Chapter 1465 - 24: Underground Organization_3

Chapter 1465: Chapter 24: Underground Organization_3

Toma Jefuka said, "There’s definitely no issue with tens of thousands of people; Yekaterinoslav has many factories, with the city’s steel plant alone employing thousands of workers. Moreover, Yekaterinoslav serves as a railway hub, which means there are also many railway workers, and both steel and railway workers are our focal points of development."

"However, the number of fake troops in Yekaterinoslav is also high; it’s close to the border, and is an industrial stronghold and a transportation hub, so the garrison numbers as many as thirty thousand."

"To successfully advance the Yekaterinoslav Movement, we must address the army issue; otherwise, facing suppression by the garrison may result in a tragedy akin to the Paris Movement."

At this point, Malinkov asked, "Given this situation, have you attempted to develop your own people within the army?"

Toma Jefuka replied, "Naturally; we have tried various means to penetrate the army, but this penetration only manages to win over some lower-level soldiers and junior officers, insufficient to change the army’s overall attitude."

This indeed is a significant issue. Yekaterinoslav, or Xiqueslav, as Ukraine’s military stronghold—if the army follows the commands of the pseudo-government, even if all citizens of Yekaterinoslav were won over by the Labor Party, it would be of no avail.

Toma Jefuka continued, "The biggest problem lies in the fact that many of the stationed troops are transferred from other places, making penetration difficult, and there are military advisors from Germany and Austria in the local garrison, providing plans for the fake troops, further complicating our efforts."

Malinkov frowned and asked, "If that’s the case, how many army members have you won over? Especially junior officers, what’s the highest position? How many people? Are they reliable?"

Having identified the problem with Yekaterinoslav, Malinkov could only try to gather more information to help lay the groundwork for future activities.

Toma Jefuka said, "We’ve won over three company commanders and one regiment commander in the local garrison. They were promoted to officer due to the wartime situation in the world wars, but due to lowly origins, their ranks are not high..."

In sum, these officers come from humble beginnings; under normal circumstances, without the occurrence of war, they might have been digging potatoes in the fields. However, due to outstanding performance in the World War, they were promoted to officers.

As Toma Jefuka continued his introduction, Malinkov also learned that the Labor Party’s influence in the army numbers roughly around three thousand people.

But this is merely influence; many, though sympathetic or supportive of the Labor Party’s ideology, have not reached the level of commitment to act with the Labor Party.

Nonetheless, this helped Malinkov make a firm decision. He said resolutely, "It’s enough; three thousand military personnel, plus tens of thousands of workers, as long as we can manage the nearly thirty thousand armed fake troops, we can change Yekaterinoslav’s fate."

"Although we are few, the fake troops lack combat will and strength; this is our opportunity. As long as we can strike first, control the upper echelons of the fake troops, and seize the key agencies and locations in Yekaterinoslav, the fake military government there will find itself headless. Ultimately, when the border troops cooperate, we can smoothly break through the fake military government’s defenses, eventually liberating Ukraine."

Using small to overcome large indeed carries high risks, but the Russian Labor Party succeeded and eventually seized national power by relying on such methods that proved successful; when the Russian Labor Party organized domestic movements, the member scale was only two to three hundred thousand, yet Tsarist Russia had millions of troops and controlled over a hundred million citizens.