The heavy snow continued for a week. Although the snow had stopped, it was still freezing to death. The temperature had dropped to more than ten degrees below zero. The sudden severe cold caused all French military operations to be cancelled, and everyone hid in the house to keep warm, but even so, the casualties of the French army were still very heavy, and countless people died of frostbite.

By the end of October, the temperature has recovered, but it is still below freezing. At the same time, after intense preparations, the first batch of winter supplies from China finally arrived at the front line, which made everyone, including Xiao Jie, heave a sigh of relief. But the subsequent casualty report made everyone feel extremely depressed.

"Your Majesty, the losses of the various troops have been calculated, and after summarizing, the final result has come out." Du Geer said with an extremely ugly face.

Instead of picking up the report, Xiao Jie leaned on the chair and said, "Read it."

Du Geer opened the report and read: "After the statistics of various units, after summarizing, in this heavy snow, our army's various units have frozen to death more than 114,000 people, and more than 80,000 people have been frostbitten. The total casualties reached More than 200,000 people. Among them, the French 2nd Army and the French 3rd Army suffered the most casualties, and the reduction of the two armies has reached 30%. "

Listening to those numbers, Xiao Jie felt his heart was bleeding. More than 200,000 people! That's a quarter of all the troops on the front line now, and it's just gone. It is more than the soldiers lost in the battle with the Russian army.

"Your Majesty, those wounded must be sent back to the country immediately, otherwise the situation will be very critical." Dougal said.

"Arrange troops to send them back. One batch will be taken by land, and the rest will be taken by sea. Send them back for treatment as soon as possible. In addition, order the country to treat these wounded at all costs. Who dares to be passive? , be punished as treason." Xiao Jie said in a deep voice. The injuries of these wounded are relatively serious. With the current situation on the front line, there is no way to treat them, so they have to be sent back to China for treatment.

Dougal nodded, he knew what to do. "By the way, Your Majesty, except for the 2nd and 3rd French Legions, the chiefs of all the legions have arrived. Do you think the military meeting can start?" Dugor asked. Some time ago, everyone focused on fighting the severe cold, and all military operations were cancelled. Now that the weather has improved, it is time for the next stage of deployment.

"Let them go to the meeting room. A meeting will be held in half an hour." Xiao Jie said. Then he began to sort out his thoughts, anyway, the matter had already happened, and now he could only face it with his best.

In the spacious conference room, several large stoves radiate heat, making this large conference room very warm. A long conference table was full of senior generals from various legions. It's just that these generals didn't play around as usual, because all the legions suffered heavy losses in this heavy snow, so the atmosphere seemed very silent.

Xiao Jie opened the door and walked in, took a look at everyone, then went straight to the main seat, and said: "Before the meeting starts, everyone pays 3 minutes' silence to the sacrificed soldiers."

Everyone lowered their heads, and a sad atmosphere perplexed the entire meeting room.

After 3 minutes, Xiao Jie took a deep breath, then calmed down, and said, "Okay, now the meeting begins. Item 1, each legion reports the loss of its own troops and the current situation."

The commander of the 88th Army, Thomas, who was sitting under Xiao Jie's hands, first stood up and said: "During the heavy snowfall, the 88th Army has reduced its personnel by 15%. Currently, the troops are stationed in the Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan areas. Now Troops are short of winter clothing and fuel, and soldiers' morale is very low."

Then, Saint-Cyr, the head of the French 4th Army, also stood up and said: "During the heavy snowfall, the French 4th Army has reduced its personnel by 25%. Currently, the troops are stationed in the Penza area. Now the troops lack winter supplies." Clothing and fuel, soldiers' morale is also very low."

Afterwards, the captains of the two Iberian legions also reported that the reduction of the two legions had reached 20%, the morale was also low, and there was a lack of clothing and fuel for the winter. The two regiments were stationed in the Saratov region and the Ulyanovsk region.

After listening to everyone's report, Xiao Jie frowned. He knew that the biggest problem facing the army now was the lack of winter supplies and morale. But in this case, both problems are very difficult to solve. "The country is already working hard, and a large amount of winter supplies are being shipped from the country in a steady stream. Please rest assured that if you persist for a while, the troops will definitely not be troubled by the winter supplies. As for the morale issue, I will thank you all. Go back and comfort me more." Xiao Jie said helplessly. Fortunately, before the heavy snow came, the main force of the Russian army had been wiped out by the French army. Otherwise, they would have to prevent the Russian army from taking the opportunity to launch a counterattack.

