Tomorrow's Ark, the journey of hardcore and ruthless people

Vasily turned his head hurriedly, and just when he saw the man clearly, he suddenly heard a loud voice coming from the back kitchen of the cafeteria:

"Ahahahahaha, chicken soup is here!"

With a high-pitched and thin voice, wearing a camouflage colored apron, some bald short men came out of the back kitchen.

The cook seemed to be very excited. He held the small basin in his big rough hands and talked like a cannonball.After introducing how difficult it is to cook by yourself, the guy said: "...It is precisely because of various objective reasons that the chicken soup supplied to the leaders of the military area is so precious this time. This dish is all ready, comrade Why don't you eat it?"

The commander on the seat replied: "Hey, Ivan Sergeyevich, everyone is afraid to eat it, saying that someone has poisoned the dish."

The cook closed his mouth and tightened his lips, showing an expression of being wronged: "Oh, dear Comrade Commander, I joined the revolution in 1093, so I am considered an old integrationist movement. I have contributed to integrationism. So much, but you still want to frame me... My respected comrade commander, if you don't drink this chicken soup, it will be..."

The bald man was choosing words, and then went on: "Little bourgeois!"

Then there was a silence that seemed to last a long time.

Commander Chorsky tapped his pipe on the rim of the ashtray and poured out the ash.At the same time, he said in a deep and deep voice: "Come on, stop talking nonsense, Comrade Ivan Sergeyevich Vlenishenko, if you don't drink this chicken soup, it means that you are really poisoned."

Surprised, Vonlenshenko took out a white handkerchief and wiped his oily and sweaty forehead.Then, he slowly scooped the soup from the basin into the bowl, and picked up the bowl: "I drink, I drink. Oh, dear comrades, what a wonderful thing it is to drink soup!"

As he spoke, he took a gulp of the chicken soup, put it down and said, "It's neither salty nor bland, it tastes really good! I swear to Comrade Ulyanov, it's much better than the tea from the Political Security Office. "

Commander Xue looked at Feng Lianshenko, trying to catch any strangeness.Those piercing eyes shone brightly in the dim light.

The cook continued to laugh: "Look, Comrade Commander, I'm fine! I'm alive and kicking like a damned imperial devil... Oh no - I mean, Comrade Commander, please take the lead, if you If you don’t take the lead, how dare you comrades drink it? Drink it, drink it quickly before the cold current in the northwestern tundra freezes the chicken soup into ice cubes..."

No one paid attention to him, only the sound of the snow blowing outside the window made the window panes rustle.

"Oh, what the hell!" Vonlenshenko suddenly yelled viciously. "Damn it! Why don't you drink it! You bloody redheads!"

He stared at the crowd angrily, grinned nervously, and took out a grenade from his pocket!

"Don't drink it, don't drink it, right? If you don't drink it, I'll blow up you bastards..."

The entire cafeteria fell silent in an instant. From the officers of the headquarters and the guards, to the imperial prisoners who were arranged to have lunch here along the way, they were all stunned.

At some point, the two guards who had quietly stood not far away were about to step forward, but Commander Xue raised a hand to stop them.

Among the people on the table, Comand also held down Tallulah's hand that was touching the hilt of the sword under the table.

Fenglenshenko calmed down a little, and said darkly: "You see, this is really strange. But since everyone knows, I will not act in this play. I am the famous Empire 'Okchana' and Empire A double-material senior agent of the Sixth Army Intelligence Bureau, codenamed Pangolin!"

What shocking intelligence!In the headquarters of the state military region, where countless military secrets come and go, there is such an enemy agent!An enemy of the people!

"I was the one who planted the captured imperial spy, and I was also the one who planted the poison in this chicken soup."

Fenglianshenko continued to say in his cold voice: "I drank this chicken soup, and I must be going to see His Majesty the late emperor. If you don't drink chicken soup, you have to follow those red heads that rot in the ground!"

He tore off his military cap from his head with all his strength, threw it viciously on the ground, and spat: "Bah! Son of a bitch! I ask you smart people to recall and think carefully about the red books in the What nonsense. What 'we have only one way out, and that is victory'; and 'death does not belong to the working class' - come on! I only see death! Integralist Ursus is surrounded by enemies! Counter-revolutionary uprising Just waiting to burn like a flame from the Don!"

Immediately afterwards, Fenglianshenko actually choked up: "Ah, gentlemen, I can't believe that the revolution will win...I sympathize with the workers, but there is really no way - let me end this war!"

The guy pulled the fuse of the grenade, then laughed maniacally: "General Kirilenko, His Majesty the Tsar, my mission is accomplished!"

