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

The meeting was once again deadlocked.

Relevant departments of the integration movement, as the largest mountain in the Chernobog underground organization, tried to reconcile the contradictions.But the effect is not obvious.

After the attention of various organizations was diverted from confrontation to the reunification movement, the students were fine, but suffered from the second disease; the trade unions wanted money, but they were completely unwilling to make any concessions to the reunification movement; They all hope that the red team can cover their actions, as if the small-scale Atlas commando team, which can be counted among the few genuine Renlian soldiers, can easily wipe out the entire Chernobog Imperial Army.

All of them want and want more, and they are still unwilling to exchange at equal value. By the way, they secretly accused the integration movement of wanting to "override their comrades in arms."Highlight one that needs to be engaged in the service industry and establish a landmark building.

The representatives of the integrated movement don't even bother to give them a sweaty soy face.There is no relationship of rights and obligations between the parties.Guerrilla warfare training and supporting weapons are a matter of love, and they will add to the obstacles of the empire by the way; if you don't help you a little bit, that's just a duty.

The farce of "I am alone" and "All the world is protected" is staged again.After a round of "hegemonic" and "incompetent and shameless" hat exchanges, the meeting broke up unhappy.At the end of the show, there were already cheap mocking integration movements being driven straight ahead by the commander of the imperial army, and sooner or later they still put on such a big show of hiccups.The representatives of the integration movement also sneered and replied that it will die later than you.

After leaving the venue, the underground workers of the integration movement began to move according to the complicated anti-reconnaissance procedures.

Faust, who meets Mephistopheles on the way, walks down the street side by side with his old friend.At this moment, the military parade is over, leaving only the mess everywhere.The two followed the underground workers in front of them far away in silence, always alert to the changes around them.

A group of aristocratic carriages and cars with "Rostov" signs were slowly passing by on the street. When the aristocratic lady with long white hair that covered the floor looked outside, she would never have thought that there were five automatic weapons around her, ready to shoot. .

Mephisto muttered in a low voice: "Heh, the migratory birds thought this city was as safe as a safe, so they flew back again..."

(For the possible attackers) Fortunately, until the handover, with the abilities of the two special forces of the Nationalist Army who had undergone professional anti-reconnaissance training, no abnormalities were found.

The two went through a journey full of anti-tracking measures, and finally returned to the stronghold of the small hardware factory.When he was finally able to communicate freely, Faust suddenly said, "What do you want to say?"

Mephisto frowned: "I'm thinking...we are not as stupid and unaware as those grassroots groups, and we are lucky to have directly joined a more promising group."

"Let me tell you, without Commissar Kang, we would have been like that." Faust shook his head.

"I agree with that. I'm beginning to agree with that statement now that they handed us more than weapons."

Chapter 30 Crisis in "Victory" (Part [-])

Just in accordance with the order of the Supreme Command, the fortified mobile city cluster that was renamed from "Tsaritsin" to "Steel Grad" is standing majestically in the northwest of the Don River Basin.

With the continuous retreat of the Western Front Army of the National People's Army, this place has changed from the rear far away from the front line to the prominent part of the front of the National People's Army.The Western Front has fully retreated to the Dnieper River Basin further west of the Don River, where it has re-established a line of defense.

According to the "Berlin Plan", when the Imperial Army broke through the Don River Basin and forced the Western Front of the Protectorate Army back to the line of the Dnieper River, the Eastern Front Army of the Protectorate Army launched an attack from the northern wilderness of Ursus, continuously passing through the mountains and wastelands, crushing the already established The two Ursus armies were severely damaged and were armies in name only.Then attack the city of Chernobog, the most important logistics distribution center in the area currently controlled by the Ursus Empire, the second largest military industrial town.

At the same time, the Western Front Army will also launch a diversionary counterattack, trying to completely entangle the main force of the Ursus Empire Army in front of them.Even if the imperial army reacted in time and ran at full speed, Tchernobog would inevitably be besieged or even conquered.The empire will lose a large amount of land and population, lose vital military production capacity, and turn into a comprehensive disadvantage in subsequent wars.

