908 Anti-encirclement and Suppression and Long March 15 Mahatma

"Vice Chairman Mao, good news! Good news! Gandhi, the traitor of India, arrived in Kolkata this afternoon, and he also announced that he would live and die with Kolkata! Chen Boda's excited voice sounded in Mao ZD's ears.

The brush in Mao Zd's hand shook, and a cloud of jet-black ink dripped on the document in front of him. His eyebrows furrowed slightly, and a bad premonition suddenly came to his heart, and he stood up, walked to the window, pushed it open, and looked at the darkness in the distance to the north. Where has his General Peng been fighting now? You must be on the edge of the Hooghly River, right? If Gandhi had not arrived in Calcutta, India's largest city would have either become a decoy for the Indian reactionary army to come to the rescue, or it would have simply been abandoned and left intact in the hands of the people. But now that Mahatma Gandhi has come to Calcutta in person, will things change?

There was another sound of footsteps outside the door, Mao ZD turned around, and saw Ye Ting walking in, still holding a copy of the newspaper in his hand, and smiled at Mao ZD: "Vice chairman, Commander-in-Chief Peng of Balasol has called, the Northbound Army has surrounded the remnants of the Indian 8th Army in Klegpur with about 35,000 people, in addition, the GC International Armored Division, the 10th Division and the 11th Division of the South Asian Army have broken through the temporary patchwork defense line of the Indian 9th Army and advanced to the west bank of the Hooghly River, only a river away from Calcutta!" Victory is at hand......"

Mao Zd sighed slightly, "Xiyi, have you heard the news that Gandhi has arrived in Calcutta?" This Mahatma is a saint in the hearts of the Indian people, and his status is even higher than that of Sun Yat-sen's position in our Chinese's hearts...... With him in Calcutta, will the remnants of the defeated army have the courage to fight us? ”

Ye Ting was stunned when he heard this, thought carefully for a while, and shook his head slightly. He used to be Sun Yat-sen's guard battalion commander, and he knew the situation back then, Sun Yat-sen at that time actually did not have too high prestige, even in the Guangdong army, there were many people who disobeyed him, and even openly opposed him. If it weren't for the two reactionaries, Luo Yaoguo and Chiang Kai-shek, who had gone out of their way to "de-militarize" and opened a large number of military academies to train young officers who "blindly worshipped Sun Yat-sen", and later used the method of press control to create a personality cult of Sun Yat-sen, I am afraid that China would have embarked on the road of democracy and freedom under the leadership of GCD, and it would never be the current imperialism! And is there a reactionary and treacherous figure like Luo Yaoguo by his side in this Mahatma Gandhi? It is estimated that there is none, otherwise the defeat of the Indian army would not have been to such an extent.

"Vice President, what is there to worry about a Gandhi? Won't we be able to catch him when we take down Calcutta......" Chen Boda interjected with a smile. But before he could finish speaking, Mao ZD waved his hand and interrupted him, "What do you know!" Gandhi was the Mahatma, the co-leader of the reactionary forces in all India and the most dangerous enemy of the revolutionary forces in India! Moreover, he also had an unimaginable appeal among the poor middle peasants of India, and now that he had entered Calcutta, he could well twist the reactionary forces of the whole of Bengal into a single rope, where there were now hundreds of thousands of local troops! ”

"Vice chairman, we have 250,000 troops and more than 1,000 artillery pieces, and it is not easy to fight more than 100,000 local Indian troops." Ye Ting smiled slightly and assured Mao Zd: "Give us 10 days, 15 days at most, I promise to liberate Calcutta and capture Gandhi alive!" ”

Mao Zd's face was gloomy, he lit a cigarette and smoked it, and his eyebrows gradually leaned together, as if he was thinking hard. The agrarian revolution in Odisha was personally grasped by him, and he naturally knew the great prestige of this Mahatma Gandhi among the ordinary Indian people, especially the people at the bottom of India. This shriveled old man, whom Churchill called a "half-naked liar," has a status in the eyes of Indians as a god! Moreover, India's fear of God is not comparable to that of Chinese who always like to "bargain and make deals" with God.

Of course, it is not all bad for this "god" to enter Calcutta now, and his great prestige can indeed inspire the defenders of Calcutta to fight to the death, but at the same time, the government of New Delhi can no longer ignore Calcutta! If they watched Calcutta fall and Gandhi captured and killed, the government's prestige in the eyes of the Indian people would be ruined. Of course, Gandhi could have flown on a plane before the fall of Calcutta, but his title as "Mahatma" would have been lost.

Thinking of this, he shook his head slightly, and said lightly: "It is also a good thing for us that Gandhi threw himself into Calcutta, although those rabble in the city of Calcutta will resist stubbornly for him. However, the Indian puppet army also had to go all out to relieve the siege of Calcutta, which would help us annihilate them one by one west of Calcutta! Speaking of this, Mao Zd paused, and then instructed: "Telegraph to Xiang Ying, Peng Dhuai, Liu Bcheng, Chen Y and other comrades that the Battle of Calcutta still insists on carrying out the plan of encircling the point and sending reinforcements. Besiege Calcutta with a strong force, deploy west of Calcutta with the main force, and wait for reinforcements from the Indian puppet army to come to the decisive battle. At the same time, small units were sent to protect the Indian GCD cadres to establish power in various parts of West Bengal and carry out the agrarian revolution movement.

