The future planning meeting for the urgent guerrilla republic in response to the Gomel campaign has finally begun!
At dawn, representatives from Black Earth Village and Catfish Village, led by their village chiefs, rushed to the Blacksmith Village. Representatives from the newly established collective farms, as well as the Red October, Gypsy and Kovpak Corps
A group of representatives are already waiting at the Blacksmith Village.
Long before the meeting, most of the people who will participate in the meeting must stay in the blacksmith village. There are also tens of thousands of refugees in the village. Some empty fields outside the village have also become training grounds for a large number of recruits. The little blacksmith
The village has turned into a huge settlement with 50,000 people living there, it can be called a city!
At least for Belarus in this era, a settlement of 50,000 people is definitely considered a "medium-sized city".
The military bugle blew at a fixed time in the morning woke Yang Mingzhi up. He rubbed his eyes and took off his wife's arm. With the qualities of a soldier, he immediately went to the ground and put on his military uniform as quickly as possible.
"Hey...Brother, you got up so early?"
"What? Don't hospitals also require doctors to be on duty early in the morning?" Yang Mingzhi urged his wife to get up while fastening his buttons.
Sleeping was always so comfortable. Starfruit lay there for a while and then got up helplessly.
Everyone is very busy. When the bugle sounds, most people in this collective farm must wake up unconditionally and welcome a new day of work.
Yang Mingzhi sent his wife to the hospital, and then visited Natasha who was ordered to recuperate. No matter what the girl said, Yang Mingzhi was already hard-hearted, and Natasha must continue to recuperate until she shows signs of prominence due to long-term and high-intensity combat.
Her cheekbones were once again covered up by weight gain.
He went to the cafeteria and ate a few potatoes. He didn't care about the quality of the food. He just filled his stomach to prepare for the meeting that was destined to be full of spitting stars!
Yang Mingzhi hurried to the army headquarters. His only purpose here was to get the materials he had made.
The conference venue is the office area of the Guerrilla Republic. It is a huge house. Based on the experience of the last conference, Yang Mingzhi believes that even if there are many people attending this conference, it can be filled perfectly.
Early in the morning, horse-drawn carriages loaded with neatly dressed conference delegates entered the Blacksmith Village, and before dawn, the venue had already begun to be decorated.
"Have you prepared your information?" asked Yevlov, who came a little later.
"It's over. This meeting is very important. I have made some preparations."
"Yes, I will also make some reports at the meeting. There are still some serious situations. We must point out that we must take emergency measures."
"Oh?" Yang Mingzhi stopped what he was doing and narrowed his eyes: "What on earth is going on?"
"Who else is there? You know those recruits! Those 6,000 newly recruited female soldiers, they are a bunch of losers! Teach them to shoot, and when the gunshot rings, a group of people actually cry in fear and tremble all over.
You said, why are these people serving as soldiers not making things difficult for them?"
"This...this is really a problem."
It is understandable that new recruits would be so scared that they wet their pants when they go to the battlefield for the first time. However, some recruits are as if they are possessed by a gun and have no regard for life or death.
However, the current recruits are mainly women. Listening to Yevlov's few words, Yang Mingzhi could guess that they were forced to join the army by Salinchkin simply because they were of the right age.
In this era, many countries still pursue a compulsory military system, and every citizen has the obligation to serve as a soldier. As for the Soviet Union, the system it pursues will inevitably encounter hostility from capitalist countries, and every Soviet citizen should take up arms when necessary.
Isn't this a matter of course?
Before the World War, the Soviet Union had a population of 160 million. Its huge population base meant that it only needed to support more than one million troops for national defense. Only in early 1941, when the war was about to break out, the number of troops surged from 1.5 million to 500.
Ten thousand.
As for the current active force, it has reached an astonishing 10 million.
There is nothing wrong with Sarinchkin forcing young women to join the army. Whether they can become excellent soldiers, Yevlov ruthlessly gave a negative answer.
Yang Mingzhi asked helplessly: "They... there must be brave people among them."
"Of course! Soviet women are trustworthy. Some of their husbands and children died at the hands of the enemy, and they are eager for revenge. There are also many who just want to escape the war and imagine that they can survive safely after entering the swamp. Familiar
I don’t know, relative peace is achieved. If they are not soldiers, who will defend the swamp."
"That's good!" Fuming, who originally didn't want to start a fight, came over. "Whether they want it or not, they must become soldiers."
"But, do you think a group of women who collapsed to the ground in fear after hearing the sound of gunshots can become good soldiers? Forget it! I observed the training all day yesterday. If it weren't for the fact that they were women, I would have carried them
With a stick, just beat those losers who hold their heads and cry and refuse to train!"
"Oh, calling them useless is just too intense!" Fu Ming was a little unhappy.
