Chapter 159 Situation on August 7 (24,000 Monthly Votes Plus Update)

Afterwards, Wang Zhong followed Duke Mei Shijin's advice and fell down to have a good sleep.

He didn't expect that he would sleep for so long.

When he opened his eyes and got up, the calendar on the table showed that it was August 7th.

As soon as he sat up, Nelly opened the door and came in: "Want to have breakfast?"

Only then did Wang Zhong realize that his belly was already in a state where his chest was touching his back - after all, he had slept for almost 20 hours.

"Just have some."

As soon as he finished speaking, Nellie came in pushing the cart.

Nellie: "I saw that you like walnut butter, so I made some, but there is no softer bread in the city. In addition, there is no ready-made beef in the city, so I cooked some cabbage soup from cans. Yogurt is also canned.”

Wang Zhong asked in surprise: "Why are the supplies so poor? We can always eat fresh meat, eggs, and milk in Aolaqi!"

Nelly looked at him angrily: "There is a large ranch in Orachi, but there is no one here, and all the people in the surrounding countryside have run away, so we can only eat cans and sausages delivered by the railway."

Wang Zhong stood in front of and under the table in the room, posing as if he was having a meal: "Canned food is fine, too. You make it very fragrant. My appetite increases as soon as I smell it."

Neli brought the dishes to the table one by one, and Wang Zhong picked up the spoon and started drinking the soup. The sour soup was very appetizing.

Nelly held the pot of sour cream and asked, "Would you like sour cream?"

At first, Wang Zhong couldn't understand the habit of adding sour cream to this kind of sour soup, but now he has adapted to this practice, just like Indians can't live without masala.

"Have some!"

So Nellie poured a large amount of sour cream into Wang Zhong's soup bowl.

Wang Zhong stirred up the sour cream with a spoon and asked, "Where's Liu Xia? Last night - yesterday she went to church and didn't come back?"

"You're back. Miss saw that you were sleeping soundly, so she didn't wake you up and went back to attend the collective funeral of the Divine Arrow Company."

Wang Zhong frowned: "Who died in the Divine Arrow Company?"

"She was the only one left in the Miss Arrow team. The nuns and skitarii responsible for launching, as well as the skitarii responsible for protection, all died. Many people from other teams also died, and it is said that a praying hand also died. "

Wang Zhong stopped stirring the soup with a spoon: "On the way out yesterday, Liu Xia's condition was hard to tell."

Nellie didn't answer, just made oatmeal with milk and placed it next to Wang Zhong's soup bowl.

Wang Zhong continued to eat and asked while eating: "Has Pavlov established the headquarters?"

"It's on the opposite floor."

"Has the casualty count been finished?"

"Yesterday he wanted to come over and report, but I drove him away." Nelly paused and asked cautiously, "Did I do the right thing?"

"You did the right thing." Wang Zhong nodded, drank the oatmeal as quickly as possible, ate all the sour soup and the chopped sausage in it, and finally took a few bites of bread with walnut jam.

After eating, he stood up and said, "I'll go to the headquarters and get my uniform."

Nellie immediately brought over the military uniform and hat, as well as the polished leather shoes.

————

As soon as Wang Zhong entered the headquarters, he directly saw the map on the wall.

Moreover, the telegraph team was not divided and was placed directly next to the map table. The huge headquarters looked extremely busy.

Pavlov was looking at the report in his hand in front of the map: "How can it be possible that there are only so few people left in the anti-aircraft artillery battalion?"

Wang Zhong walked to him: "What's going on?"

Pavlov raised his head: "Are you awake? You look good."

Wang Zhong stared at Pavlov's dark circles for a few seconds and replied, "And you seem to be about to die suddenly. I suggest you take a nap."

"You put it lightly. Do you know how much energy it takes to gather such a scattered army? Apart from anything else, my staff department still has five staff officers who have not returned to the team, and there are also twenty-seven clerks missing. I have a total of A clerk with less than a hundred people!

"Our division company's combatants and logistics have only assembled less than 6,000 people now. When we set off, the logistics alone only numbered more than 10,000!"

Wang Zhong: "Has a point been set up at the entrance of the village or outside the city to guide the returning troops?"

It's almost like the entrance to a village. Shepetovka is a railway hub and a big city.

"It's set up, and a big pot filled with food and enough water are prepared there. People returning from the team will be brought here every once in a while."

As soon as he finished speaking, singing came from outside, so Pavlov came to the window, opened the curtains and took a look, and then said to Wang Zhong: "Look, there are more than a hundred people outside. Who knows how many more there are?" People are rushing here. By the way, look at this roster, the gathering efficiency of combatants is much higher than we expected, and now there are more than 3,000 people gathered. "

Wang Zhong looked surprised: "There are actually more than 3,000 people? I thought they were almost all gone."

