July 1, 1934, Hooghly River, Ganges Delta region, India. It is now the rainy season in the South Asian subcontinent, and the torrential rain has been pouring for several days, and the water of the surging Ganges River has continued to flow into the Hooghly River, causing the water level of this tributary of the Ganges River flowing from the west of the city of Kolkata to soar by two meters in an instant, flooding the large areas of fertile fields on both sides of the river bank and the positions of the Indian National Army, and also giving the Indian Red Army attacking the upper reaches of the Hooghly River a good opportunity for a sneak attack.

At this time, the soldiers of the Nationalist Army of the brigade were braving the heavy rain, digging trenches in the muddy field a little farther away from the river bank, the rain was so great that it seemed to fall from the air, and the trenches were only half dug, and the water had accumulated to a height of more than half a foot. Wearing tape raincoats, the officers standing on high places kept shouting and scolding as if they were fierce and vicious, and waved the leather whips in their hands from time to time, and those soldiers naturally did not dare to fight back after being beaten and scolded, but the speed of work in their hands became slower and slower, and the project that should have been completed in three or four hours was now only half carried out after most of the day. Lin Zuo, who was watching the construction of the Indian Asan on the high ground, couldn't help shaking his head, and beside him, there were also many Chinese soldiers busy carrying the corpses, and more than 3,000 corpses of the Indian National Army and the Red Army were lying in the bloody mud. This was the result of last night's battle, but Lin Zuo, who had just won the battle, did not have a trace of joy on his face, and his thick eyebrows were furrowed tightly, not knowing what he was thinking.

"Division, Commander-in-Chief Peng is here."

During the adjutant's reminder, Lin Zuoda turned his head and saw that Peng Dhuai, who was holding a steel-framed umbrella, was stepping on the gangplank from a river gunboat of several hundred tons. Lin Zuoda hurriedly greeted him and saluted Peng Dhuai: "Chief Peng, why did you come up in person?" It's dangerous here. ”

Peng Dhuai frowned slightly and looked at the young and somewhat excessive major general of the Wehrmacht in front of him, not knowing what the reason was. He hated the Major General in front of him, who claimed to be the best armored commander in the Wehrmacht. However, he still stepped forward and shook his hand: "General Yangchun, you fought a beautiful battle, killing a full 2,000 Indian Red Army and capturing 1,500 people in one night...... It's probably the biggest victory for our side in the past few months, Nehru and Bose can brag about it again, your 1st Armored Cavalry Division really deserves to be the elite division of the country! ”

Although he is praising people, it sounds a little cynical to Lin Zuoda. This boss of his has made great achievements in North Korea. The North Korean Defense Army, which had traditionally been considered a weak brigade, defeated the Japanese Red Army, outnumbering it, and was known as the "Tiger of Korea." However, after arriving in India, this Korean tiger was quite passive, and he did not leave the city of Kolkata for several months, let alone allow the hundreds of thousands of Chinese-North Korean troops under his command to take the initiative to attack, and last night Lin Zuoda's 1st Armored Cavalry Division went out to reinforce the positions of the Indian National Army north of the city of Calcutta without consulting the headquarters of the expeditionary force.

Taunting of superiors. Lin Zuoda had no choice but to press his stomach, and reluctantly squeezed out a little smile and said: "Chief Peng has won the award, it is just a small victory, and it has no impact on the overall situation at all." Look at ......" He raised his hand and pointed at the Indian National Army that was digging trenches, with a solemn expression: "Their National Army is the main force defending India, and yesterday afternoon, the Indian Red Army only dispatched two regiments to attack in the rain and crushed two divisions of the National Army in one fell swoop. More than 20,000 troops collapsed at the touch of a button, and tens of thousands of people lost their weapons and ammunition and ran into the city. Fighting with such friendly forces, I really don't know what to say. ”

"Hmph, it's just a reactionary army, what combat effectiveness can it have?" Peng Dhuai looked coldly at the Indian National Army who were repairing the fortifications, and snorted heavily.

