On the shores of Lake Gard, the fortress of Irkutsk under siege.

In late June, the Russian East Siberian Front suffered a devastating blow in the Battle of Arkut, and the defense line of the Arkut River, which had been operating for several months, was swept away, and in just five days, most of the field troops of the Front Army, including three army headquarters, seven infantry divisions, and three cavalry divisions, were annihilated, with 140,000 casualties and missing personnel, and a large number of artillery, vehicles, and materials were lost.

Within dozens of kilometers around the fortress city, more than 20,000 remnants of the Russian army and more than 10,000 unlucky civilians were tightly surrounded by the 200,000 siege troops of the First Group Army of the Chinese Army!

Hundreds of siege guns of various types, which had shown great might in the Ulan-Ude fortress raids, were being installed and debugged intensively, and the ammunition trains directly from the interior were unloaded at Slyujiangka, and then distributed through the small railways connecting the artillery positions in various places, and the comical looking mines shuttled back and forth with small trains, hoarding shells on the artillery positions every day - according to later historical records, when the general attack began, each heavy artillery was allocated an average of 300 huge shells, and the other more than 400 field guns, Howitzers and medium- and large-caliber mortars received an average of 1,000 rounds each.

Five hundred kilometers west of the fortress, the 1st Panzer Army and the 18th Army of the Chinese Army were trying to approach Krasnoyarsk, a key point of water and land communication at the intersection of the Yenisei River and the Trans-Siberian Railway.

South, east, north of the fortress...... Don't think about it, until the sea is the occupied zone of the squadron.

What future can the shaky lonely city, which is 500 kilometers behind the enemy's battle line, have?

At this moment, the supreme commander of this "most rear-back fortress in Eastern Siberia" seems to be unconcerned about this.

In the dimly lit basement of the fortress headquarters, Colonel-General Bareev, who still had the empty title of "Commander of the Eastern Siberian Front", struggled to get up from the sofa in the corner of the room with sleepy eyes, and the sound of rolling and hitting the rolling and banging of the Tetra wine bottle under his feet was "clanging". But Bareyev didn't care, one foot deep and one foot shallow, staggered to the long table in a mess, "plopped", and sat down on a dining chair covered with beautiful silk brocade cushions.

"Water...... Where is the water ......"

Pareyev snorted with alcohol and groped around the table with his hands, only to see the messy cutlery and the leftovers from last night—a disgusting mess on the tablecloth.

"Damn! Seryosha! Seryosha! You damn lazy pig......"

Pareyev wiped his filthy hands from the edge of the tablecloth as he angrily called out the orderly's name.

After a while, there was a sound of chattering from under the table, and Pareyev thought it was a mouse. Cursing and kicking inside, he didn't want to scream and get out of an unkempt boy.

"Bastard...... Which son of a kicked me? The young man scolded drunkenly, and the voice was the Seryosha that Parayev was looking for.

Pareev heard another kick: "Little puppy, who's kicking you?" Who's kicking you? I'll let you remember, remember—"

The poor orderly was kicked and cried wolf, begging for mercy again and again, but Parayev became more and more vigorous, and when he saw that he was about to die, a "report" suddenly came from the door. Only then did Bareyev stop, squint and respond: "Come in!" ”

Leather boots clattered against the concrete floor. It was not until the visitor approached the table and saluted that Paleyev recognized him and called out happily: "Ah, Tokarev, it's you, good man, who came just in time...... Go get me a glass of water. ”

Chief of Staff Tokarev shook his head in disappointment and handed him a brown paper envelope: "Commander, there is your letter. ”

Pareyev rubbed his bulging belly, and his small eyes narrowed into a slit: "Letter? Where did it come from? ”

Tokarev pointed to the top of his head: "Dropped by enemy planes." Wrapped in a cloth bag filled with cotton with the words 'Please pass it on to your Supreme Commander' on the outside, it floated down the wind with a striking white umbrella tied to it. A soldier on the other side of the church picked it up and handed it to their company commander, who opened it and looked at it. It's this thing, and it's submitted at the next level. ”

"You read it to me, I don't want to see things now-" said Pareyev, kicking the hapless orderly again, "Dead pig, how long do you want to hum, why don't you pour me water, come back and bring the guys, clean up here, get out!" ”

The orderly barely slipped over the table, passed Tokarev's feet, and crawled out of the room.

