Returning to Petrograd from the bizarre front, Hersmann once again became "Comrade Antonov", because the Grand General Staff sent two telegraph operators, Hersmann was able to escape from Tsarschasmen and return to Petersburg to begin his duties as military adviser to the Bolsheviks, which was also at the request of Comrade Lenin.

After reading the detailed analysis report on the front-line troops (Russian army) written by Hersman, the mentor was not only reassured, but also full of praise for Hirschman's military talents. Now Comrade Lenin was sure that he would succeed in taking control of Petersburg, but he was still not sure that he would be able to control all of Russia. After all, his Bolshevik Party had almost no available military talent, and as soon as the counter-revolutionary forces in Russia were not reconciled to defeat, a full-scale civil war would break out. Then we will see the real chapter on the battlefield!

So Comrade Antonov, a "military expert", naturally became a military adviser to the Bolsheviks. Because of this, he temporarily separated from Chloe and Etter, but with the pseudonym "Carl. Zolg" (because Karl did not speak Russian, so he disguised himself as Friedrich, a pioneer of American GCISM and an old friend of Marx and Engels. Zorge's grandson) of Karl. Stockhausen returned to the Vyborg district of St. Petersburg.

The situation in Petersburg, on the other hand, made Hersman a little ridiculous. From July 3, when the Minister of the Army and Navy Kerensky returned to Petersburg after watching the excitement at the front, the Russians began to celebrate the victory in advance, and behaved quite joyfully.

Because the Russian army, supported by Britain and the United States, had enough shells to waste, the shelling scene that Kerensky saw was very lively. But because the intention of the offensive was revealed in advance - and not all because of Hersman's report, the Russian troops on the front line were too unprofessional to know how to hide their offensive intentions - the shelling lasted for three whole days, and the effect was almost zero.

However, the subsequent infantry offensive was still "a great success". In front of the 11th Army, which was the first to attack, the positions of the Austro-Hungarian 19th Division were almost empty - of course, there was no one, and it was ordered to withdraw a week before the start of the battle, leaving only a handful of rearguard units - and the "heroic" Russian officers and men broke through the enemy's defensive line on the same day, tore a hole of more than 20 kilometers, and advanced a full 10 kilometers, and "captured more than 15,000 men" and "captured more than 100 artillery pieces".

When the news reached Petersburg, the whole city celebrated! The slogans "Full support for the Provisional Government" and "Long live Kerensky" resounded throughout the city. Kerensky, who was a good orator, also made an impassioned speech on the square of Maria, and finally declared: the offensive has won a decisive victory, and Russia will win a glorious peace!

Later, a phalanx of 1,500 Russian female soldiers came out of Maria's Palace, singing patriotic songs and claiming to go to the front to hunt down the Germans. provoked the onlookers to express their intention to join the army as soldiers, "Ula! Ulla! The shouts resounded throughout Petersburg. Even the garrison corps, which were controlled by the Bolsheviks, wavered and began to lean towards supporting the war.

On July 7 and July 8, Petersburg was once again in a frenzy. The good news of the 8th Army came from the front again, and Kornilov, who wanted to capture and shoot Comrade Lenin, seemed to have some real skills, and not long after taking office, the 8th Army was organized into a little like an army. On 7 July, the Austro-Hungarian 3rd Army was breached on the same day, the next day it captured the important town of Halice, and only two days later it quickly passed through the Lomnica valley, and then drove the Austrians out of another strategic point, Klausz. It's really a crazy progress, and it's a bit of a World War II mechanized unit. But the Russian Eighth Army walked on its feet after all, and after a week of mindless punches and rams, the 8th Army finally ran out of offensive momentum.

In an abandoned factory in the Vyborg district, the Bolshevik Party ********** set up a temporary military headquarters.

The head of this command was Lev, who returned to Petersburg only in May. Davidovich. Trotsky. He had a goatee, round-rimmed glasses, and a wide forehead like Lenin's, but instead of being bald, he had a mess that hadn't been trimmed for I don't know how many days.

Trotsky was a well-known figure, and the Trotskyists, a faction that bears his name, were once feared in the international communist movement – anyone who was labelled a Trotskyist would lose his life.

For now, however, he was a shining new star among the Bolsheviks. Unlike Stalin, Kamenev, Zinoviev, Kalinin, and other famous Bolsheviks, Trotsky joined the Bolsheviks en masse with a faction. He was the head of a revolutionary group called the "United Social Democrats' District Organization". This group numbered about 4,000 people and had considerable influence in the Petrograd Soviets of Engineer and Soldier Deputies, factories, and the army.

The accession of the district faction was also a knock-on effect of the accession of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks to the Provisional Government - from May onwards, the "centrists" in Petersburg quickly disappeared and the political map became a confrontation between the two factions. Some factions that did not approve of the line of the Provisional Government (coalition government), such as the district coalition, the Socialist-Revolutionaries **** and the Mensheviks****, moved closer to the Bolsheviks. The power of the Bolsheviks was markedly strengthened. But they are still in the minority, and after the good news from the front, their supporters have become even fewer.

"Comrade Antonov, this Kornilov is really a rare fierce general!"

Watching Hersman mark the latest advances of the Russian 8th Army on a military map, Trotsky couldn't help but frown and sigh with emotion - when would the Bolsheviks have such military experts.

In addition, looking at the progress of the Eighth Army, it is always worrying! There won't be any surprises in this battle, right?

"I don't think Kornilov himself would have such an opinion now. His 8th Army made rapid progress in the first four days, striking a salient 90 kilometers wide and 64 kilometers deep. But then there was a three-day pause with no progress. Hersmann looked up and smiled at Trotsky, then said slowly, "Besides, the 11th Army has not made any progress since the attack on 1 July...... More than 1,300 artillery pieces were used to bombard for three days, while the offensive momentum lasted only one day, which seems to have already told the story.

As for the 7th Army, which has the largest number of troops in the Southwestern Front, with 20 infantry divisions and 4 cavalry divisions, there has been no news in the past few days...... According to the plan, they were supposed to launch an offensive against the German Army Group South in front of them in order to contain the German army's movements. Comrade Trotsky, don't you think the current situation at the front is very strange? ”

As he spoke, Hersmann looked at the future "Red Commander", stretched out his hand and pointed to the north of the salient of the Russian 8th Army on the map, and then slid lightly to point to the defense area of the German Army Group South.

"Will the Germans move south to attack the right side of the 8th Army?" Trotsky lifted his glasses and looked in the direction of Hersmann's finger.

"The fact that the 7th Army, which has twenty-four divisions, has been fighting for a week without any news speaks for itself."

"Indeed...... "Indeed," Trotsky touched his goatee, "if the 7th Army had anything to do, Kerensky would have already begun to brag about it." ”

"In my experience, a week of heavy attacks will either lead to a breakthrough or heavy casualties. Now they don't have any breakthrough, that's the latter. So now the German Army Group South has completely lost its containment and can move freely. If you take into account that the Germans have long known the focus of the Russian army's offensive, they must have already mobilized troops in advance to counterattack. The catastrophe of the 8th Army is coming soon, and then the collapse of the entire front! ”

He raised his head, looked at Trotsky earnestly, and said word by word: "The moment when the Bolsheviks will come to power soon." Now all we have to do is think carefully, by what means to seize power? ”

――

First of all, I would like to ask you for a ticket. Then there is the notice, in order to control the word count, let Rolls-Royce's book stay on the new book list for a few more days, from today until Saturday, Rollo is two watches. There will be a shift at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., so please forgive me. The third watch will resume on Sunday.