"The campaign has been postponed again?"

Hearing Ye Weixun's mention of the start time of the Battle of Krasnoyarsk, Chang Ruiqing muttered with some dissatisfaction. It was only May 4, 1934, and according to the guidance of the General Staff, the battle was supposed to begin before June 1, but the Siberian side has now postponed this time by half a month. Although more than half a month can make the preparations for the offensive more sufficient, it can also give the Soviet army more respite. Especially now that the situation in Europe is changing rapidly, Hopkins's mediation between France and Italy has failed, and on May 1, Mussolini officially ordered six Blackshirt divisions to be stationed in Spain. The French Mediterranean Fleet has entered a state of combat readiness and has begun to patrol the Mediterranean, and six French infantry divisions are gathering on the Franco-Spanish border.

According to the information that Chang Ruiqing had, Hitler planned to use Mussolini to provoke a war between Italy and France, and then declare war on France under the pretext of the German-Italian alliance! Although the start of the war may now be postponed because of famine in places such as Poland, Romania and Bulgaria. But it was impossible to get Hitler to completely dismiss the idea of war with France, and perhaps Franco-German war could break out at any time! And in the event of a Franco-German war, it was possible that the USSR would send more troops to the Eastern Front. Although in another time and space, Germany defeated the invincible France without much effort, but the current history has long been unrecognizable, and who knows what the Franco-German war will be?

Guo Songling, who was sitting next to Chang Ruiqing, found that his boss seemed to be not very satisfied with the battle plan of the Siberian Front, so he quietly came over. "Prime Minister, the permafrost in Siberia has a period of thaw every year, just in April and May," he explained in a low voice. At this time the roads in Siberia were very muddy and not suitable for the march of mechanized armies, and by mid-June the ground was basically dry, so it was best to start the offensive at this time. ”

But it is not only the Chinese who know that the ground is dry in mid-June, the Soviet side must know better, will one of their battle clusters remain in Siberian Usoliye? If this campaign cluster cannot be caught, the Chinese army will have to go deep into Krasnoyarsk to have a chance to fight a decisive battle with the Soviet army! That location is more than a thousand kilometers from Irkutsk. I'm afraid the logistical problems are even more of a headache.

However, Chang Ruiqing didn't like to interfere with the command of the front-line generals like Chairman Jiang in another time and space, so he nodded and said, "I only look at the results, when will the fight start." How to fight is the business of your Siberian Front. He paused and said in a suppressed voice: "Maochen, the battle of Krasnoyarsk will be entrusted to you with carte blanche will be satisfied, as long as I can get a draw, I will be satisfied, and when the battle is over, you should be given the title of marshal." ”

Guo Songling stood up: "Thank you to the Prime Minister for your cultivation." His voice. All eyes in the room were cast. Even Ye Weixun stopped reporting and looked at Guo Songling and Chang Ruiqing in a daze.

Chang Ruiqing waved his hand and asked Ye Weixun to continue, but his mind had already turned to the Pacific Battlefield. Before he walked into this combat conference room, he received a telegram from Zeng Qi, who conveyed to him the Japanese side's request. The Japanese hope that the Chinese side can persuade the British and Australian Grand Fleet to stay in Australia honestly and not come out, and in return, the Japanese side will also guarantee that it will not invade Australia! The Chinese side can provide guarantees to the British side in this regard.

That is, the Japanese GCD rejected Trotsky's request for them to attack Australia. But not to attack Australia. Where are the Japanese going to attack? Now the strength of the US Navy is growing every day, and it is not the Japanese style to sit idly by. And they also demanded that the British-Australian Grand Fleet stand still...... It seems that these gamblers are ready to do another big deal in the Pacific, and they are still looking for trouble with the United States! But where are they going to do it?

Midway? Still is......

As soon as Chang Ruiqing thought of this, his adjutant He Jinhan pushed the door and came in.

