Chapter 195: Lelouch's Triangle Kill

The next morning, at the 9th Army headquarters in Kharkiv, Cavalry General Yakov Grigoryevich Zhilinsky jolted awake with heavy, dark circles under his eyes.

General Zhilinsky was a veteran commander in the Lusha military. He had already held the rank of general when the war first broke out. Between August and October of 1914, he had even commanded the Western Front, consisting of Lusha's most elite 1st and 2nd Armies.

During that brief three-month tenure, however, General Zhilinsky suffered two disastrous defeats at the Battle of Tannenberg and the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes. His forces were utterly crushed by Field Marshal Hindenburg and Chief of Staff Ludendorff, resulting in the annihilation of 400,000 men.

Subsequently, he was stripped of his front and army-level commands. The Tsar reassigned him to Francia as a liaison officer for Lusha-Francia army cooperation—essentially a cushy, idle post as a diplomatic military attaché.

He was only recalled because the recent war situation had grown so critical; the Tsar had rebuilt many new armies but lacked capable commanders. Thus, Zhilinsky was fished out of Francia and appointed to the front lines as commander of the newly reconstructed 9th Army.

This decision also factored in his background as an old-school cavalry general. The forces surrounding Kharkiv included a large number of Cossack cavalry divisions, which required a commander with his specific expertise.

Who could have known his luck would be so terrible? Barely had he been reinstated when he was hit by a full-scale offensive from Field Marshal Rupprecht's German 6th Army, spearheaded by Lelouch's "Greater Demania" Panzer Lehr Division.

The entire day of fighting yesterday had left the Lusha forces completely bewildered. Before going to sleep last night, General Zhilinsky did not even know how far the enemy had broken through. Drawing on his past experience, he tried to contact several corps and divisional headquarters at the front via radio, but reached no one.

This fueled his severe insomnia. He tossed and turned, only falling asleep in the early hours of the morning. Exhausted, he overslept and didn't wake until past nine.

"Where is the enemy? Have we made contact with the 25th Corps in Karlivka and the 47th Division in Virivka? Why didn't you wake me earlier?"

His tone was incredibly harsh as he rebuked his adjutant and staff officers for letting him sleep.

Swallowing the reprimand, the adjutant carefully replied, "There still hasn't been any response, which is why we didn't wake you..."

General Zhilinsky grew so anxious he was bordering on neurotic. "How is that possible? Why aren't even these rear garrisons responding?! Just how far has the enemy advanced? Karlivka is already 50 kilometers from the front, and Virivka is 80 kilometers away! Can the enemy fly? Do they fly day and night without stopping?!"

Unfortunately, no one could answer him. For the entire morning, the army headquarters in Kharkiv remained in total chaos.

General Zhilinsky could only rely on his past experience, dispatching reinforcements from the left and right flanks in Poltava and Shevchenkove toward Karlivka and Virivka. He fully believed these reinforcements would be able to assist the defenders stationed along the railway.

But it wasn't until 10:30 a.m. that a return telegram from the direction of Virivka finally reached headquarters.

The Lusha Army's telegrams were still sent in plain text, which saved the telegraph operators a lot of deciphering. Once the message was transcribed, a staff officer rushed frantically to General Zhilinsky.

"Commander! Urgent telegram from Virivka!"

General Zhilinsky felt his heart skip a few violent beats. "An urgent telegram from Virivka? Does that mean Karlivka has already fallen? Why is that idiot Patrov only replying now! What the hell was he doing last night!"

The staff officer replied, "This telegram wasn't sent by Brigadier General Patrov, the commander of the 47th Division in Virivka... He didn't have time to send a telegram before his forces were wiped out last night. This was sent by the vanguard units of the 26th Corps, who just arrived near Virivka this morning.

"Last night, you ordered the 26th Corps stationed around Poltava to dispatch units close to Karlivka and Virivka to reinforce their defenses... Lieutenant General Sergeyev, commander of the 26th Corps, executed the order immediately and sent troops eastward on a forced night march.

"But when they arrived at Virivka this morning, they found the town had already been captured by the Demanian Army. They were counterattacked by the enemy garrisoning Virivka, hit by an artillery barrage while still in marching formation. Taking devastating casualties, they had no choice but to retreat back to Poltava..."

...

General Zhilinsky was completely dumbfounded. He nearly fainted on the spot.

How had the battle turned out like this?

General Zhilinsky stammered, "This... this is impossible! Are you saying the enemy captured Virivka within a single day and night, penetrating at least 80 kilometers into our defensive lines?!"