There are many prerequisites to this grand plan.For example, the main force of the Ursus Empire Army must be sent eastward.The more the enemy advances, the more it can form the effect of luring the enemy deep.When the Eastern Front took the Iron and Steel Grad area as the axis, completed the outflanking to the southeast of Ursas, bypassed the frontal enemy forces and the heavily defended fortification area, and swept across the rear of the Ursas Empire, it was too deep and the logistics were broken. The Imperial Army will fall apart.

Therefore, to put it bluntly, Steelgrad Fortress must stick to its current position. It is the common fulcrum of the two front armies.Once this place is lost, the Dnieper River defense line of the Western Front will lose its most stable fulcrum, and the southern flank of the Eastern Front will also be exposed to the Imperial Army.Luring the enemy to go deep is likely to completely collapse, and the People's Protection Army will fight a defeat in the old base area that they have operated for a long time, and the loss outweighs the gain.

Therefore, Zhugashvili, the military and political commissar of the dignified front, was ordered in the face of danger, and came to Iron and Steel Grad in person to sit in charge.

According to the consultants of the People's Federation, the name "Steel Grad" comes from a counter-insurgency war in the history of the People's Federation.When the well-known Krieg Death Corps in the United Army faced the entire rebellious planet, the only thing they could rely on was the hive capital called "Steel Grad".And this hive has persisted for hundreds of years under the siege of millions of enemy troops, and finally ushered in victory.

Djugashvili is dubious about this claim.The main reason is that when they learned that they were going to sit in "Steel Grad", the consultants of the People's Federation had weird expressions.

After deeply realizing the heavy burden on his shoulders, the political commissar of the Front Army, who was ready to sacrifice, rushed to Iron Grad as quickly as possible, determined to live and die with the city.But when he saw the city of Steelgrad and the surrounding defensive areas on the plane, Dzhugashvili was immediately dumbfounded.

Because Steel Grad is not a fortress city, but a death hell built with fortification areas, armored trains, railway heavy artillery and mobile city modules.

Steelgrad is no longer the land-based super-heavy weapons system experimental facility of the 113th Division of the Human Federation Extraterrestrial Corps.After refitting and adding multiple mobile city modules, "Steel Grad" turned into a super fortress cluster, which was handed over to the Terra comrades.

Each module of this mobile city has become a fortress that can fight independently, and is distributed in various key positions of the entire position, forming a fairly sophisticated defense system.Around these strongholds, there is an outer defensive zone composed of permanent and semi-permanent fortifications of the tribal army's fortified area garrison.

Connecting the fort positions are communication systems, power systems, and transportation supply systems including military roads, railways, small rivers, and air transportation.These extremely strong reinforced concrete fortresses that support each other can withstand the heaviest artillery and defend against poisonous gas attacks, forming a fortification group that stretches for tens or even hundreds of kilometers.The area occupied by the entire position is comparable to that of a real large industrial city.Among them, it even has a certain ability to manufacture tanks and armored vehicles!

Faced with general-purpose machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars, howitzers, howitzers, cannons, rocket launchers, and even railroad guns and armored turrets under the protection of armored fortresses and reinforced concrete, the Imperial Army felt an unprecedented sense of frustration and powerlessness.They think that instead of attacking here, it is better to grind meat in the Don River Basin.At least there are only conventional fortifications built by the enemy in the wild.The frontline generals of the Imperial Army made it clear that only by sending all the heavy artillery and reserves to the frontline, and using endless rain of shells and seas of people to attack, can they tear a small hole in this iron wall. glimmer of hope.

Using mobile cities as military fortresses is a common operation in Terra's military history.The countries of Terra that "piled up" the mobile city with STC have almost no way to completely destroy the mobile city module. They can only use giant artillery such as naval guns and city defense guns to paralyze the huge walking mechanism of the mobile city, and then send people to jump on it to grind the meat.

But when the mobile city module is part of a large defensive position, and the surrounding area is established, it is a terrible strong fortress.Only by concentrating the most violent attack of a large fleet and army could the solution of this difficult position be possible.

