Chapter 55: Lebed's Accession
"Why are you suddenly interested in this question?" Lebed was a clever man, and Seryosha came to him from Moscow early in the morning, and then he talked to him wildly. Lebed instinctively felt that there must be something hidden in this. He became interested in Seryosha's true purpose for coming to him.
"It's okay, just ask!" Seryosha sensed Lebed's vigilance and quickly denied it.
"Alright! If you don't say it, I won't ask, let's move on to what happened just now, you want to know how to rely on militia forces to attack American military bases, right? Do you know how hard it is? The Cuban army can't do it, let alone the militia units! Lebed categorically denied this possibility.
"Is it because of problems with weapons and equipment and the quality of personnel?" Seryosha asked unrelentingly.
"No, the main reason is that it is a port, and the ground forces cannot cut off the threat of the US Navy from the sea on their own. From the map, the channel of Guantanamo Bay is narrow, but it is too close to the continental United States, and American warships can quickly come to support. This is the worst part! Lebed looked at the map and analyzed for Seryosha. Seryosha listened attentively, and at the same time thought about the great advantages of the Guantanamo base.
The location of the Guantanamo base is a bay, and to the north of it is the city of Guantanamo, Cuba. The Guantanamo Bay base is tightly guarded by the Guantanamo Bay estuary. The Guantanamo base is divided into two parts, east and west, and Cuban ships can also enter and exit the sea area controlled by the Guantanamo base on weekdays. If we talk about maritime defense alone, the blockade of Guantanamo Bay is not strict, and merchant ships can enter and exit here at will.
For the Guantanamo base, the biggest threat actually comes from land. Cuba's revolutionary armed forces are the key defense targets of the Guantanamo Bay. The land defense of the Guantanamo base is simply armed to the teeth, once the Cuban army takes action, American warships will rush to Guantanamo Bay to reinforce it, and the navy's ships are full of heavy weapons, unless there are torpedoes or missiles specially designed to deal with warships, warships are unsinkable fortresses, and they are definitely not capable of dealing with bazookas and AK-47s.
"Lebed, to tell you the truth, one of my subordinates is being held in Guantanamo! I want to get him out, can you help me? Seryosha thought about it for a long time, but he couldn't think of a reason, and in the end he still planned to pull Lebed into the gang. In this matter, Seryosha had to rely on a man with rich military literacy to serve as a commander. Lebed was Seryosha's most trusted brother in life and death, and Seryosha believed that Lebed would never betray him. Moreover, Lebed was a military cadre who had studied at the Frunze Military Academy many times, and according to the consistent personnel arrangements of the Ministry of National Defense, Lebed was a cadre who was trained as a future senior military general. His military level is beyond doubt.
"Seryosha, it's not that I don't want to help, it's that I really can't do anything! This is a military base for the Americans, and without the support of the Navy, let alone the militia, even the most elite GRU special forces will be helpless! But, Seryosha, what have you done all these years, and why did you end up in Guantanamo? Lebed asked rhetorically.
"I'll tell you the truth, recently the work of our Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation has become more and more difficult, didn't we originally export cars to South America? Some of these cars are military vehicles. I can't help it, I won't talk about the quality of domestic civilian goods, our country, that is, the arms sell well in the international market......" Seryosha told Lebed about his secret engagement in the arms business. When Lebed heard this, he was speechless for a long time.
"Why are you so bold? Don't you know how powerful the KGB is? Lebed angrily reproached Seryosha.
"Lebed, let me tell you something you would never have imagined, our country has been unable to provide itself with grain and major farm commodities for almost several years. In the last years of General Secretary Brezhnev's life, thanks to the continuous rise in international oil prices, our foreign exchange earnings were able to keep up with the pace of supply. But now the price of oil is about to hit our cost line! As the Minister of Foreign Trade of the Soviet Union, my duty is to grab more foreign exchange benefits for the country, and for this purpose, I will not hesitate to sell even arms! Seryosha retorted solemnly.
Seryosha's words left Lebed speechless, although he stayed in the army, he still had some knowledge of social affairs, and now it was becoming more and more difficult to buy goods in state stores. Ordinary people simply can't do without the black market. But the prices of goods on the black market are so high that everyone's wages are hard to eat. In Lebed's unit, many officers even began to resell army supplies for the sake of livelihood, and the bold ones made a fortune, while the timid could only continue to suffer poverty. Lebed understood the dangers of these things to the army, but the general environment was such that even if he was now the regimental commander, what could he change?
"Forget it, let's study it together! Tell me about the situation, how many people are you going to send to gnaw this hard bone? Lebed walked over to the table and asked, studying the situation on the map.
"I have a well-trained private army of about 500 people, these people are now on standby on a certain island in the Caribbean, most of these people are soldiers who have defected from the battlefield in Afghanistan, their military quality is still okay, in addition to this, I can also recruit some guerrilla fighters from Colombia, as well as anti-government fighters! These people have been fighting with the Colombian government army for many years, and their military capabilities are still some......" Seryosha began to introduce the personnel situation, Colombia's armed personnel are the majority, and as long as these people are given enough money, they are still very willing to help Seryosha die.
"Seryosha, can you get a large freighter? You said that if we blocked the entrance to Guantanamo Bay with a freighter, wouldn't we be able to simply block the entire Guantanamo Bay? Lebed asked with a flash of inspiration.
"Freighter, what tonnage do you want? I can get you as many ships as you want! Seryosha hurriedly replied.
"Seryosha, I just said casually, even if I am not from the shipping company, I know the price of a freighter......"
"Lebed, as long as you can get people out, money is not a problem!"