"To be precise, they have now penetrated at least 90 kilometers into our lines and might already be preparing to break through another town further north of Virivka," the staff officer said. "They are only 60 kilometers away from Kharkiv."

General Zhilinsky slumped into his chair as if all the strength had been drained from his body. "This... is still impossible! Even if they have those new armored vehicles, how did their artillery units keep up?

"The 26th Corps was ordered to reinforce Virivka. Didn't they just report that as they approached the town, they were countered by pre-deployed long-range heavy artillery from the enemy forces that had already captured it? That they suddenly suffered an artillery barrage while in a dense marching formation, resulting in massive casualties?

"Are you telling me the enemy's 105mm and 150mm heavy artillery can move 80 kilometers in a single day and finish redeploying at the front lines? Are you all sleepwalking?!"

The staff officer guessed, "It's possible the enemy used trucks, disregarding the cost in fuel and vehicular wear-and-tear, to forcefully drag their heavy artillery to the front lines..."

"Bullshit!" General Zhilinsky shouted. "Do you know how many trenches we dug along the railway line between Dnipro and Kharkiv?! We learned our lesson from the previous armored breakthroughs. This time, the trenches were dug right up to the edge of the railway embankment, leaving no blind spots for defense!

"If the enemy wanted to transport artillery with trucks, never mind whether they even had that many. Even if they did, could their trucks cross trench after trench? Wouldn't they have to send engineers to fill the trenches every time they encountered one? How much time would that take?!"

Although General Zhilinsky lacked command brilliance, he was still an old veteran who had spent his life in the military. His foundational knowledge was solid, and he immediately spotted the illogical aspects of the enemy's movements.

Faced with these pointed flaws, the staff officer was entirely unable to answer.

How could they possibly know that Lelouch had gathered hundreds of Half-Track Tractors solely for the purpose of transporting heavy artillery for the armored division's motorized artillery regiment?

Trenches and muddy terrain that trucks and horse-drawn carriages couldn't traverse, the Half-track Vehicles could force their way through. The only trade-off was slightly higher wear and tear.

Whether it was fuel consumption or the degradation of transmission parts, it simply did not matter.

...

Under Lelouch's wildly ferocious and rapid assault, the vanguard of the German 6th Army surged forward at breakneck speed throughout November 12 and 13.

Lelouch's own armored division covered 150 kilometers by the morning of the 14th, breaking through the defensive lines of six enemy units along the way.

However, precisely because he advanced so quickly, a minor incident occurred on the afternoon of the 14th. The armored division directly commanded by Lelouch was naturally invincible to the enemy, but because he rushed ahead so fast, the trailing infantry units simply couldn't keep up.

Around 4:00 p.m. on the 14th, Rokytne, a small town along the railway line over 20 kilometers behind Lelouch, was eventually flanked and recaptured by two Cossack cavalry divisions of the Lusha Army.

That town was situated about 30 kilometers south-southwest of Kharkiv. After retaking it, the Lusha forces were briefly reinvigorated.

Lelouch had no choice but to immediately turn his forces around. Around 10:00 p.m. that night, he relentlessly struck the defenders in Rokytne once again.

Since it had dragged on until 10:00 p.m., a Demanian infantry division from further in the rear—frantically marching under the strict orders of Field Marshal Rupprecht—arrived at Rokytne. They pitched in, cooperating with Lelouch to capture the town.

The battle in Rokytne ended once more around midnight. After daybreak the following morning—November 15—Lelouch finally returned to the southeastern suburbs of Kharkiv, establishing a secure bridgehead.

In other words, it ultimately took him more than three days and nights to reach the outskirts of Kharkiv, taking roughly 75 hours in total.

But this was not due to his own incompetence. He originally could have accomplished all this within 60 hours. The extra 15 hours were simply because the allied reinforcements lagging in the rear couldn't match his speed.

Even at this pace, the infantry units that managed to catch up were panting like dogs. Pushing forward 150 kilometers in 75 hours meant an average of two kilometers per hour. If they spent half of each day resting and sleeping, and the other half doing nothing but marching, they would still need to march at four kilometers an hour for three solid days without a break.

In an era where the scale of mechanized and motorized infantry units was still lacking, such an advance was absolutely grueling. Drawing from the experience of later generations on Earth, executing a mechanized blitzkrieg required at least three to five supporting mechanized or motorized infantry divisions trailing behind a single armored division to achieve a deep pincer offensive exceeding 100 kilometers.

