"This is indeed a 32-year-old Bordeaux red wine, Vsevorod. Nikolaevich. Molotov reached out and pressed the bottle on the table.

The waitress standing on the side was about to cry at this moment, and she looked at the gloomy expression of the State Security Commissar of the Third Rank, Beria's faithful deputy, First Deputy Minister of the NKVD and Head of the State Political Security Service, Vsevorod. Nikolaevich. Major General Melkulov.

"It's okay, you go out first." Molotov turned his face to the young girl and said gently.

"Thank you, Comrade Chief." The girl cautiously bowed in thanks and walked out of the room with the tray.

"You shouldn't lose your temper, Vsevolod. Nikolaevich. Molotov picked up the bottle and poured Merkulov a glass of wine.

"I'm sorry, Comrade Minister, I'm just a little upset." Melkulov looked down at the glass.

"You have to be patient to do this work, Vsevorod. Nikolaevich. Until the Germans have not explicitly refused, there is still hope for everything. Molotov smiled and picked up a knife, cut a small piece of smoked pork from a whole pork leg and placed it on his plate.

"It's not an option, comrade minister." Merkulov frowned, he was genuinely worried about the current situation of the delegation.

The attitude of the new German Führer towards the Soviet Union, and whether the secret agreements between Hitler and the Soviet Union were still in place after Germany won the war in Europe, whether Germany was willing to continue to fulfill the previous bargain agreements, and what Germany wanted to do next became the most important questions that Stalin wanted to understand now.

So he deliberately sent a Soviet trade delegation led by Foreign Minister Molotov himself, claiming that it was to conclude a new trade agreement with Germany, but in fact it was to find out the details of Germany and answer the questions that bothered him. At the same time, the delegation was tasked with gathering German intelligence in various fields and rehabilitating the Soviet spy network in Germany.

After entering the German-controlled zone, the Soviet delegates were fascinated by what they saw along the way, and the construction was in full swing everywhere from Poland to Berlin, and it was clear that Germany was investing a lot of manpower and material resources in its occupation zone to carry out all-round infrastructure construction.

Major General Melkulov's instincts, which he had cultivated as an officer in the Ministry of Internal Affairs for a long time, gave him a vague sense that what was behind these projects was definitely not as simple as he saw it.

What exactly the Germans wanted to prepare, Merkulov could not imagine, usually at such times he did not need to use his brain at all, only to collect intelligence and hand it over to a professional analysis department, and naturally someone would find out the possible answers for him.

It was not these problems that worried the major general of the Ministry of the Interior, but the reluctance of the German Führer to meet them officially, and knowing that the Soviet mission was about to arrive in Berlin, he did not even say hello and ran to Italy on his own, supposedly to attend the funeral of the Italian dictator, and the Major General of the Ministry of the Interior believed that the Führer was in a hurry to see the face of the loser before Mussolini was buried and to send him a final taunt.

If His Excellency had not deliberately avoided the Soviet mission, it would at least prove that he did not care about the friendship between the Soviet Union and Germany, and that the young dictator's casual attitude could not but make the Soviet envoys feel humiliated, and now the delegation was full of resentment from top to bottom towards someone whom they had never met.

Another thing that worried the head of the State Political Security Service was that he saw the strength of the German armed forces, and thought that the Soviet Red Army was already an invincible force, but compared to the German army he had seen this time, perhaps only a few of the most elite units could confront them, and if the Führer was hostile to the Soviet Union, the head of the General Security Service would not dare to continue thinking about it.

The second important task of the delegation was to request Germany to fulfill its previous cooperation agreement with the Soviet Union, to open up Germany's latest arsenal of weapons, and to provide the Soviet Union with the latest weapons samples, including patents and production technologies for these equipment.

It was a secret clause attached to Hitler's Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact, in which Germany provided them with the latest weapons technology and the Soviet Union returned with strategic materials and resources. Historically, in order to paralyze the Soviet Union, Hitler did not hesitate to open the Wehrmacht's weapons stocks to the Soviet trade mission in Germany, and even did not hesitate to provide the Soviet Union with the latest warships of the Navy, the main tanks equipped by the army, and samples of new fighters.

Military cooperation between Germany and the Soviet Union began in the twenties, when it was still part of the Weimar Republic, and Seckert and his ilk spent countless efforts to rebuild Germany's armed forces.

On the other hand, because of a series of wars and internal friction after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the production technology of the Soviet Union at that time had lagged behind the entire era, while Germany had a large number of advanced technologies, but because of the constraints of the Versailles Treaty, production and research on German soil were prohibited.

When the Soviet Union and Germany came into contact, the issue was almost instantaneous, and the two sides signed the famous "Laglo Agreement", in which Germany promised to provide the Soviet Union with technology and machinery to help the Soviet Union establish a complete set of military industrial system, of course, at the same time, Germany was able to continue its military and industrial development on Soviet soil, continue to train their armed forces, and at the same time secretly develop a series of advanced weapons of war banned by the Treaty of Versailles.

German military experts once accounted for more than 80 percent of the total number of external experts employed by Soviet military enterprises, and the large-scale military industrial production technology that Germany provided to the Soviet Union was urgently needed, it can be said that an entire generation of Soviet military products were branded with Germany's brand, from the rough imitation at the beginning to the ability to independently develop products, and the Soviet Union's modern industrialization road could not erase the merits of German experts.

