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Chapter 1593 The dawn of victory has emerged

"Smack-"

Stalin angrily smashed his trademark pipe on the forehead of Smirnov, Deputy People's Commissar of Defense and People's Commissar of the Navy, who was standing across from his desk, and blood suddenly oozed out and ran down his forehead, but Smirnov did not dare to take out his handkerchief to wipe it, and soon blood flowed all over his face. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

"Comrade Smirnov, the Politburo of the Central Committee has entrusted you with the great Red Army fleet, hoping that you will lead it to a meritorious service and victory in the battle against the traitors of the Far East and their lackeys of South China, but what is the answer you have given me? Shame on you! Annihilated! The Caspian Flotilla not only lost the ships it owned, but also buried all the warships and transports supported by the Red Sea Fleet, as well as the officers and men of the Red Army of three divisions! ”

Stalin roared loudly in Russian, with a strong Georgian accent, and his anger made the entire Kremlin tremble.

Seeing Smirnov standing there trembling and not saying a word, Stalin became even more angry and asked loudly: "Comrade Smirnov, do you have anything to explain to the Central Committee?" ”

Smirnov raised his head and said aggrievedly: "But - Comrade Stalin, I am only carrying out your orders. It was you who demanded that the entire Caspian flotilla be dispatched to take Krasnovsk at any cost. The Caspian Flotilla has only such a small base, so I can only strengthen the Caspian Flotilla by transferring warships from the Red Sea through the Don and Lenin Canals and the Volga. But even in this situation, we failed......"

"Passing the buck is completely shirking the blame!"

Stalin walked back and forth in front of Smirnov, and his mouth was bombarded like a cannon:

"I told you to attack Krasnovsk, but I didn't tell you to act without the cover of an airplane. Is the South China Army so easy to fight? They taught Japan, the third largest navy in the world, a lesson off the coast of China, and even an aircraft carrier was blown up and sunk, not to mention our small destroyer fleet! In order to succeed in such a large-scale sea-crossing operation, it is necessary to mobilize a large number of fighters to cover from the air, and to rush to the door to die recklessly like the Caspian Sea Fleet, did I ask you to do it? ”

"This is the responsibility of the commander of the Navy who is specifically responsible!"

Smirnov continued to argue: "Comrade Stalin, I am only the People's Commissar of the Navy, and it is the commanders and political commissars of the fleet who are specifically responsible for the transfer and command of operations, and I just need to convey the orders of you and the Supreme High Command, I am in Moscow, how do they do and how do I know?

"Since the beginning of the previous year, our navy has carried out a large-scale purge among middle and high-ranking officers, including the arrest and shooting of the three commanders-in-chief of the Red Army Navy, all fleet commanders, and 90 percent of the captains.

Stalin stopped and laughed angrily: "So, you blame me? ”

"Don't dare!"

Smirnov saw the ferocious gaze in Stalin's eyes like a jackal, and knew that this time it would be difficult for him to escape, so he simply turned his heart sideways and said happily in one breath:

"Comrade Stalin, since you ordered the beginning of the Great Purge within the Soviet Government and the Red Army, our Red Army has lost all its commanders of military districts, 90% of its deputy commanders and chiefs of staff, and 80% of its divisional commanders. A third of the regimental commanders were blamed, the middle and junior officers suffered heavy losses, the technicians were not spared, more than 5,000 pilots were purged in the Air Force alone, and the foundations of the army were greatly damaged.

"In order to make up for these irreparable losses in the short term, a large number of low-ranking officers have been promoted by skipping ranks, yesterday's platoon commanders have become regiment commanders, battalion commanders have become division commanders and even army commanders, and all kinds of military cadres trained in three-month or six-month crash courses have flooded the army. By the beginning of this year, only 7.1 per cent of the commanders of the Red Army had received a higher military education, 55.9 per cent had an intermediate education, 24.6 per cent had graduated from a crash course, and the remaining 12.4 per cent had no military education at all.

"The situation of the Caspian Flotilla that suffered a crushing defeat this time was similar, the commander of the fleet Ivanov was only the captain of a gunboat before, because the commander, political commissar and staff of the Caspian Flotilla were all purged, and the captains of the destroyers and gunboats were almost lost, so the short man was taller, and this Ivanov became the commander of the Caspian Flotilla. Is this commander, who has never even touched a book, who saw that almost all the senior commanders of the Red Sea Fleet had been purged, and even set his sights on the position of commander of the Red Sea Navy, is this a pioneering achievement of our great Soviet Red Army?

"In addition, all our air forces are used to support operations on the Northern Front, and in the entire Caucasus and the regions of Ukraine, there is not a single warplane, so I ask Comrade Stalin, where do I go to find fighters that are enough to cover the fleet's sea-crossing operations? And even if there is, according to the performance of our fighters, is it the opponent of the Chinese's fighters? I know that in the skies west of the Ural River, our air force has fought with the fighters of the South China Air Force several times, and each time they have come home. Even the main forces of the Air Force are so weak, what can I do to cover the offensive of the Caspian Flotilla?

