Conquer Europe from the West

Chapter 159 Evacuation
after one day.

Starting today, the trains to Insterburg are finally no longer empty.

When General Billow, commander of the First Reserve Army, left the cramped train carriage and reappeared at the station on the front lines in Insterburg, the distinctive sounds of artillery fire and the occasional whooshing of bullets flying overhead immediately put him into focus.

The general did not forget the locations of the various command posts and staff offices on the front line during his short absence. He did not need to ask the soldiers next to him and ran directly to an observation post at the front line.

Inside the observation post.

Rein was using binoculars to check the situation at the front. Although the observation post, which used the slope of the ground and vegetation as cover, had not been discovered by the Imperial Army soldiers, it was still occasionally targeted by the Farland-made 75mm rapid-fire cannons.

The shockwaves and vibrations from the shelling made the entire observation post feel like it was being rained down with mud and dust, but no one bothered to shake the dust off their bodies; they were all focused on their every move at the front.

Suddenly, Brinkman burst in from outside and shouted to Rein, "The Imperial 17th Army on the southern front has increased its artillery bombardment!"

"Can you see their men?" General von Morgan, commander of the 3rd Reserve Division, immediately looked at Brinkman: "Which unit is defending that area now?"

"The Ninth Army is responsible for the defense of that area."

Raine's voice was calm. He saw no signs on the map that the Imperial Army was about to launch a full-scale offensive: "They may be running out of ammunition. Lieutenant, have the 121st Infantry Regiment of the Ninth Army prepare to deal with a feint attack. Don't waste too much ammunition."

"Yes!"

Brinkman nodded immediately, then slipped out through a small door in the corner and disappeared into the trenches, which were already visibly flooded.

But just seconds after she left, the door to the observation post was pushed open. General von Morgan looked at the person who pushed the door open as if on cue, but his expression immediately changed from tense to relieved.

When did the Imperial Army launch its attack?

As soon as General Bilo entered, he looked at Rein and von Morgan, instinctively placing his hand in front of the brim of his pointed hat to shield himself from the falling dust, and asked loudly, "Didn't you say you just forced their lines back several kilometers?"

His voice was so loud that it drowned out the sound of artillery shells exploding nearby.

It was precisely because of this that Rein belatedly noticed General Bilo, who had just appeared.

He turned to General Bilo and, while walking toward the map, said, "The shelling began at two o'clock this morning. Ever since the Empire was pushed back three or four kilometers by us in the battle two days ago, it has been mobilizing its forces. Today's attack should be a probe, not a real attack."

A few simple words immediately calmed General Bilo down, who was still tense about the sudden battle at the front, but this did not really solve the problem.

General Bilo did not speak immediately. Instead, with the assistance of a lieutenant beside him, he first learned about the specific situation at the front before speaking again: "In other words, the Imperial Army is currently converging its main force towards the Twelfth Army and will launch an attack after transferring the main force of the Twenty-Seventh Army to the Twelfth Army?"

“This is the assessment of the General Staff.” General von Morgan stood to one side, his voice not loud: “But they have far too many men. If we launch a general offensive, the troops we have at our disposal now will not be enough to completely withstand the attack of these Imperial Army troops.”

Von Morgan's two infantry regiments lost 160 and 100 men respectively in previous battles. Although the casualties were not large, the front line they were supposed to defend was too long and narrow, so they had been in a state of extreme shortage of troops.

In other words, the cavalry of the Ninth Army Group and the Eighth Cavalry Brigade still retained a certain combat capability. They managed to put together more than two hundred horse-drawn carts by combining their own horses with trailers found in the city, which barely managed to address the problems caused by the shortage of ammunition and personnel on the front line.

They mobilized about 800 military horses to ensure the transport of supplies, and then converted more than 1,000 cavalry into a mixed force, carrying machine guns and mobile artillery to the front line.

However, as things stand, they are not needed to participate in combat at the moment.

"Is it?"

Upon hearing von Morgan's statement, General Bilo immediately understood the meaning behind it.

