The entire Card Maintenance Guard has a total of 25 people, most of whom were personally ordered by Franz. Although their military ranks are not high, they have been strictly trained from captain to team members, and because of the uniqueness of the mission, even if they are not equipped in special circumstances, The captain's on-the-spot command can also complete his job well.
Captain Aleister has served in the army for more than 20 years. He is very skilled and his on-the-spot judgment is also very accurate.
Not long after Kawei was forcibly evacuated from the operating room, and while his mind was still thinking about what to do with the soldiers lying on the operating table, the Prussian artillery fire covering the block of the temporary hospital taught him a good lesson.
As soon as Kawei got into the carriage, he couldn't help but ask the guard captain who was looking out the window: "Where is the patient I just operated on???"
"When we evacuated, there were other soldiers who were dealing with the aftermath. They should have been taken away by others." Naturally, Aleister didn't know what happened to the patient. All he could do now was to make Kavi calm down, "They were sent by Jia Brunz's Osa-Saharan coalition is responsible for the transfer, and we have no right to interfere."
Kawei could not question this arrangement and could only ask: "What about Teacher Ignatz?"
"We have already boarded the previous carriage and left. The entire military hospital is being transferred. Dr. Carvey should think more about himself." Aleister tightened the reins and asked the first emergency team to get on the carriage. "We are all still here." We are not out of danger yet.”
"By the way, where are we going now?"
"First go east to the headquarters of the Sixth Army, and figure out the next deployment direction of the entire western front before making a decision." Aleister winked at the team member in the driver's seat of the carriage and warned, "Please stop. Dr. Wei, sit still, the carriage will be bumpy next time."
Although the entire military hospital is being transferred, only a few of the few can really leave by carriage like Kawei.
Most ordinary doctors and nurses can only rely on walking, while the wounded who cannot move normally rely on slower oxcarts.
In order to ensure the transfer of the wounded, the army also needs to consider the supply of food and fresh water, and also needs a decent escort to accompany them. In reality, however, this is almost impossible to do in the center of Gablenz.
The Prussian attack was very swift and violent, with the advance speed far exceeding the evacuation speed. The defense line outside the city could not withstand it for long before it was shattered. Even as the Prussian soldiers quickly broke into the city center, there were still a large number of wounded who failed to catch the last bullock cart and became prisoners of the other side in the ward.
And the wounded who got on the bullock carts didn't fare much better.
The bumpy, muddy road and the harsh noise made by the wheels of the oxcart were not enough to hinder the movement of the vehicle, but they made the wounded soldiers lying on the wooden boards miserable. The simple axles and wheels are not even fixed together, and can only be temporarily fixed by some metal inserts.
But no matter how it is handled, the sound produced by the rotation of the axle cannot be avoided, which not only tortures people but also attracts pursuers. Even if the noise is really avoided, unless the car is of excellent quality, at a traveling speed of less than 20 kilometers per day, it will still be overtaken by the Prussian soldiers pursuing from behind.
If they really get rid of the pursuit by luck, the average 3-5 wounded soldiers in each vehicle will still have to face their own injuries, the cold weather in October, and the dilemma of lack of food.
In the end, like Kawei, very few people were able to join the Sixth Army who was retreating at the same time in the wild that night.
A small number of them were fed with artillery shells and bullets, most of them became prisoners of Prussia, and some of the wounded soldiers died on the road due to excessive injuries. Of course, this also included a large number of deserters who chose to disappear.
Kawei and his team safely entered the temporary barracks of the Sixth Army under the arrangement of the escort, but he couldn't be happy: "The entire medical deployment on the Western Front is very backward. It feels like watching a scene from the last century." war."
"Dr. Carvey still likes to complain."
Laming was lying on the couch outside the tent, looking at the crescent moon in the sky and the shining stars around him: "It's not bad, at least the weather will be good these days."
"Deputy Marshal Laming, I have no objection at all to frontline command and leading troops in battles, but medical deployment is my responsibility, and it is my responsibility to point out the mistakes!" Kawei was sitting on a stone not far away, wearing a shawl. Wearing a thick military coat, "No matter how you look at it, Gablenz's medical deployment is a failure!"
"I know, but there's nothing I can do about it."
Lamin took the vegetable soup sent by the soldiers, took two sips, and said: "Gablenz's army was originally in chaos. Not only the Austrians, but also Sarsen and a bunch of South Prussian troops were mixed in. . The command of this miscellaneous army is not in my hands, I am only responsible for the command of the Sixth Army."
"I mean medical deployment!"
"This shouldn't come out of your mouth." Laming smiled and said, "Whether it is the Sixth Army or that miscellaneous army, the military medical deployment is fully responsible for the military medical department."
"But you said yes before"
"I don't want your conflict with the Military Medical Department to affect the Sixth Army."
"This is not a personal grudge, this is about the life of the entire Western Front Army!"
Although the medical deployment on the Western Front did have nothing to do with Kawei, after seeing the real situation with his own eyes, he still felt that the loopholes were too big and he couldn't stand it: "Because of the failure of the medical deployment, it caused panic during the retreat! If it was On the northern line, there are military hospitals in front and behind the Olmitz Fortress, and there are also a large number of escort carriage teams in the middle, which will form a buffer, at least."
"Okay, okay." Laming interrupted him and said with a wry smile, "Dr. Kawei, I think you were focused on training before the war, or were you writing your military medical manual? "
"What do you mean?"
"You can look at the equipment used by the doctors on the Northern Front, and then look at the equipment on the Western Front. Not to mention horse-drawn carriages, there are very few accompanying mules."
Lamin drank the vegetable soup and continued: "In order to remove the 'tentacles of Laszlo', Edinson put a lot of thought into it. Of course, the army has already drained the empire's treasury. The front line is different from the northern line. It is far away from the capital and there are so many coalition forces to help, so we should be frugal."
Kawei did not take a close look at the medicines and equipment provided by the military doctors on the Western Front. He attributed those seemingly difficult scenes to the losses caused by the war.
But now it seems that the defeat on the Western Front has exposed the shortcomings of the outdated management model of the Military Medical Department. Even ether for anesthesia has become a scarce commodity throughout the Sixth Army. In this supposedly silent night, Kawei could still hear the screams in the surgical tent not far away.
According to his temper, now was the time to enter the surgical tent to help, but Lamin refused to let him intervene, so Kavi could only stay by the fire and "talk" with him.
In his opinion, this kind of heart-to-heart talk was meaningless, because even without any command experience, he could still see some bad signs, and a great defeat on the Western Front was inevitable.
"The hot vegetable soup paired with the bread of our Sixth Army, doesn't it taste good?" Laming asked vaguely, then stood up and walked towards his command tent, "It's enough to make it here alive. Thank God, at least the Prussians won't be marching at night and can sleep well."
"We will continue to retreat eastward tomorrow morning?"
"Of course! The Sixth Army will avoid the Prussian's edge and retreat to Kischin before waiting for Archduke Brecht's order." Laming opened the curtain and looked back at Kawei, "As for Dr. Kawei Whether you follow me back to Kisqin or retreat north on your own depends entirely on your own wishes."
Compared with the "tit-for-tat" between Kawei and Laming, Ignatz on the side was very open-minded.
As the chief surgeon who was also excluded from the ranks of the Sixth Army's military doctors by Lamin, he behaved very calmly: "After all, we are just doctors. Even if we really go on stage to help, how much can we help? Without ether, the precision you represent Surgery has no place at all.”
"Even without anesthesia, my skills are no worse than anyone else's."
"It's nothing more than performing a few more amputations. The Sixth Army has no shortage of amputee doctors."
"Where's the one who was shot in the abdomen?"
"Just bandage it briefly, just like in the war I participated in before."
"But."
"You should be aware of the amount of pain that prolonged abdominal surgery without the aid of anesthesia can cause to a wounded soldier."
Reality gave Kawei no room for choice at all. The only thing he could do now was to take a good rest under Lamin's "temporary arrangement".
Of course, as a modern surgeon, he really couldn't sleep amidst such screams, so he could only distract himself by chatting with Ignatz.
The Franco-Austrian War that the two gradually talked about was actually not that long ago. In just seven years, the equipment of the Austrian military doctors has been greatly upgraded.
