With the Bonple Pravda war raging, Wrangel was ready to reform the remaining White Army forces. After replacing Denikin, Wrangel was ready to hit the ground running while Denikin just hesitated. Wrangel walked around and began to speak.
"The first area of matters that concerns us is the lack of fuel. While the fleet has the capacity to evacuate everyone, not a drop of fuel is found. The first matter of business is to make sure the fleet has enough fuel." Wrangel told them to start acquiring fuel. The students nodded and some went to try to find fuel for the ships. Wrangel still had a lot of work to do and finding fuel for the fleet was his biggest concern. If there was any disaster at the front, Wrangel knew that they would be stranded with no way out.
"What's next Wrangel?" Another student asked their commander.
"Next is we should take a full stock of our inventory. We know that we have rifles but not enough of them." Wrangel explained that an examination of the armory was needed. Another group of students went off to take an inventory of what they had. After a few minutes, the students came back.
"We only have a thousand rifles on hand and the army is about 3,500 still. We need more rifles." One of the students told Wrangel that they needed more supplies. Wrangel nodded.
"Okay now we should take the most combat ready of the students and send them to fortify the entrance of the Crimea." Wrangel explained. He then decided to take note of what units he had on hand and decided to give them completely new badges to be his units. It was only a division of students that were made but for Wrangel, this was enough. They were dispatched to secure the entrance of the Crimea.
The local Black army students were there and they were preparing to resist the Red army. Himari was busy holding the entrance as she had run rough shot on the White Army and she was now preparing to fight Pravda. She looked ahead to see the division of a thousand strong marching to her.
"Check this out, what are those White Army soldiers doing?" Himari asked with a laugh in her voice. The black girls looked on as the division approached them. "This should be easy, there is no way they're going to resist us." Himari told them but she was wrong. The division charged in while firing their rifles. Himari and the others got their rifles out but it was already too late. The students tossed their grenades in and blew up the forward lines. Himari drew her pistol and looked around as her loyal army was getting slaughtered. Wrangel's reformed division went out of there way to slice up the Black Army like swiss cheese. Himari decided to run away as the Black Army retreated. Wrangel headed up as he was leading from the front. He smiled with approval.
"We managed to defeat the Black Army and secured the entrance to the Crimea." Wrangel told his troops that the Black Army had been heavily battered and they had taken minimal casualties. "Fortify the entrance so that Pravda will have to attack head on." Wrangel ordered the troops to dig in and fortify the entrance. Wrangel left the area as the war front had been solved for now and his next concern was the home front.
Kay had been watching as Wrangel was making reforms to help piece together the White Army after it had been devastated. Kay had no idea about the White Army destroying the local Black Army to secure the entrance to the Crimea but for Wrangel with the base now secured, there needed to be some way to fix their situation internally.
"Okay with ourselves now secured and the fact that we're starting to gather fuel. We need to reform the situation on the inside if we are to take the school back," Wrangel began. With the soldiers having fully secured themselves, the next thing they needed to do was to make the citizens happy. "Now despite my constant harping on law, order and justice, Kay and the other White Army generals were just as rapacious as the Red Army. The only way I think that can best solve this is to create a systematic court with no corruption or special favors. Everyone will be treated fairly under me and the White Army." Everyone cheered as they seemed to really enjoy what Wrangel had in mind.
"What about the average citizen, what if we can't get any work?" One of the people called out to Wrangel, what would the average citizen do if they couldn't work or were injured.
"The answer to that is that we will create a welfare system that will keep the incapacitated soldiers, workers and their families happy and fed." Wrangel explained that if they were to take care of the people, they needed to put their needs forward too. "Now here comes the best part which I have worked all night to do and this is the bill for land reform." Wrangel told them that he had worked on land reform behind Denikin's back.
"What's the land reform?" One of the people asked. Wrangel decided to get the sketch of what he had in mind out that he had spent all night working on. He began to explain the sketch to the people
"This sketch is not perfect, but it will make the success of the army easier and win the sympathy of the peasants. Since the army is waiting for a decisive answer on the agrarian question, there is no time to lose. Life itself will add the necessary amendments in the future. I am preparing measures that will allow peasants to obtain as much land as possible in individual ownership. The future of Saunders agriculture belongs to the smallholder, the large estates had their moment. The improvement of the material conditions of the workers and the satisfaction of their industrial needs is one of our main concerns. I realized that the agrarian question could not be satisfactorily solved if we treated it as a problem, Saunders is immense, and its ethnographic variations are very numerous, and even more so if anarchy has ruined the economic life of the country and has falsified all relations legally. Any decision would provoke a lot of antipathy, we should have corrected the errors later, in the light of experience. But the conditions of that moment did not allow us to delay it any longer, the Gordian knot had to be cut. The issue had to be resolved for an important psychological reason: we had to destroy the enemy's main propaganda weapon, ignite the imagination of the army and the population, and create good impressions on foreign opinion. The peasants have no problem with the concept of consideration, but they have not understood the benefits it entails for them and the damages that it entails for the state that they are allowed to pay in kind and they insist that the price is too high and must be reduced." Wrangel explained his plan to the people as the situation regarding agriculture sucked for a while. "It's time we undo the changes of making agriculture private and start handing the land back to the people. The would give people one acre pieces of property to farm and grow food on and with the school being vast we should try to get people a steady job and support their lively-hood and have these estates given out to the people if they support my side free of change."