For a full decade, Germany and the Soviet Union established a comradely friendship, which can be described as a honeymoon period between the Soviet Union and Germany. But after Hitler's Nazi Party came to power, the situation changed radically, and the previous undivided exchanges gradually stopped, and the former comrades gradually became strangers to each other as the political winds changed. Finally, at that time, Nazi Germany urgently needed to obtain valuable resources from the Soviet Union, so the two sides never completely tore face.

In the blink of an eye, in 1939, the relations between the two countries took another miraculous turn, and after the signing of a new "Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact," the two sides joined hands and overturned Poland, which had an arrogant attitude.

To say that there is a historical tradition of the death of the shoeshine mat, and this time the destruction of the country is the most complete, but also the most painful for the Poles, Germany and the Soviet Union joined forces to eliminate more than eighty percent of the Polish elite, purely for this nation, this huge damage may not be made up for for generations.

Turning back to the matter of military cooperation between the Soviet Union and Germany, this time the Soviet Union's appetite was so great that even Molotov frowned, a mission that the foreign minister had never imagined from the time he received the order from Moscow.

This group of bigwigs of the National Defense Committee must have poured too much vodka, so that their brains were filled with alcohol, so that they were able to make such a bunch of completely unrealistic demands lightly, and Molotov thought that as long as the Germans remained sane and sober, then it would be absolutely impossible to agree to their own conditions.

In the memorandum to be submitted to the German Führer, the Soviets demanded that Germany provide some of the most valuable military and civilian technology they had seized from Britain, especially the secrets and patents of the Royal Navy and Air Force, including the important scientific and technological inventions made by Britain in the last two years, and the Soviets wanted a copy.

At the same time, the Soviet Union also wanted to acquire British naval shipyard equipment, French military production machinery, Belgian and Dutch steel mills, and a number of technical experts from European countries. The Soviets also wanted Germany to provide them with a sample of the newly developed No. 4 tank, plus all the production drawings, as well as the legendary new fighter and some of the Royal Navy ships captured from it.

Hearing that this time Germany had overthrown Italy and captured the entire Italian navy, Comrade Stalin, while congratulating his German friends, was also very interested in getting a piece of the pie.

Of course, the great Soviet Union was not a bandit, and would exchange goods of equal value, no matter what the conditions were offered, whether it wanted gold or oil, or those rare minerals that were difficult to exploit, or even strong labor, as long as Germany agreed to the deal, then the German Führer would really feel how generous the Soviets would be to their friends.

Molotov believed that Germany would at best agree to the terms that were within the scope of the previous agreement, and that those things that were beyond the scope should not be expected to be reciprocated.

But what Molotov didn't expect was that when he arrived in Germany, let alone get a reply, he couldn't even see the face of the other party's main master. The Germans were very enthusiastic, entertaining them with good food and drink every day, and inviting the members of the delegation to a diplomatic ball at the end of the three days, but they did not tell them a letter when they would be able to meet the German Führer.

This time, Molotov's delegation was accompanied by Vladimir Murphy, who was appointed by Stalin as the Soviet ambassador to Germany. Kirargievich. Dekanozov.

His Excellency the ambassador has always been regarded in circles as Beria's lackey and confidant, he once served as NKVD in the Caucasus, gained a resounding reputation as a "Baku executioner" in the local area, and then served as deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars in Georgia, and the only achievement was to make the name of the "executioner" more deserved.

This guy, who had no experience in foreign affairs, because of Beria's fancy and support, worked for a period of time as the director of the Foreign Affairs Division of the People's Internal Affairs Commissariat, which is a department specializing in foreign intelligence gathering. The Baku executioner also served in this post for a year, and then rose to the rank of Deputy People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the Soviet, responsible for providing "professional" guidance on the formulation of Soviet foreign policy.

It was such a guy who had never been abroad and had no experience in diplomacy that he was transferred to the most important Berlin to take up the post of Soviet ambassador to Germany.

Today Dekanozov suddenly had a whim and was ready to go around the German Foreign Office to fulfill his duties as ambassador and, by the way, show his presence.

Molotov, on the other hand, together with the head of the secret service who was worried about the country and the people, squatted in the embassy room to drink and relieve his boredom.

"I'm back, Comrade Minister."

Suddenly the characteristic murmur of the Baku executioner sounded at the door, and the Soviet Foreign Minister's hand trembled, so that he could spoil the remaining half of the bottle of Bordeaux.

"Do you know what good news I brought back today? You guessed it, I swear you'd be surprised. Dekanozov hurried to the table.

"Field Marshal Keitel, Chief of Staff of the German High Command, informed me that the German Führer had agreed to our request to visit the German military research and development institutes. Keitel also revealed that the German Führer would return to Berlin in a week's time, and that he would be a priority to summon us. ”

The envoy in Germany picked up a wine glass from the table and poured himself a large glass of vodka.

PS: The second chapter is presented, and the time is just right.

Ask for a monthly pass, ask for a recommendation, ask for a click, and the author will continue to work hard.

Thank you all for your support.