By telegram to Comrade Lu Yi and the Central Committee of the GCD in India, the advisory group of the GC International Eastern Bureau recommended that they immediately carry out an agrarian and caste revolution in West Bengal. At the same time, attention should be paid to improving the deficiencies in the agrarian and caste revolutions, avoiding radical acts, striving for fewer or no killings, and putting an end to the indiscriminate extermination of princely princes and Brahmin landlords. In addition, 1,000 cadres with experience in the city should be sent to Bhubaneswar to attend a course to learn what to look out for when taking over a large industrial and commercial city......

The study class that Mao Zd mentioned was set up for the takeover of Calcutta. In the past, China and G had taken over big cities such as Beijing and Tianjin during the domestic revolutionary struggle, but due to the lack of experience in managing large industrial and commercial cities in the early days, China and G adopted many radical measures after entering the city, resulting in many unnecessary losses. In recent years, as China and the Gs have become more and more politically mature, they have also begun to sum up the gains and losses in the early revolutionary activities, and combined with their experience in the governance of the Baotou Special Economic Zone, they have formulated a series of methods for transforming and managing the capitalist industrial and commercial city. Now it's time to teach it to the Indian comrades, lest they carelessly cut down the cash cow of Calcutta!

……

Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal, is currently the largest city in India, and was the capital of British India for 140 years before 1911, as well as the educational, scientific, cultural and political center of India, as well as the developed capitalist industry and commerce, and the origin and center of the Indian independence movement.

But by this time Kolkata was already in turmoil, and the large city of two or three million inhabitants seemed to be in the midst of war overnight. The roar of gunfire and shell explosions could be heard everywhere in the west and north of the city. Shells from the 150mm heavy howitzers of the GC International South Runners-up Army fell in the city from time to time. The remnants of the 9th Army of the Indian Central Army, which retreated to Calcutta, as well as the officers and soldiers of the local troops who arrived from Bengal and Assam one after another, set up defensive lines along the Hooghly River and the northern outskirts of the city, and put up desperate resistance. However, their forces and firepower were far weaker than their opponents, and although Mahatma Gandhi was on the front line to boost morale, there was still a lot of danger. On the night of July 29, the indigenous Indian soldiers of the GC International South Asian Army, who had been wearing Indian uniforms, infiltrated the city and engaged in fierce exchanges of fire with the Indian army.

In the General Headquarters of the Eastern Military Region of India in Fort William, the atmosphere was solemn and tense, Mahatma Gandhi's eye sockets were sunken, his eyes behind his glasses were full of worry, and his body was also rickety, as if he was very tired, and he coughed a few times in a low voice, which made all the Ah San present feel distressed for a while. Mountbatten and Singh also had gloomy faces, the current war was very unfavorable, the 35,000 men of the Indian 8th Army were surrounded by at least 50,000 GCD troops, and they had broken through several times without success, and it seemed that it was only a matter of time before the entire army was destroyed. About 30,000 men of the Indian 9th Army retreated into Calcutta, but all the heavy weapons and baggage supplies were lost, and now they can only rely on light weapons to fight, fortunately there is an arsenal left by the British colonial authorities to make guns and bullets in the city of Calcutta, otherwise at least 20,000 of the 30,000 men of the 9th Army would have to fight with their bare hands. In addition, the situation of the local troops from Assam and all over Bengal was also very bad, with little training, and although the morale was high with Gandhi's encouragement, the South Asian Army of the GC International was really going to bring in heavy artillery and tanks to storm Kolkata.

Mountbatten tactfully suggested abandoning Calcutta and retreating to Imphal in Assam, where a real fortress was located, with a large number of fortifications left behind by the Anglo-Indian army, and dozens of fortified guns at their disposal. As long as they enter the Imphal Fortress, those GC International South Asian troops controlled by China G have no other way than to fill in with a sea of corpses and blood.

However, Mahatma Gandhi was unwilling to give up Kolkata, and in his view, giving up Kolkata would be equivalent to giving up the whole of Bengal and Assam, and perhaps the states of Kalkhand and Bihar would also fall, and the GCD would control the territory of six states...... There is a high probability that India will be divided as a result.

The division of India is what Gandhi fears most now, even more than letting the GCD control all of India! Because Gandhi did not think that an imperialist power would watch another Soviet Union rise by their side. And an India that is divided and weakened by civil war is very much in the interests of this country...... This is also the reason why Gandhi flew from New Delhi to Kolkata in a hurry.

He believed that his prestige would inspire the Indian army in the city of Calcutta to fight to the death. Those Chinese may withdraw their troops and leave after a long time of attack.

But at this moment, the commander of the city defense of Calcutta, Major General Laman, reported that a large number of "G bandits" had appeared in the areas of Bersilhad in the west of Kolkata and in the area of Jagdib in the south, and these "G bandits" were presumably crossing the lower Hooghly River from the north or by small boats, and the purpose was supposed to be to encircle Calcutta!