"Now that the fighting in the Central Asian theater has been launched, Marshal Kulik has captured the Central Asian Railway and the Caspian Railway junction Ares, the Supreme High Command has demanded that we must take Krasnovsk within three days, and to respond to Marshal Kulik's offensive from the west, do we have any other ways to help the ground forces occupy Krasnovsk except to choose a surprise attack without air force?"

The more Stalin listened, the more serious his face became, and when Smirnov finished speaking, he said unhurriedly: "Comrade Smirnov, since you know the dangers of the Great Purge, why do you spare no effort to carry it out in the Navy?" Orlov, the former commander of the Red Army Navy, and Viktolov after that, were all pulled down by you, and a large number of your old subordinates were also pushed to the guillotine by you one by one. ”

Speaking of this, Stalin shouted at the door: "Comrade Beria, come and take Comrade Smirnov away, I think it is necessary for him to go to the Ministry of Internal Affairs to reflect on his mistakes!" ”

Beria entered, accompanied by four staff members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Smirnov, whose head was covered in blood, gave Stalin a complicated look, then turned and left.

Beria picked up the blood-stained pipe from the ground and handed it to Stalin, who looked at the blood on it with disgust and threw it into the garbage bag next to his desk.

"Smirnov's incompetence, the incident that led to the fiasco of the Navy, must be done in an iron case! I don't want to hear discord outside! ”

Stalin's words rang in the ears of Beria, who had left respectfully, and he did not look back and walked straight out the door. There are some things that only need to understand the intentions of the superiors, and there is no need to ask about them.

......

Central Asian theater of operations, Arres.

After once again playing up the so-called victory, Marshal Kulik summoned the relevant army generals for an emergency meeting.

"Comrades generals, our opponent is more cunning than a loach, and since the launch of the offensive campaign, we have not even touched a single hair of our opponent. Since there is no Air Force, we cannot know where the opponent is. Now that we are faced with the difficult choice of going south and going north, I hope you will be able to speak freely. ”

Kulik said straight to the point.

With the experience of Stern, the commander of the former Southern Front Corps, all the generals sat there with their faces tense, not moving, and the conference room was deserted.

Kulik passed over the faces of the commanders of the army group, the commanders of the cavalry and infantry divisions, the political and staff officers of the headquarters and the armies, and finally fell on the face of the commander of the Fourth Army, Dotseiziko: "Comrade Dotseiziko, come and talk about your views!" ”

Duo Caiziko stood up straight, and his face showed a shy look: "I'm sorry, Comrade Marshal, I don't have any opinion. Before I became the commander of the army group, I only held the position of battalion commander, and although I received six months of officer training, I still had many things that I had not figured out, and I was more accustomed to obedience when it came to fighting. ”

Although he said this in his mouth, Duo Caizike was muttering in his heart: Only ghosts dare to express their opinions, if they say something wrong, they won't give you a "click"? It's better to pretend to be an idiot who doesn't understand anything, and you can save yourself better.

Kulik smiled wryly and asked Dotsezko to sit down, then looked at the others, who were greeted by evasive glances.

"Comrade Mekhlis, what do you say? You are the political commissar of our Central Asian theater of operations, and you must have good suggestions. Kulik called again.

Mehris stood up with a blank expression: "Report to Comrade Marshal, I am only responsible for the political and ideological work of the army, and I am really not good at the rest." As you know, I used to be the editor-in-chief of Pravda at the regimental level, and then I was suddenly promoted to the head of the General Political Department of the Red Army, and at the beginning of this year I went to Central Asia to serve as a political commissar, and I was never in charge of military affairs, so I ...... I'm sorry, I don't really have anything to suggest. ”

After that, Kulik named several more people, all of whom were shirks. In desperation, Kulik had no choice but to express his personal thoughts:

"Although we don't know where the enemy is, we can judge it based on the current strategic situation. The north is Turkestan (now Turkestan), backed by the Karatau Mountains, surrounded by high mountains and deserts, and only oases along the Syr Darya River, which is very unfavorable for the supply of large forces, and according to the superior strength of our army, it is impossible for the other side to fight a decisive battle with us in the desert and Gobi region without strong defenses.

"Tashkent in the south, the political, economic, and cultural center of Central Asia, has numerous rivers and lakes, an excellent irrigation system, abundant products, developed agriculture, and convenient supply nearby, and those rivers can be used as natural fortifications to defend against our attacks step by step.

"In addition, another main corps of the enemy army is defending against the attacks of our corps on the southern front in the Leninabad and Andijan areas, and if the enemy in Tashkent is not supported, it can also move south to join up with the squadron in the Leninabad area. Since ancient times, the division of troops has been a taboo for soldiers, and with our opponent's rich combat experience, it is impossible for us to make such a low-level mistake.

"To sum up, I think our opponent must have gone south to the Tashkent region, what we have to do now is to leave a small number of troops, concentrate the main forces, attack south with all our might, liberate Tashkent in one fell swoop, and then bite the enemy's ass and completely annihilate it!"

The generals present were all clever people, and they echoed Kulik's opinion, praising the entire battle plan as extremely forward-looking, well-argued, well-reasoned, and a genius plan with a good grasp of the opponent's mentality.

Then, a reckless and flawed battle plan was bizarrely passed, and the Soviet army in Central Asia was one step closer to destruction.