The sun never sets

After Lin Yongchang's dissuasion, Chairman Wang Qi finally gave up his plan to fly to Moscow in a hurry. After hanging up the phone, Lin Yongchang still felt a little unreal. Comrade Stalin was offline just like that?

Because of what happened in another time and space, Lin Yongchang's attitude towards Comrade Gangtie was very complicated at first. Although he was relieved later, his attitude towards Stalin was still to use him and control him, and he would never give Stalin the opportunity to dominate political affairs and military affairs.

Comrade Stalin was very skilled in fighting and had radical political ideas, his political stance was closer to syndicalism. For these reasons, Lin Yongchang thought about it and finally let him take charge of the work of the Suppression Committee, and made up his mind not to give Stalin the opportunity to do other work, just to keep working in the Suppression Committee.

Deep in Lin Yongchang's heart, he might have intended to use Stalin as a scapegoat in the future. But now Stalin is dead, and his body was blown up at the train station. If he had been at the train station, this would not have happened. Even if the bomb had exploded, he would have been safe.

But Comrade Stalin had no cheats. Although he was called "steel", it was not real steel. In the face of gunpowder, his flesh was easily torn apart.

Two days later, the intelligence department found out something. Based on the testimonies of the people who survived the scene and the results of investigations elsewhere, the Purge Committee roughly reconstructed what happened on the day of the bombing.

The person who detonated the bomb at the train station was a coal miner named Nikolayev. He probably tied TNT explosives to his body, approached Comrade Stalin after the train arrived, and then detonated the explosives on his body.

TNT is a military explosive, but it is also used in the Alliance's mines. It is somewhat difficult to trace the source of TNT.

"Nikolaev?"

"Yes, according to the information from the investigation, his name is Oned Vasilyevich Nikolayev."

Yakov, the Union's European intelligence chief, reported to Lin Yongchang on the progress of the investigation into the bombing. "He worked in the coal mines in Kazan for two years. He came to Moscow three days ago and then detonated the explosives at the station."

"What's the reason? Why did this man named Nikolayev want to turn himself into a human bomb? Did he just happen to be lucky, or did he get accurate information? Is there someone behind him?"

Lin Yongchang was very dissatisfied with what Yakov brought out. "I don't think the assassination of Comrade Stalin was an accident. It was a murder carefully planned by the enemy."

Yakov lowered his head. "The Cheka and the General Staff also believe that there is intelligence support behind the bombing."

“Is the enemy from abroad or from within us?”

Sweat oozed from Yakov's head. "There is no definite evidence yet..." He hesitated for a moment and said, "According to the information sent back by our intelligence personnel, the bombing case may be related to the British-French alliance, or to Germany."

Lin Yongchang shook his head repeatedly. If Stalin were still alive, he would never say such a thing. It was the Anglo-French alliance, and Germany, so why not bring the United States into the picture as well? Although he was dissatisfied with the current work of the Purge Committee, Lin Yongchang did not get angry, but asked, "Are there any evidence?"

"Not yet...If we can get the comrades from the General Staff to assist in the investigation..."

"If there is no evidence, keep investigating! Not only the people and staff of the alliance will die, but also the chairman of the Purge Committee!"

Yakov felt his face burning. "We will continue to investigate!"

Another day passed and Yakov made another report.

"Nikolaev is a pseudonym. We went to Luganton to investigate based on the information he filled out in Kazan, but there was no such person there."

Yakov said: "Later we re-examined his background and finally found out his origins. Nikolayev's real name was Sukhokin, and he used the alias Kaplan. He was a captain in the old Russian army and participated in the rebellion of the Russian army in Moscow."

Chapter 863: Propaganda

After listening to Yakov's report on the latest progress, Lin Yongchang felt that he still had some ability. He might not be as good as Dzerzhinsky and Stalin, but he was still a capable general. Thinking of this, a smile appeared on his face.

Yakov continued his report: "I think that the internal

There is a group that is anti-party and anti-state. This group is lurking in various industries, even in universities, party schools and government officials...”

The smile on Lin Yongchang's face gradually disappeared, but Yakov continued to talk, "........We must ruthlessly root out those who are anti-party and anti-state..."

"That seems to be what Comrade Stalin said before."

Yakov said: "If Comrade Stalin had found those bad elements earlier, he would not have been blown up at the train station."

"........."

Lin Yongchang asked Yakov to continue investigating the case, and then asked Zhdanov to come to the office to report. Yakov was Comrade Stalin's deputy, and Zhdanov was the director responsible for specific intelligence analysis.

