Iron Cross Fire

Although the vast majority of Russian citizens were dissatisfied with the Tsar, the Russians who really controlled Tsaritsyn were all big capitalists. As Russian old boyar nobles, they would never allow any foreign armed forces to enter the city, which was an insult to their honor.

Facing the aggressive Allied forces, they were fearless and would never be runaways. They vowed to live and die with the city.

There were 40,000 regular troops in the city, plus the soldiers called by the nobles with their families, a total of more than 100,000.

On the other hand, the Allied forces were very strong. After besieging Tsaritsyn, they still had 320,000 troops to be deployed in the siege.

Such a huge gap was almost impossible to win, especially since the citizens in the city did not support the Tsarist Russia at all, and would not resist for several months like the Soviet Union.

The Allied forces would not use artillery, rockets and other range-explosive lethal weapons, because that would accidentally injure civilians. Kuster believed that it was necessary to leave a good impression on the civilians in the city and not let them take the initiative to help the Russian army, so as to create a situation where the military and civilians in the city were of one mind.

This will relieve the pressure on the Russian army, and there is no need to worry about the shells in the sky.

But even so, no one believes that the Russians will win. No one would think that an army with insufficient food and clothing could defend against the prosperous Kust.

The Battle of Tsaritsyn first started from the outskirts of the city. The 80,000 Allied troops in the east tried to annihilate the Russian army's active forces to prevent a large number of Russian troops from withdrawing into the city, and then fight a protracted street battle.

However, the Russians retreated without a fight. They were unorganized and on the verge of collapse. At this time, their officers hoped to reorganize their troops in the city and establish a temporary defense line.

The armored forces quickly gave up the attack. After continuous attacks all the way, their fuel and supplies had been exhausted, and they needed to wait for the supply of supplies before they could attack again. What's more, these sacred and great Germans looked down on the despicable and disgusting Russians from the bottom of their hearts, thinking that they were scum of the world and could not pose a threat even if they were reorganized.

The other three divisions also squeezed the Russian army's space for action, and soon pushed the Russians completely into the city, killing 4,000 enemies at the cost of losing 500 people.

By 2 a.m. the next day, the battle lines in various places had been stabilized, and each area ensured that the Russians would no longer be able to counterattack.

But there was still a threat on the map, that is, the Volga River.

The Tsarist government had realized the seriousness of the problem, and they tried to support Tsaritsyn, but in the end it was useless.

However, they still did not give up hope and used the Volga River as their main road for transporting supplies.

As we all know, the roads in Russia are almost all frozen soil, and the speed of vehicles is not as fast as that of people, except in winter.

Now any railway line to Tsaritsyn should not be cut off, and road transportation is impossible, and hope can only be placed on the Volga River.

Kuster naturally considered this point. He believed that if he wanted to completely surround Tsaritsyn, he must strike Tsaritsyn's ability to obtain supplies, or cut off the supply line directly from the source.

The easiest thing would be to blow up the port of Tsaritsyn, but this violated Kuster's instruction of "not harming civilians". They could only choose another plan: to allocate a part of the troops to build checkpoints on the Volga River to strictly prevent passing ships, especially large or closed ships, and sink them immediately if they were found.

But problems also arose. People in the army were unwilling to do this. They thought it was a shameful job to watch fish all day long, and they resolutely expressed their willingness to directly participate in the battle to capture Tsaritsyn.

Only honest Turkish militias were willing to take this job. It was difficult to guarantee that they could guard the checkpoints and prevent ships from passing, but it was better to have someone than no one. The officers did not make it difficult for anyone and allowed the Turkish army to garrison.

After the blockade problem was solved, Kuster still did not let go and regarded the capture of Tsaritsyn as the top priority.

He personally came to the front line to inspect the terrain and comfort the officers and soldiers, which made the morale of the allied forces, which were already in high spirits, even higher.

Then he found his two sons on the battlefield and asked them to form a reconnaissance battalion to be the first to fire the first shot in the capture of Tsaritsyn.

Although Seloven was a captain of the armored corps, they could only walk into the city due to the need for concealment and mission, and the armored corps was still staying in the east of the river and could not participate in the battle.

Before leaving, he warned them to be more careful and control the location and timing of the exchange of fire.

After the two of them left, Kuster was still very nervous. In order to relieve the pressure, he looked at the progress of the other fronts.

From the end of 14 to now, the war situation has been the Allies attacking and the Allies defending. Even with the joining of Italy, it could not stop this decline, not to mention that Russia was on the verge of collapse.

Germany gradually concentrated its forces in the east again. This was not to quickly destroy Russia and get out of the dilemma of fighting on two fronts. It was mainly because William II believed that Russia could pull Kuster over without him.

Falkenhayn thought this was understandable, at most allowing the French army to regain a few inches of lost territory. Hindenburg and Ludendorff, the leaders of the Eastern Front, certainly agreed; the other Junker nobles were also obsessed with the continuous victories and expressed their approval.

So since World War I, the German military finally had a rare consensus between the monarch and his subjects. Germany successfully withdrew two armies from the Western Front to the Eastern Front.

The result of this was that the British and French forces pushed the German army 20 kilometers away, successfully avoiding the fate of Paris being captured.

However, the Germans lost less than 30,000 people, even though they fought and retreated. If the Germans had died in a trench, the French might never have been able to drive them out.

This failure seriously stimulated the British and French high-level officials. Even though they had done a good job of keeping it secret, they were still deeply shocked by this horrific record.

They lived in the rear and couldn't understand why the infantry on the front line were so confused when they had made all the preparations.

They really couldn't understand, was the German support firepower really that strong? Could the so-called "portable machine gun" really allow people to shoot while running? Were the Germans really supermen?

The British and French high-level officials were very anxious, but they couldn't think of a solution, so they had to read the newspaper and drink tea to relax.

Fortunately, France was still standing firm. If they knew the situation in Russia, they might not even be in the mood to drink tea.

Germany and Austria had not yet launched an attack on Russia. It was mainly because Germany was waiting for soldiers and Austria-Hungary was waiting to die.

But the situation in southern Russia is very bad. The defense line of eastern Ukraine has been penetrated by Kemal, and Crimea, the home of the Black Sea Fleet, is also facing the so-called threat.

What is more deadly is this guy Kuster. Wherever he goes, there is no grass. He pushed the front line from the Caucasus to the Central Asian steppes in a few weeks.

Although Turkey did not send supplies to Kuster, the things looted along the way were enough for his army to eat and drink for several months, and he was not afraid of supply problems at all.

And the next battle of Tsaritsyn will determine the life and death of Russia.

If they can win, the Russian nation may still have a complete country.

If they lose, Russia's depth will be completely exposed to the Allied forces, and then Russia will only end up in pieces.

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