Chapter 105
Coming out from the Duke's study, Wang Zhong let out a long breath*the matter of the replacement troops had been resolved*or rather, partially resolved. What remained to worry about was the massive encirclement.
If he couldn't influence the decisions, then at least he had to bring more troops out.
As Wang Zhong was thinking about this, Lyudmila came up and pulled him over to the terrace next to the Duke's study: "You, always frowning all day long*since these are things we can't solve right now, let's first do what we can."
"Mm." Wang Zhong responded absentmindedly and looked out at the view from the terrace.
At this moment, Petro said, "Then I won't disturb you two. I still have work at the headquarters."
"Goodbye." Lyudmila waved, then poked Wang Zhong in the waist.
"Goodbye," Wang Zhong said.
After Petro left, Lyudmila asked seriously, "Is it really that dangerous? The Crown Prince said we have seven hundred thousand men*even if they were seven hundred thousand pigs, the Prossenians couldn't catch them all that fast."
When Wang Zhong heard this, his mood sank to rock bottom, because in his memory, the last unit rated as "even if it were XX pigs, you couldn't catch them all in XX days" had been completely annihilated.
Seeing Wang Zhong's expression, Lyudmila suddenly said, "Come on, let's go horseback riding! You haven't galloped around the estate in a long time, have you?"
Wang Zhong: "Horseback riding?"
"Yes, your second favorite activity back then."
...It always felt like asking about the first favorite activity was completely unnecessary.
Wang Zhong: "Alright, just right*I need to check the surrounding terrain, look for places suitable for setting up anti-tank gun positions."
Lyudmila blinked but still smiled: "That works too! Then I'll help you figure out where to station the Divine Arrow company!"
Wang Zhong turned his head to look at the girl, and felt all the goodness radiating from her.
Wait a second*how did the Duke address her just now?
Wang Zhong: "Oh, Lyuda, my dear Lyuda, my sunshine and spring blossom!"
Lyudmila beamed with joy.
****
Like the others, Vasily came to the mess hall after tidying up the dormitory*meal service had already begun.
The moment he stepped through the main door, Vasily smelled a strong aroma: "Oh oh, smells like cabbage stew! Fantastic, finally some vegetables other than pickles."
Filippov: "And finally some meat other than canned luncheon meat!"
Vasily: "No way*you think the Duke would use real beef to make stew? It's definitely sausages! At most, sausages made in his own factory!"
Dimitri turned his head and asked, "You don't like sausages?"
"Huh? Of course I do*25% beef, 70% pork, plus five kilos of eggs and milk! I like sausages so much I can recite the recipe!" Vasily shook his head, "But eating it all the time gets boring!"
Just then, the people further ahead in line reached the soup pot, and the maid serving the meal scooped a big ladle of thoroughly stewed beef into the bowl.
The soldier receiving the bowl exclaimed, "Whoa, it really is beef! And plenty of onions and carrots too! The soup's so thick there's barely any water left!"
The maid had a "What's this country bumpkin so surprised about?" look and asked, "Want sour cream with that?"
"You can add sour cream? Go ahead, lots of it!"
So another maid plopped a big spoonful of thick sour cream into the soldier's soup bowl.
The young man walked away grinning, not even bothering to take bread or oatmeal porridge.
Vasily and the others watched their comrade walking past, all eyes fixed on that bowl of obviously delicious soup.
Vasily: "Good grief, they really did slaughter a cow."
Filippov: "And sour cream too!"
At that moment, three other maids came in together, pushing a flatcar carrying another massive soup pot.
The soup inside was a thick red broth.
Filippov nudged Vasily: "You're the professor's son*what soup is that? Smells weirdly good."
Vasily said uncertainly, "Looks like Kolkhida-style chicken stew."
Filippov: "Oh, the beef is tempting, but I've had cabbage soup a thousand times since I was born*I'm going to try that chicken!"
So Filippov happily followed the food cart. Once there, he was the first to get served: "Fill it up for me! And I want sour cream too!"
Maid: "Uh, that's not usually how we eat this. But fine*Katya! This soldier wants sour cream!"
As she spoke, the serving maid had already ladled a big scoop of soup into Filippov's bowl, then fished out a big chunk of chicken and placed it in the soup.
Filippov sniffed hard, then instantly showed a blissful expression: "So fragrant*my mouth is watering!"
Vasily frowned as he looked at his friend: "Shameless. It's just chicken, onion, and tomato soup! They even added vinegar*sour soup with sour cream? You'll die of sourness!"
