Shadow Spy

Chapter 198 The trend of war becomes clear

On Monday, under the leadership of more than 20 instructors, 1500 recruits who had just finished training from the Wanguo Merchant Group entered Jiaozhou Park and lined up on the newly built playground.Next, they will undergo two weeks of reorganization here.

What Li Junhao means is that these 1500 recruits will be mixed with 393 veterans of the lone army battalion and 22 instructors to form an infantry regiment and a rapid response brigade; the latter will be attached to the police station and will be commanded by him personally.

Although there is currently no way to equip everyone with advanced weapons and equipment, and they can only use the old-fashioned rifles replaced by the police department for training, Li Junhao personally wrote a new weapon description and training outline and handed it to Xie Jinyuan. Let them first organize personnel to conduct basic training and memorize the outline content.

In addition, he specifically explained that through training, he would select the 400 people with the best quality and prepare to form a quick reaction brigade.

The guards around him and the officers who have drank "red wine" with him are already familiar with Chief Panson's often strange statements. They will not have any different opinions or opinions, and they will just implement them resolutely.
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On the same day, 200 people organized by the Shanghai Libang Wai Ertang, 300 people organized by the Chinese Textile Association, and 200 people organized by the Shanghai Overseas Chinese Mutual Aid Association, a total of 700 people, entered No. 527 Haiphong Road in the name of the Militia Joint Defense Team. The headquarters of the Fourth Marine and Land Regiment received primary military training from instructors at the Police Training Center.

Except for the Libang joint defense team, which used old guns replaced by police patrols, the other two teams were equipped with new guns purchased with donations from Chinese businessmen or expatriates behind the scenes. They were all British-made En Liefield bolt-action rifles.

This move is Li Junhao's attempt to create a "people for all". If the joint defense team of these three units is successfully established and can achieve results in security patrols, community protection, self-defense and killing enemies, he is prepared to carry out vigorous efforts within the concession area. promotion.

Once a large number of joint defense teams are on duty, the security situation in the concession will definitely improve greatly, and he will be able to mobilize more forces to implement the next plan...
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Now, the reliable manpower around Li Junhao is scattered in various places. Fortunately, Jason, Liu Geqing and those veteran military agents have completed the training of "Police Order" and new military postures and formations, and have returned to their jobs, so that he can no longer As for no one available.

In the next few days, he spent half a day at the Consulate General or the police station, half a day at Jiaozhou Park, and occasionally went to the police training center. On the one hand, he was concerned about the intelligence coming from Europe, and on the other hand, he was worried about the training of new recruits...
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As September 9 drew closer, Ayers and the new military attache Kelton were also very concerned about information on Europe.As the time approached, the government and the army began to become confused - from the intelligence point of view, Germany was indeed actively preparing for war, but politically it did not look like it was about to launch a war!

At this time, I have to talk about a dazzling "star" on the world political stage today - Joachim von Ribbentrop, the Foreign Minister of Nazi Germany.Not to mention its previous rise in the diplomatic field and its operations in implementing Hitler's foreign policy, its performance this month can be said to be amazing!
In order to implement the Führer's strategy of first west and then east and avoid a two-front war, Ribbentrop was ordered by Hitler to sabotage the Anglo-French-Soviet negotiations with German-British negotiations while trying to improve German-Soviet relations.

On August 8, Ribbentrop instructed German Ambassador Schulenburg to express that "Germany hopes to improve German-Soviet relations" and that he himself was always ready to negotiate with the Soviet Union for this purpose.

The Soviet Union ignored this.

On the 14th, Ribbentrop sent an urgent telegram to Schulenburg, asking him to personally translate the message to Molotov, the Soviet People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs (Foreign Minister), claiming that German-Soviet relations had "faced a historic turning point" and that "Germany and the Soviet Union There is no actual conflict of interest between them." History shows that "when the two countries are friends, everything goes smoothly, but not when the two countries are enemies." He once again expressed his willingness to go to the Soviet Union for negotiations.The Soviet Union still refused.

On the 17th, Schulenburg was ordered to convey Germany's intention to enter into a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union.

On the 20th, Hitler sent an urgent message to Stalin, requesting that Ribbentrop be allowed to visit the Soviet Union, saying that "Germany is willing to negotiate with the Soviet Union on the current situation" with the purpose of signing a non-aggression treaty.

The next day, the Soviet Union announced that the negotiations between Britain, France and the Soviet Union had broken down, and called Hitler back to agree to Ribbentrop's visit to the Soviet Union.

On the 22nd, Ribbentrop flew to the Soviet Union for negotiations with a letter of full power issued by Hitler.

On the 23rd, the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact was signed, and Ribbentrop's diplomatic activities reached their peak.
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When Li Junhao saw the information specially transferred through diplomatic channels in Ayers' office, he couldn't help but give a thumbs up. Ribbentrop was considered to be a proficient player in the field of world diplomacy, which fully explained What is the level of a diplomat who is full of intrigues!However, he clearly remembered that this guy had a bad end. He was sentenced to death and hanged at the Nuremberg Trial after the war!
After Ayers and Kelton saw the news, they firmly believed that the war was about to begin. The latter even believed that the German attack should start in these two days!
The reason is simple. Germany has now relieved the Soviet Union, its biggest threat on the Eastern Front, and can launch an attack on its Western Front at any time.Therefore, Kelton believes that what Germany most wants to fight should be its old enemy France, not Poland, which is located in its buffer zone with the Soviet Union.

Ayers was almost convinced by Kelton, and after contacting the embassy in Chongqing, Ambassador Johnson, the military attache Colonel Bored, and the deputy military attaché Colonel Hobbs all believed that Kelton's analysis was reasonable.

Several people were about to draft an analysis report and send it back to China, but they were stopped by Li Junhao - "Wait a minute, things will change in the next two days..."

Out of concern for Li Junhao's behavior during this period, Ayers accepted his suggestion and withdrew the report! ——
Li Junhao remembered reading a German archive of World War II and knew that after signing a non-aggression agreement with the Soviet Union, Hitler decided to attack Poland on the 26th. But on the 25th, Britain and Poland suddenly signed another "British-Polish" Mutual Assistance Agreement, pledging Britain's military protection obligations to Poland.

This made Germany uncomfortable, because Britain promised to provide military protection to Poland, and France would naturally follow suit. This would make the German army vulnerable to enemies from both sides, and the risk factors for attacking Poland would greatly increase!Therefore, Hitler urgently stopped the offensive plan and ordered relevant personnel to quickly find out Britain's true attitude.

(End of this chapter)