Dominate South Asia

The street fighting continued, as if a hidden monster was devouring fresh lives every moment.

The Soviets found that it was not easy to withdraw their troops. Now, as the climate continues to get colder, street fighting will become more brutal. Remember that a few decades ago, Germany aggressively attacked the Soviet Union, and the result was that Outside Moscow, hundreds of thousands of German troops froze to death. For the first time, the Soviets felt that the situation was not good.

Finally, after persisting for another half month, the two sides stopped fighting in the streets, and the Soviet troops withdrew from Jalalabad. At this time, their casualties had exceeded 30,000.

This was a price that was difficult for the Soviet Union to accept. The powerful Soviet Army could not defeat the Afghan rebels in street fighting!

The siege in the mountainous areas has ended. The exhausted Soviet troops can only withdraw from the northern mountainous areas. In this cold winter, the Afghan Free Army continues to launch a fierce offensive. Several cities in the mountainous areas, including Bagh Ran, Taloqan, and Faizabad all fell one after another, and almost all of northern Afghanistan fell into the hands of the Free Afghan Army.

The exhausted Soviet troops left northern Afghanistan under constant harassment and evacuated to the peaceful Kandahar in the south to rest and recuperate.

In the winter, large-scale battles could no longer continue, and the Soviet troops also needed to recuperate. They were very tired and in very poor mental condition.

The winter of this year was extremely cold. When Marshal Akhromeev returned to Moscow from Turkmenistan, snowflakes began to fall in Moscow.

There are almost no people on the streets. The most crowded place in Moscow right now is in the supermarket, where people line up for several hours every day to buy the bread they need. This has become the most important part of their lives.

Kremlin.

Although the fireplace was burning brightly, it still seemed very cold here. When Marshal Akhromeev came in, he knew what he was facing.

As the supreme commander of this battle, when he returned to Moscow to report on his duties, he was as if a primary school student had failed the exam. He felt extremely hesitant in his heart.

The original promise was within a year, but now it is only a few months. Logically speaking, Marshal Akhromeev could have continued to delay, but he was an honest man and came back immediately after receiving the order.

"Dear General Secretary." Marshal Akhromeev first saw Gorbachev sitting in the upper position. At this time, the other party's face was very unfriendly. Marshal Sokolov, the Minister of Defense, was sitting beside him, and the other few He also knew everyone personally, including Gromyko and others.

These people were silent. Marshal Akhromeyev knew that the battle in Afghanistan would be ugly. None of these people are satisfied.

However, I have tried my best.

"Well, Marshal Akhromeev, I called you back this time mainly because I wanted to ask about the progress in Afghanistan. I remember a few months ago, you promised me with your chest that we could end the war in Afghanistan. And open up the Indian Ocean southward. "What's the situation over there now?" Gorbachev said.

"General Secretary, what we said at that time was within one year." Marshal Sokolov said at the side.

"Well, within a year, but these few months have put a lot of pressure on me. I don't know if I can allocate even one ruble to the Afghan battlefield." Gorbachev said: "I Here. There is a list of several big battles after I agreed to your battle plan. Yakolev, please read it to everyone."

Yakolev, member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Gorbachev's most capable assistant, this list. It was he who drafted it, and now he took it and read it out loud.

"On June 3 this year, we started fighting with the Pakistan Air Force over Afghanistan. In several battles, we lost a total of forty-eight Su-27 fighter jets, forty-six MiG-29 fighter jets, and twenty-eight MiG-23 fighter jets. Eighty-seven pilots were killed. On June 18, Afghan rebels suddenly diverted the Kabul River. The river came and flooded the Bagram base, and we sacrificed 19,304 soldiers. From the beginning of August, our army began to surround Jalalabad and engaged in street fighting with the Afghan rebels. A total of our troops died. There were more than 13,200 soldiers and more than 17,000 wounded, 3,000 of whom were seriously injured."

Marshal Akhromeev's face turned pale for a while. He knew all these losses, but now, saying it in front of so many people, he still felt an unconcealable shame. The battle was over. It's really a shame to look like this!