"Prime Minister! The General Staff is in an emergency! Just now, the Chinese military delegation in Italy received a briefing from the Italian side...... Their convoy carrying troops to Spain was conceded by the French battleships near the Balearic Islands. The shelling of the Bar and the Paris! Escorting the Italian battleships Count Cavour and Giulio. The Caesar counterattacked, and the artillery battle between the two sides lasted about 1 hour, and the French battleship Jean. The Barr and the Italian battleship Count Cavour were both badly damaged! ”

……

The events of the Balearic Islands on May 4, 1934, are destined to be considered by later historians as a major event that changed the fate of France and the strategic landscape of Europe as a whole.

The causes of this incident are not complicated. At 9:30 a.m. that day, the lookout post of the Italian battleship Count Cavour, which was escorting four troop carriers to the Spanish pilangist-controlled port of Valencia, spotted the approaching French fleet! The battleship Count Cavour then hoisted the banner "Do not approach", while the French warship hoisted the banner "Please return the way you came". Then the Italian fleet set up an artillery formation at sea, and when did the French ever fear the Italians? So not to be outdone, they put on an artillery formation. Outcome...... I don't know who fired first without holding back for a while! This question is estimated to be an eternal unsolved case, and anyway, neither the Italians nor the French admit that they fired the first shot. However, the French and Italian fleets still fought at the door of the Spaniards, and the artillery battle lasted for an hour, and the result was half a pound and eight taels, and each battleship was heavily damaged, and then the Italians retreated in the direction of the port of Taranto, and the French also returned to the port of Toulon.

After the news reached Rome and Paris, Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini and French Prime Minister Daladier began to learn from shrews and scold the streets, and left a statement and a note, all pointing out that it was the other side that opened fire first to provoke the conflict and was the big bad wolf that undermined peace in Europe, while the naval officers and men on their side were all good boys, and they could not bear it before they fired back.

Compared to the level of scolding the street, it is definitely Mussolini's level that is higher, and the pomp is also large. The Italian dictator was known as "Mussolini was always justified". On May 5, Mussolini stood on the balcony of the Palazzo Venezia in Rome and scolded the eighteenth generation of French ancestors in front of more than 200,000 Roman citizens in the square. From 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., I nibbled on a pizza and drank two lattes in the middle. He also released cruel words, demanding that the French apologize to Italy, compensate for the loss, and deal with those responsible within 24 hours. It is also necessary to suspend the aid to the Spanish Popular Front, otherwise the invincible Italian army will teach the French a hard lesson!

Italy wants to teach France a lesson!?

Mussolini's cruel words sounded like crazy to his Italian people, and the current Italy is not the ancient Rome of the heyday of history, so why should he teach the French?

And in the eyes of French Prime Minister Daladier, Mussolini is a big joke, and European history has proven countless times that the Italians are simply a scumbag in combat effectiveness. Even an African feudal country like Ethiopia can defeat them, and Mussolini actually wants to teach France a lesson with this tofu scum army, and his imagination is not ordinarily good.

That's right. Italy still has Germany as an ally, but so what? Now Germany is deeply trapped in the Soviet-German battlefield, and judging from the current situation in the Sino-Soviet battlefield, it is obvious that Trotsky has transferred the main forces of the Eastern Front to the west. It seems that he has made up his mind to fight Germany to the death first. And then it's time to deal with China. In the face of a red polar bear that is about to go berserk, Hitler can still free up his hands to help Mussolini against France? It's not that the Germans haven't suffered from fighting on two fronts! Taking 10,000 steps back, even if the Germans want to stand up for the Italians, it is not necessarily a bad thing for France......

However, Daladier, who had already made up his mind in his heart, did not immediately reject Mussolini's ultimatum, because Britain, the United States, France, and Germany all sent special envoys to Paris to mediate the Franco-Italian conflict.