The entire cafeteria fell down in a mess, except for the table where the imperial agent was standing.The smoke from the burning fuse spread rapidly in a corner of the cafeteria, reminiscent of the morning fog on the banks of the Don River.But soon—like the white bandits fleeing in a hurry under the fierce attack of the Civilian Army—the smoke gradually dissipated.

The grenade did not explode.

"Hell, even more cunning than a snow monster. You might as well shoot me..."

Before he finished speaking, Feng Lianshenke - this shameless traitor - fell to the ground and died.

Tallula looked at the corpses of the enemy agents on the ground being dragged out by the guards: "It's really an excellent funny show."

But when she turned her head, she saw the confused expressions on the faces of Comand and Aurora.

"what happened?"

Commander adjusted his expression and turned his head: "You're right, it's a good comedy...so can this dish be eaten?"

——Right now, the entire cafeteria is hesitantly looking at their plates.

(Everyone dare not eat this dish. Some people say that someone poisoned the dish...)

PS1:

Copy ghost material (x)

Steel-making bridge section (v)

Chapter 15 People on the Journey

After a farce, two groups of people who passed by but didn't know each other rushed to their respective destinations.

The Ursus officers and captives who were about to go home didn't say a word to the Yan Guo guy.They just finished their meal and got on the truck to the front again. In the trenches at the forefront of the battlefield, the administrator who had been with them since they were in the prisoner-of-war camp, the one who had nothing to do with the noble youth, the age The old farmer in the northwest tundra who could be their father spoke to them one last time:

"I'm here to send you off today, and I wish you all the best. I hope that after you go back, you can make more contributions to ending the war and alleviating the suffering of the people. As long as you do your best for the people of Ursas, we will meet again. Thank you for the Integrative Games What you have done; if you choose to oppose the people, we will meet, and the people's army will destroy you - remember, this is a certainty!"

Then, the taciturn middle-aged man turned away and disappeared into the traffic trench leading to the rear.

The young lads watched the person who had accompanied them for a long time leave, and before they had time to say a word or make any movements, the special envoy of the second lieutenant of the Imperial Army came over and said simply: "Hurry up! ,follow me."

He climbed to the top of the trench, turned around and looked at the nobles who were stunned, and said coldly: "The ceasefire will not last long, you'd better hurry up."

The already full-blooded Xiangtou angrily said to his own representative who was more indifferent than the enemy: "Please pay attention to your attitude, Second Lieutenant!"

The second lieutenant looked at the captured officers who had been exchanged indifferently, climbed over the breastwork, and walked toward the front.

The thorny head also climbed up the ladder angrily, and the scolding that was about to blurt out was suppressed abruptly: "You...the emperor is on top..."

Valery Berkonsky was the second to climb out of the trench.What appeared in front of his eyes was the desolate scorched land, bomb craters one after another, and concertina-shaped barbed wire as dense as bushes.

The fierce artillery fire completely turned the snow in the middle of winter.The explosion of the shells shook the soil into loose sand, and the heat of the explosion and combustion melted the snow, leaving this stretch of plains with nothing but black swamps.

Most of the Ursus soldiers who had rushed to the Tribune positions in the previous battle were here, and thousands of corpses fell in battle formation, mostly concentrated around the barbed wire.Barely intact corpses and severed limbs were hung on barbed wire fences, forming low walls.

The Ursus soldiers who were on the way to exchange prisoners fell into a dead silence.

The weakness of industrial power and the urgent needs of the front line forced the imperial army to throw into the battlefield those infantry divisions with less than 1 people who lacked even rifles; while the integration movement only maintained small-step and fast-running troops Expansion, a lot of time in army building is spent on training.The motorized infantry divisions of the Civil Protection Army can conduct combat exercises of all elements at the division level for a year.

Therefore, although the number of the tribal army's motorized infantry division is almost twice that of the Ursus infantry division, there are often situations on the front line where a tribunal army division fights an imperial army's army.But then we have to reverse it again: the artillery of an army of the Imperial Army will only be beaten by the artillery of a division of the Nationalist Army, and the infantry of the Nationalist Army can often crush two to three times the infantry of the Imperial Army.. ....

Facing the advanced and powerful war machines and firestorms of the Red Rebels, the Empire found that the only thing it could rely on was the Ursus themselves.

In other words, the imperial army can only be crowded into a sea of ​​fire.

The Ursus captives had to cautiously skirt and jump over the bodies of their own the whole way.The thorny head underestimated in a low voice: "Damn it, the battle has ended like this, why haven't you sent a land ship?"

The second lieutenant who led the way heard this and looked back at him: "Master Major, we tried it, but it didn't work."

