ps: The previous chapter serial number should be chapter 749.

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The news of Beijing's victory in Kunduz swept through the country like a whirlwind, and the situation in Afghanistan gradually became clear as the largest Soviet entrenchment in northern Afghanistan was liberated. After tens of thousands of photographs of Soviet prisoners and captured weapons were published in newspapers, the national sentiment and the spirit of victory that had gradually dissipated after the Second War against Japan slowly returned to this territory. The victory made the pre-war suspicions and suspicions fade, and the young people who followed Yang Qiu and believed that he was the greatest president returned, chanting slogans in support of his decision. Many years later, when military strategists talked about this victory, they all said that this small battle, which allowed the people to feel the victory of the war and regain the morale and spirit of the people, awakened in one fell swoop the country that had been immersed in economic development for more than 10 years, and laid a good foundation for a series of arduous wars that followed.

Soon after the victory in Kunduz, the Chinese Afghan Volunteers were mobilized in full force. First, the 42nd Infantry Division, which was belatedly stationed in Kunduz, and the main force of the 10th Armored Division attacked Mazar-e-Sharif and Balkh, forcing the Soviets to lose another strategic town after Kunduz, and had to retreat to Termez for reinforcements. Immediately after that, the 24th Infantry Regiment and the 53rd Infantry Regiment drilled out of the mountains with the help of the Afghan Army and local people, and immediately launched an attack on Kandahar after liberating Zabul Province without bloodshed, but due to the lack of heavy weapons, they retreated to Karath after inflicting heavy casualties on the Soviet army for three consecutive days.

At the same time, the 54th Infantry Regiment entered the province of Helmand and was ambushed by the 9th Cavalry Division of the Soviet Army while crossing the Helmand River. More than 300 people were injured under the sudden prevention. However, after a short adjustment, he gritted his teeth and defeated the 2,000 Soviet troops entrenched in the city of Lashkarga, and drove a nail in the southern front of Afghanistan. In the next two days, including the soldiers of the 16th Plateau Brigade, arrived here, and in less than ten days a complete bridgehead was established. Although there were victories and defeats in the ensuing battles, in Afghanistan, which was seriously lacking in logistics and transportation capacity, it was very rare to be able to completely liberate all the northern regions except Kandahar, Nimroz, Farah, Herat, Ghul, Badghis, Helmand, Juzjan and Faryab provinces through a month of rapid intersperse, and control 23 of Afghanistan's total 32 provinces.

But just as the Volunteer Army Command was planning its next move, a snowstorm forced the two armies to halt all operations. Priority was given to consolidating the battle line and fortifications, and while waiting for follow-up supplies, a confrontation situation gradually formed.

Taking advantage of the end of the first phase of the Afghan campaign, various diplomatic activities are also in full swing. On January 15, 1938, when Yang Qiu participated in the China-Arab Friendship Association, he officially announced that the Chinese government would provide the Afghan government with a total loan of 500 million yuan and 200 million yuan of food and other emergency humanitarian relief materials, and would start the construction of the Kashgar-Kabul railway at an appropriate time to help the Afghan government rebuild and restore the economy after the war and promote exchanges between the two countries.

Yang Qiu's statement. Although it was once again a metaphor for China's commitment not to develop colonies, it also made Britain worry about Chinese infiltration of Islamic and Arab countries. As Saudi Arabia's oil economy gradually shines. The country is rapidly leading the Arab world, with Iran, Afghanistan, and even the Muslim League maintaining official or semi-official ties with Beijing despite British obstruction. The whole world knows that China has quickly replaced France as the second largest stakeholder in the Persian Gulf and Central Asia after Britain, and its economic output is dozens of times that of the economically embarrassed British Empire.

As Yang used economic, cultural, and loan methods to accelerate his westward expansion of influence, Moscow also ushered in the coldest season of the year. The sickle-hammer flag over the Kremlin is still flying high, but in the eyes of ambassadors, the panic and worry it once brought to them is slowly fading. Although Pravda and Red Star are still preaching. But news of Afghanistan's defeat spread. Even if the secret police were everywhere, they could not stop ordinary Soviets from drinking secretly hidden liquor while talking about the war situation.

At the Kremlin's military conference, Stalin, Zhdanov, and Kalinin, known as the troika of Moscow after the Great Purge, all looked ugly, and next to them sat two marshals Voroshilov and Budyonny, and the recalled generals Shaposhnikov, Motolov, and Beria sat on the left.

