Grand Duke Nicholas Rides a Tiger and Cannot Dismount

"Your Highness, in this battle, we eliminated approximately 150,000 enemy troops in total. More than 120,000 of them were taken prisoner.

"Our casualties numbered fewer than 5,000. Most of them suffered only minor injuries."

Major General Viktor Sakharov gave his report.

Grand Duke Mikhail nodded, satisfied with the casualty figures.

"Very good, General Sakharov. Leave an infantry regiment to guard the prisoners. The rest of the troops are to advance west at once. Moscow is not far from us now," Mikhail ordered.

"Yes, Your Highness!" Major General Viktor Sakharov answered.

After Mikhail issued his orders, the main force of the Caucasus Military District set out from Kazan and advanced on Moscow.

Because the cavalry had already secured the railway line in advance, the Caucasus Military District's troops advanced very quickly.

In two days at most, the vanguard would be at the gates of Moscow.

The decisive battle between the two sides would then break out.

"How are things going on General Brusilov's side?" Mikhail asked.

"Your Highness, General Brusilov's troops are still under siege by the enemy's main force. However, our troops have not only held off the enemy's attacks, but also left the enemy bloodied and battered before our defensive line, with heavy losses.

"General Brusilov says the pressure he currently faces is not great."

Yakov answered.

That put Mikhail considerably more at ease.

Now it remained to be seen what Grand Duke Nicholas and the other senior Russian commanders would choose to do next.

Would they continue their siege of General Brusilov, or lead their troops back to Moscow to face the main force under Mikhail?

Either way, the battle had already turned decidedly against Grand Duke Nicholas and the others.

As for the more than 100,000 prisoners captured in the Battle of Kazan, Mikhail had great use for them too.

The soldiers in better physical condition could remain in the army and continue serving.

After the civil war ended, Mikhail would certainly have to expand the army.

Whether to counter threats from neighboring countries, pacify the situation at home, or prepare for the coming war with the Japanese, he would need a large army.

Moreover, the Tsarist Russian Empire had vast territories, and too small an army would never suffice to defend them.

Thus, expanding the army after the civil war was imperative.

In addition, Mikhail planned to accelerate railway construction within the Tsarist Russian Empire after the war.

Besides the Trans-Siberian Railway, whose construction urgently needed to be accelerated, railway construction throughout the Tsarist Russian Empire also needed to pick up speed.

The Trans-Siberian Railway was crucial to the coming war with the Japanese.

In another timeline, the Japanese had chosen to go to war in 1904 precisely because the Trans-Siberian Railway had not yet been completed.

Once the railway was complete, the Tsarist Russian Empire would be able to transfer troops stationed in Europe to the Far East in an unending stream. Vast quantities of war supplies could also be transported by rail.

Given the Tsarist Russian Empire's resources, even if the Japanese gained the advantage during the war, defeating the empire outright would be extremely difficult.

Instead, the most likely outcome was that the Japanese Empire would be worn down before the Tsarist Russian Empire had been brought to its knees.

Railway construction in the European part of the Tsarist Russian Empire was equally important to future wars.

Only once a railway network had been established could the Tsarist Russian Empire's vast army be rapidly assembled along the rail lines when a major war broke out. It would not be like the other timeline, when it had a vast army but could not get it to the front in time.

By the time the troops finally reached the front, the combined forces of the German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire were already prepared.

Thus, in this timeline, Mikhail hoped transportation would not become a factor constraining the Tsarist Russian Empire's military strength.

But building railways cost money.

Given the Tsarist Russian Empire's current fiscal revenue, carrying out large-scale railway construction would undoubtedly be very difficult.

In that case, these prisoners of war could be put to use.

These strong, able-bodied prisoners could serve as free labor.

That would not only save on railway construction costs but also further accelerate the work.

Mikhail planned to handle all the prisoners captured in this civil war in the same way.

After selecting the best of them to join the army, he would send all the rest to construction sites to build railways and roads.

They would be released after working for a few years or a decade or so.

That would make full use of everyone.

Ryazan.

Grand Duke Nicholas and Chief of the General Staff General Nikolai Obruchev had personally arrived at the front.

The Russian army's siege of the large force led by General Brusilov would determine the outcome of the battle.

That was why Grand Duke Nicholas and the others were paying such close attention to it.

Boom! Boom!

Cannon thundered as the artillery on both sides roared.

Shell after shell slammed into the opposing forces.

Although Grand Duke Nicholas had assembled an army of two to three hundred thousand men, giving him nearly a two-to-one advantage in numbers,

he had no advantage at all in the number of artillery pieces.

In terms of artillery performance, Grand Duke Nicholas was at an even greater disadvantage.

After all, barrel-recoil guns could utterly outclass the old carriage-recoil guns in rate of fire.

As a result, the troops under Grand Duke Nicholas were completely suppressed by enemy fire.

Under pressure from their officers, large numbers of Russian soldiers carried Mosin-Nagant rifles or Berdan rifles as they attacked the enemy's defensive line.

Rat-a-tat-tat!

The dense machine-gun fire from the positions made the Russian troops' attack little more than a march to their deaths.

Russian soldiers fell to the ground in droves.

Such enormous casualties were equally devastating to Russian morale.

Having suffered heavy losses, the Russian troops were soon routed and fled in disarray.

Watching the scene through his binoculars, Grand Duke Nicholas's face turned as black as the bottom of a pot.

"Bastards! A bunch of useless fools!" Grand Duke Nicholas could not help cursing.

"Your Highness, the rebels' firepower is too strong. They are equipped with a large number of heavy machine guns, as well as many light artillery pieces.

"Our soldiers can hardly break through the rebel defenses under such powerful enemy fire."

General Nikolai Obruchev answered.

"Then what are we to do now? If we keep failing to wipe out the rebels under Brusilov, we're sure to lose this battle." Grand Duke Nicholas was extremely anxious.

The fall of Kazan and the rapid advance of Grand Duke Mikhail's army toward Moscow were undoubtedly a tremendous blow to Grand Duke Nicholas and the others.

If things continued like this, they feared they would have no chance of winning the battle.

This was completely different from what they had originally envisioned.

"Your Highness, I'm afraid we must abandon the siege of the rebels under Brusilov and return to reinforce Moscow. The Moscow garrison alone cannot possibly withstand the rebels' main force. If Moscow falls, the consequences will be too dreadful to contemplate," General Nikolai Obruchev reminded him.