Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 191 A blind man riding a blind horse charges towards the cliff.
1915 11 Month 8 Day.

That is, the day Lelouch had Rommel receive the tanks and began organizing the armored soldiers to conduct intensive practical training in tank driving skills.

Krivorog, located 150 kilometers southwest of Dnipro and 350 kilometers southeast of Kyiv, is the city where the largest iron ore mine in Russa is located.

The Lusa army, which had been in a long-term slump, is now launching a counterattack. A counterattack whose courage has surprised even the Demacians.

Prior to this, from the start of the battle on September 23 to November 8, for a full 45 days, Lusa's army suffered defeat after defeat on the Kievan Rus' plains, losing troops and territory.

The 6th Army suffered a humiliating defeat, losing 350,000 men in a pincer movement south of Zaporizhzhia on the south bank of the Don River. It subsequently lost nearly 100,000 more, including in the Donbas region to the east. Adding to this the 110,000 men annihilated in Sevastopol and the 80,000 in Kerch,

In total, over the past 45 days, the Lussa have annihilated more than 60 troops on the southern front.

Under such circumstances, their ability to organize a counterattack is truly remarkable and has drawn attention from both sides.

If the news were to reach the West and be heard by Lusa's allies in the Treaty of Versailles, they would probably be astonished.

Regardless of the circumstances, the Lusa people had indeed launched a counterattack.

The direct cause of this counter-offensive should be the execution of General Alexei Evert, the former commander of the Romanian Front and now commander of the 6th Army, a few days ago.

Subsequently, the entire Lusa army temporarily believed that "the Demanian armored vehicles are immobilized due to mud and lack of logistical support. As the Lusa army is fighting on home soil, we must take advantage of the muddy season to overcome difficulties, launch a desperate counterattack, first recapture the large iron mine, and then plan our next move."

Whether they truly believed it or not, they had no choice but to believe it. Anyone who dared not believe it might be the next one to be executed.

General Pavel Pleve, commander of the Southwestern Front, also organized this counter-offensive with utmost care and trepidation. He placed the main force of the front, the 4th and 7th Armies, inside the great bend of the Dnieper River.

The 4th Army of Russia was positioned on the western flank, which was the route that went south from Kiev towards Nikolaev and Kherson.

The 7th Army was positioned on the eastern flank, which was to move downstream from the Dnieper River and penetrate from Kiev toward Dnieper. The army would also take advantage of the numerous tributaries on the south bank of the Dnieper River to infiltrate and cut into the Dmanian-occupied territory by taking advantage of the Russa Army's water transport advantage in this area.

(Note: The upper reaches of the Dnieper River above the Dnieper were dominated by the Lusa army, so this counter-offensive tactic was not problematic. As mentioned earlier, the Dnieper River hydroelectric power station had not yet been built at this time, and ships coming from the Black Sea downstream could not go upstream after reaching Zaporizhzhia due to the large drop in elevation and the numerous rapids.)

The section of the river between Zaporizhia and Dniepero is navigable, similar to the Sanmenxia Gorge on the Yellow River and the Three Gorges on the Yangtze River. Upstream from Dniepero, only the Lussa people had boats.
Because the Demanians had focused their attention further east during this period, they left too few troops and were too weak in the area inside the Dnieper Bend. As a result, they were able to regain some territory through General Pleve's counterattack.

On November 9th, the Lussa army launched a counterattack and penetrated into the outskirts of Krivorog! A fierce street battle ensued between the Lussa and Lussa armies within the city!

The Demacian army seems to cherish this city, which can produce tens of millions of tons of high-quality iron ore annually, and is unwilling to lose the fruits of victory they have already gained.

Two divisions of defending troops engaged in a bloody battle with Lusha's army, fighting for every inch of land.

The fighting was particularly fierce near the mining sites and ore processing plants in the north of the city, as well as near the dedicated railway station for transporting iron ore.

The Demanians deployed sophisticated machine gun fire through every tunnel and makeshift artillery shelter in the mines, and called in long-range artillery support, inflicting massive carnage on the charging Lusa army.

The attacking Lusa army could see that the mining area had changed dramatically in less than a month since it was captured by the Demacian army. Many of the facilities that the Lusa army had destroyed during their retreat had been rebuilt by the Demacians.

Moreover, it's clear that the Demacians are very serious about rebuilding; they genuinely intend to protect this great iron mine and provide a continuous supply of steel for the Empire's war machine.