Tokarev glanced at his back and turned to Paleyev with a smile: "I think he stole your vodka?" ”

Pareev waved his hand: "Ah, that's nothing, I remembered, I asked him to drink with me - don't you read the letter quickly?" ”

Tokarev shrugged, tore open the envelope, pulled out a delicately folded piece of letter and read it

"Dear Shewitt alumni, old colleagues, old friends......"

"Wait!" Paleyev suddenly jumped up like a spring, pointed to the letter and shouted, "Look, look at the letter, which guy wrote it!" ”

Tokarev looked at the bottom of the letter and tilted his head: "Your most sincere - Pyotr Sisoinovich Mikhryur, it's him!" Mihrur surrendered in Chita! That Brie ~ Sheriff of the Government! ”

"Ah, that traitor! Minion! Parayev slammed the table viciously, making the cutlery rattle, "Is he trying to persuade him to surrender?" I can guess what he wants to do. ”

Tokarev lifted the letter and glanced at it a few times, then nodded: "This is indeed a letter of persuasion. ”

"Torn...... No, throw it there, I'm going to wipe my ass. ”

Tokarev threw the letter away, sat down in a clean chair, took off his heavy black-rimmed glasses, took out his handkerchief, and wiped it absentmindedly.

"Commander, you haven't been out of the basement for a week."

Parayev's eyes widened, and he suddenly grabbed his throat and spit under the table for a while, and finally panted and looked up: "So what? ”

—

"The soldiers were complaining, they were talking, and whenever the weather was clear, enemy planes would always fly over and drop leaflets, and there were articles signed by Mihrul, and there were vivid cartoons, all of which were very incendiary......"

"Ah, I don't care what that bitch traitor has written, and I'm not interested in those rumor-farting cartoons, if you see someone picking up these flyers here, tell him to take them and wipe his ass, that's the only use of those broken papers."

Tokarev frowned, put his glasses back on the bridge of his nose, and his tone became more serious: "Commander, I have to remind you that the fortress is in extreme danger, these days, the enemy's ground advance trenches are constantly approaching our land defense positions, and every day various types of artillery are being test-fired at us, and it is clear that a general attack is imminent. On our side, however, the army is disheartened and languishing, and many officers drink and gamble all day long, as if tomorrow is the end of the world, and negative remarks are circulating everywhere among the soldiers, and the trenches are full of words such as defeat and surrender, and if we continue like this, we will be finished before the enemy attacks. ”

"Aren't we finished?" Valeyev blinked, looking quite serious.

"What are you talking about? Brusilov was launching a counterattack against the enemy forces in the Irtysh Valley, having already surrounded one of the enemy's army groups in Aleysk, and was about to cut off the retreat of the other two or three army groups, and after the annihilation of these armies, the enemy's Northwestern Front would be completely finished, and the Chinese would have to draw troops from Siberia to rebuild their Northwestern Front. Then the pressure on our side will be greatly reduced, and when Brusilov comes back to save us, we will be able to win the last victory, and Siberia will always be Russian! ”

After listening to this short sensational speech, Bareyev laughed strangely and kicked away a wine bottle that was in the way at his feet: "Oh, my dear Chief of Staff, do you really believe in those guys who drank too much vodka in the base camp?" Brusilov? Well, he is God, he defeated the Chinese on one front, and then what? Let me tell you what happens next. Next, he and his army will be transferred back to Europe to deal with the Germans who have made it even more sleepy for His Majesty the Tsar, yes, to defend our European territories, to defend His Majesty's capital, of course, first. And Chinese, without blinking an eye, they will immediately conjure up a new front, reoccupy Turkestan, hit the Caspian Sea and ...... Ural Mountains. ”

"And we, doomed to be abandoned, can only blame ourselves for not escaping fast enough, trapped in this damn cement coffin, except to pray to God and vodka, we can only wait, wait for the coming of the last judgment......"

Before the words fell, the entire cement room suddenly trembled violently, the heavy oak dining table was shaken to the feet, the tableware and wine bottles were shattered to the ground, and the electric light on the heads of the two of them "banged" and burst out with several dazzling arcs, and the room was suddenly dark-

"What's going on? Shelling? ”

Pareyev crouched to the ground with his head clutched in terror, his shouts completely drowned out by the continuous rumbling of the walls, and he even felt a few small pieces of cement fall on his head before Tokarev turned on the spare light......

On 1 August 1915, the First Army of the Northern Front, which had surrounded Irkutsksk, began its long-prepared general offensive amid a salvo of more than 500 artillery pieces.