"In the past, we have always said that it is because our air force is not good. When our new fighter jets enter service, they will definitely be able to seize air supremacy. But what is the result? I only saw our soldiers and lost so much! Even if it is not Looking at the losses of the air force, just look at the ground, our army, we are so powerful that we can directly defeat the entire European army, so what happens there? Fifty thousand people, fifty thousand people!" Gorbachev's voice, roared across the room.

"To you, the army is ruthless. Maybe everyone is just a number on the death notice, but in my eyes, that is a living person! A person, from birth to growing up, It will take at least twenty years! Countless lives have been consumed by the country! But now, they have all died in Afghanistan!" Gorbachev stood up angrily.

"However, we also eliminated more than 200,000 Afghan rebels." Seeing Marshal Akhromeyev silent, Defense Minister Sokolov finally spoke: "Although we have sacrificed a lot, we We have still achieved an overwhelming victory. When next spring begins, we will continue to fight and we will definitely be able to complete our mission within the stipulated time! "

"But the country can't bear it anymore!" Gorbachev's voice became louder. This usually amiable man became completely angry. His momentum was even greater than that of these soldiers who had experienced the war.

"More than 30,000 people died! Our pension for each person is 20,000 rubles, which is as high as 700 million rubles! And for more than 10,000 disabled people, we need to provide full living allowances until their death. Just the first time it was distributed, more than five Tens of millions of rubles, and countless more to come! As for the equipment, we have lost more than five billion rubles in fighter planes and tanks! Since June, we have invested a total of 20 billion rubles!" Gorba! Geoff said: "In your eyes, this These things may not count for our huge country. Our country’s GDP is as high as 1 trillion rubles! However, I want you to see clearly what our GDP is in, including heavy industry and military industry! ! Can the airplanes and tanks we produce be eaten? Our country is still hungry, and workers have to queue for hours to buy bread! We need to import a lot of food from Western Europe, but now, Our country can’t afford it!”

Sokolov knew that this time Gorbachev was going to take advantage of the defeat in the Afghan War to challenge the entire military. The army was still developing rapidly, occupying the country's precious wealth, causing the people to There are temporary difficulties in life. However, if we do not develop our own military, how can we confront the United States and protect our current achievements?

"General Secretary, these expenditures for our army are necessary." Marshal Sokolov said: "We have been sparing no effort to develop our army since General Secretary Stalin. We can let the whole world use our force Trembling ahead."

"Trembling? You can't even solve a small Afghanistan, and you're still trembling?" Gorbachev said: "We Soviet people are trembling with hunger!"

The military is incompetent. They say they can fight against NATO and Europe. They can't even solve a small Afghanistan. And now, the Soviet Union can no longer let its own people continue to pay for the war. The calculation just now is just for the war. The direct losses and indirect costs of the war are even higher. Starting from the early 1980s, Since the beginning, international oil prices have begun to fall sharply. It was because of the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. In response to the call of the Americans and to support the Afghan people, the Middle East began to continuously increase crude oil production, which led to the continuous decline of international oil prices. The Soviet Union has already You are losing money by mining crude oil locally!

Originally, the oil industry should have been one of the few profitable industries in the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, now, it has become an industry that the government needs to continue to subsidize. If crude oil is not exploited, the government will have to arrange new jobs for those oil workers. The price of work is equally high. It can be said that it was the war in Afghanistan that brought down the Soviet economy! If Gorbachev wants to reform, he must end the damn war in Afghanistan. It is definitely not worth it to lose the entire Soviet economy just for the sake of a reputation as a hegemon!

Now, Gorbachev has been in power for a few months, and his previous ambition has gradually waned. He understands his situation. After all, he is not old enough and has not enough seniority. No matter what kind of policies he introduces, he will always infringe The interests of certain people, and these people are secretly obstructing it, prevent the reform from proceeding.

If countermeasures are not taken, Gorbachev will achieve nothing. The first thing he needs to do is to establish prestige in the military!

Those forces behind the scenes all have an indescribable relationship with the military. The Soviet Union, a huge country, has long become deformed. It has excessively developed its military and neglected people's livelihood. If it wants to reduce military expenditures, it will suffer consequences. There is strong opposition, and now is a good opportunity! (To be continued ~^~)