Chapter 212 Lviv Trap

In the Kremlin, in a dimly lit, very spacious office, with a Soviet-Polish border situation map hanging on the wall, Stalin sat behind a painted desk, with a pile of documents placed on a green tablecloth in front of him. An ashtray on the right hand side of the great leader of the Bolsheviks was full of cigarette butts, indicating that he had been working here for a long time. In his left hand, he held a report - it was personally sent by Yezhov, the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs, and the content was related to Tukhachevsky's "reactionary military line" and "reactionary royalist line".

When Stalin's secretary invited Hersman and his adjutant, Lieutenant Colonel Hans Speidel, and Soviet Deputy People's Commissar of Defense Tukhachevsky in, Stalin stood up, shook hands with them, and then silently gestured for them to sit down on the chairs, looking at Hersman with an inquiring look.

"Ludwig, let's talk about the aftermath. It's not easy to start a war, but it's even harder to end a war."

Stalin had no opinion on how to defeat Poland - as long as it can be defeated, it doesn't matter what it does, even if the "Black Plan" is fake.

But Stalin had an idea about how to distribute the fruits of victory after defeating Poland.

"Comrade Stalin, I think the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, which does not cede territory or pay indemnities, is the basis for the Soviet Union and Germany to maintain friendship."

Hersmann meant to divide the future borders according to the provisions of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty - according to this treaty, Russia lost several provinces along the Baltic Sea and the Russian Kingdom of Poland.

In addition, the so-called "Western Ukraine" is not actually the land of Tsarist Russia, and it never was. Western Ukraine is Eastern Galicia of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and it belonged to Poland before the Russian-Austrian-Prussian partition of Poland. So in the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, it did not belong to the Soviet Union.

However, the Soviet Union has always described Western Ukraine as part of the Right Bank of Ukraine, calling it "lost land."

Stalin put the "little report" in his hand into the drawer - Tukhachevsky's mistake was serious and unforgivable. But now is not the time to take him down, at least not this month, and the negotiations with Hersmann still need his professional knowledge.

"I noticed that you still want to keep the Polish nation-state," Stalin said carefully, "Is it necessary?"

Stalin meant that Poland could be completely divided! In this way, Western Ukraine could be taken - Western Ukraine is Poland's industrial and mining area, with good coal and iron mines. And coal is a resource that the Soviet Union lacks.

In addition, the geographical location of Western Ukraine is also very important. It is the gateway for the Soviet Union to enter Central Europe in the west, leading to Slovakia and Hungary.

"But there are about 25 million Polish people in Europe," Hersman said, "This is too much for us."

Now the Polish Federation has a population of more than 50 million, including about 25 million Poles, about 4 million Jews, about 17 million Ukrainians, more than 2 million Lithuanians, and more than 1 million other ethnic groups. Most of the Polish people in the Polish Federation live in the western part of the Polish Federation. If they are to be divided, these people will be trouble for Germany.

"Comrade Stalin, I also agree to keep Poland, which is conducive to our reconciliation with Britain and France after the war."

At this time, Tukhachevsky suddenly interrupted and helped Hessman to speak! Stalin frowned, he knew what Tukhachevsky was thinking-the Polish nation-state could exist as a buffer state.

Although the Soviet Union and Germany were already neighbors after Germany annexed the Baltic, the border between the two countries was not very long, and there was Lake Pskov and a large forest in the eastern section of the border between the two countries, which was not conducive to the passage of the army. Only the border between the Baltic and Lithuanian states and Belarus was more dangerous. However, the distance was not long, and a solid defense line could be built to encircle Belarus.

But if the Soviet Union and Germany completely divided Poland, the two countries would have a very long common border, especially in the border area between Ukraine and Poland on the southern line. The area is very flat and there is no danger, which is very conducive to attack. And the people's hearts there... are definitely not on the side of the Soviet Union. Because the people there had never been Russians for a day. After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the short-lived West Ukrainian People's Republic completed land reform and divided the land (the land belonging to the Austrian nobles) equally. There was no class contradiction to exploit.

As for reconciliation with Britain and France, Stalin didn't take it seriously. The Soviet Union and Germany were far more powerful than Britain and France, so it was Britain and France that needed to seek peace, not the Soviet Union and Germany.

"If Poland becomes a buffer state," Stalin thought, "then how do we manage this country? Should we divide our respective jurisdictions?"

Tukhachevsky sighed softly when he heard this. Stalin was too greedy. Dividing Poland into two and letting the Soviet Union and Germany govern it separately would also make Poland lose its buffering role, and the Soviet-controlled area of ​​Poland would sooner or later be incorporated into the Soviet Union.

"How about using the Bug River as the boundary?" Hersman said slowly.

He wanted to get Lviv (Lomborg), which originally belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was a very rich area. It not only had a large tract of fertile black soil, but also had rich coal and iron resources. It was the heavy industrial center of the Polish Federation.

"But we also want Lviv!" Stalin said.

