Chapter 26: The Andrei Combined Arms Brigade

Barovsk General Staff Headquarters.

"That... is truly good news!" Mikhail let out a sigh of relief.

There was no such thing as "photo editing" in this era. The thick stack of photographs printed from the aerial cameras were spread out on a large table in the staff room. The bodies strewn haphazardly around the trucks were the most direct evidence; even the most critical staff officers had to admit that this was a significant victory.

Naturally, some of the old-guard officers were skeptical. "This is illogical. Why would there be so many fallen soldiers near a single truck?"

Zhang Shan retorted, "Colonel Kirilenko, you don't understand the Yamatoans. To maximize transport capacity, they force every soldier to stand in these 1.5-ton light trucks. A single vehicle can carry 16 men besides the driver. I’ve seen such scenes with my own eyes through binoculars."

The staff officer’s face darkened. Without battlefield experience, he had no right to speak, and as a career soldier, he was actually less informed than the Prince, who had never stepped foot in a barracks before. Unable to refute, he could only mutter under his breath, "What a bizarre practice..."

*Hah!* That just shows your ignorance. The White Elephants could fit 16 people on a single motorcycle. As for their performance on grassland, that’s another story entirely.

"The boys in the air force did well. Roughly estimated, they wiped out an entire enemy regiment!" Lieutenant General Mikhail said dismissively. As an old-school infantry general, he was superstitious about the infantry's ability to win any battle and habitually ignored the role of the air force.

There was no helping it; that was the limitation of the era. At this point in time, no one had yet experienced the "terrifying bombing of the Asgardians." Moreover, in the last Great Europa War and the Rasia Civil War, the land combat manuals stated: [Officers of all ranks must leverage the advantage of artillery to allow their infantry to reach close-quarters combat distance, and resolve the enemy in one go with melee fighting.]

Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?

A few days ago, when Zhang Shan saw those Rasia elite heavy infantry transform into bear-men over two meters tall, he suddenly felt it made perfect sense. After transforming, those heavy infantry retained human faces, but their bodies swelled as if blown up by air, their backs took on ursine characteristics, and some even had their fingers turn into sharp claws. Corresponding to their exaggerated size was an explosive increase in strength. Some elite warriors could even sprint for four hundred meters while wearing 10mm-thick riveted steel armor.

Their strength was essentially that of a human tank. It was precisely because of these beast-kin knights that the knightly class of this world had survived for at least another hundred years. Consequently, the design standard for the [Model 98k] rifle was set to penetrate 10mm of steel plate at a distance of about 100 meters. This power was definitely overkill against ordinary people, but it was just enough to deal with the beast-kin knights of Rasia, the "Einherjar Knights" of Asgard, and the Oni warriors of Yamato in their heavily armored states.

The relationship between spear and shield was a spiraling escalation. Because these individuals with temporary superhuman strength could stack their front armor to nearly 15mm, various nations still maintained a considerable number of heavy infantry. The only limiting factor was that the number of humans with the ability to transform was ultimately small.

Given this background, Zhang Shan was able to take over the Air Force of the Grand Duchy of Boria in any practical sense. Mikhail and the other infantry generals really didn't value it; in their eyes, as long as the planes could drive away the enemy's planes, that was enough. What good could those two hundred or so planes of the Grand Duchy do?

The focus of the debate in the Staff Headquarters was on how to defend against the three Yamato Class-A divisions approaching Red Tower City. As for Zhang Shan's plan, it was merely an alternative among alternatives.

Not far from the Staff Headquarters stood an office building that had recently changed its sign. The name on it made the Rasia generals grumble behind his back—what on earth was the "Andrei Combined Arms Brigade Headquarters"?

In the past, the generals certainly wouldn't have allowed their Prince to mess around. But they couldn't stop Zhang Shan when he was actually capable of acquiring equipment! If the Third Prince could secure equipment for four divisions to satisfy these demanding generals, couldn't he recruit his own men to form a brigade? Did they want new equipment in the future or not?

Before the war, the finances of the Grand Duchy of Boria were what they were—not bankrupt, but certainly not flush with cash. The Palace Minister, Slava, was a capable man, but his ability was merely excellent, nowhere near the level of the Third Prince Andrei, who could run off to foreign countries to secure sponsorships.

Moreover, the Prince knew how to handle people—he funneled all the newly produced rifles and machine guns to the original strong armies, used foreign equipment only for the newly formed divisions, and tossed the junk equipment acquired from other electors to the frontline garrison brigades and the cavalry divisions from the Khanate. The supplies kept coming, keeping the entire army satisfied from top to bottom.

Under the Borias-ki family, every division was like a personal fiefdom, usually backed by a Count or several Viscount families, and their spheres of influence were fixed. Since the Third Prince wasn't reaching into their pockets, who dared to complain if he wanted to play military games with his own new brigade? The old generals held their noses and accepted it.

The commander of this brigade was nominally Sergei, a captain who had served with Zhang Shan’s predecessor in the Lan-Ude Garrison Regiment. Following the great victory at Lan-Ude, he was promoted two ranks to Lieutenant Colonel and placed in the brigade commander's seat by Zhang Shan.

In truth, this brigade was highly irregular. With a wave of Zhang Shan's hand, half of the Grand Duchy of Boria's only 215 aircraft were assigned to this brigade's order of battle. It wasn't that the Air Force Commander hadn't protested, but the poor guy was only a colonel and, of course, couldn't resist the Prince's overbearing will.

Then, there was a cavalry regiment under this brigade with three thousand riders—yes, the one led by Bagen. The latest news was that this regiment had somehow expanded to five thousand men. On top of that, Zhang Shan expanded the original Lan-Ude Garrison Regiment to eight thousand men.

Add to that an artillery battalion with one hundred Asgardian K04-model 105mm cannons. Although these were products of the last Great Europa War, nearly 20 years old, their performance was acceptable, with a range of 12 kilometers. Finally, there was a logistics battalion consisting of a full three thousand draft horses and their handlers.

Now, while other units had been padding their payrolls, they were desperately recruiting and extorting weapons from the logistics department over the past month to fill their gaps. When it came to Zhang Shan, even though everything was reinforced, he would report only half the number of men and double the armament.

Except for the Boria First Division, Zhang Shan couldn't say he was desperate about the old aristocratic divisions, but he certainly had no hope for them. Fortunately, the Yamatoans attacking in the early stages were also a bunch of Class-B divisions... They fought against the Rasia garrison brigades, and for a whole month, they couldn't chew through a single Rasia city other than Lan-Ude.

Ah! Praise the Far East! Such an excellent matchmaking mechanism finally gave Zhang Shan some room to maneuver.