In the early morning of the next day, the 2,200-ton cruise ship "Starfish", laden with prohibited munitions, slowly left the port of Kiel. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoUnlike last night, when the cruise ship first arrived in Kiel, the ship's spokesman had been replaced by Italian furniture dealer Franz. Fang Yan is still quite satisfied with the person found by the old Chiano: as a businessman, he not only has superb negotiation and bargaining skills, but also has good personal contacts with several members of the Finnish parliament. These two attributes undoubtedly provide very favorable convenience for the implementation of Fang Yan's plan.

Due to the exceptionally cold winter in Europe this year, the Gulf of Finland entered a freeze period as early as early November, so the cruise ship's destination was also transferred from Helsinki to Turku outside the Gulf of Finland. Although a large number of fragmentary ice floes have appeared in the main part of the Baltic Sea, fortunately it has not completely blocked the passage of ships. Sailing out of the port of Kiel, the Sea Star sailed at full speed at 12 knots to the port of Turku, 600 nautical miles away: there was not much time left for her, and soon the Baltic Sea, with its low salinity, would be completely frozen in the bitter cold.

At the same time that the Sea Star was sailing at full speed for Finland, a new war had begun in Northern Europe.

In the early morning of November 26, the Soviet village of Manila, near the Soviet-Finnish border, was suddenly attacked by unidentified artillery fire, killing one Soviet soldier and wounding several others. Soviet officials immediately accused Finland of provoking the shelling, demanded that Finland apologize, and withdrew its troops 20~25 kilometers from the Karelian border. Finland has rightly refuted this slander and smear that is purely false. Finland proposed that both Soviet-Finnish troops retreat 10 kilometers back and invited the international community to intervene in the investigation.

However, the shelling, concocted by the Soviet side, was only a pretext for the Kremlin to wage war against Finland. The Soviets rejected Finland's proposal for an international investigation and began to use the state-controlled propaganda machine to rebel against Finnish public opinion at home: Pravda portrayed Finnish Army Commander-in-Chief Mannerheim as a bloodsquire demon standing in a sea of corpses and blood, and called on the people of the entire Soviet Union to liberate the Finnish people who had been oppressed and enslaved by the landlords and the bourgeoisie.

At the instigation of the Ministry of the Interior, huge anti-Finnish demonstrations soon broke out in major cities in the Soviet Union, and old grievances against Finland against the new Soviet Union in collusion with Western forces were also revealed, and a rampant attack was made at popular rally. For a time, Finland had replaced Britain and the United States and other imperialist powers as the most hated class enemy of the Soviet Union.

After learning this information, the slightly hanging emotions in Fang Yan's heart finally relaxed. His own changes in history did not affect the war that broke out in Northern Europe: it was expected that in a few days, the flames of war would be in full swing on the border between the Soviet Union and Finland. Out of the perspective of a businessman who pursues the maximization of profits, Fang Yan immediately sent a telegram to the Sea Star, asking Franz to wait until after the outbreak of war before sailing the ship into Finnish territorial waters. At the same time, Fang Yan also couldn't wait to see how the Soviet Union, which had invested heavily in naval construction in this world line, could still retain some combat effectiveness in the same period in history.

The sun rises and the moon sets, the tide rolls up, and the time soon comes to November 30, the last day of the month, in the busy work of the Kiel military port. During the lunch break that day, a newly released "Milan Times" was delivered to Fang Yan as usual; In just a moment, the bold round font on the cover firmly attracted Fang Yan's attention.

"The Soviet Union has officially declared war on Finland at 6:30 local time. Moscow clamored that Helsinki would be captured in ten days. Finland appealed to countries around the world for military assistance to resist further aggression and annexation of the free world by the tyranny of the red ****; Finnish President Kallio issued a "Letter to All the People", calling on all Finns to abandon internal class contradictions and fight to the death against the Soviet aggressors for the independence of the motherland and the freedom of the people. ”

Seeing this report with a strong subjective intention, the corners of Fang Yan's mouth hooked slightly: Italy's official public opinion is indeed strongly hostile to the Soviet Union, so things will be much easier to handle. Fang Yan picked up the duckbill pen he usually used for engineering drawing, and began to write a personal letter to his cheap uncle Ziano Jr. By the time the Finnish army initially thwarted the Soviet offensive on the border, the letter would have its intended purpose.

At this moment, on the Soviet-Finnish border, thousands of kilometers away from Germany, the deafening sound of gunfire has completely shattered the peace of the past. 350,000 Soviet troops crossed the border and launched a full-front attack on Finland from four directions, and the Karelian Isthmus front, which was the first to bear the brunt, was plunged into a sea of explosions and fire, and tens of thousands of shells were rapidly rained down on the area. At the same time, Soviet air forces were doing their bidding: they not only attacked military targets on the Finnish front, but also carried out waves of intimidating bombing of the Finnish capital, Helsinki.

