Chapter 1686 Transferring from Left Hand to Right Hand
Ultimately, East Africa and the United States both see Europe as easier to deal with. So, with neither country able to defeat the other, they might as well collude. East Africa and the United States each dominate a continent, and both are in relatively "remote" positions compared to Eurasia.
It is conceivable that if the two countries were to become enemies, it would be an even more troublesome and exhausting affair than the US-Soviet rivalry of the past.
During the Cold War, the United States was able to sabotage the Soviet Union in various ways, sowing discord among the Soviet Union's neighboring countries to erode its national strength and gradually undermine its military advantage.
There is no shortage of players in Eurasia, and each country has a long history and its ancestors were once wealthy, so no one is willing to submit to anyone else. European countries are the most typical example. They despise the Slavs and regard them as "barbarians".
They are often sworn enemies, not to mention the great feud between Britain, France and Germany. The intrigues and alliances among the countries in the small Balkan Peninsula are too numerous to mention.
The historical, national, religious, and cultural conflicts in Asia are even more fascinating than those in Europe.
The Far East region, however, has remained relatively stable due to the historical existence of the Far Eastern Empire, which has at least maintained order and suppressed a host of neighboring countries with ulterior motives for a long time.
However, the influence of the Far Eastern Empire has always been limited to East Asia and Southeast Asia. Asia is a vast country, encompassing not only these two regions but also the Middle East, South Asia, and Central Asia.
In conclusion, it is difficult for a dominant power to emerge on the Eurasian continent, not even the ancient Mongol Empire or the once-powerful Soviet Union.
The simplest example is the sordid conflict between the Soviet Union and the Far Eastern Empire in the previous life. The Soviet Union wanted to be the "big brother," and would the Far Eastern Empire be willing to do so?
The answer is obviously no. When the Far Eastern Empire was already extremely civilized more than 3,000 years ago, the ancestors of the Slavs were still living as savages somewhere!
Therefore, whichever country in Eurasia rises, East Africa and the United States can find a rival to challenge them.
The situation in the United States and East Africa is completely different. In North America, which country can provoke the United States? Even if it finds an external power to help it, the United States is fully capable of crushing it. Similarly, the same applies to East Africa's position in Africa.
Therefore, the hegemony of East Africa and the United States in the region is as stable as that of the ancient Far Eastern empires in East Asia. Except in very special circumstances, the two countries will always rise again, unless they are completely culturally divided.
This is clearly more difficult to accomplish than military conquest. Of course, the fact that the United States and the two East African countries were able to establish a military conquest of the region is also a result of that conquest.
The United States physically exterminated the local indigenous people, and in East Africa, it uprooted the black population throughout southern Africa. But with the development of the times, will any country be able to replicate this in the future? Naturally, it is very difficult.
Therefore, it is extremely difficult for external forces to dismantle East Africa and the United States through underhanded tactics.
For East Africa and the United States, the two most powerful countries in the world, to completely crush each other would be virtually impossible without landing tens of millions of troops on each other's territory.
Even if the two countries were to fight to the death, the final outcome would most likely be a lose-lose situation, since there are other countries in the world besides East Africa and the United States.
Therefore, East Africa and the United States have the confidence to go to war with Europe, and they do not want to be direct military adversaries with each other.
This reflects part of the reason why East Africa and the United States are tacitly manipulating the development of the war situation in Eurasia.
Crown Prince Frederick said: "In addition to Europe itself, it is more important to dismantle and take over Europe's overseas interests, especially the colonies and economic systems of the two colonial powers, Britain and France."
"Japan in Asia undermined the order established by Britain and France in Southeast Asia and Oceania, while Germany was the gravedigger of the two countries' interests in Europe and the Mediterranean."
"Germany's attitude and thoughts are hard to fathom right now, especially its plans for the war and their potential impact, which are highly uncertain."
"Therefore, if we want to make a move in Europe, we must wait until Europe is completely engulfed in war."
Ernst and Friedrich, father and son, clearly did not underestimate Germany in any way, after all, war itself is full of uncertainties.
Just like Afghanistan, a seemingly insignificant country, Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States almost all suffered defeats there when their military strength was at its peak, thus earning Afghanistan the infamous title of "graveyard of empires".
