Chapter 294: Seon Loses His Horse

In addition to these three demands, since Stalin gave Lao Chiang real money, then the Soviets naturally had to give some tangible benefits to the Red Party that got these two battleships, and Hu Weidong put forward three conditions for this: First, the Soviet Union wanted to provide the Central Plains border region with some of the forging equipment necessary for a monthly output of 10 203 cannon howitzers in the name of supporting China's civilian industry, which could not be mass-produced in the border area, and it could be brought by the thousands of naval officers and sailors by the way, anyway, there were ready-made ones in the Novosibirsk industrial zone. And except for the section from Ulaanbaatar to Suiyuan, the rest of the road is connected by railway, so it is quite convenient; Second, the Soviet Union was asked to send at least 10,000 skilled Jishu workers and no less than 500 engineers to the Baotou Industrial Zone, which was about to start construction in the Jinsui Border Region; The third is to ask the Soviet Union to provide the Northeast Anti-Japanese Union with a full set of weapons and equipment and 20 base ammunition supplies for the three light infantry divisions of the first type

The reason why there are only so many is that Hu Weidong estimates that the Soviet Union is probably willing to give so much, and second, he is worried that the influence of the Soviet Union against the United Nations will be too great, but even if it is only three divisions of guns and ammunition, it will definitely be a relief for the Northeast Anti-Japanese Federation, which is under pressure with the rapid expansion of the Kwantung Army

Stalin not only agreed to all of them, but also transferred personnel and planes from the country again to make up for all the losses of the Soviet aid air force belonging to the North China Air Corps, and also promoted Pokryshkin, who was only a captain a year ago, to major general (he was already a lieutenant colonel before), so that he temporarily became the supreme leader of the Soviet aid air force to China, and the Soviet aid air force on the side of the national army was also controlled by him. In order to better cooperate with the first theater of operations and ensure that the two precious battleships can be safely in their hands (after the battleship was driven away by the Soviets, the two Soviet air fleets still had to be disassembled.?) Come on,.! ）。 Although Lao Jiang was so angry when he found out, his national strength was not as good as others, and now he was asking for the Soviet Union, so he really couldn't stand up

The Red Party's secrecy work on such major matters is first-class (but the secrecy work on relatively minor matters has not been rigorous enough, and there are many examples of accidental leaks in history, but this time and space has been greatly improved because of Hu Weidong's efforts in recent years.) But the government was simply ventilated on all sides, and Lao Jiang had just expressed his position, and the Japanese army base camp headquarters learned the news, and he was like a mad dog that had blown up

"Lucia is too deceitful!" Vice Admiral Yamaguchi, commander of the 1st Air Force of the Japanese Navy, was furious when he heard the news, saying that the Soviet Union's approach was simply a slap in the face of the "Great Japanese Empire." How could Yamaguchi Tawen, who had just turned 40 and had a great hope of becoming the commander of the Combined Fleet, swallow this breath when he was proud of the spring breeze?

And Yamamoto Fifty-Roku, who is expected to become the Minister of the Sea of Japan, has a deeper understanding of this matter, "The three old battleships of the Lucia are nothing more than target ships for the Imperial Navy, but now the four air carriers of the Empire are still under repair, and it will take half a year to restore their combat effectiveness at the earliest, if those two Kongo-class battleships fall into the hands of the Lucia, then for the first time in a few months, the Imperial Navy will be at a disadvantage in the Far East." The Lucians had always had ambitions for Manchuria, and the Soviet army in the Far East was far above the Kwantung Army in terms of strength and equipment (Note 1), and the reason why they did not dare to act was entirely because the Lucians were afraid of the empire's powerful navy, but once they got those two battleships, they might not be reckless, Manchuria, Mongolia, and even Korea and Sakhalin Island (at this time, the southern part of Sakhalin Island was occupied by Japan, and the oil in the north was also specially supplied to Japan according to the agreement, although the Soviet Union was already very strong after the completion of the two five years, but because of the weakness of the navy, The Japanese were still on the defensive, and half of Sakhalin was not regained from the Japanese until after the victory in World War II. will be in an unprecedented crisis"

However, the Japanese strategist Ishihara Wanji, who was put into reserve and refrigerated earlier than in history, believes that although the incident is humiliating, if it is used well, it can be turned into a good thing. The rapid rise of the Soviet Union is now increasingly regarded by the Western powers as a major problem, but the Soviet Union has only a strong army and does not pose a direct threat to the interests of the great powers, and the powers have not fully recovered from the economic crisis, and it is difficult for the powers to refuse the Soviet Union's huge equipment orders, so the two sides barely maintain a semblance of harmony. But after the Soviet Union got these two battleships, the naval strength immediately increased dramatically, enough to be compared with the relatively weak French and Italian navies, and with these two more mature and advanced (compared to the original three old battleships of the Soviet Union) battleships as a reference, the Soviet Union is likely to design and build their own battleships in a short period of time, with its strong industrial strength in the second place, once it is determined to build it with all its might, there will definitely be more than one or two, not to mention several powerful countries in Western Europe, Even the United States is likely to be restless.

In particular, the European part of the Soviet Union's access to the sea was blocked by Western countries, and its naval strength was not strong to a certain extent, so Stalin was likely to deploy these new battleships in the Far East, where the navy of the great powers was relatively weak, which was bound to break the balance of the Far East Sea and seriously threaten the interests of the Western powers in the Far East, especially the United States, Britain and France, the three countries with colonies in the Far East, and the pressure was certainly not small. Ishihara's strategy, on the other hand, was to keep the progress of the maintenance of the four aircraft carriers and the construction of new aircraft carriers strictly secret, thus creating a false impression to the Western powers that "the Japanese Navy no longer poses a threat to the West." In this case, in order to curb the expansion of the Soviet Union, the West will definitely open up the loan line to Japan again (because of doubts about Japan's ability to repay, it is already difficult for Japan to borrow money from the West at this time). At that time, Japan's growing economic woes could be alleviated. Ishihara also advocated taking advantage of the opportunity to repair relations with the United States and Britain to ask the two countries to mediate the war between Japan and China; in his view, Japan has no hope of victory at all after this war has been fought, and if it continues to fight endlessly, Japan will be dragged down alive. Rather than this, it is better to give up those uncontrollable territories and concentrate on consolidating Manchuria and accumulating national strength, so as not to miss the good opportunity to pick up the bargain after the outbreak of the European war

Note 1: Historically, only the Japanese Army arrogantly believed that the three divisions of the Soviet Army could not defeat one of them, but after the war, Nomenkan basically recognized the reality, even if the Zhang Gufeng incident did not happen in this time and space, at least the Navy still knew the strength of the Soviet Army in the Far East.

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