Chapter 296
Yuri's critical article published in Izvestia did not specifically target Zhukov, but for most people, when the article comments on this level, there is no need to specifically mention anyone. Everyone knows who is being criticized after a quick guess.
For the post-war Soviet Union, especially the Soviet military system, Zhukov has an extraordinary status. In this regard, although Yuri's reputation is also very high, there is still a certain gap. Therefore, as soon as this article was published in Izvestia, it immediately triggered a series of chain reactions.
Most of the media in Western countries such as Britain and the United States have reported on this article. These reports can be roughly divided into two directions: one is to analyze the content of the article itself, that is, to use this article as a model to comment on Zhukov's performance in the war. The other is to analyze the hidden story behind the article, that is, why Yuri published such an article, and published it in Izvestia.
In terms of the content of Yuri's article, there is not much to criticize. After all, whether it is his criticism or comments, from the perspective of military command, they are in line with the actual situation. However, if analyzed in accordance with reality, his criticisms are always a bit too demanding.
Those who analyze this article from another perspective suggest that this may be a sign of another large-scale purge in the Soviet Union, and that Zhukov may be among those who will be purged this time.
The reason for such analysis is very simple. After all, the article was published in Izvestia, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. If Stalin had not targeted Zhukov, such an article would not have been published in Izvestia.
The views of foreign media can be put aside. After all, there is no news from foreign media in the Soviet Union today, and there is no radio station specifically targeting the Soviet Union.
However, in the Soviet Union, the consequences of this article were not very obvious. What followed was only an article by Bulganin in the Red Star, which discussed the importance of the political commissar system to the Soviet Red Army.
After the article was published, Yuri no longer paid attention to the matter. In his opinion, if there was no major action to follow, it meant that the article was just a reminder to Zhukov, and Stalin did not really want to deal with him.
In fact, this is not difficult to understand. After all, Zhukov’s reputation in the Soviet Union is too high. If he is directly attacked without a specific explanation, it will definitely be ugly in public opinion, and Stalin will also have to pay attention to some impacts.
At this time, Yuri had not yet realized that when Comrade Stalin wanted to deal with someone, he would indeed consider the impact, but his attacks on the targets were one after another. This critical article was just the beginning, and subsequent actions would follow soon.
…
Far East, Primorsky Territory, middle section of the Sikhote-Sikhote-Italy Mountains, Wild Boar River.
The pouring rain washed the valley between the two mountains. The rain was so heavy that it was somewhat shocking. The rain splashed on the rocks, and the water splashed in the air like smoke, which was blown by the wind. All that could be heard in the ears was the sound of the rain.
The Wild Boar River is not just a river, it also represents a city. Of course, it is not realistic to call it a city now, because it is more like a mining area, and the people living here are all local miners.
The name Yezhu River is actually a Chinese name, just like the existing place names in the Primorsky Krai, such as Daobing River and Xinancha, which are actually translated directly from the Chinese of that time. If Yuri had some knowledge of Soviet history in his previous life, he would know that in less than 30 years, that is, in 1972, the Soviet Union would change the only seven Chinese place names in the tens of millions of square kilometers of land in the Soviet Union into Russian names at one time. These seven place names include Yezhu River, Daobing River and Xinancha.
After the name change, the Wild Boar River City became the famous Dalnegorsk, the Wild Boar River itself was renamed Rudnaya River, the Blade River was renamed Arsenievka River, and the southwestern fork was Cheremshany.
Here, the reason why the Wild Boar River City is described as a famous place is because in later generations, in 1986, an event that shocked the whole world happened here. The incident was called the "611 Highland UFO Incident", which attracted UFO research experts and enthusiasts from all over the world.
However, that is a matter for the future. As for the current Wild Boar River, it is still just a mining town with a population of only two to three thousand. However, just over ten days ago, the town suddenly became bustling. The population of the town and the surrounding areas suddenly increased from thousands to nearly 100,000.
