"The victory of Marxism forced his enemies to disguise themselves as Marxists to engage in all sorts of sabotage."

-- Engels

For the post-1941 British, they had two enemies in India, one was the "Indian independence" forces from the middle and upper strata of India, and the other was the "red wave" of "exports" from China in the east and the Soviet Union in the north, liberating forces from below.

Among the several ship spirits "born" by Lin Han, Li Huamei inherited his righteousness, Katyusha inherited his inferior hatred, and Artoria accepted the despicability of his personality to achieve his goals by unscrupulous means.

Artoria was born as a British ship spirit, and it was her natural mission to protect the interests of Britain and prevent the sun from setting in the empire, and she would do whatever it took to achieve this goal.

After 1941, as the five northeastern provinces of India and Pakistan (crab) Kashmir were ceded by the Soviet Union, the Indian continent, which was once "peaceful", also appeared in the past few years under the banner of the Communist Party of India. They learned from the successful experience of the Chinese revolution and established Soviet power in the countryside, opposing the caste system and at the same time opposing British colonial rule.

However, there were lessons learned from the war in China, and the British government was very vigilant against this, and strictly guarded against such organizations. These new Soviet powers could exist for a very short period of time, and before they could sit down, the "anti-Bolshevik allied army" formed by the British and the local princely state leaders quickly sent a large army to exterminate them and uproot them.

But after Artoria handed over the plan, the British government's attitude towards the PKI guerrillas and local princely states that had emerged in India began to change subtly.

In October of the same year, the British government, in consultation with the indigenous powers, agreed to grant West Bengal the right to "full self-government". The areas that gained autonomy were mainly inland parts of the province, along the cities and still under the full control of the British.

Although it is "autonomous", in fact, the difference between giving and not giving is only in terms of identity, India is too big, and in the past, the British control here was only the coastal and large transportation hub node big cities, and the local area was basically handed over to the local princes to "autonomous". This concession merely establishes their "official" identity.

With the permission of the British colonial authorities, the lords of the princely states of West Bengal could even expand the size of their own "private army". The maximum allowed rating on the British side is 10,000 people. The princely lords of West Bengal were also given permission to expand the size of their private armies. The British, as agreed, withdrew most of the interior of West Bengal as quickly as possible.

The whole of India was cheering at the concessions made by the British, and Congress leader Gandhi naively saw this as the first step in India's struggle for national independence and self-rule.

As the planet's most famous-stirring sticks, the British will budge on this "principled" issue only because they have prepared a bigger backhand.

November 1943. Just before Christmas, six members of the PKI managed to escape from prison in the famous city of Kolkata in West Bengal.

At the time, it was just a trivial "trifle".

By January 1944, it was still in Port Diamond, near the city of Kolkata, West Bengal. More than a dozen masked "bandits" attacked an arms wagon from the harbor to a nearby barracks, loaded with 40 Lee Enfield rifles and 50,000 rounds of ammunition, several grenadiers and hundreds of matching grenades.

This shocking case shook the whole of India.

Afterwards, the British army united with the local princely forces to launch a "city-wide rope", but nothing was found. None of the lost arms have been recovered

Soon after, in the eastern border of West Bengal, near the mountainous region of the Bengal region. A PKI guerrilla group called "Ratani" appeared.

The guerrillas, numbering only 50 at the time of its formation, attacked a high-caste Brahmin estate in the city of Nedweip, north of Calcutta, killing all the Brahmins' escort of 30 men. The estate's property was then distributed among the local untouchables and the lower castes.

After that, the organization called "Ratani" was active frequently, and within a few months, it expanded from its initial place to a vast rural area within more than 200 kilometers of the surrounding area, like a multiplying bacterial culture medium. The number of its main members. It soon expanded from 50 at the beginning to thousands three months later, and even established a so-called "base area" in the countryside and mountains between West Bengal and Bengal under its control.

