Struggle in Soviet Russia

Strella, a small town in Torgau, on the banks of the Elbe.

The jeep that Victor was riding in stopped slowly on the bank of the turbulent Elbe River. The guard sitting in the passenger seat got out of the car first and opened the door for him. That is, the moment the door opened, there was a warm feeling. The damp windswept surface blew into the car, and Victor, who had been drowsy, suddenly woke up.

With the arrival of May, the weather in Berlin has begun to warm up rapidly, and in the past two days, there has been another round of relatively obvious warming, and the weather seems to have gotten hotter. Just now, I was driving all the way from downtown Berlin. Victor was sitting in the back seat of the car. He was scorched and lazily, and unknowingly took a nap.

After waking up, he got out of the car and felt the feeling of being down-to-earth. Victor also stomped his feet. At the same time, he heard the sound of a trumpet playing from the other side of the river. Disguised sadness.

Holding the door of the car, Victor turned his head to look in the direction of the sound of the horn, and saw on the bank on the other side of the Elbe, an American soldier in a steel helmet, standing alone on the baseline of the bank, playing A small.

Victor could hear that the soldier should be playing the lights-out signal of the US military. At the same time, it is also the so-called "burial horn", which is a song used when the fallen soldiers of the US military are buried.

Closing the car door, Victor took a few steps towards the river bank. From this position, even with the naked eye, there were rows of white crosses standing in the wilderness on the other side of the river. These crosses were neatly arranged. Some American soldiers wearing only undershirts were busy in the wilderness filled with crosses, burying their comrades.

The war destroyed everything on German soil, especially in Berlin, where almost everything was blown up, and after the war was the most tidy and the first to be taken care of, obviously It is the graveyard of the Allied soldiers.

Opposite this cemetery for the fallen soldiers of the British and American Allied Forces, at least a thousand people should be buried at the cemetery. Sad stories of people.

Of course, compared with the Anglo-American Allied forces, the Red Army suffered more heavy losses in the process of conquering Berlin. At least the Anglo-American side did not participate in the battle to remove the Berlin defense, and the German resistance on the Western Front was not very tenacious.

Taking his eyes back from the other side of the river, Victor turned around and glanced at a jungle not far away, where there was a temporary Soviet camp.

Torgau should be regarded as a relatively important place on the German map, because it is a transportation hub between eastern and western Germany, but Strella is only a very inconspicuous town in this hub city. There are not many people in the town, and as the war is approaching, especially the rapid advance of the Soviet army to the Berlin area, the people in the town have already fled.

If it weren't for this war, it is estimated that this small town would never enter the world's sight. It will always be a small unknown place, and it will never be found on the world map. But now, this town is famous, because just over a week ago, the Soviet army and the British and American allied forces attacked Berlin from the east and west, and it was here that the vanguards of the two sides met for the first time.

Taking a step, Victor walked towards the bottom of the river bank, and the target was the Soviet camp not far away.

There are checkpoints on the periphery of the camp, and the guards at the checkpoints are obviously people who belong to the Political Security Bureau. The uniforms they wear do not belong to the Soviet Red Army.

In the People's Commissariat of National Security, although Victor is not directly responsible for the work of the Political Security Bureau, he is also the top leader of the Commissariat. Therefore, these guards all know him, and they all salute him when he walks by. .

This Soviet military camp is obviously not ordinary, because there are not many barracks in the camp, but it is full of cars, most of which are not military jeeps, but cars, and most of them are on the body. All covered in dirt and dust, it looked like it had come a long way.

Victor walked in from the main entrance of the camp, and soon a Soviet major came up to him. He trotted all the way to Victor, gave a military salute, and said, "Comrade Chief."

Viktor gave the major a military salute and asked, "Where is Comrade Andrei Januanovich?"

The person he asked was naturally Vyshinsky. This time, he came to Berlin as the special envoy of Comrade Stalin to participate in the signing ceremony of the German surrender. Victor came to see him because he was with him. Brings the latest instructions from Comrade Stalin.

"Please come with me, Comrade Chief," said the major, nodding at Victor, then turning around and making a gesture of please.

