Chapter 101: Chapter 179 The Battle of Poland (42)
Voroshilov and Yezhov were escorted all the way to the Kremlin and brought into Stalin's office.
In just a few hours of travel, the two of them seemed to age ten years. They appeared lost and disoriented, and if not for the guards supporting them, they might not be able to move at all.
"So, you never actually breached the Polish defenses?" Stalin, holding a pipe, stared coldly at the two in front of him.
Yezhov suddenly broke free from the two strong men supporting him, knelt down with a thud, banging his head, and blood streamed down his face. "Comrade Leader, have mercy. We were just momentarily confused..."
"Silence!" Stalin rudely interrupted Yezhov's plea. His eyes widened, facial muscles twitching, giving him a fearsome and terrifying appearance. The fury in his eyes seemed capable of reducing people to ashes. "Take them out!"
The guards dragged the two out, leaving only Stalin in the office, breathing heavily.
After the recent purges, he had surrounded himself with loyal followers. Never did he dream that his trusted confidants and marshals would dare to conspire and deceive him.
This incident ignited his anger, but more disturbingly, he wondered how many more around him were secretly defying him. Were there any he could trust?
He failed to notice how toxic this line of thinking was. The more he pondered, the more suspicious he became of everyone, fearing spies and traitors lurking around him.
"We still have enemies in our ranks, hidden enemies, very cunning... We must dig them out, no matter how deep. We must dig... Only with a pure team can we achieve final victory." Stalin murmured to himself as he paced back and forth.
He immediately gathered a group of individuals he still deemed trustworthy and initiated a meeting with the theme of "thoroughly purifying the team."
After the meeting, the Great Purge, which had barely settled for less than a year, erupted again, even more ferociously, sweeping across the entire Soviet Union.
Meanwhile, in Warsaw, a group of Guard X units entered the city.
They searched for underground entrances in the city, pouring several barrels of solidified gasoline into each one they found, igniting them, and sealing the entrances afterward.
Sometimes, screams from underground could be heard, spine-chilling cries that sent shivers down one's spine.
As the flame assault rapidly progressed, the Polish people hiding underground could no longer endure. When a secret base filled with Polish soldiers suffocated to death, large numbers of Polish soldiers surrendered on the surface.
Feeling the hopeless situation, Karol Rómmel finally ordered the Polish troops in the underground city to surrender. As for himself, he drank bullets in his office, staying true to his declaration of "coexistence or mutual destruction with Warsaw."
Compared to these brave Polish soldiers who fought valiantly to defend their land, the performance of the Polish government was uninspiring.
Marshal Śmigły and President Mościcki, who fled Warsaw early, first escaped to Lublin in the southeast, stayed for only three days, and then fled from Lublin to Kremenets.
A week later, they escaped to Zaleshchiki near the Romanian border. The Polish government finally realized that they had been betrayed by their allies. They decided to escape to Romania to stop the exile government and send 80 tons of gold to Western countries through Romania for safekeeping.
Wilhelm knew that although Germany had decisively defeated Poland, Polish soldiers hadn't given up. In the original timeline, these retreating Polish troops entered Hungary and Romania, taking various routes to reach France and the UK for further combat. The most common route was leaving from Romania or Hungary, entering Italy or neutral Yugoslavia at the time, and taking a ship to French colonies in North Africa or Syria. Some went from Italy to Spain, then to Portugal, taking a ship to the UK. One Polish captain even headed east into the Soviet Union, crossed Siberia, passed through Japan, crossed the Pacific to Canada, contacted recruiting stations in the UK, circumnavigating the world to eventually return to France and join the Polish army!
After the Dunkirk evacuation, the fate of the French battlefield was sealed. A Polish exile army, the Anders' Army, based in Scotland, responded to France's request and astonishingly returned from Scotland to Brest, Brittany, in the second phase of the French defense. Their courageous decision, knowing the impossibility, was admirable. However, the outcome was tragic. This force, together with the main French army, was defeated by the German forces. Only a small part of the command structure of the unit, including the brigade headquarters, managed to evacuate promptly from Brest to the UK. The scattered Polish soldiers either ended up in German prisoner-of-war camps or entered the Vichy-controlled zone in southern France, later traveling through North Africa and Gibraltar to seek allies for further combat in the UK or the Middle East.
These Polish soldiers, equipped with French pay and weapons, often considered beggars relying on charity by the Allies. Now, they had to fight again for their lives, with many Polish soldiers preferring to die in battle to prove themselves as warriors in front of the Allies. This mentality led them to display admirable courage and a spirit of self-sacrifice in combat but also caused them to unnecessarily lose precious human resources. Of the 75,000 Polish exiled forces in the French battle, only 19,000 managed to escape to the UK, including 5,000 originally designated for training and equipping by the UK Air Force.
When the train carrying high-ranking Polish government officials, 80 tons of gold, and a group of soldiers arrived at the railway station in the Romanian border city of Dornesti, ready to refuel, a group of well-armed German SS soldiers rushed onto the platform, surrounding the entire train with guns pointed at each compartment.
"What is happening here?!" Marshal Śmigły and President Mościcki were shocked. "Quick, get out of here!" Unfortunately, no matter how they panicked and shouted, the train was not a high-end racing car, capable of accelerating to a hundred meters in a few seconds. Besides, the locomotive had already been controlled by the SS, making it impossible for them to escape. They had become sitting ducks.
At this moment, the loudspeaker outside began to sound. "Listen, people on the train, you have 1 minute to drop your weapons and get off. Otherwise, we will shoot indiscriminately! Countdown begins now, 59, 58..."
Watching the machine gunners on the roof, soldiers holding iron-fist rocket launchers, and even two tanks in the distance pointing their barrels in their direction, the people on the train had no intention of resisting.
Walking down the train in an orderly manner, the Poles were quickly searched, assigned numbers, and pushed into another side of the train.
Looking at President Mościcki and Marshal Śmigły, who walked down the carriage with frustration and unwillingness, a German SS lieutenant walked up with a smirk. "Gentlemen, we've been waiting for you."
"You... you..." The two stared hatefully at the young man beside the lieutenant, wearing a Romanian flag badge on his chest. They wished they could rush forward and bite him. This young man was none other than Michael, the heir to the Romanian throne. These despicable guys actually played such tricks to lure them in? "Aren't you afraid of international condemnation?!"
Michael spread his hands innocently. "Sorry, gentlemen, you are important German wanted criminals. As a friendly country that has signed an extradition treaty with Germany, we are obligated to help Germany capture criminals, including using trapping methods."
Michael's father, King Carol II, was a famous playboy who twice abandoned his right to the throne for women. Michael was born to Carol II and his second wife, Greek Princess Helen. In 1927, when Carol II abandoned the throne again and eloped to Paris with his lover, six-year-old Michael became the new king of Romania. At that time, Michael I was the youngest king among European royal families. However, in 1930, three years later, Carol II returned to Romania, and Michael I had to abdicate to his father, becoming the heir again.
It is well known that most European royal families are relatives. In 1914, inheriting his uncle's throne, Ferdinand, who became the king of Romania, was a collateral member of the Hohenzollern family. This Michael had been a fan of Wilhelm since childhood, and Romania had almost become a vassal of Germany. It only declared neutrality on the surface, just like Spain.
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