What is even more frightening is that this PKI guerrilla group, called Ratani, has also openly shouted its own "program of struggle": relying on "Dalits" (referring to untouchables) and Shudras. Unite the Vaishyas, restrain the Kshatriyas, and resolutely exterminate the Brahmins and princely lords.

The specific content of its program of struggle looks like the Indian version of the program of struggle during the agrarian revolutionary war in the revolutionary (crab) base areas of the Soviet areas of China.

Compared with the PKI guerrillas on other sides who were beaten to death by the British as soon as they emerged, the British were slow to react to the PKI guerrillas who appeared in West Bengal, and the colonial troops under the direct command of the British army were slow to move, but allowed them to continue to grow.

The PKI guerrillas obviously received the "true inheritance" of the Chinese revolution, and the policy of the rural agrarian revolution it practiced was a complete copy of China, and the guiding ideology of the revolution was also China's operational policy of "encircling the cities from the countryside."

Unlike the PKI guerrillas in other regions, the Ratani guerrillas had a much more radical attitude towards the Brahmins in India and the princely chiefs of the various states, and regarded them as class enemies who were resolutely exterminated once captured. When doing things like "fighting local tyrants and dividing the land", he will definitely leave no hands behind.

Such a ferocious "bandit" soon became a "star" in India, and the background of its leader Ratani was quickly revealed in India as the organization's increasingly high-profile activities became apparent.

A bold British journalist infiltrated the group's guerrilla zone and successfully met Ratani and interviewed him, and soon after, after he escaped safely, he published the interview in the Kolkata newspapers, causing an even greater sensation.

It turned out that the guerrillas were founded by the six PKIs who had escaped from prison. However, only two of the six PKI members who were released from prison together survived the tragic war, one of whom is now the leader of the Ratani guerrillas, Ratani, whose organization is also named after him.

Before the outbreak of war in Europe, the PKI was only a loose organization. Due to the special cultural, historical, and geographical factors of the Indian region. Roy, who was born in the Communist International, was the nominal leader of the CPI. He later became the head of the newly formed Republic of Northern Indo, but in reality he had very little control over the organization. The PKI organizations with branches throughout India exist entirely in a semi-independent form of regions. They have their own "regional chiefs", their own programmes of action, their political views and political positions. For Luo Yi's "general (crab) book (crab) record", that is, when something happens, send a representative to report it and express "respect". When you ask for funding for your activities, you will be very active. But if Luo Yi wants to directly command them, it is entirely up to the thoughts and attitudes of the leaders of the PKI in these places.

This Latani guerrilla detachment is no exception. Their guerrilla zone was not far from the Republic of North India, but Roy was basically unable to remotely direct the Rattani organization to do anything -- this poor organizational control of the PKI was also the reason why Lin Han and the Chinese side were very unfavorable to the PKI, and even regarded it as a "negative example" in the end.

The British were still slow to respond to the growing Ratani PKI guerrillas.

At the beginning of its existence, the British simply ordered the local princes of the princely states of West Bengal to "settle matters themselves".

Soon the local lords gathered a "crab army" of 500 people, mainly Brahmins and Kshatriyas, to exterminate the "rebels", who had just expanded to 200 people.

This team of more than 500 people was led into the mountains by the opponent. Then he was soon ambushed. The Indian version of the "homecoming group", made up of 500 "high-caste" people, collapsed on the spot. At the cost of only a few casualties, the opponent inflicted a heavy blow on this team. More than 60 people were killed and wounded, more than 200 people were captured, and nearly 300 guns were surrendered.

Later, more untouchables and low-caste poor people were attracted by Ratani's revolutionary programme and joined his organization. Let it continue to expand. Later, at the request of Ratani, the Republic of Northern India also sent a group of "special commissioners" to join its organization, filling the shortcomings of its rapid expansion and lack of cadres. In the process, the Chinese side also sent several cadres with experience in the agrarian revolution to its base areas to provide "guidance".

In August, the princely states of West Bengal launched another "encirclement and suppression". Counting the "combined forces" composed of the private armies of the princely lords transferred from various places. The total number of people has reached 5,000.