Victor nodded slightly, and was about to follow, when he saw a man bent down in a tent facing the entrance of the camp gate. This man was wearing a French military uniform, his face was wrinkled, and he looked like he was in his sixties.

Although it was a little far away, about a hundred paces away, Victor recognized the other party at a glance. This person was the commander-in-chief of the French army, Tacieu.

The camp in front of us is indeed special, because it was specially built for the Allied forces and the negotiators on the coalition side.

Recently, there has been a conflict between the alliance and the Anglo-American allied forces over the surrender ceremony of the Germans. The United Kingdom and the United States accepted the French's request and set the place where the letter of surrender was signed in Reims, France.

Comrade Stalin was very dissatisfied with this incident. He directly protested to the United Kingdom and the United States through Molotov, believing that in the war of the past few years, the French had not contributed much to the fight against fascism, while the alliance had paid for it. at a heavy price. The most important thing is that in the process of defeating the German fascists, it was the Soviet Union, not the Allies, who shouldered the main combat task. Therefore, the signing ceremony of the German surrender must be signed in Berlin, at the place designated by the Soviet Union to be effective, otherwise , the Soviet Red Army did not recognize the surrender of the Germans, and the war would continue.

This protest of Comrade Stalin was obviously not meant to scare people, but actually made a posture of continuing to fight. The 1st Belarusian Army commanded by Comrade Zhukov and the 1st Ukrainian Front Army commanded by Comrade Konev, All returned to combat status. At the same time, Nikolai Erastovich Berzalin, who had just been appointed as the Berlin City Defense Commander and the Berlin Soviet Army Garrison Commander, also issued an order to suspend the bailout work in Berlin. .

Comrade Berzalin is the former commander of the 5th Assault Army. After he took over the garrison work in Berlin, he first took over all the powers in Berlin and is now working to restore the normal order of life in Berlin.

In general, his work has been fruitful. In just one week, public transportation in Berlin has basically resumed, trams have begun to run normally, and some shops have also resumed business. The urban area is scarce. Food supply has also begun to recover to a limited extent.

To be honest, if the garrison military region declares a state of war at this time, it is estimated that the chaos will not only spread to one Berlin, but will likely spread to more than half of Germany.

Therefore, including the United Kingdom and the United States, they have to make some compromises with Moscow, but their plan to accept the German surrender in Reims has never changed. This is obviously one of the established principles of the United Kingdom and the United States. .

This morning, representatives from the United Kingdom, the United States, and France rushed over from Reims on a special plane. They got off the plane at Tempelhof Airport, which had just resumed basic operations, and then came directly to this camp. Zhukov, Sokolovsky and others met here. As for Vyshinsky, he not only brought orders from Comrade Stalin, but also stayed here as Zhukov's political assistant to assist him in the negotiations.

Glancing at Tassie from a distance, Victor pursed his lips and followed behind the major to a barracks not far away.

Part of the information Victor had was about the French, or to be precise, about the organization "Free France".

According to the information obtained by the Foreign Intelligence Service, as the leader of "Free France", de Gaulle has not been recognized by the British and American allies, although he had already announced in October last year as the Prime Minister of the Provisional Government of the French Republic, but both the United Kingdom and the United States have Without recognizing this so-called provisional government, especially the Americans, in Washington's conception, when the war is over, France will not gain the chance of independence, but will be regarded as a "dependency" occupied by Britain and the United States respectively.

De Gaulle was obviously very aware of the plans of the United Kingdom and the United States. Therefore, he made a secret trip to Moscow last year, hoping to obtain the support of the Soviet Union and obtain French independence after the war. It is a pity, however, that Comrade Stalin was not interested in the future of France, and therefore, rejected de Gaulle's request.

Previously, that is, last year, with the success of the Normandy landing, de Gaulle played a lot of tricks. With several wonderful speeches and adventures, he gained a high reputation in France, which also broke the British and American Plans to try to control France. However, even so, he still did not have the support of the United Kingdom and the United States, just like this general Tassie, he was not a de Gaulle person.

To sum up in one sentence, Mr. de Gaulle does have a high reputation among the French people today, but in the political and military circles, there are not many people who really support him, so his position is not stable.