Chapter 573 Summer Thunder (5)

In the silent Kremlin, Stalin was holding a pipe and listening expressionlessly to Beria's report on the recent special investigation work.

There was an invisible fear under Beria's calm voice, because he couldn't help but start to be afraid when facing the truth, and he knew that these truths could not represent everything, and the reported data should have been shrunk in layers - such as , the data on the lost land in Spring Awakening and Castle Battle will no longer be counted. But no matter how much it shrinks, it cannot withstand the terrifying figures.

"Grassroots party organizations in various places have shown that since May, more than 1 million people have died abnormally due to hunger, malnutrition or eating non-food, mainly the elderly, infants, and the infirm. There are existing grassroots grain stocks It’s about 7-10 days. The army’s food inventory is about 25-30 days. There are still about 3 months until the harvest season. Maybe, maybe, probably..." he said tremblingly, "nearly 8-10 million abnormal deaths. ”

"Has the food obtained from the Far East, China and India been counted? Has the food aid from the United States been counted?"

"The US aid grains have been included in the statistics. The rest are core combat readiness materials that Comrade Voroshilov personally controlled. They are not included in the statistics. However, the total amount is not large, less than 800,000 tons in total." Beria wiped a cold sweat. , "This is the army's emergency war food. Without your instructions, we dare not touch this food."

"Release half of them." Stalin said expressionlessly, "I will talk to Comrade Voroshilov, and let Comrade Budyonny go to Mongolia. He bragged to me last time, but he didn't finish everything. Task."

Beria knew what it meant to go to Mongolia - to conduct another thorough plunder on the Mongolian grassland that had already been plundered once. As for whether the more than 1 million people in Mongolia could survive was no longer among Stalin's considerations, he subconsciously decided where to go. nodded.

"The Ministry of Internal Affairs also conducted an investigation into the social and political atmosphere. Starting in May, the number of people who rebelled against the country and surrendered to the enemy increased significantly. Although grassroots organizations carried out strict control and ideological education, many wavering elements were still found..."

"It's not that their faith has been shaken, it's that their stomachs have been shaken..." Stalin stopped Beria's explanation and remarks, "Just tell me the numbers."

In fact, it is very difficult for the Ministry of Internal Affairs to obtain these figures. The grassroots are not fools. The superiors suddenly come to investigate the number of people who have rebelled against the country and surrendered to the enemy. It is obvious that they have bad motives. They may want to arrest the grassroots responsible for poor management and control as a model. This is a big deal that will lose their heads. , so they tend to conceal or not report as much as possible. But Beria was not a free man. He quickly came up with a countermeasure, asking various organizational systems to change the secretaries of grassroots party organizations, and let new officials be responsible for supervising statistics. He also told them clearly that if he did not tell the truth and did not find out the problems, then if any problems are found during random inspections in the future, the original person in charge will not be held responsible, and the person who needs to be inspected will bear full responsibility; on the contrary, if there are problems during the inspection, the person responsible for the inspection will be held responsible. No one is to blame.

Theoretically, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has no right to interfere with the personnel transfer and organizational operations of grassroots party organizations. However, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has a strong background and the lingering power of the Great Purge is still there. Besides, it is not really involved in appointments and removals. It is just a temporary swap. All localities can only fiddle with it. Accept it with a pinched nose. As soon as this method came out, the people below went crazy - no one wanted to take the blame for others, and there were still problems in their own jurisdiction.

The figures reported further will be much more reliable. Of course, collective fraud may not be avoided, but this is a minority after all, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs has not found it yet. It's not that he couldn't find it, but Beria didn't let his subordinates mess around. He vaguely felt that Comrade Stalin's thoughts and practices were changing. Now it's better to stay calm and not cause trouble.

"Since May, more than 400,000 people have fled enemy-occupied areas, and another 200,000 to 300,000 people have been intercepted by grassroots organizations..." Beria glanced at Stalin secretly, "Most of the people fleeing are not good. The performance in the local area has always been average, with middle-aged women fleeing with infants and young children the most, followed by men in their 60s, and not many fleeing directly from the army."

Stalin nodded, and his intuition told him that this number was more credible. The army's food supply situation was much better than that of the civilian population, and the control was much stronger. Once a deserter was found, he would be shot.

"What if I give them another 2 million?"

"This..." Beria was stunned. He didn't understand what Stalin was thinking.

"Many personnel in the rear have lost their labor force, and at the same time we do not have enough food to feed them. For humanitarian reasons and to reduce our burden, we push them to the enemy's side. What do you think Vlasov would think?" No. When Beria answered, Stalin seemed to be saying to himself, "Isn't he claiming to save the Russian people from dire straits? Then let him support these 2 million people for us first."

