On the morning of September 19, the headquarters of the 11th Army in Slutsk. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Malinovsky finally arrived at his front-line command at noon the day before yesterday and spent the afternoon building a front-line command network with the help of Chief of Staff Pavel Alekseevich Kurochkin.

Speaking of this chief of staff, more than a month ago Malinovsky still had some doubts in his heart, because Kurochkin was appointed by Voroshinov, an old subordinate of Comrade Marshal, born in cavalry, and just served as chief of staff of the Second Cavalry Army at the beginning of the year.

Everyone knows that Comrade Andrei is "competing" with Comrade Voroshinov in many places, and Malinovsky is also worried that this chief of staff will create unnecessary trouble for himself in the construction of the group army, but more than a month of cooperation has made Malinovsky understand one point: This chief of staff is not a factional person, but an excellent commander and right-hand man. And Voroshinov tied two of his old subordinates (both of whom were cavalry) together, which is also reassuring.

Yesterday Malinovsky also received a report that the 10th Army in the Minsk direction on the right flank had also arrived at the intended position, Commander Ivan Grigorievich Zakharkin had already connected his army group with the 11th Army, and the Belarusian side had made preparations for the offensive on all fronts.

The commander of the Belarusian Special Military District, Ivan Panfilovsky-Belov, put the two strongest armies in his hands in the first line, and the third and fourth armies as campaign reserves, which was obviously to train the newly formed troops according to Moscow's will - it is reasonable that the third and fourth armies were formed on the basis of the original two campaign clusters, although they were formed at the same time, and in any case they would have better operational coordination capabilities than the 11th and 12th armies, but Fediko still put them on the second line.

Although the two armies in the hands of Malinovsky and Zakharkin have not been formed for a long time and there are some problems in the coordination ability of various services, their real combat capabilities should not be underestimated, and this is related to the special care of the Kremlin.

The 3rd Mechanized Army under the 11th Army has 350 units of the latest T34 alone, and there is also a heavy tank regiment of 72 KV-1 heavy tanks, which were all put in place in one step more than a month ago. Although it has not been formed for a long time, if an assault order is really issued, the assault capability of these more than 400 new tanks is simply terrifying.

The 10th Army also has a mechanized 6th Army, due to Lin Jun's partiality in equipment allocation, the number of new tanks and equipment of the Mechanized Sixth Army is half of that of the Third Mechanized Army, but in terms of rapid assault forces, it has the old cavalry Sixth Army, which is also a heavyweight opponent for an opponent like Poland.

Belov's new army on the front line alone has more than 200,000 army groups, not to mention the original fortified areas and border troops, plus the strong lineup of follow-up troops, the 300-kilometer main border line (there are still 200 kilometers of border line north of Minsk and Poland, but the Polish territory over there is a narrow area, which is strategically a chicken rib for Poland - once attacked, the narrow strip in the north will be completely isolated and become a meal for the Soviet Union. It's tightly blocked.

If it is an attack, these 200,000 troops do not need to be lined up, as long as they take the opposite Polish Novogrudok, Baranovic, Slonim, Luninets, Pinsk, then only Brest will be left in front of them. It was advantageous to the Soviet Union in terms of terrain and equipment, and as long as these six strongholds were completed, Polish rule in Western Belarus would come to an end.

The situation is similar in the Kyiv Special Military District in the south, Commander Fediko put the three new army groups in his hands on the front line, and as the old military district with the first strength of all the military districts of the Soviets, Fediko has prepared a powerful assault corps of 500,000 people for the Poles on the Ukrainian side - he has no problem wrapping up the Poles in one military district!

Further south, the Odessa Military District just became independent from the Kyiv Special Military District last year, and its strength is average, but as long as you look at the Romanians, its strength is quite enough.

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Zakharkin in the command of the 10th Army is full of confidence today, although the strength in his hands is not as good as that of Malinovsky next door, and there are some small problems with the run-in of the troops, but it is still no problem to make the Polish army in Western Belarus more honest - those strategies and tactics are still stuck in the First World War, and the Poles are not enough to stuff their own troops.

Whether in terms of firepower, technology, weapons, and troop morale, it is no problem for the hundreds of thousands of people on hand to destroy twice as many opponents as themselves, not to mention that the Polish troops on the opposite side do not have the strength of their own.

Last month, he made a "goodwill visit" to the 11th Army, where Malinovsky took him on a tour of the Third Mechanized Army, and what he saw tickled his heart.

I also have a mechanized army in my hand, but the strength is at most half of that of my neighbors, which is really more popular than people, and everything good will be allocated to this red man in the equipment department first, and my own troops want new equipment to wait for others to finish loading.

Fortunately, Comrade Andrei in Moscow did not forget about the "non-descendant" troops, and first gave himself half of the new equipment, otherwise the mechanized Sixth Army in his hands would have to rely on those old-fashioned T28s to fill the façade.

