At the same time, in the Finnish capital, the presidential residence in Helsinki.
Kallio, Finland's fourth president since independence, is convening a state meeting.
The emergency state meeting held in Kallio had only one topic: how to respond to the Soviet invasion?
After all the cabinet ministers and ministers attending the meeting had arrived, Calio immediately signaled to the State Secretary that it was time to start, and the State Secretary immediately informed the senior officials attending the meeting of the latest battle report he had just received about the defense of Mannerheim.
"Gentlemen, we have just received an emergency report from the front line. The second line of defense in Mannerheim has been breached by the Soviet army. At present, the Soviet armored regiment has crossed Kirillovskoye and is walking along Route 7.
Rapidly advancing towards Vyborg, in addition, the Soviet Air Force has also begun to bombard Vyborg indiscriminately!"
The words of the State Secretary were like a drop of water falling into a frying pan, causing the cabinet ministers present to explode in an instant.
"What? Mannerheim's second line of defense has been lost? Didn't it say it could hold on for at least half a year? Why did it fall in just three days? How did it happen?"
"What the hell is this guy Silavos doing?"
"This time Marshal Mannerheim is in command."
"By the way, where is Marshal Mannerheim? What did he say?"
"Yes, Mannerheim must give us an explanation!"
Looking at the angry cabinet ministers, Kallio's face immediately cooled down and he said in a deep voice: "Gentlemen, I regret to inform you that Finnish Marshal Mannerheim has been captured and is currently being detained in the Soviet Red Army.
Located in the temporary prison in Kirillovskoye, as for Silavas, he is probably killed in action."
"What? Silavos was killed and Mannerheim was captured?"
"God, what is going on? Why is this happening?"
"Damn it, Mannerheim and Silavos must be held accountable!"
Upon hearing the news, the cabinet ministers and ministers present at the meeting were immediately stunned.
Kallio knocked on the table, signaling for everyone to be silent, and then said: "The top priority is not to hold Silavos or Mannerheim accountable, but how to survive this crisis! Because of Mannerheim's second level
The collapse of the defense line was so sudden that the main force of the Finnish Defense Forces stationed on the second line of defense could not withdraw. Therefore, now, the third line of defense with Vyborg as the core support simply does not have enough troops and materials."
This is the biggest dilemma facing Finland - insufficient troops!
After all, Finland is a small country, with a mere 70,000 troops in the national standing army. After the Soviet-Finnish War broke out and after nationwide mobilization, it was only 200,000. Since the Mannerheim Defense Line is divided into three front and rear layers based on the Karelian Isthmus, when
After the first line of defense was lost, the main force of the Finnish Defense Force was deployed on the second line of defense.
If the second line of defense is lost bit by bit like the first line of defense, then even if it is finally lost, the main force of the Finnish Defense Forces can retreat calmly, and there will still be a chance to rely on the third line of defense to gain a foothold. However, now
, the second line of defense suddenly collapsed, and the main force of the Finnish Defense Forces had no time to retreat and immediately herded sheep.
As a result, it will be difficult for Mannerheim's third line of defense to play an effective role.
After a pause, Kallio added: "If a miracle doesn't happen, Vyborg will be lost within five days, and at most half a month, the armored cluster of the Soviet Red Army will approach Helsinki! Gentlemen, now we should discuss moving the capital.
Regarding the problem, I think the capital should be moved to Vaasa."
Upon hearing this, the cabinet ministers and ministers exploded again.
"No, Vaasa is just a small port city, how can it be the capital of Finland?"
"I agree. Although Vaasa is only a small town, it is only separated from Sweden by a narrow sea, and the narrow sea is now frozen, so it is easy to obtain assistance from the Swedish Volunteer Army."
"I object, why not try to cooperate with the Soviets?"
"Damn it, are you trying to sell Finland's sovereignty?"
The conference room was so noisy that Kallio could only scratch his head.
Xu Rui was just a butterfly flapping its wings twice in the Karelian Isthmus, but it turned out to be a huge hurricane in Europe! Because the Soviet army achieved a far more thorough and faster victory in the Soviet-Finnish War than in history.
The victory made the outcome of the Soviet-Finnish War very different from that in history, which triggered a series of chain reactions.
…
When the news reached Western Europe, British Prime Minister Chamberlain happened to be in Paris.
Chamberlain's secret visit to Paris was just to reaffirm with French President Lebrun the strategy for dealing with Germany. After Germany annexed the Sudetenland and most of Poland, it showed no sign of stopping. Instead, it became more greedy and became greedy for neighboring countries.
Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and other countries have all shown their territorial ambitions.
Germany's expansion ambitions put great pressure on Britain and France.
