Escorted by a small fleet, the German royal yacht "Victor" sailed into the "sunset harbor" on the island of Santa Maria in the Koshili Islands. The Pen Fun Pavilion www.biquge.info located at the northern end of the western side of the English Channel, just 45 kilometres from the Cornish Peninsula in south-west England. Geographically, it can be described as "backed by Europa and facing the Atlantic Ocean". During the two wars, the British army stationed troops in the Isles of Hilly, and built an air defense guard station, a supply base for light ships, and a field airfield here. In July 1933, German and Irish forces landed and seized the islands, where they have been stationed for a long time. With the signing of the Treaty of New England in February 1936, this humble archipelago was officially incorporated into the territory of Wales and became the most "remote" part of the Kingdom of Wales.

As the largest island in the Isley Islands, St. Mary's Island is nominally owned by Wales and is in fact controlled by the German and Irish armies, and the completion of large radar stations, military airports and submarine bases has made it a comprehensive strategic base from which to carry out naval and air reconnaissance covering southwestern England, Bristol Bay, western English Channel and even northwestern France.

Today, Santa Maria de Santa Maria has no ordinary residents, except for the rustic houses, there is a combination of old Gothic and modern architecture and a fenced manor house, which was built by the Irish royal family and dedicated to the German Crown Prince William the Younger and Crown Princess Cecilia as gifts for their 30th wedding anniversary.

William Jr. and his crown princess gladly accepted the ingenious gift of the Irish royal family, and came to stay here by the way, and were very satisfied with the furnishings here, and took this opportunity to spend a few days alone with William Jr. and his party in the name of brotherhood, and the focus of the discussion was the current world pattern.

Although Natsuki was disappointed, he had long expected this, and he had always hoped that the Western allies could proceed from the overall strategic situation and continue to exert pressure on Japan through diplomatic and trade channels, but unfortunately the Western allies have always had their own ghosts and went their own way, and the Italians are likely to secretly dump the materials that Germany refuses, and the military technology that Germany and Ireland have jointly blockaded, and Austria-Hungary is also likely to play the role of smugglers. Moreover, as an important strategic decision-maker in Germany, Wilhelm Jr.'s perceptions and ideas were often swayed by the influence of his ministers, and the strategic differences between the German army and navy generals were deepening day by day - many of the admirals had long been aware of the potential threat of Japan to Germany's global strategy, so they felt that supporting China's resistance to Japanese aggression could curb its over-inflated expansionist ambitions, while the army generals looked in another direction, that is, Eastern Europe.

In the early years, people always thought that Russia, which had lost Belarus and Ukraine, was like a castrated bull, even if it was muscular, but it did not have the courage to compete with the Allies, but they ignored the fact that even with the exclusion of Belarus and Ukraine, as well as the three Baltic states, Russia was still a superpower with a population of 160 million and a vast territory of 17 million square kilometers, not to mention the dramatic changes brought about by the Soviet Revolution. The armistice of 1916 limited Russia's military service and the size of its army, but when the Soviet regime replaced the tsarist regime, the agreement naturally became a dead letter. In the months before the outbreak of the Great War in 1932, the Russian Army rapidly expanded to 82 infantry divisions and more than 200 independent brigades and regiments, with more than 2.2 million front-line troops, equipped with a large number of aircraft, artillery, combat vehicles and other modern equipment. Although the Russian government remained neutral during the war, its close ties with the US-British alliance did not dare the Western Allies to be careless - the Allied troops stationed on the Eastern European defense line never had fewer than 70 divisions, in addition to a considerable number of regular troops and paramilitary security forces deployed in Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania, and Latvia.

Maintaining a military force of this magnitude is a staggering expense, not to mention the fact that the Eastern European defense line and its ancillary facilities need to be constantly renovated and improved. Of course, this is not the most fatal thing, the three-year war, the Soviet government that maintained a neutral position did not do less to take advantage of the fire, the Caucasus conflict of 1932-1933 and the war in North Persia in 1933 were obvious moves, the Welsh miners' uprising, the South Ukraine riots, and countless workers' strikes, demonstrations and the Bolshevik movement, all of which have a great deal to do with the macro strategy of the Soviet Russian government.

For all these reasons, at the Allied summit held in 1935, the delegates of various countries not only reached a high degree of agreement on the armistice mediation between China and Japan, but also had a strong resonance on the issue of eliminating the threat posed by Soviet Russia. The moderates tend to sign a long-term peace treaty with Russia to ensure peace in Eastern Europe through conventional measures such as reducing military forces and reducing military inputs, but the biggest obstacle to this move is that the Russian government has always insisted that the Western allies withdraw their troops from Belarus and Ukraine, and no longer interfere in the internal affairs and freedoms of these two countries. In the past 20 years, Germany and Austria-Hungary, which have invested a lot of capital in Belarus and Ukraine, are not willing to easily give up their vested interests in these two countries, and they are also worried that the Red Revolution will immediately sweep through Eastern Europe after the withdrawal of their troops, and then threaten the security of their own countries.