But under the city of Iron Grad, this meager hope no longer exists.The problem is not only that Steelgrad is far stronger than any fortress that the imperial army has ever seen, but the bigger problem is that the artillery of the militiamen is powerful and advanced, and they also have air supremacy.

In previous battles, when the imperial army first entered the assembly area, the greetings from artillery fire of various calibers from the opposite side of the front blasted them all over the ground. can't do it.In artillery battles, the artillery of the Imperial Army, which is at a disadvantage in terms of caliber, number, bunkers, and organizational level, can't even suffer a small loss.

After thinking about it, the imperial army chose to concentrate the land fleet to suppress the enemy fortress and cover the breakthrough.This is a very threatening move.Even if it is a fortress position, it will be greatly threatened when facing the firepower projection of groups of land battleships.And land battleships are not easy enemies to deal with.When the alarm was received, the artillery of the entire Iron Grad was organized and prepared to launch an anti-landship battle.

The Tribune Air Force then sent a brigade of 72 fighters to support it.

The Imperial Army is experimenting with primitive joint operations of all arms.In the high sky, there are multiple "Ilya Muromets" bombers with two wings and four engines conducting aerial reconnaissance and providing calibration for the Imperial Army's artillery and fleet.Another group of biplane fighters was on guard over the fleet and provided some air cover.

In the costly actual combat courses, the imperial army has realized the importance of various new weapons and technical arms from top to bottom.They also followed the example of the militiamen to explore.This is of course not a good sign, but it does not mean that these new combat forces of the Imperial Army, which are inferior to human beings in terms of personnel, equipment, software and hardware, can threaten the Civilian Army.

For example, these JH-1000s, which are all mounted on the ground, each have a 130-kilogram aerial bomb and two quadruple 23MM aviation rocket pods, as well as four [-]MM rocket pods on the wings. cannon.With such a mount, it is completely impossible to carry out air combat. Generally speaking, if a fighter-bomber does not immediately abandon its load when encountering an enemy air superiority fighter, it will die.

Of the four brigades of the brigade, two brigades were ordered to attack, and the remaining two brigades were on standby at an altitude of 6000 meters.The twenty or so Imperial fighter jets that were hovering around the fleet responded immediately, preparing to climb up to meet them, and start an air battle that I was still very unfamiliar with——

Thirty-six JH-36s passed through their defense circle like lightning, and rushed to the wriggling imperial fleet on the ground.The Imperial fighters were slow as if stuck in the air with glue.

The rags and rotten wood of the Imperial Army can barely reach a speed of [-] kilometers per hour, which is at least [-] kilometers slower than the turboprop fighter jets of the Civilian Army at any altitude.

The Imperial Land Fleet that is approaching Steelgrad is powerful, and there are four large battleships alone; but among the anti-aircraft guns on board, the ammunition for the 100MM anti-aircraft guns only has timed fuzes, and the 37MM anti-aircraft guns and 12.7MM anti-aircraft machine guns are not unified. Command of anti-aircraft fire.

Therefore, the JH-[-]s who jumped down easily passed through the less dense air defense firepower network.

The first batch of four JH-1000s that dived gave up dropping bombs, and instead used rockets and machine guns to straf the target deck full of anti-aircraft guns.After the flesh and blood of the Ursus crew members on the battlefield flew everywhere along with the weapon fragments, the first 380kg bomb hit the battleship "Saint Varyag" with three three [-]MM naval guns The swollen part left a huge wound at the base of the towering command tower.

A second bomb hit the stern of the battleship, shattering a chunk of the deck and sending Ursus sailors flying across the sky.

The third bomb...

After dropping the bombs, the JH-[-]s can only be described as extremely arrogant.They didn't even bother to get out of the enemy fleet's air defense circle, and directly turned at low altitude in the enemy's anti-aircraft firepower network, and rejoined the battle.

Most of them choose the enemy battleships that have just been bombed, and use rockets and machine guns to wash the decks of those enemy battleships that are so large that they have hundreds of anti-aircraft guns and machine guns, and cover their comrades for subsequent attacks.When the rockets were completely emptied and the mounts were used up and turned back into fighter jets, the J-[-]s turned to the enemy planes that were still desperately rushing over the battleship.

