Transmigrated as the Crown Prince

After Dönitz left, Yannick stood up and came to the world map, looking at Australia at the bottom of the map.

Not long ago, Yannick heard that the United States was actively wooing Australia and surrounding countries, so he sent a special envoy to visit Australian Prime Minister Robert Gordon Menzies.

He wouldn't bother paying attention to an ordinary small country, but although Australia is vast and sparsely populated, its national strength is not weak.

Australia is rich in mineral resources, oil and natural gas, with at least 70 kinds of mineral resources. Among them, bauxite reserves rank first in the world, accounting for 35% of the world's total reserves. Australia is the world's largest producer of bauxite, alumina, diamonds, lead, and tantalum, and its output of gold, iron ore, coal, lithium, manganese ore, nickel, silver, uranium, zinc, etc. also ranks among the top in the world.

At the same time, Australia is also the world's largest exporter of bituminous coal, bauxite, lead, diamonds, zinc and concentrates, the second largest exporter of alumina, iron ore and uranium ore, and the third largest exporter of aluminum and gold. Crude oil reserves are 240 billion liters, natural gas reserves are 1.36 trillion cubic meters, and liquefied petroleum gas reserves are 174 billion liters. The forest coverage area accounts for 20% of the country's land. The natural forest area is about 5.5 billion hectares (2\\\\\\3 is eucalyptus), and the timber forest area is 1.22 million hectares. It is known as "the country sitting on the mine cart".

Moreover, the combat effectiveness of Australia's military in World War II in the original time and space was not weak.

In World War II, Britain was completely devastated by Germany's Blitzkrieg. It almost lost its homeland, and it was even less concerned about Asia and the Pacific. Not only was it unable to take care of it, it also had to rely on "patriotic expatriates" to help. This was also in line with Australia at that time. The mainstream public opinion within "defend Britain".

Following Britain's declaration of war against Germany, Australia sent its first division (the 6th Division) to the Middle East in November 1939, and later added the 7th and 9th Divisions. These troops began in 1941 I started fighting in January and my results are pretty good. On the North African battlefield, the Australian 6th Division collaborated with the British army to capture Bardia, Tobruk, Benghazi and other places held by the Italian army. 10 Italian divisions were annihilated, which was equivalent to killing the rebels. 1/6 of the Italian Army.

If defeating Italy, a notoriously weak chicken, is nothing, then the battle with the German army can illustrate the problem. In March 1941, the German and Italian troops began a counterattack against the Allied forces in the North African desert. Tobruk, which was held by the Australian 9th Division, was besieged, but the Australian army refused to surrender and repeatedly repelled the German attacks. Until the Allies came to relieve the siege in December, Rommel failed to succeed. This was a tough battle. Stalingrad, known as North Africa, once again won honors for the Australian army more than 20 years later. In the Battle of El Alamein the following year, the Australian 9th Division fought a bloody path on the right at a critical moment when the other two attacks were frustrated, turning the tide of the battle. Rommel's evaluation of the Australian army was that "(the Australian army) is like a crusher, everything that hits it will be shattered into pieces." If the Desert Fox can take a high look, there is no doubt about the combat effectiveness of the Australian army.

Yannick asked the special envoy to say that he could forget about Australia's previous expeditionary force to the European continent to resist the German army. As long as Australia allocates a piece of land to lease to Germany to establish overseas bases, then he can guarantee not to infringe on Australia's mainland; Australia will continue as usual. Live your own life; and Europe will strengthen trade relations with Australia.

There seems to be a contradiction between leasing to establish overseas bases and not invading the mainland at all, but this is not the point.

Australian Prime Minister Robert Gordon Menzies is suddenly caught in a dilemma.

A group of senior executives discussed it for several days and finally decided to cooperate with Germany. After all, Germany swept across Europe in just one year, overthrowing France, the strongest country in Europe, and the British Empire, the biggest maritime power. And what about the United States? Apart from the record of the first battle twenty years ago, there is nothing else. Who is strong and weak will be judged.

Australia agreed, and the surrounding countries did not dare to have any small thoughts and continued to "serve the old master" and live their own lives.