The farther the iron pincers reached in a single thrust, the more mobile line-holding troops the "pincer arms" required.

...

Because this was their first actual combat trial, Lelouch had slightly overestimated himself. But even reaching the outskirts of Kharkiv in 75 hours was a speed that completely shattered the enemy's understanding of warfare.

The enemy's 9th Army was deployed across a vast defensive zone surrounding Kharkiv. The entire army consisted of five corps, along with several Cossack cavalry divisions and miscellaneous unattached independent divisions.

Normally, only one corps was stationed in the urban area of Kharkiv itself. Another corps was stationed in Poltava, 120 kilometers to the southwest. A third corps was deployed to the southeast in cities like Izyum, Slavyansk, and Kramatorsk, positioned between Kharkiv and the Donbas. A fourth corps guarded the critical railway lines between Kharkiv and Dnipro, while the final corps served as the general reserve.

Lelouch's rapid arrival meant that the two corps stationed in Poltava, Izyum, and elsewhere simply didn't have time to fall back and mount a defense. Meanwhile, the corps on Lelouch's direct path had already been broken through and scattered.

In the short term, General Zhilinsky could only scrape together the forces of two corps to set up defenses around the perimeter of Kharkiv.

Therefore, upon reaching the outskirts of Kharkiv, Lelouch was immediately faced with a crucial decision: how to proceed next? Should he find a way to completely encircle the city of Kharkiv? Should he create an even larger encirclement to swallow up more of the enemy forces? Or should he choose to besiege a point to strike reinforcements—trapping Kharkiv and annihilating the returning enemy troops?

If he had multiple armored divisions today, along with several times more mechanized or motorized infantry divisions, he definitely would have opted for the classic World War II blitzkrieg tactic from Earth: throwing a massive net and taking it all.

But after weighing the realities of his situation, Lelouch decided to besiege a point to strike reinforcements. He would trap the enemy inside the city, wait for his own reinforcements to steadily catch up, and then annihilate the enemy troops returning from Poltava and Izyum to defend Kharkiv.

"We don't have enough armored strength to form that minor iron pincer stretching from the Donbas to Kharkiv. The forces pushing north from the Donbas had to rely solely on a few cavalry divisions to achieve deep penetration after the initial frontline breakthrough.

"They won't have time to rush to Kharkiv along the railway from the other direction to form a massive triangular pocket—wiping out all the enemies within the Dnipro-Kharkiv-Donbas triangular railway network to execute a triangle kill.

"So we'll play it a bit safer. We will shrink the encirclement, surround Kharkiv as quickly as possible, and sever the railway connecting Kharkiv to the north. We'll also cut the railway connecting Kharkiv to the enemy forces in Poltava and Izyum.

"The enemy might still have a decently sized logistics base in Poltava, allowing the troops there to stockpile more weapons and ammunition. But those small frontline towns like Izyum and Slavyansk definitely don't have any long-term reserves. As long as we sever the railway linking them to Kharkiv, it won't be long before the enemy forces over there face severe supply shortages.

"When that happens, our offensive forces pushing north along the railway from the Donbas will be perfectly positioned to chase right on the enemies' heels. We can rout them at top speed and open up the railway. Once that is done, we can concentrate our forces and capture Kharkiv."

After weighing the options, Lelouch discussed the plan in this manner with his deputy division commander, Colonel Rommel.

Rommel knew his commanding officer was right, but he felt obliged to point out a few issues and consequences:

"This method is the safest and ensures the fastest victory. But the price is that it will be very difficult for our army to completely annihilate all the enemy garrisons within this Dnipro-Kharkiv-Donbas railway triangle.

"Because our allied forces pushing from the Donbas to Kharkiv are moving relatively slowly, it will be hard to close the encirclement in time. If the enemy wants to run, a portion of them will be able to escape."

Lelouch replied, "I'm aware of that. The net is simply too large this time. We can't be greedy and expect to catch everything. I'd rather sacrifice a bit of the catch's size to ensure the speed of closing the net.

"As long as we can close it three to five days earlier, letting a few divisions escape is acceptable. Besides, you have to consider what our past experiences have taught us. Encircling the enemy is only the first step. In our kind of deep-penetration encirclement warfare, the time required to digest the trapped enemy forces could be more than twice the time it takes to actually trap them!"

Lelouch's statement was grounded entirely in historical precedent.