Another massacre began.

At the same time, the other two brigades on standby in mid-air began to dive...

Djugashvili, who personally climbed to the top of the observation tower to observe the battle situation, saw five Imperial fighter jets exploding at the same time, and saw the Imperial four-engine mainframe hovering at a height beyond the range of ground anti-aircraft weapons dragging long flames and dense flames. As the smoke fell, I saw that the enemy fleet that had just entered the field of vision had disbanded and fled in all directions.

He silently watched the offensive that had failed before it even started, then turned around and ordered: "Notify the anti-ship artillery group and start shooting!"

**

When the tribunes stopped performing again and began to seriously block the advance of the imperial army, the imperial army, which was "only a week away from the enemy's factory", could not attack.

Not only the soldiers under the city, but the imperial army in other areas also felt that the days on the banks of the Don River were back, and they were back again.It's just that he ran to the Dnieper River--

By the way, resupply is more difficult.

In St. Junburg, the meeting place of the Ursus Empire War Council, even though Fyodor himself was present, the war council members were still arguing fiercely.

The official of the Ministry of Finance with dark circles like a panda waved the document, his posture was like a Cossack wielding a saber, and his hoarse roar resounded through the venue: "Another 5 pack animals and a corresponding share of feed?! This is impossible! Are you going to let Half of the country's fields are abandoned, or do you want half of the rural population to starve to death?!"

The officer of the General Logistics Department with bloodshot eyes responded with the same roar: "We did not ask for transport ships, trucks and tractors. We have compromised to the point of being unable to compromise! If we can't get these beasts of burden, we are rushing to the third place." It only takes a month for the hundreds of thousands of troops in the Niebo River to be so hungry that they can't even walk!"

"The rural areas are almost too hungry to walk! Those who pull the iron plow to plow the land are old people or children, and only mares and ponies with missing teeth are left in the livestock pen. If the army wants to look at the old people in the rear Weak women and children are all exhausted and starved to death, so you can go to the people to collect livestock!"

"That's why I said, as long as you endure the temporary difficulties, you can grab the much-needed supplies and livestock from the enemy..."

"Until then, the people will..."

The heated exchange of views continued, with no sign of ending or ending.His Majesty the Emperor in the first seat was already enveloped in a deep sense of fatigue.

As the militia retreated across the board, the entire Ursus Empire was in a state of excitement.People rushed to the streets cheering, and various forms of celebrations went on for the whole day. There were endless slogans such as "Kill all those mud-legged and red-headed people". I don't know how many people opened the wine they had collected for many years.

The dawn of victory seems to be at hand, and the war seems to be over soon.Further fueling this optimism, the military announced plans for an offensive, with five armies marching forward across the long-lost northwestern part of the empire.

And panting in the harassment and mud.

In addition to harassing and harassing people with cold guns from small groups, the Civil Protection Army also began to use mechanized units to play magnetic tactics.Mechanized units composed entirely of tanks and infantry fighting vehicles continue to carry out tentative attacks. Once they encounter the main force of the Imperial Army, they will immediately retreat, and then guide the artillery and air force to bombard the Imperial Army's positions; .The imperial army, which was far less mobile than the tribune's mechanized units, could do nothing about it.

At the same time, the Tribunes began meticulous sabotage work.Not only were the weapons and equipment removed, but even the reinforced planks in the trenches were stripped away.The railway directly adds a special broken wagon at the end of the train, and uses a large iron plow to plow the sleepers at the rear of the train and plan the roadbed.The road is even more exaggerated. The "mud rock" brand soil liquefaction machine is fully promoted, and a large amount of water is soaked along the way.As a result, the originally straight and flat road turned into countless muddy ponds, making it difficult to move even an inch.

Even for the few mechanized equipment of the Ursus Empire, it is quite difficult to pass through such a large muddy area.Due to the wide scope and depth of the muddy area, even if a land speeding ship enters it, wear and tear will aggravate and the breakdown will soar.The trucks basically burped, and the tractors struggled.The vehicles were still like this, and the railways were also declared dead. The logistical environment of the Imperial Army with only animal power left could be imagined.

