American Comic Dimensional Trading Device

After the merger of the two regions, although the national strength will inevitably increase significantly, the lack of access to the sea will obviously greatly hinder the development of the new Austria.

If Austria wants access to the sea, it can only expand southward.

To its south are only two countries: Yugoslavia and Italy.

Without a doubt, Italy, which surrendered to the Allies even earlier than Austria, is now clinging tightly to the Americans, making it impossible for Austria to take action against it.

Given this, the only remaining option is Yugoslavia, with Slovenia and Western Croatia becoming the top priorities.

The existence of the Fatherland Army provided Austria and the United States with an excuse to take action. In order to gain the support of the United States, Austria was willing to go all out and agreed to give the United States a port for military bases after the matter was settled. In any case, this land originally belonged to Yugoslavia, and Austria did not care about the cost of selling it.

As for the original owners of this region, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the Fatherland Army—did they have any choice?

absolutely not.

The Iron Emperor was incredibly powerful to them; if he caught someone, he would kill them without hesitation.

In Austria and the United States, the worst they might lose is control over their territory.

But once they fell into the hands of the Iron Emperor, they couldn't even save their lives.

Because of this incident, at the Weimar Conference, the representatives of the Soviet Union and the United States parted ways with the United States and Austria.

Ophelia even had a private fight with a representative from the Russian side, who was also a woman.

Based on Ophelia's description, it's hard for Josie not to connect the woman she mentioned, Claire Varyan, with the Black Widow—but shouldn't the first Black Widow have been Dottie Underwood?

In addition, the two sides' armies are locked in a serious standoff in Croatia—but it is mainly a standoff between Austrian troops and the army of the "Iron Emperor" (Croatia's army), with neither the Russians nor the United States directly involved.

After all, World War II had just ended. The United States was doing relatively well, but the Soviet Union was far from recovering.

However, all of this changed when six American kids went to Japan for a barbecue.

Undoubtedly, the Russian bear is in a bit of a hurry now, to the point that it is willing to sell out the Iron Emperor and agree to Josh's conditions in order to obtain information on nuclear weapons.

Of course, it's unlikely that the Iron Emperor will compromise so easily, after all, he was the first person in the Russian camp to dare to go against Russia.

However, without the support of the Russian bear, the Iron Emperor alone cannot stir up any trouble.

Anyway, even if Josie doesn't interfere, Yugoslavia will inevitably disintegrate in a few decades, so this land is better off going to Josie.

"Prepare the plane immediately, I'm going to see Eisenhower!" Josie was pleased with the retreat from the Soviet Union, so he immediately prepared to take action, but not to rush to deliver information to the Soviet Union, but to prepare to buy warships.

With a estuary, a navy is naturally needed.

However, Austria, being a landlocked country, doesn't have much of a shipbuilding industry—if you don't count the small shipyards used for inland rivers.

However, while in Hamburg, Josie had already secretly secured a decent shipyard. But building warships is no simple matter; it's expensive, labor-intensive, technically demanding, and most importantly, time-consuming.

So the only option from the start was to buy, and Josie's first target was naturally the German fleet that had just been divided up by the Allies.

Of course, the German fleet itself didn't have many ships, so Josie didn't have many options.

However, there was one warship that was easy to acquire: the Prinz Eugen, the ship of good fortune assigned to the U.S. Navy.

Although Josie's relationship with the U.S. Navy wasn't particularly good, he didn't need the Navy Department's approval to buy warships; he could just approach Eisenhower directly.

Moreover, the Prinz Eugen, a non-US military warship, was not of much significance to the US Navy—otherwise, why would it have been used as a target ship for nuclear weapons the year after the war ended?

Chapter 130 Secret Agreement

In a hotel in Moschendorf, a small border town in Austria, a special meeting is being held in secret.

The representatives at the meeting were from two sides. One side was Karl Renner, the first president of the newly formed Second Republic of Austria after the war, who is known as the father of Austria.

On the other side is a staunch supporter of the bearded man, the current Russian Foreign Minister, Molotov.

The meeting's main topic was the signing of a secret agreement between the two sides, in which the Soviet Union would reduce its troop presence in the region surrounding Austria, recognize the existence of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, acknowledge Yugoslavia's sovereignty over Slovenia and Croatia, and recognize Austria's protectorate over the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

It also pledged not to interfere in any potential regional disputes between Austria, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

In addition, the Soviet Union also needed to supply Austria with weapons-grade uranium-235—this was something Josie's men came up with during their contact with the Soviet Union. Yuri's side couldn't produce weapons-grade nuclear materials yet, and Austria didn't produce uranium, but the Soviet Union had plenty of it!

The region of Kazakhstan, controlled by the Russian bear, is the world's second-largest uranium-producing area, and Russia itself is also a major uranium producer.

Of course, the uranium provided by the Soviet Union was not free; Austria had to pay for it—but for Austria, which had Josie's support, that was a small amount of money.

In return, Austria provided complete nuclear weapons technical data.

The entire negotiation went very smoothly, but it was all done in the dark.

Because, in essence, this secret agreement between the two sides actually sacrificed the interests of their allies, while both sides were guaranteed to profit.

The Russian side completely sold out its little brother, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

There was no other way; nuclear weapons were too important to the Soviet Union.

