Chapter 615 Arrival of Reinforcements Discuss Breakthrough
The four cavalry division commanders Zhang Wansi, Hong Han, Zhong Liang and Battelle gathered together to welcome the Fourth Army arriving on the battlefield.
Chief of Staff Fu Xiucheng, as the representative of the Fourth Army, saw four division commanders coming to greet him.
He said happily: "Your cavalry division has achieved great success this time and trapped the main force of the Russian army on the grassland.
Our Fourth Army has arrived at the front line and will cooperate with the cavalry division to capture the main force of the Russian army."
Zhang Wansi and Fu Xiucheng, two bitter rivals, exchanged a few words outside the camp.
Zhang Wansi invited Fu Xiucheng and other officers of the Fourth Army to inspect the front line.
He looked at the soldiers of the Fourth Army. They all looked tired and tired. Many people came here and kept swimming with their sore calves.
When Zhang Wansi saw this situation, he knew that the Fourth Army must rush to the battlefield by marching at all costs.
From the detail that the artillery regiment of the Fourth Army did not keep up with the main force, we can also guess the situation at that time.
Fu Xiucheng must have been afraid that the cavalry division would move too quickly and the Russian army would be defeated before the Fourth Army arrived on the battlefield, thus ending the war.
As a result, the opportunity that the Fourth Army had been waiting for for a long time was missed.
Zhang Wanxiu just smiled when he thought of this. The roles of cavalry and infantry are completely different.
The sharpest means of cavalry is its powerful offensive ability and rapid movement of battlefields.
In siege and annihilation warfare, infantry is better at it.
The Russian army's main force of more than 100,000 was captured by 50,000 cavalry. Zhang Wansi knew that the casualties would definitely not be low after this battle.
Zhang Wansi and others came to the front line, where a small group of cavalry from the Great China Empire was fighting with the Russian Cossack cavalry.
Seeing this battle situation, Fu Xiucheng asked: "The Russian cavalry is not weak in combat power. How come there are so many of them and they are still besieged here by your cavalry division."
He felt that he had such an army in hand, and he would not fall into such danger if he commanded it randomly.
Could it be that the cavalry division was so lucky that they met the idiot general on the opposite side?
Zhang Wansi introduced: "This is the most elite cavalry of the Russian army, with a total number of less than 10,000, and they are distributed in four directions.
Thanks to Commander Zhong Liang, the 4th Cavalry Division cut off the Russian army's logistics supply line.
Now the food from outside cannot be transported to the Russian army camp.
The food stored in the Russian army camp will not last for many days."
When Fu Xiucheng heard that the Russian army was out of food, he secretly thought that it was very dangerous.
Fortunately, he ordered the Fourth Army to march quickly and arrived at the battlefield before the Russian army was defeated.
Otherwise, when the Russian army runs out of food and the soldiers have nothing to eat, they will inevitably surrender in large numbers, and the remaining troops will have no morale.
The cavalry division can easily defeat a stubborn enemy.
"The Russian army is out of food. This is really good news.
Our army has rich experience in dealing with enemy troops that are out of food.
You can capture a large number of enemy troops with the simplest food lure method."
Zhang Wansi waved his hand and said: "Chief of Staff Fu, your infantry can use these, but our cavalry is not easy to use this method.
The problem of prisoners is more difficult to solve. Once the prisoners are dragged down, they will probably be run away by the main force of the Russian army."
Zhang Wansi looked at the Russian army camp where hundreds of thousands of people gathered.
Some people have previously proposed to use various methods to subdue the Russian army and make them surrender.
The entire army has learned a few simple words in Russian in order to prepare for the surrender of the Russian army.
However, the cavalry division is at a numerical disadvantage, and the prisoners of war will consume a large amount of personnel and troops.
There are not enough troops to suppress the prisoners, and the surrendered enemy troops are likely to turn back.
If a large number of troops are used to suppress the prisoners.
If the Russian army chooses to escape at this time, the troops responsible for pursuing the Russian army will inevitably be insufficient, and it is likely that the main force of the Russian army will escape.
No matter how many soldiers you capture, they are not as valuable as capturing the enemy's leader.
Chief of Staff Fu Xiucheng clapped his hands excitedly.
"This question is simple. The next task of encircling the Russian army will be left to our Fourth Army.
The main force of the Russian army does not want the entire army to be destroyed, so they will definitely look for opportunities to break out.
We have two legs, but we cannot keep up with those with four legs.
The cavalry division will still be responsible for the remaining soldiers who escaped."
Zhang Wansi and other division commanders looked at each other and agreed to the distribution plan.
The content of their discussion just now was to discuss the distribution of military merit.
The Fourth Army's appetite is not big, they only want the small soldiers in the Russian camp.