"You should see it for yourself! We have six thousand recruits now, and most of them are women. From what I can see, half of them have to be kicked out of the army. They are not suitable for the gun at all. They might as well be carrying hoes and shovels.
Dig potatoes, or carry a basket into the forest to collect mushrooms and dandelions."
Yang Mingzhi patted him on the shoulder to calm his irritable mood: "You can talk about these things in the meeting! I think this matter must be resolved. Military construction has never been done by giving civilians a gun. Even now our
Human resources are very difficult, and we must also train an army that can fight."
"Okay... okay... I hope my words can make Comrade Salinchkin take it seriously and stop selecting people from among the refugees without any screening and dumping the training work on us all at once."
...
The conference room has been improved, and the interior has also been decorated. The podium has been enlarged, and outside the podium are more than twenty rows of long wooden chairs, making the entire back city large enough to accommodate three to four hundred people!
Yang Mingzhi did not come here again after the last conference. This large conference room itself is also prepared for large-scale meetings. When there are no major meetings, it is really useless. A rusty lock is like sealing it.
.
Yang Mingzhi had just entered the venue with his document bag. He took a quick look and saw that many people were already here.
He noticed many familiar faces, as well as strangers, but the one who attracted the most attention was himself, the man wearing the Gold Star.
After some pleasantries, three familiar and unfamiliar people gathered around.
They are the commander of the corps, Kovpak, the captain of the Red October Brigade, Bumazhkov, and the captain of the Gypsy Brigade, Kalmanov. Apart from Kovpak, the other two participated in this meeting, one as an observer, and the other
Taking advantage of this meeting, I will elaborate on my ideas about the guerrilla movement, and finally I will provide some supplies to the "rich" guerrilla republic.
Different from the traditional activity areas of the Kovpak Corps, the Red Octobers and the Gypsymen, their activity areas are more dangerous, and because they participated in the war under the orders of Ponomarenko, the losses were not small. It is natural to ask for food and ammunition from friendly forces
, however, the news about the discovery of salt mines has become known to everyone in the past few days. The two commanders who learned the great news developed a huge desire for salt!
These two men gathered around Yang Mingzhi very rudely, and straightforwardly explained their three major needs: food, weapons and ammunition, and salt.
"What the hell, what's going on with these people? Do you think I'm stingy?" Yang Mingzhi cursed with a smile on his face.
It was the man who broke the embarrassment. A man with a reflective head walked into the room accompanied by his entourage. He praised in a clear voice: "Okay! You are all very energetic! My comrade general, I am very happy to see you."
Mingle with other comrades."
The embarrassment was relieved, and with the arrival of Salinchkin, the meeting was about to be held.
At least in the guerrilla republic, the pragmatic spirit is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Looking at the sketched portrait of Marx and Engels hanging on the wooden wall, as well as the deliberately hung red cloth, and the slogans in Russian, Salinchkin calmed down, he could not wait to
The meeting will be held immediately.
The venue has always been lively and lively. After all, this is the first plenary meeting of the Guerrilla Republic after the nearly two-month campaign has ended. The meeting is of great significance, and everyone knows that after this meeting, the Guerrilla Republic will undergo great changes.
People who were supposed to come arrived one after another. Unfortunately, due to the bad roads in some areas, it was almost nine o'clock in the morning for all participants to be due.
Like the last meeting, Salinchkin, who has the highest political status in the Guerrilla Republic, took advantage of this important opportunity to appear and continue to serve as the moderator of the meeting. Of course, he was already very good at giving lectures to other personnel.
After a eloquent prelude to the meeting and the attention of everyone, he finished reading the document, then waved his right hand and said loudly: "Comrades, let us invite our general, Comrade Berekov, to speak!"
Thunderous applause broke out at the venue, and Yang Mingzhi was already used to it.
He walked up to the stage carrying the documents and scanned the entire venue. Joining the Guerrilla Republic had small conference speakers, so he didn't have to speak loudly.
"Okay... okay... I thought our comrade secretary could give his speech until noon, and the meeting will be held in the afternoon. Since I am already standing here, let's start the topic now."
Originally, the guerrilla republic was facing large-scale infrastructure construction pressure, and the construction of salt mines intensified the pressure. It is best to solve the existing problems at this meeting and not waste too much time!
Yang Mingzhi looked at the audience again, looking at the expectant eyes of familiar and unfamiliar comrades. He paid special attention to Yevlov who had something to say, and the two guerrilla brigade who were full of talk.
.
He took the document prepared by Salinchkin in his hand and read it aloud.
Like the document given by Fomin, Sarinchkin's document also contains interruptions describing the battle process of the "Battle of Gomel". A large part of this document is a brief summary of the battle.
For ordinary people, this document is boring with its blunt words and straightforward numbers. But for those who have witnessed the battle, behind a few sentences or two is a bloody battlefield, and behind the numbers, there is meaning everywhere.
Visible tragic corpse!
