"Marson, how are you talking to the Americans?"

On the evening of June 15, Adolf Hitler asked about the meeting between Hessman and Hull and Hopkins while having dinner with Hessman. ◎

"The Americans are against us." Hessman said, fiddling with his wine glass. "Oppose us to abolish the Treaty of Versailles, the Treaty of Saint-Germain, the Treaty of Sefour, the Treaty of Lausanne and the Treaty of Trianon, especially the Treaty of Trianon! The Americans will make a public statement, strongly opposing the abolition of the treaty! It is obvious that the Americans do not intend to watch us Germany replace Britain and become the master of the world."

"Don't there be a strong isolationist sentiment in the United States?" Ribbintrov interjected.

“We had a strong isolationist sentiment before we defeated France,” Hessman said, shrugging, “but now it has changed… Leader, you should know that public opinion is easy to manipulate.”

"You mean," Hitler asked, "the war between us and the United States is inevitable?"

"It can't be said that," Hessman said, "it depends on the Soviet Union. If the Soviet Union was not favored by Britain and the United States, the United States would not be able to fight with us. Because the United States could not afford the casualties caused by fighting with us."

But the Soviet Union could not join Germany's camp! Germany's policy toward the Soviet Union could only be to contain rather than to win over. In other words, the possibility of the Soviet Union being swept by the United States always exists.

Hitler was silent for a while, but frowned and looked at the plate of vegetable salad in front of him. After a while, this sentence came out: "Today, the Japanese Foreign Minister also said that their actions in French Indochina were strongly opposed by the United States. There is a very likely war between the United States and Japan in the future. Therefore, Japan hopes to form an alliance with the Soviet Union... Japan hopes that the Soviet Union can join us."

"But the Soviet Union was too expensive, we can't afford it." Hessman said sarcastically, "No one can satisfy the appetite of these Russians, their appetite is too big."

"But the Japanese plan to divide the East Asian continent with them." Ribbintrov said, "Japan believes that is their lifeline."

"Don't pay attention to this brainless request," Hessman said without thinking. "With Japan's current national strength, if it falls into East Asia, there will be little effort to move south. What else do we need this ally to do?"

Germany's purpose of winning over Japan is nothing more than to restrain the United States, but the strength of Japan and the United States is huge. Japan must do its best and have no spare energy to use troops in the East Asian continent at the same time. Moreover, the East Asian continent has developed roughly steadily for more than ten years. Although it has experienced some turmoil during this period, its overall strength is still rising.

In addition, the East Asia has obtained a lot of advanced weapons and industrial equipment through barter trade - not only barter trade with Germany (German needs non-ferrous metals such as tungsten ore and manganese ore from the East Asia continent), but also a large scale of barter trade with Japan. From the 1930s to the present, the East Asia continent has always been the largest market for Japanese machinery and steel exports, with the cumulative transaction amount exceeding 1 billion ounces of silver!

Although the scale of industrial construction in East Asia is not large in general and the technology is not advanced, it can already support a large-scale, low-intensity and very long land war. If they receive assistance from the Soviet Union, they may have dragged down Japan in the long war.

This is also the reason why Japan has been reluctant to take action and wants to put pressure on the Soviet Union through Germany in order to achieve the division of the East Asian continent by Japan and the Soviet Union.

Hessman smiled coldly and said, "If those Japanese were really sure, they should have interfered last year."

"They were not ready for war at that time," Ribbintrov interjected.

Hessman smiled sneered: "The 500,000 Japanese Army, which has the level of equipment training for European troops in the last World War, dare not take action, which is very telling."

He shook his head and continued: "And most of the coal, iron ore and non-ferrous metals consumed by Japanese industry are imported from the East Asia continent. Once a war begins, Japan's raw material imports will immediately have problems. If it cannot win quickly, Japan will turn to the United Kingdom and the United States, which can provide them with raw materials. Therefore, on the issue of East Asia, we should continue to be consistent with the Soviet Union to force Japan to continue to conflict with Britain and the United States in the south."

Hessman's strategy toward Japan is very simple, which is to force Japan to go south and find trouble for Britain and the United States. If this goal is not achieved, then it is meaningless to have alliances with Japan or promote the "Soviet and Japan Non-aggression Treaty".

He took a sip of the wine produced in Switzerland and continued: "And it is impossible for the Soviet Union to join the alliance. Even if they are asked to join, we and Japan will only make concessions. How could it be the Soviet Union? This Yosuke Matsuoka must not have a clear mind."