Even if Germany were to take on the entire continent of Europe, its apparent strength would be less than that of Afghanistan.
After all, Germany's industry has always been firmly in first place in Europe, and its population is over 100 million, accounting for nearly one-fifth of Europe's population.
With the addition of a group of German "fellow acquaintances," Germany's advantage was further amplified.
Ernst was well aware that in his previous life, Germany had almost utterly defeated Europe. Even though they were tied down by the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union paid a "horrible" price, with more than 20 million deaths alone.
What does this mean? You can imagine it: Spain turned into a wasteland, with not a single living person left. That's roughly what it's like. Or, in this era, the entire population of an entire province of the Far Eastern Empire was wiped out!
Let alone an entire province, even the complete disappearance of the population of a single village would have an extremely shocking impact on an ordinary person.
Imagine waking up one day in your village or neighborhood to find all your neighbors gone. It would be hard to bear.
Therefore, Germany today is far more formidable than it was in the past. If East Africa and the United States do not intend to intervene, Ernst has no doubt that Germany could dominate Europe and wipe the entire Soviet Union off the map.
Putting aside Germany's current strength, in the past, Europe at least had Poland, the "fifth strongest power in Europe," which could restrain some of Germany's power.
Now, Britain and France have no decent allies in Europe, so Yugoslavia has become an important target for wooing. The Soviet Union is also weaker than in the previous era, and it has not even fully incorporated Ukraine. In the south, it is also constrained by the Ottoman Empire, a German ally.
Ernst said, "We can never be too careful when dealing with Germany, but we certainly cannot be the first to act before Germany starts the war."
"Germany's current strength is not much different from ours and the United States. In fact, the difference in strength between Germany and the United States is almost negligible."
Ernst's words were not an exaggeration at all. If Germany had not been at war with other European countries, but instead faced the United States and East Africa alone, it would not have been much weaker than those two countries.
It is particularly difficult to judge whether the United States or Germany is stronger, given that after annexing Austria-Hungary, Germany's population is now comparable to that of the United States, and in terms of military development, Germany even has a certain advantage over the United States.
Germany's navy is comparable in size to that of the United States, but in the field of army, Germany is clearly more formidable than the United States.
Leaving aside the present, even in the past, the reason why the United States was able to achieve a complete military suppression of Germany in World War II was because Germany had already been drained of its resources by its European allies, and Germany had become a spent force.
However, a fully-fledged Germany that has not been consumed by other countries is not the same as a Germany that is exhausted by the war.
One can imagine that if the United States had directly fought Germany during World War II, its performance would likely not have been good. Moreover, if Germany had not been in conflict with other European countries, the United States might not have been able to do anything to Germany at all.
Ernst said, "What really limits Germany's current strength is its poor geography. There are still three major European powers that can restrain Germany: the Soviet Union, France, and Britain."
"What we need to do is to get these countries to fight Germany to the death, especially the Soviet Union."
Because of his impressions from his previous life, Ernst did not have high expectations for France, unless Germany was willing to fight France again in the same way it did in World War I.
It's a matter of probability, but there's no doubt that Germany wouldn't be willing to recklessly charge into the reinforced concrete wall built by France, namely the Maginot Line.
However, personally, Ernst still hoped that France could be somewhat different from what it had been in his previous life.
Crown Prince Frederick bluntly stated, "Among the countries in Europe, the Soviet Union is the most likely to withstand the pressure from Germany."
"Therefore, for the sake of the balance of power in Europe, we should also provide appropriate support to the Soviet Union, especially the Central Asian Highway. It can provide assistance to the Far Eastern Empire now, and it may also become a channel for us to communicate and trade with the Soviet Union in the future."
Crown Prince Frederick was also pessimistic about France, mainly because the current disparity in strength between France and Germany was too great. Germany's population was nearly three times that of France, and even if the situation were to follow the model of World War I, Germany could use its population advantage to wear down the Maginot Line.
Moreover, Germany has two allies, Italy and Spain, which means that France is now facing enemies on three sides. In the southeast, it has to guard against Italy on the other side of the Alps, and it also worries about whether Spain will also stab it in the back.
