Iron Cross Fire

At about 1 a.m. on May 7, it was a dark and windy night. Vasala and Seloven, carrying the hopes of the entire army, led a 400-man reconnaissance battalion deep into Tsaritsyn.

They came from the south, hiding all the way and moving cautiously with their guns raised.

Kuster asked them to find out the Russian defense force, as well as the key points and secret passages of the entire town.

This was nothing to the battle-hardened Austrians, especially since their opponents were no longer the fierce Russian standing army of the past. Why would the Russians who were forcibly conscripted fight for their emperor?

Although the Russian army had no fighting spirit and was extremely dissatisfied with the current government. The bold Russians even launched a violent rebellion.

But the officers quickly suppressed it and increased their workload, intending to squeeze out all their labor capacity and make them completely succumb to the tyranny of imperialism.

This further stimulated the already dissatisfied Russians, and a considerable number of them launched riots and then took the opportunity to escape in the chaos.

As a result, they were all shot to death by their compatriots with machine guns. Those who were lucky enough could barely run out, but later found that those who ran south were basically dead, and their bodies were full of scratches and scars caused by cold weapons.

Regarding the so-called observance of the stealth principle, Vasara, who advocated offense, believed that no enemy should be left alive.

When he saw that the Russians who ran out had no weapons, he was extremely nervous and rushed forward with a large group of Austrians, shouting and slashing them to death with sabers and bayonets.

Then he sent soldiers to guard at various intersections, and killed a Russian soldier with a knife when he saw him.

It was impossible for the Russian defenders not to hear such a big noise, they were not deaf.

But they did not send any soldiers here, but instead compressed their defense line backwards, and when they retreated, they blew up all the transportation facilities, and the houses on them fell into the center of the earth together.

The two Ku brothers did not realize it, thinking that the Russians did not pay any attention at all, and then continued to lead the army into the streets and alleys.

Some Austrian officers were a little uneasy, thinking that the Russians just did not react in time. However, after nearly half an hour, they still hadn't seen a single Russian soldier, which gradually made them relax.

Vasalai felt that their flanks were completely exposed and at risk of being outflanked; Seloven thought that their formation was very dense, and once they engaged in a firefight, the crossfire would be very serious.

So the two brothers reached a consensus and put in the advanced tactics their father had taught them: one person was responsible for a squad, and they covered each other and leaped forward alternately.

Before the action, they were ordered not to enter residential areas and not to use firearms in small-scale conflicts. Unless the Russians blew a hole in the building themselves, or the Russian army fired first, the order would be invalid and they could engage in fire at will.

It is worth mentioning that Kuster gave this order to the two brothers alone, without telling anyone else. Kuster's purpose was to avoid disturbing the people and to train his offspring's ability to respond, so that they would not become stupid in Germany.

But Vasalai completely violated Kuster's original intention. Perhaps he was born to exploit loopholes in the law and find loopholes in all authorities.

He thought, since I can't enter private facilities like residential buildings, then I can go to public facilities, right? Or the state-owned enterprises of the Tsarist Russia, which are all remnants of the decadent and domineering imperialist era and should be destroyed.

As for the conditions for opening fire, he felt that all encounters with the enemy could be rewritten as "large-scale firefights", so that they could open fire freely.

Vasara quickly led his troops to occupy several railways in the south of the city, but they were all blown up without exception. The exploded rails with jagged wolf teeth spread out from all sides, like a banana peel peeled with a saw.

He led his troops to sweep the streets again and was welcomed by a group of merchants, but it was a pity that the goods they had hoarded not long ago were looted by Russian soldiers, and now there was nothing to entertain the Austrians.

However, Vasara didn't have time to rob them. Instead, he thought they were sick for not sleeping at two o'clock in the morning, and waved them away casually.

The Russian citizens who had just been crying and shouting on the street quickly dispersed under physical persuasion, and fell asleep peacefully after pinning their hopes of success on the Austrians.

The only sound in the dead silent city was the clatter of Austrian boots, but they had walked for nearly an hour and could not see anything more useful than ruins.

It was not impossible for them to go through the main road, but the threats they faced might be a bit too much, with the defense line of barbed wire and machine guns, plus the Russians ambushing in the corners ready to pull the trigger in their hands and shoot the enemy at any time.

Vasara carefully assessed his own strength and felt that he should not pick this tough guy.

In desperation, he had to use the old Beijing method of committing crimes - digging tunnels.

Vasara established a defense line in the area under his control, blocked some unnecessary roads with hardened barbed wire, and strictly controlled the movement range of citizens.

These were all to ensure the safety of the follow-up troops, so that they could rely on the existing fortifications for rapid repairs and pave the way for the general attack.

After ensuring that everything was correct, he ordered Seroven to dig tunnels, and he led his troops to continue trying to go deep into Tsaritsyn.

With fifty soldiers, he thought it would be enough to search a radius of four or five hundred meters, and if he encountered Russians during the period, he would run back immediately.

But after two hours, he and his team had not returned. It was not because they were dead, but because there were no Russian troops within the search area.

They also found Russian supplies in several closed buildings. Perhaps there was not enough time to transport them, or perhaps Russia did not even have explosives, so these supplies were handed over to the Austrians intact.

However, the reconnaissance battalion was short of manpower, and the fifty soldiers on duty were not enough to carry them back, so they had to give money to local citizens to help with the transportation.

In addition, Vasara liked to make the best use of everything, so he only recruited about a hundred people, and it took two hours to move everything.

What is curious is that these Russian laborers were doing heavy work, but their faces were full of joy, which was really confusing. They could only be classified as a group of mental patients.

At four o'clock in the morning, it was still dark, and only a quarter of the tunnel was dug, and it was still impassable, but Vasara could not wait.

With the experience just now, coupled with Kuster's views on the Russians, Vasara's evaluation of the Russians changed from reckless men to cowards, and he looked down on them from the bottom of his heart.

So he pulled in a hundred soldiers and took them with him to prepare for a bolder reconnaissance.

Conservatively estimated, they may go two kilometers deep and collect more detailed intelligence there.

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