July 25, 1936.

Moscow, Kremlin bunker.

Trotsky's face was gloomy, the reports of the Eastern Front and the Moscow Front on the refugee question were on his desk, Pavlov and Yakir were urgently summoned, and there was another rush of footsteps outside the office, and Vatsettis walked in briskly.

Pavlov thought to himself that Trotsky had just asked about the number of refugees who had entered Moscow's defensive circle in the last ten days, and that the Germans were now driving away some of the Soviets from the occupied zone to Moscow, and that more than 300,000 had already entered Moscow in the past ten days. There are 300,000 mouths for 300,000 people, and these people will speed up the depletion of food reserves in Moscow, and now Vatsetis may have come to report to Trotsky on the consumption of food.

"Comrade Vatsetis, the enemy's operation to drive the refugees into Moscow is a big conspiracy to speed up the consumption of food in Moscow, they want to defeat us with hunger!" Trotsky's expression was very stern, and he immediately exposed Hitler's machinations and tricks: "Go and give orders to the internal guards that from now on no more refugees will be allowed to enter Moscow, not a single one!" ”

Vasetis waited until Trotsky had given the order in a rage before he spoke carefully: "Okay, Comrade Trotsky, I will immediately go and give an order to the internal guard troops not to allow new refugees to enter. But now many refugees have entered the city with the Red Army who had withdrawn from the Eastern Front into Moscow, some of them the Red Army and the families of the cadres, who had no food and no home. If they are not allowed to enter Moscow, I am afraid that they will die outside the city very quickly......"

"Red Army officers and the families of cadres were allowed to enter the city, but others were not. Order the internal guard forces to be strictly screened, and not let any ordinary refugees into Moscow! ”

Trotsky took out his cigarette and lit it on fire and smoked it, but his brows furrowed more and more, there is no doubt that the Red Army has the responsibility to protect the Soviet people, and for a long time the political cadres of the Red Army have taught their officers and men in this way -- the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army is the army of the Soviet workers' and peasants' class! How can the Soviet people be forced to leave Moscow, which is quite safe and well fed, and go to the imperialist zone to die? The blow to the morale of the troops can be imagined. Moreover, he also ordered that the families of officers and cadres should be allowed to enter the city, what would such a thing think in the eyes of ordinary soldiers? The Soviet Union has always been a hierarchical country...... Although I wanted to change this situation more than once. However, because of the preparations for the world revolution, it was postponed again and again, until now the Soviet Union is about to fall, and it is still a hierarchical society. I can't say it's a big pity.

"Comrade Vatsettis. What is the state of grain reserves in Moscow? Trotsky snuffed out the cigarette in the ashtray and asked Vatsetis again.

"The situation of grain reserves is not very good, it is not yet the time for the autumn harvest, so there are not many stocks in the grain warehouses everywhere, and some time ago we also transported a lot of grain to Arkhangelsk, and the collapse of the Western Front is ...... It was faster than expected, so it was too late to scavenge the grain stocks in the collective farms in various places. "Vatettis, the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR, is now the chief steward of Moscow, and he is responsible for the internal guard forces and Moscow's material reserves. "So at the moment there are less than 1.1 million tons of wheat and oats and 500,000 tons of potatoes in Moscow," he reported, frowning. In addition, there are more than 40,000 tons of cured meat, 6,000 tons of butter and cheese. There are also some canned vegetables. ”

"That's all there is to eat?" Trotsky's expression was grim, according to the food ration standards now in force, a Red Army soldier could get a kilogram of black bread or potatoes a day, and now there were at least 4 million Red officers and soldiers in need of Moscow's reserves, and this part alone would consume at least 4,000 tons of wheat, oats and potatoes per day! The stocks in Moscow were enough for these people to consume for more than a year. If you add in the millions of Muscovites, refugees from all over the country, and the families of Red Army officers and cadres, the existing reserves will last for 8 months! If there are millions or even tens of millions of mouths to eat, I am afraid that by the end of the year, Moscow will have to run out of food!

"Not a single ordinary refugee can no longer be allowed to flow into Moscow!" Trotsky took a deep breath and ordered: "But be careful about the influence, let the internal guard troops set up a checkpoint at the entrance to Moscow, intercept all the refugees in the name of interrogating agents, and take them to a place far away from Moscow City for banishment, and try not to be seen by ordinary Red Army soldiers." ”

"Comrade Trotsky, what about the refugees who have been expelled by the Germans from the west and south sides of Moscow?" Yakir couldn't help but ask: "These refugees were driven directly into the forward positions of our army, where should the checkpoints of the internal guard troops be located?" ”

"There are no checkpoints on the west and south sides of Moscow, give orders to the forward troops to use machine guns to expel anyone who tries to approach from the enemy's side, regardless of whether they are wearing German uniforms or not!"

