On the night of September 18, 1931, under the careful planning of the Japanese Kwantung Army, the Japanese railway "garrison" suddenly blew up part of the tracks of the South Manchurian Railway near Wicker Lake in Shenyang, and laid the blame on the Chinese army.

Under the pretext that the South Manchurian Railway was bombed, the Japanese army shelled the Beida Camp of the Northeast Army stationed in Shenyang that night.

At that time, the 7th Brigade of the Northeast Chinese Army, which was stationed in Beidaying, was defenseless and was attacked by the Japanese army's fierce artillery fire in its sleep, and was dizzy and unprepared. Because the commander had instructed not to resist, the garrison did not make a fierce counterattack. Two of the three regiments of the 7th Brigade hastily withdrew from the camp as instructed, and the other regiment was forced to defend itself and return fire because it did not receive the order to retreat in time, and finally was outnumbered and withdrew from its position.

At the same time that the independent garrison of the Japanese army in Shenyang launched an attack on Beidaying, the 2nd Regiment of the 3rd Brigade of the 2nd Division of the Kwantung Army also launched a fierce attack on Mukden City.

In the early morning of September 19, the commander of the Kwantung Army, Honjo Shigeru, ordered: The main force of the 2nd Division in Liaoyang quickly reinforced the 3rd Regiment of the 29th Brigade and began a large-scale attack on Mukden; The 3rd Battalion of the Independent Garrison attacked Yingkou, and the 4th Battalion attacked Phoenix, Andong and other places; The main force of the 3rd Brigade of the 2nd Division, the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, and the 1st Independent Garrison Battalion respectively attacked Changchun Kuancheng District, Erdaogou, Nanling and other places.

By 10 o'clock on September 19, the Japanese army had captured 18 large and small towns along the South Manchurian Railway and Anbong Railway, including Mukden, Siping, Yingkou, Fenghuangcheng, and Andong.

Japan's reckless and reckless invasion has disgraced the top level of China, and naturally it has also been criticized and condemned by many countries, and the United States has even demanded that Japan withdraw its troops from China unconditionally on three occasions. However, the Japanese, who had just tasted the sweetness, were not moved at all, but instead increased their troops on a large scale, intending to occupy the entire territory of northeastern China.

The Northeast Army in the Changchun area hurriedly counterattacked, and the battle was very fierce, and the next day, due to insufficient combat preparation, it was forced to retreat, and Changchun fell. On September 21, Xi Qia, chief of staff of the Office of the Deputy Commander of the Northeast Frontier Army in Jilin Province, led his troops to surrender to the enemy, and the main force of the Japanese 2nd Division occupied Jilin

Because the Japanese had been planning for a long time and were well prepared, coupled with the inaction of the Chinese authorities, in just a few months, the entire northeastern part of China was completely reduced to a Japanese-occupied area.

Japan did not care about the strong criticism and rebuke of the United States, but instead slapped the face in the face with a tough offensive posture, so that the British, who were too busy to take care of themselves, chose to keep silent. At this time, France was busy restoring its economy with the help of the EU's circle, and did not want to cause trouble, so it chose to remain silent.

The world landscape is quietly changing, and the Italian government operates quietly in East Africa. Germany, on the other hand, took advantage of the inadequacy of Britain and the United States to embark on a more flexible diplomatic offensive.

In order not to encroach on the fundamental interests of his own businessmen, Eric had to start cutting meat from his allies and freeing up some energy imports to be responsible for the United States, which undoubtedly greatly eased the economic pressure on the United States. In order to repay the favor, the economic and military blockade imposed by the United States on Germany also began to loosen one by one and slowly lifted.

With the exception of eastern Asia, Germany's external environment seemed to have found its day, and Eric was rejoicing when he received a call from Defense Minister Zeckert and CIA Director Ramsden at about the same time. There were signs that the USSR was preparing a major attack on Finland.

The news was a bolt from the bottom of the eye, and Eric was shocked. In fact, after the Japanese attack on China began, the Soviets were relieved of their worries, which was a problem that Eric and the Ministry of Defense had considered deeply.

Although he had expected it, Eric was still extremely difficult to accept for a while, and when he put down the phone, he was stunned and at a loss. The world is so weird, and the more things that shouldn't happen, the more they don't happen, the more they will always happen out of time. He did not doubt the accuracy of the information, but instructed the intelligence agencies in various localities to continue to verify it so that they could make corresponding countermeasures.

On 20 December, Japan used the Korean Peninsula to continue to increase its troops in China, and at the same time that the Northeast Army in China was about to collapse and lose its territory, intelligence further confirmed that the pace of the Soviet Union's attack on Finland was accelerating.

