Chapter 74 Resuming Cooperation
When Hungary became a Soviet republic, Hersman was in Budapest - he seemed to have a connection with the Soviet Union in his life, and had personally participated in the birth of three Soviet countries (Soviet Germany was of course fake). He went to Hungary to inspect the construction of the "Special Technical School", investigate the combat readiness of the Hungarian Red Army, and sign several food, arms and coal sales contracts with the newly established Hungarian Soviet regime on behalf of the Russian-German Economic Promotion Company.
On April 1, 1919, Hersman returned to Berlin and placed the report and the signed contract on Marshal Hindenburg's desk.
"Hungarians have so much money?"
Hindenburg flipped through the report and contract, reading it at a glance, and asked questions from time to time. Sitting next to him was a general in his fifties who was a little skinny, had big eyes and wore a monocle. He was Hans von Seeckt, the military representative of the German delegation to the Paris Peace Conference. Hersman was familiar with him. For most of the world war, Hersman was his subordinate until he was injured in Romania.
"The Hungarian government has nationalized banks, so it has obtained a large amount of Austro-Hungarian gold and silver coins, and has a certain ability to pay."
After a few months of eating up all the money, the Economic Promotion Company controlled by Hersman finally had the opportunity to do big business again. The Hungarian Bolsheviks who had just taken power needed a lot of arms, food and coal, and through the nationalized banks, they also collected a lot of gold crowns and silver crowns that could be used for international payments.
"Arms and coal are okay, they can always be obtained in Germany, but where can I get food?" Hindenburg put down the contract and looked at Hersman. "This is not a small amount of food, but a food procurement contract worth more than 20 million gold marks! I don't think you want to use the Germans' rations to feed the Hungarian Bolsheviks?"
The Germans are now as short of food as the Hungarians! The failure of the world war actually started with insufficient food supply. And without enough food, the Hungarians could not resist on an empty stomach.
"It is impossible to lift the blockade against us for the time being!" Sekt interrupted gloomily, "After March 21, they did not mention sending troops to Hungary through Germany."
"We don't need German food, let the Soviet Union provide food." Hessman had already planned, "We will buy Soviet food at a low price and then resell it to the Hungarians... It is estimated that there will be a profit of several million gold marks."
"Will the Russians agree?" Sekt was very skeptical. "I heard that people are starving to death in Russia!"
"Yes!" Hessman said, "There are many people in Russia, and they don't feel bad if they starve to death... And the Hungarian Revolution is related to the survival of the Soviet Union, so we must provide full assistance. And the Hungarian Revolution is also very beneficial to us. I think this is also an opportunity for us to repair relations with the Russians."
The Hungarian Revolution was actually not that important to the Soviet Union. After the failure of the Hungarian Revolution in history, the Soviet Union survived and developed. But Lenin and the leaders of the Russian Bolsheviks do not know this now.
Although Britain, France and the United States have not recognized Queen Ogali in Tallinn so far, they have not denied her status. In February 1919, after Germany fell into a small-scale civil war due to the January Revolution, Britain, France and the Empress' government reached some agreements. The two sides cooperated without recognizing the status of the Empress and Russia's participation in the Paris Peace Conference.
By the end of February 1919, more than 130,000 British and French troops had landed in Novorossiysk, Odessa and Sevastopol in southern Russia through the Black Sea, and successively occupied cities such as Batumi, Tiflis and Baku. They also established contact with the South Russian White Guards entrenched in the lower reaches of the Don River and began to arm the South Russian White Guards with a large amount of arms.
Because the Soviet Union placed too many troops in Pskov and Petrograd to fight against the Russian Empress in Tallinn. Their troops in southern Russia were weaker than in history, which gave the South Russian White Guards based on Cossacks a good opportunity for rapid development.
By the beginning of April, the South Russian White Army had controlled most of Ukraine on the left bank of the Dnieper River, the lower reaches of the Don River and the Transcaucasus, including Donetsk, Russia's heavy industrial center.
At the same time, the Poles, who had just regained their country, also began to take advantage of the situation. In mid-February, the Soviet-Polish War officially began (there had been small-scale conflicts before), and by March, the situation on the battlefield became very favorable to Poland. In order to use its main force to fight the White Army, the Red Army could only gradually retreat from the front line from the Kurland border in the north to Ukraine in the south.
In this situation of internal and external difficulties, the birth of the Hungarian Soviet Republic was equivalent to opening up a second battlefield for the Soviet Union!
And Hersman wanted to use this opportunity to bring the Russian-German relationship, which had become estranged because of Empress Olga, closer again. In Hersman's memory, in less than two years, the Soviet Union's economic policy would make a 180-degree turn, and the era of the new economic policy would come. If the relationship with the Soviet Union could be restored earlier, the Economic Promotion Company would be able to gain huge benefits from the "Soviet-Russian Reform and Opening Up".
"But the fire can't be contained in the paper. The Allies will know it sooner or later." Von Seeckt said, his tone was gloomy, and he glanced at Hersman. "The news coming out of the Paris Peace Conference is very bad. They will definitely not act in accordance with the Fourteen Points of Peace. It is said that the French want us to cede the west of the Rhine and let the Poles occupy East Prussia, West Prussia and Posen! The compensation must be an astronomical figure, the first payment alone is as high as 20 billion gold marks..."
Hersmann said: "That's why we need the Hungarian Soviet Republic! If the Allies fail in Hungary, they will need us Germany, and then they will have to give us benefits. Even if they know that the Hungarians have received help from us! "
Von Seeckt looked at Hindenburg. The marshal said: "I think so too... Since tolerance can't bring any benefits, why bother with confrontation? If the Hungarian resistance succeeds, who thinks that Germany can be easily conquered?"
"But will they succeed?" Von Seeckt seemed a little doubtful.
"Yes!" Hindenburg smiled contemptuously, "The Hungarians' opponents are only the Czechs and Romanians."
If the Europeans were ranked in terms of combat effectiveness, the Magyars would have ranked high in the long years before 1919, while the Czechs and Romanians had never been known for their bravery. As long as the Hungarians have enough food and weapons, and receive guidance from German military advisers who are good at fighting guerrilla warfare and mobile warfare, there is no chance that they cannot win.
"But once the Czechs and Romanians fail, Britain and France will go down personally."
"General, I think they will still fail unless they get help from us and the Austrians."
"Why?" von Seeckt asked.
"Because the transportation facilities in the plains of Hungary, the mountains of Transylvania, and the mountains of Slovakia will be completely destroyed during the course of the war."
Hersman said confidently: "Moreover, the entire Hungary will be armed by then! There will be millions of Red Army and countless guerrillas, and it will be a vast ocean of people's war! The British and French coalition forces will We are stuck in the quagmire there! When the time comes, Britain and France will definitely ask for help from us.”
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