Zhdanov's report was different from Yakov's. He gave a very affirmative conclusion: "Sukhokin was working for the German General Staff, but in fact he was a spy for the trade unions. The mastermind behind the railway station bombing should be the trade unions."

“Why not Germany?”

"The German government's use of intelligence officers was not like this, not so clever. The intelligence department under the German General Staff was more like an appendage of the army. Their main task was to carry out sabotage work after the outbreak of war, such as seizing places such as train stations and bridges, and creating chaos."

Zhdanov said confidently: "The Germans had no precedent of using human bombs. That was first used by the Irish Restoration Army."

Lin Yongchang laughed. "Are you so sure that there is even a slight possibility that the Germans were behind this?"

"It is impossible for Germany to take action under the current circumstances."

The German government is transporting volunteers and more weapons and equipment to North America. The morale of Huey Long's fascist army is good, but the industry in the southern states is not very developed, and many things require support from the German government.

They could also buy them from the Confederacy. As long as they paid, the Confederacy would even sell them battleships. However, the finances of the southern states were not abundant, and they could not afford to buy arms from abroad. If it were not for the support of countries such as Germany and Italy, the Confederate States of America would not have been able to arm tens of millions of troops.

The explosion at the Moscow train station shocked the entire Union's upper echelons, but the newspapers did not give much information about it. The official explanation for the explosion at the platform was that the gas tanks were old and leaking, and they re-emphasized that the safety period of gas tanks was 15 years. If this period was reached, they must be replaced at designated manufacturers.

In addition, the Central Committee of the League made some personnel changes. Comrade Stalin, the former Chairman of the Purge Committee, had to leave his post due to health reasons, and Comrade Wang Hu temporarily presided over the work of the Purge Committee.

Many countries have consulates in Moscow and they know that the explosion that day was definitely not a simple gas tank leak. The hospital near the platform admitted so many injured people, and a gas tank explosion would not cause so many serious injuries.

After the explosion, intelligence personnel from various embassies rushed to the scene and took photos of the tragic scene after the explosion. According to the military attachés, the explosion was equivalent to at least five kilograms of TNT.

Intelligence agencies in some countries speculated that the alliance had been attacked again. Detonating a bomb in a crowded place like a train station could kill or injure many people, but what would be the point?

Moreover, train stations are always strictly inspected, and many places have specially trained police dogs, who can sniff out anything. How did the assassin bring the bomb to the train station?

The alliance's territory expanded too much, causing panic in many countries. Now that the alliance is in trouble, many foreign countries are secretly happy, and many foreigners think that this is the unyielding cry of the lower class people.

Some fascist members in Germany and Italy thought this was a good thing. They discussed the attacks on the League at home and in bars, and some right-wing elements openly declared in newspapers that such incidents would happen again and more and more.

The Human Innovation Alliance put too much pressure on Germany, and many Junkers were afraid of their aggressive neighbor to the east. Because of fear, they carried out negative propaganda.

In addition to fear, there is also a real conflict of interest.

The Junkers were originally a group of landowners, but later they were dragged into the bourgeois era, still retaining many feudal attributes. This class had a deep dislike for the industrial and agricultural products of the Union, believing that the Union's products squeezed the German market and took away the money that should have belonged to the Junkers.

The alliance's newspapers and television reported that a gas tank exploded on the train platform, while the German media, through detailed analysis, proved that the incident was not as simple as a gas leak.

Some people in Germany laughed at the alliance, believing that such a thing would never happen in Germany. Before their laughter had died down, the central government of the alliance announced that it would hold a military parade in Moscow next year - after the completion of the Three Five-Year Plan - and would conduct exercises in Poland.

Military parades are something that all countries like to do. In addition to military parades, there are also naval reviews. The British Empire held a naval review when it held the Olympic Games. The scene of more than a hundred warships covering the sea was very spectacular.

But the British Royal Navy had been split. Some of the warships became the British Red Navy, while more fled to Canada in a hurry and became the Canadian Navy Fleet.

The alliance's navy has surpassed the Canadian navy, and its army is many times stronger than Canada's. There are 300,000 troops ready to appear in the Moscow parade, which is almost the total number of Canadian troops now.

The upcoming 1934 military exercise will involve more than million troops, the largest number of troops ever in the alliance's history. The alliance's foreign affairs spokesman claimed at a press conference that the exercise was not aimed at any country, but was only to test the mobilization speed of the troops and the combat effectiveness of the army.

