The warnings of the Soviet government had little effect on Turkey, because soon the agents of the KGB again observed the Italian naval ships entering the Black Sea through the Guò Bosphorus, and although the number was still small, the true attitude of the Turks could be seen.

For Sverdlov and Trotsky, however, the most important thing now was to deal with Germany and Japan, and not to provoke Turkey, in case the Turks were forced into the camp of the Axis powers.

Li Xiaofeng was not satisfied with this, because he had already said that a certain immortal had great ambitions for World War II, and he not only wanted to subvert the old order of international relations that had been formed for hundreds of years in one fell swoop, but also to establish a new order headed by the Soviet Union. To realize this vision, we must first break the original rules.

Now the Germans have done a good job at this point, France has become a dead dog, and the small countries in Western Europe that have followed the flag of Britain and France have all been played, and only the British are left to survive across the channel.

Although the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War brought the Soviet Union and Germany into a state of war, and it seemed that it was time to go all out to deal with the Axis powers, Li Xiaofeng believed that the Soviet Union could take a bigger step, not only to deal with Germany, but also to lay a good foundation for the future strategic direction of the Soviet Union.

So what is the strategic direction of the Soviet Union after World War II in Li Xiaofeng's mind? The first was naturally to expand the sphere of influence in Western Europe as much as possible, and it was necessary to suppress the influence of Britain and France to a minimum, preferably to place the Red Army directly on the French front, and to pose a substantial threat to Britain across the Channel.

If this is done, the old forces in Europe will be able to be reduced to almost a minimum. Once the third world war broke out. So that the Americans did not have time to react. Britain and France are finished. It is equivalent to compressing the American threat to the other side of the Atlantic.

In the future, the economy of the Far East is promising, and to put it mildly, there are BRICS everywhere, which is a new power source for the world economy.

But in this direction, Li Xiaofeng did not intend to invest much energy, because the Soviet Union did not have that ability. It is too difficult to take care of both the east and the west at the same time, and in Li Xiaofeng's view, the reason why the Soviet Union in history has failed is that it always thinks about the entire system of single-handedly fighting Britain and the United States.

And the little brother who was plundered by the Soviet Union in World War II is really not powerful, and Tito and Taizu, the only ones who have a little to do, also fell out with the Soviet Union, what do you call this? Li Xiaofeng believes that it is the right way to give full play to the subjective initiative of the younger brothers, to give some of their interests to the younger brothers, and to form a solid interest group. So in the Far East, he was willing to let the Celestial Empire do the work for him. Support and win over the Celestial Empire, so that the Celestial Empire can share the pressure and enjoy benefits at the same time. So that the USSR could focus on Western Europe and other more important directions.

So where are the other more important directions? That is the Middle East, as the future oil depot of the world, the Arabian oil boss is not very capable, but he has picked up a mountain of gold in vain. As the fuel bank of the future world economy, whoever controls the Middle East will have a greater say.

In Li Xiaofeng's view, even if the Soviet Union could not control the Middle East, it would have to turn it into a mess, and if it wanted to directly intervene in the affairs of the Middle East, there was one nasty country that stood in front of the Soviet Union -- and that was Turkey.

If the Turkish barrier could be breached, Soviet power would be able to penetrate directly into the Mediterranean, threatening the Suez Canal and cutting off the most important fuel source for Western Europe's economy. When the time comes, once Britain and France are not convinced, my brother will cut off your oil source, and it will be up to you to develop the economy when the time comes.

Of course, it is difficult to do this, Turkey is not dough, and it is true that it is not appropriate to make enemies at this time. But Li Xiaofeng saw this as an opportunity, even if he did not immediately attack Turkey, to create an atmosphere in which the Soviet Union was angry and hurt, rather than pretending that nothing had happened, as Trotsky and Sverdlov did.

Let's build momentum first, and put a little pressure on the Turks, lest they think that the Soviet Union is farting when it speaks, and once the pressure on Germany and Japan is reduced in the future, we can easily turn over this account, and then we can rightfully clean up Turkey. And now it's so boring, not to mention, even if you want to knock Turkey in the future, you have to rebuild your momentum, how hard it is!

