"Nearly 1 million troops launched an offensive on a front of more than 500 kilometers, breaking through all the lines in the depth of the Russian defense in less than nine hours."

Picking up the chess pieces representing the command of the Russian Second Army on the huge combat map in front of him and playing with them between his fingers, Goltz said lightly: "This is going more smoothly than we expected. ”

"Indeed, I didn't expect the Russians to be able to hold out even for a day." Birlo, who leaned over the table, shook his head: "Sometimes it's not a good thing to go too well, and we may have some trouble next." ”

It's true that there are some troubles, and I've been fighting with the Russians for almost 2 months, and I almost know what kind of virtue the other side is. With the organization, execution, and speed of action of the Russians, I am afraid that the reserves were not even able to throw into the defense line and were broken through. It is naturally a good thing that you don't have to face the enemy's fresh forces thrown into the battlefield when attacking, but if these new forces retreat directly, it will not be so easy to chase, especially since the Imperial Army has the idea of swallowing the Russians in one bite.

"How's it going?" Billo straightened up and asked Major Baker, Chief of Staff in the Operations Division.

"It's going well, Your Excellency Chief of the General Staff, Your Excellency the Chief of the Division." Major Baker pointed his whip at the map, and several staff officers used their levers to push the pieces on the map toward their known positions.

"Our 1st Army, after breaking through the lines of the Russian 3rd Army in the area of Strasbourg-Ostrode-Allenstein, is advancing towards Neidenburg, and is expected to enter Poland through Mvawa within 48 hours.

Our 8th Army, having broken through the defense line of the Russian 2nd Army on the Rastenburg-Bischovsburg line, has been advancing in a southwesterly direction and is now located in the area north of Lake Masuria.

The 8th Army planned to encircle and annihilate the Russian 3rd Army east of Neidenburg and southwest of Lake Masuria, so as to ensure the security of the lines of communication in the rear of our 1st Army. In order to achieve this goal, the two divisions of our 8th Army, which had broken through from the direction of Strasbourg, were trying to move eastward, outflanking to the southeast of Neidenburg through Soldao, and completely cutting off the retreat of the Russian 3rd Army.

After breaking through the defense line of the Russian 4th Army, our 4th Army entered Poland and is expected to reach Vłocławik on the banks of the Vistula River within 72 hours.

After our 2nd Army broke through the defense line of the Russian 5th Army, it began to spread to both sides, and our 3rd Army, as a strategic reserve, was on standby in the rear of the 2nd Army in case the Russian army counterattacked"

After the breakthrough of the Russian 6th Army from Krakow, our 5th Army is expected to arrive in Częstochowa within 72 hours.

"The key is to see whether the Russians' 3rd Army can be completely eaten, and the Russians must not be allowed to withdraw to Poland, otherwise the encirclement of Lodz will encounter great variables." Bilow pointed to Rhodes' location on the map twice and said, "Prittwitz is under a lot of pressure. ”

"The speed of the advance of the 4th Army is important, and it is absolutely impossible to waste too much time on crossing the river." Goltz nodded: "The sooner Crook enters East Prussia, the less pressure Pritwitz will have." And if it is fast, the 2nd Army of the Russians will not be able to run. ”

"Do you want the 1st Army to draw 3-4 divisions to participate in the encirclement of the Russian 3rd Army? In this way, it will not be necessary to completely look at the speed of Crook, and it will be easier for the 8th Army to block the Russian 2nd Army on the flank, which is trying to relieve the Russian 3rd Army. Barrow mused: "This will not affect Mackensen's speed, and when Crook enters East Prussia, the overall situation on the northern front is basically decided, and it will be too late to return these troops to Mackensen." ”

Instead of answering immediately, Goltz wandered his gaze between Lodz and Lake Masurian.

Bülo's suggestion was quite sound, the Russians' defensive line had been penetrated, and the Russians had to deal with Crook and Herzendorf's two armies head-on, and Mackensen's attack would indeed not encounter much resistance.

But......

In the end, Golz still set his sights on Lodz, and the core of the Lodz encirclement was that Mackensen's 1st Army and Falkenhein's 5th Army converged in Lodz to form the bottom of the pocket of the Russian army.

But will both armies be able to arrive at the same time as planned? There's a question mark over that. The 1st Army is more mobile, and when the 8th Army encircles the Russian 3rd Army, Mackensen's move south to the rear of the Russian army on the southern front should be very smooth.

In contrast, the speed of the northward advance may have some problems with the possible interception organized by the Russian 6th Army, which was broken through the defensive line, and the remnants of the Russian 5th Army, which began to retreat after being broken through the defensive line by Hitzendorf.

