The U.S. Pacific Fleet came to Japan solely for the purpose of making soy sauce. Under the Washington Naval Treaty, which expired and was automatically abrogated, the total naval tonnage of China and Japan together surpassed that of the United States. On the strategic map of the Americans, the first strategic direction to choose is, of course, the Atlantic region. The North Atlantic Economic Circle was the largest economic circle in the world even in the 21st century, and naturally the strongest economic region in the 30s of the 20th century. It is the first strategic direction of the United States.

As far as the United States is concerned, the strategy at this time is to move south first, westward to second, and to the North Atlantic to the east, it is to adopt a defensive strategy. Although Roosevelt also shouted a few words of "good neighborliness and friendship" and "abandonment of the Monroe Doctrine," if you believe what the Americans say, it is better to find a rope and hang yourself. With regard to Latin American countries, the United States has adopted a policy of extreme control. As soon as Roosevelt finished shouting about good-neighborliness, in 1933, after the Cuban people rose up and dictator Machado established the government of San Martin, Roosevelt immediately sent 30 warships to intervene; In 1934, the U.S.-trained Nicaraguan National Defense Forces murdered Nicaragua's national hero, General Sandinistas, and supported and supported reactionary dictatorships in Latin America.

To the east of the United States is the mighty United Kingdom, which is not ready to tear its face with it, and in the North Atlantic, the United States has been pursuing a defensive policy.

As for the Western Pacific, the United States pursues a policy of infiltration. Unlike the many independent states in the Western Pacific after World War II, in 1937 there were seven countries in the Western Pacific, including China, the Soviet Union, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Siam, and Australia and New Zealand, which were also part of the British Commonwealth.

After the revolution of the Japanese Restorationists, the United States wanted to expand its voice in the Western Pacific by doing something about Japan. After the formation of the Qing Cabinet, Takahashi tried to strengthen relations with the United States, making the United States their largest market. Since Japan is in turmoil, it is possible to use the economy to put Japan under vigorous control. As a result, the Japanese reformers implemented a one-sided policy toward China economically, and China, which had been devoted to cracking down on Japan, turned its face like turning a book, and went so far as to engage in good-neighborliness and friendship with Japan. The wishful thinking of the United States came to naught in an instant.

What angered the United States the most was the financial cooperation between China and Japan. China, which had been forced to apply for a credit loan from the United States, actually extended a credit loan to Japan. Breaking into the Japanese financial market is something that even the United States has not been able to do. Combined, the tonnage of the Chinese and Japanese navies exceeds that of the United States. If China and Japan continue in the current way, it is very likely that a Sino-Japanese alliance will be reached. The United States is strategically located because it sits on two oceans. Any advantage has its disadvantages, and if there is a powerful force on each of the two oceans, then the United States will be in a posture of being attacked from both sides, and the attack on the two oceans will become a defense of the two oceans.

Therefore, the United States sent the Pacific Fleet to Japan to demonstrate, and from China's point of view, the United States is forcing Japan into China's embrace. But in the U.S. mind, they think they're doing so to increase U.S. voice in the Western Pacific. Because the United States is not the United Kingdom, it does not have so many global interests, and if any challenge is successful, the United States can get a vote, and if it does not succeed, it will not succeed. Anyway, those interests have nothing to do with the United States.

Whoever has the bigger fist has a bigger say, and this is the world order of 1937. In this matter, the attitude of the United States is naturally to conform to the trend of the world. At least in essence, it is to conform to the trend of the world, and in words it is to shout slogans that are milder than those of the traditional imperialist countries. After all, the feudal system in the United States has little foundation, and the capitalist system has developed better.

The commander of the Pacific Fleet, who had been ordered to come to the demonstration, looked at the group of planes constantly flying in the sky in the flagship, and he was unhappy in his heart. The commander was already very unhappy, and the officers below were a little frightened. They all believe that China is a backward country, and that the size of the Chinese Air Force planes that are now appearing above the American fleet is much larger than the American servicemen imagined. Despite its size, it flies faster than the aircraft of the US Air Force. Many US servicemen even suspect that China's plane is not metal, because the larger the plane, the heavier it will be, and the heavier it is, the slower it will fly. Even Britain and France did not have the ability to create such a large-volume, high-speed fighter.

What makes the United States even more troublesome is China's aircraft carriers, which are different in appearance and size. According to the report of the US Air Force reconnaissance plane, the appearance of the aircraft carrier, which is supposed to be China's latest launch, is very strange, in addition to the upturned deck at the take-off point of the straight deck, there is also a horizontal side runway on the front side of the hull. This quirky design is completely different from the mainstream aircraft carrier design now.