This is probably the biggest difference between Li Xiaofeng and Trotsky and Sverdlov, those two are still too upright and gentlemen, not as dark as someone, and the most important thing is that they really want to carry out the world revolution, while someone is bent on expansion.

So don't look at the fact that before the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, Sverdlov and Trotsky quarreled in the dark, but once the war broke out, these two abandoned their previous suspicions and worked together to target Germany, which made Li Xiaofeng, an outlier, seem so out of place.

However, the war does not mean that together you can be invincible, both Sverdlov and Trotsky supported Tukhachevsky's-for-tat tactics of defeating the enemy's counter-revolutionary offensive with a revolutionary offensive, and according to their demands, the Ukrainian Front struck hard and rushed to the city of Warsaw in one fell swoop, as if it was only a matter of time before East Poland was recovered, but the crisis broke out immediately.

First of all, the aforementioned crisis in Kiev and Odessa, the German Army Group South, with the cooperation of the vassal countries, drove straight in, seriously threatening Kiev's supply routes to eastern Poland, and as they got closer and closer to Kyiv, the logistical problems of the Ukrainian Front became more and more severe day by day. The strength of dozens of divisions, especially the more than 1,000 tanks and more than 100,000 vehicles, consumes an astronomical amount of fuel every day.

In particular, a bold breakthrough like Tukhachevsky's attack on all fronts is even more staggering in terms of logistical pressure. Anyway, the closer to Warsaw, the more difficult it was for the Red Army to resupply. What's worse is that Tukhachevsky's own characteristics are a bit of a neglect of logistics, and he only cares about a breakthrough in a large-depth operation, which makes the supply of the Red Army even worse.

In the case of Rokossovsky's 9th Mechanized Army, after arriving on the outskirts of Warsaw, the fuel was basically zero. If it weren't for the fact that Rokossovsky had paid attention to this issue before. Let the troops save as much fuel as possible. And try his best to get oil from the people of East Poland and the German army, then his troops will probably have to sit and wait for death.

Even if Rokossovsky is trying to get oil, the situation of the 9th Mechanized Army is still not optimistic, why, as a key unit of mechanized construction, the army has a large number of new tanks, and whether it is T-34 or T-35, this Nima burns diesel, and the diesel stock of the civilian and German army is quite limited. So much so that Rokossovsky could only let the units equipped with the T-34 and T-35 rest in place first. Let the BT series gasoline cars temporarily go to the striker.

Objectively speaking, the BT series had no advantage in the face of the German tanks No. 3 and No. 4, and the Red Army's mechanized units focused on the construction of the T-34 and T-35, and the best crews were given priority to replace these two tanks. As for the old BT series, it's for newbies to gain experience.

The German armored corps has been tempered by the Polish and French battles, and the level is relatively high, at least experienced, and the more advanced T-34 and T-35 are not opponents, but they can completely beat the BT series tankers who are both inexperienced and technologically inferior.

As a result, in the armored battle that broke out on the outskirts of Warsaw, the Soviet tank crews, who had been able to drive away German tanks like sheep, were depressed. There is no way to fight back by the opponent's hanging, if it is not for the T-34 and T-35 to break the siege in a moment of crisis. The Red Army is afraid that it will be pushed back.

This can also be seen from the relevant report of the General Armament Department, Ubolevich directly made a conclusion to the Military Commission: the BT-7 must be discontinued immediately, the value of this tank on the battlefield is quite limited, and the production line of the BT-7 must be converted to the T-34. In addition, it is necessary to speed up the decommissioning of the T-26 and BT-3 and BT-5 tanks in the Red Army on the Western Front, they are no longer suitable for participating in battles, and it is still possible to use the relevant chassis to transform them into artillery towing vehicles or assault guns, or to send these tanks to the Far East to fight the Japanese.

Of course, Ubolevich focused on the T-54 heavy tank, believing that the T-54 was not a heavy tank at all, but an all-round tank. It was considered that the tank was quite successful in armor and mobility, and if it could be equipped with a more suitable large-caliber cannon, this type of tank could completely replace the other Qiē tanks in the Red Army.

