Chapter 297 |
“You will pay the price!” The Bear’s ambassador snorted coldly at Karl Renner, then slammed the door and left the presidential palace.
Like the American EUCOM commander Grunzer, the Bear’s ambassador immediately questioned Karl Renner sharply upon seeing him.
Compared to the American side’s evasive strategy, the Bear was obviously much more direct, immediately issuing various threats of force.
Karl Renner’s attitude remained full of empty talk, but in reality, he did not give an inch, and the two sides naturally parted on bad terms.
Watching the Bear’s ambassador leave, Karl Renner’s expression also grew cold.
Although a full-scale war was unlikely, there was no doubt that with the Bear’s current stance, a localized conflict was inevitable.
Karl Renner’s thoughts were correct. Shortly after the Bear’s ambassador left, the troops originally dispatched by the Bear to Czechoslovakia and Hungary immediately accelerated their march.
Moreover, in addition to the suppression force advancing from the Ukraine direction, the Bear sent two more units to advance from Poland and Romania.
Poland, which had gradually begun to shake off the Bear’s control, immediately lodged protests.
The newly reorganized government was directly dissolved by the Bear and restructured again.
This further cemented Poland’s reputation as Europe’s stepping stone.
But while Poland was being completely suppressed by the Bear, the two suppression forces that had first rushed to Czechoslovakia and Hungary suffered heavy losses upon entering the two countries.
And it was not the Austrian troops, who also recently entered the two countries, that attacked them—it was the armies of Hungary and Czechoslovakia themselves.
Although the clashes had just occurred, in fact, several months earlier, when Austria began planning regarding these two countries, it had already dispatched many officers, transported a large amount of weapons, and bribed numerous local officials, beginning to train anti-Bear forces in both countries.
Czechoslovakia and Hungary had never been poor countries.
Although after World War I, due to the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary—the three core members of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire—lost large territories and their economies were severely damaged.
But in fact, before World War II, these three countries’ economies had long since recovered, and their citizens’ living standards were relatively affluent in the European region, especially in Central and Eastern Europe.
Especially Czechoslovakia, with an area of only 120,000 square kilometers—about the size of a single province—but ranked seventh in the world in industrial strength, with an economic power even stronger than Italy.
So the people of these two countries lived quite well.
However, after being occupied by the Bear, due to Stalin’s policies, except for some economic improvements immediately after the war ended, living conditions had worsened over the years.
Additionally, right after World War II, because these two countries had sided with Germany for some time, they suffered severe Bear reprisals.
This led to deep hatred toward the Bear in both countries, which was why they became the vanguard forces trying to break free from Bear control during this period.
Therefore, with Austria’s help, a large number of young and able-bodied men were organized, including many World War II veterans—after all, only ten years had passed since WWII.
This easily formed fighting power.
Especially since many future guerrilla warfare weapons were included in the arms support Austria provided to the two countries.
For example, the RPG-7, which even the Bear was still researching but Austria had already mass-produced and enhanced, and the famous Red Eye surface-to-air missile.
Thus, in a premeditated ambush, the Bear’s vanguard units suffered heavy losses at the border, with over a thousand casualties.
While the Bear troops were delayed at the border by the two countries’ own forces, Austria’s mechanized forces seized the opportunity to completely control the entire territory of the two countries.
By the time the Bear’s army adjusted and prepared to counterattack, their front enemy had already become the Austrian army—the guerrilla forces of the two countries had retreated to the rear to prepare for rearmament.
Facing the Austrian army, the Bear’s frontline officers were cautious and hesitated whether to continue advancing.
The Bear’s rear was also hesitant because fighting Austria was very different from suppressing Hungary and Czechoslovakia.
Therefore, they kept protesting Austria’s actions to the US and other Western camps while constantly holding internal meetings.
Meanwhile, countries like the US, UK, and France were also undecided on whether to support Austria, so they issued diplomatic notes to both sides to avoid rash actions.
As a result, the frontline formed a strange stalemate but at this moment, Austria made another move.