Unlike most Wehrmacht officers who do not ask about politics. Peng Dhuai was one of the few senior generals of the Wehrmacht who had a clear political outlook and strong political aspirations, and he was also a truly loyal GC fighter. He has always been very disgusted with the Indian National Army and the Indian National Congress, which represented the interests of the upper class of the Brahmin landlords and capitalists. In his view, these Brahmin landlords and capitalists are the main culprits in the current chaos in India, and it is precisely because of their insatiable greed and thousands of years of foolish policies that India has been reduced from an ancient country with a splendid civilization to a British colony. And these Brahmin upper classes died in India after the death of the British. He shamelessly acted as a lackey of British imperialism, relying on the protection of his British masters, and continued to exert his authority and even intensify his efforts. As soon as I saw these people, there was no motherland and no people. The Indian Brahmins, who only knew how to protect the interests of their own small group, Peng Dhuai couldn't help but think of the Manchu Eight Banners aristocracy who had ruled China.

While disgusted with the bunch of Brahmins in the Congress Party, Peng Dhuai's favorability towards the Indian GCD naturally increased day by day. Although they relied on the support of the Soviet Union, their ideas of emancipating the Hindu untouchables, dividing the land equally, overthrowing the reactionary Brahmin class, and establishing a new India where everyone was equal were very much in favor of Peng Dhuai. He was very distressed about the role of the Chinese Expeditionary Force as an accomplice of the reactionaries in India. For this reason, he also wrote more than once to Mao Zd, chairman of the Chinese G, hoping to promote the retreat of the Chinese expeditionary force from India. However, his appeal went unanswered.

Peng Dhuai was not good at hiding his thoughts, his dislike for the Indian National Congress and the authorities of the Autonomous Party, and his sympathy for the Indian GCD and the Indian people were no secret in the upper echelons of the expeditionary force. But Lin Zuoda didn't want to discuss this kind of topic, so he changed his conversation, bypassed this topic, and said: "Commander-in-chief, the British have received information that the Soviet Union and the Indian GCD are ready to accept the war in India within this year, and it seems that we must be prepared to fight a tough battle." ”

Peng Dhuai nodded, the Indian war has been fought so far, and it is indeed time to divide the final victory! Although on a global scale, the Soviet Union's world revolutionary policy was not echoed by the broadest masses of the working people and was on the verge of bankruptcy, in India the Soviet Union and India won the support of the majority of the Indian people, and unless China and Britain committed overwhelming superiority in their forces to India, the defeat on the Indian battlefield would be difficult to reverse. Therefore, the commander-in-chief of the Chinese Expeditionary Force was no longer thinking about victory, but about preserving the strength of the expeditionary force as much as possible, and withdrawing his troops to the Naga Mountains to block the Indian Red Army's eastward march into Burma.

"Yangchun, then let's discuss the situation together." Peng Dhuai beckoned to Lin Zuo. The two of them got on the small gunboat with the British flag together, and a map of Bengal hung on the bulkhead of the officer's lounge of the gunboat, and the two of them studied it on board. "The latest information received is that the Soviet Army and the Indian Red Army launched an onslaught yesterday on Afghanistan and Kashmir, where there are 10 divisions of Allah and 18 divisions of the Musling Alliance, as well as 5 divisions of the Anglo-Indian Army, with a total strength of less than 250,000. It's hard to resist. It is estimated that within half a month it will withdraw across the Amu Darya River and retreat to Tajikistan, and our Northwestern Front has already sent troops south to meet it.

That is, by the end of July at the latest, the worries of the Soviet Indian Front and the Indian Red Army will be greatly alleviated, and it will be enough for two or three hundred thousand troops to hold on to Afghanistan and Kashmir. At that time, they will launch an offensive against the jurisdictions of Mumbai, Bengal and Madras. I have already asked Lord Milne, Commander-in-Chief of the Anglo-Indian Army. He had 18 Anglo-Indian infantry divisions and 2 British army divisions in Bombay, and had armed all the British in Mumbai, with a total strength of about 200,000. Moreover, Mumbai is an island, although it is close to the Indian mainland, but after all, there is a natural danger to rely on, and the British have been operating there for many years, building a large number of fortifications and forts. Hundreds of large-caliber shore defense guns were deployed, and a fleet of three battleships and four heavy cruisers had recently been transferred from the Mediterranean. According to Lord Milne, the defence of Bombay Island was so impregnable that it was impossible for it to fail.

