In April and May 1941, the German and Italian sides, as well as the British and American sides, were going all out to prepare for the upcoming new **** decisive battle - this is not a matter of lip service, the German and Italian sides need to deploy a large number of troops and aircraft to Spain and Norway, and also transport super cannons weighing hundreds of tons or thousands of tons to the Spanish front line through France. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Britain, on the other hand, had to mobilize troops to strengthen the defenses of Gibraltar and the Shetland Islands, while speeding up the commissioning of several aircraft carriers, and sending a navy to occupy the Portuguese islands of Madeira and the Spanish islands of Canaria.

In short, the preparation work of both sides is very arduous and cannot be completed without two or three months.

And at a time when both sides were busy preparing for a decisive battle, there was a rare period of calm throughout Europe. If it weren't for the sound of air raid sirens and bomb explosions that often sounded at night, one would almost have thought that the world war was over.

But at this moment, in the distant and remote Afghanistan, the soldiers of the Soviet Red Army are singing triumphant songs all the way, and they are rushing majestically and vigorously towards Kandahar, the important southern town where the Afghan reactionaries are entrenched.

Of course, the Soviet Red Army was powerful, and Stalin this time in line with the principle of T34 killing chickens, the number of troops dispatched was also very large. The main force of the Central Asian Front (Central Asian Military District) was dispatched, and at the end of 1940 the 53rd Army of the Red Army had just been formed, and the commander was General Ksenefontov, who had made great achievements in the civil war in Soviet Russia.

Taking into account the topography and transportation facilities in Afghanistan, the 53rd Army did not have any mechanized troops in its formation when it entered Afghanistan, but a large number of mountain and cavalry units. It includes 7 mountain divisions, including the 9th, 20th, 28th, 63rd, 68th, 83rd and 194th Mountain Divisions, as well as 4 cavalry divisions, including the 1st, 4th, 17th, and 18th Kalmyk Mongol Cavalry Divisions. In addition, the 53rd Army also had an infantry corps attached to the 64th Infantry Corps with four infantry divisions.

A powerful invasion consisting of 7 mountain divisions, 4 cavalry divisions and 4 infantry divisions, a total of 15 divisions (divided into 4 corps), no, it should be a strong liberation force. Under the order of Comrade Stalin to "liberate Afghanistan", the 53rd Army of the Red Army first divided its troops into two routes, all the way south from Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, and occupied Kunduz, Takhar, Balkh, Zhuzjan and other places north of the Hinduk Mountains in Afghanistan; The other route moved south from Turkmenistan along the branch line of the Central Asian Railway, built during the Tsarist era, and almost bloodlessly captured the important town of Herat, west of the Hinduk Mountains, the only area of Afghanistan with a railway (although not open to traffic), which was of great significance for the Soviet Red Army's subsequent war of liberation.

After completing the first stage of the offensive, the Soviet Red Army only had a short rest and began a new round of devastating offensive.

However, the second phase of the Soviet offensive was not divided into two routes, but only one route, with four cavalry divisions as the main force, moving south from Herat and driving straight along the "flat road" of Herat-Sindande-Kabao-Zalandy-Dekhshu-Grishke-Kandahar, which bypassed the main mountainous areas of Afghanistan. In less than 10 days, 500 kilometers had been advanced, and by April 20, four Soviet cavalry divisions had advanced to the Helmand River in southern Afghanistan, less than 300 kilometers from Kandahar.

At this time, the main force of the Royal Afghan Army was deployed on the front line of the Hinduk Mountains, guarding important places such as Bamiyan and Salang Pass, and was planning to defend the capital Kabul. As a result, the Soviet Red Army made a solid right hook!

The target of the Soviet Red Army's right hook was not actually Kandahar, but to take Kandahar to the north, along the Lola River valley to the north, and to capture Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, from the south.

Don't look at the Soviet Red Army's large circle of more than 1,000 kilometers, it seems to be a waste of time, but this more than 1,000 kilometers passed through relatively flat terrain. It was also the main logistical transport line of the Red Army in Afghanistan planned by Marshal Kulik and Colonel-General Ksenefontov.

Their plan was to restore the railway line to Herat first, and then lay the temporary railway line from Herat to Kandahar to Kabul. Although the total length of the temporary railway will be more than 1,300 kilometers, it will be relatively easy to construct along the way, and if the poor middle peasants of Afghanistan can be mobilized, it can be completed in 12-18 months. After the completion of the temporary railway, the Soviet Union will be able to support hundreds of thousands of workers' and peasants' Red Army to liberate India.