At this time, their opponents, the regular army of the Ratani guerrillas, numbered only 3,000 people, in addition to the newly formed militia of up to 6,000 people.

The "second encirclement and suppression" lasted for nearly a month, and the encirclement and suppression troops were lured by the opponent to go around the mountains for half a month, and then, carelessly, because of the dispersion of troops, the opponent gnawed off a regiment, and then triggered the collective collapse and flight of the encirclement and suppression troops. In the remaining days of pursuit, the Ratani guerrillas eliminated several fleeing encirclement and suppression forces in succession. After the battle, the unit surrendered more than 1,500 guns, obtained countless ammunition, and even possessed several mountain guns.

As a result of this gain, the Lapuni guerrillas were further developed, and not only did their ranks expand dramatically, but also greatly expanded their base areas and guerrilla areas, and one sixth of the entire state of West Bengal (mainly rural) was already within its radiating influence. And the guerrillas have even established small guerrilla bases in Bangladesh.

By October 1944, the Ratani organization had grown into a regular army of 5,000 men and a huge force of tens of thousands of local militia guerrillas, making it the largest PKI guerrilla organization in British India.

During this period, Ratani's name was not only known to Indians, but even in newspapers in London, England.

Due to the smooth development and growing fame, China and the Soviet Union in the north also secretly provided funds to the Ratani guerrillas through various channels and even helped smuggle weapons, ammunition and medicines.

Throughout the second encirclement and suppression, the British still did not intervene. The official military only sent a small number of officers to "give instructions from above". When the British Governor-General in India confronted the lord of West Bengal, who had come to him for help, he said very nicely: "Didn't India want to break away from the British suzerainty and make an independent (crab)?" We can consider that you want to build your own country, but only if you show the "potential" to protect yourself. ”

The British Governor-General in India even told the lords of West Bengal that if they could exterminate the PKI guerrillas on their own, he would telegraph to the Empress to consider the topic of "complete autonomy" in West Bengal.

Then Mountbatten, the British Governor in India at that time, gave the greatest support to the princely state of West Bengal by providing 1,000 Lee Enfield rifles and a small number of artillery, and he did not interfere in the rest of the matter at all.

With the British deliberately not interfering in the jokes, the "army of bandits" formed by the princely lords of West Bengal soon suffered a humiliating defeat. When the main force of the anti-bandit force was divided, encircled and annihilated by the Ratani guerrillas, there was obviously a British airfield 200 kilometers away, and there were still 30 Blenheim bombers parked on the airfield, but at that time, no matter how the Indian princely lords pleaded, the British army refused to send bombers to bomb, and sat back and watched the troops of the princely lords be annihilated by the other side, thus achieving the reputation of Ratani as the "Tiger of West Bengal".

The indulgence of the PKI guerrillas in West Bengal was entirely at the suggestion of Artoria and approved by the British upper echelons, with the participation of the British intelligence "Fifth Division".

In Artoria's view, India's high castes, their consciousness of "Indian independence" in their hearts, is becoming stronger and stronger, and simple appeasement and intimidation alone can no longer stop these increasingly dishonest guys from "thinking nonsense", and more radical actions must be taken to "beat them" in order to let these restless guys see the reality clearly.

It is not very appropriate for the British government to roll up its sleeves and give him a head start. In Artoria's view, there was no better person than to let the PKI teach these people a lesson.

"To stir up class antagonism within India, to exacerbate the contradictions between the upper castes and the lower castes, and the untouchables, in order to cover up the contradictions between them and the British Empire."

With this line of thought in mind, under the arrangement of the intelligence officers of the Fifth Division, the six members of the PKI were also deliberately let go by the British. The carjacked arms were also deliberately hijacked by the British. Even the light weapons on the vehicles were specially prepared according to the needs of guerrilla warfare, and even the fishing boats that were used for the transfer of the arms after the gang hijacked them were arranged in advance by the British. (To be continued......)