Chapter 810: Washington Political Conspiracy (Part 1, 3800 Votes Plus Additional Content)

On January 14, 1944, after fierce debate, Stalin personally reviewed and agreed with Zhukov's idea of ​​the "Operation Mercury" operational plan, the first phase of the Central Asian operation to recapture Samarkand, Dushanbe, Bishkek, Tashkent, etc. He was satisfied with the results of the battle that had secured important cities in important cities and imprisoned the German Central Asian cluster into the Fergana Basin. What made him even more satisfied was the telegram sent by Zhukov earlier. The telegram, in the form of Zhukov's in-depth "examination", confirmed that Comrade Stalin had always been The latter's farsightedness and wise and correct handling of internal conflicts among the nation have enhanced the latter's prestige. At the Communist Party meeting, Stalin rarely smiled. Instead of criticizing Zhukov for his naivety, he believed that he had become more mature politically and hoped that he could turn the tide again militarily.

To show trust, Stalin personally presided over the meeting of the Supreme Command and approved the plan. At Zhukov's request, he also incorporated Malinovsky's independent group army into the Central Asian Special Front Army. At the same time, he gritted his teeth and transferred a relatively elite Guards Tank Brigade from each of the three southern front armies to strengthen the independent group army. Army group. In addition, the Supreme Command mobilized more than 10,000 people from the 1st, 3rd, and 5th Airborne Brigades, the most elite brigades, to form the Airborne Corps. The deputy commander of the Soviet Airborne Forces, Major General Zatevakhin, was appointed as the commander. The Army Headquarters was also formed by the Airborne Corps. The troops were drawn from the Corps Headquarters, incorporated into the Central Front Army sequence and put under the direct command of Zhukov, and were required to be deployed near Astrakhan within 2 weeks.

Since the distance from Samarkand to the east coast of the Caspian Sea is more than 1,200 kilometers, and most of it is the Gobi Desert. In addition, the grassroots political power has been destroyed and the few people have fled. It is basically impossible for the Red Army to raise supplies on the spot. In order to reduce the material supply pressure on the Central Asian Front, the Supreme Command has also mobilized all transport aircraft it can currently collect to provide emergency material supplies to the offensive group of more than 400,000 people heading west. Fortunately, the Soviet army was far less mechanized than the German army, and relied most on mules and horses. Otherwise, long-distance dispatch would have been impossible.

In fact, it is not difficult to attack in Central Asia. What is difficult is material supply. Chernyi Khovsky assessed the situation and believed that it was impossible for the troops to deploy quickly in such a large range and such a long distance. He carefully mobilized 3 A cavalry division, three tank brigades and two mechanized corps composed of a 100,000-strong forward attack force accelerated their advance and were required to be deployed before February 5. The remaining troops were to advance slightly according to tactical deployment. Due to the lack of people and no trace along the way, such a huge troop movement was not yet under the control of the German army. When Zhukov returned to Central Asia a few days later, he expressed satisfaction with all aspects of their work.

The news of the Red Army's bloody massacre of the Central Asian national regimes was quickly reported by Scherner to Marshal Manstein, the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Joint Theater. The latter had never been very interested in the Central Asian regimes. In addition, the cold weather and the Central Asian clusters Being stuck in the Fergana Basin, I suggested waiting for the weather to improve before finding a solution. He originally thought that Hoffman would be dissatisfied with the decision, but he insisted that in this climate and season, waiting was the best way, and he was even prepared to disobey. But the instructions from Berlin were unexpected. The instructions contained only one sentence: political issues should not be confused with military issues.

The meaning contained in this sentence made people think hard. Manstein believed that he had grasped the mentality of the head of state: all kinds of dishonesty after the independence of the Central Asian national regimes, coupled with mutual opposition, "there are The gun is the grass-headed king." There is chaos and order is broken, and there must be a clean-up process. It is obviously inappropriate for the Germans to do this. Now that Stalin is willing to take action, let him do it, as long as there is no chaos in the Fergana Basin.

In fact, since the basin is divided into three countries, there has never been a unified local independent political power, and they are also attacking each other. However, Sherner did not care about this. After entering the basin, he immediately used iron-blooded means to strictly control the situation and even established a complete set of rules. System, local people generally believe that the German army has brought them the long-awaited order and stability. The entire basin has not only become a geographical oasis, but also a psychological oasis because of the continuous flow of people coming to seek refuge.

On January 18, Zhukov, who had completed the corresponding request for instructions, returned to Tashkent again to take command, personally commanding the entire Mercury Campaign, and dispatching troops and generals to prepare for a big fight. This day happened to be the same day that Kakuharu Tsunoda led the Second Air War to the Central Pacific to "break diplomatic relations with Musashi". His fleet not only received the newly renovated Zuikaku aircraft carrier, but also received a new aircraft carrier with folding wings. Bf-219C fighter jets and other brand-new carrier-based aircraft.

Based on the request of the front-line troops and the actual use in the Newfoundland campaign, the Germans decided to officially include the Do-412 (Purple Lightning modification) as a ship-based fighter and the Ju-198 (Meteor modification) as a ship-based attack aircraft. Japan We also obtained relevant information and technical data based on the technical cooperation memorandum, but it will take a long time to get the actual goods. Since Japan said that it will not be able to launch an attack until May, everything is still quite late.