"It belongs to Austria-Hungary!" Hessmann shook his head. "According to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, we should have the final say!"

Stalin's face darkened, and he looked at Hessman coldly, "You now have more than 23 million tons of steel (1936 production, including Austria and Czechoslovakia). If you control Lemberg, you will soon be able to increase steel production to 30 million tons, because there are good coal and iron mines there!

And we only had 12 million tons of steel last year, and only 116 million tons of coal, which puts our two countries in an overly uneven state."

Although the Soviet Union is known as the "third in the industrial world", it only claims to have surpassed Britain in the scale of heavy industry, and is still a long way behind Germany. If we compare technology, the gap between the two countries is even greater-this is also one of the reasons why the Soviet Union was beaten by Germany in the early days of the Soviet-German War. The Soviet Union's industrial strength cannot be compared with Germany before the war. If you count France, Belgium, the Netherlands and other European countries occupied by Germany, the gap between the Soviet Union is even greater.

In addition, the Soviet Union's heavy industry also has a shortcoming-lack of coal!

Although the Soviet Union is vast and rich in resources, it has no shortage of resources. However, in the densely populated and conveniently transported western region, there is not much coal (mainly concentrated in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine), while Lviv, which currently belongs to Poland, has rich coal resources.

"Whoever occupies it first will control it," Hersman thought for a while and said, "Right-bank Ukraine and western Belarus belong to the Soviet Union, and Lithuania, Danze and the Danze Corridor belong to Germany. The rest of Poland will belong to the independent Republic of Poland, which will be jointly protected by the Soviet Union and Germany... As for the jurisdictions of both sides, in principle, first come first served, how about it?"

This seems to be a plan that is more favorable to the Soviet Union! Because the Soviet Red Army can go straight from their major stronghold Minsk on the western front along the main road to Lublin in the southwest (northwest of Lviv), so that the Polish Federation can be cut into two sections, and at the same time, it can also block the German army's route to Lviv from the east.

Moreover, this route is very flat, and there is a railway line to use. In addition to the Bug River and the Brest Fortress, there is no more danger to stop the Red Army's advance.

Stalin took out his pipe, opened a tin cigarette box, stuffed some tobacco in it, lit it, took two puffs, and then nodded slowly: "First come, first served, sounds good... let's do it." He thought for a while and asked, "So when are you going to start the war?"

"September 1939," Hersman said, "We still need to prepare for another two years."

"It will take that long?" Stalin exhaled a cigarette, "If I remember correctly, you have been preparing for more than ten years."

"Yes, but it's still not enough." Hersman shook his head, "First of all, the reserves of oil and non-ferrous metals are not enough. We only have 16 million tons of oil now, and we hope to reach 20 million tons in two years... This is the amount needed to maintain a two-year war."

Now Germany has the same secrets as synthetic fuel production capacity and oil reserves, and even the Soviets don't know the situation of the former. So Hersman can deceive Stalin and say that Germany needs 10 million tons of oil a year.

"In addition, our weapons have exposed many deficiencies in the Spanish War." Hessman smiled bitterly, "Our tanks can't beat your T-26, and probably can't beat Poland's 7TP tanks. We need to wait for the No. 3 and No. 4 to go into production. Our aircraft... Bf-109 is not ideal, and Fokker D.31 is not as easy to use as imagined. We need to improve or develop new aircraft, so it will take another 2 years to prepare."

The Bf-109B is now sent to Spain. This is the first air superiority fighter with a liquid-cooled route that was equipped in large quantities by troops after World War I. Naturally, it will not be in place in one step. There are many problems on the Spanish battlefield, and it takes time to improve.

The problem of Fokker's D.31 is even bigger. It is an air-cooled aircraft developed on the basis of Fokker D.21. It uses many new technologies and is equipped with a high-horsepower air-cooled engine. It should be a very good fighter. However, its performance on the Spanish battlefield was not satisfactory, mainly because this fighter was positioned as a "multi-purpose aircraft" by Fokker, and Fokker also wanted to install a turbocharger on its fuselage in the future, so the aircraft was built too large and too heavy.

The advantages of the high-horsepower engine were wasted by its own weight. In addition to the large bomb load, good dive performance, and relatively fast speed (not particularly fast), there is not much advantage (but it is still enough to crush the I-15 and I-16 series).

Therefore, Hersman gave his brother-in-law Anthony Fokker an order in late April this year, asking him to immediately start designing an air superiority fighter equipped with an air-cooled engine, which must be completed before the end of May 1939.

It is required to have the possibility of serving as a carrier-based aircraft; have excellent air combat performance; the practical altitude is medium altitude - 3000 meters-5000 meters; the flight time using auxiliary fuel tanks is more than 6 hours, the maximum range is more than 3000 kilometers; the maximum speed (4200 meters altitude) is more than 550 kilometers.

Moreover, Hersman also suggested that Fokker could carry out technical cooperation with Japan's Mitsubishi Corporation, which has experience in carrier-based aircraft manufacturing, and jointly develop...