Just as the 1st Army was tearing through the Russian lines, a train from Eylau was speeding along the southwestern railway line.

"Report! The command of the 8th Army called! ”

"Read!"

"The 1st Army has broken through the Russian defense line at 9:30!" The young communications soldier read excitedly that the 1st Army's attack had gone so smoothly that he was full of pride in the strength of the Imperial Army.

However, this exciting news surprised the commander of the car, Lieutenant Colonel Olzewsky: "So fast?! ”

It may have been a prelude to a brilliant victory for the Imperial Army, but it was not good news for themselves and the troops under their command.

The 20th Division of the 8th Army is attacking along the railway line, and its task is to occupy the Soerdao railway station, build fortifications, hold the Soerdao Railway Station, hold the Soerdao until the 20th Division arrives, prevent the Russian army from retreating through the railway line, and buy time for other troops to divide and encircle the Russian army.

This was not a difficult task, Soldao was just a small city with less than 10,000 inhabitants, and after the Russian army advanced to the south of the Gloudenz-Gherdownn-Tilsit line, it became the distribution center of the Russian 2nd and 3rd armies, and the materials stored in Mvawa in Poland were continuously transported to Soldao by rail, and then transported to the 2nd and 3rd armies in the front.

The reconnaissance plane's reconnaissance of this place in the early stage showed that the Russian troops in the city of Soerdao were not large, only about one infantry regiment, and the Russians obviously thought that Soldao, which was behind the defense line of the two army groups, was quite safe.

Therefore, the chief of the operations section of the General Staff of the 8th Army, Max? Colonel Hoffmann very boldly proposed to use armored trains to preemptively occupy Soldao by the railway line after the offensive of the 1st and 8th armies against the Russian lines. Although the 1910 guidelines for the use of armored trains did not include the task of attacking, in the case of a frontal attack by the Russian forces, the armored trains did not actually encounter too stubborn resistance, and the armored trains were capable of crushing the attack of a single Russian infantry regiment.

What gave Colonel Hoffman such confidence was the firepower of the Reich's standard armored trains.

Since the Army General Staff decided to build its own armored train in 1902, absorbing the experience of the British in the successful use of armored trains in the Boer War. However, in 1906, the General Staff of the Army proposed a plan to build 32 armored trains, which was rejected by Jochen.

Jochen's veto was certainly targeted, as the plan would take up tractors, and would be costly, crowding out funds for the Army's equipment and other equipment, and would be of little use in peacetime. Historically, the plan of the General Staff to build 32 armored trains was eventually completed due to financial problems.

The problem is not only that, and the design standards of armored trains proposed by the German Army in history are not as good as those of the Austro-Kharain, and the design standards of the current General Staff for armored trains do not even consider the installation of artillery, while the historical guidelines for the use of armored trains in Austria-Hungary clearly state that "the impact of shelling on morale is very necessary." ”

Therefore, Jochen preferred to reduce the number of armored trains to be built in order to improve the quality, so he directly intervened in the General Staff's armored train construction program, and only approved the construction of 8 armored trains by the army. And put forward the design standards for armored trains, the army is only allowed to keep 8 specially built armored tractor heads, with specially built combat cars to form a standard configuration, if funds allow, can build more combat cars for backup.

In wartime, the armoured tractor head was obtained by quickly modifying the normal head, which was a trivial matter for Germany's industrial capacity, and the Germans had modified nine armoured tow heads in just 24 hours after the start of the war. In this way, you only need to hang the combat car on the front of the modified tractor to get an armored train.

In this case, as one of only 8 standard armoured trains in the Imperial Army, the armoured train in its standard configuration had 1 armored towing car, 1 command car, 2 fire support cars equipped with a 75 mm field gun rotating turret and a twin 12.7 mm heavy machine gun rotating turret, 2 troop carriers equipped with a water-cooled heavy machine gun turret, 4 light machine gun firing holes and capable of carrying an infantry platoon, and the towing locomotive and carriage were covered with 20 mm thick armor. The key areas have been thickened to 50 mm.

Moreover, for this mission, the No. 7 armored train under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Orzevisky was strengthened with a temporarily modified tractor head, two artillery cars equipped with a 105-mm howitzer rotating turret, and two troop transport cars, and the flatbed cars that were originally used to defend against explosives and place rails and sleepers for the maintenance of railways were increased from 2 to 4 cars, and the extra flatbed cars were parked with 2 assault guns, and 2 platoons of infantry were also seated on the rails and sleepers.

