My soldiers are all Fourth Calamities!

04. Head to the most dangerous trenches

Rochester led the players forward and soon arrived at a trench, or more accurately, a battle line. The trench had already been destroyed, leaving only a flexible battle line, which was in no condition to organize any positional warfare.

Teams of people set up positions and rebuilt defensive fortifications in various places.

Suddenly, a powerful and resonant voice reached Rochester's ears.

"Comrades, let's have an open-air meeting!"

"Going to a meeting!"

"Hey, gather together, brothers!"

Rochester was naturally among them. As expected, this was a pre-battle meeting. Commander Sokolov gestured for Rochester to follow.

Prior to this, Rochester issued a new instruction to the players: "Wait for your Commander Rochester to complete the meeting."

[Attention! Any violation of military regulations is strictly prohibited; otherwise, respawn will be restricted.]

To prevent players from doing anything terribly wrong while he was away, Rochester added another precaution.

Then, he jogged off to attend the conference.

The sea of ​​people expanded with the increasingly noisy noise, and all the scenery was submerged in this huge, all-encompassing group of soldiers. Some wore tall hats with long hair, some wore dirty Russian military caps, some even wore felt hats, and some were shirtless. Some of them were much taller than the people around them.

They also wore some rudimentary powered armor.

The regimental commander, battalion commander, company commander, chief of staff—all the officers in this unit have gathered here. Who are these people?

Some were soldiers from the Tsarist era who rose to become officers and chose to support the new regime, like Rochester. Others were ordinary people from various towns; they might have originally been carpenters, fishermen, or sailors. These were the leaders of the Red Army squads they organized in their own villages. Still others were former officers who came to join the revolution.

Meanwhile, Commander Sokolov, who had gone to Rochester first, had climbed to the highest point in the area, holding a huge hammer in his hand, along with his somewhat rudimentary red power armor.

For a moment, Rochester almost hallucinated as Astartes.

Commander Sokolov shouted in his booming voice to everyone:

"Comrades!"

Before these millions of faces, his voice seemed insignificant. Countless basic commanders stood before him, yet they unleashed their boundless fury upon him.

"screw you!"

"Fuck you!"

"You old codger who wore epaulets!"

(PS: Tsarist officers all wore gold-rimmed shoulder boards, so saying that someone wore shoulder boards means that they served as a White Army officer.)

"Sokolov, you bastard!"

Countless arms rose like a forest in the sea of ​​people, venting their discontent at Sokolov.

Commander Sokolov seemed exhausted. He shouted wearily, "Wait, wait a minute, everyone wait a minute, let's discuss...the situation first..."

Fuck you!

The insults drowned out Sokolov's lonely voice.

But soon, the insults were no longer directed at the warriors.

From the crowd, a withered woman's hand reached out. "We won't listen. Tell me, where are my cow and my two bulls?"

Another wave of angry shouts arose from the crowd; they seemed to be ignoring everyone else and only concerned with shouting for themselves!

"It's all Sokolov's fault! You've ruined everything, you bastard! You've fooled us all! We all had homes and businesses, but now we're like stray dogs, wandering the steppe!"

"We know you brought us here!"

Rochester was somewhat surprised by the scene, but he could understand it.

At that time, the quality of the Red Witt Union's army was extremely poor. In the early stages of the Civil War, a volunteer system was implemented, with most people joining voluntarily. The recruits were mostly workers and poor farmers.

However, as the scale of the civil war expanded, the volunteer military system could no longer meet the needs of the war, and it even reached the point where the entire population was enlisted in the army.

In addition, there was a large number of deserters at that time.

It's quite normal for the military to lack convictions these days; most people are there for personal gain.

After all, who would be willing to risk their life to join another war on this land after experiencing World War I?

Sokolov paused for a moment, and after the room quieted down, he continued, "Brothers, you all know me. We've shed blood together. You elected me as commander, and I'm sorry for that. But if we're like this now, we're really doomed."

To our west lies a coalition of forces formed by the "Vistula Federation" and the "Provisional Cossack Government".

To the east is the "Makhno Black Army"!

To the north are those "remnants of the Tsar's faction"!

We are surrounded by danger on all sides; we cannot afford to waste even the slightest moment.

"But haven't you ever worn shoulder insignia?!" a soldier yelled at Sokolov.

"Am I supposed to go find shoulder insignia to wear? Many of you are brothers who fought in wars. We were fighting on the front lines when those officers strangled us. Am I not one of your people? Am I not just like everyone else, like cattle and sheep, slaughtered and suffering endless hardships?"

silence...

"Alright, everyone, go prepare the defensive fortifications!" Someone shouted this, and the soldiers scattered in a flurry.

Rochester didn't say anything. He planned to ask Commander Sokolov for some men, but a message suddenly came that he didn't have time to select any.

"The enemy's canned goods are here! The enemy's canned goods are here! Area D13! And there's...and...cough cough cough, a 'Knight,' a few dozen versts away."

Rochester hurriedly ran back to his players' location, set up a new respawn point, and began issuing quests.

The players quickly received a quest.

[Urgent Mission: Hold Trench D13.]

Merit points are allocated based on the percentage of contribution.

Rochester also had a new idea: the players needed to compete, and those who worked harder would be rewarded more.

Rochester also opened the reputation shop and began to ponder. According to the intelligence, the other side had a "Knight," and since he was singled out, he definitely needed to be careful...

It's definitely much harder to deal with than canned food.

With a thought, the reputation shop appeared before him, mostly containing common weapons, but there weren't many items available at the moment—and most of them were unaffordable.

Anton ran over to Rochester and whispered, "Commander Rochester, the company commanders of the neighboring companies have been killed in action. They still have some soldiers. Should we incorporate them into our company?"

Upon hearing this news, Rochester was overjoyed; this was good news! He patted Anton on the shoulder, "Great, bring them all. Are they all new recruits?"

Anton nodded. "More than twenty people."

"If they're willing, bring them into the army; if not, forget it," Rochester pondered for a moment. "Remember to tell them the truth: we need to defend the front lines, the most dangerous positions."

"Okay!" After receiving Rochester's message, Anton hurriedly ran to the other end of the trench.