The sun was high, the cold wind was blowing, and in the Wilhelm Military Port facing the North Sea, several warships were slowly being pulled into their berths amid the sound of a long whistle. Their names are clearly recognizable by the large letters painted on the gray sides: Hipper, Spee, Koblenz, Karlsruhe, and four Raptor-class destroyers. They were the same task force that had been on a mission to blockade the Spanish Republican Army coastline in the Bay of Biscay since late July 1936. After four months of cruising and training, they were able to return home to recuperate, replaced by another friendly fleet; For the more than 4,000 officers and men in the fleet, being able to spend Christmas in the company of their families is already the best gift they can get as soldiers.

Fang Yan carried a package on his back and followed the flow of people down the ramp of the light aircraft carrier Hipper; The moment his feet stepped on the ground, he couldn't help but show a relaxed smile on his face. These four months of going to sea have been a full test and tempering for his body and mind, after all, he can easily live a light and soft life of extreme pleasure at present, and the discipline and skills required in the army are incompatible with his family background. However, with his inner will and obsession, Fang Yan, who had already come to this point, did not flinch in the slightest: throughout the ocean-going combat training, he proved to his superiors and colleagues that he was completely worthy of the silver-braided rank on his shoulders with a perfect performance.

After four months of intensive use in the ocean, all of these warships had to go into dry dock to clean the bottom of the ship and carry out the maintenance of the power auxiliary engines; As a result, Fang Yan, who had no ship, was given a considerable period of vacation, which was enough for him and his wife Sylvia to create another child. After smiling goodbye to his friend Otto with the same meaningful eyes, Fang Yan immediately took the family car that came to greet him outside the military port. In less than three hours, the familiar villa-type house was already in front of you.

"Honey!" Before Fang Yan, who had walked into the warm room, could take off his coat, a rose-like fragrance carried a slender and delicate body, and slammed into his arms like a cannonball. If it weren't for Fang Yan's solid feet, he would have been thrown to the floor by Sylvia almost immediately. Feeling his wife's affection and tenderness, Fang Yan, who was in his arms, couldn't help but give his lover a long deep kiss. It wasn't until he bit the soft and tender clove as a code word that Sylvia reluctantly left her husband's arm.

A few steps away, Rudolph, who was growing in luxury, watched the scene with relief. The family of his youngest son is warm and harmonious, which is something to be happy for him and the whole family. Seeing Fang Yan's gaze coming, Rudolph patted him on the shoulder and smiled: "I know that you must have encountered a lot of tiring things when you go to sea this time, so you should have a good rest at home these days." It's Christmas in a few days, and I'm going to give you someone as a gift, I'm sure you'll love it. With that, Rudolph slapped his hands lightly three times.

Moments later, a side door to the main living room was pushed open. A man with a similar figure to Fang Yan walked out of it, and the steadiness that belonged to a mature man was very similar to the young Rudolph in Fang Yan's memory. Fang Yan was stunned for a moment, then laughed and stepped forward, the two kept patting each other's backs in the hug, and it took a long time before they separated.

"Brother, when did you return to China?" Fang Yan still had a smile of surprise on his face, and asked out loud. Freya exclaimed: "At the end of September, shortly after Uncle ****** became the head of the four-year plan, I finished all the aftermath in Leningrad and returned to Hamburg by boat with the last of my employees. You can't imagine it. We were accompanied by more than 500 Soviet technicians who had been hired by us, as well as their families. Fearing that I would be censored by the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs after I left, these people decisively defected to their homeland. And swore to be willing to play for us in the Brom. This may sound unbelievable, but it's really an indisputable fact; If you can witness the absurd Moscow trial a few months ago, and the complete trampling of the rule of law by the personnel of the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs, you can understand why these innocent people would rather be treason than stay in Russia, where they were born and raised. ”

Listen to Freya's words. Fang Yan couldn't help but be a little surprised in his heart; However, in Freya's next story, the strange look on his face receded, replaced by a hint of unbearable indignation.