The first to arrive in Paris was the German Jewish Foreign Minister Tranau, who, almost on the same day that Mussolini declared that he was going to teach France a lesson, hurried to Paris in a plane, and after getting off the plane, went straight to the Château Marting (French Chancellery) to see Daladier. Seeing this Jewish foreign minister with a look of urgency. Daladier's heart was even more confident. It was clear that the Germans did not want France and Italy to go to war at this time. Their Armageddon with the USSR is already on the verge of breaking out!

Although Ratnau was still pretending to be calm at this time, he painstakingly persuaded Daladier to proceed from the height of maintaining the unity of the Western world, not to break with Italy for the time being, and to accept German mediation. And Tranau also told Sù Daladier that German Chancellor Hitler was now in Rome trying to persuade Mussolini to withdraw his ultimatum. Finally, the Jew also hinted that if France could make a few concessions on the Spanish issue, such as allowing the Popular Front regime and the Falangist regime to coexist, the Franco-Italian crisis would be resolved satisfactorily.

The Germans' construction sounds good, but Daladier is also an old fox who has been in politics for a long time, so how can he not see that the Germans and Italians are playing the trick of red face and white face? This time, the Germans obviously lacked confidence, otherwise how could they give up half of Spain as soon as they came up? This was only a German bid, and if France held out a little longer, it would not be impossible for France, Germany and Italy to withdraw all three forces from Spain (since the Spanish Popular Front had significantly more supporters than the Falangists, and the Soviet Union had the thick legs to hold, it was extremely beneficial for France, Germany and Italy to withdraw from Spain at the same time). But Daladier still didn't have the slightest intention of relenting, and after finding out Germany's hole cards, the French prime minister really wanted to fight with Italy. As long as Germany does not intervene, Italy will definitely lose, and if Italy loses, Mussolini's regime will definitely not be maintained, and the German-Italian alliance will naturally cease to exist, and the peripheral shape of France will be greatly changed.

A disappointed Rathenau had just walked on the front foot, and British Foreign Secretary Anthony Brown. Aiden and Jiang Baili, the minister of the Central Reserve, came in succession.

Before the Balearic Islands incident, Jiang Baili was leading a delegation from the Ministry of National Defense of China to visit Britain and Germany, and at present, China, Britain, and Germany have many military and technical cooperation projects, so the responsible persons of the armament departments of the three sides often visit each other and negotiate some key cooperation projects. This time, Jiang Baili visited Britain and Germany for the purpose of the U project, the largest military-technical cooperation project of the three countries.

In October last year, the Italian scientist Enrico Brown, who worked for the U Engineering Committee. Fermi discovered a new elemental plutonium when he bombarded uranium with a 16 megaelectron deuterium nucleus accelerated by a 152.4-centimeter cyclotron at the Sylàn base in Yahimov, Czechos. In February of this year, Fermi's team discovered the most important isotope of plutonium, plutonium-239, an isotope capable of producing nuclear fission reactions like uranium-235! And after further research. Scientists from the engineering committee also found that plutonium-239 is more suitable than uranium-235 for the production of nuclear fission bombs, since its critical mass is only about one-third that of uranium-235! Theoretically. Only 6.2 kilograms of plutonium-239 are needed to reach explosive yield, producing the equivalent of 20,000 tons of TNT explosives. Therefore, Einstein immediately proposed to the highest level of China, Britain and Germany to include plutonium-239 and plutonium bombs in the U project plan, and as one of the key research directions, and Jiang Baili came to discuss with the British and German high-level for this purpose. As a result, as soon as the three parties reached an agreement, they received Chang Ruiqing's latest instructions to let him come to Paris to be a peacemaker.

However, Daladier did not seem to have much interest in Jiang Baili's visit. Although China is powerful, it is not a European country after all. Even if you are the king and hegemon in East Asia, at most you will dig your claws deep into East Siberia and Central Asia. European affairs are not something that these Orientals can mix. So throughout the talks, Jiang Baili was left aside by Daladier. The French prime minister is now most concerned about the position of the British Empire, which side will Britain stand on if there is a war between France and Italy? If Germany gets involved in the Franco-Italian war. How will Britain react?