"What should we grow on these estates that you are giving us?" One of the peasants asked Wrangel if he had any ideas on what they should farm if they were going to make a living regarding the land reform bills.
"Anything you wish. Plus even though your parcel of land is yours to keep, That shouldn't mean that you can't help your neighbor out to lend supplies like tractors or grain to feed their livestock. It's all about creating a stable system and a steady stream of revenue that we can continue to invest into the industrial part of Saunders. If industry continues to lag behind, we should use the school's wealth to help fund ourselves and steadily move away from grain but at the moment, we're going to remain mostly agrarian and grow slowly from there. If Denikin had only implimented something similar, we could have won the civil war." Wrangel explained that the key to having the school be stable was growing all of their own food for the time being. Large estates were being dissolved and the smaller parcels of land were being divided among the people for their agriculture. One other issue remained however.
"What would happen if we get into a conflict in which one of our neighbors wants more land?" One of the people asked Wrangel if he had any ideas on what to do regarding conflicts with land ownership. Wrangel began to think about this for a moment before he began to speak.
"The court system will sort everything out. I've placed my most pure members in charge as those members aren't corrupt and thank goodness for that." Wrangel told the person that if there was a conflict, the court system would take care of it. "Now onto more pressing manners, the Crimea can't feed itself and we need resources to keep it fed. We are still gathering fuel and we need to find a good place to attack," Wrangel told the group their most immediate concerns, the Crimea was barren and wasn't going to have enough food even with the new welfare system.
"Where should our first move be?" One of the people asked Wrangel where they were going to attack. Wrangel began to think of where their first move would be. With the entrance of the Crimea now fortified, it was their chance to attack.
"We should strike and take Taurida. That will bring valuable resources to us and food. And since the fleet is still gathering fuel, it should be the one place that we should attack." Wrangel explained that getting resources for the newly reformed White Army was the biggest priority. With a bulk of Pravda's army being transferred to fight Jajka, Wrangel knew he needed to strike now. Fortunately for him. The Red Army was too distracted by more immediate threats.
As the next day arrived, Wrangel was going to launch his attack against Taurida. Everything was finished when he had received a message from Earl Gray. Wrangel opened the message up to see what it was. The Message ended up saying: Do not attack, we will cut off support from you for good if you do attack. Wrangel looked at the message before he began to speak.
"Send the message to Earl Gray it should say: "For her lack of reliable support was the very thing driving me to attack." I think she should get the memo." Wrangel told the messengers to radio to Earl Gray that the lack of anything was causing the White Army to attack. "Saunders students are inclined to pass in one moment from complete depression to the most radiant optimism. Those that regarded Crimea as a tomb now regard it as an impregnable fortress."
"So does this mean that we will attack?" One of the troops asked. Wrangel nodded yes before the student began to ask. "Bonple had overextended their supply lines and did very little damage to the Red Army. Plus the one's in Kiev had failed to set up an effective administration and Pravda is now counter attacking." Wrangel nodded about the situation with a smile.
"Pravda is still dealing with Bonple I see. Tell Jajka if she could hold out for a little longer and I can begin making my moves." Wrangel told the troop to send a message to Jajka to keep fighting. He was going to draw some of the pressure off of her to get the Reds to fight him instead of her. The Saunders Civil War was still going on.
The Red Army troops that had moved into the area numbered about a couple thousand students, they had planned on trapping Wrangel. Wrangel had 2,500 at his disposal. The artillery began to bombard the area as the Red Army troops. The Red Army troops were poorly prepared and they had lost much of their equipment. No such luck in getting reinforcements as most of the students were now fighting Bonple. Wrangel's troops quickly snuck past them in the bombardment and began their attack on the troops. The Red Army in the area threw their hands up as they were surrendering. They weren't going to fight.
"That was easy." Wrangel told the troops as they were going to secure the rest of the area. Wrangel was going to have the prisoners rounded up and transported back. Kay had participated in the attack but she had been demoted to the rank of a private and was participating more on the front lines instead of leading. Kay went off to help secure the rest of Taurida.
