On the night of April 15, 1904, Vladivostok (Vladivostok), the headquarters of the fortress defense district.

The commander of the fortress defense area, Lieutenant General Stessel, and several of the following people were all depressed, as if half of their muscles and bones had been drained by unknown people.

The strongest fortress and the most important hill of the 1st Main Line had fallen three days earlier, just as the lock on the tightly closed iron box had suddenly been pried open, and the Chinese army was out of control, and within 36 hours occupied three other forts and two batteries on the left and right of the main peak of the Kimir Mountain, and set up artillery on the hill to bombard the supply center of the 1st Main Line, the already fortified town of Trudovoye...... To put it simply, the entire middle sector of the 1st main line of defense has completely collapsed.

At noon on the 14th, Stessel ordered the whole army to alternately cover and withdraw from the first main line of defense, and withdraw to the second main line of defense for redeployment.

The retreat of the Russian army was nothing short of a disaster.

The Chinese army's air weapons repeatedly swept the area of low hills and small woods between the first and second main lines of defense, and various types of artillery on the Kimir Mountains continued to strafe the retreating Russian columns......

Fortunately, the commander of the land defense area of the fortress, General Kontrachenko, organized a reserve in time, launched a counterattack against the Chinese cavalry under the cover of heavy artillery of the second main defense line, and reorganized the new rearguard defense line, which avoided greater losses.

Without Contrachenko, Stessel could not lift his spirits, for a long time, the defense of the land defense line of the fortress depended on the dedication of Contrachenko to present such a good situation, and many front-line officers and soldiers also maintained high morale because of this practical and noble general who came to them from time to time to encourage them, and now, who else can replace Contrachenko?

Stessel glanced at the former commander of the Western Sector Defense Zone, Furke, and immediately turned his head, the male dog with a strong libido with small green eyes, if he was made the commander of the land defense line, I am afraid that the city gate would be opened and surrendered to those yellow people on the same day, and the additional condition should be that after the surrender of the fortress, he should be confined alone in a courtyard with beautiful women.

Major General Boleman, the former commander of the Eastern Sector Defense Zone, drooped his neck, like a mouse that has been played to the limit by a cat, and has probably completely lost his spiritual energy, and the so-called fighting spirit may be a mirage floating above the horizon in the desert for him, and it is impossible to find it.

Stessel's gaze swept over the face of Major General Bere, the commander of the fortress's artillery, and the little old man, who usually seemed to be smiling attentively, had a stone-like serious expression, his neck was unconsciously lowered, and his entire shoulders hung down as if he had lost a skeleton of support, and the shadow of hopelessness penetrated his dull and scattered gaze without hesitation.

The "fox-shrewd" Chief of Staff Reis's expression was more desperate than everyone else at this time, and a sense of powerlessness permeated his bones, like a steel needle piercing a balloon, which was enough to make Stexel's strength leak out in an instant.

Rear Admiral Wittgeft, the current commander of the Pacific Fleet, was gulping a paper cigarette in the corner of the long table, and Stessel did not pay attention to his expression, only noticed that a hill of cigarette butts had been piled up on the table in front of him.

The atmosphere was so gloomy that Stexel panicked, a deep tiredness pierced his brain like a series of warm steel spikes, and a forbidden word gushed out of the long-standing vine-strewn well of thought, drenching him from head to toe.

That word is, surrender.

Stessel panicked in his consciousness to cover the mouth of the gushing forbidden well, nervously looking around from side to side, everyone with their heads down, no one should have noticed this unnatural eruption deep in his brain.

"Chief of Staff, have the losses of our army been counted?"

Stessel's hand shook a little, and he tried to distract himself.

Lacey didn't answer immediately, he was distracted.

"Chief of Staff? Have you counted the losses of our army this week? ”

Reis let out a panicked "ah" and hurriedly nodded: "Yes, yes, the losses are like this, very serious, from the morning of April 7 to this afternoon, our army has killed and lost more than 15,700 people, and added 4,100 seriously wounded, and then subtracting the patient number in the hospital, there are only 42,000 available soldiers in the fortress, and the mortality rate of the wounded and sick is rising due to the lack of medicine......

"I'll just ask you about your losses this week, what are you talking about so much, General Wittgeft, how many sailor companies have been formed in the detachment?"

Wittgeft puffed a cigarette from his nose and replied weakly with his head down: "Twenty-six, one hundred and forty men each, but we lack rifles. ”

"How many rifles do you need?"

"Fifteen hundred."

