As Kolchak's front fell apart, some of the readers were wondering: What were Denikin and Wrangel doing all of this time? Well allow me to pick up where we left off. Where we left off, Denikin had just secured the Kuban and grew his army to about four thousand students. The next target according to Denikin was the Caucasus, this was fertile ground for counter revolution and the Reds were spread out. Even though the Reds had the numerical superiority, Wrangel and Denikin had annihilated them. The one reason for this was the superior Kazaki Cavalry that the White army had. The Kazakis were squeezed between a rock and hard place when it came to the civil war and many of them decided to join the White Army. Even though the Red Army would have cavalry themselves, few students knew how horses worked and how to use them effectively like Alexandra and Konstantina for instance. In fact much of Pravda was against the idea of Cavalry in general, they viewed it as old fashioned and aristocratic and instead opted for industrial warfare followed with artillery, machine guns and planes. And in this civil war, the terrain made it perfect for mounted troops. The Reds were going to have to rely on their conscripted student army to hold the front while they waited for events to occur.
While Denikin was riding along the front to see where they were going to go next, he wanted more recruits to help him. Kay meanwhile was trying to do the same as she wanted to take the school back for herself. She had managed to get a few more students to side with her but with the small group of students she had, this wasn't going to be enough for her to make any headway. Kay rounded the corner to see Denikin with a group of his own.
"Are you friendly miss?" Denikin would ask Kay. Kay waved her hand hello as she wanted to figure it out for herself.
"Friendly? I was looking for volunteers to help me fight against Pravda who had taken over my school and I seek to get it back." Kay told Denikin that she wanted help to complete her objective. Denikin began to think about what Kay had said and when it came to this, maybe he could use the help to make friends.
"We have the same goal in mind." Denikin explained to Kay that they needed to be able to fight the Reds if they were going to wind and take the school back. Denikin began to speak again."Do you want to join us Miss and we can begin to launch an attack together?" Denikin asked Kay if she was willing to hand herself over to help out with the White Army.
"If it means I can get the school back from Communism, I will." Kay told Deninkin that she was willing to join the white army to help fight against Communism. Denikin smiled as he thought he could have a good volunteer to help him out with what he needed.
"Okay follow me." Deninkin told Kay as the small group of students had joined the White Army to see what kind of group they were going to grow into.
Wrangel was busy recruiting and sorting the students in their battalions if they were going to get ready to fight to capture Saunders territory. Denikin appeared with Kay and a small group of students. Wrangel turned his head to Kay and then to Denikin.
"It seems that you have brought a few more troops to help us out. Good job Denikin." Wrangel began as he complimented what Denikin was doing.
"Yes, I appreciate what it means. Since Kay was leading a small group of people to help, I wanted to ask her if she was willing to join and she said yes. Now that we've gotten a force coming together we should be able to secure ourselves but we shouldn't launch any major offensives until we have help." Denikin explained that the students they were gathering to help fight the communists were growing in number but with little supplies they had, they needed to wait until they had the means to carry out the offensive. For them this meant waiting for outside help.
The next morning would arrive as the group was getting ready to prepare for their next move, they had secured enough territory and supplies to begin operations but before these operations were to begin, someone came from the area as she wanted to speak to Kay and her subordinates, it was Earl Gray.
"Nice to see you that you've joined us. What brings you here?" Kay asked Earl Gray if she was the bringer of good news. Earl Gray began to think about it for a moment and she began to speak
"There is good news, Kuromorimine and her allies have collapsed and surrendered, Count High School rejoined the war the day before the surrender was confirmed. We're dealing with the consequences of this war but for the time being, we have enough freed up supplies at our disposal. We've sent the engineers over to help locate and fix your tanks, this will be a big morale booster as those Reds don't know what tanks are." Earl Gray explained the situation to Kay and her friends. Kay began to think of the situation, such supplies they could use to help win the victory they needed would be desired but for Kay getting the tanks operational was the thing she wanted.
"How many tanks will we have at our disposal?" Kay asked Earl Gray if they were going to have tank support and how many they would get if they were going to launch another attack.
"Sixty tanks roughly." Earl Gray told them. "Also you will get supplies to help win this war as we fear that if Pravda wins there will be a major shift in how the schools will be ran as everyone would push for more communism. If we can defeat the communists and reclaim Saunders. Then we should be able to restore order." Earl Gray knew she was being serious if they were to defeat the communists, then balance would be restored to the status quo. "You will also be getting airplanes and artillery to help carry out this new offensive." Then Darjeeling appeared as she had news about what was happening. She wanted to speak to Kay about this immediately.
