Chapter 190: Tehran Conference (2)
The weather in Tehran in mid-November is a bit dry and cold. Yesterday's winter rain did not bring much humidity to the city, but instead made the coldness even worse.
In the early morning, a misty drizzle was still falling. In the dim morning light, the light from the car lights seemed to be dispelled by the heavy darkness.
The Ford car that Yuri was riding in was stopped by a guard at the intersection of the embassy district. As the window rolled down, the guard bent down slightly, looked into the car with a vigilant look, and asked in English with not very standard pronunciation: "Please show me your ID, sir."
The driver for Yuri was arranged by the Iranian military, a very young and serious guy who was wearing a newly changed military uniform, which was a Soviet-style uniform.
When the Soviet-German War just broke out , Iran's position was biased towards Germany. After its king Reza Khan established the Pahlavi Dynasty, he pursued a pro-German policy. Its army was completely built on the German model, and its uniforms and helmets were also German-style. However, shortly after the outbreak of the Soviet-German War, Iran was occupied by the Soviet and British armies. To date, there are more than 100,000 Soviet and British troops stationed in Iran.
Perhaps they regarded the Soviets as invaders, or perhaps it was the British propaganda that was at work. In short, the Iranians' attitude towards the Soviets was generally not very friendly, even for Yuri's driver.
However, Yuri was not worried that these Iranian soldiers would murder him. They did not have the courage to do so. After all, Soviet soldiers accounted for the vast majority of the troops stationed near Embassy Street.
Recently, as the date of the three-nation summit is approaching, the atmosphere in Tehran has become extremely tense. Reza Pahlavi, who took over the throne from his father, is extremely concerned about the security of the meeting. He does not want any of the three leaders to have an accident in Tehran.
Of course, Pahlavi's worries were not unnecessary. According to information obtained by the Soviet intelligence department, since mid-October, a large number of German spies and agents . Whether it was assassination or accidents such as explosions, in short, they came to cause trouble. Considering the identities of the participants, no matter how Tehran's security work was done, it could not be considered excessive.
The guard holding Yuri's car was a Soviet soldier. When he bent down to look inside the car, he saw Yuri sitting in the back seat with an expressionless face, especially the military uniform on Yuri. The guard immediately withdrew his gaze, stood up straight, saluted in the direction of the back seat, then turned around and shouted something in Russian to the guard post behind him.
The guard checkpoints were set up by the Soviet army. There is no doubt that in the current Tehran, the Soviet army can set up checkpoints anywhere. Their power overrides that of the Iranian royal family, and this power was gained by defeating the Iranian army.
The front of the guard post was very wide, with fortifications made of sandbags blocking the entire street. Four heavy machine guns and two anti-tank guns were placed in the fortifications, ready to fire at any time. As for the anti-aircraft firepower, it was placed on the roofs of buildings on both sides of the street. In addition, there were two flight squadrons on standby, ready to take off and fight at any time.
Yuri's car passed the guard checkpoint, drove along the empty street for a few dozen meters, turned right, and entered a gate that was tightly closed with more than a dozen guards standing by. Inside the gate was an open vestibule. There was a parking lot on the east side, and on one side of the parking lot was a four-story building, which was the main building of the Soviet Embassy in Tehran.
In front of the main building, there is a marble staircase consisting of more than ten steps, and there is a stair platform above the stairs. As a person who traveled through time from later generations, Yuri had a familiar feeling when he saw this stair platform for the first time. Yes, the group photo of the leaders of the Soviet Union, the United States and Britain sitting together was taken on this stair platform.
The car stopped in the parking lot. After getting out of the car, Yuri did not go upstairs directly. Instead, he lit a cigarette and took a leisurely puff. For Yuri, life in Tehran these days was very comfortable. There was no official business for him to deal with, and he did not need to worry about meeting arrangements. His only responsibility was to prepare all the war data of the Soviet-German War since this year for consultation. Yuri was very good at this kind of thing, and he did not need to make special preparations.
After finishing a cigarette, just as Yuri was about to go upstairs, the tightly closed door of the embassy entrance opened again. Then, a convoy of several black Lincoln sedans slowly drove in from outside and headed straight for the parking lot.
Seeing the convoy entering the embassy, Yuri threw away his cigarette butt, stood up straight, and a smile appeared on his expressionless face.