The document brought the hearts of a considerable number of participants back to the battlefield. The entire meeting was silent. Yang Mingzhi glanced at it from time to time as he read it aloud, and what he saw was the unblinking expressions of all the participants.
When Salinchkin finished reading the document, what followed was Yang Mingzhi's own statistics. The data he personally collected and compiled were more detailed and the numbers were even more shocking.
After a major battle, how many people did the Soviet army lose? The troops that went into the battle must have a number, and the roster of soldiers in that unit was also handled by the military archives.
Systematic statistics must be carried out after the war. Because there has been no fighting for two weeks, the troops who were withdrawn first have enough time to make statistics on them.
The statistics are very simple. Just count the people who have been withdrawn from a unit (including the wounded in the hospital). Comparing it with the inherent roster, it is clear at a glance how many people have been permanently lost. Of course, it is not ruled out that there will be missing soldiers who return after dozens of days.
, but this possibility is really unlikely.
Yang Mingzhi gave the more than 200 representatives of the entire Guerrilla Republic and more than 50 representatives of the three friendly guerrilla forces attending the meeting a very terrifying loss figure - 8,166 people.
The soldiers and civilians who had been incorporated into the Guerrilla Republic's household registrations suffered permanent losses of more than 28,000 in a forty-day battle.
The time span of this battle is very long, so some of the lightly wounded in the early stages of the battle were put into combat again in the later stages of the battle, and there were even some lucky and unlucky guys who were defeated twice in a row and are now lying in the hospital again.
"More than 28,000 people, more than 10,000 of them are veterans of our 6th Army, and some even joined the Red Army in the spring of 1941. They sacrificed their lives for the country, and we, the guerrilla republic, fought for this battle
Almost all the elite troops were used.
As of now, the most elite 84th Guards Division and the three main regiments combined have less than 3,000 troops! The direct reconnaissance battalion with the strongest individual combat capability has only 600 soldiers left out of 600.
We can still continue to fight, but almost everyone else has died!
We paid so many casualties, and the battle we achieved was huge. I probably killed more than 50,000 enemies, and with the active participation of the Kovpak Corps, the Red October Brigade, and the Gypsy Brigade, we arrived in June
Preliminary estimates of the number of German and puppet troops killed and wounded in the August battle may be as high as... well... as high as 70,000!"
Yang Mingzhi paused here. He noticed that when explaining his side's heavy casualties, those frontline commanders who had narrowly escaped death had tears in their eyes, and many of them even trembled all over.
All battalion-level commanders participated in this reminiscence, so there were many participants. At the same time, they were direct witnesses of the war and were the most touched.
Complaining blindly can make people depressed, so although Yang Mingzhi wrote in his notebook "60,000 people", he added some exaggeration and made it "70,000 people."
But don’t underestimate the increase of 10,000 casualties. Comparing this data of the German army with the Soviet army, we can come to a gratifying conclusion: one Soviet soldier casualty is equal to the casualty of two German puppet soldiers.
During the Soviet-German war, it was unimaginable that the Soviet army had such a casualty ratio. However, the mountains of trophies seized after the battle proved such a result. Twenty thousand steel helmets were seized alone.
There was no doubt about this number. Of course Salinchkin was dissatisfied with this exaggerated number. He adjusted his glasses. However, the attendees around him welcomed the number, and he shut up.
Yes, there is no reason for anyone to doubt that the fact that "70,000 enemy soldiers were killed or injured" is false.
Now the entire Gomel Oblast and some surrounding areas are in chaos. The battle has destroyed the southeastern region of Belarus and the civilians who are surviving under the iron heel of the German army. Except for the dead, they are fleeing the battlefield on a large scale.
Or they learned it from the Mongols. The Slavic people are no strangers to the "scorched earth war of resistance." Part of the reason for the victory in the Patriotic War in 181 was Tsarist Russia's strong walls and clearing the country. In the end, the French army was unable to supply supplies on the spot, and the long supply lines could not deliver supplies.
Go up and finally collapse.
Today, a considerable number of residential settlements in Gomel Oblast have been reduced to burning ruins, and a large number of civilians are rushing to the main cities. A total of more than 30,000 people have been transferred to the Pripet Swamp by the Soviet army.
Gomel Oblast, which already has a small population, is developing into a no-man's land. Large areas of farmland are further covered by weeds. It has become impossible for the local occupying forces to operate and exploit civilians on the spot.
The entire morning meeting gradually turned into a one-man show for Yang Mingzhi, and he himself quickly got into the mood.
The morning meeting formally summarized the long battle. After a painful summary of our own losses, the atmosphere of the meeting became lively. Because the last hour before the meal became a complete celebration of the Soviet attack, all this officially concluded.
Mingzhi hopes.
"Okay, the atmosphere has finally become lively. In the afternoon, it's time for me to explain the future strategy!" (To be continued)