Chapter 274 Justice IX

Of course, the landlords and rich peasants in the right-bank Ukraine had already fled, because the landlords and rich peasants here were very different from the landlords and rich peasants in China during the revolutionary war. They had enough financial resources to cope with their lives after fleeing.

Take Trotsky's rich peasant father as an example. He owned about 300 mu of land in Kherson County, Ukraine. 1 mu is equal to 1.09 hectares, which is equivalent to 16.35 Chinese mu. 300 mu is 4905 Chinese mu... This is a rich peasant! Compared with the Trotsky family, the rich peasants in China who only had a dozen mu of land and an old yellow cow were basically paupers.

The concept of landlords is also different from that in China. It is not that you are a landlord if you have 20 mu of land and collect some rent. The landlords here refer to aristocratic landowners. Before the Russian serfdom reform, they not only owned land, but also owned serfs on the land, so they were also called serf owners or lords. For example, Hersman's wife Chloe was a German reactionary female landlord.

Of course, there are no aristocratic landlords in the bourgeois landlord Ukraine now. People just habitually call the bureaucrats of the Ukrainian Free State who own large tracts of land and rent it out to rich peasants instead of operating it themselves landlords.

Those rich peasants who operate thousands of acres of land and the big landlords who serve as officials in the Ukrainian Free State are certainly not fools. Most of them fled to Lviv before the Soviet invasion.

Most of those who remain along the Dnieper River and have not fled are "poor and lower-middle peasants" who own less than 10 acres of land - 10 acres is 163.5 acres! Horses are usually used for plowing (oxen are not used for plowing in Europe), so every household has horses. Because it is black soil, there is no need to carefully fertilize to have a good harvest, and the cost of agriculture is not high, so these Ukrainian poor and lower-middle peasants have no worries about food and clothing, but they are not rich.

In addition, most of their land is not passed down from their ancestors, but given for free by the Ukrainian Free State government. It turns out that after the Right Bank Ukraine separated from Russia, the ruling Ukrainian Socialist Party (unexpectedly? Comrade Petliura is also a socialist) confiscated the land originally belonging to Russian landlords and rich peasants, and then divided it equally among the landless and small-scale Ukrainian peasants.

However, the small matter of landlords and rich peasants running away was not a problem for Bolsheviks like Khrushchev.

"Comrade Zharki, you said the enemy ran away?" Khrushchev said to the Ukrainian Bolsheviks who accompanied him on the inspection in a very serious tone, "But this is impossible! The enemy will not run away far away and then watch socialism triumph in Ukraine! This does not conform to the objective laws of social development, nor to the Marxist principle of class struggle, and is unscientific."

The Ukrainian cadre named Ivan Zharki looked at Khrushchev in a daze - if they ran away, they ran away, and the building was empty, without a trace. What does this have to do with science?

"According to the Marxist principle of class struggle, the enemy is unwilling to fail. The closer our cause is to victory, the more intense the struggle will be." Khrushchev was talking about the "theory of intensified class struggle" proposed by Comrade Stalin, which is of course an indisputable truth.

Although the old Bolshevik Zhaerji had been lurking in the right-bank Ukraine for a long time, he was still very clear about the theory proposed by Stalin.

"Comrade Secretary," Zhaerji asked with some embarrassment, "Look at this village, the richest families have all run away, and the rest are middle peasants and poor peasants. How should we find landlords and rich peasants among them?"

After listening to the words of this old Bolshevik, Khrushchev nodded with satisfaction. Knowing to find landlords and rich peasants among those who are apparently poor and lower-middle peasants... This person has a high political consciousness!

"Comrade Zhaerki," Khrushchev said, "the first thing we should do is not to find the hidden landlords and rich peasants, but to rely on the poor among the poor and lower-middle peasants to establish a party organization. With the party organization, it will be very easy to dig out the landlords and rich peasants lurking among the poor and lower-middle peasants."

In the Ukrainian Free State, which has the most fertile black soil belt in the world, a population of only a few million, land reform was implemented 20 years ago, and the tax burden is also very light, there are of course poor people - lazy people, drunkards, gamblers and the like, there are people everywhere.

Now some of these people will be lucky because they are poor enough...

...

"This is not peace, but a request for us to surrender without a fight!" Churchill, who accompanied Prime Minister Chamberlain to the Palace of Versailles in France to meet with French Prime Minister Daladier and Italian leader Mussolini, loudly expressed his opposition as soon as he heard the peace conditions proposed by the Germans.