The previous attack was indeed very successful, forcing the Empire to rely on a large amount of artillery fire to prevent the Empire from launching a full-scale offensive.

However, this offensive resulted in the Imperial Army abandoning its current positions and retreating.

Simply put, there is no need to worry about attacks from the Empire at the front lines for now, but once the Empire completes the reorganization of its forces, what will happen next is a completely different story.

No one knew when the Imperial Army would reorganize, nor did anyone know when they would launch their attack.

After a brief moment of thought, General Bilo immediately said, "The First Reserve Army will now take over the defense of the northern front. The soldiers will complete the takeover of the front within a 15-kilometer radius in the north within two hours, until the main force of the army group has returned."

After saying that, he glanced at Ryan again: "The soldiers of the 102nd Air Force Special Operations Fleet need..."

"Our soldiers are not on the front lines."

Rein looked at General Bilo and said, "My troops suffered more than forty casualties in the last battle and are now resting in the rear. The airships have also run out of ammunition. Judging from the current supply, we are not able to launch a normal attack."

In the battle against the Cossack cavalry and the Imperial First Army, many soldiers of the Second Battalion were wounded, and several squad leaders ran into the Imperial machine gun positions during the battle; otherwise, the casualties would not have been so high.

Fortunately, most of them were only injured rather than killed, otherwise all that would have been seen by Bilo was von Morgan.

"Forty men?" Bilo knew the number of Rein's troops. The assault company had over 200 men, and the second battalion had a little more, but still less than a thousand. The whole force was only around a thousand men.

However, unlike other units, Bilo had witnessed the results of the Rein troops in their support of the First Army's offensive. The soldiers of the assault company and the second battalion, whether officers or not, were almost all top-notch aces. In other units, losing just one would be enough to make the commander feel the pinch.

"So what are you going to do next?" he asked in return.

Rein: "The mission is to test the new truck-mounted artillery, but there doesn't seem to be a suitable environment for its use in East Prussia. We might have to withdraw after that?"

"Moreover, since General Bilo has returned to the front line, it means that the main force of the Eighth Army will almost all be back tonight. If the Empire launches an attack before then, our people may be able to carry out another operation, but it's hard to say what will happen after that."

It's perfectly normal for Ryan to say that; Billow knows it all too well.

However, he was still dissatisfied that such an elite force would leave the theater of operations where the Eighth Army was located.

In this respect, almost all military units would think the same way.

Especially given that currently only the Eastern Theater of the Empire is in a state of actual combat.

However… Just as Renn finished speaking and was about to pick up his binoculars again to check the situation on the battlefield ahead, Bilo, after discussing with von Morgan in a low voice for a while, said something that Renn found quite interesting.

"Colonel Ryan."

He said, "Could you leave your truck-mounted artillery for our First Reserve Army?"

"?" Renn looked at Bilo, puzzled but not showing any reaction.

Seeing this, Bilo immediately explained: "The First Reserve Army has a lot of artillery that they couldn't bring back. There will be large-scale operations later. Since the colonel is leaving soon, it would be great if he could leave the truck-mounted artillery to us."

This request was somewhat unexpected by Renn.

After all, he never expected that someone would come to him at this time and ask for those three truck-mounted artillery pieces.

He subconsciously glanced at von Morgan, who was standing to the side.

The general, with whom he had worked for several days, immediately turned his gaze aside, as if he knew nothing.

In that instant, Rein immediately understood why General Bello had said he wanted to leave the truck-mounted cannon behind at this crucial moment.

Presumably, it was because General von Morgan had overheard the Ninth Army's discussions about truck-mounted artillery after the previous battles that he became curious, which led him to have Billo make such a request as an outsider.

"Staying here is not a problem..."

Rein spoke slowly, his gaze no longer fixed on Bello, but instead on von Morgan beside him: "But those three truck-mounted artillery pieces don't belong to us. If you want to keep them, you need to guarantee that you can return them to the capital next month..."

Renn didn't say much more after that, because anyone would understand that things given away in the military generally don't come back.