After turning over another hill, people saw the footnotes to the above statement: land ships including several armored cruisers were paralyzed among the low hills in the Don River Basin, like a metal mountain range.The surfaces of their hulls are densely covered with scorched black, bullet marks, and breaches. Except for the main turret, all the external equipment is almost destroyed or gone without a trace.

In this wreckage of a battleship that looked like the remains of an ancient behemoth, the silent people got on a truck parked in the no-man's land between the two fronts.The truck accelerated like crazy as soon as it started, and the people in the back were jumping up and down.Amid their shouts of half-curses and half-questions, the second lieutenant leading the way spat back the words:

"Gentlemen, the ceasefire is about to end!"

The truck finally stopped after the driver galloped without letting go of the gas pedal at all.Already bruised and swollen in the carriage, and several unlucky bastards who vomited out before they could react, the swarming Ursus soldiers rushed into the carriage, and the two of them dragged the people inside one by one. get it out.A large group of Ursus bears are really like a bombed bear now, rolling and crawling among the snow, mud and trenches, as if a bomb was stuffed in that truck.

I don't know who shouted: "Suka Bulie, the time is up!"

Another replied: "Too late to run to the bunker! Drill the bomb hole! Drill the blast hole!"

Before Valery Berkonsky could figure out what was going on, he was kicked into the trench next to him, and then kicked into the pit on the side of the trench.Immediately afterwards, a few people swooped in, crushing the unlucky guy out of breath.

Before Valery took a second breath, a low howling sound similar to a train whistle passed over his head.The Imperial Colonel immediately realized what the sound was—

A second later, the whole world trembled with a loud bang.

Shelling!

The narrow blast hole shook violently.The earth turned into a violent ocean in an instant, and this small cave was a sampan that could sink anytime.The impact also spread throughout the whole body through the human cushion, the severe pain tightened the internal organs, and the taste of rust was vaguely in the mouth.

Valery's soul trembled under the terrifying gunfire.

Some people in the same blast hole were praying devoutly. The extremely fast speech rate and trembling trill showed that the believer's mental state was not optimistic.But Valery did not do this. For the religion that is widely spread in Ursus and has a major impact on the spiritual world of the subjects of the empire, unlike his pious father, he believes that prayer and supplication are meaningless.

Explosions, prayers, screams, cursing, wailing, coughing, vomiting, and crazy laughter rang out in the trench.No one knows whether they will be greeted by shells in the next second, and every second becomes extremely long.

After about 10 minutes, the bombardment came to an end.Valery struggled to crawl out of the shell-proof hole among a bunch of dizzy people, and was immediately stunned by the scene in front of him: the originally muddy and chaotic position, like several ditches dug in a pigsty, became even more chaotic. .One after another, people peeled away the sediment accumulated at the entrance of the gun-proof hole, and the officers and sergeants called their subordinates to come out from the bullet shelter.

Before they had time to congratulate themselves for surviving, or to mourn the sacrificed comrades-in-arms, a lot of work was spread on the heads of the survivors - repairing the destroyed fortifications, counting the casualties, taking care of the wounded and transferring the corpses to the rear... .

Valery silently looked at the collapsed blast hole next to him.A former captured officer of the Sixth Army of the Fourth Army was inside.The ex-officers and captives gathered around, and with their hands dug out the unlucky guy who was about to go home from the bomb hole in the landslide—he had already died.In the surrounding area, there are more soldiers cleaning up the collapsed blastholes.They shoveled the dirt into the wheelbarrows, seemingly oblivious to the broken limbs and arms mixed in the dirt.There was no sound in his mouth, and his numb face was also motionless.

The muddy Ursus soldiers and officers now looked exactly the same.

The Ursus soldiers on the battlefield in the Don River Basin all wore gray cotton-padded jackets or coats.Apart from a cap badge on the head, this "combat uniform" has no rank or branch symbols on its body.

According to the latest version of the internal affairs regulations of the Ursus Empire Army, although the uniforms of the troops in combat situations have to give in to concealment, they still have various symbols - there are even military rank epaulettes as wide as the shoulders, and they are also required to wear those A golden medal about the same size as the palm of your hand.

But this army has already dismantled all these things.Although the fabrics of the uniforms of officers and soldiers were not the same, as they struggled in such trenches, they all became the same.If you roast them over a fire, you can turn them into Uzbek-style terracotta warriors, and you won’t be able to tell who is who.

In Valery's view, the attitude of the army to honor shows a lot about the condition of the army.Whether it is "like officers and soldiers" or not saluting superiors can still be understood as actual needs.However, when he saw the indifferent and numb expressions of the officers and soldiers, he immediately understood that although the defenders on this position were equipped with cutting-edge bolt-action rifles and water-cooled heavy machine guns, they were actually finished. up.

After a brief pause, everyone overcame all difficulties and quickly turned to the rear of the front line.

In order to reduce the threat of enemy firepower and improve the probability of survival, most of the Ursus soldiers who were farmers or serfs started digging holes and ditches spontaneously, and finally the whole regiment and division went to live and fight underground.Although it is close to the water system, the trench is always waterlogged, cold and damp, and rats are rampant, but it is better than dying inexplicably.

However, the closer you get to the front, the depth of the trench decreases accordingly. At the front, there is only one person deep, and there are often no fortifications required for defense, and it is essentially just a dirt ditch.This is not caused by soldiers being lazy, or poor trench digging skills.The main reason is the lack of tools, coupled with the fact that the artillery on the opposite side interferes with the construction of trenches from time to time, and by the way, the generals who are full of offensive spirits believe that the front trenches should not be too deep, otherwise it will be inconvenient to launch an attack.

The result is that the trenches are not only very shallow, but also lack life-saving and combat gadgets such as machine gun nests and bullet shelters.Coupled with the fact that the opponent can grasp the situation of the entire battlefield from the air and provide corrections for the artillery, the entire battalion of Ursus soldiers are being blown to pieces by the artillery of the Nationalist Army.

Half an hour later, these imperial officers, who were still wrapped in civilian clothes living in a prisoner-of-war camp, finally came to the division headquarters of the 17th Infantry Division of the Sixth Army.

The baron, who had been awarded the rank of major after resigning from the university professor to join the army, and climbed to the position of major general and division commander in less than two years, barely cheered up and received them.When talking to these young juniors about what happened on the battlefield, when Valery talked about the cruelty of the front line, the baron smiled wryly: "Don't make such a fuss. The rebels' motorized infantry divisions each have two The artillery regiment is filled with 122 or even 152MM howitzers. I heard that there are also 122 howitzers for infantry regiments. These bastards come to greet each other at six o'clock in the morning, one o'clock in the afternoon and six o'clock in the evening every day. Just fire the cannonballs, just get used to it."

Everyone was dumbfounded.Out of the mentality of looking for the best in everything, Valery had no choice but to comfort himself: "Fortunately, there are still four or five hours of sleep time. And according to what you said, it seems that the militia... the rebels Artillery is a bit dull."

The major general glanced at the colonel who hadn't been on the battlefield for almost two years, and sighed: "You misunderstood, sir. One hundred rounds per cannon per day is the task set by the bastards on the opposite side for the artillery, even if it is used to fry mud. End. Any target that comes up is worth the extra ammo.

"That group of rebel bastards has artillery observers stationed at the front. Each motorized infantry division has more than 20 communication aircraft and artillery shooting aircraft, and there are also some powered armors that can stay in the air for a long time as observers. The red-headed gunners We will bombard any interested targets. If the forward ammunition depots and shelters are not well concealed, a few will be blown up as soon as they are repaired.

"By the way, after the artillery of the infantry division has been bombed, there will often be independent artillery units directly under the enemy group army or even the front army randomly selecting a certain division of our army to bombard. Occasionally, the enemy's aviation will send warmth. Anyway, don't think about it. Sleep soundly at the front line. Those guys didn’t even let the field toilets go unnoticed, and 4 field toilets were bombed to the sky just yesterday!”

Everyone: "..."

Despite the difficulties on the front line, the commander of the 17th Infantry Division reluctantly entertained them with a good meal. According to the practice of the Ursus army, noble officers can bring personal servants with them regardless of their height.Even if it's just a baron, it's normal to lead a team of chefs.In contrast, the commander of the 17th Division, who just eats white bread every day and regularly order fresh cheese, ham or roast chicken, is already considered simple.

It's just that the young people just passed by the division's field hospital.

It was just a trench about two meters wide and more than one meter deep. The soldiers piled the excavated soil on both sides of the trench, hoping to use the cover of the earth wall to shield the wounded soldiers from flying shrapnel.There were no beds in the hospital, a severe shortage of bandages, and only a handful of medicines. Only the most critically injured patients could lie on stretchers, while everyone else lay on the wet mud.Some people are covered with frost and snow, which means they are dead, while others are still wailing loudly.Military doctors were running around in the trenches, and all they could do was feed the wounded a little water. Just like the troops could only be suppressed and beaten by the partisans on their positions, the war between them and the god of death was more defeats than victory.

Most of the young people whose consciences are not completely necrotic finished eating reluctantly.

Then came the air raids.

Suddenly people shouted in panic from outside the division headquarters located underground, the division commander jumped up, and the mournful and melodious whimper of the hand-cranked anti-aircraft siren also sounded.