In addition to Chamberlain and Le Brun, there was also French Field Marshal Pétain who participated in this meeting. Yes, it was the same Marshal Pétain who became the head of the Vichy puppet government after France surrendered. However, at this time, Marshal Pétain was still the leader of the French army.
The hero of the Third Republic because his victory was the Battle of Verdun.
Since the diplomatic focus of both Britain and France is on Germany, neither Chamberlain nor Lebrun care much about the war between the Soviet Union and Finland, because even if Finland is really annexed by the Soviet Union, the impact on Western Europe will be
It's trivial, but a tiny move from Germany could completely overturn the power structure in Europe.
After discussion, Chamberlain, Le Brun and Pétain came to a unanimous conclusion, that is, Nazi Germany has become a climate, and the most taboo at this time is to confront him head-on.
It created hot spots between the Soviet Union and Germany, eventually inducing the Soviet Union and Germany to go to war.
However, it is not easy to achieve this goal.
Pétain said: "Through the partition of Poland, we can draw a basic conclusion that there is a certain tacit understanding between Nazi Germany and the Red Soviet Union. If we cannot break this tacit understanding, no matter how much we pay, we will only
It could serve as food for Nazi Germany, but it could not induce Nazi Germany to go to war with the Soviet Union."
"That's right." Chamberlain sighed sadly, "I made a mistake regarding Poland."
Chamberlain was indeed responsible for the destruction of Poland, because when the German army invaded Poland in early September, although Chamberlain and Le Brun declared war on Germany immediately, they only declared war and did not actually send troops to help Poland fight the war.
As a result, Poland was carved up by Germany and the Soviet Union.
Chamberlain's original intention was to use Poland as bait, hoping that the Soviet Union and Germany would fight over the uneven distribution of spoils. In this way, old Europe, led by Britain and France, could sit back and watch the fight between the tigers and reap the benefits. But in the end, he let
Surprisingly, instead of breaking out into war, the Soviet Union and Germany happily divided Poland.
This incident also seriously weakened Chamberlain's prestige.
So now, it is no longer easy for Chamberlain to speak in old Europe.
It is precisely because of this that Chamberlain went to Paris to meet with Le Brun. Otherwise, all he needed was a telegram, and Le Brun would have to go to London to see him just like the governors of other provinces returning home to report on their duties.
After a pause, Chamberlain added: "It is indeed not easy to make Su De turn his back."
As soon as he finished speaking, Le Brun's secretary suddenly came in and handed him a telegram.
After reading the telegram, Le Brun was immediately overjoyed and said: "It's great! We were dozing off, and someone brought us pillows."
Petain asked: "Mr. President, what's going on?"
"You'd better read it for yourselves." After Le Brun said this, he handed the telegram in his hand to Chamberlain. Petain next to him also turned his head to read it together. After reading it, the two of them were a little confused.
Pétain said: "Mr. President, what's so good about this?"
Chamberlain was also worried: "The Soviet army broke through the Mannerheim Line in such a short period of time, and it was just around the corner to reach Helsinki. We had no time to send troops to intervene. At this time, it was already too late to even provide weapons and equipment. Finland was captured by the Soviet Union."
Annexation is inevitable, this is simply a crisis, why are you so happy, Le Brun?"
Lebrun shook his head and said: "Crisis, crisis, and danger often contain opportunities. Geographically speaking, the Soviet Union's annexation of Finland is certainly a serious challenge to the original structure of Europe, but the one that will be most affected is not
We, but Hitler’s Nazi Germany.”
Petain said in confusion: "Mr. President, how do you say this?"
Lebrun added: "Because the Slavs are greedy by nature, their territorial ambitions seem to be endless. After successfully annexing Finland, they will most likely target Sweden. The excuses are all ready, because
Sweden sent volunteers to participate in the Soviet-Finnish War, so the Soviet-Swiss War will almost certainly break out!"
"Well." Petain suddenly said, "This possibility is indeed very high."
At this time, Chamberlain also reacted and said: "If this is the case, not only Sweden, but also Norway will face a great threat from the Red Soviet Union, and Norway is not only an important supplier of iron ore resources to Germany, but also Germany's
Military ally, in order to ensure the security of Norway, Germany will definitely send troops to Sweden!"
Petain frowned and said: "Then the question is, how to ensure that Sweden will not become the second Poland and will not be tacitly divided by the Soviet Union and Germany?"
Chamberlain and Le Brun fell silent immediately.
After a long while, Chamberlain said again: "No matter whether Sweden will become the second Poland or not, this is a rare opportunity for us. The fact that the Soviet Union and Germany can carve up Poland without any grudges does not mean that
Then they can carve up Sweden without any grudges. What if a fight breaks out? So it’s worth a try anyway.”
Le Brun also said: "Yes, what if there is a fight?"