Before his transmigration, he had read countless military histories. For example, during the early stages of Operation Barbarossa on Earth, the piercing encirclement of the Battle of Minsk only took five to six days, completely enclosing the enemy from June 22 to midnight on June 26, 1941. However, digesting the trapped forces took a full twelve days; it wasn't until July 9 that the entire army group inside Minsk was neutralized.

It was true that Lelouch had reached Kharkiv in 75 hours, but he only had one flank. Lacking the other, he could only execute the strategy of besieging a point to strike reinforcements, allowing a portion of the eastern enemy forces to escape.

Hearing Lelouch's analysis, Rommel couldn't help but reflect on the Battle of Zaporozhye a month and a half ago. In that battle, the Demanian armored forces had also achieved a single-point breakthrough to form an iron pincer, taking five days to close the net, but then spending eleven days digesting the trapped enemy.

That data aligned perfectly with the conclusion his commanding officer had just summarized. Rommel initially thought it was merely a coincidence, but he hadn't expected Lelouch to state with such absolute certainty that this situation would become the norm in the future.

'Is Commander Lelouch truly this adept at drawing conclusions? Why does it always feel like he only has to experience a new thing once or twice to immediately grasp the unbreakable truth from the smallest details, just like a veteran who has lived through it dozens of times? Is this what the absolute greatest genius in the world looks like?'

Rommel couldn't help but muse to himself, even beginning to doubt his own existence a little.

...

After Lelouch and Rommel reached a consensus, they immediately dispatched a telegram to Field Marshal Rupprecht in the rear.

The Field Marshal accepted his proposal, demanding that they prioritize securing results as quickly as possible. If necessary, they were permitted to allow a small portion of the enemy forces east of the breakthrough line to escape as a trade-off.

Subsequently, the entire war machine of the German 6th Army geared up to operate under this new strategy.

On the morning and late night of November 16, two corps successively arrived outside Kharkiv. They completed the encirclement of the city and severed all the railways leading out of it.

Just as anticipated, the Lusha forces in Poltava and Izyum received General Zhilinsky's orders to fall back and provide reinforcement, prompting them to move toward Kharkiv along the railway lines.

However, the routes into the city had already been cut off by the siege lines established by the Demanian Army. As a result, the Lusha forces from Poltava and Izyum couldn't charge straight in; they were forced to engage in fierce battles with the Demanians right at the siege lines.

This kind of trench warfare, involving hundreds of thousands of men on both sides, did not offer Lelouch much opportunity to showcase his brilliance. All he could do was commit his artillery regiment to the fray to contribute to the effort.

As for his precious Tanks and Half-track Vehicles, they were naturally not meant to be used in such a massive meat grinder.

The Lusha forces launched wave after wave of charges against the Demanian siege lines, only to fall in droves before the Demanian heavy machine gun positions and their dense supporting artillery fire.

The corps returning from Izyum suffered catastrophic losses. To make matters worse, Demanian pursuers from the Donbas were hot on their heels, relentlessly cutting them down. Just two days later, the Izyum corps collapsed on its own, fleeing northeast back into Belgorod territory.

Because they had allowed a portion of the enemy to escape, the mop-up operations within the great Dnipro-Kharkiv-Donbas triangle progressed incredibly fast.

The Izyum corps broke on the 18th. By November 20, not a single organized unit of Lusha resistance could be found within the great triangle; there were only scattered, fleeing stragglers from the Cossack cavalry.

As the Demanian forces pushing up from the Donbas also arrived at Kharkiv, completely securing the German rear, Lelouch immediately proposed a new suggestion to Army Group Commander Field Marshal Rupprecht:

"The siege within Kharkiv will surely last for more than a week before those corps are annihilated. We don't have the time to wait that long. It would be better to have my armored forces launch an assault first and break through the small town of Pisochyn in the western suburbs.

"That is where the Kharkiv West Railway Station is located. The railway lines from Dnipro to Kharkiv and from Poltava to Kharkiv both intersect at the West Station in this town before heading into the city proper.

"This way, we won't actually have to wait until the Kharkiv garrison is completely wiped out to attack Poltava. We can simply secure the railway leading to Poltava first, and then immediately split our forces.

"Moreover, we have a flanking force on the southern line that doesn't need to use the railway. They can march straight from Dnipro to attack Poltava on foot. Although the entire route is nearly 100 kilometers, Kharkiv's emergency has drawn a massive number of Poltava's defenders over to mount a rescue, where they were heavily battered by us. Therefore, the resistance our troops will face marching directly from Dnipro to Poltava shouldn't be too intense.

