Chapter 197: On Which Bureaucratic Technique Is Stronger
Chapter 194: On Which Bureaucratic Technique Is Strongest
The Balkan Peninsula war flames ignited again, this time the General Assembly War is the largest ever in the European continent, in more than four hundred kilometers of front on both sides of the total forces invested in more than a million.
The battle, destined to go down in history, unfolded comically. The Russians, the initiators of the battle, should have taken advantage of the poor preparation of the Allied forces, and should even have won the battle outright.
The reality was tragic, and the Russians, as the initiators of the attack, were in disarray.
Artillery regiment commander Preston angrily cursed: “Hell, we are artillery, you actually sent me a bunch of bullets, do you want me to feed bullets to the cannon?”
The officer delivering the supplies replied mechanically, “I’m sorry Mr. Colonel this is an order from above, if there are any problems please contact your command, now please sign for the supplies.”
Preston’s artillery regiment had just arrived, the infantry regiment that was originally stationed here had moved forward, but the logistics department was still distributing supplies according to the original plan.
Preston frowned and replied, “We responded to the top, Mr. Major. Right now, these supplies, I’m not even using them when I bring them in, so you might as well pull them back!”
The major officer said seriously, “No Your Excellency, the order I received was to deliver this supplies here to the garrison, please make sure you sign for it.
As for what to do with these supplies, you can do it yourself, it’s fine to get rid of them privately, it’s fine to find a place to throw them away, and just report them as battle damage directly after the battle.
These supplies are the next week’s supply for an infantry regiment, and there are quite a few goodies in there, Colonel you won’t lose out.”
After hesitating for a moment’s effort, Preston still signed his big name, the money sent to the door is not earned for nothing.
The artillery was the Commandant’s baby anyway, unlike the worthless gray animals, a report would go up and their supplies would still come down.
……
The main Russian force for this meeting was split in two, with Fitzroy Somerset leading four infantry divisions, two artillery regiments, and a cavalry regiment totaling more than seventy-three thousand men in an attack on the Sofia region.
The battlefield was ever-changing, with frequent troop movements, and the logistical system just couldn’t keep up. Unlike the previous battle, it was in the Danube basin, and it was easy to resupply, and even if you got it wrong, you could quickly adjust.
Now it’s different, the battle line has advanced two hundred kilometers, the logistics supplies will take several days to transport over, no telegraph can only rely on the messenger notification, the Quartermaster General’s Office received the news often lagged behind.
This was the time when the mechanical Russian bureaucracy came into play, and the officers who transported the logistical supplies, had to deliver them to their designated locations.
Then, even if the original unit was no longer there, they had to hand over the supplies. Things like Colonel Preston’s artillery receiving infantry supplies were not an exception.
Fitzroy Somerset was a good general, he had to take care of such things, how can you fight a war without solving the logistical problems?
“Order the Logistics Department to increase the supply of supplies to frontline troops to one month, and in the future, supplies will not be at a fixed location, but must be handed over to the troops in which they are located.
The troops under the division level are not being transported separately, all of them will be sent to the division headquarters to unify the distribution of supplies, artillery regiments and cavalry regiments will be sent directly from the headquarters.”
A middle-aged officer cautioned, “Your Excellency, Chief of Staff, this is not in keeping with the rules, and I’m afraid it will ……”
Fitzroy Somerset shook his head and said, “Don’t worry, I’ll explain this issue to the country. For now send someone to contact Commander Mareshkov, I believe he has encountered the same problem.”
……
Changing the mode of logistical supply, the Russian army’s logistical supply chaos was finally barely solved. Of course the supplies that were transported and lost in front of them would definitely not be recovered, all of them were counted as battle damage taken care of.
The Battle of Sofia has started, the Russian army is just thirty kilometers away from Sofia, and both sides have already started to exchange fire.
Sofia allied forces command, Montes asked: “enemy strength reconnaissance is clear?”
“Your Excellency the Commander, it’s been figured out. The Russian army has deployed four infantry divisions, two artillery regiments, and one cavalry regiment, totaling 73,000 men.
On top of that, there are about 20,000 Bulgarian partisans. But they seem to have had a disagreement with the Russians and are not moving together.”
It was an Ottoman officer who replied back, and it was natural for them, the lowly snakes, to do the scouting of the enemy. If they sent British soldiers out, they wouldn’t know how to come back if they got lost in the language barrier.