"Kay I have the news that Katyusha has defeated us and our Kazaki allies at the second battle of Tsaritsyn. However Katyusha and Clementia had been withdrawn with their armored train. If we attack tomorrow, we can seize the city and begin making moves to help us win." Darjeeling described what happened the brutal fighting was proving costly but with the leaders having been withdrawn, Kay smelt an opportunity. If she could attack and inflict another loss on Pravda then plan on the knockout blow. Wrangel meanwhile had a question.
"But the question is if we do win the civil war, who is going to lead. Some of us object to Kay leading us but what choice do we have?" Wrangel began. Kay looked at Wrangel.
"That is something we decide after this war is over but for now we should try our best to defeat the Reds." Kay explained that now wasn't the best time to decide on what to do regarding the situation, the only situation that Kay was rather focused on was defeating her foes than setting up any new form of leadership. Darjeeling was joined by Assam, they were going to assist Kay and the white army out. This new White Army totalled six thousand people and was being led by some of the most talented people the whites had to offer. Denikin was proud of this and Kay was seeking the revenge she had so desired. Wrangel on the other hand wasn't sure about this.
The next morning. Kay announced that the new White Army was going on the offensive. They were at the spot where Darjeeling had attacked previously. After a brief artillery bombardment, Kay raised her springfield rifle and signaled the charge.
"Now!" Kay shouted, the students of the White army charged from their dugouts as the previous battle around Tsaritsyn had sucked many supplies out from the area. With their best students withdrawn, it was clear that they weren't going to hold onto it in case of any major attacks. Kay also had the advantage of using their freshly repaired Sherman tanks to help participate in the battle. The Pravda and Red Saunders students fired their rifles and machine guns bravely as they were determined to stop the incoming attack but with Kay and her forces fresh as they had gathered all the strength she needed they were going to launch the attack she had so desired. With the tanks firing away as they were going to provide the mobile artillery they managed to blow holes where the machine guns were as clearing them was the success that they needed to accomplish. Kay charged ahead as the Kazaki's flanked to the left as they were going to help chase and pursue the enemy out of the city. Kay attached her rifle bayonet as she dove into the enemy trench.
Kay swung around and jabbed the rifle bayonet into the attacking student. The student quickly fell as the others rushed forth and began to launch their own attacks for Kay. She turned and fired on another student. That student fell as the others were beginning to crowd and overrun the city. Then the horses began to withdraw pulling behind them were M1910 machine guns mounted on the rear of horse drawn buggies They were facing backwards making them retreating optional as it was a way to mow down the enemy while they withdrew. But even with these, this wasn't enough to stop Kay in her tracks. The tanks quickly broke on through as if they were going to have nothing to stop them. Kay and her friends exited the trench moments later and strolled into the city. They had captured it relatively easily if they didn't get the supplies and had their shermans repaired, this task was going to be much harder. Darjeeling and Wrangel had arrived as they had driven the last bit of resistance from the city.
"Tsaritsyn is ours and this was relatively easy to do. This is a major victory for us as we managed to cut off their oil supply to the rest of the communists. Now with this city we should begin planning for our next move. For now let's dig in and plan this, we don't know if we should be able to go on the attack now or wait for the enemy to counterattack and run themselves into us." Kay described the outcome of the battle as being very good for them and now they needed to decide on the next course of action, attack or let the enemy run themselves into them while they planned out the next offensive.
"I say we should wait to figure out what we do next. Let the Reds exhaust themselves trying to attack us while Denikin comes up with the next plan." Darjeeling told Kay that attacking now wasn't the best course of action as compared to waiting for the enemy to tire out before attacking a tired enemy wasn't going to put up as heavy of a fight as to a fresh and rested enemy.
"Okay, I will do it." Kay told Darjeeling that this was as far as they were going to go for now. Now the objective was to rest and let the Reds attack them while they plan for the next stage of the offensive. "But the biggest goal is to control all of the food producing regions in Saunders. If we control the food, the communist revolution will fail and the people will starve and be forced to join us out of desperation."
"So the plan is starvation?" Assam asked if this was correct. Kay just nodded. If Kay was correct, controlling the food supply was the quickest way to ensure victory. However they were going to start a violent new phase of the civil war.
For Pravda things weren't going well however, the news had just reached them that they had lost the key city of Tsaritsyn. Fumie was angry over this.