They officially announced to the world that, after an emergency internal referendum, Austria, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary—with respective votes of 99%, 90%, 80%, and 70%—had agreed to jointly form a new country, the United Kingdom of Austria, and had formed a cabinet and parliament elected from the four countries.
The cabinet and parliament decided that a 12-year-old girl, Carol Kane, a joint honorary citizen of the four countries, would become queen.
Once this news broke, the phone at Josh’s home immediately blew up… Actually, that’s not quite accurate because Josh had long since had the phone line cut.
After all, the Ouroboros organization no longer used such outdated things as phones—it only delayed serious business.
Several major world powers, namely the Bear, the US, the UK, and France, immediately became restless.
Especially the UK and France, who were originally hesitant about supporting Austria, were the first to declare they would never recognize the so-called United Kingdom of Austria.
They even directly labeled Austria as the evil new Axis and called on the US and the Bear to form a joint force to intervene militarily if Austria did not dissolve the so-called United Kingdom.
They were truly afraid.
Two world wars had cost countless lives, and they had finally wiped out the source of evil—Prussia.
Yet here Austria was trying to establish a new Austro-Hungarian Empire again.
Though called the United Kingdom of Austria, any clear-eyed person could see that once formed, it would be no different from the old Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Especially after the eighty-plus-year-old Churchill, who retired again last year, reappeared on the streets and gave speeches against Austria, global anti-Austria sentiments surged to new heights.
There were even incidents where citizens from many countries stormed factories, attacked and destroyed intelligent robots, and burned Austrian products.
This worldwide opposition also affected the confidence of the peoples in the four Austrian countries.
At this time, the Bear’s troops, previously hesitant, gathered ten divisions on the border and decisively opened fire on Austria’s defensive lines, with the MiG-21s dominating the airspace in large numbers.
Fine, you fired first.
The prepared Austrian side no longer hid anything.
Because of the arms race between the Bear and the US in recent years and the armored force reforms Austria made during the Yugoslavian war, the Bear had also completed reforms of its armored forces early.
Its original mainstay IS-3 heavy tanks and T34 medium tanks had all been retired and reassigned as local garrison and allied forces equipment, while the Bear’s main forces had fully switched to T50 and T55 tanks.
In Josh’s original timeline, the T50 tank did not exist. It is actually the original timeline’s T55, while the current T55 is the T62 model released several years early.
Due to the butterfly effect, the combined capabilities of these two main battle tanks were far superior to those in the original timeline.
Additionally, the versatile Hind attack helicopter, which originally appeared only in the 1960s, had also appeared in the Bear’s forces.
Under normal circumstances, these two tanks should be fully sufficient to deal with equipment such as the AMX-30 main battle tank and the Jaguar helicopter, which once shone brilliantly on the Yugoslav battlefield.
However, just like the Air Force, the Austrian Army once again overperformed.
While the Russian armored forces were rapidly advancing, a new type of tank appeared in Austria’s lines, with a highly sci-fi design and two long “tails.”
The MBT-X8 “Guardian” tank!
The strongest Allied main battle tank in the Red Alert 3 world, mainly developed with British technology.
Its overall capabilities—protection, firepower, target locking, and more—completely crush most Russian land vehicles except for the Apocalypse tank.
Such a tank would actually be highly practical even in the interstellar era, let alone for warfare on Earth.
Of course, it also has one major drawback: the lack of anti-aircraft firepower.
But with Austria’s current air force mainly equipped with F4X fighters, how could the Russians possibly gain air superiority?
Facing a normal F4 Phantom, the Russians’ main fighter, the MiG-21, actually holds some advantages because the Phantom is a multi-role heavy fighter, while the MiG-21 is a pure air superiority fighter, relatively smaller and more agile.
This is why, in the original timeline, in the confrontation records between these two fighters, the Phantom—despite being a peak second-generation fighter—had a higher loss ratio than the MiG-21.
But the problem now is, the Austrian F4 has been heavily modified and its performance can now be compared to that of an F-15, not just an F4X.
Although in the original timeline, the MiG-21 did have records of 1-on-1 kills against the F-15.