"Boom!" A four-story building adjacent to the presidential office building was hit by a bomb on the roof, and in an instant, a loud bang rolled like thunder and rage; All the windows of the building were shattered in an instant, and under the violent waves, thousands of building debris flew in all directions. The flames roared and the smoke billowed high, and the entire building had been reduced to a flaming torch that could be seen from miles away!

Finnish Prime Minister Risto? Luti crawled out of the basement covered in dust, his face still unusually pale; For him, who was old and frail, this kind of bomb air raid was indeed mentally unbearable. Rüti's eyes burned with bitter hatred and anger at the sight of the Soviet bombers flying away from the sky, these Soviets not only imposed the war on Finland, but also carried out indiscriminate slaughter of the Finnish people!

"The Soviets are trying to use terror to coerce and destroy the courage of the Finnish people to resist!" Lu Ti gritted his teeth and whispered, and his thin palms couldn't help but clench into fists. Finland did not have an effective countermeasure against these flying enemies: there were currently only 36 old Fokker D21 biplanes in the whole of Finland, less than a fraction of the number of Soviet front-line fighters.

In order to preserve its strength, the Finnish army could only let these planes carry out guerrilla warfare in the air, relying on the fuel consumption advantage of the home battle, and sneaking up on the Soviet bombers operating on the front line as much as possible. As for the capital and other cities in the country, only a limited number of anti-aircraft guns were used to slightly curb the arrogance of Soviet aircraft. After all, anti-aircraft artillery is needed more at the front than at the rear, and the number of anti-aircraft artillery in Finland is also extremely limited!

After nearly half an hour of rage, the Soviet planes, which had finished dropping their bombs, gradually returned home. And as the air raid sirens over Helsinki were lifted, the all-female civil guard team began to bounce around the city. They counted the damage, extinguished the flames, rescued the wounded, carried the corpses, and repaired the facilities in the city, all in an orderly manner, no less than the bearded men. After two war mobilizations, at this time, there were no men aged 16~46 in the whole of Finland, except for the disabled and necessary skilled workers: 137,000 regular troops and 200,000 reservists were all under the command of Army Commander-in-Chief Mannerheim, so that the Finnish army had a strong force unimaginable on the front-line battlefield.

Rutti walked slowly to his office, the righteous indignation on his face gradually replaced by calm apprehension. He soon realized that although Soviet planes had brutally bombed Finnish civilians, the total amount of damage they had done was very limited: after all, there were far more civilians and buildings than front-line soldiers, and it was obviously impossible to inflict a bombing attack on Finland with a mere dozens of Soviet bombers. What Ruti is really worried about is the situation of the front-line army.

Finland is essentially a light industrial country, and its total production of military equipment can never sustain the war consumption of 300,000 troops after the general mobilization. A few days earlier, Marshal Mannerheim had already told Rüti that even with the stockpiles of ammunition, the current Finnish army would only be able to fight for two months at most. Once this red line is crossed, Finland, which has run out of ammunition and food, has no choice but to bow its knees to the USSR!

But what country can pull Finland a hand now? Ruti thought sadly. Germany was originally Finland's reliable counterweight to the Soviet Union, but now the relationship between Germany and the Soviet Union is as good as honey: Germany could not offend the Soviet Union for Finland, and Ruti would choose to ignore Finland's demands if he became the head of Germany. Now that Britain and France have collapsed their sea power and domestic industrial production has encountered obvious obstacles, even if the Western Front is currently in a sit-in stage, it must concentrate all its efforts to ensure the development of its own military strength first. The United States is too far away to quench its thirst, while neighboring Sweden does not dare to separate itself from the behemoth of the Soviet Union.

As for Italy, while the country may be willing to help, how will that aid be transported from southern Europe to Finland?

Taking the southern route, the Baltic Sea will inevitably freeze completely this winter, and ships will not be able to sail at all, not to mention the fact that Germany will most likely hinder the influence of the Soviet Union and ban Italian goods from passing through German borders. On the Western Front, not to mention Norway's willingness to allow Italian supplies to transit and undermine its neutrality, the Soviet Northern Fleet stationed in Murmansk alone would be enough to threaten any ship of hostile powers that dared to sail in the Norwegian Sea. If the Soviet Northern Fleet had taken a position in the Norwegian Sea, the Italian ships would not have dared to venture through it at all, and therefore this transport route could not be established again.

In the midst of her frustration, Ruti suddenly heard the phone ringing in front of her desk. He grabbed the receiver and put it to his ear, but heard a surprised and excited voice on the other end of the phone: "Your Excellency, there is an Italian merchant ship in the port of Turku, loaded with a large amount of arms and equipment, and the other party wants to start detailed negotiations with us. (To be continued.) )