The imperial army was able to guarantee the supply line in the Don River Basin before, which was related to the massive construction of the supply line.As the Imperial Army advanced a distance of at least [-] kilometers westward in less than two weeks, the supply line broke away from the anti-air observation posts and air defense shelters everywhere, and entered the extremely bad traffic environment. Even the specific traffic information areas that are completely lacking.The supply line, which was only barely enough, has been extended sharply, and it has been stretched to the point where it is about to break.

Moreover, the loss of military livestock was also very serious.Due to road damage and muddy conditions, the loss of various materials has doubled, and the demand for materials has also increased. All transport units are under overload, coupled with air raids and lack of feed, these beasts of burden are consumed very quickly. , Ten percent died within ten days of starting the offensive, and 30.00% were close to being scrapped.

The shortage of logistical supplies has reached the point where a large number of imperial army units are out of food and food.In such circumstances, robbery is common practice.The Tribunes withdrew everything that could be removed from the Don River basin when they evacuated, but only military supplies.Regarding civilian daily necessities and even public food, they were completely left in place, and a considerable amount was even distributed to local civilians, even the Cossack villages and towns that were most inclined to the empire.

It's a joke in the world.Those die-hard Cossack villages and towns laughed at the stupidity of the red head while preparing the imperial double-headed eagle flag and the portrait of the emperor at home.When the long-awaited imperial army finally returned, bread and salt were offered to them.

Then the unprecedented imperial army rolled in, stirring the hearts of the old Cossacks and middle-aged men who had shed blood for His Majesty the Emperor.

But when they came back to their senses, they found that their house seemed to be eaten up by the brave and invincible soldiers of the Imperial Army...

The food stocks in the Don River Basin are limited no matter what, and it is impossible to supply all of them to the army.The officers and soldiers of the imperial army, who had a tense logistics, were already hungry, and they were also thugs of the feudal autocratic empire.In addition, the imperial army is a typical feudal army, "the soldiers are brutal and bloodthirsty, the soldiers are numb, the officers are corrupt, and the generals are extremely gambling."Their military discipline was certainly not as good as that of the Tribunes.So isn't it normal for conflicts between the imperial army who robbed food privately, organized food collection, and even large-scale looting and the rebellious Cossacks?

The Integratable Movement differs fundamentally from the Ursus Empire in many ways.One of the most important reasons why the integration movement can mobilize the power of the masses is that it "popularizes the population" and treats the masses "as human beings."Of course, this brought endless benefits, but it also prevented the integration movement from treating the masses as "inappropriate people." Even if there were really a lot of bad guys among the Cossack masses in the Don River Valley, they liked to hang the tribal soldiers from trees and burn them to death.

The Ursus Empire is different, expulsion is what it is best at, and it has almost no moral burden in terms of civilians.Don't let the country's leaders publicly say "collecting surplus grain is very sorry for the farmers...", its senior generals will directly tell their generals, "Go and feed our soldiers first, don't care if the mud legs are gnawing Live in the saddle", its army announced that "one imperial army officer and soldier died in a guerrilla attack and ten civilians in the recovery area should be buried with him" had no resistance, naturally; "killed three thousand red guerrillas" but only captured three hundred A gun is even more commonplace.

Of course, the most important thing is the secret document of the Imperial Army's General Staff.In view of the fact that the imperial army’s looting and food requisition caused increasingly fierce military-civilian conflicts and led to a rapid increase in the incidence of abnormal death incidents among soldiers, this document dated January 1095, 1 notified the Imperial Army’s various armies on the Don River Front: “Part of the military laws In the Don River Basin and the enemy-occupied areas further west, it can be decided by the army officer whether to implement it."

Therefore, using the most brutal means to suppress the riots and wipe out the guerrillas has become the most common thing in the Don River Basin that the empire has just "recovered".And the fire of the Cossacks also ignited with unprecedented speed and intensity in the Don River Basin, but this time the object of burning changed from the integration movement to the Ursus Empire.

Chapter 31 "Victory" in crisis

In fact, the widespread Cossack riots in the provinces and states of the Don River Basin were not simply a matter of looting and grain requisition.It also involves a funny reality:

The whole army and people of the Ursus Empire are in a speculative trend.