Even Ernst himself couldn't guarantee Spain's stance, given the completely different European situation compared to his previous life. Franco might have assumed "the advantage was in our hands" and sided entirely with Germany!
The Axis powers now have a much greater chance of winning than in the previous life, so it's no wonder that Franco, this "honest man," was tempted.
Judging by his own experience, Ernst was a rather conservative person. However, if he were the current leader of Europe, he might also be tempted to take a gamble in the face of the strength of the Axis powers.
As for risks, Germany is now the quasi-hegemon of Europe. Apart from the Soviet Union, the only two countries that can be respected, Britain and France, have a submissive attitude towards Germany. Apart from stubborn countries like Yugoslavia, there are almost no other small European countries that dare to oppose Germany.
Outside of Europe, the only countries that can truly help are East Africa and the United States, but other European countries are clearly unsure about the attitudes of these two countries towards Germany.
In the past, many European countries, including Germany itself, harbored a certain degree of wishful thinking about whether the United States would become an enemy of Germany. Otherwise, Germany would not have been so furious when Japan attacked the United States.
Looking at it this way, the only country in Europe that we can really look to now is the Soviet Union.
Ernst said, "The Soviets were more anxious about this than we were; otherwise, they wouldn't have allowed the construction of the Central Asian Highway, let alone gotten involved in it themselves."
"After all, the Central Asian Highway passes directly through their territory in Central Asia, and the Soviets were also highly vigilant against us ideologically."
The construction of the Central Asian Highway, to some extent, also demonstrates that the Soviet Union, in the face of threats from Germany and Japan, abandoned its ideological confrontation with other imperialist countries.
Not only East Africa, but also France and the United States were countries that the Soviet Union sought to cooperate with.
Ernst said, "Forget it, the situation in Europe is developing one step at a time, and there's not much we can do. Right now, we should focus on dragging Japan down with us."
Crown Prince Frederick nodded in agreement: "If we want Japan to fall into our trap more quickly, we must make them run into a brick wall on the Far East battlefield."
"Currently, our support for the Far Eastern Empire relies almost entirely on two air transport routes, but even the Central Asian route has extremely limited transport capacity due to air transport restrictions."
East Africa is now focusing on developing the Central Asian route, but this does not mean that East Africa has abandoned the southwestern route of the Far Eastern Empire.
However, compared to the Central Asian route, the Southwest route was far smaller in scale due to the limitations imposed by the natural environment and war.
Ernst said, "The Central Asia Highway should be open by the end of the year. At that time, this route will become a real artery for aid to the Far Eastern Empire, and our 'aid to China' fund will be able to truly play its role."
Crown Prince Frederick said, "Father, regarding the use of these funds, in addition to strengthening oversight, we must also eliminate the influence of the Far Eastern Empire government as much as possible."
"What the Far Eastern Empire needs now is not money, but real material support. Therefore, these funds should be directly exchanged for various supplies in East Africa, and then we should take the lead in distributing them to the various anti-Japanese forces in the Far Eastern Empire."
"This will both enhance the enthusiasm of all parties in the Far Eastern Empire to resist the invaders and prevent the Far Eastern Empire government from embezzling funds."
“If the money is transferred directly to the Far Eastern Empire government, they might pocket it or exchange it for private assets overseas.”
"Of course, the worst-case scenario is that these guys take the funds we raised in East Africa and go to countries like the United States to buy private properties, then we will really lose a lot."
"Therefore, providing material support is obviously more effective than providing financial support in ensuring that the money is put into practice."
It was merely more advantageous, not fully implemented. After all, supplies could be resold, and Crown Prince Frederick was well aware of the credibility of the Far Eastern Empire's government and army in this era, so he had no trust in their integrity.
Of course, in addition to the above considerations, Crown Prince Frederick had one more point he didn't mention: direct material support is also beneficial to East Africa itself. These donations are first exchanged in East Africa for various materials needed by the Far Eastern Empire, which is beneficial to the industrial development of East Africa itself.
By purchasing supplies, factories in East Africa can secure more orders. Moreover, the peaceful social environment in East Africa allows for better production of various products needed by the Far Eastern Empire's front lines. This is essentially a trick of transferring goods from one hand to the other.
(End of this chapter)
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