One Hundred and Forty-Two Exit

The news quickly flew around the world with wings. Franco's Legion captured the Spanish capital Madrid and took the initiative in the Spanish Civil War. Franco claimed to be the leader of the National Army. He delivered a speech in Madrid and was sworn in as the leader of Spain.

Just a few hours later, Italian leader Mussolini announced to reporters that Italy would establish diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level with Spain led by the Franco Group; Leadership of Spain, good national friendship with Franco.

The British took advantage of the wind and began to work on the problems after the Franco Group took control of Spain. They began to send personnel to Spain frequently, hoping to gain the friendship of the new Spanish rulers-but because the United Kingdom once let Franco go Obviously, this kind of diplomatic remedy on the fence will not make any substantive progress.

Another reaction that was relatively strong was the failure of the Soviet Union, the Comintern and the Republican Army in Spain, which undoubtedly brought immeasurable losses to the world political movement. Stalin immediately held an emergency meeting after knowing that Madrid had fallen, but nothing could change Fran The fact that Brother occupied Madrid is over, and the Spanish Civil War is now drawing to a close.

Moscow, inside the Kremlin chamber. At this very moment, a summary meeting of the intervention plan for the Spanish Civil War is being held.

The atmosphere in the conference room was very strange, many generals lowered their heads as if they were asleep, because the terrifying atmosphere brought about by the great purge made the whole meeting a speech by some of Stalin’s cronies, most of the officers who knew the army also had The generals chose to keep silent, so as not to incur the disaster of killing themselves.

For example, Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov, another Marshal of the Soviet Red Army, supported Stalin during the Great Purge, so now he is the candidate to preside over this kind of military meeting. This one is a bit fat The 50-year-old veteran speaks with a strong local accent.

He who is better at being a man just made a start, and he gave a few of his confidants and the generals of the same faction winks, and let these people show up to make a statement, so that the meeting can continue. After all, many generals seem to be dumb now, and this kind of silence has made many military meetings come to an early end in disgrace.

"This deal is not worth it! Great Comrade Stalin!" Seeing his superior's face, the Red Army general had no choice but to frown and said: "We provided about 300 fighter jets to the Spanish Republican Army for free, and they almost All were destroyed by the Air Force of the National Army. Even though there are many reports that the National Army has more than 500 fighters, we cannot send more fighters to Spain to overwhelm this number."

"The loss is too great! Comrade Stalin! We can no longer support the Spanish Republican Army for free! This will affect our country's military deployment!" A general who was highly valued by Stalin also stood up and persuaded.

Stalin frowned, tapped his fingers on the table, and stared at his trusted generals: "Why did our weapons suffer such heavy losses in Spain? Could it be that the weapons that the National Army cheated from Italy and Germany were more advanced?"

"I think, although I don't want to admit it, but the great Comrade Stalin! I'm afraid the truth is like this!" A middle-aged man with the rank of major general, an air force commander, said regretfully: "Our pilots said that they encountered An unprecedented fighter, with a speed of more than 500 kilometers per hour, can fly through the height of the clouds, this aircraft completely overwhelms the I-16 fighter we are equipped with in terms of performance."

This was a blow to the technical department's hornet's nest. A head of the Soviet technical department in a suit immediately jumped up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. He glanced at Stalin before pointing at the person opposite and cursed: "You are slandering! We designers have designed the best fighter jets in the world day and night! You lost the battle but shifted the responsibility to us in the rear? I think you generals are greedy for life and afraid of death! "

Another technician also slapped the table and argued: "Completely overwhelm the i-16 fighter jet? This is impossible! We imitated the engine and made substantial improvements. The i-16 fighter jet is better than the fighter jets currently used by Britain and France. The performance is twice as good! If the flying height is due to the problem of the open cockpit, we are urgently installing a closed cockpit for the subsequent fighter jets.”

The officer who was scolded blushed and argued thickly: "But our pilots will not lie! They said that they were indeed chased by an extremely fast fighter! So we have to re-produce a faster, higher altitude fighter, Used to adapt to future combat needs!"