It can be seen that Ubolevich has a very high evaluation of the T-54, and the only thing that makes him not very dissatisfied is that the T-54 is currently equipped with a 100-mm medium-bore smoothbore gun, according to the reaction of the front line, the gun has the problem of poor accuracy and is only suitable for attacking targets within 1000 meters. Moreover, the 100-mm grenade is limited in the ability of a heavy tank to break through obstacles, and the Panzer decided that it would be better to load the 122-mm cannon on the tank, so that everything would be perfect.

Ubolevich also thought that this construction was good, and even directly ordered the modification of a T-122-25 equipped with a 54-mm D-122 tank gun. As practice shows, there are absolutely no problems with this modification. However, this modification was not implemented immediately, not that Li Xiaofeng disagreed, but that the current production task of 122 mm caliber cannons is quite tight, and most of the production forces are mainly used to ensure the production of M-1938 122 mm howitzers and M-1937 (A19) 122 mm cannons of the division artillery regiment, not to care about the mass production of D-25.

Moreover, although the 100-mm smoothbore gun equipped on the T-54 has problems, it can still meet the needs of the Red Army for the time being, at least the anti-armor capability is no problem, and the medium rifled smoothbore gun is simpler and cheaper to produce than the rifled cannon with a larger rifling pressure.

The most important thing is that NORINCO guarantees that it will do its best to provide a large number of armor fragmentation shells to the front line, and the ability of this ammunition to counter fortifications is far stronger than that of ordinary grenades, which can temporarily solve the problem of weak T-54 pillboxes.

Probably the biggest problem with the T-54 is the problem of limited production capacity, according to Uborevich's idea, if 10,000 T-54s can be produced a year, then the war can be ended in 1942, if only 5000 can be produced in a year, then the Germans can be solved in 1943, and if only 2500 can be produced in a year, then you will have to wait until 1944.

So what is NORINCO's T-54 annual production capacity now? That is, about 1,000 vehicles, which is ten times worse than the target of 10,000 units, and even the lowest indicator of 2,500 units cannot be touched. Anyway, Ubolevich is quite complaining about this, if it is not for NORINCO is a foreign enterprise. He had to send the factory director to a labor camp.

What is especially unacceptable to Ubolevich is. NORINCO is also half-hearted. In his opinion, the T-35 can be completely discontinued, and this small T-54 almost consumes nearly 65% of the T-54's resources, but its combat capabilities are comparable to the T-34, and the cost performance is really not high. NORINCO should have honestly produced the T-54, instead of being distracted by the T-35.

However, NORINCO did not buy Ubolevich's account, because the armored forces of the Red Army generally rated the T-35 very highly, especially those units that were armed with both T34 and T-35. It is generally accepted that the T-35 has higher performance than the T-34. For example, the T-35's torsion bar suspension is stronger than the T-34's Christie spring, and the T-35's body space is more spacious than the T-34's. Especially the gearbox, compared to the T-34, which has a short life and many problems, the gearbox of the T-35 is simply a work of conscience, anyway, the tank crews of the Red Army prefer to receive the T-35 instead of the T-34.

This gave NORINCO great confidence, and immediately launched the T-35 improvement plan, which will strengthen the firepower of the T-35, consider replacing the 85mm cannon under testing, and install the one-way stabilizer of the T-54 gun to further strengthen the reliability of the gearbox. Of course, the most important thing is to strengthen the defenses. This is what Li Xiaofeng, the behind-the-scenes boss of NORINCO, particularly hinted at.

A certain immortal hinted at NORIN, the Germans were working on a new tank. The armor defense and firepower of this tank will be greatly improved, especially the firepower will be greatly enhanced, and the existing T-34 and T-35 may not be able to block the enemy's long-range attacks.

Based on the instructions of the boss, NORINCO immediately acted to increase the frontal thickness of the turret of the T-35 from the level of 45 mm to 60 mm, and the nose armor from 35 mm to 50 mm. Judging from the results of preliminary tests of welded steel plates on the turret and nose of the original T-35, there were no problems at all with such improvements.