Stessel turned to Reis: "Reis, transfer 2,000 rifles from the warehouse to the detachment, each with a hundred rounds of ammunition." ”

Lacey was a little embarrassed: "There are only 600 intact rifles left in the warehouse, and there are a lot of damaged rifles in the armory......"

"If it is damaged, it is also necessary, since our sailor company is a reserve, and the task is to drive back the enemy who rushed to the position, then it is enough to have bayonets."

Wittgeft said it very easily, the lightness in his bones, the breath that represented the vitality seemed to fly up to the ceiling at once.

Stessel glanced around his men again, from Lacey to Bere, from Bere to Boleman, from Boleman to Fork, and the main tone of everyone's expression did not change.

He had to make a decision.

"I have decided that, with immediate effect, I will be in charge of the land line of defense, with the army barracks as the boundary, General Fock in charge of the western section of the line, General Bolemann in charge of the eastern section of the line, General Bere as the commander of the artillery, and Reis as the chief of staff. General Bere, do you know the current state of the artillery in the fortress? ”

Don't Thunder shook his shriveled neck in reluctance: "Yes...... Yes, the heavy artillery of the 1st main line of defense could not be carried and almost all of them were lost, and now the 2nd main line of defense is equipped with 74 main guns of more than 100 mm caliber, in addition, 22 152-mm naval guns supplied by the detachment are being installed on the batteries of the defense line one after another. The forts and fortifications of the current main line of defense were originally equipped with 102 light guns, a total of 203 light guns were withdrawn from the first main line of defense, plus 108 small and medium-caliber naval guns provided by the detachment, we will have 413 light guns against the enemy, plus the shells provided by the navy, these guns can use more than 200,000 shells, an average of about 500 rounds per gun. In addition, we still have 14 anti-aircraft guns and 51 pieces of mine artillery of various styles manufactured by the Ordnance Factory, the largest of which can throw 150 kilograms of mines to a distance of 400 meters, which is a very effective weapon in close combat, and the Ordnance Factory also produces a large number of scorched cotton grenades and mine artillery shells......"

Even with a depressed expression and a decrepit face, Bere's report was still clear and clear, which also made Stecel feel a little relieved.

"Very well, so it seems that our artillery is still very powerful...... Chief of Staff, what is the state of the reserves of other munitions? ”

"Report to the commander, the report of the quartermaster of the fortress pointed out that by the beginning of the month we had no reserves of sugar, dried vegetables and cellar vegetables, and that the supply of meat depended entirely on the slaughtering of military horses, but even military horses were only enough for two or three months, and due to the reduction in personnel, there were five months of reserves for flour, four months of salt, and two months of cereals (mainly for feeding horses), but because of the lack of vegetables, the spread of scurvy in the future had to be taken into account......"

Reis was worried, of course, it didn't help, vegetables would not fall from the sky, and the fortress did not raise pigs and vegetables in time, and the small amount of vegetable seeds in reserve were concentrated in several glass greenhouses to meet the generals' demand for fresh vegetables - Reis did not have to worry about being plagued by scurvy for the time being.

"So we'll have at least five more months......

Stessel's self-deception did not make any of the generals present smile.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have been holding the fortress for half a year, repeatedly inflicting great casualties on the enemy, and just as we were about to turn to the counteroffensive, we unfortunately encountered a long-planned general attack by an unprecedentedly powerful enemy. Now that our fortress is extremely strong and has sufficient ammunition and food, I believe that with your efforts, the officers and men of the fortress will be able to continue to raise their morale, carry forward the glorious traditions and brave spirit of the soldiers of the Russian Empire, deal a heavier blow to the enemy, and create a glorious epic of the great Russian spirit in the Vladivostok fortress under His Majesty the Tsar! Orderly, bring the wine. ”

The generals looked at each other.

Everyone was poured a glass of red wine in front of them.

"For the sake of His Majesty the Tsar, everyone should unite as one, do their best, and strive for victory, I propose, toast to His Majesty the Tsar and our victory!"

"Cheers!"

The generals stood up together, swaying in the light and sliding the sparkling red wine into their mouths, as if to bring them the vitality of the beautiful spring of the Eastern European plains that they had not seen for a long time, and swept away the air of decadence and despair that permeated them.

"Ulla, victory!"

"Ulla!"

The wine glasses shattered into a crystal on the floor, and everyone couldn't help but revel in the atmosphere, happy for the rare upliftment.

A rare uplift...... Some people will return to their original state when they leave here, some people will be depressed again when they turn around, and some people will just pretend to be uplifted here as a last resort.

"We? A group of wretched creatures who are barely breathing. ”

Falk muttered in a voice that he could only hear: