Hermans and Crussians consolidate.

Diovsky, the top Crussian spy made use of the pause in the Herman advance to visit the many small Crussian communities hiding in the woods. Most of the peasants were illiterate but they could recognise the portraits of the Tsar and the saints and saw the seal of their king. The men were bound to mobilize as the local militias and they would defend their homes and Mother Crussia. It would take some time to find and organise the scattered peasants.

Von Ryan knew his forces were stretched. He had inflicted great damage on the Crussians but now they simply waited for his assault across the River Olga. There were two bridges and the newly discovered river crossing, suitable for disciplined cavalry but not infantry.

He knew that there were small numbers of Crussian cavalry behind his lines but what damage could those gnats do? The scattered peasants were no problem. Had they not all fled? He had heard that some of his men had been uncivilized in their dealings with the Crussian women and brutal with some cossack prisoners but Von Ryan was not known for his humanitarianism. In fact, he had insisted that his soldiers view the scene of the massacre of the Duseldof Farm. He wanted his men to be aggressive and spirited in the battle which lay ahead and thought little of the possibility of them committing their own atrocities. August 6 was to be the date for the new offensive.

Von Fleet lay in an army hospital. Few thought that he could recover from his dangerous stomach wound. The lancer reserves would not have his heroic leadership.

The cossack leader, Patriech, with Diovsk's assistance, had escaped Herman captivity. He also was out of the action as he was delirious from a head wound which had not penetrated his brain but had knocked out his sensibility. Peasants had carried him to a nunnery and he was tended by the attentive sisters.

Westernsky welcomed the arrival of the heavy naval cannon, a present from Redia, formerly his enemy. (Redia was suspicious of Hermany's military spending now directed to its navy as well as its army. It had replaced Crussia as the new threat. Redia had even lost interest in defending the Sultanate of Fez from the Crussians especially given the recent Fezians atrocities against Balkan people in the provinces of Snookum Ookum and Moveova. In fact, warriors from those provinces were presently serving in the tsar's army in the hope that his army would one day free them from the Fezian tyranny). 

His medium cannon also was prepared. Both guns would have sandbag protection while they waited for  large targets of Hermans crossing the bridges.Westernsky had also directed a machinegun crew to defend Tolstoy. The rest of his army hid in the forests, waiting the most convenient time to launch the counter attack.