Episode 57 The Soviet Union is bleeding

After Hitler annexed Czechoslovakia, he did not immediately attack Poland in the east, but waited for a while.

Almost two weeks have passed, and the States, especially Britain and France, have merely condemned and have not taken any substantive action. In addition to continuing to hold the Maginot Line, the French army did not cross the German-French border to occupy the undefended area of the Rhine. Britain and France also did not provide any military guarantees for Poland, as was the case with "once Poland was attacked by Germany, Britain and France would immediately declare war on Germany".

However, even a fool can now see that Hitler's next target was Poland. Even the Poles, who have a dull sense of smell, understand it themselves. But sadly, it doesn't work out if you understand it. The Poles are now in the same situation as Spain was a few years ago.

So, Stalin asked Molotov to bring in the Polish ambassador to the USSR and talk sincerely.

Molotov analyzed the current situation in Central and Eastern Europe with the Polish ambassador, and analyzed Poland's current situation with his fingers and heart. Molotov said that it is now clear that Germany's next target will be Poland, and the next target will definitely be the Soviet Union. Now the two countries are like grasshoppers on a rope, and they should be in the same boat and trust each other. At present, only the Soviet Union can guarantee that Poland will not be annexed by fascists, and if Poland wants to guarantee **, it can only rely on the Soviet Union.

Now Molotov made a suggestion that the Soviet Union could provide military guarantees for Poland, and that if Germany attacked Poland, it would also be regarded as an attack on the Soviet Union, and that the Soviet Union would immediately declare war on Germany and send its armed forces to meet the Germans. But there is a "technical obstacle" here, that is, the Soviet Union is in the east of Poland, and if it wants to meet the German army invading from the west, the Red Army will definitely have to cross the Polish territory. Now, if Poland could allow the Red Army to cross Polish territory and go to the German-Polish border to help defend it, then in the event of a German invasion, the Red Army would be able to immediately meet the blow and save Poland from the clutches of fascism.

Stalin and Molotov did not dare to have too high hopes. Because they all know how many years of feud Poland has had with Russia. Poland was partitioned three times in the 18th century, each time with Russia, and Russia carved up the largest land, accounting for 62% of Poland's territory, so Poland was destroyed for more than 100 years, until after World War I. Therefore, Poland and Russia can be described as a deep blood feud, which can be called incompatible, and the Poles hate the Russians to the bone.

Sure enough, the Polish ambassador quickly conveyed the exact words of Polish Foreign Minister Beck:

"The Germans are coming, and we are in danger of losing our freedom; The Russians are coming, and we are in danger of losing our souls. Therefore, under no circumstances should Soviet troops be allowed to enter Poland. ”

This makes sense. Even if Poland loses its country, it will not tolerate Soviet troops setting foot on Polish soil. Poland would rather die at the hands of the Germans than at the hands of the Russians.

Molotov ran out of curses and reported to Stalin in a gloomy manner. Stalin was also very depressed. If the Soviet Union had done so in the past, this would have been the case for a direct invasion of Poland in order to occupy Poland before Germany and secure a buffer zone for the upcoming Soviet-German war. However, now in Central Asia and West Asia, the war with the Ming State is still going on, and the most elite forces of the Soviet army have been transferred to Central and Western Asia. Moreover, the USSR was not able to fight two wars at the same time. Originally, the "brutal attack on the counter-revolutionaries" in Central Asia, the wanton massacre of villages by aircraft and artillery, had already made the Soviet Union the target of the whole world, and now it invaded Poland for no reason, and everyone could really say that it could be killed. Even if Germany invaded the Soviet Union, it seemed justified.

Stalin instead instructed Molotov to immediately begin to secretly contact the Ming State for an armistice and peace talks. It really can't be done, we can make large territorial concessions in the Far East, and we must reach peace with the Ming as soon as possible, so that we can turn our guns against Germany as soon as possible.

……

In mid-April, a White Russian in Nanking voluntarily surrendered to the People's Guard Command, admitting that he was a Soviet intelligence officer, but he brought an offer from Moscow, which was eager to hold a secret meeting with Nanking to consult on the war in Central Asia and strive for peace.