"The Taurida operation was a success, they had secured the area within the day and this attack was proven successful. We now have a surplus of rifles and ammunition, horses for the Kazaki's food and coal coming into the Crimea and extra resources we're going to sell to get more fuel." Wrangel announced that the first part of the plan went smoothly and they now had more resources for the White Army. The crowd cheered as those from Taurida cheered, they were happy with Wrangel as he respected Law and Order, he was the one person the people were going to support and planned to give their support to. "With our operation, we're planning to take pressure off of Jajka who is being attacked by Pravda. Our attack would divert resources to us and away from Jajka."
"Footing has been established on the Dnieper and Akebi and Aya have moved their troops to prevent you from going much further. Where should we strike next?" One of the troops asked if they were going to find a place to launch their next attack. For Wrangel he began to think about it.
"That I don't know for sure but we hope to take pressure off of Jajka." Wrangel told the troops that he wasn't entirely sure of launching the next attack. Wrangel went off to thinking about where the next attack was going to take place. Then a student walked over and wanted to speak with Wrangel.
"Wrangel Sir." The student greeted Wrangel. "Earl Gray isn't pleased but Azumi senses an opportunity. With you taking Taurida, Azumi is giving limited recognition to your leadership. If you and Jajka can coordinate along with the Baltic groups that are still fighting, then we can defeat the Reds. Plus with the recent victories and the policies you had put into place, the people are more inclined to fight for you rather than Kay or Denikin."
"Perhaps there is still a chance for us to win but the question is, where do we land our troops next to keep taking ground?" Wrangel asked again. He was happy that he was getting attention but the biggest concern of Wrangel was where to attack next. He continued to think as he finally had the answer. "Soldier, tell Kay she's landing in the Kuban Steppe with 450 troops and hopefully she could recruit more along the way and bring hundreds of Kazakis into her ranks."
"Yes Wrangel." The student told Wrangel before she headed off to tell Kay the news that she was going to launch an invasion of the Kuban Steppe.
Kay wasn't happy with the new orders that were given to her, even with Wrangel's properly fueled fleet to land in the Kuban and start a new offensive. Wrangel was giving Kay a small force of what he had, he didn't have enough to guard Taurida and make offensives. Wrangel was counting on Kay to take the Kuban and get the Kazaki's into her army. Kay and the troops landed and moved inland. She wished she had more students with her.
Nekota was guarding the Kuban, she spotted Kay and raised the alarm. She had a small force of students with her as they were guarding the Kuban.
"It's been yesterday since we lost Taurida, we can't lose Kuban. Fight to your end!" Nekota announced while she raised her revolver. Kay and the others began to move inland as the two Maxim machine guns began to open fire as they were going to try to slow Kay's advance. The machine guns continued to fire as several students were shot down in their attempt to storm the first position, eventually the students pulled their grenades out and tossed them into the trench. Nekota was forced to retreat with her forces.
"We're gaining ground, let's keep the pressure up!" Kay told the students that they were starting to win and they needed to keep fighting if they were going to secure the Kuban. For Nekota however, Kay's force was small and all she needed to do was to bring in more troops to slow her down. Eventually this kind of thinking worked for Nekota, the resistance in the Kuban was stronger than anticipated and Kay was hardly able to make any progress beyond the first engagement.
Wrangel was growing impatient with Kay as he was relying everything on the Kuban campaign. He wanted to try to take pressure off of Bonple as Azumi had requested for him to do. The door opened as one of the students had news for Wrangel.
"Wrangel sir, we got some news regarding the front." She began. "We just learned that the Red army attacked Taurida across the Dnieper, although they hadn't taken any ground and we held out, they did a lot of damage to the White Army. And the Kuban campaign well… they're asking for an evacuation, resistance was stronger than expected and they need to return."
"Are you kidding me!" Wrangel shouted. "The whole point of the Kuban campaign was to take the Kuban in a lightning strike and to bring thousands of Kazaki's back into our army. Kay must've been acting cautiously and going too slowly which allowed the enemy to overwhelm her."
"And about Kay, she got separated and we lost her." She told Wrangel that they lost contact with Kay and they weren't going to get her back.
"Forget about her, I'll go evacuate them from the Kuban, is there any more good news?" Wrangel told her before he asked if there was anything else she needed to tell him.
"Yes there is, Pravda's attack against Warsaw has been a disaster losing them hundreds of students and Jajka held out, she's planning on chasing Pravda down." She told Wrangel. Wrangel smiled with a nod, that was indeed good news. Then the Kuban students returned as they appeared more numerous than they started with.
"So you got yourselves new recruits?" Wrangel asked.