The Demacians held their ground so firmly that the attacking Lusa forces, unsuspecting of a trap, were even more emboldened to commit their forces. Even as weapons and ammunition were rapidly depleted, and even as casualties and morale plummeted, the Lusa commanders remained captivated by the immediate gains, completely disregarding the consequences.

The Luftwaffe's 4th Army, attacking from the west of Krivorog, suffered the complete annihilation of several divisions during the days-long siege. The 7th Army, attacking from the east, fared no better, losing at least two divisions.

If we were to calculate the casualty exchange ratio between the attacking and defending sides in detail, the Lusa people would probably suffer more than ten times the casualties, given the Demanians' network of mine tunnels and long-range artillery support.

The Kolusha people stubbornly held on thanks to the temporary morale boost from the execution of Admiral Evert, and it was unclear when they would truly reach their limit.

General Plevé, commander of the Southwestern Front, was fighting a very tough battle. He knew that his two most elite and fresh army groups had been committed to the offensive.

To further expand and consolidate the gains achieved by the entire army, he needed the Tsar to provide him with more reinforcements and supplies.

But you can't get people or supplies just by talking nonsense, making a few phone calls, and crying.

General Pleve, well-versed in the ways of officialdom within the current Lusa Army, knew very well that he had to produce results and propaganda to convince his superiors and get the Tsar to willingly open his pockets.

So all he could do was urge his troops to launch a counterattack, while sending out a large number of war correspondents to take photos and write reports for the newspapers in the rear, and to publicize the rare "Great Victory of Krivorog".

So, on November 9th, while the fierce fighting was still raging in the city of Krivorro, General Pleve sent reporters from the two most influential newspapers, *New Times* and *Lusa News*, representing the 'conservatives' and 'moderate opposition' respectively, into the city of Krivorro under military protection.

General Pleve himself also came there and posed for photos with reporters.

At that time, fierce fighting was still taking place in the main city, but the fighting in the mining area was basically over, and the remaining Demacian troops had already withdrawn.

Despite his busy schedule, General Preve climbed to the top of the main Krivorod mine, striking a pose of commanding presence and enjoying the clicks of the reporters' cameras. He then delivered a victory speech to interviewers from *New Times* and *Lusa News*, recounting the immense significance of the Krivorod iron ore mine to the Empire, stating that he had reclaimed 70% of the Empire's iron ore production.

With His Majesty's wise rule and unwavering support, the Southwestern Army will surely be able to preserve grain production, reclaim coal-producing areas, and ensure the Empire's continued stability.

These photos appeared in newspapers published on the streets of St. Petersburg and Moscow the following day, November 10 (New Times was published in St. Petersburg, and Lusa News was published in Moscow).
The successful counterattack on the Krivorod iron ore mine was touted by the national media as a great victory, a monumental victory, an epic triumph, symbolizing a turning point in the war.

With this opportunity, the resources that General Pleve needed were quickly replenished in the following days.

General Alexei Evert's 6th Army had been reduced to the point where it couldn't even muster a full-strength corps. After several rounds of emergency reinforcements, it had only managed to replenish two corps.

However, after witnessing the great victory at Krivorod, approvals at all levels were expedited, and more new recruits were temporarily conscripted and stuffed into the army. The Tsar and the military high command even granted General Prevey special permission to forcibly conscript large numbers of people from the Kievan Rus' region into the army.

The Tsar has recently pressured the administrative system in Kievan Rus' to expedite grain collection. Grain that was originally collected in winter is now required to be collected by November.

In the fertile black soil plains surrounding Kyiv, spanning hundreds of kilometers, human tragedy has been unfolding daily. Kievan Rus' peasants, smallholder farmers, and landowners are all scrambling to avoid the Tsar's premature and accelerated taxation. Many farmers are hiding their grain, hoping to feign poverty and get away with it.

However, under Pleve's harsh methods, countless farmers who were found to have secretly hoarded military rations were subjected to direct torture and were conscripted into the 6th Army as thieves.

Tens of thousands of people were killed in the surrounding area, and hundreds of thousands more who had hoarded grain were forced into military service.

Weapons and equipment were also squeezed out from the rear and sent to the southern front. In early November, the St. Petersburg Arms Factory finally supplied the southern front with more than 200,000 Mosin-Nagant rifles, just to ensure that more new recruits had guns.