The peace terms proposed by Germany now are actually a trap set by Field Marshal Hammerstein (he is one of the three giants in the Schleicher-Hirschmann group, has served as the General Staff for a long time, and was also promoted to marshal because of the Polish campaign. Now he is the commander-in-chief of the Western Front).

It is not used to frame Britain and France, but to deceive a number of small European countries and peace advocates in Germany - there have always been peace advocates in Germany, and even the leader and prime minister Hitler advocated peace talks with Britain.

And there are also many peace advocates in the German army. General Ludwig Beck, who succeeded Hersmann as deputy chief of the general staff (he is Field Marshal Hammerstein's confidant), advocated peace talks with Britain and France to end the war so as not to fall into a protracted war. Field Marshal Hammerstein, who served as the commander-in-chief on the Western Front, also lacked confidence in attacking France. General Ludwig Beck's proposal is actually the view of Field Marshal Hammerstein.

Hertzmann's "big brother" Marshal Schleicher was somewhat confident about fighting Britain and France - because the bombing of Scapa Flow on September 3 gave the German Navy the opportunity to use the commerce-breaking fleet in conjunction with submarines to blockade the British Isles, so Schleicher believed that this method could be used to force Britain to surrender. As long as Britain surrendered, France would naturally have to make concessions to Germany...

As for crushing France with armored forces and letting Emperor Wilhelm sleep in the Palace of Versailles, that was what Marshal Hessmann talked about every day. Most German generals just thought that this "inexperienced" young marshal (Hertzmann's qualifications were still a little shallow) was talking big.

After Hessmann proposed the three major peace conditions of "European Union", "European Common Market" and "European Mark", the generals of the German Wehrmacht thought that Hessmann was still relatively reliable, so they all expressed their support for him.

"France cannot accept it either!" French Prime Minister Daladier followed Churchill and said, "France can never accept a European Union led by Germany!"

If this European Union is led by France, Daladier will definitely support it with both hands! Mussolini thought: It's a pity that neither Germany nor Italy can accept such a European Union.

"But Belgium and Luxembourg are likely to accept it!" British Prime Minister Chamberlain said with some concern, "A European common market is not bad for these small countries, and it can also prevent their own countries from becoming battlefields."

Chamberlain could already imagine what Belgium and Luxembourg thought after learning about Germany's "peace conditions". It seems impossible for these two countries to allow British and French troops to enter their territory.

"But in the long run, this will make them become those German states annexed by Prussia!" Churchill said, "The common market and common currency will inevitably create a fully integrated economy. And the dominant position of the German Empire in this economy is comparable to the position of Prussia in the German Customs Union in the past. So we must firmly express our opposition!"

The current German Empire is large enough, and the land and population it controls exceed the sum of the British and French mainlands! The total economic volume also exceeds the sum of the British and French mainlands, and it is still growing rapidly. This country is enough to become the core and master of the European Union!

"Even if France is not included," Daladier frowned, "this 'customs union' is dangerous enough!"

In Daladier's view, Poland, Slovakia, and the very pro-German Hungary will definitely join this "customs union". Finland and Romania, which are increasingly dependent on Germany for security, will join sooner or later. Belgium and Luxembourg may be forced to join half-heartedly. The pro-German forces in the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Sweden are strong, and it is only a matter of time before they join this "customs union".

In this way, the economies of Germany, Poland (including Western Ukraine and Lithuania), Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Belgium and Luxembourg will gradually integrate into one! And this "customs union" has a population of more than 200 million and a land area of ​​nearly 3 million square kilometers (excluding Greenland).

Perhaps in another generation or two, this "customs union" will merge into a new Greater German Empire!

"Leader," Chamberlain looked at Mussolini, "If the Germans realize their ambitions, Italy will sooner or later become a member of the 'German Customs Union'!"

The British Prime Minister used the term "German Customs Union", which also showed that the British Empire would firmly oppose Germany's claims.

"No," Mussolini shook his head firmly, "Italy will never join the 'German Customs Union'. This is not in Italy's interests."

"Leader," Prime Minister Daladier asked immediately, "Then will Italy stand with us?"

Mussolini still shook his head, spread his hands helplessly, and smiled bitterly: "Although joining the 'German Customs Union' is not in Italy's interests, it is also not in Italy's interests to use force to oppose it. Because the Italian army is not ready to fight Germany..."

Is this for assistance?

Chamberlain and Daladier looked at each other. Bribing Italy to join the war must not be cheap, and it may not be worth the money.

In addition, can Britain and France really use a world war that will kill millions of people to prevent the birth of a "customs union"?

Is such a war justified? How can Britain and France convince Belgium and Luxembourg to reject Germany?