Like Zakharkin, Malinovsky did not put the mechanized corps at hand at the forefront of the troops, which was directly instructed by the Kremlin to avoid the "unseen" new tanks from being discovered by his opponents.

This time it is a big show plus exercises, and the role is in place, just let the Poles and the whole world understand: once the "borrowing", the Soviet army will attack in an all-round way, and while the troops of the Kiev Military District support Czechoslovakia, the "way" will recover Western Belarus and Western Ukraine, and Poland needs to think carefully about its own attitude.

The Germans did not want the Soviet Union to intervene in European affairs too early, so they had to make a compromise on political interests that would satisfy the Soviets, and most importantly, to establish some kind of "tacit understanding" with Moscow - to force Czechoslovakia not to send a request for help from the Soviet Union, which would have certain "benefits" for both Germany and the Soviet Union.

Hitler understood that this was the only way to avoid falling into the strategic trap of Britain and France: it was ridiculous that Britain and France were busy digging this trap on the one hand, and on the other hand, they were busy building bridges on it—forcing the Czechoslovak government to submit, and indirectly giving Germany and the Soviet Union a step down.

What Berlin needed to do was put more weight on the levers of pressure, and in fact Hitler was doing just that: he had already thrown an olive branch to the Kremlin through his ambassador to the Soviet Union at the first time and established a channel of communication between them.

Reich Foreign Minister Ribbentrop was not only busy preparing for negotiations with Britain and France, but also with the rapprochement with Moscow - he knew Stalin's personality and that the Soviet ruler should have Hitler's considerations: Britain and France must not be allowed to profit from it!

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At noon on September 22, in the small town of Goldsburg on the middle reaches of the Rhine, Hitler and his entourage stayed at the Dressing Hotel, named after his old friend Fritz Dressen, whom he had known since the 20s.

In order to welcome the arrival of the British, the hotelier, Dreison, has replaced the furniture and carpets with new ones: today the official British delegation will fly to Goldsburg, but will stay at the Petersberg Hotel on the other side of the Rhine (on the right bank), which will be the venue for the official talks.

The Petersberg Hotel is an old castle-style inn perched on top of Petersburg Hill with a panoramic view of Goldsberg.

Just hours after Hitler arrived at his station, Chamberlain and his delegation arrived at Goldsburg, and Chamberlain had not only to meet all of Hitler's demands at Berchtesgaden, but also to increase them.

In order to welcome the arrival of the British guests, the city hung not only the German swastika flag, but also the British rice flag along the way, which made Chamberlain very satisfied.

At this point in the talks, it was only necessary to finalize the details, and it was for this reason that Chamberlain brought not only Sir Horace Wilson (who at that time was supposed to be Chamberlain's economic adviser and head of the Central European Division of the Foreign Office). and William Strand (an expert on Eastern European affairs at the British Foreign Office), and Sir William Malkin, Director of the Documents and Law Department at the Foreign Office.

As in the palace of the Lodge, Chamberlain thought that he could solve the current problem with Hitler - Czechoslovakia only had to obey the decision of the talks (damn, what kind of logic is this called?!). ）

That night, Ribbentrop went to the Petersberg Hotel, where he was to accompany Chamberlain to the Drysson Hotel, where Hitler was waiting for Chamberlain by ferry across the Rhine.

"Ribbentrop, let the British understand that they can only make decisions according to our wishes."

"Yes, my Führer."

This morning Hitler had given a clear instruction to his foreign minister that in order to make the British understand his situation at the first time, Ribbentrop would wear a casual suit tonight, with a brown Nazi shirt underneath the suit – a clear demonstration, and everything was contrary to diplomatic etiquette.

But judging by Chamberlain's reaction to seeing himself, the British Prime Minister did not mind what he was dressed at all, "The Führer's prediction was correct, and the British could only give in." Ribbentrop thought to himself on the ferry, and the umbrella in the crook of Chamberlain's arm was dangling with the ferry.

As at the castle in the hill, Chamberlain was greeted by the SS.

Apparently Chamberlain was eager to tell Hitler what he had done during this time, and he was basically talking about it from the beginning of the talks, and Hitler became a loyal listener.

Chamberlain first explained that after "painstaking negotiations" he had managed to get not only the British and French cabinets, but also the Czech government to accept Hitler's demands, and then he proposed in detail the means of realizing them.

It is now ready for the Sudetenland to be transferred to Germany without a referendum. The future of those ethnically mixed areas could be left to a three-member committee composed of a German, a Czech, and a representative of a neutral country. Moreover, the treaty of mutual assistance between Czechoslovakia, which Hitler greatly resented, and France and the Soviet Union would be replaced by an international guarantee that Czechoslovakia would not be attacked without reason after ceding the Sudetenland, and that France and the Soviet Union would henceforth "maintain complete neutrality."