The U.S. fleet, which was originally a demonstrative fleet, is now being surrounded from both sides by the Chinese and Japanese fleets, which are outnumbered by the United States. If there is a war, it will be a situation of being attacked on the back. In the air, not only the aircraft taking off from the aircraft carrier, but also a large number of road-based aircraft are also involved. All that flies in the sky are airplanes. Aircraft of different livery staggered in the sky, pressing, expelling, and separating. From time to time, large groups of planes pass through this sea area in neat formations, and judging by the size of the aircraft, they are probably bomber groups. In general, apart from the fact that there are no live ammunition, this is a simulated war.

"Did the Japanese allow Chinese planes to take off at Japanese airports?" The commander of the American fleet said in surprise. Most of the planes in the air are Chinese planes, and they can always maintain such a number of planes on the battlefield, or the number of Chinese planes is large enough, and there are enough air bases close to the American fleet. Either that, Japan allows the Chinese Air Force to use Japanese airfields. It is clear that the commander of the US Pacific Fleet is inclined to the latter interpretation.

"Your Excellency, the purpose has been achieved. Shall we end the exercise and go back to the Philippines first? The chief of staff asked tentatively.

After more than a day of confrontation, the Chinese and Japanese navies have completed their encirclement posture against the US Pacific Fleet, and it is time for the "exercise" to come to an end. According to the US Navy's reconnaissance, the two Chinese fleets are located in the southeast and southwest of the US Pacific Fleet, with two aircraft carriers as the center, and the distance between them and the US fleet is getting farther and farther away. However, the density of aircraft appearing in the skies over the American fleet did not have the slightest tendency to weaken.

The fighter group escorting the bomber group was able to join the formation before the bombers appeared in the American air circle, while the torpedo attack aircraft group outflanked from all angles. The striking routines in the "exercise" have become more and more proficient. This is also based on the fact that the Chinese aircraft carrier group is getting farther and farther away from the American fleet.

The US Pacific Fleet dispatched battleships this time, and there was no effective way to strike the Chinese fleet except for close artillery bombardment. The Pacific Fleet also tried several times to quickly get close to the Chinese fleet, but the Chinese aircraft carrier formation ran like a rabbit, and the large carrier formation was even able to slowly but continuously close the distance between it and the American fleet.

The navy is more face-saving, and at this stage, it is impossible for them to continue to play lewd streams. Because if this had been an actual war, the U.S. fleet would have been destroyed many times. It is enough to throw people to the right place, and to continue to lose people is against the glorious tradition of the Navy's white gloves.

Not only did the U.S. fleet understand the results of the show, but the Japanese fleet also understands the strength of the Chinese navy. The power of the Chinese Navy shook the Japanese Navy even above the US Navy. The number of warships of the Chinese navy shelling type is still lower than that of Japan, which is known at a glance. Even China, which inflicted considerable losses on the Japanese in repeated naval battles, has not been able to reverse this trend. After all, the main direction of China's naval construction is not artillery warships.

However, the pace of construction of China's air force is far beyond Japan's imagination, and this Sino-Japanese "joint military exercise" is a state of great urgency, and Japan has not provided China with an air force airfield. China's air force is all flying from Qingdao, Tianjin, Lushun, North Korea, and even Taiwan. The continuous appearance of so many planes in the "acting area" caused great panic in the Japanese Navy.

If Japan insists on fighting China, Japan's current air power is simply not enough to compete with China. China's aircraft carriers have strong mobility and aircraft-carrying combat effectiveness. Not only is the U.S. fleet tracking the Chinese fleet, but the Japanese Navy is also tracking the Chinese fleet. The race between the Chinese aircraft carrier formation and the American fleet, in which the Japanese army was also involved.

The Japanese Navy, with the help of the British, was finally able to build its own warships, and China now apparently has the same capability. The Japanese naval officers who participated in the Showa Restoration were all young, and they knew what it would be like if China started building warships with all its might given the gap in national strength between China and Japan. Japan was forced to accept the Washington Naval Treaty because the United States threatened Japan with two if Japan built one battleship. Britain and Japan dared to build two, and the United States built four. Backed by pure industrial capacity, the United States forced Britain and Japan to the negotiating table. Because both countries know that the United States has an advantage over building ships.

And now in East Asia, China, the former hegemon, has once again regained its great power. China also has the same ability and momentum as the United States back then.

After this covert contest, the Japanese Navy finally recognized the situation. Kita Kazuki clearly felt that the navy, which once felt that he was five people and six people, finally lowered his "noble head" under the leadership of Yamamoto fifty-six. Cooperation with the Transitional Government began.

The reaction of the US side was not as friendly as Japan's, and on the fifth day after the end of the "Sino-Japanese joint exercise," the United States sent a telegram to China, suggesting that a new treaty on the limitation of the Navy be held in Washington. Roosevelt specially invited Chen Ke to attend the conference in the United States.