And in order to accomplish these difficult but glorious tasks of road construction, a large number of Uzbek and Tajik Bolshevik party members were urgently called up. After a short period of training, they were sent as advisers to the Third International to the Uzbek and Tajik tribes in the liberated areas of the Soviet Union north of the Hinduk Mountains, where they began to develop the Afghan People's Party (the Afghan Marxist Party under the auspices of the Third International), establish a revolutionary regime, and recruit progressive Afghan youth to form the Afghan People's Army.

With the help of the Afghan People's Army, which was able to communicate with the Pashtuns, the Soviet Union was able to "mobilize" the working people of Afghanistan to participate in the "voluntary labor" of the construction of the railway......

The news of the establishment of the revolutionary regime and the people's army by the Afghan People's Party north of the Hindu Kushan and the urgent military information of the rapid advance of the Soviet Red Army to Kandahar, south of Kabul, immediately caused extreme panic among the reactionary forces in Afghanistan.

King Zahir of Afghanistan. While Shah and Prime Minister Hashim hurriedly sent troops to Kandahar, they also issued a call to Pashtun tribal leaders across Afghanistan to send tribal fighters to fight the Soviet Red Army.

At the same time, they also urgently asked the German military advisory group and the American military advisory group in Afghanistan for urgent help, hoping to get more weapons.

And just when the generous "German advisers" and the rather gentlemanly "American advisers" had not yet answered, a secret British military advisory group finally flew from "India" to Kabul on the Gorond C.449 transport plane that the French had sold to Britain in the early years, and brought with them a lot of British-made weapons and equipment.

"Lieutenant Fleming, do you know if MI6 has a pseudonym James. A high-ranking agent of Bond? ”

A British Legation in Kabul named Willie. Smith's middle-aged gentleman hurried to the station of the "American Military Advisory Group" on the afternoon of April 21 and disturbed Colonel "Gingrich", who was leisurely drinking afternoon tea.

"Mr. Smith, I'm not Lieutenant Fleming! I'm Colonel Gingrich! "Ian is holding a cup of milk tea. Fleming looked around, and didn't see any idle people who shouldn't have appeared, so he breathed a sigh of relief and said, "And I don't know what kind of pseudonyms other agents who have nothing to do with this operation use, it's classified!" ”

"But now a British military advisory group has arrived in Kabul, leading a team that claims to be MI6 agent James Murphy. Colonel Bond ......"

"What...... What the? "Ian. Fleming was stunned and stunned, what was going on? Why did MI6 send another military advisory group to Kabul? And...... also directly played Britain's own signboard. What does that mean? To make an open break with the USSR?

"Not quite right! This is most likely a scam! "Ian. Fleming's vigilance was still very high, and he put the milk tea cup on the small square table beside him and stood up suddenly. "I'm going to meet this MI6 Colonel Bond!"

At the same time, in the garrison of the German military advisory group flying the swastika flag, Reinhardt, who was a little lame and on a cane. Feng. Colonel Rothenburg was having an urgent and quick conversation with a major military attache at an American legation.

"Colonel, I can be sure that the 'Colonel Gingrich' Eight Achievements is a British disguise. The U.S. weapons and ammunition they supplied to the Afghans must have been Lend-Lease supplies...... They must be unwilling to support the Afghans in their own name. But why is there another open military advisory group now? ”

"It doesn't have to be British!" Pseudonym Reinhardt. Feng. Colonel Rothenburg is a retired Colonel of the United States Marine Corps. Colonel Eddie. He was a friend of Colonel Donovan, the White House intelligence coordinator, and although he had no formal espionage training, he was gifted.

"I can't figure out that this Colonel Bond is pretending to be a German!" William. Eddie has already guessed the identity of "Bond".

"Germans? What do they want to do? ”

"What for?" William. Eddie smiled coldly, "Like us, of course, they want to trouble Stalin and are unwilling to play their own banner." ”

"But now we are pretending to be Germans, the British are pretending to be us, and Germany is pretending to be British...... Isn't it all in vain? ”

"In vain?" William. Eddie snorted, "What if Stalin knew?" Will he still be at war with the United States, Germany, and Britain at the same time? ”

"That's just as well."

"Alright, that's all for today." William. Eddie said, "I'm going to meet this Colonel Bond." ”

"See...... See Bond? But he's British. ”

"So what?" William. Eddie shrugged, "This is Afghanistan, and the interests of Britain, the United States, and Germany in Afghanistan are aligned. If you have the same interests, you are friends, maybe you can still communicate with each other, what can't you see? ”

"Is there any communication?"

"Yes, now I, the German colonel, do not have enough German arms in my hands, and I need to ask the British to change a little." (To be continued.) )