On the upper reaches of the Ob River, thirty kilometers northwest of Surgut, a convoy of hundreds of white Arctic-2 armored sled combat vehicles and sled transporters drove quickly through the forest and snow, and it was difficult to distinguish them from the surrounding scenery with the naked eye without the noisy sound of engines.

The "Arctic" series of armored sled fighting vehicles is mass-produced equipment after absorbing the winter combat experience of the previous year, and at a rough glance it looks like an "iron box" with four sled boards, and an aviation piston engine in the tail. The inner layer of the "box" is plywood, the outer layer is 11 mm steel plate, the middle layer is filled with asbestos, and the thickness of the front steel plate can be additionally strengthened as required. The shape is similar to that of the Soviet NKL26 sled, and in the summer, when the sled board is removed and the wheels are installed, it is an armed off-road vehicle. As an auxiliary combat vehicle, the "Arctic" series of sleds is designed according to the principle of economy and simplicity, with a maximum speed of 50 kilometers per hour and a maximum mileage of 170 kilometers, which can seat three people. The sealed machine gun turret on the top can hold a 12.7 mm heavy machine gun or a 7.62 mm general-purpose machine gun, most of the engines are used by the Air Force, there are also 2 kerosene heaters in the compartment, and the outside of the transport type is made of ordinary automobile steel plates, which can transport 1 ton of bulk cargo. Because the "Arctic" sled is the only vehicle that can meet the needs of patrolling, transporting and fighting in extremely cold weather. Therefore, since the Ministry of Defense ordered a large number of vehicles last summer, more than 5,000 vehicles have been delivered.

In the middle compartment of the convoy sat a thin officer about fifty years old. He was the naval commander Bingwen who volunteered to secretly admit to his liaison with Beria. For the sake of secrecy, the soldiers of the convoy participating in the operation were all from the "Sea Serpent" reconnaissance group of the Marine Corps, which was completely out of line with the army and air forces fighting in Central Asia. "It's too cold today." Although the two kerosene heaters in the carriage were turned on, Bingwen, who had been dealing with the Navy and the tropics for decades, still felt very cold, and even the N3 heavy winter suit on his body did not seem to work.

"Hehe, it has risen a lot in the past few days, if you come here for half a month, it will be called cold." The man sitting next to him. He is the commissioner of the Central Asian Allied Ethnic Affairs Office under the Political Department of the General Staff, and Wu Zhonghao, a rising star of the National Society. Fang Rui's right-hand man, the political commissioner with a wealth of politics and ethnic issues, managed civil affairs in wartime Central Asia and taught the locals how to run the country.

Although most of Central Asia has been liberated, because the war has not yet ended, the Wehrmacht still controls military power and civilian jurisdiction, so he still has the task of political brainwashing and the placement of "special personnel", so Yan Baohang's name is on the confidential roster of the National Strategic Intelligence Agency.

"I heard the chief of staff say it a few times before I came. Sacrifice a lot of people, right? Bingwen asked.

Wu Zhonghao took a deep breath, and when he talked about the abnormal temperature some time ago, he still had palpitations. Since late December last year, heavy snowfall has been falling in Siberia, northern Kazakhstan, the Urals and Moscow, and the temperature in these regions has plummeted to about minus 40 degrees Celsius in January! In some places, it even drops to minus 47 degrees! (History is documented, not apocryphal). The worst cold weather in 30 years has brought great trouble to Kazakhstan, which has just begun to recover, with about 300,000 livestock frozen to death and 700,000 people affected. Therefore, all the industrial and mining industries were suspended. Even the military has been greatly affected, with transport lines almost paralyzed, trucks suspended from aviation intermittently, and even the most stable rail traffic has been reduced to 20% of what it usually is. If it weren't for the theater command according to Yang Qiu's order. If you stop after entering the Urals, first repair the railroad and expand it, and then transport winter supplies to the front line, I am afraid that the million troops who enter the Urals will be frozen to death! But even with advance preparations, more than 10,000 soldiers still died due to low temperatures. There are also more than 100,000 non-combat attritions.

"And what about the Soviet Union?"

"The people who will wait for Beria will exchange some information on this, but from the information we have, Moscow has had an extremely bad year. The food shortage in the country is very serious. In particular, there was a shortage of cotton and meat, and there were several mass freezes in the Don Valley and in Ufa. It is said that Stalin had given Khrushchev full responsibility for the production of grain and cotton, and it is also reported that the Soviet Union deliberately added one more article in the Soviet-German negotiations, that is, it hoped that after the German army seized Egypt, it would give a part of this 'cotton warehouse' to the Soviet Union. ”

Egypt is the world's most important producer of long-staple cotton, due to the blockade of shipping lanes and other relations, after the outbreak of the war, export difficulties led to economic collapse, Yang Qiu took advantage of this opportunity to let Bei Zuyi visit Cairo to propose the method of exchanging cotton for aid and industrial products, has controlled 60 percent of Egypt's long-staple cotton exports in the palm of his hand, so that Egypt gradually got rid of its dependence on European capital and export markets.

Bingwen looked out the window and frowned slightly, you must know that the General Staff had already sent 50,000 residential cabins (containers) with heaters to the Ural front before December, as well as 3.3 million tons of wintering food and cold-proof materials, but I didn't expect such a big non-combat attrition. It can be seen that it is no accident that so many conquerors in history fell in Moscow, so Yang Qiu also paid special attention to wintering preparations, and also strictly controlled unnecessary battles in winter. However, it can also be seen from this that the Soviet-German alliance is not as terrible as imagined, and perhaps the situation will be like the last European war, and the Axis powers will eventually be completely crushed by food shortages.

