Transylvania on hold for the time being. But now, Romania handed over Bessarabia without firing a shot, but repeatedly dragged out the Romanian-Hungarian border issue, without any sincerity to solve the problem, which made Hungary angry and intolerable, and had to start a war!

What made Hitler nervous was that the Hungarians were definitely not just talking about it this time. They had been preparing for 20 years to retake their homeland, and soon the German High Command had received a definite report that the main forces of the Hungarian army had begun to assemble on the eastern border, and several skirmishes had broken out on the Hungarian-Romanian border. For Hitler, this looming war in southeastern Europe was undoubtedly harmful but not beneficial: Germany would not only lose two important auxiliary wings for the invasion of the Soviet Union, but would also allow the Soviet Union to take advantage of the opportunity to fish in troubled waters and further spread its influence to the Balkans.

In order to contain the outbreak of war between the two quasi-satellite states, Hitler has gone to great lengths in the past half a month. On the one hand, he warned Hungary that the Romanian army had purchased a large amount of equipment from Germany, and that the Hungarian army had no chance of winning a real war; On the one hand, it coerced and lured Romania, saying that there was still the Soviet Union in its north, and the outbreak of a war with Hungary at this time was tantamount to self-destruction. Only by accepting the arbitration and mediation of the Axis powers can Romania receive a security guarantee from Berlin, otherwise it will have to be a dead end.

And in order not to alienate Italy, an important ally, from Germany, Hitler had to pinch his nose and pull Mussolini into the arbitration between Hungary and Romania. Hitler knew very well that, as a result of Germany's epic victory on the Western Front, Mussolini was now in a state of agitated crater, desperate to prove the existence of Italy; If this Italian leader is stimulated again, it is difficult to guarantee that he will not make any moths in the Balkans and affect his plan to invade the Soviet Union!

After many wrestling negotiations, Hitler, who had worked hard and exhausted, finally received the initial results in early August. The disgruntled Hungarians, the desperate Romanians, and the Italians with a strong desire for stage performance all nodded their heads and agreed to sit down at the negotiating table in Vienna. Hitler's plan would satisfy two-thirds of Hungary's demands, which would keep Hungary and Russia at odds with each other in order to avoid a war, forcing them to move closer to Germany in order to win the favor of their big brother. In order to find this balance, Hitler also made special efforts to carefully understand the history and current situation of Transylvania.

Just as Hitler was relieved and preparing to return to the Eagle's Nest for a summer vacation, another news came from the naval headquarters that he was angry that the main fleet, which had just made a sortie, had suffered an unprecedented defeat in the Danish Strait.

On the night of August 13, the German Navy lost 11 first-line warships, including the Bismarck, and another 1 battleship and 1 pocket cruiser were severely damaged, and only 2 heavy aircraft carriers and 1 destroyer were able to escape from the entire expeditionary fleet. For the German Navy, which is already very short in the number of ocean-going warships, this is undoubtedly a heavy blow to the nerves, especially since the destroyer fleet has lost a full half, and the lineup that can now be dispatched has directly fallen to single digits!

Although they sank at least twice as many British ships as their own tonnage, according to the Navy's sworn report, from a strategic point of view, this is not the case at all. At present, Germany's central goal is to sever Britain's material ties with the world, which is now not maintained by the ships of the Royal Navy, but by the blatant partiality of the United States. The weaker the German navy in the Atlantic, the more unable it was to stop the passage of ships flying the American flag, and unless Hitler made up his mind to start a war with the United States and ordered his ships to attack all ships in the Atlantic indiscriminately, German planes and submarines could only stare at the Star-Spangled Banner!

Obviously, today's Germany is far from the time to go to the nouveau riche on the other side of the ocean to settle the score. Even though Hitler hated Roosevelt, a war traitor, he could only swallow his anger before completely defeating Britain. Outraged, Hitler quickly devised a remedial strategy for this failure. He set his sights on the southernmost tip of Spain in the western corner of Europe, at the projectile fortress called Gibraltar.

At the moment, the Italian fleet, with its full ranks, has taken full control of the Mediterranean. If the gates of Gibraltar were smashed, five battleships and 23 cruisers flying the green, white and red crown flag would be able to rush into the Atlantic, and at that time, even if the American Atlantic Fleet was killed, it would not be able to save Britain from the jaws of the Axis powers. In addition, the prestige of the Italian fleet on the far seas would greatly promote the side of the French Vichy government: if Germany operated a little, the Vichy, fearing that it would be left behind and that it would not receive decent post-war treatment, would put their powerful fleet on the gambling table as a heavyweight bargaining chip on the side of the Axis powers.

However, as with the mediation of the Hungarian War, the implementation of this idea would be quite a headache and trouble. One of the most gloomy and irritating aspects of Hitler was to confront Francisco Franco, the Spanish dictator who had been propped up by Mussolini and himself.

Four years ago, when a civil war broke out in Spain due to the deterioration of the domestic situation, Hitler decided to invest in the side of the Nationalist Army, and drew the backbone of the Wehrmacht to form the "Condor Army" to enter the war in Spain. And Mussolini gave full support to Franco, a little brother who was a supporter, not only aided a large number of arms and materials, but even sent an army of up to 50,000 people to the direct end. After nearly 3 years of war, the national army commanded by Franco completely wiped out the republican forces, and Spain immediately changed color and became a country exactly the same as Germany and Italy.

But to Hitler's surprise, Franco was not as loyal to his benefactor as he had hoped. Franco has been delaying the prevarication for various reasons in the face of Germany's invitation to join the line, and this career officer with an outstanding resume is actually a natural politician, and all decisions are almost leakless. With Hitler's diplomatic skills in beating the top leaders of the Entente countries, there was nothing to be done with Franco. In the end, Germany was unable to reap any real benefits from Spain, and had to leave with Franco's official declaration of "friendly neutrality".

However, with Germany's successive victories in the European theater, Franco, who had not advanced oil and salt, finally loosened his position slightly. In July of this year, Spain suddenly sent troops to occupy Tangier, a free port on the other side of Gibraltar and administered by Britain, France and Spain, and at the same time, voices began to emerge to "recover Gibraltar". In view of this situation, Hitler was prepared to make another contact with Franco in an effort to change the attitude of the other side to the war.