Montes said calmly, “Our reinforcements will arrive tomorrow night, order the troops not to rush to engage the enemy, leave a small number of troops to hold back the enemy’s marching speed.
Except for a few important strongholds that must be held on to, the rest of them will be withdrawn back, and we will fight the enemy after the reinforcements have arrived.”
Not calmly can not, Monteith is considered one of the few “old generals” in the British army, once commanded a battalion of troops, suppressed hundreds of people colonial rebellion.
There is no way, who let the British Empire in the last decade or so, the people are safe and secure? There is no major war, the British Army in addition to suppressing the Irish mob, it can only go to bully the colonial natives.
The largest battles also stayed at the regimental level. It was not often that a high-ranking general like Monteith went to war, so he became the commander of the British Expeditionary Force.
If you don’t have experience, you can learn, now Montes is doing very well, exactly according to the requirements of the Art of War, even if you can’t take advantage, you can’t suffer big losses.
……
Evening.
In a camp, soldiers gathered in twos and threes to look up at the stars.
A man with a Genoese accent asked, “Arturo, what do you think the country is trying to do by sending us up to the Balkans to fight the Russians?”
Arturo said unconcernedly, “Didn’t those lords say that they were fighting the Russians this time for revenge, and it was said that the Russians supported Austria in the last Austro-Saxon war, and now they are still allies.
Aonzo, why do you ask this? We are all trying to make a living, and who would come here to suffer if we could find work at home!”
“No, just asking casually. I always feel like there’s something wrong here, having us run to the Balkans to fight the Russians for no reason is not normal by any stretch of the imagination.
Even if we want to take revenge, it’s the noble lords and capitalists who need to take revenge, we poor sticks have nothing to lose, so why do we need to come over?” Aonzo shook his head and said
Doubtful as they were, they were uneducated and couldn’t think of that much. They all joined the army to make a living.
“I said what are you guys talking about, hurry up and get your food for tomorrow and take care of yourselves if you miss it.”
A familiar voice came, the two stopped talking and ran over to line up for the provisions as fast as they could.
After collecting the food, Aonzo’s face hardened and he complained, “Damn Brits, do they like corned beef and hard cookies that much?
They don’t even give us a piece of bread, it’s an inhuman life. They’re deliberately mistreating us, and I’m afraid these provisions are no better than the Ottomans!”
In this war, the Sardinian army’s expenses were all covered by the British, and logistical supplies were naturally taken care of by the British.
Deliberate abuse can not be talked about, the British soldiers’ sustenance is the same as theirs. It was a uniform standard of 2 pounds of corned beef and three hard cookies per person per day, and then nothing more. (1 pound equals 0.4536 kilograms)
Not to mention vegetables and fruits, not even a piece of brown bread. The British didn’t do this to save money, if you consider the cost, beef is not cheap, and much cheaper if you replace it with black bread.
The reason for this fiasco was – bureaucracy. The bureaucrats in the British Quartermaster General’s Office decided that salted beef jerky was easy to transport and then ass-kissed it and it became the British Army’s supply in this war.
On the face of it, it’s not a bad meal when you get beef every day. If you switch to beef jerky, or eat it every day, the feeling is not so wonderful, the first test is whether the teeth can stand it.
Not only is the beef hard, issued cookies even harder, this may be the earliest compressed cookies. If you don’t put it in the water to bubble, if you can bite it, it’s iron teeth.
This kind of food, for Italians who are looking for delicious food, is simply disastrous.
Even if the Kingdom of Sardinia was poor, their army never saved money on food, and the food grade was much higher than the British.
“Aonzo don’t complain, if the Ottomans know about it, they don’t mind switching with you, are you really willing to switch with them?” Arturo said smilingly
Happiness comes out of comparison, the food provided by the English is difficult to eat at best, at least you don’t have to worry about going hungry.
These beef jerky can also be processed twice, and if you have the conditions, you can get some vegetables over and put them together to cook, and you don’t even need to put salt.
The Ottoman army’s supplies are the ones that really suck, as well as the ones that are asked to bring their own certain dry food to the battlefield. What kind of food can be received all depends on luck, eat to seven or eight minutes full even if it is a good time.
Because of the relationship between the daily food pay, Ottoman bureaucrats also have a good habit of discounting according to the rules, if a unit does not have a shortage, then the tragic preparation of the whole army to starve.