"We are working hard on production, and several factories are working overtime. We hope to come up with the design of the next generation of fighter jets as soon as possible!" A person in charge of technology said quickly when he saw Stalin's displeased face.

"The army's performance is very good. Although it failed, the T-26 tank performed very well. Compared with our tanks, German tanks have no advantages in terms of technology or performance." Kliment? Yefremovich Voroshilov hurriedly announced the good news, hoping to relax Stalin's tense face: "Our army's snipers have also achieved brilliant results."

"They killed a total of 3,000 enemy soldiers, and 400 claimed to have killed German soldiers." After looking at the information in his hand, a general reported: "Our snipers killed 270 people and 13 people are missing. This achievement is still very worthy of recognition, at least we did not let the German snipers be complacent for too long."

These reports made several representatives of the tank technical department very proud. The elation on their faces proved their complacent mood at this moment. It was definitely very important to be able to let others commend their achievements in front of Stalin, at least during the Great Purge. Happy stuff - at least it will keep you out of danger for the next few months.

Stalin was also stabilized by the news of victory. He let out a sigh of relief before asking with a forced smile, "The Republican Army on the front line has lost so many planes and tanks. Can we make up for it?"

"I'm afraid not! Great Comrade Stalin!" An old man in a suit stood up and tremblingly reported the production data of the Soviet industry last month, and then began to persuade: "If the supply to Spain is increased, then The military’s orders will be unable to produce, and the plan to equip 2,000 I-16 fighter jets and 1,000 subsequent models next year will not be completed. The same is true for tank production.”

No one wants to pay someone else to buy trousers with a bare ass, and obviously Stalin is the same, but he still wants to maintain his reputation and status in the Communist International, and to ensure his influence over the world*. So he is still reluctant to give up Spain completely, but the reality before him can't make him continue to do crazy moves-the Italian navy has blocked the port of Valencia, and the transportation of Soviet weapons to Spain is becoming more and more difficult , The Spanish war situation has been irreversible.

Marshal Voroshilov whispered in Stalin's ear: "Great Comrade Stalin, we cannot endlessly support distant wars. If you think it is necessary, we can turn to support China's unfavorable *sports."

Stalin raised his eyebrows when he heard about China, and finally sighed helplessly after thinking for a while, looked at the generals around him and said helplessly: "Okay! If that's the case! Then we will deploy the troops in Spain Withdraw your weapons, too!"

Hearing Stalin's words, many people breathed a sigh of relief. This is tantamount to saving the lives of many Soviet Red Army. After all, it is not a safe thing to travel across the ocean to support Spain, not to mention that most Soviet soldiers never returned. fate.

Many times the people below report the good news but not the bad news, and use domestic purges to cover up the amazing losses in Spain. At least 10,000 Soviet soldiers were killed in Spain, and hundreds of tanks were destroyed by German Tekken rocket launchers and No. 3 tanks—— Most of these casualties were shot by officers as "traitors", and the loss of these tanks left at least one Soviet armored division as a shell that only existed on paper.

Now that Stalin has let go, there is no need for the countless materials that have been piled up in the port to be sent to Spain as far away as the sky. Many military officers have begun to think about this batch of materials. The great purge made many incompetent but fatuous and corrupt military officers ascend to higher positions, and the retribution soon came to this country.

Many goods were auctioned off to foreign merchants on the spot, and then recorded as having been shipped to Spain a few days earlier. In order to fabricate real data, the navy also sent warships to participate in the escort, and fired and sank two empty transport ships of their own country and reported them to Moscow as "battle damage".

Most of these sold goods were shipped to Italy and became part of the enemy's strategic materials.

The Republican Army, which had lost its greatest support, was defeated and was quickly driven out of the area around Madrid. The voices of the Spanish people who were exhausted from fighting became louder and louder, causing the Republican Army to quickly lose its original strength. The people's heart is like a rock. On the other hand, the Communist International took away many elites in order to preserve its strength, which further made the situation of the Spanish Republican Army worse.

A month later, Valencia, the last major port controlled by the Republican Army, was occupied by Franco's National Army and the German 8th Armored Division. Franco declared the civil war completely over. At the same time, Spain joined the German-Italian Steel Federation, becoming the third country to join this steel axis.