The majority of the sudden increase in people, except for some soldiers from the 2nd Far Eastern Front, were Japanese prisoners of war captured by the Soviet Army. These prisoners were gathered from Northeast China and first transported to Mudanjiang, and then walked hundreds of kilometers from there to Ussuriysk, and then were divided into several batches and dispersed to several places in the Primorsky Krai.
Initially, the number of prisoners of war transported to Wild Boar River exceeded 100,000, but due to lack of food and clothing as well as disease, many people could not hold on. Some brave ones even escaped halfway.
The prisoners of war concentrated on the Wild Boar River line needed to build a forward airport three kilometers south of the town using simple tools. The construction period was 20 days. The 104th Coastal Division of the Far Eastern Frontier Defense Force was responsible for supervising this project.
Yuri began inspecting the four forward airfields under construction in the Primorsky Territory last week. The Wild Boar River Forward Airfield was the third stop. Unfortunately, he encountered this damn heavy rain here, and the subsequent inspection plan had to be changed.
According to the plan of the General Staff, of the seven new airports in the Far East, four were located in the Primorsky Krai, and the remaining three were located in South Sakhalin, which was recently recaptured from the Japanese army. Through these forward airports, the Soviet Air Force and long-range aviation forces could not only control the air supremacy in the Sea of Japan, but could even launch attacks on Hokkaido, the Japanese mainland.
According to the previous plan, the forward airport at Wild Boar River was to be completed within the next five days. However, the heavy rain not only delayed Yuri's trip, but also delayed the construction period here.
On a low mountain outside the town, there is a group of wooden houses built entirely of logs. A rough count shows that there are about a hundred of them. Outside these houses, near the top of the mountain, there are two tall wooden towers. To the west of the wooden tower is the west slope of the mountain. Unlike the slope on the east side, the slope here is very steep and obviously not conducive to climbing. Just below the west slope is an open valley, and at this time, the valley has become a muddy pond. If you don't look closely, you can't tell that it is a construction site.
Despite the heavy rain, there were still countless people busy in the valley. Almost all of them were naked, rolled into mud men. They carried logs from the nearby mountains on their shoulders, and then used all the available tools to build simple wooden houses with these logs.
On the slopes around the valley, Soviet guards in raincoats could be vaguely seen. No one organized the people in the valley to work. Even if there were fights in the valley, no soldiers went down to stop them. It was as if the people in the valley were not considered human beings in the eyes of these guards.
Those people in the valley were Japanese prisoners of war who were concentrated on the Wild Boar River line. What they are building now are their own houses. In the past ten days, they have been busy building the airport from six o'clock every day until dark at night. They have no time to build their own houses and usually sleep in the open air in the valley.
It rained heavily today and construction at the airport could not be carried out. Several officers among the prisoners of war found the leader of the Soviet guards and begged for a while before they finally got approval to use the rainy day to build wooden houses.
In a wooden house near the steep slope, Yuri, wearing a white vest with cross-straps and black shorts, with a cigarette in his mouth, stood near the window, overlooking the situation in the valley below the slope.
Looking from a high place, the sight of tens of thousands of people working in a valley in the rain is really spectacular. These guys don't have any good tools, and the guards are not obligated to provide them with tools. All they can use are some equipment used in building airports.
Yuri was confused about these Japanese prisoners of war, or more precisely, these Japanese soldiers. These guys were world-famous for their brutality, and it was not an exaggeration to say that they were the most inhumane army. But once they were captured, as they were now, they were surprisingly docile, working hard without complaint, without even the slightest thought of resistance, and each of them behaved more humbly than a dog.
They could eat bread that was hard enough to kill people, rotten fruits covered with mold , and stinking dead fish brought from the port. To be frank, anyone could feel from the bottom of their hearts how much these prisoners wanted to survive.
However, Yuri was not sure whether their wish could be realized, because according to the plan, when the forward airport here was completed, most of these guys would be transferred to the Krasnoyarsk Territory. This was an order issued by Comrade Stalin himself. They needed to build a city on the banks of the Kan River there. This city had no name, only a code name: Krasnoyarsk-45.
