Five days passed in the blink of an eye.
On the morning of August 18, Wang Zhong stood at the ceremony preparation area, looking at the grand scene outside. Suddenly, he found his mind was a blank and quickly pulled out his speech to glance over it.
Seeing this, Ludmila spoke in a soft, soothing voice, “Don’t worry, your speech last night was excellent. There won’t be any problems today.”
Wang Zhong: “Hmm, I’m just taking a look.”
Ludmila: “Relax, there will be staff holding cue cards in front of you. That’s the whole point of you rehearsing the speech! Keep calm. Now, let’s head to the spectator stands.”
Ludmila had not yet married Wang Zhong, so she was not yet a duchess and could not accompany him at such events. Instead, she joined Nelly in heading to the nearby spectator stands, thanks to a special invitation from the Royal Family.
Wang Zhong nodded and then watched the two as they made their way to the spectator stands.
Now only his guard Grigori and the staff of the ceremony remained with him at the preparation area.
The Royal Family’s grandstand was still empty, and Wang Zhong could hear generals and marshals in the distance gossiping: “Will His Majesty show up today?”
“If he doesn’t, it will be troublesome. The Crown Princess seems to have grown close to the church because of her dealings with Rocossov, thereby growing closer to the church as well.”
“With the current situation, we can’t win without the support of the church. The Royal Family needs to rally… I can’t even bear to think about it.”
“On a brighter note, the Crown Prince’s sacrifice has actually boosted the Royal Family’s influence among the populace, and incidentally allowed Argesukov’s heavy forces to hold the line until now.”
“If only more troops could have been rescued. If we could have formed a fully structured group from those trapped, we could claim victory.”
Wang Zhong originally focused on his speech, but the chatter of the generals caught his attention.
Listening to their conversation, he subconsciously glanced at the church’s main ceremony stand that appeared to be intentionally opposing the Royal Family’s—it was situated right across Ye Fort’s widest avenue, facing the Royal Family’s grandstand.
Argesukov’s logistics were almost completely cut off now, with less than ten kilometers between the two armored clusters of the Prussians left fortified. The enemy had not attacked because both armored groups had run for hundreds of kilometers and needed to stop for repairs.
And though ten kilometers seemed like a wide gap, it was actually sealed by the artillery and air force, making it impossible for troops to pass through.
The enemy had effectively completed their encirclement; it was just a matter of when the Prosen Empire would declare victory.
The confirmed troops within the encirclement accounted for eight hundred thousand by formation, but most had been fighting fiercely and suffered heavy losses. In reality, probably only five hundred thousand were fit for combat, many of them wounded.
Even though the Southwest Front Army had dispersed their staff officers and destroyed codebooks, they were still broadcasting in clear text via radio, reporting the situation daily and proudly proclaiming, “The Southwest Front Army is still fighting.”
It was said that this clear text broadcasting prevented the Prosen Empire’s propaganda department from declaring victory.
Wang Zhong looked down at the speech in his hand.
Ivan, did you predict from the start that your sacrifice would have this kind of impact?
Wang Zhong didn’t know the Crown Prince very well, after all, he had only known him for such a short time. Probably for the rest of his life, he would keep recalling the Crown Prince’s smile, speculating about what he had foreseen.
If the persistently resistant Southwest Front Army could drag the enemy’s main force into the mud upon its arrival, then the pressure on the front would be greatly reduced.
In that case, the enemy might be able to spend a well-supplied winter without too many freezing to death at the hands of General Winter, which would make the war next year even more brutal.
But with the current situation, any chance to catch their breath was a good thing for Ante.
Once the factories moved to the east were up and running again, and the newly conscripted soldiers had completed their training, the elite Prosen forces might find themselves facing a number of Ante Army multiple times their size.
As Wang Zhong was thinking about all this, someone cleared their throat behind him.
It was a crisp male voice.
Assuming it was an official related to the ceremony there to finalize details with him, he began to speak while turning around: “I have memorized the speech, just going over it a little…”
Wang Zhong stopped because he saw a military uniform completely different from those of Ante and Prosen.
However, the rank was an oak leaf, and Wang Zhong happened to know of a country that used oak leaves for military ranks.
In that country, a gold oak leaf was for a Major, a silver oak leaf for a Lieutenant Colonel, and a Colonel was represented by an eagle emblem.
The young man should be a Lieutenant Colonel.
Wang Zhong: “Who might you be?”
“Military Attaché John Vick from the Federation’s embassy, General Rokossovsky.” The newcomer saluted Wang Zhong first before extending his hand.
Wang Zhong shook his hand: “Hello, what can I do for you?”
“I heard that you once made an assessment of the war situation at a young officers’ sharing session.” Apologizing for his forthrightness, Lieutenant Colonel John wore a sincere expression as he said, “The Federation is deeply concerned about this matter; it relates to a top-secret negotiation currently underway, and a bill under discussion in Congress.”
Wang Zhong: “The Lend-Lease Act, is that it?”
Lieutenant Colonel John’s eyelid twitched: “You know of it…”
Wang Zhong then realized he’d been too quick to speak, as theoretically, he shouldn’t be aware of the Lend-Lease Act at this point. So, he started blustering: “The United Kingdom is already aware of it, and if the United Kingdom knows, that’s as good as us knowing.”
Lieutenant Colonel John laughed: “As long as Rabowell doesn’t know, it’s fine.”
While Wang Zhong heard the name Rabowell for the first time, he was well aware of the infamy of the Sturmtiger’s intelligence agency Abwehr from the other side of the Earth, notorious for its incompetence, having made an indelible contribution to the world’s anti-FXS cause.