"When the time comes, with the northern route led by armored forces advancing along the railway, and the southern route marching directly on foot, we might just be able to encircle Poltava simultaneously. Then we can split our forces and surround two major cities at once, digesting both pockets of enemies in parallel to save time for the overall campaign."

After evaluating the proposal, Field Marshal Rupprecht found it viable, as Kharkiv's West Railway Station was indeed outside the main urban area. While launching a hard assault on the entire main city would be too costly—and they should whittle the enemy down before a decisive battle—attacking the western suburbs first was entirely doable.

On November 22, the tenth day after the campaign began, several divisions of the German 6th Army—primarily the units that had previously pushed from the Donbas to Kharkiv—launched a feint attack on the eastern side of Kharkiv, laying down a fierce preliminary artillery barrage to provide supporting cover.

The Lusha defenders on the eastern frontline defense zone suffered heavy casualties, and General Zhilinsky was forced to shift all his reserves to the east to plug the line.

Right as the focus of the Lusha defense shifted east, Lelouch launched a surprise attack on the western suburbs.

Because they were fighting in the suburbs and didn't have to push deep into a major city for urban warfare, the Tanks' ability to break through defensive lines proved highly effective. Within a few hours, they had carved out the small town of Pisochyn, where the Kharkiv West Station was located.

Following that, the infantry units entered the town and launched a general offensive. The several Lusha infantry regiments stationed there surrendered in despair.

Having secured the railway hub at Kharkiv West Station, the German 6th Army ignored the over a hundred thousand enemies still left inside the city and immediately repaired the railway at top speed.

Furthermore, they deployed Lelouch and Rommel, who had rested for several days, leading the armored division straight toward Poltava, 130 kilometers to the west-southwest.

At the same time, the contingent of troops that had previously advanced directly from Dnipro toward Poltava began to pick up the pace, forming the southern flanking "iron pincer" against Poltava. In fact, for infantry units that didn't require vehicles, marching directly from Dnipro to Poltava was an even shorter distance than attacking Poltava from Kharkiv.

The only reason they couldn't rely solely on this route to strike Poltava was that there was no direct railway connecting Dnipro and Poltava; they had to detour through the railway hub in Kharkiv.

But since they were now advancing along both routes simultaneously, the lack of a railway on the southern route no longer mattered. As long as they ultimately reached Poltava and linked up with the northern pincer led by Lelouch, the southern army's logistics and supplies could be replenished via the northern railway.

When two armies launch a pincer offensive, as long as a final link-up is guaranteed, it doesn't matter if one of the forces has a slightly poorer logistical route. This was another precious lesson easily summarized by anyone accustomed to blitzkrieg tactics in later eras.

Except in this timeline at the end of 1915, Lelouch was temporarily the only person who inherently knew these lessons paid for with blood, without even needing actual combat experience to deduce them. This information gap was destined to let him extract even more of an advantage over the Lusha forces.

In the end, before the city of Kharkiv was even conquered, Lelouch began mobilizing toward Poltava on November 23. He arrived at Poltava without a hitch on November 25. The cooperating troops on the southern route also reached Poltava the following day, on the 26th.

The coordination of these northern and southern forces formed yet another "railway triangle kill" encirclement, namely the "Dnipro-Kharkiv-Poltava triangle kill encirclement."

The earlier "Dnipro-Kharkiv-Donbas triangle kill encirclement" had a few flaws due to insufficient troop numbers and the demand for speed, allowing several divisions to escape.

But for this second one, Lelouch wasn't rushing quite as much.

Coupled with the fact that a portion of the enemy had fled, decreasing their overall strength and combat effectiveness, he was now capable of guaranteeing a steady digestion of the pocket without biting off more than he could chew. Thus, not a single organized enemy unit would break out this time.

Ultimately, these two tactical maneuvers of "achieving a central breakthrough, then coordinating with allied forces on the left and right flanks to construct triangular lockdown nets along the railways against the left and right enemies" were recorded in later Demanian military textbooks under the name "Lelouch's triangle kill."

"Lelouch's triangle kill" also became the very first recorded combat case of human tank blitzkrieg flanking.

After the encirclement of Poltava was completed on November 26, the garrison inside didn't last long. With the forces trapped in the pocket being small to begin with, and having been heavily massacred when ordered to rescue Kharkiv through the strategy of besieging a point to strike reinforcements, panic spread quickly, leading them to surrender by the 28th.

