121, July offensive

From Krivoy Rog to the small town of Kazan, a small train carrying ore slowly moved forward on the narrow-gauge railway, and Krivoy Rog had disappeared into a gray mist behind him. Kumazaki and his party sat in an empty wagon covered with a layer of wheat straw, and looked at the Russian in front of them with some curiosity. There was a clattering sound from the rickety and broken carriages, which were filled with the smell of hay and horse manure.

"How many of you are there?" Lezhtvensky asked Kumazaki, who was wearing a British military uniform.

"About 5,000 people." Kumasaki replied that his Russian was not very good, and that Lee Bald Head, who had grown up in Vladivostok, acted as an interpreter in the middle.

"Have you received General Wang's order?"

"Well, someone sent a message a few days ago, let's follow your arrangement." Kumazaki replied that General Wang that Lezhtvensky was talking about was Wang Ruqin, the younger brother of Wang Ruxian, the commander of the Ninth Beiyang Division, and now the commander of the 17th Mixed Brigade of the 17th Mixed Brigade in Russia, and also Kumazaki's top boss.

"The Austrian offensive will begin soon, don't run around your men lately." "After their offensive begins, you all stay in the camp and don't move. The Austrians will send you to contact you. ”

"Well, is it a long time? We are not rich in food. Kumazaki said.

"I'll report that to the top, and I don't think the campaign will last long." "With the current situation of the Russians, they will not hold out for long. ”

"You're not Russian?" Li Guangtou asked curiously.

"I'm Ukrainian." Lezhtvensky said with a straight face, it seems that Li Guangtou made him very unhappy that he regarded him as a Russian, but this can't be helped, the Russians do not recognize the existence of the Ukrainian nation.

The train continued to move forward, making a monotonous click. In front of you is a mess of woods, and the land of Ukraine has been devastated and shattered by the war.

The Minister of the Army and Navy of the Provisional Government Kerensky rushed to Kiev to meet with the commander of the Russian South-Western Front, Brusilov, and inspect the front line. However, to the surprise of the lawyer-turned-war secretary, the situation at the front was simply not what he had imagined. On the Zhytomyr front, the sound of gunfire was not heard at all, as if it were in peacetime. What is even more exaggerated is that many of the trenches are even empty, many deserted, and the remaining soldiers are keen to discuss internal affairs, and no one cares about the war.

Kerensky needed a victory to consolidate the power of the Provisional Government, and in Petrograd and Moscow more and more workers and soldiers were falling to Soviet power. After three days of planning, Kerensky and Brusilov agreed to launch a major offensive in early July to boost the morale of the country and consolidate the authority of the Provisional Government.

Brusilov was promoted to chief of the General Staff of the Army, but Kerensky's goal was not easy to achieve, and the Bolsheviks in parliament were firmly opposed to the continuation of the war and advocated an immediate withdrawal from the war. Even the Russian Social Workers Party had begun to reach out to the Germans to negotiate the terms of withdrawal from the war.

But Kerensky nevertheless convinced the majority of the members of the State Duma that he knew his plan of attack.

However, Brushilov was now suffering from a shortage of troops at his disposal, and the new chief of the General Staff knew very well that his Southwestern Front was now demoralized, could not fight at all, and if it did fight, it could collapse at any time. But he soon discovered that the North-Western Front and the Western Front were even more unreliable, that most of the army groups were short of more than a quarter, and that many of them were now in the hands of pro-Soviet soldiers' councils and did not listen to orders.

Eventually, Brusilov realized that he could only rely on the Southwestern Front to launch a limited offensive.

The July day was steaming everywhere, and the Russian 8th Army, fighting on the Vinnitsa front, collapsed only three days after the start of the July campaign under the counterattack of the Austro-Hungarian army. This Russian heavy army group, which had not suffered heavy losses on the Eastern Front, began to break up as soon as it exchanged fire with the Austro-Hungarian army.

The Austro-Hungarian 2nd Army and the Ukrainian Corps advanced southeast along the South Bug River from Helmelitz, while the 1st and 4th armies, together with the German 9th and 11th armies, broke through the Russian Zhytomyr line and approached Kyiv. On the Northern Front, the German 5th and 12th Armies advanced from Riga to Petrograd, while the 8th and 1st Armies had begun to lay siege to Minsk.

On the Southern Front, the Austro-Hungarian 3rd and 5th Armies, which had just been transferred back from the Western Front, crossed the Dniester River together with the 11th Army and the Romanian Army, and the front was directed towards Odessa and the lower reaches of the South Bug River. More and more German-Austrian troops were transferred from France to the Eastern Front, the British had retreated to their homeland, and the remaining Russian Republic itself was unable to cope with the heavy blows of the German-Austrian forces.

The Russian "Special Legion" did not resist at all, and withdrew thirty-five versts from Vinnytsia overnight, leaving the Austro-Hungarian army far behind, and the panicked commander of the army, General Lechsky, even moved his headquarters to the east of the Sinuha River. Now any orders he gave had no effect, and all the infantry and cavalry divisions under his command were frantically fleeing backwards, not resisting at all.

The day of July 13 was relatively easy, the Russians retreated quickly and ran so far that the Austrians could no longer catch up with them. But there was only a moment's respite, and at dusk there was another rumbling of artillery from the direction of the western rearguard, and after a while a cavalry galloped to the headquarters with intelligence.

The heart of the infantry general was raised again, and the Cossack cavalry division, which served as the rearguard, and the avant-garde units of the Austrians fought again on the Uman line. And at the General Headquarters, there was suddenly no movement.

Petrograd was in turmoil again, and the offensive instigated by Kerensky suffered a crushing defeat.

The Social Workers organized hundreds of thousands of workers and soldiers to march in the capital in an attempt to overthrow the Provisional Government and take power into the hands of the Soviets. The commander of the Petrograd Military District, Kornilov, led troops back to the capital from the front and imposed martial law. Prince Lvov resigned, the Provisional Government was reshuffled, and Kerensky became the head of the Provisional Government. Brusilov became the scapegoat for the defeat and was removed from the army commander-in-chief, and Kornilov became the new commander-in-chief.

The situation in the country is volatile, and no one cares about the situation at the front.

The exhausted General Lechsky was pale, listless, and did not even have the strength to say a word. He has gone through countless battles in the past three years, and has always stayed in the position of commander of the group army, changing from one army to another. Although his qualifications were mediocre, he was always cautious and did not make the big mistake of encircling the entire army group as Samzonov and Rutsky did.

Now, he finally felt hopeless.

The catastrophe in Russia was caused from within, and since the overthrow of the Tsar, it has doomed the beginning of a Russian nightmare.

He fell ill, and before falling asleep, he subconsciously muttered in his mouth: "To Catherino...... ...... to Catherino"

The Chief of Staff Stavk decisively gave the order according to the meaning of the general: "The whole army retreats, retreat to the right bank of the Dnieper!" ”

The general was carried into the car, and then his command came to pack his things in no hurry, and in dozens of cars, hurriedly began to retreat.

The entire 8th Army was scattered, and the retreating crowd surged eastward amid a tumultuous cacophony.

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