Chapter 179: Polish Campaign (42)
Voroshilov and Yezhov were escorted to the Kremlin and taken to Stalin's office.
In just a few hours, the two seemed to have aged by a dozen years, looking distracted and absent-minded. If they were not supported by the guards beside them, they would not even be able to crawl.
"So you didn't break through the Polish defense line at all?" Stalin held a pipe in his hand and stared coldly at the two people in front of him.
Yezhov suddenly broke free from the two strong men who were holding him, knelt down, and kowtowed, his forehead was broken and blood flowed all over his face. "Leader, spare me, we were just confused for a moment..."
"Shut up!" Yezhov's begging for mercy was just spoken out, and was rudely interrupted by Stalin. He saw his eyes wide open, the muscles on his face twitching constantly, looking very hideous and terrifying, and the anger in his eyes seemed to be able to burn people to ashes. "Drag them out!"
The guards dragged the two out, leaving only Stalin, who was panting heavily, in the office.
After the recent purge, he believed that those who remained were loyal to him, and he never dreamed that his confidant and the marshal would collude to deceive him.
This incident made him furious, but what bothered him more was how many people were like them, who were disobedient to him and deceived their superiors and subordinates? Are there any trustworthy people?
He didn't notice that this idea was simply poisonous. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that everyone around him was extremely suspicious, and everyone might be a spy or traitor hidden around him.
"There are still enemies in our team, hidden enemies, very cunning... We must dig them out, no matter how deep, we must dig... Only when the team is pure can we win the final victory..." Stalin walked back and forth, muttering to himself.
He immediately summoned a group of people who he thought were still trustworthy and held a meeting with the theme of "thoroughly purifying the ** team".
After the meeting, the Great Purge, which had just subsided for less than a year, was revived again, sweeping across the Soviet Union more fiercely than before.
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On the Warsaw side, a group of X-troops of the Guards entered the city.
They searched for underground entrances in the city, and poured several barrels of napalm into each one they found, ignited it, and sealed the entrance.
Sometimes you can hear bursts of screams coming from underground, the kind of heart-wrenching screams that make people's scalps numb.
As the flame offensive quickly advanced, the Poles hiding underground finally couldn't hold on. When a company of Polish soldiers in a secret base were suffocated to death, a large number of Polish soldiers fled to the ground and surrendered one after another.
Carol Rommel, who felt that the situation was hopeless, finally ordered the Polish army in the underground city to surrender, and he himself shot himself in the office, living up to his bold statement of "living and dying with Warsaw".
Compared with these Polish soldiers who fought bravely and defended their land against the enemy, the performance of the Polish government was not very good.
Marshal Smygwi and President Mościcki, who fled Warsaw early, first fled to Lublin, southeast of Warsaw, and fled from Lublin to Kremeniec after only three days.
A week later, the Polish government, which fled to Zareshki, close to the Romanian border, finally realized that it had been betrayed by its allies and decided to flee to Romania to stop the exiled government and transport 800 tons of gold to Western countries through Romania for safekeeping.
Yannick knew that although Germany defeated Poland very easily, the Polish soldiers did not give up.
In the original time and space, these Polish defeated troops entered Hungary and Romania, and in order to go to France and Britain to participate in the battle, the routes they took were also varied. The most common one was to start from Romania or Hungary, enter Italy or Yugoslavia, which was still a neutral country at the time, and take a ship to the French colonies in North Africa or Syria; others entered Spain from Italy, then entered Portugal, and took a ship to Britain. Crossing Europe in this way is convenient. A Polish captain went eastward into the Soviet Union, crossed the entire Siberia, and then crossed the Pacific Ocean to Canada via Japan, contacted the British recruiting station, traveled around the world, and finally returned to France to join the Polish army!
After the Dunkirk evacuation, the French battlefield was already defeated. A Polish exile army in Scotland, the Powder Hall Brigade, at the request of France, actually set out from Scotland and returned to the port of Brest on the Brittany Peninsula in France to join the second phase of the French Campaign. Their courage to do what they knew was impossible was admirable, but the ending was tragic. The brigade was defeated by the German army along with the main force of the French army. Only a small part of the brigade headquarters command was able to withdraw from the port of Brest to the UK in time. The scattered Polish soldiers either entered the German prisoner-of-war camp or entered the Vichy government-controlled area in southern France, and then traveled to North Africa and Gibraltar to find the Allies in the UK or the Middle East to continue fighting.
These Polish soldiers received French military pay and weapons, and were often regarded by the Allies as beggars who lived on charity. Now they had to fight for their lives again. Many Polish soldiers would rather die in battle than prove themselves to the Allies. This mentality made them show admirable courage and self-sacrifice in battle, but it also led to their unnecessary loss of precious human resources. Of the total 75,000 Polish exiles fighting in France, only 19,000 fled to Britain, and 5,000 of them were air force personnel originally scheduled to be trained and equipped by Britain.
When a train carrying high-level members of the Polish government, 800 tons of gold, and a group of soldiers arrived at the railway station in the Romanian border city of Tarena, and was about to add water and fuel, a group of German Guards soldiers with live ammunition rushed into the platform and surrounded the entire train. Hold on, keep your guns pointed at each carriage.
"What, what is going on?!" Marshal Himigwe and President Moschiecki were shocked when they saw this. "Quick, get out of here!" Unfortunately, no matter how they yelled in panic, the train was not a high-end sports car. It could speed up to 100 meters in a few seconds, and at this time, the locomotive had already been controlled by the Imperial Guards. They wanted to I can't escape even if I run, I have truly become a turtle in a urn.
At this time, the loudspeaker outside sounded. "People in the car, listen, you have one minute to put down your weapons and get out. If not, we will shoot indiscriminately! Now start the countdown, 59, 58..."
Looking at the condescending machine gunners on the roof outside, the soldiers holding Iron Fist rockets, and even two tanks in the distance with the black holes pointing their muzzles, the people in the cars had no intention of resisting.
The Poles who lined up to get off the train were briefly searched, their numbers were recorded, and they were put into the train carriage on the other side.
Looking at President Moschiecki and Marshal Himigwe, who were walking out of the carriage with frustrated faces, a Guards major general stepped forward with a smile. "You two, I've been waiting for you for a long time."
"You, you..." The two of them stared hatefully at the young man who was following the major general and had the Romanian flag badge on his chest. They just wanted to rush forward and bite him. This young man is Romania's Crown Prince Mihai. These despicable and shameless guys actually played such a trick to trap him? "Aren't you afraid of being condemned by the international community?!"
Mihai spread his hands and said innocently. "Sorry, you are important wanted criminals in Germany. As a friendly country that has signed an extradition treaty with Germany, we are of course obliged to help Germany catch criminals, which also includes trapping methods."
Michael's father, Carol II, was a famous playboy who gave up his right to the throne twice for women. Michael was the son of Carol II and his second wife, Princess Helen of Greece. In 1927, Carol II once again gave up his right to inherit the throne and eloped to Paris with his lover. At the age of six, Michael became the new king of Romania. Among the various European dynasties at that time, Michael I was the youngest king. But three years later, in 1930, Carol II returned to Romania, and Michael I had to give up the throne to his father, and he was reduced to the crown prince.
As we all know, most of the European royal families are relatives, and Romania is no exception. Ferdinand, who succeeded his uncle to the throne in 1914 and became the king of Romania, was a branch member of the Hohenzollern family. Moreover, this Mihai has been a fan of Yannick since he was a child. At this time, Romania almost became a vassal of Germany, but like Spain, it declared neutrality on the surface.