For Chamberlain, a British businessman-turned-peace-loving British prime minister, all this seemed very simple, very reasonable, and very logical.

After talking about his great achievements, Chamberlain seemed a little complacent, waiting for Hitler's reaction.

"May I understand that the British, French, and Czechoslovak governments have agreed to transfer the Sudetenland to Germany?" Hitler asked. Truth be told, Hitler was somewhat surprised by the magnitude and speed of the concessions made by the British.

"The British just succumbed like that?!" Even Hitler couldn't believe it anymore.

"Yes." Chamberlain replied with a smile.

"I am extremely sorry," said Hitler, "because of the developments in the situation of the last few days, this plan is no longer useful." "He decided on the fly that he wanted to go a little longer

Chamberlain's face on the other side was swollen red, and it could be seen that the British Prime Minister could not imagine that his efforts had received such an answer. He obviously could not have imagined that Hitler would rip off money like a scoundrel: as soon as the other party agreed, he would immediately raise the price again.

Chamberlain saw the Peace House, which he had so "painstakingly" built at the expense of the Czechs, collapse like a card of cards, which was difficult for the old English gentleman to accept.

"I am very disappointed in this, and I have reason to think that the Führer has received everything you have asked for."

Chamberlain was really disappointed and angry: in order to do so, he put his political life on the line of a desperate gamble, and many politicians in Britain accused him of betraying Czechoslovakia and surrendering to the dictator. And when he left the UK today, he was booed off.

It is a pity that the personal misfortune of the British Prime Minister did not impress Hitler's hard heart, and since the British have so readily achieved their goal, and even exceeded, it is to ask a little more that they will also give in.

The Sudetenland must be immediately occupied by Germany, and Hitler made it clear that "the question must be completely and definitively resolved by 1 October at the latest".

The diplomatic tussle between the Germans and the British continued at Goldsburg, and the next day Chamberlain met with Hitler again with a new plan, and finally received a memorandum with a map in the early morning of the 24th: the Czechs were to begin withdrawing from the ceded area at 8 a.m. on 26 September, two days later, and to complete the withdrawal on 28 September.

"Isn't this an ultimatum!" Chamberlain could only sigh.

When the negotiations finally came to an end, Hitler's personal photographer Heinrich Hoffmann (the owner of the photo studio where Eva once worked) stopped Chamberlain and Hitler in the lobby and took an intriguing photograph of Hitler and Chamberlain standing "under the palm trees of peace." Because there happened to be a huge palm tree bonsai next to the two of them.

This chapter of photos appeared on the desks of global dignitaries along with various newspapers within a few days, and Lin Jun also saw this classic photo on the morning of the 26th, and it could be seen that Hitler's mood was very good, and Chamberlain's expression was not serious.

"Hitler was so impatient and greedy that he forced Czechoslovakia to carry out a national mobilization, and how good it would be for Britain to be the wicked old man." Lin Jun said to Alexander opposite.

Although the two only knew the general content of the talks, which was obtained from the public information of the British and German media, judging from the reaction of Czechoslovakia, Hitler was a little too impatient.

"Hitler was in a hurry, and the Italians were not idle, their ambassador to Berlin, Atolico, met with Hitler four times yesterday, and it is estimated that the Italians will also be involved."

"Four times? Alexander, the Ministry of Internal Affairs is really powerful, right? ”

"Hey, confidential." Alexander laughed a little thief.

It seems that the agents of the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs have successfully extended their tentacles into the German Chancellery, and although it is impossible to penetrate the core of the Chancellery, it is still possible to know which people patronize it.

It's dangerous to report just because of how many times the ambassador has had such a small problem, and the agent is doing it because of this special time: the Kremlin wants to know what is happening in Germany to decide what it does on the western border.

"Entering the Prime Minister's Office is basically an impossible task, you ask that comrade not to report if there is no earth-shattering situation, and it is better to conceal it. The current situation is still in our expectations, and it would be a great loss if it was exposed. ”

The fate of Czechoslovakia was already sealed, and it was not worth paying a good agent for this matter.

"Andrey, I am an expert in this area, and I have informed him of the deep lurking, and I hope to have greater gains in the future."

Alexander was able to carry it.

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Mussolini was trying to persuade Hitler to accept Chamberlain's suggestion and to convene a four-nation conference of Germany, Britain, France, and Italy to discuss the Czechoslovak question.

Hitler accepted the persuasion of his allies and decided that the meeting would take place in Munich on September 29 at the "Leaderhouse" where the National Socialist Party was located.

Czechoslovakia was already doomed. (To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to the www.qidian.com, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) (To be continued.) )