As he spoke, his tone became stern: "If the enemy refuses to support them, their rumors will be self-defeating and the people will recognize his true face; if the enemy really accepts these 2 million people, it will greatly increase their The economic, financial and food burdens can also limit the time for necessary troops and social settlement. I don't believe that Vlasov can come up with anything to take care of these people. If he doesn't care, will Hitler take care of them if he lets the SS send them? It would be better to go to a concentration camp - this will only inspire people to fight fascism to the end."

Beria lowered his head and reminded in a low voice: "Will this damage the image of the party? And will it have an impact on the people's minds?"

"The impact is unavoidable and can be controlled. How can it affect the image more than mass starvation?" Stalin made up his mind, "The Ministry of Internal Affairs and grassroots party organizations will make arrangements based on the population they have, and the proportion will be temporarily controlled at 5%. It must be ensured that the population is completely incapable of working or suffering from various injuries.”

Beria quickly agreed.

The last report was about a secret investigation into the peace talks, mainly targeting senior generals and important officials, and was completely investigated by the Ministry of the Interior. Before the report, Beria was unsure of Stalin's intentions and wrote three reports in one breath: the first one was approved by the majority of people; the second one was opposed by the majority of people; and the third one was the conclusion and analysis of his investigation. . He originally wanted to find out Stalin's tone from the previous two investigation reports so that he could submit corresponding reports in a targeted manner and make the leader's words seem convincing. However, at present, he still cannot figure out Stalin's trump card.

After hesitating for a long time, he finally took out the third report from his briefcase.

"Among the members of the Political Bureau, more than 75% agree with the decision you proposed and believe that it is better to contact the enemy and negotiate conditions, even if it can actually delay time and survive this winter; the rest of the comrades believe that we can follow Lenin's example Comrade's original approach was to quickly make peace with the Germans, and even temporarily cede the enemy-occupied areas to the Germans. As for whether they occupy it themselves or support the puppet regime, we will not interfere, but we must not take the initiative to recognize the puppet regime; in a non-political situation Most of the members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China believe that the current sacrifice is too great, but they can still grit their teeth and persevere.”

Stalin nodded. This situation was in line with his understanding. The news of the two peace talks between Bulgaria and Germany was approved at the Politburo meeting, but the Central Committee members did not know this at this level, so they were at a loss. feeling.

“It is worth noting that we have heard Comrade Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev’s discussion of the peace talks more than once. He advocated the complete relocation of the party, state and army to the east of the Ural Mountains. The enemy concluded an armistice agreement of no war and no peace, and..." Beria paused, "I also heard him peddling this statement to several other Politburo members and front army commanders... At present, …”

Beria suddenly stopped.

"Go on, why don't you talk anymore?"

"The following situations are the result of speculation by comrades from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. There is no direct evidence." Beria whispered. Directly monitoring a Politburo member without authorization is a big or small matter, and he had to be careful.

"It's okay, keep talking."

"Not many other Politburo comrades seem to agree with this view. Several front commanders in the direction of Stalingrad are quite disgusted with it... It seems that Comrade Zhukov, Comrade Vasilevsky and Comrade Kuznetsov I discussed this idea once when we were talking about the situation.”

"What did they say?" Stalin felt his breathing quicken: the main event was coming.

"Comrade Zhukov believes that in this current war we can only adopt the method of luring the enemy deep into the country. In the Napoleonic era, luring the enemy to the front line in Moscow was enough. However, due to the advancement of the times and technological power, the mobility of the army has increased, and now it is necessary to lure the enemy deep. The enemy has larger and more space, so retreating to the Ural Mountains is a good strategy.

At the same time, we can also see from China's war practice that since the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, China's political center has gradually moved inland, retreating from Nanjing to Chongqing, 1,500 kilometers away. Finally, after a long period of resistance, it forced The enemy continues to extend the front line to the point that it cannot maintain it and is forced to shrink. If a more decent armistice situation cannot be reached according to your vision, it may be better to withdraw the effective forces to the east of the Ural Mountains.

If the German army were to move forward and approach the Ural Mountains, it would mean that their supply line would reach the Azores in the west, South Africa in the south, Norway in the north, and the Ural Mountains in the east. In any direction, it would be nearly 5,000 kilometers (more than 10,000 kilometers to the south). Germany's territory, population and industrial capacity cannot be maintained no matter what, and will eventually collapse.

In addition, Germany’s enemies are not only us, but also Britain and the United States. Especially the United States, although it has been relatively embarrassed in recent times, its population and industrial strength determine that it has no problem in arming more than 10 million troops. In the current situation where Germany is unable to threaten the United States, the United States will not easily make peace with Germany. The potential and strength have not yet been fully realized. Once Britain and the United States regain their advantage at sea, Germany will be in a hard fight..."