Transmigrated as the Crown Prince

As early as the end of March 1939, Mussolini issued an ultimatum to Albania, requiring the Albanian Sogu government to respond to the following requirements before 12:00 on April 6: allow Italian troops to land at major Albanian ports; allow these troops to control Strategic arteries, airports and strategic border points; Creation of Italian "immigration zones" in Albania, where immigrants enjoy the rights of Albanian citizens; Creation of a customs union; Right of Italian citizens living in Albania to hold the most important public offices; Ministries of the Government The Secretary-General shall be Italian; the Italian Minister stationed in Tirana and the Albanian Minister stationed in Rome shall be members of the cabinet of the sending country.

Although the Sogo government kept Mussolini's ultimatum strictly secret, the people soon grasped the truth. From April 3 to 6, 1939, large-scale mass demonstrations broke out every day in Albania, and Sogu fled the country. On April 7, 1939, an Italian army of about 40,000 people, under the command of the supreme commander General Guchuni, arrived at the four main ports of Albania - Durrës, Vlora, Saranda and Shenzin. Albanian resistance was quickly broken down, and on April 10 almost the entire country was occupied by Italian troops.

In fact, Yannick did not want to mess with the "powder keg" of the Balkans. Even if the British deployed bombers in Greece in the future to bomb the Ploiesti oil field in Romania, the German air defense forces deployed on the oil fields could handle it well.

What really made him determined to take part were the resources stored in Albania.

As we all know, Germany was short of nickel ore and chromium ore during World War II, which even seriously affected the production capacity and quality of weapons and equipment, such as jet engines that could only work for 50 hours, and the production capacity of the 88-gun that never increased.

However, the irony is that Europe does not actually lack these two minerals, and even their origin has been under the control of the German-Italian Axis. This place is Albania.

Albania has the largest chromium ore resources in Europe and the rare high-grade nickel ore resources in Europe. In terms of chromium ore, there are 6.1 million tons of chromium ore with a content of more than 42%, and chromium ore with a content of 38%-42%. There are 2 million tons, 29.2 million tons of chromium ore with a content of 18%-38%; nickel ore is also very rich, with a total of 59.3 million tons of nickel iron ore with a nickel content of 03%-25%, and a silicon content of 21%-32%. There are 49.4 million tons of acid nickel ore.

For these resources, Yannick was "forced" to enter the Balkans. However, he did not want to waste too much energy on this "European powder keg", so he summoned the Greek ambassador to Berlin.

"Salute to you, Your Royal Highness the Crown Prince." Marcus, the Greek ambassador who came to the palace, was a little uneasy.

Italy has been eyeing Greece since it captured Albania. Germany also sent troops into Albania a few days ago. Marcus was very worried whether this summons was a declaration of war.

"Mr. Ambassador Marcus, is His Majesty George II in good health?"

The Prime Minister of Greece in the original time and space was Ioannis Metaxas. As soon as this guy took office, he dissolved parliament, arrested labor leaders, declared strikes illegal, and suppressed free speech; left-wing politicians were either exiled or imprisoned; he established a strict censorship system, including Plato, Thucydides, and Xenophon. All works have been banned. Greece, which restored its constitutional monarchy only eight months ago, became a dictatorship.

Yannick didn't like this guy, who later led Greece to join the Western Allies, so he used a trick early to drive him out of the Greek political arena, and finally killed him. The current Prime Minister of Greece is an ordinary person with little courage.

Ambassador Marcus asked cautiously. "Thank you for your concern, His Majesty. His Majesty George II is doing well. I wonder if His Majesty the Crown Prince came to see me?"

Yannick showed a smile of unknown meaning. "Nothing. I heard recently that your country is flirting with Britain?"

"Absolutely nothing!" Ambassador Marcus quickly denied. There was sweat on his forehead. He really even doubted whether Germany was going to use this as an excuse to attack Greece. The sweat was pouring down his face. "You know that we in Greece are strictly neutral."