I don’t know whether others believe it or not, but the German government probably doesn’t believe it.

In addition to conducting military exercises, the Union Central Committee also announced that it would build new warships in St. Petersburg and Sevastopol to replace the old warships in the fleet.

These news made the German government very nervous. The battleship issue was not so important for the time being. It would take at least two years from laying the first keel to launching the warship for sea trials and then forming combat effectiveness.

The troops conducting military exercises on land can cross the border at any time. The alliance conducted military exercises in Poland and the Baltic Sea, so Germany had to carry out preliminary mobilization. Otherwise, what would happen if millions of troops directly entered Germany?

In today's war, the side that completes mobilization first will have a great advantage, and this has been proven many times.

Chapter 864 What a pity

Exercises are very expensive and costly. Exercises are not just exercises, they are also intended to intimidate the enemy, or simply a precursor to war. Regardless of whether a war is going to start, the Alliance's deployment of hundreds of millions of troops on this side of the border is itself a huge threat to Germany.

Germany's standing army in peacetime was 80. Because of the need to support the Confederate States of America, the total strength of the German army increased to 110 million.

The standing army of the Franco-Spanish Commune was 140 million, and now the number has risen to 180 million. Excluding the volunteers sent to North America, half of the remaining troops are deployed on the German-French border. The Human Reform Alliance's standing army is 280 million on weekdays, which is a public figure after excluding the armed police force and militia.

Because the People's Revolutionary League had many secret troops, the great powers did not know how many standing troops the alliance had. They could only make a rough estimate, which was between 250 million and 350 million.

Among so many troops, the most important are always the Polish Military District and the Baltic Naval District. These two military districts border Germany. If a war breaks out, these two military districts will be the first to fight the enemy.

In the third five-year plan of the Human Reform Alliance, several large fortresses were built in eastern Poland and Lithuania, airports and permanent fortifications were constructed, and many military zones were demarcated... Although the troop deployment of the two military zones was mainly for defense, these things made Germany very nervous.

The Alliance has never been a good guy. It has gained such a large territory by fighting one sword and one gun. Since the predecessor of the Alliance, this country has been at war, and it has overturned all the surrounding countries to expand its territory to an unprecedented extent.

Many experts and scholars believe that the People's Revolutionary League only takes advantage of the weak and always uses the least cost to gain the greatest benefit. But the German government does not think so. After the League became powerful, its style of action became somewhat conservative, but in the beginning, it was extremely radical.

The People's Army fought with the Russian Army in Northeast China for four years, investing almost all its resources in developing heavy industry and military industry. After forcing the Russian Army to surrender, it turned around and attacked the Japanese Army, destroying the Japanese army division with a violent attack, thus re-establishing China's dominant position in Asia.

Now that the People's Revolutionary League is about to complete its third five-year plan, it has updated a lot of new equipment and announced that it will conduct military exercises in the Baltic Sea and Poland next year. William III is very worried about this.

He asked his ministers, "Is the alliance going to take action against us?"

According to intelligence gathered by the German General Staff, the Alliance's military strength will reach a new height by next year, but the German army has not yet completed its combat readiness, the army is full of various backward equipment, and it has also sent more than 300,000 volunteers to North America.

If it were the German High Command, it would probably have taken advantage of this opportunity to start a war. If war was inevitable, why not start it when the relative advantage was greatest?

No one knew whether the alliance would take action, just like before the world war, no one knew that the Moroccan crisis would turn into a world war. There were traces of the outbreak of war, but that was all after the fact. In an era with so many conflicts and frictions, every conflict and every friction could be the fuse of war, or it could just be a few more gunpowder barrels.

The intelligence chief gave his guess, "There was an explosion at the Riga Railway Station in Moscow a month ago. According to intelligence, Chairman Lin was supposed to get off the train at that platform at the time."

That's such a pity! Many people think so. Why not blow up the great dictator in the East? As long as Lin dies, the unbreakable alliance may collapse on its own, just like the United States now.

"After the bombing, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, Chairman of the Soviet Union's Cheka, has not appeared at any event he was supposed to attend. We believe that Mr. Steel has been involved in the bombing at the railway station.

was killed in the explosion.”

The generals and ministers all felt sorry for it. Why did Mr. Steel die? But no one was stupid enough to show it. William III also felt a little sorry, "But what does this have to do with the alliance's military exercises?"

The intelligence chief looked at the Emperor, then looked around. William III was stunned for a moment, then he understood and asked most people to leave, leaving only a few important officials.

