Episode 62 The Ferry – Stalingrad

At the end of September 1939, the first autumn wind swept across the Siberian steppes, and now the Trans-Siberian Railway, which extends to the Pacific Ocean in the east and the Ural Mountains in the west, is completely under the control of the Ming army. As a result of the opening of this "continental artery", the pressure on logistical supplies has been greatly eased.

On October 3, the "Opening Ceremony of the Asian Continental Railway" was held at the Vladivostok station on the Pacific Ocean and the Chelyabinsk station at the foot of the Ural Mountains. With the sound of a gong, the locomotive hung with colorful silk and spewed steam, dragging a long wagon, slowly drove out of the Vladivostok platform. The first train sent out after the opening of the whole line was full of winter clothes for the troops. In the carriages, there were bundles of cotton coats, tweed coats, large leather boots, leather gloves, leather hats, cold-proof sleeping bags, winter tents, ski gear, skin antifreeze, and even anti-slip covers for the hooves of war horses...... The whole nine yards.

At this time, both Hitler's German army and Stalin's Soviet army were still wearing June summer clothes.

In the last month or so, the Free Russian army can be regarded as "dispatched". It turned out that the White Russian army was much smaller in numbers than the Muslim troops. The Muslim army was nearly one million, while the White Russian army was always no more than two or three hundred thousand. Now, thanks to Hitler's policy of "exterminating the Slavs" in Eastern Europe, the Soviets either put up a desperate resistance or planned to surrender, and they all regarded "running east and surrendering the White Russian army" as their first choice. Anyway, as long as there is no other choice, no one is willing to surrender to the Germans anymore. In just one month, the Soviet army in Ukraine was defeated one after another, and was chased by the Germans all the way across the Volga River, into Kazakhstan, and surrendered to the White Russian army.

So, at the behest of the Ming army command, the White Russian army fought out of the western border of Kazakhstan and rushed into the "sphere of influence" assigned to Germany. The fierce cavalry advanced all the way to the west, and finally the horses' hooves trampled to the banks of the Volga. It is only 150 kilometers from the Kazakh border at the back.

Behind is the vast steppe, and in front of it is the wide, choppy Volga River. The Cossack cavalrymen stood on the east bank of the Volga and looked out over the west bank with excitement. On the other side of the river is a city, with chimneys and factories looming. - That is Stalingrad, an important ferry crossing on the Volga, a water transport hub, an industrial city, and a city named after Stalin.

The city was originally called "Tsaritsyn", during the civil war, Stalin led the Red Army to fight a victory here, which is the famous "defense of Tsaritsyn", therefore, Lenin named Tsaritsyn "Stalingrad" in order to reward Stalin. Later, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Stalingrad was renamed "Volgograd".

It's just that at this time, Stalin no longer cared about "defending Tsaritsyn", and the Soviet army couldn't care about "defending Stalingrad". Under the cover of the bombing of the Ming army planes in the sky, the Russian army directly unloaded the rubber boat and assault boat from the train, pushed it into the river, and quickly rowed to the opposite bank. The landing battle lasted less than two hours, and the beachhead at Stalingrad was taken. Subsequently, the following Ming army boat bridge troops began to quickly build pontoon bridges, and at the same time, more and more Russian troops rowed rubber boats to the opposite bank and began to control Stalingrad.

The Soviet defenders of Stalingrad were also Ukrainians, and at this time they no longer wanted to resist at all, the officers and soldiers mutinied, killed the commander, and the whole of Stalingrad was controlled by the White Russian army.

A few hours later, the news reached Berlin. Hitler was so surprised that he asked the ambassador to Ming to see He Ziguang and ask what was going on. Because Stalingrad was obviously east of the Ural Mountains and belonged to the German army's sphere of influence, and now the Ming army was involved.

He Ziguang looked dazed, said that he did not know, and asked the German ambassador to go back first, and he wanted to ask the military. - Actually, He Ziguang not only knows, but is also one of the people involved in the plot. The purpose of this is to open up Stalingrad, an important crossing on the Volga River, as soon as possible, so that more Soviet troops can cross the river and surrender to the Russian army before the German army occupies Ukraine. Considering the upcoming Russian-German confrontation, the Russian army needs to seize the opportunity to expand its army as quickly as possible.

The Ming army's boat and bridge troops fought at night, and after a night of hard work, three pontoon bridges were erected in Stalingrad. Under the surveillance of the Russian army, dense Soviet prisoners lined up, trotted through the Volga, and defected to the side of White Russia.

He Ziguang summoned the German ambassador again, saying that he had asked the military, and the military did not know about it, and this should be the self-made initiative of the Belarusian side. At present, the Chinese Government is in the process of negotiating with the Russian Government, and I believe that this incident will be resolved as soon as possible.

The telegram was sent back to Berlin, and Hitler had nothing to do but sulk. He also knew that with the collapse of the Soviet regime, Nazi Germany would collide head-on with Free Russia, and the future Ural Mountains and the Volga River would not be stable. The Russians would not be content to lose their European part and would certainly become the worst enemy of the Third Reich.

But Hitler knew that he could not turn against Russia at the moment, especially with the Ming Kingdom. Now Russia is a vassal state of the Ming State, and to offend Russia is to offend the Ming State. The Ming State and Britain and France were military allies, and once they met with the Ming Army, the Third Reich would face the danger of fighting on two fronts. At that point, the Ming Kingdom, Russia, the Central Asian countries, Britain, and France will all become enemies of the Third Reich, forming a strategic encirclement of the Third Reich from the east, west, and south directions.

Of course, Hitler was confident that Britain and France would not really fight for this military alliance. Although the Ming Kingdom is very powerful, it is far away from the other side of the Eurasian continent and cannot be reached. And the two vassal blocs of the Ming state, Free Russia and the Central Asian states, were weak in their own strength and were no match for the Third Reich.

The German Army Group South was the fastest advancing of the three Army Groups. Army Group South's main battlefield is Ukraine, where they have not encountered much decent resistance. Kyiv has been taken a long time ago, and now it has penetrated seven or eight hundred kilometers deep into the Ukrainian steppes, and two-thirds of Ukraine has been occupied by the German army. And because the Volga crossing was controlled by the Russian army, the Soviet army in Ukraine advanced eastward unimpeded, and at least two-thirds of them crossed the Volga River and surrendered to Free Russia. Now the army of Free Russia absorbed the surrendered Soviet army, and in a short period of time it expanded rapidly, and the number of troops has exceeded one million.

The Ming in the rear continued to transport military uniforms, steel helmets, rifles, machine guns, grenades, mortars, and other basic equipment through the Trans-Siberian Railway. Compared with aircraft and artillery, these are not worth much, but with these, a minimum army can be armed. It's simple, but it's guaranteed to reach everyone. The situation in which the Russian army was poorly equipped during World War I and where several people shared a rifle would never happen again.

The sheer number of troops, combined with the absolute air supremacy provided by the Ming army, made the White Russian army now one of the most formidable armies in Eurasia. Not only did they compare with the Muslim troops, but they also faintly had the strength to compete with the German army.