"So the commanders just decided to give the city up?" Fumie asked.
"You called Katyusha and Clementia back to the school so the new commanders weren't able to hold it." Nina explained to Fumie that the loss of Tsaritsyn was due to the fact that the local commanders weren't up to the rough task unlike Katyusha who had repelled all the attacks they had against them.
"Tell them to recapture the city, now!" Fumie shouted at Nina as she wanted them to give the order to take back Tsaritsyn. Nina cowered back as she covered her ears. Fumie was furious about this. Nina got up and walked away as she was feeling defeated. Nonna and Alexandra entered the scene.
"We managed to put Kolchak and his forces on the run and we should be able to prepare another counter attack." Nonna began. Fumie turned her head to see what she wanted to say to both of them.
"Good but we got ourselves another problem." Fumie began. "Tsaritsyn has fallen into enemy hands and we need a way to counter attack if we don't get the city back into our hands, the Whites will march on us and take over the rest of the food producing regions." Fumie explained to them. "We control all the heavy industry and the factories but laborers are no use to us without food to fuel them.
"So how do you think we will feed the people then if we're going to win this civil war?" Nonna asked Fumie if she had any solutions to solve the food crisis. Fumie just snickered as she had the perfect solution.
"The solution is simple Nonna, we don't." Fumie began as the solution would have to involve starvation. Fumie then continued. "From the research we have conducted, an average Saunders Laborer needs about 2700 calories to get through the day, they're receiving less than 1400 at the moment. But with the food situation getting worse, we should see the ration size shrink and the people would starve too and this includes the men, women and children. The everyday citizen of Saunders would have to make the choice between clothes, food or fuel on a daily basis if it means to survive."
"So how do we solve the food crisis then?" Nonna asked Fumie if she had a solution if it meant keeping the people fed.
"My solution is to go out to the farmers of Saunders and purchase all of their grain to feed the population, even steal it if the farmer decides to put up resistance and if it's armed resistance, we just shoot or arrest the farmer and take everything from him. Especially since the Kulaks of Saunders are the biggest enemy since they are the most likely to resist." Fumie explained that their solution was to confiscate and take everything from the farmers if it meant feeding the people. "The process of being a Kulak is to be a big farmer and to own people to be your peasants. All we need to do is convince the poor peasants to rise up against the Kulaks and give us everything as we will guarantee their protection." Nonna wished that Fumie was kidding but it turned out, she wasn't. Fumie's plan would become known as the Dictatorship of Food Supply. This involved armed groups of Pravda and Red Saunders students out to confiscate and steal everything from the Kulaks. Fumie rationalized this as some kind of class war. What Nonna knew that Fumie didn't was that in order to become a Kulak, one must become a successful and a skilled farmer. Fumie made it her policy to attack all of Saunders' best farmers.
Naturally when this policy began, the Kulaks decided to put up armed resistance and this didn't solve the food problem. The problem continued to get worse over the next couple of days. Lisa heard about this and knew the CHEKA had a lot of work to do. For Fumie and the CHEKA, Red Terror was the only way to maintain their hold onto power. One of Pravda's favorite ways to maintain control was to exploit Saunders ethnic tensions. Wherever there was an oppressed minority to be found, the CHEKA would place them into the top positions where they let out decades of oppression onto the others and thus themselves became the oppressors. For the few remaining minorities that were left on Saunders that hadn't been forcibly removed when Alexandra came into power, they looted entire shops and destroyed businesses. This caused many people to start fighting among themselves and against the successful people. Pravda even got its hands dirty as they were heavily involved in this and contributed to the terror. The CHEKA would perform anything imaginable to the people they had captured. This included: torture of every kind, the bashing on skulls, breaking of hands, scalding by fire, burning, noose, mock executions and real executions by gunshot, they even operated, work camps, concentration camps for the White to convert them to communism and death camps. As time went on more insurgent groups began to spring up. One of these was rather infamous.
Fumie was speaking to Nina and Alina as all the attacks they had led on the whites had failed. It had been a week since the whites captured Tsaritsyn and now there was more news for them.
"Fumie we have gotten news that a new army is growing rapidly as a couple of the neighborhoods have been destroyed." Nina began. Fumie was curious to see what was going on.
"What is this new army called?" Fumie asked as she wanted to figure out about this new army. Nina knew she had to tell Fumie the name.