"Blücher, you may speak now."

Intelligence chief Blücher then said: "The assassin who detonated the bomb at the train station was named Sukhotkin and used to work for the General Staff Intelligence Department."

".............You mean, it was the General Staff that planned the assassination of Chairman Lin? But for some reason, it failed to complete the mission, and instead blew up Mr. Steel of the Anti-Counterrevolutionary Committee?"

William III's face was quickly filled with anger. "What are my generals thinking? Doing this will lead to war! Oh my God, I finally understand why the alliance planned such a huge exercise!"

He glared at Blücher and asked, "How many things are you hiding from me?"

Blucher replied expressionlessly: "Sending some Russian nobles to infiltrate the alliance, this matter has been reported to Your Majesty three years ago."

"......." William III was so angry that he had no place to vent his anger. "Why don't I remember?"

"If Your Majesty needs it, you can send someone to check the documents and records at that time."

Blucher said: "After the incident, we conducted an internal investigation and found that the General Staff had no plan to blow Lin up. The Moscow bombing has nothing to do with our country."

"What about the bombing?"

"Su Khokin is most likely a double agent sent by the Paris Security Agency inside our country."

"Is there any evidence?"

"We have whatever evidence you want."

"........." William III said distressedly, "We need to communicate with the Alliance. We can't blame ourselves for what the French did... Has the Alliance determined that it was our country that did it?"

"The Alliance's intelligence department should find out that the incident had nothing to do with Germany. What good would it do to send someone to assassinate Lin? Would it allow those syndicalist lunatics to come to power?"

"But that doesn't mean the coalition won't pretend that we did it," Blücher said.

"That means you want to ask for benefits."

William III thought for a moment and asked, "What does Germany have that the Alliance needs? The right of passage through the Neil Strait and the Suez Canal? Or Germany's most advanced machine tool technology?"

Germany has fallen behind the alliance in many aspects, but it still has some advantages in mechanical manufacturing and processing. Germany has a slightly larger number of machine tools than the alliance, and the technology is very advanced, which is unique in the world.

Because of their strong processing and manufacturing capabilities, the Germans still used staggered road wheels on their "Panzer IV", which enhanced the tank's mobility. However, it was very troublesome to maintain, and reliability was always a problem.

Chapter 865: Reversal

Germany's domestic industrial strength is very strong. Although its steel production is not as good as that of the United States before the Civil War, it has many more machine tools than the United States. The German army is now lagging behind the Allies in all aspects. In addition to the number of standing troops and reserves, the disadvantage of foreign companies is mainly because they have no money. It is because of economic problems that the military lags behind.

Economic problems are often caused by political problems.

Well, this statement is not entirely correct. There are many reasons for economic problems. Politics is one of the important reasons, and the international situation also needs to be considered.

Compared with the alliance, Germany currently only has a slight advantage in machine tools, or in mechanical processing and manufacturing. Some things are not just about technology, but also require a large number of skilled workers and engineers who have been immersed in manufacturing for decades. Technology is one aspect, and people are another. Only when the two are combined can we be the best in the world.

When a large number of German workers flee to the Alliance, if Germany then hands over its core technologies and unique skills to the Alliance, what advantages will Germany have over the People's Revolutionary League?

German newspapers and other media often boast that German products are of good quality, but German leaders know that this is not the case. Germany has advantages in some high-tech areas. But most of the time, the technology of the People's Revolutionary League is more advanced, the product quality is better, and the price is cheaper.

William III wanted to ease relations with the Alliance and had to make concessions. Government officials were unwilling to hand over core technologies. So what about giving him the right to pass through the Dardanelles and the Suez Canal?

The Ottoman Empire and Egypt were able to withstand the pressure of the alliance and prevent the alliance's warships from entering the Mediterranean and the Black Sea because they had the support of Germany. As long as Germany changed its attitude, neither Turkey nor Egypt would be able to continue to be tough.

However, if the alliance's naval fleet is allowed to enter the Mediterranean, it will pose a serious threat to Italy.

So, after some discussion, the German government was willing to negotiate for the right of passage and alliance of the Dardanelles and the Suez Canal. Italy's strategic interests are important, but Germany's interests are more important. The Germans are no less good than the British in selling out their teammates.

Open Sea

The right of passage through the straits and canals was subject to requirements, and Germany needed to obtain some compensation from the People's Revolutionary League, such as the smelting technology of some special alloy steels of the alliance, or the design drawings of aircraft carriers, etc.