The news shocked Mountbatten and Singh because Kolkata is a big city with 3 million inhabitants and the amount of food consumed every day alone is astronomical! If, once the city is besieged, a few million mouths can quickly exhaust the small grain reserves, then Kolkata will be self-defeating.

"Your Excellency, there are not many reserves in the city of Kolkata, and in recent days hundreds of thousands of refugees have poured into the city, even with the strictest rations, it will last for two months at most!" Rear Admiral Raman's tone was full of apprehension. It's the end of July, and it's almost three months before the autumn harvest in India, so it's only natural that there will be a steady stream of grain coming into Calcutta...... The price of grain will definitely fall by then, so the grain merchants in the city are not willing to hoard too much stock now! And the official grain reserves could not cope with the siege.

"2 months! Will our army be able to defeat the G-bandit army and relieve the siege of Calcutta? Gandhi asked in a deep voice.

"Your Excellency, I still propose to abandon Calcutta for the time being and withdraw the troops to Imphal." Mountbatten still insisted on his opinion.

"It is recommended that the useless population be evacuated immediately, the stocks in the hands of the various grain merchants should be controlled, and strict rationing should be implemented. This should hold out until our army comes to relieve the siege. Singh glanced at Mahatma's expectant eyes, but he still couldn't bear to let the old man down.

"Okay, that's it! Admiral Singh, Lieutenant General Mountbatten, the task of defending Calcutta is entrusted to you. Gandhi exhaled softly, squeezed out a little smile, and said, "And I will stay in Kolkata and live and die with this city!" And eat only one meal a day and save the food for the heroes who fought to defend the city! ”

At this moment, Gandhi did not know that it was precisely because of his decision that the scale of the "civil war" in India was further escalated, and the millions of residents in the city of Kolkata would also pay a heavy price for it!

……

"Smack! Syllable! ......After a few crisp gunshots, an indigenous Indian officer in a blue-gray military uniform with a red star inlaid on a large-brimmed hat jumped onto the top of a broken down sedan on the side of the highway and shouted in Hindi at the refugees crowded on the road: "Kolkata is already surrounded by our GC International South Asian Army, and in order to prevent the Brahmin reactionaries in the city from escaping, it is now forbidden for anyone to leave the encirclement!" All Indians are only allowed in, not out! As he spoke, he raised the shell gun in his hand and fired a few shots into the sky. Foreign expatriates can leave, though! We will guarantee the safety of all foreigners! ”

At his feet, a squad of indigenous soldiers of the GC International South Runner Army had already set up a barricade in the middle of the road, and also erected machine guns! Divide the homeless people who can't see the edge in two. One flow of people from Kolkata was cut off in an instant, while another flow of people to Kolkata was able to pass through the blockade without any problems......

Although Mahatma Gandhi had ordered the evacuation of the "useless population" from the city of Kolkata, at the same time, a large number of people fleeing from West Bengal and Kalkhandh were pouring in the direction of Kolkata. Perhaps, in their opinion, India's largest city, with Gandhi in charge, is the safest place to go right now. Many of the fleeing people were brightly dressed and white-skinned "Brahmins" or "Kshatriyas" and other high-caste Indians. These people carried their most precious possessions on their backs, dragging their families and families to flee for their lives, and when they saw the checkpoints with red flags along the way, they were terrified for fear that their Brahmin caste would be exposed! But the g-k-g-gun warriors with their steel spears and serious expressions who looked very difficult to speak did not seem to see these "brahmins" and let them go all the way to Calcutta with their wives in their mouths. According to Kolkata city government estimates, more than a million refugees fled to Kolkata from West Bengal and other places in the more than 10 days starting July 25! And the incompetent reactionary government of India was so unprepared for this that it allowed these refugees to sleep on the streets of Calcutta without food and clothing.

It was only Mother Teresa, then the principal of St. Mary's Loretto Seminary in Calcutta, who organized a missionary congregation of benevolent sisters to undertake the work of rescuing refugees, and ventured out of the city to negotiate with the GCDs in India on the issue of humanitarian relief...... It is worth mentioning that later this Maria. Mother Teresa was also awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

However, at that time, the whole world was in the "truce" of World War II, and the major powers were busy preparing for the second half of the world war, and no one was interested in caring about the humanitarian catastrophe that was taking place somewhere in India, and no one was condemning the President of the Republic of India, Gandhi, who caused it.

In fact, the world's leading powers themselves are creating a similar humanitarian crisis! For example, Chinese imperialism is forcibly relocating indigenous people from Quang Nam, Singapore and Nam Hai provinces into so-called "reserved areas". Japanese imperialism, on the other hand, went on a killing spree at the end of July after taking down Sydney, Australia's largest city, and created the "Sydney Massacre" that shocked the world. Even the United States, which has always flaunted human rights and democracy, has bloodily suppressed the Mexican people's protests against the United States' refusal to annex Mexico in Mexico City, the capital of Mexico...... It's Adolf, the great devil of another plane. Mr. Hitler did nothing to the detriment during this time, and devoted all his energies to preparing for the invasion of the United States, so that even the Jews of Europe had no interest in killing them for the time being.