In a war of unprecedented intensity and cost, the subjects of the Ursus Empire tasted never-ending hunger and despair.However, the barely guaranteed food supply and the empire's great reputation made many people still have confidence in the empire.They believed that the difficulties were only temporary, that the empire had the most valiant army in the world, and that the final victory must belong to Ursus.Abundant supplies will come with the glory of victory.There will be bread, and there will be milk.Isn't the recent "victory" a signal?

However, the "victory" came not with rich material returns, but with terrible inflation.

The war-depleted Ursus empire wasted money and printed money, of course, with dire economic consequences.But the empire is not completely desperate, playing with the paper ruble nuclear-powered money printing machine.But the speed and scale of the outbreak of the economic crisis were beyond everyone's expectations, even the experienced and prudent Speaker Witte never expected.

What Emperor Feodor and Speaker Witte didn't expect was that it was not the Integration Movement and Atlas that were fueling the fire, but the national speculation of the imperial subjects.

After the empire "recovered" the Don River Basin, the main economic work was to receive and integrate movement assets and restore local economic order.The latter naturally faced the problem of monetary unification.The Ursus Empire mainly used gold and silver rubles and paper rubles, while the currency in circulation in the Don River Basin was the official currency of the integration movement, the "red paper ruble", referred to as the red ruble.After the empire regained its sovereignty over the provinces and states in the Don River Basin, the red ruble, as a counterfeit currency, would naturally be withdrawn and abolished from the circulation market.

But the paper ruble, lacking an equivalent guarantee, is worthless in international trade.If Ursas has become a closed economy, and paper rubles are only circulated within the country, coupled with strong administrative measures to ensure their use, paper rubles will really become paper even in Ursas.In addition to preserving the value of precious metals, the red ruble is also directly linked to the industrial products and grains produced by the integration movement.With the support of the surging productivity and technological level of the 113th Division of the People's Federation of Extraterrestrial Corps, Red Ruble has a variety of unique industrial products and terrifying food production as guarantees in the world, and its position is unshakable.

But economic work is actually not difficult to do.When the integration movement withdrew, it did not damage people's livelihood, and the economy of the Don River Basin was still running smoothly for the time being.As long as the exchange rate range is calculated based on the price comparison, and then the empire officials determine a reasonable exchange rate to exchange and recover counterfeit currency, and ensure the economic flow between the Don River Basin and the main areas of the empire, the Don River Basin can be relatively smoothly connected to the imperial economy. running.Ursus can also use the recovered red rubles, these precious foreign currencies, to purchase scarce supplies from the international black market to ease the plight.As long as you are willing to do it, you can always be stable.

But, but, the official exchange rate given by the Ursas Empire is one to one!

According to the estimates of the economic department of the integration movement, the exchange rate between the red ruble and the imperial paper ruble is roughly 75:50 to 50:[-].This is great news for the "basic market" of the empire; but for the people in the provinces along the Don River, the empire wants to kill them and suck their bones: this is no longer a dollar that can be used as [-] yuan. One yuan drawn by kindergarten children on straw paper with colored pens can be exchanged for [-] yuan that is circulated and exchanged in various countries!

A large amount of paper rubles poured into the new "recovery" area through various channels in a very short period of time.From officials to merchants, from citizens to farmers, the Ursus Empire is trying every means to exchange red rubles from the Don River, or to purchase anything that can be purchased.A large amount of waste paper is pouring in, and materials continue to flow out in large quantities at extremely low prices.In less than two weeks, hyperinflation occurred in the provinces and states of the Don basin.

If that's all, it's just an economic plunder of the Don River Basin.The people of the Don River such as the Cossacks were indeed squeezed enough, but the empire received more or less benefits from top to bottom.But the problem is that speculation is beyond the control of the empire.

It was the imperial army that first started the wave of speculation.

A funny fact is that looting and gratuitous requisitions were theoretically prohibited by the Imperial Army.One of the fig leafs is formal trading.But under all kinds of mistakes, this matter has changed from a fig leaf to hurting others and oneself.