From May 18th to May 20th, the Ming Army's South Road Offensive moved westward to recapture Dunhuang and advanced 150 kilometers northward. Along the way, a series of intensive supply points were established in the desert on both sides of the highway. It was as big as a river.
Vehicles shuttled on the highway day and night, just like a busy metropolis. Thousands of tanks, half-track armored vehicles, and artillery were all mounted on flatbed vehicles, following the traffic flow of the brigade, flowing northwest at a speed of dozens of kilometers per hour.
.The attacking Ming army not only had sufficient ammunition and fuel, but also sufficient food and water. They could even afford two fruits per person per day.
The huge transportation capacity not only met the needs of the Ming army itself, but also transported a large amount of excess food. Every time the Ming army liberated a residential area along the way, they would distribute food to the local people who were emaciated and hungry.
As the Ming army advanced westward, they found that this phenomenon of hunger was becoming more and more serious and common. After passing Guazhou, some villages along the way were simply in the middle of a famine. When I asked, they were all sent by the Soviet army.
People came to collect grain and took it all without leaving a single grain behind. Not only did they collect the grain, they also sent troops to block all roads leading to areas controlled by the Ming army, preventing people from escaping on their own.
The Soviet army would also send some teams to ride down to the village and search the villagers' hidden food from house to house. Once found, they would immediately pull them out and shoot them. If they saw smoke coming from the chimney of a house in the village, or if there was anyone cooking.
They smelled the smell and immediately went to arrest people. Now that the Ming army has arrived in these places, the villagers are already dying of hunger. They said that the Soviets were afraid of their resistance and deliberately wanted to starve them all to death.
The more the Ming army advanced westward, the more serious the problems they saw, and the more they felt that they had arrived in time. Because in a few days, they might not see the villagers, but the corpses of the entire village.
At the same time, the officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty were increasingly having a bad premonition - the situation ahead might be just as they imagined. Maybe... a large number of people had starved to death.
More and more reports about hunger gathered on the table of the Ming Army Headquarters in Lanzhou. The top brass of the Ming Army initially thought that this was just the unavoidable life difficulties of the people during the war. Later, they gradually realized that something was wrong, especially after hearing that
After some man-made measures by the Soviet army, they soon realized that this was another man-made famine similar to the man-made famine that occurred in Ukraine in 1932-33.
The Great Famine was generally considered by the international community to be Stalin's genocidal action against Ukraine - using hunger as a weapon. The background at that time was the same as the current Soviet Union's newly occupied areas in Central Asia. The situation in Ukraine was seriously unstable, and resistance was rising one after another.
Moscow was worried about losing Ukraine, so Stalin approved a well-planned genocide using starvation as a weapon - first sealing off the entire Ukraine and not allowing any Ukrainians to leave Ukraine or try to escape across the border.
They were all executed as "class enemies". Then almost all Ukrainian peasants were declared kulaks, all their production tools and grain were confiscated, and they were starved to death in a planned manner.
Later, in order to prevent Ukrainians from eating corpses to satisfy their hunger, the Soviet army specially organized a "corpse snatching team", which went to the villages every day to snatch corpses from house to house. Moreover, they could snatch many new corpses basically every day. Even many people who were still dying.
They were also taken away as corpses.
From 1932 to 1933, it is conservatively estimated that millions of people in Ukraine starved to death. At the same time, a large amount of food stolen from the hungry Ukrainians was exported to the West by Stalin in exchange for foreign exchange.
In order to build the army and heavy industry, and secondly, to show the international community that there was no so-called famine in the Soviet Union. Otherwise, how could there be so much food for export?
…
After realizing the seriousness of the problem, Fang Dongcheng quietly invited Xiang Xiaoqiang over and spoke to him seriously, telling him his worries.
Xiang Xiaoqiang gradually became hairy as he listened. A cold sweat gradually broke out from the back of his spine.
"Then what..." he asked with a dry throat, "the Ukrainian famine...isn't it really a food failure...or a natural disaster?"
Fang Dongcheng squinted his eyes and looked at him like an alien, as if to make sure he was not joking.
"Oh, oh..." Xiang Xiaoqiang wiped the sweat from his forehead and concealed it, "I'm in Beiqing... no, in a British school, our textbooks... no, no, that's a bit messy..."
Fang Dongcheng said seriously:
"Your Majesty, the current situation is very serious. It can be said that it is extremely critical. It is really not a time to joke. I will report to Nanjing. I suggest that you also report to His Majesty immediately... It is very likely that we will have to adjust the battle plan and attack with all our strength.
.......The facts in Ukraine have proven that this method of using starvation to suppress resistance is very effective. And..."
Fang Dongcheng looked around and lowered his voice and said:
"My lord, if we really starve to death... If nothing else, how can we form the Central Asian White Guards? Do we have to rely on our Ming army to fight all the way to Moscow?"
Xiang Xiaoqiang bit his lip and nodded slowly. Suddenly, he felt something was wrong and said:
"Master Fang, something is wrong here. Since ancient times, famine has been the most powerful way to inspire resistance. In ancient times, it has always been the easiest time to overthrow a dynasty during a great famine... Some rebels even dug rivers in order to expand their strength.
, deliberately creating a famine...How could Stalin use famine to suppress resistance? Isn’t this just putting out fires with wages?”
Fang Dongcheng shook his head and said with a bitter smile:
"My lord, isn't this simple? You are talking about the era of cold weapons. The equipment of the peasant army and the government army is not much different. The government army has big blades, and the peasant army even has kitchen knives and manure forks.
As long as the morale is sufficient and the command is proper, the battle will be won! Therefore, the ancient court was most afraid of famine. When it heard that there was a famine, it would immediately adjust food and provide disaster relief. It was because it was afraid of provoking a civil uprising and threatening the country... What about now?
Government machine guns, cannons, planes, tanks, armored vehicles, what do the people have in their hands? They are just kitchen knives and dung forks. As long as there is no problem with the army itself, even if half of the country starves to death, the people in power will not be afraid.
- Let alone aircraft and artillery, let’s talk about machine guns. During the World War, hundreds of thousands of modern armies of the two countries clashed at Verdun, the Somme, and the Marne. They killed tens of thousands in a day, but they still couldn’t get through...
A group of hungry people with kitchen knives in their hands, no matter how angry they are, how can they resist? Are they as angry as the European troops on the battlefield of Verdun?"
Xiang Xiaoqiang was stunned and shuddered when he heard this. It took him a long while before he said one word:
"oh."
He remembered that, in fact, he had heard this truth before. Before the Unification War, he heard it from Guangwu while having dinner at the summer resort. At that time, Guangwu said it very proudly.
Xiang Xiaoqiang touched his forehead and whispered:
"Well, Mr. Fang, you have decided how to decide...I will inform your Majesty right away."