Stalin's eyebrows were raised, his eyes immediately swept over, and Voroshilov hurriedly reported on the situation of grain production, focusing on the horror of the famine, and after listening, these Bolshevik leaders fell silent one by one. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

They all experienced the era of the Great Famine of 1932-1933, when the Ukrainian peasants resisted passively by reducing the sown area due to the rapid progress of agricultural collectivization, and as a result, the grain output of the whole Soviet Union fell from more than 90 million tons to less than 60 million tons, and in exchange for the funds and machinery needed for the development of industrialization, the maintenance of foreign grain exports even exceeded that of the previous year, which eventually led to the starvation of more than 8 million people in the Soviet Union, and more than 5 million in Ukraine alone.

Now the situation is even more troublesome than it was then, the entire Ukrainian granary is gone, the grain production has fallen to only half of the Great Famine era, although the number of people who need to be supplied is smaller than ten years ago, but the per capita food production is much lower than in the famine era, and everyone is calculating the consequences - this means that there will be a mass starvation of people before the autumn, although Voroshilov did not say the number, but they can calculate: if there is no large-scale increase in food production, at least 10 million to 15 million people will starve to death.

Now the average daily caloric intake per person in the Soviet Union is only 600-700 calories (2500 in Germany), which is a very low number, and if it continues, it is almost equivalent to starvation (author's note: in the case of such a small exercise intensity of modern people, normal men generally need to consume 2000-2400 calories a day, and normal women are 1800-1900, and they consume about 1000 calories a day just lying down without doing anything). Soviet workers already worked more than 14 hours a day, and this little food did not help at all.

The army's consumption of food was even greater, and the rations given by the German army to soldiers at this time were maintained between 2,800 and 3,800 calories (when there was no combat mission, it was issued according to a high standard, and when there was a combat mission, a person like Daddy Hube who ate five meals a day exceeded 5,000 calories), while the ration supply of the Red Army's grassroots officers and soldiers after 1942 did not exceed 2,000 calories.

"What do you think should be done?"

Voroshilov hesitated, not knowing what to answer, although he was also a marshal, and there was a military academy named after him, but he was only worthy of being a military commander when it came to commanding wars, and even Budyonny was better than him - at least the latter could command a group army. After a long while, he added: "I think we should press the steppe front and the Central Asian front army up, fight a large-scale decisive battle with the Germans in the Caucasus, and then ......."

When Temoshenge heard this, he was anxious: "You can't do this!" These two fronts were not ready at all, and forcibly pressing them on them would only give the Germans the results of the war, and we ...... "He wanted to continue to say something, but when he saw Stalin's stern gaze projected at him, he was so frightened that he retracted the second half of the sentence.

The rest of the people, you look at me, I look at you, they look at each other, and they don't know what to say: theoretically speaking, both Timoshenko and Voroshilov are right, the difference is that they look at the problem from different angles and positions, and they can't easily express their stance at this time, who knows what Comrade Stalin himself thinks.

In the end, it was the military point of view that prevailed, because Stalin himself was not optimistic that the Red Army would be able to hold back the aggressive German army in the Caucasus Plain, and he finally gritted his teeth and gave the order: "Let Comrade Tyulenev hold on to Grozny for 10 days, so as to dismantle the facilities and equipment for oil extraction and refining, as for other industrial equipment and materials, all that can be transported will be transported away, and all that cannot be transported will be blown up, and nothing can be lost to the Germans!" ”

"As for our food and material supplies, you are responsible for going and talking to the Americans, and you must make the situation clear to them." He calmed down, turned his head to Molotov and emphasized, "Please tell President Roosevelt that the situation in the Soviet Union is at stake, and that if the United States does not increase its assistance, I will be forced to make peace with the Germans -- no matter how bad and humiliating the conditions!" ”

Molotov nodded his head to show that he understood: Comrade Stalin did not really want to negotiate peace, but to use it to force the Americans.

"Now that the situation is very serious, let's discuss it again and see if there are other ways to solve the problem."

Kuznetsov pondered for a while and said: "I haven't thought of any good solutions for the time being on the military issue, but on the food issue, I suddenly thought of a few opinions for your reference. ”

Hearing that Kuznetsov, who had always been in charge of the navy, also had a high opinion on the food issue, everyone couldn't help but be curious, and sat up straight one by one to listen.