And Aiden's answer was crisp and clear. France, Germany, and Italy were all friends of the British Empire, so the Empire did not want any armed conflict or war between them, but if such an unfortunate event did happen, the only strategy Britain could adopt was neutrality! In addition, Britain did not want the conflict between France, Germany, and Italy to affect British warfare in Northern Europe, the Middle East, and India, and neither the German troops that assisted Britain in their war there should be targeted by France. Moreover, the safety of British merchant ships entering and leaving Germany and Italy must be guaranteed by the French side, and at the same time, Britain will also demand that Germany and Italy guarantee that they will not infringe on British merchant ships entering and leaving French territory......

Hear what Aiden is asking. Jiang Baili's psychology is to chuckle, where are the British mediating? It's just giving France the green light to attack Italy! Now the main forces of the Germans are pinned down on the Soviet-German battlefield and cannot help at all. Mussolini, the dictator in Italy who didn't know the height of the sky, was tough to death, and Britain gave the green light again, what else did Daladier have to worry about? Now just the rejection of Mussolini's ultimatum can lead France into a war that must be won!

As expected, after the Sino-British mediation failed, French Prime Minister Daladier couldn't even wait for the US president's special envoy Hopkins to arrive in Paris, so he hurriedly rejected Mussolini's ultimatum, probably because he was afraid that the Italian dictator would be persuaded by Hitler to withdraw the ultimatum, right?

In the end, however, the course of events was sure to surprise Daladier and the French people as a whole.

……

"They're fighting! They fought! Lev. Comrade Davydovich, they really fought! Yue Fei rushed into Trotsky's office with dancing and shouting, his face full of excitement.

"What's fighting? Who and whom? Trotsky looked at his old fellow in a daze, as if he did not quite understand what the other meant.

"It was France and Belgium that broke out against Italy and Germany!" Yue Fei excitedly shouted: "Comrade Trotsky, we are victorious!" We've finally won! Germany has been caught in a two-front war! ”

Yue Fei laughed, as if he had seen the German Empire, the most vicious enemy of the world revolution, under the squeeze of the French and Soviet armies, step by step towards destruction!

"It's ...... Are you sure? Did the Germans really declare war on France? Trotsky stood to his feet with a hard hand, unable to believe his ears. The Franco-Italian war was expected by him, and Mussolini's stupid challenge to France, which was far more powerful than Italy, was simply looking for a fight! But he really couldn't figure out why Germany had joined the war. Didn't the Germans know the dangers of fighting on two fronts? It's incredible. Could it be that Yue Fei made a mistake, right?

"Comrade Trotsky, the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs has just received the news that Italy had declared war on France three hours earlier, and that Germany had subsequently declared war on France in accordance with the provisions of the German-Italian Berlin Agreement, and that Germany had also declared war on Belgium because of its rejection of Germany's request for the opening of its borders." People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Livinov also came, and his report once again confirmed the news of the Franco-German war.

Later, Tukhachevsky, Vatsettis and other military bigwigs also rushed to hear the news, and everyone had a smile on their faces that they had not seen for a long time. Trotsky's countenance, however, had become solemn, and he looked at the Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army and said: "Comrade Tukhachevsky, the war between French and German imperialism is certainly an opportunity for us, and now how should we make the most of it?" Are we going to adjust the deployment on the Western Front? I'm afraid that the tactic of luring the enemy into the deep is not suitable for the current form, right? ”

"Of course, adjusting the deployment is a must, and now we have two options before us. The first is to put the main forces of the Western Front into a counteroffensive and cooperate with France to flank Germany; The second is to transfer the main forces of the Western Front to the Eastern Front and put them into the Central Asian theater, so that we can launch a counterattack in Krasnoyarsk and Central Asia at the same time......"