Natsuki knew that ******** was by no means the source of the contradiction, and a very important reason why William Jr. and his army generals were very jealous of Soviet Russia was that it had developed extremely rapidly in recent years. According to the data released by the Soviet Russian government, its GDP in 1935 exceeded that of Japan, Austria-Hungary, Italy and other countries, equivalent to 92% of the United States and 64% of Germany, and only 10 years ago, the industrial output value of Soviet Russia was less than one-third of that of Germany, there were less than 3,000 tractors in the country, and 99% of the cultivation was completed by people and animals.

In just ten years, the economy of Soviet Russia showed explosive growth, and the advantage of centralism was actually only one of the influencing factors, and the economic crisis that swept the world was the key driving force for this change-the economic crisis that began in 1927 was a disaster for the West and a golden opportunity for Soviet Russia. The severe surplus of capital and commodities made the West no longer care about the confrontation of ********, and during the economic crisis, Soviet Russia became one of the world's largest absorbers of technological projects, machinery and equipment, scientific and technological personnel and capital. From 1928 to 1930, 45% of the machinery and equipment exported by the United States were sold to Soviet Russia, and 60% of Britain's total machinery exports from 1929 to 1931 were sold to Soviet Russia, and in 1932 it was as high as 90%; In 1931, a quarter of the total world machine exports went to Soviet Russia, and in 1932 it reached 46%. In 1931, Soviet Russia received 99 projects of technical assistance, involving metallurgy, industrial machinery, automobiles, ships, and aircraft manufacturing. In addition, due to the economic crisis, a large number of technicians in the West lost their jobs, and they accepted the employment of Soviet Russia one after another. In 1929, there were 1,200 foreign specialists and nearly 10,000 technicians working in Soviet Russia. In 1932, there were more than 6,000 foreign specialists of all kinds working in the heavy industry sector, and tens of thousands of engineers and technicians from the United States alone emigrated to Soviet Russia. At the same time, Soviet Russia also sent its own technical personnel to Western countries to learn advanced technology, which made Soviet Russia's scientific and technological strength achieve a leap breakthrough in a short period of time, and then used this breakthrough to promote the rapid development of the industrial economy.

Since national interests are the starting point of all strategic decisions, Natsuki spread out a map of the world in front of William Jr. and told him frankly that the resources on land are very limited, and with the continuous acceleration of industrialization, in the foreseeable future, oil, coal, and iron ore will face depletion, and countries can only turn to the sea containing huge resources. Judging from the current map of influence, Germany occupies most of the land resources, and the Pacific Ocean, the world's largest treasure trove of marine resources, is under the control of Japan and the United States.

As evidence of this inference, Natsuki presented a report on Ireland's progress in exploring oil resources in the North Sea. Although seabed oil is much more difficult to explore and extract than onshore, technology is evolving at a rapid pace, and once a large and stable subsea field is drilled in European waters, its value will extend far beyond the industrial economy.

From a technical point of view, it is still too early to make large-scale use of the mineral resources of the seabed, but Natsuki's argument has succeeded in arousing William's greed. On the other hand, the German crown prince had been involved in the construction of the Eastern European defense line in his early years, and he himself had always regarded that experience as one of the qualifications to be boasted of, and if he wanted to take the initiative to attack Soviet Russia, he would have to abandon this strong defense line that had stood for twenty years, and drive millions of Allied soldiers deep into the Russian hinterland, and even cross the Ural Mountains to completely destroy the industrial belt of Soviet Russia...... Whenever I think of the tragic experience of Napoleon's army, William, who is familiar with European history, will find it extremely tricky!

When Natsuki and William Jr. ended their vacation at the Santa Maria Mary's Palace, the Battle of Hawaii, which took place thousands of miles away, was almost over, and although the forces were not superior, the American army recaptured Oahu with a devastating force, during which the heavy battle jacket Ernest Joseph King led the U.S. Task Force 6 with seven combat carriers as the core won the Battle of Neho Island and thwarted the Japanese counterattack. After this war, the situation of the Pacific War ushered in an important turning point, the United States signed a secret agreement with Germany and Ireland, the latter further provided the former with all kinds of war materials, and on the basis of the "Berlin Armistice Treaty" relaxed the restrictions on the payment of war reparations and arms reduction by the former, and more importantly, the Chinese and American governments agreed to conclude a military alliance to jointly fight the Japanese invaders.

(End of chapter)