Unlike other organizations, the things that the military takes away are almost all for the purpose of saving the soldiers' lives or maintaining morale.

General von Morgan was well aware of this.

The more Ryan talked, the worse his complexion became.

Bilo, standing to the side, was in a similar situation, as he was the one who spoke, while it was actually von Morgan who wanted the cannon fired.

However, it was clear that Ryan would not actually agree to leave the self-propelled truck-mounted artillery behind, so what he said earlier was just polite talk.

After a brief silence, Renn turned his gaze back to Bilo, his tone becoming somewhat helpless: "Let's forget about the truck-mounted artillery. Firstly, it doesn't belong to our troops, and secondly, it's not suitable for use here. If you take it, it will only give the Empire the opportunity to access our equipment, which is not a good thing."

After saying that, Ryan didn't linger any longer. Instead, he put down his binoculars and slipped out through the side door of the observation post.

Outside the door, Brinkman, having completed his relay mission, stood at the entrance: "General von Morgan seems to want truck-mounted artillery?"

"That guy can't even command mobile artillery," Ryan said irritably. "Truck-mounted artillery is just a pile of scrap metal on the front lines," he added. "Which corps is the next batch of troops returning? When will they arrive?"

Brinkman: "The 20th Corps is returning faster than expected. Two regiments of their 41st Infantry Division have already arrived at Königsberg and will reach the front line tonight."

After considering for a moment, Rein changed the subject and said, "That means General Scholz will arrive at the front tonight, so we can prepare to withdraw."

"Are we really going to evacuate?"

Although Brinkman had heard about the evacuation from Rein before, he was still taken aback when he actually heard the word: "The Empire's Second Army has been completely wiped out, and annihilating the First Army is only a matter of time. The soldiers are ready for battle, and leaving so soon..."

But Raine didn't let her finish speaking and interrupted Brinkman directly.

He said, "If we don't leave, the people in the Eighth Army will have complaints."

"Ok?"

Brinkman didn't understand what Ryan meant by that: "Why..."

Ryan: "Would you be comfortable if you encountered a unit that could come and go as it pleased, and then steal a bunch of credit from the front lines?"

“Von Morgan knew we wouldn’t stay with the Eighth Army, so he changed his tune and tried to tie us up here by car. Only someone who fought in the Imperial and Franco-Imperial War would do something like that.”

“If we stay, the Eighth Army can use its superior numbers to keep us in East Prussia. Even if the General Staff issues an order, they can ignore it until the battle with the Empire ends.”

"Moreover, in the previous battle, the Second Battalion lost six men and more than twenty were wounded. In the assault company, including you, there were five officers and several soldiers wounded. For the troops, this is not a small number. In addition, we will soon be engaged in combat with the First Army Group. At that point, it will be almost impossible to control casualties."

Ryan didn't say anything about victory or defeat. Like most soldiers in the unit, Brinkman had almost never experienced a defeat except on the day the war started.

In other words, the Imperial Kingdom's soldiers were poorly trained and poorly equipped. Apart from the cavalry, the remaining troops could hardly be considered an army. Otherwise, Rein would never have allowed such a small number of troops to attack the Imperial Kingdom's front line, let alone launch two attacks in a few days.

Meanwhile, plumes of white smoke rose again from a rear station not far from the front lines.

Brinkman glanced at his watch: "That's the shuttle bus for the 41st Field Artillery Regiment of the 20th Army. The next one should be from the 37th Infantry Division."

"The field artillery regiment is back too?"

Ryan's eye twitched: "So they still have the nerve to use truck-mounted artillery as an excuse?"

Looking back at the plain, the shells continued to fall like rain, creating countless craters in the cold ground.

But the density of those shells wasn't very high; at most, they were used for intimidation.

Seeing this, Raine didn't bother to check the situation at the front and simply said, "Have the troops regroup; they can prepare to withdraw from the battlefield."

"The rest is up to Ludendorff; it's none of our business."

(End of this chapter)