Just as he was about to continue his inquiry, some moving black dots appeared in the trees in the distance. The combat sled in front immediately slowed down, and the machine-gun turret quickly turned in which direction. "It's the Arctic reindeer, it's supposed to be them." After Wu Zhonghao saw what the black dot was, he took out a pair of wide sunglasses and handed it over: "General, bring it." It can prevent snow blindness and cover the face. Bingwen didn't refuse, his identity can't be revealed, if it weren't for this matter that made Yang Qiu very tricky, he wouldn't have come in person. After putting on his sunglasses, he leaned back, picked up the binoculars and began to observe.

Perhaps it was the hum of the engine that unnerved the reindeer herd, and there was a commotion on the other side, before a reindeer cart came up a moment later. Wu Zhonghao opened the door after wrapping up his winter suit, and a transport sled truck in front of him also opened the door, and a colonel of the Navy Intelligence Department with the army's logo on the cold suit and two "Sea Serpent" commando soldiers who were also disguised as the army, escorted Vanikov, who had come to China for contact.

Because the snow was up to their knees, it took the four of them more than ten minutes to get to the front. Although I couldn't hear what the two sides were saying, I could still see through the telescope that Wu Zhonghao was standing next to Vanikov, talking to the people in the reindeer cart. A few minutes later, a group of black reindeer carts in the distance ran over, and Wu Zhonghao also signaled everyone to unload.

This was the first shipment, all of which were captured Soviet-made weapons. A total of 8,600 Mosin Nagant rifles, DP light machine guns, PPSH submachine guns, bullets and grenade explosives and other equipment. According to the agreement, China will deliver all the equipment of the three light infantry divisions in this way in the next two weeks, and Beria will hand over the Soviet-G and Soviet intelligence in his possession to the Wehrmacht. Therefore, when it comes to unloading here, the reindeer cart on the opposite side also moves wooden boxes one by one, and there are forty or fifty of them.

Bingwen looked very carefully, judging from the clothes, these anti-Soviet guerrillas were basically dressed as herdsmen, and their weapons and equipment were also varied, and several people who looked like officers were obviously very excited to see boxes and boxes of weapons and ammunition. However, some of the people who have not come up from the distance are obviously different, and they are all PPSH submachine guns. Behind the reindeer car, there were two ZIS3 76mm cannons that had just been equipped with the main forces of the Soviet army. The performance of this kind of artillery is very good, and the War Department has previously asked the troops to be careful with this kind of artillery, but I didn't expect to see it in a guerrilla unit. This shows that Beria is likely to have secret contacts with some forces in the country!

The delivery went smoothly, and an hour later, Wu Zhonghao, whose face was bruised from the cold, returned to the car with three boxes. "General, the goods have been inspected." After sitting down, he immediately took out a document in Russian from his bosom: "This is an additional one they gave me." I've read it, and it's all some news about Soviet-German negotiations. The last article says that Zhukov has been transferred to Odessa with last week. At the same time, 3 tank brigades, 1 anti-aircraft division and 3 infantry divisions were transferred. There are also a number of ships of the Black Sea Fleet whose whereabouts are unknown after leaving the port of Sevastopol. It is written here that the Romanian GC International also found 2 German armored divisions in the Black Sea ports near the border between the USSR and Romania, so Beria speculated that the Soviets and Germany were probably close to negotiating a formal alliance! The departure of the Black Sea Fleet and the transfer of Zhukov. It is likely to land in Turkey hand in hand! ”

"This information is very important, and it should be sent back to China immediately." Bingwen immediately put away the information and asked, "You just said Beria, is he here too?" ”

"Nope. It was the person below who said that Beria specially asked him to convey the reminder. ”

"Then let's go, go back as soon as possible." Bingwen waved his hand and ordered to turn around and leave. After the start of the convoy. On the other side, too, there was a noticeable sigh of relief, and a large number of guerrilla soldiers came out of the woods to load weapons and ammunition onto the reindeer carts. "So much, it can't fool us, right?" After the sleigh turned around, Bingwen casually opened the half-meter-long wooden box and picked up the top atlas.

"It shouldn't be, otherwise I want to get the rest of the goods." Wu Zhonghao came over, and when he saw the dense annotation symbols on this map, he couldn't help but take a breath. "What? Do you recognize? Bingwen knew that he was proficient in Russian, and that his other identity was the National Strategic Intelligence Agency, so he spread out the map.

"I've seen Soviet military maps sent back by Dragon's Tooth and other intelligence agents in Xishan (where the Strategic Intelligence Agency is located), and I've seen what Kuibyshev has explained. This stuff is real! You see. Wu Zhonghao nodded to the map, and the blood on his face gradually recovered: "This is the casein and hydrocarbon biphenyl plant in Dnepropetrovsk, both of which are the key to the production of aviation plywood!" This is Sevastopol, and these red circles are supposed to be the location of the fortress, and we haven't seen these three before. This is Stalingrad, this is Ufa, look at this again! This is Ivanovo, north of Moscow, and we have been informed that after the defection of Ivanmyr and Beria, Stalin abandoned the original Politburo shelter and built a new one in the Ivanovo mountains. ”

"General! If that's true, it's worth a lot! In the end, even Wu Zhonghao, who had always been steady, began to snort heavily. Bingwen also nodded again and again, although most of the coordinates on it had long been mastered by the intelligence department, but an underground refuge command center like Ivanovo was exposed for the first time, and its value was immeasurable.

"It seems that if Stalin does not die, Beria will not be at ease." Looking at the map, Bingwen could understand Beria's intention to mark this shelter, and hurriedly put away the map and patted the guard in the wheelhouse: "Let the base prepare the plane, I will go back to Beijing with Commissioner Wu immediately." ”…… (To be continued......)