"Your Majesty, I have a suggestion." Dougal said suddenly;

"Let's talk." Xiao Jie said after glancing at him.

"Now the legions have penetrated deep into the heart of Russia. This is not a problem in normal times, but now, it has hidden a great crisis for us. Under such circumstances, the troops are far away from the supply center, causing the front line to stretch. The logistics supply line is too large, and the logistics supply line is very fragile. In addition, it is very cold now, so that the logistics supply lines of each legion may be cut off at any time. Once such a thing happens, it will bring us disaster. Although The Russian army has been severely damaged by our army, but God knows if they still have the strength to fight back? Therefore, I think that all troops should immediately withdraw from their current positions and retreat to the vicinity of Moscow. This will be conducive to supply on the one hand, and on the other hand Strengthen the defense of our army," Dugor said.

"What's everyone's opinion?" Xiao Jie asked. He knew that it took so much effort for everyone to finally achieve such a big breakthrough, and if he asked everyone to give up like this, some people might be overwhelmed.

Fortunately, Xiao Jie's worries did not happen. Everyone still understood the current situation very well. After a little discussion, they all agreed to withdraw to the vicinity of Moscow to rest.

After deliberation, finally, Xiao Jie ordered that all front-line legions will begin to retreat to the Moscow area after the disaster. Among them, the 88th Army retreated to the area near Moscow. The 4th French Army retreated to the area near Ryazan, the 1st Iberian Army retreated to the area near Tula, and the 2nd Iberian Army retreated to the Voronezh area. At the same time, the combat plans of each unit have also undergone substantial revisions. The previous battle plan was to pursue the fleeing Russian army, but now it uses the four big cities of Moscow, Ryazan, Tula, and Voronezh as the fulcrum, together with the small cities near these big cities, to form a solid line of defense to prevent Russian counterattack in winter. Therefore, after the troops arrive at the new station, the first task is to build a defense line and store supplies for the winter. The most important combat task of eliminating the Russian army has to be postponed until next spring. In this way, it also marks that the strategic goal of the French army has changed from a strategic offensive to a comprehensive defense.

In this heavy snowfall, the French 2nd and 3rd Army suffered the most serious losses. At the same time, their strategic task of capturing St. Petersburg also failed to complete. In order to reduce the loss of the troops, Xiao Jie asked them to stop the offensive and retreat to the Riga area on the Baltic Sea coast, where they built a defense line to prevent possible counterattacks by the Russian army.

As for the southern line troops composed of the Iberian 3rd Army and the Russian Liberation Army, because they are located in the south of Russia, the heavy snow did not have any impact on them. In the previous period of battle, they had successfully defeated the remnants of the Russian Southern Front and part of the Don Front, occupied the Rostov area, and drove the Russian army to the lower reaches of the Volga River.

In mid-November, the second batch of frozen materials arrived, which fundamentally changed the situation on the front line. Almost all soldiers put on thick coats, and fuel such as wood and coal also arrived one after another, so that the troops did not have to worry about it. No worries.

By the end of November, the new line of defense had begun to take shape, and it only needed to do some follow-up work. Until this time, Xiao Jie's hanging heart was relieved~lightnovelpub.net~Your Majesty, there is no war for the time being, do you think you should go back to Paris first? I can stay. "Dougal suggested.

Xiao Jie nodded, and then said: "Okay, I'm going to return to Paris. However, you can go back too, I believe Thomas and the others are enough to deal with any emergencies." I have been away from Paris for several months, and I really should go back. Presumably all kinds of documents on the desk have piled up like a mountain. It is really hard to be an emperor! Xiao Jie thought with some self-deprecating.

"Okay, then I'll go back too." Dougal said after thinking for a while.

"I wonder if we have too many troops in Russia. There is no fighting now, and the Russian army has been severely damaged. Even if they launch a counterattack, it must be impossible to gather too many troops. We keep two About one legion is enough. The rest of the legions will all retreat to Poland, Prussia or Austria for rest. In this way, the troops can recover their combat effectiveness as soon as possible." Xiao Jie said after thinking for a while.

Dougal's eyes lit up, yes! Keeping hundreds of thousands of troops here is nothing more than wasting food in vain. It not only wastes national power, but also puts huge pressure on logistics. Instead of this, it is better to temporarily withdraw the excess troops from Russia.