At first, the number of mules, escort carriages and light trucks was quite scarce, and military doctors mostly carried rucksacks and first-aid kits on their own. Only some extremely necessary items could be put into the mule's cargo basket, and each infantry regiment might not be able to match one such mule.
"Anyway, now the infantry regiment can be equipped with three mules. It's just that they carry more other items."
"It's okay if there are less medicines. I didn't expect that there is even a shortage of ether."
"After all, the front line is not the capital Vienna. No anesthesia is the norm." Ignatz made a gesture of sawing his legs. "My hand speed was developed at that time. Even if you don't want to saw, those soldiers will beg you." You saw. Because if you don’t saw, the wound will rot and you will die.”
"I'm afraid carbolic acid has bottomed out now."
"Well, it has been used up. Even clean water must be used sparingly. Now we are far away from the freshwater river. If it is used indiscriminately, the freshwater used by the entire Sixth Army will not be able to support Kischin." Ignatz said, "That's right. There is no way, the supplies at the rear cannot keep up, so they can only endure like this. This has been the case in previous wars, just get used to it."
Although Kawei is much older than Ignatz and his surgical skills are completely different, he has zero war experience.
Even though he was mentally prepared before the war began, and saw many battlefield casualties and horrific wounds in the Northern Front Fortress General Hospital, it was only when he actually came to the Western Front that he experienced the cruelty firsthand.
In addition to facing these psychological pressures, real military doctors in the 19th century also had to face the baptism of artillery fire and bullets.
What Kawei experienced during the day was just scratching the surface.
[It is impossible for a responsible team surgeon to stay away from artillery fire, and it is even more difficult for a responsible medical administrator to avoid cannon fire]
This is what Ignatz realized during the Franco-Austrian War, and it was natural for him to write it down in his memoirs. Kawei has read that book and seen this sentence, so he always wants to avoid such a situation.
But the fact is, as Ignatz said, as long as the surgeon behaves "responsibly" enough, war cannot be avoided.
"At that time, my assistants and I were very close to the military flag." Ignatz picked up some memories and told his students, "It was about seven steps behind. Only in this way can we give the fastest possible treatment to the injured. treat."
"In this case, the doctor is equivalent to directly facing the opponent's fire attack."
"There was a shortage of manpower, and there was no evacuation mechanism like today. The only people an entire infantry regiment could handle were two surgeons and a dozen musicians. What we could do at the time was to deal with most of the wounded and injured soldiers on the spot. If their wounds cannot be resolved, they are sent to the army's temporary first aid center, which is probably located at the same location as the Gablenz temporary first aid center during the day."
Ignatz took a bite of the rye bread in his hand and said with a smile: "I really thank God for blessing me to live until now."
Kawei had to lament that the status of a surgeon was completely linked to his own skills. In other words, as long as the surgeon is not strong enough to save enough new troops for the army, the treatment he receives will not be much better.
Compared to the safe rear positions occupied by most modern military doctors, military doctors in the 19th century were actually not much different from ordinary stretcher bearers. Even Ignatz, an outstanding person who had experienced the Franco-Austrian War and was also the chief surgeon of the Military Medical Department, still could not have a escort like Kavi.
What really widened the gap was the abdominal surgery performed by Carvey before the war and the spinal surgery performed on the old marshal.
No matter which one was used, it was highly praised by almost all surgeons and broke the existing records. It was an operation that could truly restore the vitality of the empire.
At this time, the sound of horse hooves was heard in the distance, and the three-person cavalry reconnaissance team returned to the command post.
The leader was the captain of the convoy, Aleister: "Doctor Carvey, the reconnaissance team reported that the Prussian troops have been staying in Gablenz and are not in a hurry to attack here."
"Then follow your wishes, captain."
"Based on the current situation, it is the safest choice to follow the Sixth Army back to Kisschin." Aleister said, "Although the marching speed is not fast enough and a lot of time will be wasted on the road, your safety is the first priority. of."
"How long is the journey?"
"At the rate of retreat during the day, I'm afraid it will take three days to reach Kisschin."
"It will take several days to return to Olmitz from Kischin, not counting the changes that happened on the way, and I was deprived of the right to enter the military medical tent along the way!" Kawei glanced at Ares. Tower, "What if I choose to go back to Olmitz directly?"
(End of chapter)