Chen refused to travel to the United States, citing a tight schedule, but the Chinese agreed to send a representative to Washington. The Chinese and Japanese representatives at the meeting were on the same boat to the United States. This is an interesting statement, and the two countries, which were once so unrelenting, are now showing a converging posture. When the representatives of China and Japan appeared in Washington, whether it was the host of the United States or the world hegemon Britain, their faces were not so good-looking.

In this era, the countries in the world that can build their own large warships can be counted on two hands, and the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, China, Japan, and even the Soviet Union are relatively vague in their shipbuilding level. It is not that this country does not have the ability to build large warships, but that the Soviet Union does not have a naval strategic direction that satisfies itself. The Soviet Union was a very sad country, or Russia was a very sad country at sea. Whether it is the North Atlantic Economic Circle or the Pacific Economic Circle, this country is only one step away from entering the map, but it is blocked from these two economic circles.

In the North Atlantic, the Soviet Union would have to either take out Norway and Sweden, or swallow the three Baltic states. If the invasion of the three Baltic countries was adopted, the occupation alone would not have achieved its goal, and the Soviet Union would have to break through the Baltic Sea in order to enter and exit the North Atlantic freely. In the Pacific Ocean, Soviet naval bases could only be located in uninhabited boreal regions. As for the Black Sea, unless it swallows Greece or Turkey, the Soviet Union is completely subject to the Black Sea straits, and even if the Soviet Union can penetrate the Mediterranean, there are also the British-controlled Suez Canal and the Strait of Gibraltar at both ends.

Such a tragic maritime situation made it impossible for the Soviet Union to determine what kind of naval route it was going to take, and if it was to simply hold back dozens of advanced battleships, the Soviet Union's national strength would really not be able to bear it.

So this time the Soviet Union did not participate in the naval negotiations. On the contrary, the participants took advantage of this opportunity to ask Zhu Yao, the representative of the Chinese side, about the situation in the Soviet Union. Because the Soviet Union is fighting hard at home.

Comrade Trotsky, having been party secretary in the no-man's land of Eastern Siberia for some time, finally figured it out, and he wrote a sincere letter to Moscow, saying that he knew he was wrong. Mistakes were admitted for the erroneous actions that actually split the Central Committee of the CPSU. Uncle Iron Man was interesting enough, and he agreed that Comrade Trotsky would return to Moscow to continue his work.

But the situation was not stabilized by Trotsky's softness. Uncle Iron Man is not Comrade Lenin, let alone Chen Ke. Comrade Lenin had great prestige, and even so, there were quite a few people who opposed Lenin's opinion. Uncle Iron Man came to power by a tougher way, using the means of eliminating dissent. Even if Uncle Iron Man's point of view is correct, even if the Chinese side has given a lot of support to the Soviet Union, making the construction and development of the Soviet Union easier than Chen Ke's time and space.

However, the People's Party led by Chen Ke has caught up with the good times, and by showing weakness, China has not been excluded from the world economic circle. In addition, China can always have some goods that Europe and the United States need, and the west coast of the Pacific Ocean is a peripheral region of the world, so China can still be very opportunistic. The Soviet Union was too close to the Western Pacific, but it was unable to cross into the Western Pacific. Keeping the Soviet Union out of the Western Pacific was the inevitable option for the communist-fearing governments in Europe.

Uncle Iron Man's model of forcible accumulation caused great dissatisfaction among the Soviet public, and in all fairness, even if Chen Ke traveled to the Soviet Union, he would not have a better way to solve the problems of the Soviet Union. The biggest difference between the Soviet Union and China is that the Chinese tradition holds that the emperor is good and the officials and powerful are bad. This kind of attitude can make China more subordinate to a central government. The Central Committee of the People's Party can easily win the obedience of the people. When the People's Party leads China, so that everyone can eat and children can go to school, this is the best government that ordinary Chinese people can imagine in the old era.

The Russian tradition is peculiar, they consider the autonomy of the countryside to be the best, both morally and practically. This cultural tradition, which seems strange to China, is real. Uncle Iron Man's tough hand sparked a fierce backlash.

At this time, there was another assassination of Kirov. It is said that during the 17th Congress of the CPSU there was an informal meeting attended by deputies concerned about the state of affairs, especially about agriculture, and that Stalin's name was crossed off more often than anyone else at the secret ballot...... Some even say that Stalin was not elected at all, and that he only reluctantly became a member of the Central Committee when the final decision was made to increase the number of members of the Central Committee. At the end of his speech, the delegates clapped and cheered the delegates for several minutes with the most popular central leader at the 17th National Congress.