Aonzo shook his head and said, “Count me out, but the Brits’ logistics officers should really be shot, I’ll bet the number of soldiers who die by their sins is definitely more than those who die on the battlefield.”
Arturo smiled and said, “I don’t know about that, maybe the Brits have a different stomach than us and they can stand it.
Enough of this, we remembered that during the daytime, you also pulled a few vegetables, I still have two potatoes here, tomorrow mixed with beef jerky and stewed, let’s make do with what we have!”
The two of them looked at each other and smiled, even if the standard of logistical supplies was low, the Italians could still utilize their talent to improve the meals as much as possible under the limited conditions.
In this respect, the Sardinian army also contributed. Their arrival directly improved the quality of life of the British army and reduced the number of scurvy patients among British soldiers.
The British soldiers who traveled with them quickly learned these excellent lessons and spread them as fast as they could. In the past, they went out to simply loot their belongings, which was just too wasteful.
Now that everyone has learned to be more skillful, the crops in the ground, the cattle and sheep on the hillside, can all be turned into trophies. Many soldiers even learned to pickle food and utilize all conditions to store food.
The immediate aftermath of this was that the marching speed dropped greatly and the military discipline became more lax. With the Sardinian army’s group of veterans in place, no matter how the officer orders, they are all doing what they should do.
The law is not responsible for the masses, facing a group of big-headed soldiers standing in a unified position, the officers did not dare to do anything to them.
By the way, it also brought bad luck to the British, everyone discovered the power of unity. As long as they were united, the officers wouldn’t dare to touch them.
The final arrival in Sofia was a full two days later than Monteith had expected. In this battlefield where time is like life, two days are enough to change things.
The most direct thing is that the Russian army has pressed up, and the surrounding strongholds have now fallen to the ground because of the lack of troops, and Montes didn’t dare to spare too many troops to garrison them.
The delayed arrival of reinforcements, the allied forces have lost the best opportunity to fight, wanting to take advantage of the Russian army’s foothold to launch a counterattack, it is now too late.
Montes angrily growled, “You bunch of fools, such a small distance has been delayed for two days, are you on a road trip? Do you know what military law is?”
Major General Mantua of the Sardinian army lied in a serious manner, “Your Excellency the Commander, we were sneak attacked by guerrillas on the road, and it also caused dozens of casualties to us, so we delayed in order to exterminate the guerrillas.”
Everyone is not a fool, in order to avoid military justice the crowd has said, is encountered a guerrilla attack, the wounded is the proof.
“The guerrillas are so rampant, you have so many troops and they dare to sneak attack?” Montes asked suspiciously
Mantua had a bright idea and said, “Your Excellency the Commander, the guerrillas are very cunning, they don’t fight us head on, they just sneak attack in the dark.
They dig traps on the road and release cold arrows at night, they are very difficult to deal with and are quite numerous. In order to prevent these people from cutting off our army’s back roads, we just eliminated them.”
He wasn’t just talking nonsense, there were really soldiers who fell into traps, only that they accidentally fell when they went to the mountains to look for prey. Putting cold arrows also existed, again it was only when they met Ottoman hunters in the mountains that they were hit.
This kind of lying face does not change color of the senior talent, Montes or the first time to encounter, the British officers are still more honest, and Italian officers are completely two concepts.
Mantua is not the first time to do it, when they followed Marshal Badolio to mix, they have collectively deceived the country, and now fooling a little bit of not much experience Monteith naturally has no pressure.
Montes coldly shouted, “Hmph!”
Then splitting his head, he scolded, “Even if that’s the case, you guys shouldn’t have delayed for so long. Wouldn’t you have left a small force to surround the guerrillas and rushed over with your main force?
Do you know how much loss our army has incurred due to your delay, and how much you’ve missed the best opportunity for a counterattack!”
But at this time he didn’t mention military justice, and the crowd couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. Mantua didn’t continue to defend himself either, what’s the point of being scolded, it’s not like there’s going to be a piece of meat missing.
After the failure of Ossa’s war, there were not many generals in Sardinia who were able to retain the title of general, and Mantua was able to become one of them, not because he was able to fight, in fact, his military ability was very limited.
His greatest ability was his ability to speak well and read people’s mind, he put all the blame on others, and he stood on the side of the king at the first time and gained the trust, so that he had the opportunity to rise again this time.
(End of chapter)