Since the island of Mumbai cannot be defeated, then I guess Blühel's next target is not Mumbai. Thus there are only two places left in Madras and Bengal, both of which are garrisoned by our expeditionary force, and neither of them is easy to defend...... In particular, the Madras district. The inhabitants there are mainly Hindu, more than 95% of the land is concentrated in the hands of less than 3% of the Brahmin landlord class, and the exploitation is extremely heavy, and the class contradictions are extremely prominent, in addition to the national contradictions between the British colonial rulers and the local Tamils. Under the dual oppression of Brahmin and British imperialism, the oppressed people there are highly susceptible to incitement, so the underground organization of the Indian GCD is very active in the area. There were also large groups of partisan activity of the Indian Red Army in the Eastern and Western Ghats, and it was completely impossible to hold them. My idea was to abandon the Madras area and transfer all 3 North Korean troops and 30 Anglo-Indian divisions there to Bangladesh.

In this way, we can concentrate 8 North Korean troops, 2 medium **, 30 Anglo-Indian divisions, 41 Indian National Army divisions, and 24 Indian M divisions in Bangladesh, with a total strength of more than 1.3 million. And the mass base in Bengal is also better than in Madras. At least the MSLs in West Bengal are behind us, the caste system in India is not as strict as that of the Hindus, and it has been abolished by the decree of the Caliph Hussein, and the MSLin alliance has reduced rents and interest rates in the jurisdiction of West Bengal, and has finally done some good things, so it can still be kept. If East Bangladesh is not protected, we will retreat to West Bangladesh and rely on the Jamuna River to hold on, which can always shield the security of Myanmar. ”

"Yangchun, do you think this style of play can work?" Peng Dhuai's fingers gently drew a dotted line along the Jamuna River, the widest stretch in East Bengal, and then looked up at Lin Zuoda.

Lin Zuoda was slightly stunned, General Peng Dhuai was the commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force, and he was just a major general and division commander, so there was no need for the other party to ask for his opinion. However, he still replied truthfully: "Commander-in-chief, my subordinates think that this style of play is safe, but it is also difficult to win the Indian battlefield. Moreover, at most we have blocked Burma, and there is no way to stop the Indian Red Army from attacking Tibet. Recently, there have also been guerrillas of the Red Army led by the GCD in Nepal, and it seems that ......"

"Yangchun, then what can you do?" Peng Dhuai frowned and interrupted: "You don't know what kind of virtue the Indian National Army is, now that the Indian GCD has mobilized all the oppressed working people in India, can we beat 30,000 Indian people with our hundreds of thousands of expeditionary forces?" ”

"This ......" Lin Zuoda also has little confidence in the Indian National Army. Seeing that he had nothing to say, Peng Dhuai continued: "Yangchun, the problem of the Indian battlefield cannot be solved by military force, and there must be a political solution. Now that the British and the Indian National Army have given a way out, India will continue to be a British colony, and the Brahmins will continue to occupy most of the land and oppress the low-caste untouchables, how can they win the support of the Indian people? Without the support of the Indian people, how can we continue this battle? What if you win? Is it to make India part of the Greater Chinese Federation? ”

Of course this is impossible, Lin Zuo pondered for a while, looked at Peng Dhuai and said, "Commander-in-chief." What do you want me to do? ”

Peng Dhuai nodded and said: "Since you have proposed it, then I will give you a special task, go back to Nanjing and report the situation in India to the Prime Minister, and ask him to approve the battle plan for concentrating troops with Bangladesh!" ”

Lin Zuo was stunned for a moment, then seemed to understand something, and asked, "Commander-in-chief, is Lord Milne disagreeing?" ”