The higher value of the Russian main force and Russian generals were all reserved for the cavalry divisions.
The Fourth Army arrived at the camp. Without rest, they immediately took over the task of besieging the Russian army from the cavalry division.
All members of the Fourth Army turned into engineers, digging trenches and setting up sandbags on the grass.
Barbed wire fences and horse traps specifically for cavalry were prepared in front of the position.
Each battalion's defense line also has two water-cooled heavy machine guns, which are big killers.
It only took one day to create a usable line of defense.
Zhang Wansi saw the cold muzzle of the heavy machine gun on the position.
He knew this kind of firearm, which could fire bullets continuously by using the thrust of residual gunpowder and its exquisite structure.
With a rate of fire of more than 800 rounds per minute, it caused a sensation in the entire army as soon as it was produced.
Because of the ultra-high rate of fire, the barrel of the gun will quickly become red and hot, so you can only wrap a water pipe around the barrel to continuously cool the barrel.
All it takes is ten water-cooled heavy machine guns and barbed wire.
During the simulated battle, Zhang Wansi commanded a full cavalry division to charge into the formation. He suffered almost all casualties without breaking through the enemy formation, and suffered 90% of his own casualties.
It was the emergence of this kind of weapon that made the cavalry realize that they were a thing of the past and could no longer serve as the main force of the army.
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The Russian army suddenly found that its opponent had changed.
They are no longer cavalry riding horses and fighting with short blunderbuss.
Instead, they were infantrymen holding long blunderbuss and digging holes in the ground.
The firepower of these infantry is stronger than that of cavalry.
As soon as the elite Russian cavalry made contact, they were repulsed by a huge rain of bullets.
Commander Tie Zhenwu of the Fourth Army saw that the heavy machine guns did not fire, so the Russian cavalry was repulsed by his regiment.
He mocked happily: "That's it? That's it!"
He saw the military chef coming with a big bucket.
Tie Zhenwu shouted loudly: "Brothers, we have been blessed these days.
In order to attract the Russian army on the opposite side, the generals fed us big fish and meat every day during this period.
We are in a favorable position, so everyone must perform well.
If there are really prisoners who come to surrender, we will accept them according to the previous training method."
Each large iron bucket with a diameter of one meter was opened, and it was full of hard vegetables.
Braised pork, chicken stewed with mushrooms, sweet and sour carp are all available.
The strong fragrance wafted along the wind in the Russian camp.
The Russian troops, who had already run out of food and were extremely hungry, smelled the long-lost smell of meat, and their stomachs growled.
After Tie Zhenwu and others finished eating, they brought him a large metal speaker, connected him to the battery, and installed a microphone.
He put the big iron loudspeaker in the opposite direction and asked soldiers who could speak Russian to supervise the Russian prisoners and let the prisoners shout into the Russian camp.
"I am Kabul and I am living well after surrendering.
You think about your parents, wives and children, and think about whether your life is worth living.
Don't sacrifice your life for the nobles, your own life is the most important.
As long as you come to our camp and surrender, we will treat the prisoners preferentially, we will never execute you, and you will be fed well."
Before the Russian army, a small number of soldiers ran to the other side because they could not bear to starve.
This led to a crackdown by the military officers, who executed soldiers who were preparing to escape, and spread the word that all those who fled to the Dahua Empire would be executed by the Dahua Empire.
No matter what the Russian army did, they failed to solve the fundamental problem. The camp ran out of food and the soldiers at the bottom had no food to eat.
Now there are people who ran away before spreading the word, and the problem that the soldiers were most worried about has been solved.
A large number of Russian soldiers, under the cover of night, killed the Du clan and surrendered to the Great China Empire.
The Fourth Army was preparing to receive a large number of prisoners, so it did not lay a large number of mines in front of the formation. These prisoners could successfully reach the Fourth Army's position.
…………………………
Count Vladimir Sergeyev called a meeting of Russian generals.
He saw that everyone came here for the meeting, and no one was absent from the meeting.
He slapped the table with his hands and shouted angrily: "What is going on? How come a large number of soldiers have chosen to surrender to the enemy these days?"
Count Vladimir Sergeyev felt that this situation was not good.
His previous approach was to retain elite soldiers and use the lower-level serf soldiers as cannon fodder.
They figured out the situation of the Dahua Empire's defense line and chose to lead elite troops to break out, while the lower-level soldiers stayed in the camp to hinder the movement of the Dahua Empire's troops.
Now the soldiers at the bottom are losing rapidly. They don't even want to be cannon fodder and choose to surrender to the Dahua Empire.
You have exceeded Count Vladimir Sergeyev's expectations in this situation.
He originally thought that because of the language barrier and the soldiers being unfamiliar with the enemy's situation, it would be difficult for them to surrender voluntarily unless they were captured on the battlefield.