Then when Mackensen arrives in Lodz, and Falkenhain is not yet in position, then in the worst-case scenario, it is possible to face the remnants of the retreating Russian 3 armies and the Russian 9th Army that rushed to the rescue from the direction of Warsaw......

It's not that I'm afraid that Mackensen's 1st Army will be eaten by the Russians, if it really can't hold Lodz, the 1st Army will not have a big problem breaking through, and the Russians who were defeated by the 2nd Army and the 5th Army will only desperately want to break through the defense line of the 1st Army and flee to the rear to join their 9th Army, and there will be no effort to build a defensive position at all.

If the 1st Army wants to break through, with the mobility of the 1st Army, it will find an opportunity to engage in a confrontation with the Russians in the movement, and after the breakthrough, it will not have much problem joining Herzendorf. But in this way, the 1st Army suffered even greater losses, and the strategic purpose of eating at least two army groups of Russians on the southern front was also bankrupt, and a missing bottom bag could not hold the Russians. It's totally unworthy!

"It's too cautious, and if you want to eat the Russians completely, you always have to take this risk." Goltz also vetoed Bilow's proposal.

"I never thought that breaking through too quickly would be a bad thing." Birch couldn't help but frown.

No one in the General Staff would doubt that the General Staff would fail to break through the Russians' defensive line, but if the Russians could hold out for 48 hours, no, even 24 hours, and the reserves put in by the Russians would be crowded into a line of defense more than ten kilometers deep, then it would be much less difficult for the Imperial Army to chop the Russians into minced meat and wrap them into Russian-style dumplings after breaking through.

But now, I'm afraid it's not that easy.

"Carl, you're still so cautious." Goltz put the pieces back in his hand: "It's just 'some troubles', and we have the ability to solve them. ”

"Maybe." Billo nodded: "But your appetite is too big, be careful of indigestion." ”

"If you miss this time, it's hard to have such an opportunity in the future." Goltz smiled and said, "This is also what Your Majesty meant, to destroy the human resources of the Russians as much as possible." ”

"Human Resources." Bilo looked at the dense chess pieces on the map and sighed: "Your Majesty really used a terrible word. ”

For staff officers, it is their job to count soldiers as numbers. However, His Majesty the Emperor's concept of total warfare goes a step further, treating everything needed for war as a resource, including people, not just soldiers, and every living person is just a resource that can be consumed in this war.

"Total warfare is such a terrible thing." "We've understood this, and the Russians want to understand that they have to pay expensive tuition," Goltz said with a smile. ”

"The key is to hold back the Russians as much as possible." After thinking for a moment, Bilo said, "Small troubles are troubles, and my job is to solve them." ”

As a cautious veteran and head of the Operations Division of the Imperial Army's General Staff, Billlow still felt that he could not rely entirely on the front-line troops to solve these "little troubles" on their own.

"We don't have enough cards in our hands, so let's go to the Navy to borrow them!"

It's not that the General Staff is left without units that can be used. The new 9th Army could have been used at this time, but in the current situation in East Prussia, speed is more important than quantity, and if there are too many of them, it will affect the speed, and throwing the 9th Army into it will not necessarily have a better effect.

And the offensive of the Imperial Army went well, then the Russians could be counted as a complete defeat. Britain and France could not ignore this, and it was inevitable that they would intensify their offensive on the Western Front in an attempt to share the pressure on the Russians. The exhaustion of the exhaustion of the 8th Army in East Prussia to carry the Russian attacks in turn was also visible to the General Staff. When the time comes, the 6th and 7th armies will face the attack of the British and French forces, and it may not be safe to rely on a new 10th Army as a reserve force, and the 9th Army will also be ready to throw itself into the Western Front at any time.

"If the battlefield can be covered from the southwest of Lake Masurian to the Soldao, it will not take too long, and the two divisions of the 8th Army marching from the direction of Strasbourg will return to the east of the Soldaou for an estimated 48 hours. All we have to fight for now is time, and there are no troops that are faster than airplanes!

Although I believe that Prittwitz is now also transferring him to the FFA as a mule, the combat intensity of the FFA must be high in order to cooperate with the offensive operation, and it is impossible for the four FFA wings to take care of all the troops in the offensive direction. The Navy now has an attack aircraft wing in Stettin and Memel, and the transition will not take much time.

In addition, the navy has a different communication system from ours, so let the navy send their correspondents with them, and let the aviation staff of the 8th Army do a good job of docking, so that they don't let them drop bombs on their own heads.

We just need planes and pilots! The navy doesn't have to worry about fuel and ammunition, they just need to send it as fast as possible! If it weren't for Prittwitz's 1st Army, which held off the Russians, Memel would have been lost a long time ago, and they had borrowed our airship and still haven't returned it, so it would be time for them to return our favors. ”