After fighting with the Russians for so long, Colonel Hoffman also has enough knowledge of the firepower of the Russians, and a regiment-level unit has only 8 Makqin water-cooled machine guns, and there is basically no regimental artillery, even if it is an infantry regiment with reinforced artillery on the first-line defensive position, there are only 2 76.2 mm field guns, and heavy artillery is not seen by divisional and brigade-level troops.

This firepower convinced Colonel Hoffman that there would be little problem with using armoured trains to capture the Soldau railway station and fend off a Russian infantry regiment with six platoons of infantry.

In fact, the firepower of the Russians was even more unbearable than Colonel Hoffman thought, the total number of machine guns in the country at the beginning of the war was less than 5,000, and the plan to equip each infantry regiment with a machine gun detachment with 8 machine guns was not fully achieved, and the plan to strengthen the artillery formulated after the Russo-Japanese War was even more just a plan, and an infantry regiment guarding the rear railway station wanted to get the reinforcement of the artillery unit completely pipe dream.

As long as the railway station can be taken and the attack of the Russian infantry regiment can be crushed, then the armored train can go back and forth on the railway line to protect the railway from the sabotage of the reacting Russian army, so as to cover the safety of the train that is transporting reinforcements to the rear to Soldao, and it is planned that at least 2 regiments of reinforcements will arrive in Soldao.

But now the speed of progress of the 1st Army has greatly exceeded expectations, and if it breaks through the Russian defense line in such a short time, then the speed of the 8th Army will not be too slow, so that soon a large number of Russian troops who want to retreat will flock to Soldao, and they have not yet arrived at Soldao Railway Station at this time! This means that in the worst-case scenario, reinforcements have not yet arrived, and only 6 platoons of troops will have to withstand the first wave of the Russians' attack!

However, the military order was like a mountain, and Lieutenant Colonel Olzevisky could only bite the bullet and continue to advance.

"Russian infantry! 10 o'clock! ”

"The Russians don't react very quickly."

The Soldao railway station is already close at hand, and Olzevisky has already prepared that the Russian army in the city of Soldao has received the news that it has prepared a defense at the railway station, and his troops are ready to attack. But now the Russians have only begun to rush to the train station, and it is estimated that the Russians in the city of Soldau saw the billowing smoke from the train and knew that the Germans had run under their noses.

"Slow down! Let the infantry jump out of the car! No fire support! Let them take the station themselves! ”

As a logistical transit point for the Russians, there are still a lot of weapons and ammunition piled up in the Soldau railway station, and Olzevisky does not want to blow up the entire station with one shell, and the firepower on the train cannot be exerted after entering the station. However, even without the fire support of armored trains, the firepower of the German infantry was still far superior to that of the Russians, and since the Russians had only reacted, there would not be many defenders in the station, and it would not be difficult to take the station.

The Russians did see the smoke before discovering the German train, as a material transfer station in the rear of the two army groups, Soldao did have a few radio stations, but from the morning after receiving the news that the Germans had begun to attack, the number of various telegrams received by the radio stations began to increase dramatically, and the number of various telegrams not only made the unskilled operators scramble, but the content of the telegrams was also contradictory and contradictory.

In the case of the Germans frantically sending all kinds of clear code telegrams to interfere with the Russians' communications, the Russian troops in Soldau did not receive the news that a German train was approaching from the front, and it was too late for them to find out and reinforce the railway station.

"Goal! 10 o'clock direction Russian infantry! Free Fire! ”

The Russian infantry battalion, which was rushing to the train station, saw a scene they will never forget: a train full of fire drove up to its flank, and its spitting tongues of fire completely enveloped itself like a storm!

Shells exploded around the Russians, shredded limbs scattered in all directions, 12.7mm machine gun bullets penetrated the human body and sent out clouds of blood, and 7.62mm machine guns swept the Russians down in rows like wheat.

No infantry battalion could withstand the fire of two 105 mm and two 75 mm howitzers, four 12.7 mm and four 7.62 mm heavy machine guns and eight 7.62 mm light machine guns.

The thick smoke of gunpowder could not be dissipated in the carriage, and the hot shells piled up every collection box on the floor of the carriage, and in just 3 minutes, the closed compartment almost turned into a steamer. Olzevisky's armored train poured more than 50 rounds of 105-mm shells, 100 rounds of 75-mm shells, 2000 rounds of 12.7-mm shells and 8000 rounds of 7.62-mm rounds on the Russians. The open field was full of Russian soldiers, whose stumps and arms were torn apart by artillery fire and machine guns!

"Our rifle can't penetrate steel plates at all, it's like a steel dragon, spitting flames and tearing us apart!" This was said by the man who survived by luck when he later recalled this scene.