Beria quietly glanced at Stalin, whose face was dark, and secretly made up his mind to talk less today. But then again. Stalin did have reason to be angry. A defeat is not terrible, and the loss of 50,000 soldiers will not break the bones of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, which has already exceeded 3 million, but the impact of this defeat is too great! It not only shook the country, but also made those counter-revolutionary mongers ready to move. It also seriously dampened the revolutionary enthusiasm of the proletariat all over the world.

If it weren't for the fact that the southern front was still in control, it would have been possible to declare the loss of the Indian GC party, which was considered the last hope of Asia!

You must know that the scale of the war is still tacitly controlled by the two sides in the small circle of Afghanistan, if according to the performance of this war, once a full-scale war starts, can the long eastern front still block the enemy? If the squadron can overcome the mountain logistics of Afghanistan, it can't overcome the weather obstacles? What made Stalin even more angry was that in the Battle of Kunduz, except for the 71st Division, which had been stationed outside all the year round, and Zhukov's 57th Division, which had performed well in the battle for the city, the other troops had no fighting spirit at all. In particular, the 36th Motorized Rifle Division, which was formed at a huge cost, raised its hands and surrendered after only a few days of fighting! You must know that there are only three motorized infantry divisions on the entire Eastern Front, and the 36th Division was once considered the absolute main force second only to the tank division! But this absolute main force gave the opponent more than 100 tanks, more than 300 machine guns, hundreds of artillery pieces and more than 600 trucks in Baghlanba!!

In addition to the anger at the decline of the Red Army's combat capability, the superior technology and equipment of the Chinese Defense Forces made Moscow feel a chill. As soon as the new Chinese tank with 70mm guns appeared, more than 20,000 BT5, BT7 and T26 tanks built in the past ten years were swept into the trash! And the "Snake" fighter made the Soviet Union's I-15 and I-16 targets. In terms of the establishment and tactics of tank divisions, the Wehrmacht also showed very high attainments. It shows that the other side studied tank and armored operations earlier than Tukhachevsky and others! This huge technical disadvantage cannot be quickly remedied, so it makes everyone's hearts weigh a big stone. Soldiers can be recruited, the spirit of the Soviets can be lifted, but soldiers can't be allowed to use sticks against bullets, right?

Everyone here originally thought that the scale of industry was already the largest in Europe, and that although the progress of the second five-year plan was slow, the Soviet Union, which was still in progress, would certainly develop faster than China, which was built from scratch, or at least it was flat. But I didn't think that before I knew it, people had established a huge technological advantage, and these technologies were not lagging behind even in Britain and the United States. To know! Even after years of civil war and purges, the Soviet Union still retained hundreds of thousands of intellectuals educated in Western industry. There are more than 100,000 talents in various academic disciplines, more than 1 million skilled workers, and the foundation of 5 million tons of steel output left by Tsarist Russia. At the same time, China had only a few so-called foreign students, a few factories built with the aid of European wars, and the literacy rate was not as good as that of the most remote areas of the Soviet Union!

So this slap is too loud! The Soviets, which put forward an industrial power and a five-year plan, and created a national industrial system, were not as good as China, which was born from scratch by the illiterate Ding, how could it directly confront the more powerful Britain and the United States in the future? This frustration is like climbing a mountain and thinking you are standing on the highest peak in the world. When he shouted and shouted excitedly, he suddenly found that there was a higher mountain in the distance. The people on the mountain tilt their heads and spit out four words at you.

"You're still early."

There's no room for your face!

In this room, at least, there were already doubts about the suitability of Stalin's national industrial system. Is it really worth the cost of building industry, violating the laws of nature, spending tens of billions of rubles, and revolutionizing the cleansing of millions of rich peasants? Beria looked at Stalin secretly, quietly shrunk his back back, and continued to bury himself behind the figure that could not be shaken now.

"The front has been solidified. I have ordered the transfer of five divisions from the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus to strengthen the forces on the southern front of Afghanistan, and three divisions and one tank corp from the South-Western Military District to strengthen the defense of Termez. "When Voroshilov explained the state of the war, he constantly looked at Stalin with his eyes, and he did not know whether he was afraid or wanted to be instructed. But Stalin was very abnormal this time, except for the fact that his face was almost there, his tone was actually very calm: "Comrade Shaposhnikov, you just returned from there. It depends. ”

Shaposhnikov stood up, his face depressed. He was one of Stalin's most trusted officers, known as the brains of the Red Army, but this time he made a big mistake. And this heel left him speechless. In the eyes of others, he was a little hasty in the battle this time, and he didn't have time to make adjustments and defenses. However, he knew very well that when he arrived, the Chinese defense forces were also unprepared, and the logistics were seriously insufficient, but they adjusted while fighting, and stubbornly used rapid oppression tactics to eat up the strength of nearly five of their divisions.

