I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 857 Quagmire
In 1934, the world was not at peace. Yemen split in January, civil war broke out in Austria in February, and Germany and Italy signed an agreement in March to become de facto allies. The situation in Europe was deteriorating.

Prestor hoped that Germany would not interfere in Poland's internal affairs and sign a non-aggression treaty with Germany.

Putales did not oppose the signing of the treaty, but asked that it be done after the Polish referendum.

"So Germany would have invaded Poland anyway."

Prestal was filled with grief and anger as he did not get the help he wanted from the League of Nations.

Even if he could not get Germany's promise, Prestor hoped to get help from Britain and France, which might make Germany restrain itself.

When Germany's ambitions were fully exposed, Britain and France still turned a blind eye, which completely shattered Prestor's fantasy about the League of Nations.

At the same time as Germany decided to annex southern Poland, the little mustache man himself was in trouble.

The reason why Junker chose the little mustache was largely due to the "Stormtroopers" established on the basis of the Free Corps.

After Frank Lloyd-Hughes became the German Chancellor, he used the SA to plan the Reichstag fire and disbanded other opposition parties. Since then, the Workers' Party has been the dominant party in Germany.

As the Workers' Party expanded rapidly in Germany and its membership grew, conflicts of interest between the new members and the early members of the party gradually emerged.

SA Chief of Staff Ernst Röhm, like Hulkenberg, also participated in the World War. After the World War, Ernst Röhm briefly went to Bolivia to serve as a military adviser. Later, he accepted Hulkenberg's invitation to return to Germany and began to serve as Chief of Staff of the SA.

As an early member of the inner circle of the mustache, Ernst Röhm tried to promote the merger of the SA and the German Wehrmacht in 1931, but failed.

Ernst Röhm wanted to use the SA to infiltrate the Wehrmacht and gain greater power.

The Junker nobles who monopolized the German Wehrmacht refused to give up any rights and were even more wary of the mustache, so they kept Ernst Röhm out.

Over time, the SA became more active in attacks against Hebrews. In December alone, the SA carried out 12 attacks in Germany, killing 400 people.

The SA's atrocities aroused the anger of the Hebrew Consortium, which demanded that the SA be disbanded and those responsible be punished.

Little Moustache was not ready to break with the Hebrew Consortium. Due to the inability to coordinate interests within the Workers' Party, in order to ensure the unity of the Workers' Party, Little Moustache was forced to agree to the demands of the Hebrew Consortium, disbanding the SA and punishing the relevant responsible persons, resulting in the killing of more than 100 people including Ernst Röhm.

The disbanding of the SA temporarily appeased the Hebrew consortium.

At the same time, it also strengthened the determination of the mustache to destroy the Hebrew consortium.

While Germany was clearing out the SA, Russian military exercises proceeded as planned.

The exercise encountered troubles at the beginning. First, artillery shells fell into the territory of Barakzai, and then Russian military aircraft mistakenly entered the airspace of Barakzai. On April 4, a Barakzai patrol team mistakenly entered Russia and exchanged fire with the Russian exercise troops, resulting in the death of 7 Barakzai patrol soldiers and the injury of two Russian soldiers.

"What purpose does your stockpiling of troops at the border have other than making the situation at the border worse?"

Andre angrily criticized Barakzai's representative to the League of Nations in the League of Nations.

The implication is that if Russia really wants to invade Barakzai, the Barakzai army will be completely unable to stop it.

"Yes, the Barakzai army may not be able to stop the Russian invasion, but Barakzai will never be conquered. No matter who dares to invade Barakzai, they will be beaten to a bloody pulp."

Barakzai's ambassador to the League of Nations, Abdu, fought back, and his words were still very convincing.

The Barakzai dynasty, which had repelled British invasions at least several times, was more qualified to brag than the Poles.

"The bodies of the Barakzai people are no stronger than the Russian armored vehicles."

Andre sneered, thinking that he was overestimating his own abilities.

"Even Russia should not bully the weak in the international alliance."

Edward fanned the flames.

"Yes, it seems that you do understand the strength of the Barakzai Dynasty."

Andre fought back.

The situation is still a little different.

In the past, whenever Andre opened his mouth, a large group of younger brothers would rush to him.

Even Alan didn't take any action today, and the situation seemed a little weird.

After the standing committee meeting, Edward took the initiative to invite Abdul to visit the British Embassy.

Andrei was not concerned about the British's little tricks. Even with British assistance, Andrei was confident that he could defeat the Barakzai dynasty.

On April 4, a Russian patrol entered Barakzai on the pretext of hunting down fugitives, but was blocked by the Barakzai military.

The Russian army opened fire brazenly, and the Russo-Pakistani War broke out.

The strength of the Russian army is indeed far superior to that of the Pakistani army. In the first week of the outbreak of the war, the Russian Air Force went out frantically to bomb the Pakistani army headquarters, military camps, warehouses and other key facilities. The capital of Barak was also raided by the Russian Air Force.