"Oh? Did I hear it wrong?" Yannick smiled slightly. "Ambassador Marcus, don't be so nervous. I also believe in your country's neutrality policy, and I hope your country will always abide by it. Don't listen to the British's rhetoric and be used as a weapon.

Don't worry, I support your neutrality, but if your country breaks its promise, then there will be no need for me to be polite. If your country wants to join us, you are always welcome. We can also help you get back what you've lost. "According to the Treaty of Lausanne, Greece lost Smyrna, northern Epirus, eastern Thrace and other territories acquired during Alexander I's time.

Of course, the last sentence is just a polite remark. You must know that Greece in later generations, as the most backward country among the 15 old EU countries, enjoys hundreds of millions of euros in subsidies from the EU every year. The entire country's finances cannot make ends meet, leading to government bankruptcy.

And this bankruptcy is no accident. Greece has gone bankrupt several times in history.

Contemporary Greece was founded on November 30, 1823. On the day of its establishment, Greece was like a huge loan from Western countries. On this day, major British banks lent 800,000 pounds to the leaders of the Greek independence revolution to finance their war against the Ottoman Empire. The money was mainly used to purchase military equipment, and the remainder was used to maintain daily expenses in areas occupied by the rebels. Just four years after this borrowing, Greece declared its first bankruptcy after being unable to repay interest payments.

Sixty-six years later, in 1893, then-Prime Minister Charles Ostrikoupis announced Greece's second bankruptcy and uttered a famous saying that echoes throughout history: "I'm sorry, we are bankrupt."

In 1932, Greece declared bankruptcy for the third time. Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos misjudged the situation: after the Great Depression of 1929, he should have realized the serious consequences of the crisis; instead, he still kept the Greek exchange rate at that time The peg to gold and the pound led to eventual bankruptcy.

After the end of World War II, Greece's economic situation still did not improve, always hovering on the edge of bankruptcy. British Prime Minister Churchill was the first to give up, leaving the United States to fight alone and launch the famous "Marshall Plan", which was intended to assist Europe in post-war reconstruction and recovery. While the U.S. government waited and watched, it spent its government budget on the construction of high-level social facilities. This also led to the continuous growth of the communist camp, and ultimately led to the establishment of a highly controlled administrative system in the United States.

Throughout the 1950s, Athens' upper class squandered Greece's international financial reserves, even taking the gasoline that should have been used for agricultural machinery and using it on their own luxury cars. According to Joseph Harrison, an American journalist based in Athens at the time, the wealthy Greeks at the time "wept for their homeland all day long, but did not bother to pay taxes and transferred most of their property to the United States, Switzerland and Egypt."

This was still the case throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

Yannick didn't really want to bring up such an unsatisfactory younger brother.

However, this little brother is not useless, it still has some resources. Bauxite (reserves of about 1 billion tons), lignite (reserves of 5.6 billion tons), oil (reserves of about 500 million barrels), natural gas, nickel, chromium, magnesium, asbestos, uranium, marble, etc.

In the 1960s, uranium deposits were discovered in the Paranasti region of northern Greece and other places, with reserves reaching millions of tons. One million tons of uranium ore is equivalent to 5,000 kilograms of weapons-grade uranium. Or the equivalent of 150,000 kilograms of uranium for low-enriched uranium used in nuclear power plants to generate electricity. Equivalent to 405 million tons (40.5 million tons) of standard coal, similar to the total output of a large coal mine in the past 20 years.

Therefore, if Greece wants to join "shamelessly", Yannick will reluctantly agree; of course, the price they pay must not be less at all.

Ambassador Marcus was stunned when he heard Yannick's words. "Thank you, Your Highness. I will go back and report to Your Majesty."

Yannick warned again. "But if I find out that you have gone back on your word and secretly colluded with the enemies of the empire, I will be blamed for being rude."