To all the arguments, Orgarkov answers one by one.
"Comrade this is not only about heavy casualties or not, this is about how fast can we push through the enemy or even can we push through if we only want speed. If we are doing just like the Ukraine Front nuking every mountain, we still need to send soldiers down the tunnel and clean. I understand as long as there is war there is sacrifice, but some of it can avoided."
"How slow should you think it should be? Comrade. If we are trying to use nukes to blow up the whole mountain, and then use superior fire to clean the remaining tunnel underground, then you should expect us to push the front line with the speed of a few ten kilometres a year. I understand young soldiers and officers are eager to establish merit, but they should also understand that a soldier must obey orders."
Gerasimov also agreed with Orgarkov's point.
"Comrade Marshal was right, I have seen the tunnel that was built by the orcs. To be honest, the tunnel they built was built in very high quality, even after nuking the whole mountain, there are still a few floors of the tunnel below. I have no idea how they made it, perhaps it's again their magic and the war beast did it. But again, they hollowed out the entire mountain and converted it into their whole tunnel system. The tunnel also connected each tunnel and their rear, so we can't encircle them."
"In Belarus Front, as we mention in the report, we have used all types of chemical, biological, and flame to due with their tunnel, and comrade you all know how it ends. I also agreed with Marshal suggestion, we need some time to come out with better weapons and tactics to counter the tunnel. Our army does not have enough experience in fighting in tunnels, only those advisors who went to Vietnam have some, but even that, most of the time the Vietnamese Army tunnel tactics are taught by the Chinese PLA and the experience they have gained in actual combat."
Zaitsev at this time also support Orgarkov.
However, the others did not seem convinced that even three of the main commanders in the front were asking for peace. Seeing that the meeting room was about to fall into a quarrel again, Brezhnev immediately spoke out to stop it.
"Alright, Comrade. It seems like we are arguing about whether we should have peace now. That's alright. We will discuss these in the future. Now let us go with the next topic, Kosygin. You turn to speak."
Orgarkov sighs. Peace does not come so easily. He clearly knows that, except for commanders like them who know what is going to happen if the war continues, everyone else in the country expects the war to continue. Smart and patriotic people in the country know what the real crisis is: it is not the enemies or threats from outside but from within. The country is still strong, but it is not the great one any more.
"To all comrade, the topic I would like to discuss with you all is an even more serious one. It is about our food crisis. Before the meeting starts, I have prepared two plans, one is in the situation where we have to make peace, and the other is in the situation where we would like to continue the war. No matter which plan, at now, I would like to inform everyone here, that we are going to have rationing in all our cities."
Kosygin's words immediately caused a sensation, many did not understand why would they just fall into a food crisis.
"Comrade Minister, what happened to our country's food? Did the undead and orcs cast some kind of magic to make our food unable to eat? Or did they cause our agriculture to be unable to produce food?"
Someone asked Kosygin, but Kosygin's answer somehow shocked them.
"No Comrade, the food is still able to eat, perhaps the undead and orcs do apply some magic on it, but at least for now, it still can eat, and be produced. I will just show you all the statistics, for these few years, our harvest has been bad, and the gap between our domestic consumption and production is getting bigger. To fill the gap, in the previous year, we imported food from Canada and the USA, and for meat, according to our plan, Romania will be the one responsible for producing, and thus we import many from them."
"But now, we came to this world, and war happened. Many young has been conscripted to the front, making our efficiency in the collective farm even lower. If we remain on today's status, we predict that after one year, our people and soldiers will start to get food of very poor quality. I believe this may cause some unstable to the country, as in our previous propaganda, we state that our harvest is good, our country is becoming stronger and stronger."
Orgarkov listened to Kosygin's words, and sighed again, what he worried was still happening. By the time he is still in the front, he already received complaints that some soldiers get bad, rotten food. He clearly knows that the strong Red Army is weak.
Smuggling activities in the military are becoming more rampant, soldiers will exchange for alcohol, cigarettes, and better food with others. This happens very often in the GSFG, those in Germany. These troops are even the best-treated and well-supplied troops in the entire Red Army, even them will want to exchange for food, and those in the country will only get worse food.
When Orgarkov visited America, he once heard a joke about the USSR. If he was not mistaken, it comes from the Khrushchev era.
One day, the American President took Khrushchev to a bread factory, showing off to him, the time that bread needed to be made in the American Industry. Khrushchev only just laughed disdainfully and said,
"This is not something new, in the Soviet Union, we can make ICBM at this speed."
Of course, this was not real during the Khrushchev era, but it is real in this era, the Brezhnev era. The country can make missiles at the speed of producing bread, but it cannot produce bread at the same speed.
He laughed at himself, how ironic!