Yannick traced the distance between Australia and the United States' Pearl Harbor on the map, and really wanted to have a German version of a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor.

Unfortunately, both sides have declared war, and the United States must have stepped up its alert.

At this time, on the other side of the Middle East, on the border of Egypt, Rommel in the conference room yawned out of boredom.

Sitting opposite him were envoys sent by Saudi Arabia, not just one, but seven or eight, all representatives of various forces. Because at this time, Saudi Arabia is only wearing the skin of a unified country, and various domestic forces are entrenched in one party, and no one is convinced by anyone.

In the mid-18th century, the Saudi families in the Arabian Peninsula and the Wahhabs united and jointly created the Wahhabi state in Najd. After that, the successive emergence of the first and second Saudi kingdoms ended the long-term division of the Arabian Peninsula. At its peak, the Saud family's rule extended to almost all areas of the Arabian Peninsula, and even the northern regions of Syria and Mesopotamia were attacked by Wahhabi armies. However, the Wahhabi army's conquest activities outside Najd were not successful. Instead, they encountered fierce resistance in the occupied areas because of the too strict and conservative religious rules of the Wahhabi sect.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Arabian Peninsula returned to a state of fragmentation, and the Saudi family began activities to rebuild the Saudi state.

In 1902, Abdul Aziz (also known as Ibn Saud) of the Saud family led an army from Kuwait, where his family had taken refuge, and recaptured Riyadh from the hostile Rashid family. In 1926, Abdulaziz became king of the territory he ruled.

Before 1915, the United Kingdom adhered to the traditional policy of non-interference in the affairs of the Arabian Peninsula and rejected Saudi leader Abdulaziz's repeated requests to establish diplomatic relations with Britain. However, Abdulazizdo did not give up and sent envoys repeatedly to meet with British diplomats in the Middle East to request asylum from the British Empire. The humble and respectful attitude Ibn Saud showed at that time moved all the British diplomats who met him. They also recommended to the British cabinet to establish diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia and accept this seemingly obedient little brother.

However, in the past ten years, the British government has changed twice, and the proposal to establish diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia has not been passed by the parliament once. The reason is very simple. At that time, the resources of the Arabian Peninsula were poor, and Saudi Arabia's power had just begun. It only controlled one city and was just a large tribal chief. How could he be taken seriously by the high-ranking British parliamentarians? .

Another point is that the Persian Gulf region was not the British sphere of influence at the time. They only focused on the land transportation lines leading to India. The Najd area controlled by Saudi Arabia was located in the hinterland of the Arabian Peninsula and had no strategic value in the eyes of the British. More important The reason is that Britain is worried that casually accepting younger brothers in the Persian Gulf region will stimulate Ottoman Turkey.

After the outbreak of World War I, Britain adjusted its policy towards Saudi Arabia in order to win the support of Saudi Arabia. It successfully encouraged Abdulaziz to participate in the Arab uprising that broke out under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. Britain provided him with arms and financial assistance. .

After the end of World War I, Britain and France re-encroached and divided the political territory of the Middle East. The United Kingdom initially supported the powerful Hashemite family and restricted the power of the Abdulaziz family. Its fundamental intention was to prevent the growth of French power. Later, due to the failure of the Hashemite family's domestic and foreign policies, the United Kingdom turned to support the Saudi family. Governing.

In 1915, Britain and Abdulaziz signed the Darling Agreement, which officially recognized the Saudi family's sphere of influence as a British protectorate and intended to establish the boundaries of the Saudi family's rule and prevent Saudi forces from infiltrating or occupying British territory in Kuwait. , Qatar and other protected areas. In 1927, Britain and Saudi Arabia signed the Treaty of Jeddah, and Saudi Arabia officially gained independence from British rule.

On September 22, 1932, Saudi Arabia officially announced its unification. Unfortunately, the princes were obsessed with their own little piece of bad land and did not want to make progress.

Seeing a large number of German troops gathering at the Egyptian border, these princes may have panicked and sent envoys to negotiate. But I don't know where these idiots learned that "a strong dragon cannot defeat a local snake", and they actually made all kinds of outrageous demands to the German army.