August 19, 1936. The curtain of the Moscow Trials has officially opened. In order to demonstrate to the world the legitimacy and correctness of his slaughter of dissidents and the murder of his loyalty, Stalin changed his tendency to hide himself in front of the world and chose to make the trial completely public, and invited a large number of Western journalists and personnel to attend the trial. It was in that seemingly solemn courtroom that Freya and the others saw the most unbelievable and absurd scenes.

There were 16 defendants in the trial, all of whom were early members of the Bolshevik Party's leadership, including Zinoviev and Kamenev, who had followed Lenin in his pioneering career. However, in the courtroom, none of the defendants defended themselves. As soon as they appeared in court, they rushed to take the initiative to accuse themselves of their evil deeds, such as colluding with the Western powers, acting as imperialist lackeys, plotting to assassinate Stalin and other Soviet leaders, attempting to disintegrate the Soviet Union, and establishing a capitalist society. Attentive viewers noticed that the defendants all had puffy faces, pale faces, and distracted expressions, as if they were walking corpses, confessing their crimes that were indistinguishable from those claimed by the prosecutors.

And in their final statements, they all praised Stalin in the best words. Kamenev, a former ****** commissioner, concluded: "No matter what kind of verdict is handed down against me, I think the verdict is just. Do not look backwards, go forward and follow Stalin with the people. Zinoviev, the former first chairman of the Comintern, likewise: "My reward for the trust in the Party and the people is a vile betrayal like a night, betrayal of the Party, the Motherland, and Stalin." I dare say that I am glad that our vicious conspiracy has been revealed. ”

Such a scene is incomprehensible to Westerners who have long lived in democratic and human rights societies. Americans suspect that this is a combination of brain surgery, electroconvulsive therapy, or the administration of special drugs, drugs, and hypnosis. Freya, however, saw a trick or two, which must have been the cruel torture of the defendant in advance, mechanical torture, and even the threat to the lives of his family. Rao was aware of some of the shady methods used by the SS secret police in his own country to suppress dissent, but he could never have imagined that the Soviet ******** would reach such an unbelievable and appalling level!

Thanks to the amazing "cooperation" shown by all the defendants, the entire process of this trial against as many as 16 defendants lasted only one morning. All the defendants were sentenced to death and immediately executed. Stalin, who was smug about this, did not expect that the "seamless" drama he directed would have a complete counterproductive effect in the West; A brutal and murderous **** image began to spread in the United States, Britain and other countries, and the antipathy and distrust of the Soviet Union in London and Paris in the future was not based on this reason.

The purge involved not only the former leaders of the party, but also the general public. Stalin had long since pointed out the basic argument and the direction of the struggle for this purge: the deeper the construction of socialism, the more class enemies will emerge. At present, there are many **** groups in the country, such as the Trotskyists, the democratic centralists, the workers' opposition, the **** faction, and so on, all of which should be the objects of uprooting and crushing. As a result, the enthusiastic masses of the people entered the stage of mutual accusations and exposures, and all parts of the Soviet Union were filled with appalling "conspiracies" and "crimes", large and small. Because the Ministry of Internal Affairs has arrested and executed so many people, ordinary people live in fear every day: many times, a black car is parked downstairs, and they wait for the deadly knock on the door, and finally they are pleasantly surprised to find that it is the neighbor's family who has disappeared!

Speaking of this, Freya let out a long sigh and said, "This should be the most cruel tyranny in the history of our human race. In contrast, even the Gestapo's persecution of the Jews was nowhere near as brutal as the Soviet Union's purge. Fortunately, I sold the shipyard and returned to Germany shortly after the trial, otherwise I really couldn't have been secretly arrested in the middle of the night as a spy. You must know that just last month, Germany and Japan had just signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, and Germans like me in the non-governmental sector remained in the Soviet Union, and there was no security at all. ”

"Anti-Comintern agreement...... Fang Yan muttered again, a hint of worry quietly appeared in his eyes. During the time I went to sea, I finally came. Out of the common need to confront the Soviet Union and Britain and France, the two centralized countries of Germany and Japan have inevitably embarked on the road of political union. Faced with a situation that is almost identical to that of history, what measures should Germany take to maximize its benefits and get rid of its obligations, which are so harmful to itself? (To be continued.) )