"First of all, we have a large area of wasteland near the new industrial zone in the Ural Mountains, and these lands will also have a good harvest after they are reclaimed, and I have met several comrades from the Chinese Brotherhood Party, who said that last year, China's anti-Japanese base areas suffered an unprecedented blockade by the Japanese army, and they also faced a food crisis, but they relied on reclamation to get through the difficulties, and I think this can be learned and used for reference." Kuznetsov's first half of the sentence was fine, followed by the first half of the sentence that made everyone hesitate, "In order to encourage the enthusiasm for reclamation, I would like to ask Comrade Stalin to issue an order: the land cultivated and cultivated by the family unit shall be temporarily allocated to private management, and the harvest will not be recovered or handed over for 5-7 years or even more, and the spring ploughing will soon begin, and if the action is faster, there is still hope for the reclamation of a batch of land." ”

Everyone gasped - although it was in the name of land reclamation, it was the standard division of land to households, not to mention the era of the Great Purge, even during the most politically relaxed New Economic Policy. Everyone turned their eyes to Stalin, and as soon as the latter showed a slight disagreement, they immediately denounced Kuznetsov as "wishful thinking" -- this was not a matter of falling into the ground, it was a small scolding and a big help, and it was entirely for his own good, otherwise Kuznetsov would have to shed his skin if he did not die.

Stalin's face was red and white for a while, and his face changed for a long time, as if he was making a difficult choice, but in the end he made his attitude clear: "I think it is okay, as long as there are people in the family who work in the army, the government, and the factories, they can go to the land reclamation after completing their normal work, and the relevant land management relationship will remain unchanged for eight years, and the state will not collect taxes, but the rest of the grain except the rations must be sold to the state." Eight years later, we will discuss the disposal of this land. ”

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and Voroshilov immediately followed: "These new lands can still continue to follow the path of collectivization in the future." Seeing Stalin's rare smile, Voroshilov couldn't help but applaud his "wit"!

"The second point is that we can find a way to import some food -- we actually have other channels besides the United States."

"What is it?" The crowd became curious.

"We can collect grain and livestock from Mongolia, buy grain from Xinjiang and other places through Chinese comrades, transport grain from India through Afghanistan, and even buy grain from Japan."

As for the means of "expropriation" on the Mongolian side, everyone knows very well - this is not "expropriation" in the ordinary sense, this requires the dispatch of machine-gun requisition teams! As for the purchase of grain from China, some people have suggested that the Chinese Bolshevik Party will probably not refuse, but it may be a little troublesome to pass through the territory of Sheng Shicai, the "king of Xinjiang".

Budyonny smiled and said, "What's the trouble, I'll do this!" Please Comrade Stalin give me a cavalry corps, oh, it's better to give another tank brigade, not T-34, light tanks, I'll bring you grain from Xinjiang. ”

Stalin nodded noncommittally, and Molotov was a little anxious: "This will spoil relations with the Chinese government." ”

"You mean the Chiang regime?" Stalin shook his head and said, "Whatever they think, I just need food!" Comrade Budyonny, are you sure that you will complete the task? ”

"Of course."

"I'll give you 1 cavalry corps, 2 tank brigades, how much food are you going to get?"

"100,000 tons...... 200,000 tons! No, at least 300,000 tons! ”

"Okay, you prepare, you will set off tomorrow to draw troops from the Central Asian Military Region!" Stalin said majestically and decisively, "You go to Sheng Shicai -- he is a member of the Communist Party, this is a glorious task entrusted to him by the party, if he cooperates, he can become a member of the Central Committee, if he does not cooperate......"

"The tank will educate him to cooperate!"

"As for the third." Stalin turned his attention to Molotov again, "The British have been in arrears for the supplies they promised us for the past six months, and they can't get out of the Indian Ocean shipping interruption anyway, so let them send it to us through Afghanistan, and the quantity can't be too small......"

Molotov smiled bitterly and agreed: Comrade Stalin's temper is not a good thing!

The first few points were agreed with and understood, but in the face of the last one, Stalin himself frowned: "Can Japan sell us grain?" ”

"Manchuria controlled by Japan is quite rich in grain production, and it should not be a problem for us to purchase 30-500,000 tons, and besides, with the "Soviet-Japanese Non-Aggression Pact", there are channels for diplomatic communication, and the key is what we can give to Japan."

"yes, what can you come up with?" Everyone is in difficulty, the Soviet Union itself is short of machinery, equipment, and munitions, and it is impossible to give them to Japan, and it could have provided a batch of oil in exchange, but now the Red Army itself is also short of oil, and this road will not work.

"Don't go through Tokyo, communicate directly with the Japanese Kwantung Army, send a batch of antiques, furs and furniture to their upper echelons, we have a lot of them, and ...... more," Stalin thought for a moment, "I approve the use of some gold and jewelry." ”

"There is a problem, a group of Manchurian anti-Japanese guerrillas have run to us, and the Kwantung Army has been negotiating with us, if ......"

"How many are there?"

"Hundreds, now the Far Eastern Military District is training ......"

"Due to our lack of food, troop movements and patrols have been greatly restricted, and sometimes even if the Japanese soldiers cross the border to do some clean-up work, we may not be able to manage it, right?"

Everyone's hearts were in their hearts, and this was probably one of the conditions in exchange for Japan's promise to sell grain...... (To be continued.) )