As he was expressing his disdain, Dimitri suddenly grabbed him: "Look over there!"
Vasily turned his head and followed Dimitri's finger*he saw an ice cream machine.
"Wow!" He ran over excitedly, "Is this free?"
Maid: "Of course, it's all courtesy of the Duke for your heroic efforts."
Vasily declared without hesitation: "Give me ten!"
The maid immediately began operating the machine, and soon the first cone of ice cream was in Vasily's hand.
He licked the ice cream happily, like a delighted child.
Then the maid making the ice cream said, "You all must've had it rough*with so few of you left, the Count must've really screwed you over, huh?"
Vasily stopped licking his ice cream.
In fact, the whole mess hall suddenly fell silent*a lot of people didn't know what had happened, but those who did held down those who didn't.
The ice cream maid asked in confusion: "Uh? What's wrong?"
"I won't allow you to insult the General!" Vasily said firmly.
At that moment, a priest came over: "Vasily! Alright now! She just doesn't know what we've been through*just explain it to her, okay? We're Guardsmen*look at your Guards cloak. Even if you're angry, talk nicely to the civilians!"
Vasily put down the half-licked ice cream: "Then I'll tell you all! Let's start with the General ordering us to set up a fake minefield!"
Someone joked: "Shouldn't you start with when you were shoveling manure?"
Then seven or eight hands pressed down on the one who interrupted.
"Alright, alright! My bad, shouldn't have interrupted just now!" he surrendered immediately.
"These Prossenian devils," Vasily began, "are super rigid! The General had already clashed with them at Upper Peniye and destroyed 40 tanks! So he knew they were all inflexible idiots! That's why the General ordered me to write 40 warning signs on wooden boards that said: 'Minefield, beware!'"
You could say, as the son of a music professor, Vasily did have some talent*with saliva flying, the tale of General Rokosov's battle against the evil 15th Armored Division came vividly to life.
But when he mentioned how the booby traps he buried under the signs launched enemies several meters into the air, someone couldn't sit still anymore.
"You're just bragging about yourself, aren't you? I know for a fact*you were guarding the enemy's captured radios for two whole days!"
Vasily: "I guarded the radios, which means I was closest to the General and knew every decision!"
"Yeah, right! Our tank units were the closest to the General! Alexander Yefimovich, tell us the story about how the General personally led you into battle and killed the enemy Major General commander!"
Alexander quickly wiped the remaining soup from his bowl with bread, stuffed it into his mouth, then stood up while chewing: "That story? Gotta start with our tank! Our tank was originally designed for rich boys to go sightseeing*specially fitted with a spot just to enjoy the view.
"Guess what*the General said it was great! That spot made battlefield observation convenient! So during battle, the General stuck his head out the whole time*enemy bullets were flying, banging against the tank's armor, and the General wasn't scared at all!
"We charged through the enemy's armored units*suddenly the General shouted: 'Turn left! Charge ahead!'
"I was aiming through the sight at a Prossenian tank, and the vehicle turned*what I saw through the sight flipped upside down! Lo and behold, the enemy commander was right in the crosshairs!
"The General shouted 'Fire!' and I fired*the high-explosive round landed right under the enemy Major General's feet! Boom*he blew to pieces!"
Everyone exclaimed in awe, as if hearing such an epic tale for the first time.
Then someone picked up a glass of champagne: "A toast to the General!"
"To the General!"
"We follow no one but him!"
As the men were stirred with emotion, the maids exchanged glances in disbelief*was this really the same Alyosha everyone used to hate?
Then Vasily said, "The General also writes poetry!"
At that moment, the head maid, who had been standing with arms crossed, couldn't hold it anymore and shouted, "Oh, we girls know all about that*any maid here with the slightest looks has received one of the Young Master's sonnets!"
A maid burst out laughing*seemed like the sonnets were so terrible that just thinking about them made people laugh.
Vasily pulled out a notebook: "Hmph, let me read one to you! Though the poem had tons of grammar mistakes, the content was solid! After my revisions and polishing, it goes like this:
"'The smoke rolls, singing of heroes, green mountains on all sides lend their ears...' (Here, Vasily recited a re-rhymed version in Ant language)"
The Rokosov family maids weren't complete illiterates*at the very least, they had attended Sunday school, and the younger ones had gone up to tenth grade in the church-established common school.
They could tell the quality of that poem.
The maids looked at each other.
Was this really the same Alexei Konstantinovich Rokosov they knew?
(End of Chapter)