The motorcade soon stopped outside the parking lot. As the accompanying personnel were busy, two stylish men got off the second and third cars respectively. One of them was a little old man with white hair, and the other was a burly man with a small mustache under his nose. The two had one thing in common, that is, they were both wearing military uniforms, but the old man was wearing an American military uniform, and it was a general's uniform, while the burly man was wearing a British military uniform and did not wear any military rank insignia.
It was natural for these two people to be so impressive, because their identities were extraordinary. Yuri had met them before, so he was very clear about their identities. The old man with frosty hair was an American named William Daniel Leahy. He came to Tehran as Roosevelt's special military adviser. He served in the US military as the Chief of Staff of the United States Federal Army and Navy, which was actually the so-called Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in later generations. As for the burly man, he was Alan Francis Brooke from the UK His title was Viscount Alan Brooke, and he currently served as the Chief of the General Staff of the British Empire. To be honest, according to the principle of rank equality, Yuri, as the Chief of Operations of the Soviet General Staff, was not qualified to accompany these two people, but there was no way. In this matter, Stalin had an excuse, that is, the situation on the Soviet-German battlefield was changeable, and his Chief of General Staff could not leave Moscow to come to Tehran, so it was understandable to arrange a Chief of Operations.
In the past two days, Yuri has come into contact with these two people several times. To be honest, he felt very uncomfortable at the beginning. This discomfort was not only due to the difference in level, but also the difference in age.
Like Leahy, the old general is almost seventy years old, and even the younger Brooke is over sixty years old. The age gap between him and others is too big, and the gap is very obvious.
However, Yuri would never shirk this job just because of this discomfort, or to be more precise, because of his young age - this was a task assigned to him by Stalin, and he had to do two things well when communicating with Lehi and Bruck: first, emphasize the necessity of opening a second front in Europe, and second, this second front that must be opened does not refer to Italy, nor to the Balkan Peninsula, but to France and Western Europe.
It was easy to emphasize that Britain and the United States must open a second front in Europe. Yuri only needed to list the huge losses the Soviet Union had suffered in the war against Germany in the past few years and the pressure it was under now. And judging from the negotiations over the past two days, Britain and the United States were also in favor of opening a second front. The real difficulty lay in the location of the second front. Britain and the United States tended to set up the second front in Italy. Churchill even stated that the Balkan Peninsula was the best place to open a second front in Europe.
Why did Churchill want to choose the Balkan Peninsula as the location for the second front? The reason is simple. This old man who hated communism very much felt the threat from the expansion of the Soviet Union and the Communist forces in Eastern Europe. In fact, Churchill's anti-communist stance has always been very clear, but in the past few years, especially before the United States directly joined the war, Britain was under too much war pressure. They needed the Soviet Union to relieve their own pressure. Therefore, Churchill's anti-communist thinking did not dare to show. By now, the war situation on the Soviet-German battlefield has completely reversed. The Germans have lost their original aggressive offensive. At the same time, the Americans have also joined the war. Churchill, who swore to fight against communism, naturally began to expose his nature.
Britain and the United States chose the Balkan Peninsula as the second battlefield, which was definitely a precautionary step on the road to anti-communism. The British and American coalition forces landed in Eastern Europe from this place. On the one hand, they could eliminate , and on the other hand, they could exert influence on the countries they passed through, put a stop to the activities of the Communist parties including Yugoslavia, Greece, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and prevent the further spread of communism in Eastern Europe.
But Churchill's plan was just his plan. Moscow and Stalin would not agree to such a landing plan. Therefore, in the previous two negotiations, Yuri had already had disputes with Lehi. It can be said that the atmosphere of the negotiations between them was not very pleasant.
"General Yuri, good morning," General Leahy, who had a more easy-going personality, got out of the car and was the first to greet Yuri standing at the edge of the parking lot. He stretched out his hand and greeted him.
"Good morning, General William," Yuri shook hands with him, said a simple greeting, and then turned to the more rigid Brook and said, "Good morning, Sir Brook."
"Good morning," said Brooke, shaking his hand as well.
"The embassy has prepared breakfast for us," Yuri, the Soviet representative, took the initiative to invite, "We can enjoy breakfast first and then start today's negotiations."
Brooke and Lexi looked at each other, neither of them rejected the proposal.
