Chapter 864 There are no kangaroos in Austria

Xiao Peng stood by the side of the ship, Khedira and Kassin behind him. Both men, dressed in neat suits, stood there like statues. The Luna had stopped moving, and the Calypso was anchored not far away. About a mile away, the offshore engineering vessel called the Sentinel was anchored. Xiao Peng stood there, wearing a device similar to VR glasses and holding a waist bar in his hand.

After a while, he pressed a button and took off the device that looked like VR glasses: "Hua Chong, come here!"

"Boss, what's the matter?" Hua Chong walked over and asked.

Xiao Peng handed the eyepatch to Hua Chong and said, "You're good at operating winches and cranes. Can you see if there's anything wrong here?"

Hua Chong put on his eye mask and looked for a moment before taking it off again. "Boss, there's a problem. The weight limiter and position limiter aren't anchored in place. If they operate in this state, it could easily cause a rollover and put even greater strain on the wire rope. Furthermore, this crane is clearly overused. The hook has undergone plastic deformation, and the wire is worn and broken! The pulley grooves are also unevenly worn. This is because the material and installation don't meet the requirements, resulting in poor contact between the wire and the pulley. Most importantly, there's a crack in the shaft. It looks like the shaft is damaged by inferior materials and improper heat treatment. This 'Sentinel' looks brand new, but the crane alone has so many problems..."

Xiao Peng nodded: "It seems that this is a fake project for joining the Tri-State Alliance... There are so many problems with just one crane." He took the blindfold from Hua Chong, pressed another button on the waist bar in his hand, and then handed both the waist bar and the blindfold to Khedira.

Chen Cheng walked over holding an iPad. "The Sentinel," he said, "is the flagship of the Coastal Sentinel Ocean Exploration Company, funded by an Austrian tycoon."

It is not surprising that Austrian financial tycoons appeared in the Three States Alliance of Germany. Austria was originally a part of Germany. At that time, the two most powerful states in Germany were Prussia and Austria. The First World War was caused by the killing of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and then the German Empire, as an ally of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, also participated.

It feels like two brothers whose elder brother is being bullied and whose younger brother stands up to help.

Bismarck, the "Iron Chancellor," used various diplomatic and military tactics to secure Austria's non-interference in Prussia's unification of Germany, but this came at the cost of Austria's independence. In fact, the two countries were reunited before World War II. When Germany marched into Vienna, Austrians welcomed them with open arms, rather than resisting. However, after Germany's defeat at the end of World War II, Austria was permanently isolated. Despite this, the two countries share common roots, a common people, a common language, and a common culture.

In the Western world, Austria is a country with very little presence, and the reason for its lack of presence is actually because of its name.

In English, "Austria" and "Australia" are very similar. How similar are they? If you hold up a piece of paper with "Austria" written on it and ask someone: "What is this country like?" 80% of people will answer: "It has kangaroos." Even those who know Austria will probably answer: "It has Beethoven."

In fact, this is all wrong: even Beethoven was not Austrian but German, and the biggest celebrity in Austria is the mustachioed Führer.

That’s right, the Fuhrer with the mustache is not German but Austrian. Some people jokingly say that Austria’s greatest achievement is to make everyone think that the Fuhrer with the mustache is German and Beethoven is Hungarian…

There was also an "epic" misunderstanding about the name of Austria: North Korea and Australia broke off diplomatic relations, and the reason for their severance was actually an Austrian-made axe.

This matter is like "a child without a mother - it's a long story".

The first thing to clarify is that North Korea and the thief country do not actually share a border.

Although both countries share the same peninsula, the so-called "38th Parallel" is a strip of land several kilometers wide that neither North Korea nor Taiwan belongs to. By law, water is prohibited from entering either side. North Korea and Taiwan share only two borders: a railway junction in the east and Panmunjom, where the armistice agreement was signed. Later, Panmunjom became a "Joint Security Area," with both countries' outposts adjacent to each other, allowing both countries to operate within the JSA.

In 1976, a conflict occurred here over a tree, which eventually resulted in the deaths of two Americans.

At that time, there was a bridge in Panmunjom called the "Bridge of No Return". North Korea could enter the Joint Security Area from the North Korean side through this bridge. There was a big poplar tree next to the bridge. They thought that it was too tall and it affected the US and the North Korean side's surveillance of North Korea entering and leaving the Bridge of No Return. So the US and the North Korean side decided to cut down the tree. As a result, North Korea stood up to block the felling of the tree. The two sides clashed because of the tree. During the conflict, the axe used by the Americans to cut down trees became a weapon of North Korean soldiers, killing one and seriously injuring another American soldier. In the end, the injured one could not be rescued.

To this day, the axe is still displayed in the North Korea Museum as a "trophy".

However, this Austrian axe was not the axe that caused North Korea and Australia to sever diplomatic ties. The axe that triggered the two countries was another Austrian axe a year ago.

The location is still Panmunjom, still in the Joint Security Area.

At the time, a US Army Major named William Henderson, sitting on a bench in the Joint Security Area, got into an argument with a North Korean sentry, and a brawl ensued. The American soldiers couldn't just stand by and watch, but firearms weren't an option in this situation, so some of the North Korean soldiers took up axes and joined the fray.

The battle between the two sides ended with North Korea suffering a small loss, and the Austrian axe that served as the "murder weapon" was taken back by them as evidence, and then... North Korea broke off diplomatic relations with Australia.

I guess Australia was confused at the time: What did I do? Why did we suddenly lose our diplomatic ties?

Anyway, it's just that the difference between "Austria" and "Australia" is so confusing. When UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon thanked Australia at a conference in Vienna, Austria, people just laughed it off – it's a normal occurrence!

Even in Austria there is a very interesting souvenir with a kangaroo pattern and a sentence: There are no kangaroos in Austria... This sentence also comes from Ban Ki-moon's later apology for this incident: I know clearly that there are no kangaroos in Austria.

Nonsense, how could you not know about this when you’re in meetings in Vienna all day?