It's better to conquer them than to command the steel torrent

Chapter 90: General! Will you send your son to the front lines?
The game between diplomats was cold and serious.

The Grand Federation ordered Ivan Rus to abandon its absurd demands on Hungary and respect its sovereignty, otherwise it would impose the most stringent comprehensive export restrictions.

The latter said it needed some consideration.

In fact, this is just an attempt to delay time and wait for the outcome of the battle on the front line to become clear.

On September 9, the Hungarian government proposed to start military mobilization. On the same day, the Hungarian Queen Sigrid Bernadotte signed and approved the war mobilization order.

On September 9, the Marianna Republic continued to accuse Ivan Ross of its actions and passed a bill of temporary sanctions.

On September 9, Ivan Ross's General Staff approved the next phase of the offensive - aimed at breaking through the Warta River defenses in one fell swoop.

The Warta River is less than 200 kilometers away from Bolin. If this line of defense is broken, the only natural obstacle standing in the way of Ivan Ross's army will be the Oder River.

In just over ten days, the number of Ivan Rus's troops had soared from more than two million standing troops to a huge scale of more than four million.

From dawn to midnight, train after train runs on the extensive railway network.

Railway capacity has been severely saturated. More than a hundred railway stations and railway shunting yards are brightly lit, and railway workers are working in three shifts all night long.

Every minute and every second, a steady stream of soldiers, guns, ammunition, fuel and food were sent from the rear to the front line.

About twenty conscript divisions and fifty brigades of Volksrägt (National Riflemen) had been transported by rail to the second-line assembly areas.

On the mainland, there are dozens of conscripted divisions and more than one hundred national rifle brigades waiting to be loaded and shipped.

Ivan Ross's top brass was well aware that the enemy, the Varland army, was also fully mobilized and organizing more reinforcements to go to the Oder River defense line and the Warta River defense line.

However, what Ivan Ross is proud of is that his mobilization efficiency is second to none, which can ensure that the field troops are replenished in a timely manner. On this basis, new units can be continuously deployed, so that he always has a military advantage at the battle level.

The Second Alexander Offensive was about to begin.

In the early morning of September 9, General Nikolai Yudenich, commander of the 12th Brest Front, personally visited a reinforced shelter one kilometer from the river bank.

The General was accompanied by a United Kingdom military observer, Major-General Edward Palmer.

Palmer complained: "This is too dangerous. As a senior general, you shouldn't be so close to the front line."

Admiral Yudenich ignored him.

Pre-war preparations have been intensively carried out for three days and two nights.

The reconnaissance unit sent elite troops to survey the banks of the Warta River, survey the hydrological conditions, and identify several places suitable for forced crossings.

The engineering troops cleared obstacles in the selected areas, kayaked to the other side at night, removed mines, and blasted barbed wire, stakes, anti-tank cones and other obstacles.

The artillery unit formulated a massive fire preparation plan, detailed the tasks of each regiment, and opened several forward observation posts and side observation posts near the crossing point.

It is now 5:45 in the morning, and there are 15 minutes left before the final attack.

The rumbling of cannons was like rolling thunder, and half the sky on the other side of the river was lit up red by the artillery fire.

"Your engineering unit only carried out the obstacle clearing mission for one night. There must be many mines on the other side that have not been cleared." Major General Palmer asked.

"We don't have much time to prepare carefully. The Varlanders are adding new infantry divisions to the defense every day. We are racing against time," explained a Russian colonel. Major General Palmer, with a look of disbelief on his face, asked in surprise, "What if we encounter a minefield?"

Admiral Yudenich spoke up. He said calmly, "The engineers can't guarantee that all minefields have been cleared. If we encounter minefields that haven't been cleared, our infantry will continue their assault as if the minefield doesn't exist."

Major General Palmer immediately frowned and said in a deep voice, "This is murder! You have a complete disregard for the lives of the soldiers! Aren't you afraid of being shot in the back by your own soldiers?!"

The staff colonel was displeased with the guy's rudeness, but was interrupted just as he was about to speak.

Yudenich, expressionless, calmly stated to Palmer: "We Ivan Rus people fear defeat far more than we fear death. This is something you British people cannot understand."

Major General Palmer was furious. He sneered, "Mr. General, I don't think you can represent everyone. If your son were to attack the Varlander defense line next, you would never say such shameless words."

He continued sarcastically, "I've seen your attack plan. It's barbaric and brutal. As a military observer, I can't learn anything from it."

The staff colonel became even angrier and wanted to open his mouth and scold.

However, Admiral Yudenich smiled, turned around and tapped lightly on the map.

"Look at this first-tier unit, the 44th National Rifle Brigade. They are responsible for conducting combat reconnaissance of Area A3. My youngest son is a battalion commander in this brigade."

After saying this, Admiral Yudenich walked back behind the artillery scope.

The flickering firelight in the distance made his face dim and bright, leaving Major General Palmer alone staring at the map in a daze.

Combat reconnaissance is the use of offensive or feint attacks to force the enemy to reveal their defense system. To put it bluntly, it is exchanging human lives for battlefield information, commonly known as human reconnaissance.

At 9:12 a.m. on September 6, the general offensive began on time. On the more than 11-kilometer offensive front, Walland, whose troops were gradually increasing, concentrated more than troops of the th Army, with extremely high troop and firepower density.

Because of the wrong wind direction, the originally planned smoke screen had to be temporarily cancelled, and the first echelon of imperial Russian soldiers began to force a crossing of the Warta River.

Countless kayaks were scattered across the river, and machine gun bullets as dense as popcorn were fired towards them, like a heavy rain!
In the three hours of devastating fire preparation, most of Valland's pre-set positions were destroyed.

The surviving Imperial German soldiers were covered in dust and dirt, many of them had severe hearing loss, and even kept coughing up blood.

However, everyone firmly held their respective positions and used Mauser rifles, Schmeisser submachine guns, Vollmer general-purpose machine guns, grenades and other weapons to fire at the enemy in front of them.

At the A3 breakthrough area, the German 303rd Infantry Regiment stationed there was hit by an overwhelming attack from the Russian 44th National Rifle Brigade.

The National Rifle Corps usually only receives basic training, and the soldiers initially maintain a sparse formation of eight or nine meters apart, but as the battle begins, chaos gradually gets out of control.

"There's a machine gun there too!"

"The Great Master is dead!"

"Soldiers! This is not a one-man battle! This is the war of all Ivan Rus!" The major shouted with all his might: "Crush the Varlanders underfoot! They will surely be defeated! Kill them all!"

The brave and fanatical Russian soldiers shouted "Ura" and launched a continuous and uninterrupted attack!

They surged forward like a tide, then were driven back under the fierce crossfire, and retreated like a tide.

The enemy's bunkers and firing points were exposed one after another...

(End of this chapter)