Vladimir Sergeyev's confidant Ivan Niksky saw that the generals were silent.
Everyone knows the specific reason. The officer responsible for distributing food was so corrupt that he did not even give the soldiers a piece of black bread, but instead asked the soldiers to pay for it.
It's surprising how hungry soldiers can surrender to the enemy.
Ivan Niksky reminded, "Your Majesty, as far as I know, the current situation in the camp is not good.
The food supply is decreasing little by little, and now even the elite cannot have enough to eat, and it is impossible to take care of the lower-level soldiers."
The Russian general Fucas stood up and suggested: "My Lord Count, I think you should make plans in advance.
Most of the soldiers' physical strength has not yet been exhausted, and the total number of soldiers who have surrendered is not large.
As the situation in the camp worsens, the soldiers will lose the strength to resist due to starvation.
If we try to give it a try then, we won’t have a chance.”
Count Vladimir Sergeyev also knew that the situation had reached a very critical moment.
He looked at the other generals and asked, "What do you think?"
Other generals knew that the current situation of the Russian army was very bad, and they all agreed with Fucas's opinion.
Count Vladimir Sergeyev clenched his fist and slammed it on the table, making a loud bang.
"Everyone agrees, then we will try to break through.
During this time, Dahua Empire reinforcements arrived on the battlefield.
If we don't break out, we will be trapped by more and more soldiers from the Great China Empire. By then we won't even have the advantage in terms of strength, and we will definitely not be able to escape.
During this period, the infantry and cavalry of the Dahua Empire changed their defenses.
Most areas have completed defense changes, but there are still some areas where the speed of defense changes is the slowest.
That's the east and south.
The generals of the Great China Empire have already determined that we will inevitably break through to the west or north.
These two directions are completely dead ends, and the east is also a dead end. That is the direction from which reinforcements from the Great China Empire are constantly coming.
The only place with a glimmer of hope is to break out to the south."
As soon as Count Vladimir Sergeyev said these words, the generals in the camp were stunned.
The Cossack cavalry commander Kandel, as the defeated general, was pushed out by his companions to question Count Vladimir Sergeyev.
Kandel asked bravely: "Your Majesty, our current way of survival is indeed in the west and north.
Regardless of whether we fled to the west, we met up with the troops coming from the mainland.
Still heading north to the Siberian region, we met up with the army commanded by Lord Oleg Ivanov.
These two roads are the way to survive. I think escaping southward is the way to death.
We are the remaining soldiers, unable to obtain supplies, and there are pursuers in the rear.
There is too little room for turning back if we flee south, and the whole army will probably be annihilated."
Count Vladimir Sergeyev saw that Kandel dared to challenge his authority.
This was the situation in the past. He had already had Kandel dragged out to be executed or beaten half to death.
Now is the time of life and death. If you want to escape, you must rely on the experienced Cossack cavalry.
This situation is not suitable to deal with Kandel.
He cursed angrily: "You idiot, no wonder most of them were wiped out by the cavalry of the Great China Empire, and none of your brothers were brought back.
I said that the south is the way to survive. This is why we chose to break out from the south.
As long as we escape the encirclement, whether we go west or north, we can make a choice based on the future situation.
If we want to go west, we break out from the west and run into the heavily surrounded enemy army. What a stupid person would do that."
Kandel was scolded and hid behind the crowd.
The Russian generals also clearly understood Count Vladimir Sergeyev's intentions.
They supported the direction of Count Vladimir Sergeyev's breakout.
Count Vladimir Sergeyev regained control of the situation.
"We will break through from the south and this matter will be settled.
We chose to break out during the day. Even in the elite army, many people have night blindness and are basically unable to fight at night.
I have been thinking for a long time about how our army can break out of the encirclement.
I decided to send out a team to supervise the entire army to break out of the encirclement from all directions.
Delay the armies of the Dahua Empire in other directions and prevent them from supporting the army in the south.
Our elite troops preparing to break out are hidden among ordinary soldiers.
Let those serf soldiers consume the ammunition of the Dahua Empire’s defenders first, and we will wait for an opportunity to break through the Dahua Empire’s defense line.”
Count Vladimir Sergeyev spoke eloquently about the breakout plan he devised.
This plan is very simple, it is to use cannon fodder to attract the attention of the Great China Empire.
The elites they led unexpectedly broke through the defense line of the Great China Empire.
The Russian generals carefully considered this breakout plan.
Count Vladimir Sergeyev has considered many details, and they cannot come up with a better breakout plan in a short time.
What's more, the people here are not cannon fodder and have hope of breaking out. They will not oppose this breakout plan.
Seeing that everyone supported his breakout plan, Count Vladimir Sergeyev immediately arranged for his generals to make arrangements before the breakout.