War and the General (Bonus Chapter for Ally Lin Jia Er Shi)

Tormasov saw that Suvorov's expression was off and hurriedly asked, "My Lord Marshal, has something happened?"

Suvorov, his face dark, tossed the battle report to him and exhaled. "Perhaps we won't be staying in Minsk for very long."

Tormasov quickly read through the battle report, and his brows also drew tight. "The losses... are indeed rather heavy."

He suddenly realized what Suvorov meant and looked at him. "You mean we're leaving here?"

"That's right."

"But we've just achieved a breakthrough. We should continue advancing west..."

Suvorov waved a hand. "I'm afraid the empire's finances can no longer sustain the war here. Unless Her Majesty the Tsar decides to abandon Crimea."

Tormasov understood at once.

Crimea had practically been smashed to pieces by the Poles, and its reconstruction would inevitably require a massive investment.

And previously, in order to encircle and annihilate Kościuszko, the empire had mobilized a total of sixty to seventy thousand troops.

Especially the Kakhovsky Legion, which had made a long-distance dash from Mozyr to Crimea, and on a forced march without baggage trains at that.

That meant relying on supplies being continuously transported to the army along the route.

And from Mozyr southward, the several-hundred-mile stretch through Siberia all the way to Yekaterinoslav was extremely barren, so supplies could only be transferred from central cities such as Lipetsk.

Over such a long distance, at least a hundred thousand or more serfs would have to be mobilized for logistical transport, and the funds consumed by that would inevitably be terrifyingly high.

As for the damaged Bryansk City and the captured Kursk Fortress, the losses they brought seemed far less conspicuous by comparison.

Originally, the empire's finances had been enough to support the army in fighting the Poles for around a year, but after Kościuszko had stirred up such