Hitler was silent after hearing Hessman's words. After a while, he said to Ribbentrop in a commanding tone: "Go and tell the Japanese that both the Italian leaders welcome Japan to join the alliance. We will also advise France to recognize French Indochina independence. As for the Soviet Union... we can promote the Japan-Soviet Treaty on Non-aggression, which will be based on not changing the current status of the East Asian continent."

After Hitler finished speaking, he looked at Hessman again. Hessman quickly added: "You can add another one: We and the Soviet Union are both major powers in the socialist camp, and can exert influence on the *******, which belongs to the socialist camp, and promote the signing of a non-aggression treaty between the two sides to ensure sufficient supply of various war resources such as coal mines, iron ore, non-ferrous metals and food during Japan's southward advance."

...

Just as Hitler and Hessman were discussing how to use Japan to cause trouble for the United States, Americans also had the same plan. US Secretary of State Hull and Commerce Secretary Hopkins were meeting with Prince Paul, the Regent of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, at the US Consulate General in Geneva.

The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was actually not a direct product of World War I. After the surrender of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in December 1918, the Kingdom of Serbia-Croatia-Slovenia was established, which was a United Kingdom. However, all ethnic groups in the country opposed this United Kingdom, except for the Serbs. Therefore, the then king Alexander I dissolved the parliament in January 1929, abolished the constitution, banned the activities of all political parties, including the Bolsheviks, implemented strict news inspections, and changed the country from the United Kingdom to a unified kingdom, changing the name of the country to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

However, such changes and repressive measures caused a greater rebound. On April 20, 1929, the extreme Croatian nationalist organization Ustasha was established in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, preparing to use terrorist measures to win independence for Croatia. On October 9, 1934, the organization successfully assassinated the Yugoslav king Alexander I in Marseille, France.

At this time, Alexander I's heir Peter II was not yet adult and could not rule the country, so his uncle, Prince Paul, who met with Hull and Hopkins today.

"His Royal Highness, President Roosevelt and the American people are firmly on the side of the Yugoslavia people. Any attempt to dismember Yugoslavia will be firmly opposed by the United States. All actions of the Yugoslavia people against the German offensive will be supported by the United States..."

Listening to the inspiring speech of US Secretary of State Hull, Prince Paul of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was gloomy and terrible, as if he heard the death sentence for the Kingdom of Yugoslavia!

"Mr. Secretary of State, Mr. Minister," Prince Paul said with difficulty, "I think you understand the independence of the Croats and Slovenians. Since 1919, they have been fighting with us Serbs, using peaceful and violent means. This should not have happened. Without the Treaty of Trianon, the Kingdom of Serbs would have been more prosperous and stable than it is now. Germany has become the master of the European continent and they want to abolish the Treaty of Trianon, which is a good thing for the Croats, Slovenians and we Serbs... Why do you America object? Do you want to see the Croats, Serbs and Slovenians fall into endless killings of each other?"

Hull and Hopkins looked at each other and were both surprised that Yugoslavia also had clear-headed politicians who knew that it would be impossible to rule the entire Yugoslav Kingdom by relying on the power of the Serbs. Therefore, some territory that did not belong to the Serbs must be given up, such as Croatia and Slovenia.

In fact, these two territories have never been ruled by the Serbs. The alliance between Croatia and Hungarians has existed for more than 800 years, and the Slovenians were ruled by the Habsburg family for more than 400 years. If the Habsburg family, which have blood, feudal legal system and religious blessings, have no right to rule Croatia and Slovenia, then what qualifications does the Obrenovic dynasty, which are born and believed in Orthodox (Croatia and Slovenia believe in Catholicism) have to rule Croatia and Slovenia?

"And letting Croatia and Slovenia leave Yugoslavia is also in line with the principle of national self-determination that you America has always advocated." Prince Paul looked at the two American politicians, as if he was hoping that they would be kind-hearted. Now the nationalist sentiment in Greater Serbia is very strong. If the United States and Britain work hard to fan the flames, then Prince Paul's leadership of the government is likely to be overthrown by the Serbs. At that time, the situation in Yugoslavia will be completely out of control!

But the prince soon fell into despair. The US Secretary of State did not mention "national self-determination" at all, but told him in a cold tone: "The US government not only looks at the present, but also looks at the future. Any country who surrenders by reason of being easily defeated will receive less sympathy for the world than the countries that rise up to resist - even if this resistance can only last for a few weeks."

Prince Paul understood what Hull meant, which was actually forcing Yugoslavia to resist Germany, otherwise it would be punished in the future peace treaty!
Chapter completed!