Before their surrender, Lelouch dispatched men to conduct psychological warfare by shouting broadcasts and dropping leaflets. During this, he played a bit with fatalism: he wrote on the leaflets that back when the Demania High Seas Fleet annihilated the Lusha Baltic Fleet in the Gulf of Riga and Hanko Peninsula, two Gangut-class battleships named after Kievan Rus cities—the Sevastopol and the Poltava—experienced sailor mutinies. The sailors spontaneously killed the Tsar's Guard overseeing them on board, then abandoned the dark for the light and joined the Demanian Navy.

Since the battleship Poltava had surrendered, why couldn't the city of Poltava surrender? Throughout history, countless cities had surrendered, but only these two dreadnoughts had ever surrendered. So, this was all destiny!

Surprisingly enough, although this logic was a forced stretch, it actually sowed quite a bit of doubt among the uneducated Lusha soldiers who believed in fate. At the very least, it gave them a psychological out, allowing them to deceive themselves and accept the suggestion.

In the end, all of this combined accelerated the collapse of the Poltava garrison.

With the surrender of the city of Poltava, the remaining field forces trapped in the surrounding "triangle kill" net were all methodically wiped out or forced to surrender before the end of November, right before midnight on the 30th.

As for the defenders inside Kharkiv, although they had been besieged several days earlier than Poltava, there were still two whole corps inside, along with ample supplies. General Zhilinsky initially planned to dig in and hold out, waiting for a turning point.

However, when they heard on the 28th that their allied forces in Poltava had either surrendered or been completely wiped out, panic also swept through Kharkiv.

Eventually, at midnight on the 29th, some defending troops defied orders and attempted to break out on their own, only to be mown down and driven back by the machine guns and artillery batteries of the Demanian siege forces. Casualties were horrendous.

With all hope and opportunity of breaking out to survive completely blocked off, the only options left were death or surrender.

On November 30, a mutiny finally erupted among the Kharkiv defenders, with large numbers of troops voluntarily surrendering to Demania.

Army Commander General Zhilinsky completely lost control of the situation. By the end, even the people at his side urged him to just surrender.

Zhilinsky was still relatively lucid. He merely offered a bitter smile and sighed, "If I had died at this time last year, my life's reputation would have remained intact. I am already 63; why should I endure further humiliation?"

Ultimately, Zhilinsky drew his pistol and committed suicide. The troops under his command completely disintegrated.

Except for the few divisions and Cossack cavalry units that had previously fled from Izyum, the entire Lusha 9th Army was utterly annihilated by the German 6th Army.

The German 6th Army didn't even have time to properly rest.

They rested for just a single day on December 1. Starting December 2, Lelouch's armored division continued marching west from Poltava.

This time, the distance he needed to outflank was even greater, and his objective was much more daunting—he was going to sweep all the way down the Poltava-Kyiv railway, straight toward Kyiv.

Fortunately, he didn't have to complete this mission alone this time.

On the far western end of the entire Kievan Rus war zone, the 2nd Armored Division—the "Empire Division"—led by von Bock, along with the German 10th Army commanded by old Marshal Leopold behind him, had also made highly impressive progress over the past half-month.

While Lelouch and Field Marshal Rupprecht were handling Kharkiv and Poltava, von Bock and Marshal Leopold had pushed north from Vinnytsia. They captured Zhitomir, Korosten, and Chernigov in rapid succession, severing the railway running due north from Kyiv through Orsha to Minsk.

In other words, the enemy in the Kyiv region had now lost their vital railway lifeline connecting them to the north. That railway had to pass through Chernigov, and Chernigov had already been seized by von Bock before the end of November.

Now, von Bock was pushing east, while Lelouch would push west.

Between the two of them, each had severed one of the railway lifelines connecting Lusha's Kievan Rus region to the north. (There were only two in total: the one heading north from Kyiv and the one heading north from Kharkiv. Both were now cut.)

Although the encirclement of the Kyiv region had not yet fully closed, the enemy had completely lost the ability to break out by train. Even if they wanted to flee, they would have to rely on marching on foot, riding horses, or taking horse-drawn carriages.

What's more, the Tsar had recently executed General Aleksei Evert, the former commander of the Rusha 6th Army, for deserting his post in the face of the enemy. As a result, every single Lusha general in the Kyiv region was completely paralyzed by fear; absolutely no one dared to issue an army-wide retreat order.

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