As the Pakistani army lacked anti-aircraft weapons, Barakzai's troops suffered heavy casualties.

While the air force was frantically dispatched, Russian ground forces also attacked Barakzai. The Russian army, with armored vehicles as the vanguard, was invincible and occupied the capital of Barakzai on May 5.

After the outbreak of the Russo-Pakistani war, Abdu launched several complaints against Russia in the League of Nations and called on the international community to provide assistance to Barakzai.

Andre had expected that Britain would respond to Barakzai's call, but he had not expected that the French would characterize the war between Russia and Barakzai as an invasion of Barakzai by Russia.

After the end of the World War, the alliance between Britain and France was not dissolved.

Imperial Russia had perished, and the provisional government that continued to participate in the world war was also overthrown. The second provisional government withdrew from the alliance as soon as it was established, which almost caused major losses to Russia's interests.

New Russia did not join the alliance between Britain and France. In theory, Russia is also a potential target of the alliance between Britain and France.

Andre took the initiative to invite Perier to the Nikolayevich Palace.

"Grand Duke, if Russia can sign a military alliance with France, France can change its position."

Perrier's position is flexible and he has absolutely no bottom line.

"The Maginot Line has been completed, France's security has been guaranteed, and if Russia forms an alliance with France, it will only lead to a further deterioration of the situation."

Andre didn't want to make any promises to Perrier.

After the Mustache came to power, France made every effort to ensure the construction of the Maginot Line, and finally announced its completion half a month ago.

"The Maginot Line is not perfect enough and cannot fully guarantee the security of France."

Perrier euphemistically said that the Maginot Line was not imperfect, but that its inherent defects could not be remedied.

Even if France also covered the Franco-Belgian border, the German army could bypass the Maginot Line through Italy, unless France encircled France with the Maginot Line.

The Maginot Line on the German-French border alone cost more than 100 billion francs.

France currently has neither the ability nor the funds to invest in the Maginot Line.

The Maginot Line, which cost a huge amount of money, could only bring psychological comfort to the French at best.

"You see, this is where the differences between us lie. You are just like in the last world war, you just want to reap the fruits of your labor without having to put in any effort at all!"

Andre brought up old issues and accused the French of betrayal.

"France perfectly fulfilled its obligations as an ally in the last world war, even though it lost an entire generation of its people. It was not without sacrifice."

Perrier thought he had caught André's linguistic loophole.

"This is not a debate. Don't use your debating skills on me."

Andrei was annoyed. What he meant was that an alliance between Russia and France would not bring any benefits to Russia.

"Well, if Russia and France form an alliance, France will purchase at least 30 billion francs worth of weapons and equipment from Russia."

Perrier casts the bait.

After returning to France, Boncourt made comparisons and decided that Russian armored vehicles were the most cost-effective.

Russia's armored vehicles are not cheap, but good things are never cheap. Russia's armored vehicles not only have powerful firepower, but also have solid armor and the fastest speed. In the Russo-Pakistani war, the strength of Russia's armored forces was once again proven.

The British invaded Barakzai three times, but none of them was as devastating as the Russian invasion. It took less than a month to capture the capital of Barakzai.

The British were deeply impressed that the capture of the capital did not mean the end of the war.

"If Russia forms an alliance with France, its losses will probably be more than 30 billion."

Andre said meaningfully.

Andrei also did not expect that the Barakzai people did not give up. Even when the capital was occupied, the Barakzai people continued to resist.

On the day when Russian troops occupied the capital of Barakzai, a Russian transport convoy was ambushed near the Russian-Pakistani border.

The Barakzai people were very smart. They chose a valley as an ambush point, first blocked both ends of the valley with explosives, and then used earth bombs to bombard the Russian troops in the encirclement.

By the time reinforcements arrived, Russian casualties had exceeded 100.

Although the transportation was handled by the newly formed second-line troops, the performance of the Pakistani army still sounded the alarm for the Russian army.

"The Barakzai used the tactics we taught them, and we also provided the explosives. The British army is gathering supplies in India and may provide assistance to the Pakistani army."

Demeter did not expect that the Russian army would be trapped in its own web.

During the British invasion, in order to create trouble for the British, the Russian army not only taught the Pakistani army advanced guerrilla tactics, but also provided a large amount of combat supplies to Barakzai.

Even if aid to the Pakistani army is cut off now, the Russian troops stationed in Pakistan will probably never have peace thanks to the aid from Britain.

"A warning to the British that if they dare to assist Barakzai, Russia will retaliate in kind."

Although George did not approve of the invasion of Barakzai, he would not sit idly by and watch the Russian army fall into the quagmire of guerrilla warfare.

The best way now is to send more troops to Barakzai, completely block the border between India and Barakzai, cut off Britain's supply to the Pakistani army, and adopt scorched earth tactics to gradually shrink the space for activities of the Barakzai rebels and trap them to death.

However, in this case, not only will the war be protracted, but the Russian army's final expenditure will definitely exceed the budget, which will not be worth the cost.

(End of this chapter)