Peng Dhuai snorted coldly. Said hatefully: "Then you still need to say? These Brits are shrinking on the island of Mumbai and don't dare to show their heads, but they want our troops to fight with the Indian GCD! He looked at Lin Zuo Avenue: "Yangchun, I know that the Prime Minister admires your military talents, and it may be easier for him to listen to what you say...... There is really no way to fight the war in India! There are too many poor people in India, and they can't be killed! And what is the purpose of killing the Indians for the British? If you have this spare power, you might as well use it to fight the Soviet Union. ”

"Okay." Lin Zuo thought for a while and nodded, "I'll go and talk to the prime minister, commander-in-chief." When can I go? ”

"The plane is ready, and as soon as the rain stops, you understand how to go. Remember, the safety of hundreds of thousands of officers and soldiers here in India depends on whether you can convince the prime minister! ”

……

Lin Zuo's return to Nanking from Calcutta shook Lin Zuo as he did when he first arrived in India in March and felt the atmosphere of gloom and failure that pervaded the country. This time it was not the atmosphere of pessimism that surprised him, but the extreme optimism about the prospects of the war. After months of losing wars and the intense revolutionary atmosphere in Kolkata, it's like going from a heartbreaking tragedy to a jubilant comedy. The catastrophe that is unfolding on the battlefields of India. These include the Battle of Bihar in April (which took place in Bihar, where the Indian National Army suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Indian Red Army, losing the whole of Bihar), the Battle of Mysore in May (in which the Soviet Red Army and the Indian Red Army defeated the Anglo-Indian and Chinese expeditionary forces to capture Mysore, the capital of Karnataka), and the ongoing Afghan-Kashmir campaign, which is almost unknown here, as if it were taking place on another planet.

He sat in the dining room on the ground floor of Building No. 2 of the Ministry of National Defense for dinner, and ate a "plum blossom meal" of four dishes and one soup, with fish and meat, two vegetables and a bowl of broth. There was also a beautiful woman who accompanied her to dinner.

"Yangchun, you can put one hundred and twenty hearts, the prime minister has been concerned about the Indian battlefield, and he has a comprehensive solution, and now he is negotiating with the British side."

The beautiful woman who spoke was Chen Xinrui, Lin Zuoda's classmate in the sixth phase of the Central Military Academy, and the second student in the sixth phase of the Central Military Academy to hang the rank of general (Lin Zuoda was the first). Lin Zuoda went to the Ministry of Defense to see Chang Ruiqing. Prime Minister Chang Da didn't have the time to see him, so he asked his adjutant general to invite Lin Zuo to a light meal, and asked him about his intention by the way. After listening to Lin Zuoda's introduction of the situation on the battlefield in India, Chen Xinrui patted her chest and started to pack a ticket.

"Heart. Things in India are not easy to do, not easy at all. Lin Zuo shook his head and said, "The situation there is a bit like China before 1918, maybe even worse, with about 10 million Brahmins and millions of Muslin elites working with the British colonizers to occupy more than 95% of India's land." Most of the low-caste untouchables (who also have castes in India) work all day long, many have never had a full meal, and the city of Kolkata is full of scrawny beggars, and hundreds of people starve to death every day...... The upper class of Indians lived a very Westernized and affluent life, I have been to many houses of the best people in India, and I am afraid that I could not find a more beautiful building in the whole of Nanjing, these people lived as if in a fairy tale, using the most exquisite objects in Europe, eating the most exquisite food, and everyone spoke elegantly and behaved civilly, compared to them we are a bunch of barbarians, but their civilization is based on the exploitation of 30,000 destitute slaves. ”

"But hasn't that exploitation lasted for thousands of years?" Chen Xinrui frowned and asked rhetorically. "Why can't it last for a few hundred more years?"

"Maybe the British and the upper echelons of Indian Brahmins thought the same thing, but I don't think it's possible!" Lin Zuoda smiled bitterly and said: "If you want to restore the rule of the Brahmins in India, it is like restoring the rule of the Manchus in China, no matter how much strength you invest, you can't do it. ”

"Why does it have to be a Brahmin?" Chen Xinrui shrugged her shoulders and smiled, "Can't we change to a more powerful agent?" ”