But ultimately, they were equipment of different generations, and in large-scale combat, this gap is greatly amplified.
Thus, a crushing defeat befell the Russian forces.
However, after defeating the Russian legions, Austria did not push forward to invade vast Russian territory.
Unlike the former Germany, Red Skull, or Austro-Hungarian Empire, the newly formed Austrian United Kingdom had little desire for territorial expansion.
Of course, the loss of just ten divisions was insignificant to the millions-strong Russian forces. After the initial defeat, Russia quickly passed a decision to continue the war.
Khrushchev, whose position was still unstable, would never allow such a disastrous failure during his tenure and had even begun considering the use of nuclear deterrence.
Upon witnessing Russia’s initial defeat, Britain and France also joined in, starting to deploy troops in Germany—although when the Federal Republic of Germany was founded, the British, French, and American occupation zones had merged, British forces had not fully withdrawn and still maintained a large number of bases in Germany, with nearly 100,000 troops stationed.
Of course, the purpose of these troop deployments had shifted from occupying Germany to countering Russia.
In Josh’s original timeline, Britain only handed over its last military base to Germany in 2020 after officially leaving the EU.
But now, the British forces stationed in Germany, along with the French forces ramping up deployment, became the vanguard against Austria.
It was at this time that the newly crowned 12-year-old Queen Carol Kane, encouraged by her father Josie Kane, presented herself to the world for the first time, delivering a global speech.
She first expressed the desire for the unification of the four Austrian countries and a longing for peace, lavishly praising the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence advocated by the Eastern power.
She then stated that although the newly born Austrian United Kingdom did not desire war, it was not afraid of war.
Even in the face of nuclear deterrence from hegemonic states, it would never compromise.
She then announced that the Austrian United Kingdom would be established on February 1, 1957, holding a large-scale military parade in Vienna and inviting countries to attend—the date was special, marking the founding date of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (historically established in February 1867, though no exact date was found).
At the same time, she unveiled a strategic long-range nuclear weapon program named “Distant Star,” which was scheduled for an official test explosion on January 31, 1957.
Most countries initially paid little attention to Queen Carol Kane’s global speech but the Distant Star program immediately attracted worldwide attention.
Wow, Austria actually has nuclear weapons now? Since when?
The previously blustering Britain and France suddenly panicked.
At this time, France had not yet produced nuclear weapons. The British had developed nuclear bombs in 1953, but aside from a few test bombs, had few in stock and their delivery was limited to aircraft.
Russia immediately halted its advance—Khrushchev then recalled that his country’s nuclear bomb development had something to do with Austria back then, but at that time the “Bearded One” was in power. Though Khrushchev was a trusted aide, he did not fully understand some classified matters, and some intelligence organizations involved had been disbanded.
Without a clear understanding of Austria’s exact nuclear strike capability, he had to consider the severe consequences of a possible nuclear war.
Of course, he was not overly worried since his territory was so vast. Even if Austria had nuclear weapons, they probably could not hit Russia’s core areas.
As for the allied countries, losing one or two didn’t bother him at all.
Throughout the entire process, the United States, which should have been the most active, strangely remained silent.
This was normal because Hydra had made its move.
With Josh’s help, Hydra’s expansion in the U.S. had been rapid over recent years and now basically controlled Congressional influence.
The highest leadership of Hydra—the Council—was well aware that the nuclear weapon data had originally come from Josh.
Now Josh’s daughter had become Queen of the Austrian United Kingdom, and with Josh’s industrial network established in Europe, the other Council members did not believe Austria lacked nuclear weapons.
In this situation, the Council naturally pushed for the U.S. not to intervene.
Otherwise, if a real war broke out, there would be no benefits at all.
Under this strange international situation, time quickly arrived at January 31.
Under radar monitoring prepared by all countries, a missile was launched from the Alps, flying through the airspace of Germany, Denmark, and Norway, heading straight for the North Pole.
When the missile flew out of German airspace, the faces of observers from various countries changed.
This strike range...is way too far, isn’t it?