"Yeah a couple hundred volunteers but at this point the Kuban campaign turned out to be more like a raid and we quickly ran out of steam." She explained. "And don't ask what happened to Kay, we're happy she's gone."
"Okay Bonple is chasing Pravda back so it's now our mission to link up to her and see if we can coordinate and wipe Pravda out once and for all." Wrangel told the crowd that their new objective was to link up with Bonple and finish the war. "Get some rest everyone, we're going to have a busy day tomorrow." Wrangel got up and left, there was much for him to do regarding what was going to happen. He was hoping that he was going to at least reach Jajka and wipe Pravda out.
The next day, Wrangel gathered his forces to try to cross the Dnieper, Jajka and the rest of Bonple was chasing Pravda down and he hoped that crossing the river and reaching Jajka was the goal. Wrangel got several boats ready as they were going to row their way across. The students loaded up and got their oars out.
"We have one more chance to destroy Pravda and we're all going to cross the river. I was everyone to row and row hard, we have this one chance to cross and I want everyone to put their backs into it!" Wrangel announced that their only chance left for victory was to cross the river. The students nodded before getting in their boats. Wrangel didn't know however that he had long lost the incentive and this operation was going to quickly stall. The rowboats began to cross the river as this was their chance to quickly cross. Aya who was waiting on the other side saw this and she was quick to act.
"Fire!" Aya shouted. The cannons began to fire on the wooden rowboats. With the amount of artillery there was, it was beginning to blow the wooden boats apart. Wrangel looked around to see his boats, one after another quickly shatter and sink under firecracker artillery. For Wrangel, he had lost half of his rowboats within minutes and he was going to lose everything, not even getting halfway across the river.
"Turn around and row back, we're not going to make it." Wrangel told everyone that this operation was a failure and they couldn't take any more ground. Wrangel knew that he had to go back on the defensive. He arrived back onto the shore and decided to speak while trying to capture his breath. "Okay we've lost the chance to take any more ground, we're just going to go on the defensive until Jajka arrives to relieve us and we can wipe Pravda out once and for all." Wrangel walked away as they were just going to hold their ground and wait for Jajka to come to their rescue. But unaware to Wrangel, no help was coming.
Megumi, Alexandra and Alice were busy traveling in the opposite direction and they were talking to each other.
"We're back together, minus Lola who decided to get the Gregor Legion back home. But Kay is still dangerous, we need to get her out of here before she begins to plot her return." Megumi told Alexandra and Alice about this.
"What do we do about Kay? We can't have her stay around. I told my dad with the most recent news and what Kay has done, we agreed it'll be safe for us if she doesn't return to my school." Baby Lee asked as they didn't have a plan on how to deal with Kay. Alexandra and Megumi began to think about what they were going to do.
"Okay we'll use you as bait to try to lure Kay into our trap. We might have to think of what we're going to do. Especially since we should return to Alexei with the cure that we're carrying around. If the vial gets stolen, we can't return it and help our friend out and he'll be crippled for the rest of his life." Alexandra explained to Alice. Alexandra, Alice and Megumi continued to chat about the plan as the bushes ruffled, it was Kay and she spotted them. She didn't know exactly what to do but she spotted the three of them, chatting away. She studied them and spotted the vial that contained the cure. She studied it and spotted what it said on it: For Alexei. Kay knew she needed to destroy it. The one person she disliked the most was Alexei and she wanted him to be gone forever. Alexandra meanwhile was plotting revenge against Kay. She wanted the power back and try her best to reform the school to what it was before Kay came along and ruined everything. A Traditional Autocracy, it was the best system to keep the people in line and keep them happy with food and work. Megumi and Lola were mostly fine in the system and so were the people. Even though Megumi pushed for more reform, this came at a price and Alexandra was able to gut it out as it was in the way of progress. Kay had to bring them back and they went out of their way and were leveling more of the school down.
"We got to take her out, we have to, the very survival of Saunders now rests in just the three of us. If either Kay, Himari or Yuri take over, we're doomed." Megumi reminded them that their greatest enemies were still among them and taking them out was their biggest priority. Kay continued to watch from a distance, she quickly found out that Megumi and the others were going to hunt her down. Kay slipped away, she had a plan, even though her part of the war was over, her battle wasn't finished. She had to win and step one was to steal that vial.
With these events that Kay and Wrangel had in place this was going to be the beginning of the end and the school was going to skyfall from the wings of the other schools and into the earth.
[A/N]: Chapter focused on Wrangel and his reforms with what is happening and now a new subplot is taking place within the civil war, one that will end friendships once and for all. Kay has been separated from Wrangel and Megumi, Alice and Alexandra are on their way to find Kay and finish what they had started. The next chapter will fall apart for Wrangel as things between Pravda, Bonple and the Black Army will take a turn. See you later.