It's just that the General Armament Department of the Red Army did not recognize such an improvement for the time being. In Ubolevich's opinion, the most important thing now is not the question of the performance of the T-35, but the number of the T-35. There were still a large number of troops waiting to be reequipped, and making production improvements at this time would inevitably affect production efficiency, so he refused to place an order for the new tank, which was later called the T-35-85. However, NORINCO is still secretly preparing for the conversion of production, and once the general equipment is given the green light, then the T-35-85 can be produced immediately.

After entering the late June, the fighting on the Western Front was at a low ebb, and in the direction of East Prussia, the German Army Group North, which had drawn a considerable number of troops, resisted the counterattack of the Red Army's Baltic Front, and the battle was deadlocked. In the center, with the Ukrainian front's supply difficulties and lack of follow-up, the Warsaw battlefield also fell into peace, but the southern front, which was initially ignored by both sides, was in full swing.

In Odessa, the Romanian 4th Army, in cooperation with the Germans, constantly tried to break through the lines of the Separate Primorsky Army, and fierce street battles were fought around the city of Odessa. And in the Kiev direction, the German armored units managed to break through the first line of defense of the Red Army on the periphery of Kiev and began to steadily advance towards the city of Kiev. And in the rear of Kyiv, reinforcements rushed from the direction of the Caucasus are still on the way, and when they will be able to rush to Kyiv is related to the success or failure of the first battle for the defense of Kyiv.

In short, on the Western Front, the focus of the two sides is actually the ownership of Kyiv, if the German army can conquer Kyiv in one fell swoop, then the Ukrainian Front will be cut off, the future is worrying, and it is possible to collapse or be eliminated. And in the event of a loss on the Ukrainian front, the entire Soviet weakness will be completely exposed to the bayonets of the German army. It is entirely possible that the Germans will move north along Kharkov to threaten Moscow, or simply go behind the Belorussian Front and fight another war of annihilation.

At this moment, Tukhachevsky also realized that the situation was not good, and he quickly adjusted his deployment and began to draw troops from the Central Front in the direction of Smolensk and Bryansk as a reserve to reinforce Kiev.

However, in Li Xiaofeng's view, such an adjustment is far from enough, and the problem now is not only a question of reinforcements to Kyiv. Rather, it is necessary to stop the advance of the Ukrainian Front, preferably from the direction of Warsaw, otherwise even if Kyiv is kept, the Ukrainian Front will face supply difficulties and the danger of being encircled east of Warsaw.

Unfortunately, Tukhachevsky still did not accept this, he still wanted to crush the German army from the front, hoping to rush to Berlin in one go. Li Xiaofeng has no choice but to do his best to reinforce the Ukrainian Front.

On June 25, Li Xiaofeng ordered the 1st and 2nd GRU Special Operations Brigades of the KGB to move from Moscow to Kursk and continue to move towards Kyiv. At the same time, he also transferred the special transport units to which the GRU belonged to Ukraine.

The so-called special transport unit is actually a helicopter unit, which carries hundreds of helicopters under it, and can fully meet the needs of air assault operations at the brigade level. The unit was originally an emergency force directly under the Military Commission, but in order to resolve the crisis of the Ukrainian Front, he took a lot of effort to transfer it.

Before the outbreak of the first battle for the defense of Kyiv, let's leave for the time being, which is calming down, on the Western Front, and take a look at the situation in the Far East. On June 10, when the Germans launched Operation Barbarossa, the Japanese did not immediately cooperate with Germany in declaring war on the Soviet Union, as Sorge's intelligence suggested. The devil inexplicably chose to remain silent, and it seemed that he had no intention of going to war at all.

This silence lasted for a long time, so much so that at one point the Politburo thought that Japan had given up the idea of war for the time being, and even the impatient Trotsky was ready to return the five divisions that had just been transferred from the Central Asian Military District to the Far East, after all, the Western Front was the most important thing.

However, on June 15, the devil, who had been silent for five days, suddenly made a move and launched a direct attack on the Red Army in the Far East without declaring war...... (To be continued......)

PS: Bow and thank you to Comrade Wordless Relative, pig2054 and Kamen Angel 555!