In addition, the Tsar issued two orders: to send a reserve army group that was originally stationed in the Kursk region to the south to the Kharkiv area to support the defense and counter-offensive of Kiev in the west.

At the same time, the Western Front in Belarus was instructed to transfer the 13th Army of Russia, which was stationed in Minsk and other places and served as an important rear support for the Western Front, to Kyiv to assist in the defense of the area surrounding Kyiv, and to be transferred to the Southwestern Front.

In this way, theoretically, Rusa's Southwestern Area Army's paper strength has been expanded to an unprecedented extent.

They now nominally command the 4th and 7th Armies, which are in an offensive posture and are currently counterattacking Krivorod.
And the 6th Army that remained to defend Kyiv,

The Kursk Reserve Army, which remained to defend Kharkiv, was renamed the 9th Army after arriving in Kharkiv. The original 9th ​​Army had been completely annihilated after the Crimean Campaign, and this time it was rebuilt.

In addition, the 13th Army Group was transferred from the north.

理论上，普列韦上将名下现在有5个集团军，第4、6、7、9、13，当然除了第9和第13名义上是满编的，其他3个多多少少在之前的战斗中残了不少。

The Southwestern Front actually had 26 corps, 74 divisions, plus 11 independent Cossack cavalry divisions, totaling 85 divisions and nearly 150 million men.

Reinforcements and supplies from the north are making a desperate southward push, but the railway lines to Kyiv and Kharkiv are not functioning smoothly.
Recently, the Demacians have been deploying a lot of airships, heading north every night at midnight and quickly bombing targets after dawn.

They specifically targeted the railway lines from Kyiv to Minsk or Kharkiv to Kursk, causing all sorts of damage. Every day, trains experienced accidents of varying degrees due to railway problems, leaving tens of thousands of people and equipment stuck on the tracks.

A small amount of grain and coal from the south was transported north, mainly on trains that were empty after reinforcements and equipment were unloaded. However, due to the continuous bombing and damage to the railways, this transportation became extremely difficult and inefficient, and in reality, it did not play a significant role.

The Russo people, however, completely overlooked the Demanians' true motives for bombing the railway. They assumed the Demanians were afraid the Russo army was sending reinforcements and equipment south to launch a larger counter-offensive during the muddy season. Therefore, they believed the Demanians' main objective in bombing the railway was to stop military trains and those carrying weapons and ammunition.

Throughout early November, until November 12, the continuous bombing of the railway also caused some losses to the Demanian air strike forces.

Even though the air raid plan was meticulously crafted and aimed to avoid direct confrontation, three airships were still shot down. Moreover, these air raids penetrated hundreds of kilometers behind enemy lines, making it impossible for the crew members on those three airships to return. Almost all of them perished, with only a few managing to survive by hiding under assumed names.

Demania's remaining airship inventory has further decreased from 45 to 42. It's likely that airship bombing operations will cease in the future; even bombing of enemy-occupied railway lines will be replaced by long-range specialized bombers.

Once the flight radius of bombers in this era exceeds 500 kilometers, the reliance on airships will gradually decrease.

Photos of the wreckage of the three downed airships were taken by General Pleve immediately and sent to reporters of Lusa News and New Era for publication, showing that the Southwestern Front had been very effective in recent operations.

The Demacian airship was shot down, which the Lusa military interpreted as "the Demacians being ineffective in combat during the Muddy Season, and therefore fearing Lusa's reinforcements and counterattack. In desperation, they sent an expensive airship to try and penetrate deep into the rear to bomb the railway. This despicable and cowardly behavior cannot change the fact that Lusa's righteous army is launching a counterattack on the main battlefield!"

Some Demacian generals would occasionally see Lussaian newspaper propaganda by chance, and many of them were indignant and wanted to refute it.

However, within the 6th Army, all dissenting voices were suppressed by Chief of Staff Lelouch. The 6th Army headquarters' demand was:

We must not refute this in the near future; let the enemy be arrogant for a few days.

The more arrogant they are, the more they will deceive their superiors and subordinates, leading to a disconnect between their front and rear, underestimating the enemy and advancing recklessly, ultimately exhausting their fighting strength by being relentlessly pursued.

The day the enemy's madness ends, it will be Lelouch's turn to go berserk.

(End of this chapter)