Kirov (1886-1934), joined the Bolsheviks in 1904, was elected a member of the Central Committee in 1923, secretary of the Leningrad Provincial Party Committee in 1926, a member of the Politburo from 1930, was elected to the Secretariat at the 17th National Congress in January 1934, and served as secretary of the Central Committee.

On the afternoon of December 1, 1934, Kirov was shot at the Molny Palace in Leningrads and died instantly.

The murderer was an expelled traitor who had been detained twice by security guards near the Smolny Palace and had weapons found on him, but was released on both occasions and even infiltrated the Smolny Palace on 1 December 1934. When he fired at Kirov, the captain of the guard of Kirov fell far behind Kirov.

Kirov's assassin was caught red-handed, and Kirov's guard captain was also escorted to a cargo truck for interrogation, but on the way, the car had a "car accident", and Kirov's guard captain died in a "car accident". Later, two NKVD staff members who were escorting the captain of the guard were also killed. After the case, not even a simple investigation report was made public, and the murderer and 49 alleged accomplices were executed. In this way, the direct witnesses to Kirov's assassination are dead, and the "Kirov case" becomes a mystery: who instructed the assassins to assassinate Kirov?

On the day of Kirov's assassination, Stalin, without discussion and approval by the Politburo, made the following changes to the Criminal Code of the USSR:

First, the judicial authorities shall expedite the trial of prisoners accused of planning or committing terrorist acts. Investigation of cases of terrorist activities must not exceed 10 days.

Secondly, the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR will not consider the application for pardon of such criminals. Once a judgment has been rendered, it cannot be appealed or pardoned.

Thirdly, the NKVD shall carry out such offenders as soon as they are sentenced to death.

These provisions, known in the West as the "Kirov Law," provided the legal basis for a large-scale anti-rebellion campaign, which lasted four years and began.

From December 1, 1934 to 1935, the targets of the Great Purge were only "Kirov murderers," and the purged "Kirov murderers" amounted to more than 500,000 according to relevant sources. This is the first stage.

1936 was the second stage. At this stage, the most famous event was the first "Moscow Trial".

During the Great Purge campaign, there were three trials in Moscow, and the main actors on trial were former party and government leaders. These three trials became known to posterity as the "Moscow Trials".

The first Moscow trial had 16 accused.

From August 19 to 24, 1936, a public trial was held in Moscow for 16 defendants, including Zinoviev and Kamenev, on charges of organizing the "Trotsky-Zinoviev Terror Center" and plotting to assassinate the party and state leaders headed by Stalin, who planned the assassination of Kirov. All the accused refused to admit guilt, and as a result, 16 defendants were sentenced to death and summarily shot.

In the course of the first "Moscow interrogation", the NKVD headed by Yagoda, which was in charge of the Great Purge Movement, made a number of technical errors, some of which could not be substantiated, such as the fact that a representative of the "Trotsky-Tiroviev Terrorist Center" had met with Trotsky's son Sedov at the Blistol Hotel in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1932. A week after the execution of the 16 defendants, the Danish newspaper Social Democracy noted that the hotel had been demolished long before their meeting, and that Seidolf was still taking exams at the Technical Institute in Berlin.

On September 25, 1936, Stalin and Zhdanov instructed the members of the Politburo: "Yakoda is clearly incapable of exposing the Trotskyite and Zinovievite clique," and that the NKVD under Yagoda "is at least four years behind in this matter" and that "it is absolutely urgent to appoint Comrade Yezhov as NKVD." ”

In January 1937, the second "Moscow Trial" was held. ”

The second "Moscow trial" was called the "Anti-Sutrotskyist Center case", and the defendants were 17 people, including E.L. Pidakov and K.S. Radek, 15 of whom were shot.

At the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU in February-March 1937, Stalin put forward the thesis that with the smooth development of socialist construction in the Soviet Union, the class struggle would intensify day by day. At this plenum, Stalin pointed out that there were still Japanese, German, and Trotskyist spies in the party; Molotov noted that there were "enemies of the people" within the army; Yezhov made a special report on "espionage".

Soon after the conclusion of the February-March 1937 Plenum, the NKVD went into action at high speed, targeting first the delegates and elected members of the Central Committee of the Party to the 17th National Congress, 98 of the 139 Central Committee members and alternate members elected to the 17th National Congress, or 70 percent, were arrested and executed in 1937-1938; Of the 1,996 delegates to the 17th National Congress, 1,108 were arrested for "counter-revolutionary activities."

Of course, the Chinese side refused to interfere in the internal affairs of the Soviet Union, and Chen Ke knew that the reversal of this situation was after Comrade Beria took over the KGB.

In the face of the attitude of the representatives of various countries, China had only one answer, "We never interfere in the internal affairs of the Soviet Union!" ”