“Some battalions are all gone, such as the Beshensk Regiment on Highland 153, which includes infantry, armor, and anti-tank gun crews, just a few people.

"I think more combatants can be gathered. Judging from the enemy's situation, they are in a hurry to go south and don't have so much energy to catch our people scattered on the plains.

"But logistics... The logistics staff are not as well organized as the combat troops. Many people don't know how to read maps at all and will get lost in unfamiliar places. They don't have any tactical skills and are not good at concealing themselves when encountering enemies..."

Pavlov shook his head.

Wang Zhong: "Where is your sixth-level clerk?"

"The old man ran out very smoothly. Did you hear the sound of the seal being stamped?"

Wang Zhong then realized that amidst the dripping sound there was also the sound of stamping.

"What is being stamped?" Wang Zhong asked in confusion.

Pavlov answered casually: "Death notice."

Wang Zhong was stunned into silence.

Pavlov raised his eyebrows: "Why, you are not used to it yet? I thought you should be used to this kind of thing after you personally delivered the remains."

Wang Zhong: "I hope I will never get used to it."

He turned to the map and fell silent again.

Pavlov glanced at the map and said, "That's it. The situation is very bad. The Second Armored Group rushed south after crossing Orachi. The good news is that the speed of the First Armored Group in the south has been slowed down. The naval infantry played a big role, but... it's still not slow enough."

Wang Zhong: "Isn't it three or five days before we are surrounded? Why don't you retreat? General Skorobo refuses to retreat?"

"No, the front headquarters requested a retreat last night, but His Majesty the Tsar did not agree." Pavlov pursed his lips, "Maybe His Majesty thinks that there is still such a wide area on the map to transport supplies, and there is no need to retreat at all."

At this time, the judge who supervised the use of the code book on the radio looked up at this side, but did not say much.

————

"Isn't this still wide?" Tsar Nicholas V cursed while tapping the map, "You can't even send supplies to such a wide area?"

"My Majesty," the Chief of Logistics of the High Command tried to explain, "Logistics transportation requires roads and railways. Now most of the roads have been cut off, and the railways have been almost bombed because of the enemy's advance of the field airport. Your Majesty, if you don't retreat..."

Nicholas V tapped the table: "You told me you can defend it! You said so!"

All the generals were silent at once.

Because they did pat their chests and say they could defend it.

Nicholas V continued to slam the table: "You also said that the enemy was at the end of its strength, and used the enemy's central heavy troops stopped advancing as an example! You said that the enemy suffered heavy losses. Then what? What about now?"

The Chief of the General Staff said: "The enemy stopped at that time, probably just waiting for supplies and infantry units to follow up..."

"That's not what you said at the time!" Nicholas V interrupted the Chief of the General Staff, "I should record everything you said at the time! And then play it here! Wait, there should be meeting minutes at the time, right? Take it out, let's see what my generals said at the time!"

Chief of the General Staff: "The situation on the battlefield is constantly changing, so the judgment will also change. At that time, we came to a conclusion that we could stick to, but now it has been proven to be wrong. Since it is wrong, we must make adjustments based on the current situation."

"Since it is wrong," Nicholas V stared at the generals fiercely, "you should be dragged out and shot!"

"Even if we are shot, we should retreat now." said the Chief of the General Staff. Nicholas V was silent for a few seconds, and then said in a much gentler tone: "Agsukov is our most important core city, the origin of Guente! Losing this place will be a heavy blow to our morale! Can you bear this responsibility?"

"Let Skorobda bear this responsibility in the future." said the Chief of General Staff.

Nicholas V sighed: "This is the only way. Can we withdraw all the troops now?"

Several generals looked at each other, and finally Marshal Semyon Konstantinovich said: "It's difficult. Under the current circumstances, we estimate that we can withdraw 200,000 to 300,000 troops."

Nicholas V was shocked: "Can we only withdraw this much of the nearly one million troops? What's the difference between that and not withdrawing at all?"

Marshal Semyon: "There are no more than one million troops. The enemy's attack is very fierce. Now Agsukov has about 700,000 troops. The rest have been dispersed and need to be regrouped and replenished, but there are no conditions for regrouping and replenishing troops in the encirclement at present."

Nicholas V: "700,000 is not a small number! Only 300,000 can escape! No, I refuse such a retreat! Either you give me a safe plan, at least 600,000 can escape, I don't care if you use troops to support or not, anyway, if you want to retreat, you must withdraw a large number of troops!"

After speaking, Nicholas stood up, turned around and walked out of the meeting room angrily.

The people in the room looked at each other.

"Failed again." The Chief of Staff sighed, "If Her Royal Highness the Princess hadn't done that, it wouldn't have been so difficult to persuade her."