The six nuclear bombs dropped by the United States on Japan greatly shocked the top leadership of Russia.

If, at the time of the Weimar Conference, the bearded man was still basking in the smugness that the IS-3 heavy tanks had brought to the representatives of the United States, Britain, and other countries.

The fact that the United States lost six super weapons at once has kept the bearded man up at night. He even issued a death order to his own weapons development department and increased infiltration into the United States.

Austria's provision of comprehensive nuclear weapons data at this time was like a timely rain after a long drought for the bearded man.

In comparison, the little territory of a mere underling seems utterly insignificant.

This is classic great-power chauvinism: weak nations have no diplomacy.

Austria is selling the US monopoly on super weapons, which is also the only way for Austria to restore its status as a great power and break free from US influence.

Previously, relying on the United States, opening up to allow the other side to station troops and promising military ports, were all measures taken out of desperation.

After all, Austria at this time was like Germany, surrounded by enemies, with only the United States not being hostile to Austria.

In the original timeline, Austria was divided and ruled by four countries for a full ten years. In the end, it barely regained its sovereignty by declaring permanent neutrality, and survived in the gap between the two major camps.

However, Austria cannot rely on the United States forever. Josie is well aware of how ugly the United States will be once it realizes its status as the leader of the West. Since Josie has already effectively controlled most of Austria's resources, it is naturally impossible for it to sit idly by and wait for the United States to come and exploit it.

Therefore, superweapons, and maintaining a certain level of good relations with the Soviet Union, are essential for Austria.

With nuclear weapons, coupled with the V3 rocket technology that is almost unmatched in this world, which was traded from Yuri, we would definitely become the world's third pole!

As for whether the Russians would break the agreement, Josie wasn't worried at all.

Even if Russia wanted to break the agreement, it would have to wait until it developed nuclear weapons.

Even if the Soviet Union obtained complete nuclear technology data, it's hard to say whether it could build a nuclear bomb before Austria.

After all, when it comes to cutting-edge industrial capabilities, Austria is in no way inferior to Russia.

If Austria hadn't been so capable, Red Skull wouldn't have been able to create so many Tesseract energy weapons, almost taking on the entire world single-handedly.

After the negotiations concluded and he watched the Soviet delegation leave with a massive amount of information, Carl Renner, trembling, returned to his hotel under the escort of guards.

Then they went to a lounge next to the meeting room and met Josh, who had been keeping an eye on the meeting's progress throughout.

“Thank you for everything you’ve done for Austria, Josie!” Karl Renner said solemnly, shaking Josie’s hand.

“Uncle Carl, you’re too kind. Although I am now an American citizen, I have never forgotten that my roots are here!” Josie said earnestly, holding the old man’s hand.

Although deep down, Josie didn't really consider himself Austrian, he didn't mind telling a white lie to this respectable old man.

Despite the fact that in the past six months, Josie has taken advantage of the chaotic war situation and the momentum of the US military to successfully incorporate the remaining Hydra forces through various means and control more than half of Austria's politics, military, and economy.

But these things could be kept from others, but not from the founding father of Austria.

Moreover, if the other party wanted to, he, with his extremely high prestige in Austria, would be fully capable of stopping Josie's behavior.

However, Carl Lenner did not stop Josie's actions; instead, he gave Josie tremendous support.

Even if Josie is an "American".

This is not because Karl Lenner was also a Hydra; in fact, quite the opposite, the founding father of Austria was a Marxist-Leninist who had always been a staunch opponent of Mustache and the Red Skull.

Although these two men were once very powerful, Carl Lenner never thought highly of them because he considered them to be complete madmen.

But Josie was different. She didn't have that crazy aura, and she was very low-key, extremely good at enduring, and everything she did was beneficial to Austria.

That's why Karl Lenner was willing to support him and cooperate with Josie on a series of Austrian foreign policies.

The complete technical data on nuclear weapons that Josie possessed further convinced the old man that Austria's future was in the hands of this young man.

Of course, there was another reason: Karl Lenner knew very well that he was too old. Born in 1870, he was now 75 years old and didn't have many years left to live.

Austria needs a younger and more energetic leader.

And apart from the powerful Josie, Carl Lenner couldn't find a second person more suitable than him.

As for the fact that Josie was a capitalist representing the interests of a conglomerate, Karl Renner didn't care at all; he only cared about whether Austria could become powerful again.

Moreover, what Josie said wasn't entirely a lie. As long as he maintained control over Austrian interests, he and Austria were one. Furthermore, Austria and his former homeland didn't have much animosity or conflict of interest.

Therefore, Josie, who had traveled through time and taken over the original body, didn't mind making Austria her second homeland.

As for the United States... isn't that a dumping ground for leeks?

In a very harmonious atmosphere, the two had a meal together and discussed the future of Austria before Karl, who was feeling a bit exhausted, left the town with his men.

Because it was a secret agreement, Carl Renner came here under the pretext of inspecting the border and it was not appropriate for him to stay here for too long.

After Carl Lenner left, Josie also prepared to leave.

It wasn't about leaving the small town, but about leaving Europe and returning to America.

The major conglomerates' investments in Europe are basically in place and on track, so there's no longer any need for him to oversee them.