In the past half month, the newly appointed Navy Privy Councilor, Horikichi, who concurrently holds the two important positions of Commander-in-Chief of Military Command and Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet, and actually controls the entire Navy, has launched a vigorous and unprecedented campaign based on the principles of the Emperor's edict and the Navy Privy Council Order. Naval reform:

His first fire was the "Torch Prefecture Ordinance" that had been implemented in 1886 and had existed for more than half a century, abolishing the four major tutelary forts of Yokosuka, Kure, Sasebo, and Maizuru in one fell swoop. In 1923, it was downgraded to the important port department and restored in 1939, with the weakest strength). The Imperial Navy's home theater was newly established, and all the governors of the garrison were immediately laid off. Subsequently, Admiral Nobutake Kondo, the backbone of the original fleet and Admiral of the Second Fleet, served as the commander-in-chief of the local theater, and Matoi Ugaki served as chief of staff. For other positions, suitable officials were selected from the four major garrison offices.

The newly formed Imperial Home Theater is mainly divided into two major functions: preparation and operations. The former is responsible for ship preparation and supply, the formation of newly commissioned ships, crew (marine) training, port management and channel management, and the management of various naval agencies and schools. The latter is responsible for Unified command of the aviation fleet, maritime escorts (surface ships and underwater ships), special attack teams, marines, garrison, naval regiments, etc. stationed in the mainland to perform defense tasks. In other words, the local theater has jurisdiction over all local combat forces belonging to the navy, including surface, water, air, marines, guards, port fortresses, and radar bases to achieve integrated command, but is only responsible for defense (offensive functions belong to the joint Fleet owned) and maintenance supplies (mainly for the Combined Fleet).

The reform also abolished the ridiculous restrictions on where ships and soldiers can belong to the garrison. The navy will be able to organize chaotic formations in the future, and things like "Wu Zhifeng and Sasebo Shigure" will become memories. More importantly, the original "Tutorial Office Regulations" stipulated that the commander-in-chief of the defensive office was directly subordinate to the emperor, and accepted the leadership of the Minister of the Navy on military and political affairs, and the commander-in-chief of the Military Command Department on military affairs. However, after the reform, the commander-in-chief of the local theater and the commander-in-chief of the combined fleet were at the same level and were changed to be under the leadership of the Privy Councilor of the Navy. Military affairs and military order affairs were still under the leadership of the Minister of the Navy and the Chief of the Military Order Department respectively.

This made it further clear to all parties: From now on, the emperor can only arrest the Privy Councilor, the Minister of the Navy, and the Chief of the Military Command, plus at most the military counselor in an advisory role. He can no longer go beyond them to directly arrest the theater commander or the combined fleet. Commander, this is equivalent to cutting off more than 90% of the emperor's naval command authority, and Horikichi becomes the veritable number one in the navy.

Former Yokosuka Governor and Admiral Koga Mineichi was appointed as Chief of Staff to the Emperor; Admiral Zengo Yoshida, who was a classmate of Hori Tekiyoshi and Yamamoto Isoroku at the same time, was appointed Chief Military Counselor (not only considered an aviation fan, but also a rare (who strongly agrees with Horikichi's ideas); General Kato Takayoshi, the former head of Kure Governorate and who has always been opposed to reform, was transferred to the reserve; King Kitashirakawa Palace Teruhisa (Komatsu Teruhisa), former chief of Sasebo Governorate and a member of the royal family Vice Admiral Okawauchi was transferred to the reserve force; Vice Admiral Okawauchi Denshichi, the former commander of Maizuru Fort and the same generation as Inoue Narumi, was transferred to the position of principal of the Naval War School.

As a result, all admirals before the 32nd issue were transferred to the reserve force. In the 32nd issue, there were only three active admirals, Horikichi, Yamamoto Isoroku and Yoshida Zengo. The rest of the admirals were all retired. With the 35th issue, Takasu Shiro was appointed. After becoming the Commander-in-Chief of the Nanyang Theater, no generals served in the Combined Fleet in the 33rd, 34th, and 35th periods (in fact, all but a few people in these three periods have retired). After Horikichi, the oldest admiral of the Combined Fleet became Tsukahara Tsukahara in issue 36, and in issue 37 there was Jizaburo Ozawa, who had the highest voice. This provided the opportunity to reorganize the combined fleet and truly shift the focus of operations from battleships. The transformation of troops into aircraft carrier forces created institutional conditions.

However, these earth-shaking changes in the Japanese Navy were obviously not known to the outside world, at least not mentioned when the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Chief of Staff to the President, Admiral Lee and Harry Pukins quietly arrived at the hospital to visit Roosevelt who was seriously ill.

Compared with more than a month ago, Roosevelt's complexion was obviously much better, and various physical functions had also recovered relatively satisfactorily. He maintained clear thinking and logical coherence during long conversations and exchanges with the two people. In the early days of the Battle of Newfoundland, Roosevelt, who had been waiting for good news, obviously could not withstand the stimulation of consecutive defeats. However, in the later stages, especially after Cunningham used the tactic of killing 500 enemies and losing 1,000 self-inflicted losses to both sides, Roosevelt recovered. After thinking about the whole situation calmly, he believed that in terms of the current situation, attrition tactics were actually the only feasible policy - after the battles of Newfoundland and Cape Verde, the German fleet, which had suffered heavy losses, would not be able to maintain the high-pressure situation on the British-Canada route. Already?

In fact, a week ago, his body was strong enough to support him to return and resume his duties, but Roosevelt smiled and refused. He wanted to take a look at Wallace's governance methods, but the actual situation undoubtedly disappointed him...