Xiang Xiaoqiang immediately knew. This is the same as what he and many people in the decision-makers of the Ming Dynasty thought, the Soviet Union at this time had no choice, the wisest thing was to end the war with the Ming as soon as possible, even if it was a little blood, and quickly prepare to meet Germany. Because no matter what, Central Asia and Siberia are just the butt of this giant beast after all, and the skin here is rough and thick, even if there is more loss, it doesn't matter much, and the European part is the head of the giant beast, and the political center, economic center, industrial center, and cultural center are all crowded into that small piece, and the loss is fatal.

The People's Guard immediately notified the cabinet, and at the same time, Xiang Xiaoqiang also told Zhu Yourong about the incident. Now, the Ming and Soviet Unions, which have always been hostile, have finally spoken to each other again.

Xiang Xiaoqiang told the Soviet intelligence officer who came to take the lead that the negotiations were okay, but Moscow would send people to Nanjing to talk.

Now the Ming Dynasty has adopted the established strategy: fighting and talking, dragging on until the German attack, and then officially attacking from both sides. Because although the negotiation situation is very favorable to the Ming Dynasty now, even if the Soviet Union is willing to hemorrhage, how much can it produce? What you get from the negotiating table is certainly not as big as the final share of the Soviet Union with Germany.

The Soviet side seems to have cherished this opportunity for negotiations. A few days later, a Soviet transport plane landed on an airfield controlled by the Ming army in Kazakhstan. A short middle-aged man with glasses and a top hat got out of the plane, hurriedly boarded another Ming military transport plane, and took off again. A little more than a day later, the plane landed at the airport in Nanjing.

Stalin sent it to his confidant, the Soviet People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Molotov. Sending Molotov for this negotiation is the highest standard.

Molotov did not want to lose time, and it was almost dusk when he came out of the airport and entered his accommodation, but he did not want to rest and immediately asked to start the talks. It was clear that the Soviets were in a hurry to end the war before Germany invaded Poland.

But the Soviet Union was in a hurry, and the Ming was not in a hurry. Because the two countries have now severed diplomatic relations, and this matter is being carried out in secret, it is not the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that comes forward to receive people, but people from Dongchang and the People's Guard. Molotov was housed in a small cottage on the outskirts of the city, a "safe house", and arranged for him a modest dinner that night, but no one came to negotiate with him. Molotov was anxious at this time, even if there were delicacies from the mountains and seas in front of him, he was like chewing wax.

It was dragged on until the next morning, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs finally came and began to talk secretly.

Molotov was obviously generous, and first put forward the conditions: the Ming would retain all the areas that the Ming had now controlled in the Far East, which the Soviet Union recognized as belonging to the Ming and would never claim them again. At the same time, the Ming returned to the Soviet Union the occupied territories of Central Asia, that is, all of Kyrgyzstan, all of Tajikistan, eastern Kazakhstan, eastern Uzbekistan, and eastern Turkmenistan. In return, the Soviet Union would cede the southern part of the Kamchatka Peninsula (including the Kuril Islands) in the Far East to the Ming Kingdom, which would gain access to the sea deep in the Pacific Ocean.

Molotov stressed that the Kamchatka Peninsula is not only vast and rich in resources, but also strategically important, directly adjacent to the Bering Sea and less than 2,000 kilometers from Alaska in the United States. For the Ming Kingdom, which is a Far Eastern country, Kamchatka is certainly much more affordable than the Central Asian region.

He Ziguang, the foreign minister of the Ming Dynasty, listened to the phone call from there in his office, and immediately laughed when he heard these conditions of Molotov. Sure enough, it was exactly what I thought. What you get from the negotiating table must not be compared with what you get from the battlefield. Now they still want the Ming army to spit out the places they have occupied? Although it is said that it is exchanged for the Kamchatka Peninsula (it is only the southern half), but now the Kamchatka Peninsula is in the hands of the Ming army, and if the Ming army wants to take it, it is also a matter of raising its hand, and the main force of the Soviet army, which is thousands of miles away, can it be stopped?

After Germany started its war against the Soviet Union, it was very realistic for the two countries to attack and destroy the Soviet Union in a short period of time. Wouldn't it be more cost-effective to slaughter this giant beast and cut it directly from the corpse?