But how can these words be spoken? He is not as distinctive as Tukhachevsky, Blyukhel and others, but he is the most knowledgeable general in the Soviet army, since Stalin deliberately did not hold him accountable, why should he uncover the scars. Therefore, the introduction always revolves around the deployment of troops and the lack of weapons and equipment, and constantly says: "The blizzard helped us and made the logistics of the squadron difficult, so we have stabilized the front." Comrade Zhukov believes that the Chinese New Year is approaching soon, and they will not fight war on this important holiday, so there should not be much more fighting in Afghanistan before spring comes. He and I both believed that this opportunity should be taken to continue to strengthen the First Army.

Zhukov and his comrades on the front line also told me that, in addition to the insufficient troops, the biggest difficulty they are facing now is that their technical weapons are inferior to their opponents. Tanks, aircraft and artillery have fallen behind, and must be strengthened in these areas immediately. Especially aircraft, tanks, anti-aircraft guns, and anti-tank guns, because a good cannon is far more effective than adding an infantry company. ”

Everyone nodded when they heard this, if the 71st Division had a few powerful anti-tank guns, then the Khan Balad Isthmus Squadron alone would not be able to break through quickly. Excellent anti-tank guns are not a big problem, and the foundation of the Soviet artillery industry is still there. However, advanced weapons such as tanks and airplanes are not so simple, these technologies are complex, and the requirements for materials and metal processing are very high, and it is almost impossible to come up with planes and tanks comparable to China in a short period of time. The worst thing is that the Soviet Union has a serious shortage of electricity, there is almost no electrolytic aluminum capacity in China, and the annual output of aluminum in the country is less than 20,000 tons, which cannot be compared with China's annual output of one million.

"Now they are increasing their forces to the northwest, and at this rate, they will have thirty-five divisions by June at the latest. According to information from Japan, Yang Qiu is gradually expanding the number of armaments, and the aircraft and tank factories throughout the country are already operating at full capacity, and there is reason to believe that he has begun to make all-round preparations for war. Beria suddenly interjected to tell the information he had recently obtained, wanting to show his ability and effectiveness in his work. Although not as perfect as in the time of Ivanmyr, Stalin was quite satisfied with the news.

Asked, "Do you have any good solutions to these problems?" ”

Good way? What can be a good way. After losing Kunduz, all countries in the world were no longer optimistic about the confrontation between the Soviet Union and China, and even the most active United States began to change its attitude and openly sold a large amount of grain and materials to China, clearly hoping to reap the benefits of the fisherman. Britain was the most active opponent of the Soviets, and although France could get some benefits, their energy had been slowed down by Germany, and now they were the only ones who could help the Soviet Union quickly acquire advanced weapons and manufacturing technology. But the problem is that the secret execution of Tukhachevsky, who has always insisted on the Soviet-German alliance, is still in sight, and God knows what Stalin was thinking, and you must know that the Great Purge has not officially ended.

When Stalin saw that everyone did not speak, he knew their thoughts. But he will never admit this mistake for the rest of his life, on the contrary, he will use facts to prove that he is wiser than Tonotsky, Tukhachevsky and others. So after a few glances, his gaze stopped on Motolov's face: "Comrade Motolov, you are the People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs, and at this time the Soviets need you to come forward to seek more diplomatic help." ”

Motorov smiled bitterly in his heart, how to choose himself? Fortunately, he had already vaguely guessed Stalin's thoughts, and he stubbornly said: "Comrade General Secretary, we should seek to deepen cooperation with Germany. ”

As soon as the words came out, everyone in the conference room breathed a sigh of relief, and Zhdanov, whose face was round, took the opportunity to speak: "Comrade Motorov is very right, General Secretary, didn't you also say before that we have a lot of complementarities with Germany?" Now that Germany is trying to restore itself to normalcy, we can sell resources in exchange for advanced equipment in their hands, and if necessary, we can buy a batch of spot goods first, so that we can win Germany over to our side and prevent them from forming a two-sided attack with China. ”

"Yes, the current situation is very difficult, and it is time to change the way our party works. Comrade Voroshilov, Comrade Budyonny, during this time you must step up the pace of army building, send more troops to Afghanistan and the East, and make the whole country move and be ready to deal with the sudden attack of the enemy! Comrade Kalinin, Comrade Beria, the work on the manufacture and design of weapons will be left to you, the Soviets cannot allow the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army to lag behind the enemy. Stalin waited for this sentence, nodded and quickly made work arrangements, and finally looked at Motolov: "Comrade Motolov, please go to Berlin once and express our goodwill." ”。 Wonderful Novel [Net] Remember our website: