Regarding Yang Zhen's words, Li Yanping nodded thoughtfully and said, "You can rest assured of this, I know the priority of the matter." First of all, we need the most urgent gasoline at the moment, as well as technical support personnel. As for the latter matter, the Soviets can be stretched out for a while. Lao Yang, you're right, we can't always put ourselves in a subordinate position. ”

"If we only wanted from them before, now they don't have a need for us. Since it is an exchange, even if absolute equality cannot be achieved, relative equality is still necessary. If we indulge them too much, it is a crime against ourselves. Inferiority must not become our style and habit. ”

"I'll go back and continue talking to them. In any case, this batch of military raw materials, as well as cotton and gasoline, we must get them back. Seeing that the weather in North Manchurian is about to start getting colder, the problem of winter clothing will be delayed if it is not solved. Coupled with the time of hundreds of thousands of sets of cotton clothes to make zuò, there is not much time left for us to negotiate. ”

"As for what Lao Guo said about taking out some supplies to exchange German prisoners of war with the Soviets, I don't think it's necessary. Don't look at the Soviet-German war, which has only been fought for a few months now, but the Soviet army, which has suffered considerable manpower losses after several major defeats, is now in urgent need of a large number of new soldiers. ”

"Now the Soviet side has asked us to assist them in mobilizing more than 100,000 young and middle-aged Belarusians who are suitable for military service in Harbin and in the entire North Manchurian base area to return to China to fight in the war. Even the Soviets set the upper limit of age at thirty years old. ”

"The Soviets demanded that we mobilize as much as possible, and even asked us to assist them in forcing the White Russians to return home. We can take advantage of this opportunity and swap with them one-on-one. Compared with the German prisoners of war, the Soviets were probably more anxious for these White Russians to return home in order to make up for the huge losses in soldiers. ”

"Although these White Russians in Harbin had always been resolutely opposed to the Soviets. But after all, they are still compatriots for the Soviets, and they are still a resource that can be used. In fact, to put it bluntly, it can be used as cannon fodder. Although the total number of people is a little less than that of any other administrative region in the country, for the Soviets, who have lost too much at the moment, no matter how small a fly is, it is a piece of meat. ”

"We investigated through the political department of the Guò Military Region, and the White Russians who are still in China mainly live in North Manchuria, except for Shanghai. Harbin, Jiamusi, and Qiqihar are now the largest settlements in Belarus in China. Although after the 918 incident, I went to Shanghai and some abroad. However, the number of Belarusians living in Harbin is still quite large, and the total number is still nearly 100,000. ”

"If you choose from among the White Russians living in Harbin, there are about sixteen thousand people between the ages of eighteen and thirty who can serve in the military. Although the number is not large, according to the establishment of the Soviet army, it is also possible to form a fully equipped division. Combined with the number of White Russians in Qiqihar, Jiamusi and other regions in North Manchuria, the number of people suitable for military service is about 25,000 to 30,000. ”

"Of course, if the Soviets don't care too much about age or are too old, it is estimated that it will not be too difficult to cobble together two more divisions on the basis of the original. The main reason why the Soviets asked us to assist them this time and forcibly mobilized the White Russians to return to China to fight in the war was, of course, that the losses in the early stage were too large, and the replenishment of the troops had reached the point of starvation. ”

"But the figures provided by the Soviets, I asked the military district intelligence department to do an investigation. It was found that not all of them were White Russians, but also Jews in Harbin and Jiamusi, as well as thousands of Poles, Czechs, and some so-called stateless people from the three Baltic states, which were not recognized as having been incorporated into the Soviet Union. ”

"When Harbin opened its port, these people came to the northeast with the army of Tsarist Russia to make a living and find employment. Of course, there are more former Tsarist Russian nobles and soldiers who went into exile in China after the October Revolution in the Soviet Union. Of course, there are also businessmen from other countries who came to Northeast China to do business before the 918 Incident. ”

"Poland is now Western Ukraine and Western Belarus, as well as the three Baltic states, which have been incorporated into the Soviet Union, so the Soviets think that all Poles and people from the three Baltic countries are part of the Soviet Union. The scope of their White Russia was very broad, and it did not specifically refer to the Soviets who were currently in Harbin. ”

"Rather, it includes all Eastern European residents in Harbin and the base areas, as well as the so-called stateless residents. As for the authentic White Russia in Harbin, a third of them have now received Soviet passports. However, the Soviet passports were only a stopgap measure, not a recognition of the Soviet Union, and most of them refused to return to the Soviet Union, despite repeated efforts by the Soviet side. ”

"But I think that's just one of the main reasons why the Soviets were in a hurry to mobilize these White Russians to return home. As for the other reason, I am afraid that the remaining White Russians in North Manchuria, which borders the Far East of the Soviet Union, has always been an unstable factor for the Soviets. ”

"During the Beiyang government, these White Russians often attacked the borders of the Soviet Far East. In the Japanese puppet period, he acted as a thug of the Japanese puppet army, specializing in espionage activities against the Soviet Union, or pretending to be the Soviet army to cause friction between Japan and the Soviet Union, so as to take advantage of the Kwantung arms. ”

"And for now, although the North Manchurians are now in our hands, these White Russians are also in our hands. Basically, they will no longer be harassed as they did during the Japanese pseudo-period. But for them, the hidden dangers have not been completely removed. Keeping these people by his side is still an unstable factor. ”

"Therefore, we cannot rule out that the Soviets have taken advantage of this so-called national disaster in Russia to bring these White Russians back to the country and organize them into troops to the front line to defeat them, so as to prevent future troubles forever. And this is absolutely possible for the Soviets, and they will do it quite thoroughly. ”

"When these White Russians return home, they will directly put on their military uniforms and be assigned to various units to participate in the war. As long as they are not allowed to form a group, according to the Soviet army's strict control of the troops, even if a few of these White Russians defect to the enemy, most of them will not be able to make any waves. As soon as these people returned home, the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs would even directly execute the so-called unstable elements. ”

"Actually, this time I came to the Twin Cities, in addition to the previous things, there is another thing I want to discuss with the two of you. Regardless of the fate of these White Russians returning home, I think we still accept the conditions of the Soviets. There are many reasons for this, but there are two main ones. ”

"First, these White Russians, who have an extreme hatred of the Soviet side, think that we were raised by the Soviets under the propaganda of the Japanese pseudo-Soviet people. Since our army entered some big cities such as Jiamusi and Harbin, its attitude toward our army has been extremely unfriendly and even extremely hostile. Not only did he secretly incite the Chinese people to resist our army, but he also provoked incidents again and again. ”

"And in the minds of many people, because we have the same beliefs as the Soviet side, they have transferred their hatred of the Soviet Union to us. A considerable number of these Belarusians have always refused to accept renminbi and refused to hand over the Belarusian schools they have established to us. There are even those who secretly encourage businessmen to strike the market and refuse to accept the renminbi as a trading currency. ”

"The second is that in these White Russia, there are many spies trained during the Japanese puppet period. At present, there is evidence to be checked, including several hundred personnel who had returned from Dalian and Xinjing and had received special training from the intelligence department of the Kwantung Army. There are also the White Russian forces in the puppet Manchurian railway police escort army captured by our army, which is an unstable factor. ”

"This month alone, our army cracked two Japanese pseudo-radio stations in the White Russian enclave in Harbin. A large number of guns and ammunition, mainly pistols, and a batch of prohibited materials were also seized. In the process of suppressing bandits, our army also found that there were bandit armies led or organized by White Russia.

"The most important thing is that while we uncovered the Japanese spy network hidden in the White Russia, we found that the background of many people in the White Russia is not so simple. Although it did not continue to dig deeper due to environmental restrictions, many White Russians obviously have the shadow of the Soviet KGB and GRU. This is also a rather negative factor for our internal security. ”

"It is very inappropriate to keep these White Russians in Harbin, Jiamusi, and Qiqihar, which are our core areas. It's also a rather unstable factor for us. Regardless of the purpose of the Soviets in proposing this project, I think that it is a good way to take this opportunity to return this batch of White Russians to the Soviet side, which is still a more favorable way for our army. ”

Speaking of this, Li Yanping sighed slightly and said, "Although we also know what kind of fate these White Russians will face when they go back. But there are too many hidden dangers to keep them, and it is also a considerable unsettling factor for us. ”

"If these people can honestly stay in the Northeast, I don't want to, let alone make this determination. After all, people's hearts are flesh and blood, and they know what kind of treatment they will be treated when they go back, and they are forcibly sent back to die. We still know a little about what happened to the Belarusians who returned home a few years ago. Those who listened to the Soviet Union and returned to China were basically purged. ”

At the same time, many people in Belarus have already intermarried with Chinese, and it is common for Russian women to marry Chinese. Forcibly sending it back is somewhat unfavorable to the people's hearts, and the impact on us is not very good. But now, judging from the overall situation, and the trouble caused to us by these White Russians, it is better to send them all back to China. ”

"But maybe things aren't as bad as we thought. After all, the current Soviet Union is very different from the situation a few years ago. A large part of the territory and people of the Soviet Union have been lost to the Germans, and they are in urgent need of manpower to replenish them. I don't think they will be treated badly if they are honest when they return home. ”

Regarding Li Yanping's proposal, Yang Zhen did not answer immediately, but pondered for a while. To be honest, although Yang Zhen's impression of this batch of White Russians cannot be said to be bad, it must not be said to be good. It's not as good as the Japanese, but it's not much better.

However, the use of Belarusian talents living in Harbin and major cities in North Manchuria to train a group of foreign language, finance and other specialized talents for themselves is a plan formulated by the Northeast Bureau at the request of Yang Zhen and has begun to implement.

After Yang Zhen proposed to set up a specialized school for cultivating foreign language talents, he also felt that the Northeast Bureau, which was in urgent need of foreign language talents, was moving quickly. However, after careful research and considering the current urgent need for foreign language talents in the base area, the school was not merged into the new Tohoku University, which was to be established.

Instead, a new Harbin Foreign Chinese College was formed on the basis of the school building of a Russian railway school in Harbin and some of the teachers. In order to set up this foreign Chinese language school, the Northeast Bureau even transferred thousands of Chinese students from two national high schools and one teacher school in Harbin during the puppet Manchurian period to this school, all of which did not participate in the college entrance examination organized in the base area.