Yakil gasped, this is to ask the Red Army to use machine guns against Soviet civilians! And not to let the internal guards who specialize in the interior do it, but let the ordinary Red Army do it!

"Comrade Trotsky," Yakir reluctantly persuaded, "ordinary Red Army soldiers may not have such an awareness, and now their morale is already very low, and if they are allowed to open fire on Soviet civilians, they will be afraid of ......"

"Afraid of what?" Trotsky's face turned pale, "Comrade Yakir, aren't you afraid that the German devils will attack our forward positions in the guise of refugees?" ”

"Comrade Trotsky, the Germans drove the refugees into the city during the day when visibility was good, and all the refugees walked towards our positions with their hands held high, it could not have been the Germans in disguise."

Yaquil did not dare to tell Trotsky that this expulsion was mostly carried out after prior communication between the front-line officers and soldiers of both sides, and the Soviet front-line officers and soldiers would lead the refugees to avoid anti-infantry minefields, and would also remove some obstacles to facilitate the passage of refugees.

"No, there are minefields, barbed wire and trenches in front of our army's forward positions, how did these refugees get through? Aren't they afraid of stepping on landmines? "Trotsky was not stupid, and immediately thought of it." The front-line troops must be strictly guarded, no one should be allowed to approach the position, and all violations of the order will be punished for treason! ”

……

Trotsky's latest supreme directive was still in force in Moscow, and that very afternoon there was such a scene on the front lines of the Soviet line on the western and southern fronts of Moscow. Countless old Russian men and children, dressed in ragged clothes and gray faces, who knew that they had suffered a lot of crimes, crowded outside the barbed wire fence and trenches, staring blankly at several M1910 heavy machine guns that had been chained and aimed their guns at themselves! Not far away, in the trenches, there were people using tin horns rolled up in foreign iron sheets to announce over and over again the orders of the Moscow Front and the Moscow Military Control Committee.

"Citizens of the Soviets! Order of the command of the Moscow Front and the Moscow Arms Control Committee! No one was allowed to approach the positions of the Red Army without permission! This is a battlefield, a forbidden military place! No trespassing! No trespassing! ”

"Citizens of the Soviets! You have entered the military forbidden ground, violated Article 56 of the Criminal Code of the USSR, severely weakened the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army and helped the imperialist enemy! Please leave immediately, and do not gather again to make trouble, otherwise you will be severely punished according to Moscow's military regulations! ”

On the inside of a Soviet trench, an officer in a blue hat glared at a gray-haired old man who had come to negotiate on behalf of refugees.

"Citizens! Do you know what you're doing? The blue hat said in an angry tone: "You are sinning!" It's betrayal! It's an attack on the Red Army! Give you 5 minutes to get out of here! Immediately! ”

"Comrade officer! There's nothing we can do! The old man on the other side looked pitiful, and cried and said: "It was the Germans who took us here with bayonets, you can do it, let us go, and when we enter Moscow, we will go to Lubyanka Square and turn ourselves in, this will be all right." As he spoke, he knelt down on the blue hat on the other side of the trench.

"It's useless to kneel! I can't let you into Moscow, it's a death order from above! It's four minutes left, and we're going to open fire if we don't leave! The blue hat became a little more angry, and after a loud reprimand, he turned back into the trench.

The tin trumpets still shouted: "Citizens of the Soviets! You've entered the military ......."

"Oh my God! Why is that? The Germans didn't give us a way to live, and the Red Army didn't even give us a way to live, why is that! ”

"Why don't you let us into Moscow? We are all Soviets, isn't Moscow the capital of the Soviets? ”

"Please, let's go into the city, we've been hungry for three days......"

The Russian refugees gathered outside the trenches also shouted, having suffered no less in the hands of the Germans these days, and were now being driven like cattle, with machine guns to the Soviet positions outside Moscow. I thought I would be able to see my relatives in the Red Army, but who knew that there was also a machine gun mount here, and it didn't look like a scare!

"Warning shot! Ready, fire! ”

"Click......"

With the command of the "blue hat" of the machine gun, a string of tongues of fire swept over the heads of the Russian refugees with their hands raised, this time it was a warning shot, so they did not greet the refugees directly, but the next time it was difficult to say. Seeing that this road was impassable, these Russian refugees had no choice but to turn around and slowly move towards the German position, but there were also MG34 general-purpose machine guns...... (To be continued......)