"This new army is called the Black Army." Nina told Fumie. Nina was correct. The Black Army was as it's name implied, most of the students in this army were black but they were also insurgents and anarchists. They were being led by Himari and Yuri Nakamura who decided to raise up an army to depose both the whites and the reds from the school and create a school completely controlled by them. All this new army was doing was looting and destroying shops and businesses. Now with three armies in conflict with each other, the partisans didn't know what to do, they joined any group they could imagine and this caused the ranks of the Black Army to swell as people were unwilling to join either the Reds or the Whites.
It had been over a week since the white army had captured Tsaritsyn. Denikin, Wrangel, Kay and numerous others were oblivious to what was going on with Pravda and everything that was happening, much of the territory they owned was still in pristine condition meaning they had supplies. Assam arrived as she had arrived with news for Denikin.
"Denikin sir, I have good news." Assam began. Denikin turned his head to see what Assam had to say. "Pravda has exhausted all of their forces against us over the course of the week and all of their attacks have failed." Assam told Denikin that the enemy was now exhausted and demoralized. Denikin nodded, the ball was back in his court and now he knew that it was their time to attack. He had been planning this for a while and now he was ready to put the plan into action. Denikin and Assam walked off.
Denikin had arrived as his army numbered over ten thousand people and were led by some of their best commanders. Denikin tapped the microphone and began to speak to the crowd.
"May I have your attention please." Denikin began. The crowd looked at them as they wanted to see what their leader had to say. "Okay Assam had delivered the news that the Red Army has exhausted itself against us, now the ball is back in our hands. The plan is that I will issue the Moskva Directive. The objective is to take all of the Saunders land from Pravda as fast as possible. If we do this quickly, the civil war will be over by the time this week is done." Denikin laid out the plan, he had high hopes of everything working out if everything went according to plan. Kay was in favor of this plan but Wrangel had second objectives. "The best troops would be concentrated in the center while the others would guard the iron tipped spear." Denikin laid out the formation of the attack.
"I object to this!" A voice shouted. Denikin looked down to see who said that voice. It was Wrangel. Wrangel walked to Denikin as he wanted to speak to his friend about what was going on. "What is this?" Wrangel asked. "Are you trying to do the lose!?" Wrangel asked Denikin if he was trying to intentionally have the Whites lose the civil war.
"What are you trying to say Wrangel?" Denikin asked Wrangel if he had any explanation for what was happening. Wrangel began to think and after a couple of moments. He began to speak.
"An offensive to Moskva will be suicidal, our supply lines are already stretched thin and under constant attacks by partisans. Partisans that only exist because none of us have implemented land reform. Pravda had given land reform but this came with less popular policies like the Dictatorship of Food Supply. If we give the issue that we're in favor of land reform then we can win the civil war." Wrangel told Denikin that the only way they could win is by implementing changes to make the people happy. But to Denikin, there was no time for reforms but to attack.
"I'm sorry Wrangel but we're attacking now. Pravda is only going to grow stronger day by day, we need to strike and end the war now then we'll implement land reform later." Denikin knew he was right with Pravda's strength increasing, there was no time to do any of Wrangel's requests and their only chance of winning was now. Denikin was going to use this window and try to knock Pravda out, which Kolchak could not.
"I think you're not seeing the bigger picture and I feel like I'm the only person taking this civil war seriously." Wrangel told Denikin before hitting him with a stick.
"There isn't any time to do reforms. It's either we attack now or lose." Denikin told Wrangel that there wasn't any time to implement land reform. They needed to win right now. Wrangel walked off with a huff there was nothing he could do. Kay on the other hand was struck, the generals had fallen into infighting and this was made worse with Wrangel being one of their best commanders but Denikin was right. Attack now and win or don't attack and therefore forever lose the chance of winning. Denikin had sixty tanks and ten armored cars at his disposal and he was ready to attack. Kay meanwhile was going to do her own thing and try to win some glory for herself.
With Kay's plan this will cause orders to not be properly followed and more chaos will erupt.
[A/N]: With Denikin's first move completed, they had captured Tsaritsyn and had received supplies from St. Gloriana after they learned that Kuromorimine and her allies have given up and surrendered. Now with the major schools freed up, they are now committed to supplying Kay in the hope of them winning and with their first move made, the next objective would be to march on Moskva and thus ending the civil war. Wrangel thinks this is suicidal while Kay is going to complete objectives of her own to win some personal glory. Next chapter will be the offensive and how Denikin's plan will turn out.