The Spanish civil war can be said to have been deliberately carried out by Eric, and it can be completely ignored. However, Finland has Germany and the entire EU behind it, and the Soviet Union is determined to do it to the end, which makes Eric and the EU heads of state unbelievable.

It seems that the Soviet Union is going to be the enemy of the entire European Union, and whether such an option is wise or not is not to be said, but only for the needs of economic development, the Soviets have also picked the wrong time. Eric, who has always been very confident in the international situation, is at a loss at this time.

Hindenburg and Hoffmann could not sit still, and invited them to the presidential palace together, where they consulted nervously with Eric at the Hanseatic Palace on the matter.

Eric always believed that it was inevitable for the Soviet Union to take advantage of the Japanese attack on China to invade Finland, but the timing was too strange. The Japanese have always coveted the Soviet Far East, and if they turn their guns from China and wave their troops north, the Soviets will be caught off guard, and besides, attacking Finland at this time will inevitably tear the skin with Germany, does the Soviet Union feel that it has enough ability to compete with Germany? Was Stalin hasty or confident?

Hoffmann believed that Stalin was clearly not acting rashly, and that he must have received tacit approval from the British in the Spanish battlefield, and that he must have received the tacit approval of the British in attacking Finland. At the same time, the Soviets expected that the United States was now bent on making money, and would not stand up for anything fair except for its own interests.

Old Hindenburg was old, and although he knew it in his heart, it was difficult for him to say anything weighty except to blow his beard and stare at his eyes.

"We should teach Stalin's arrogance a lesson with artillery, and my old bones can lead the troops again." Hindenburg said tremblingly.

"The vice president's courage has not diminished back then, but it's no longer your turn to fight like this." Eric was amused by old Hindenburg......

In February 1932, Erik, who was worried about the situation in China, again received news that the Soviet Union had moved its troops to the Soviet-Finnish border. That evening, the Germans at the border intercepted a piece of information describing the first contact between the Soviet Union and Finland.

Because the horses of the Soviet soldiers went missing, in the process of searching, a fierce shootout broke out with the Finnish patrol!

In the wee hours of the morning, Zecht's telegram finally lifted the fog. Taking advantage of the fact that everyone was focused on the Soviet-Finnish border, the Soviets used a rapid reaction force of several thousand men to control the armed forces in northwestern Poland at lightning speed. The Polish government, which had existed in name only, was now completely incapacitated. By the time everyone figured out what was going on, Poland, which was still dying on the world map, had been completely removed from the list.

At this point, there were no intermediate obstacles on the EU's borders with the USSR. From Leningrad in the north to the Black Sea and the Caucasus Mountains in the south, the two sides are unobstructed, and no matter who walks on thin ice.

After reading the telegram, Eric was furious and scolded Stalin for being a charlatan.

At the beginning, in order to alleviate the pressure of border defense directly facing the Soviet Union, Eric deliberately left Warsaw to the Poles. On the one hand, Poland was given a chance at independence, and on the other hand, it left a wide buffer zone between Germany and the Soviet Union. In order not to attract the attention of the Soviets, they also provided weapons and ammunition to the loose Polish army through secret channels to strengthen their confidence in independence, but the Soviet Union did not expect to swallow Poland overnight.

After scolding Stalin, Eric was still angry, and gritted his teeth and scolded Poland for being a mud that could not be wiped on the wall.

It is also said that the Poles, having obtained a few broken guns, did not deploy their armed forces on the Soviet-Polish border, but relied on a few empty words from Britain and the United States to repeatedly provoke Germany. As everyone knows, just those few broken guns were secretly helped by the Germans. Eric is angry here.

Thousands of kilometers of border defense out of thin air, at this time, it is simply adding to the blockage of Eric's federal government, and those former "pigeons" are now silent, and no one is arrogant enough to stand up and criticize Eric for his crazy expansion of armaments.

Because of the crazy suppression of the dove forces, the expansion plan was once stuck. In desperation, Eric had to follow everyone's philosophy of building the army slowly, and at this point, everyone began to regret it.

Facts have finally proved that Eric has an accurate grasp of the international situation and has an accurate foresight.

Now, even Hans Luther saw the urgency of an arms build-up.

After the emergency revision of the national defense budget plan, the Ministry of Finance temporarily increased the funding tilt for the troops, but it is still a drop in the bucket. Almost all of the loose silver squeezed out of the teeth was taken by the army.

According to the latest forecasts provided by the United Front Work Department, in order to achieve an overwhelming advantage on the German-Soviet border line, Germany would need to station at least 330 divisions. That's almost 5.8 million troops! It's just that it's a passive defense. If the initiative is taken to attack, the troops can be deployed in small quantities and gradually increase according to the strategic depth.

It couldn't have been worse! Eric only felt a darkness in front of him......