On October 17, 1914, all Reich troops on the Eastern Front in Germany received an order from the General Staff for a counteroffensive codenamed "Reich above all", and more than 1 million Reich troops were ready to go.

At 6:30 a.m. on the morning of the 18th, 10,000 artillery pieces fired at the same time on a thousand-kilometer front, and the German artillerymen, who had accumulated ammunition for more than a month, frantically threw the red-hot steel at the Russians' positions, and in just two hours, hundreds of thousands of tons of ammunition were poured on the Russians' heads.

For the first time, the Russian soldiers in the trenches felt the overwhelming artillery fire of the Germans, and the seemingly never-ending sharp whistling and violent explosions accompanied by the vibrations from the ground hit the hearts of the Russian soldiers sitting in the trenches, and the overwhelming shelling constantly stimulated the nerves of the Russians.

The guy who was unlucky enough to be blown up by the shell looked lucky, the guy who was caught in the heart by fear, huddled at the base of the trench wall with his head in his arms and screaming hysterically and trembling his body and sobbing in a suppressed way has completely collapsed, and even if they survive, their future life will probably only be haunted by what happened today and become a lingering nightmare.

The hysterical screams in his ears made Lieutenant Vick hold his head and shrink his huddled body even tighter. As an artillery officer, Captain Victor was in a much better position than the infantrymen who endured fear in the trenches. The Russians, who were constantly battering their heads on the lines of the German 8th Army, had finally learned something, and the machine-gun positions were finally not directly erected on the breast wall of the trenches, but had specially built fire points like the Germans.

The thick log canopy and the thick earth above the canopy gave Lieutenant Vick some psychological comfort, but the sound of the cannonball's explosion still made his heart feel like it was being held tightly by a large hand, and his huddled body squeezed the air in his chest, making him open his mouth wide like a fish out of water.

At 8:30, with the terrible whistle, the German army on the entire front began a counteroffensive on all fronts!

The German artillery fire slowly extended backwards, as if it would never stop, and Lieutenant Vick felt that he had passed a long number of centuries, and the torture even made him think that maybe it would be a little easier to be blown up by a shell.

Captain Vick struggled to stand up, then sat back on the ground with weak legs and buttocks, he turned his head mechanically and looked around, the soldiers in the firing point were covered with dust, and sat on the ground with blank eyes, and it took a while for his dull gaze to slowly regain his strength.

Even though the shells had fallen far behind him, there was still a dead silence in the trenches, as if the Germans had killed everyone. After a while, there was a sound in the trench, and the recovered soldiers numbly obeyed the command to carry the wounded, brandishing shovels to dig the blown trenches, and everyone lost interest in talking, but only the mechanical movements, only these sounds proved that the Russian troops in the trenches were still alive.

The sound of the explosion slowly faded away, and Lieutenant Victor faintly heard the grinding of metal in front of him that he had never heard before. Standing up with his hands pressed against his legs, Captain Vick leaned over to the firing port in front of the firing point and looked out. The space in front of the battle line was filled with gray smoke, which was the trace of gunsmoke.

The Russians finally noticed the louder and louder sound of metal rubbing, and the Russian officers and soldiers who poked their heads out slightly widened their eyes and looked in the direction from which the sound came. Soon, boxy boxes slowly appeared in their field of vision, and behind these boxes were the familiar German Army in speckled and unaesthetic uniforms.

"Armored cars of the Germans?" Captain Vick is no stranger to armored vehicles.

In fact, Russia, which has backward industrial capacity and almost no automobile industry of its own, is the first country to conduct research in the field of armored vehicles. As early as 1899, the Russian Artillery Committee commissioned a designer named Dviniesky to design a steam-powered vehicle with a rapid-fire gun with a shield, but for various reasons it was never made.

In the Russo-Japanese War, the commander of the Cossack cavalry of the Far East Army, General Nakasidze, after the design drawings of the armored cars submitted by himself were shelved by the High Command, did not find the French Sharon Automobile Factory, as in history, but handed over the design drawings to the BM company of Germany, the world's largest automobile producer, to produce his own design.

The efficiency of BM, which was already producing trucks and buses and therefore has an excellent chassis design, is not comparable to that of the Siron Motors Plant, which completed the order for all 36 cars in less time than the historical French, while the historically disgraceful Sharon Motors Factory delivered only 3 vehicles.

Naturally, the Nakaseize-BM armored vehicles produced at BM will not be "lost" 2 units after passing through the territory of Germany, as in the historical Nakasezer-Sharon armored vehicles. After testing in St. Petersburg in 1906, 36 Nakasezer-BM armored vehicles were well received by all the participating generals. However, due to Russia's own weak automobile industry, the Nakasezer-BM armored car did not receive orders for mass production.

However, as an artillery officer, especially since the Makqin machine gun was the main weapon of the Nakasizer-BM armored vehicle, Lieutenant Vik still knew about this equipment. Although it is not known why the armored cars of the Germans not only made a screeching sound of metal rubbing, but also drove so unhindered on the potholed ground that had long been bombarded by artillery fire. Still, knowing what these iron boxes were made a lot more reassuring.

Outside the firing point, the officers, who were also aware of the armored car, began to tell out loud what was on the other side of the soldiers, who had never seen such equipment and were in a bit of a commotion.

The actions of the officers worked, armored cars were not unusual, they also had on their side, the armor was not thick, machine guns could effectively penetrate them, and their wheels could not cross the trenches. With this realization, the Russian soldiers quickly reassured.

Then the peace of mind of the Russians quickly evaporated after firing at the Germans.

The regimental machine-gun detachment commanded by Captain Victor contained eight Maxim machine guns, and the machine-gun detachment arranged in two groups to form crossfire like the Germans was enough to block an entire stretch of battle and become an impenetrable death zone for the German infantry.

However, in the face of the death whip swept by 8 machine guns, the German armored car was still advancing unhurriedly except for a string of sparks knocked out by bullets in the front.

"How is that possible?! How thick was the armor of the Germans ?! ”

"Damn it! Hurry up and get rid of that firepower! "The Russians were terrified, and the Germans were angry.

At this time, the number of assault guns in the German army had doubled from the standard of only 4 assault gun companies in each infantry division established in 1908, and 64 assault guns were scattered over the width of the infantry division's attack of about 2 kilometers, which was not a small amount, but at this time, when facing the Russian machine-gun position, the horizontal distance of nearly 20 meters of an assault gun platoon was too wide.

At this time, the 4 assault guns in front of the 2 firing points of the Russian army obviously could not completely cover the infantry following behind, and the commander of the German infantry company, who was pressed by the machine gun and could only shrink behind the assault gun, had to climb up to the engine compartment cover at the rear of the command vehicle of the assault gun platoon, and hit the hatch at the rear of the fixed fighting compartment to replenish ammunition, and then shouted at the assault gun truck group that opened the hatch.

Before the crew could reply, a shell 30 meters away smashed on the frontal armor of an assault gun on the right, and for a while shrapnel flew everywhere, which made people worry for a while.

At the same time as the assault gun on the right was hit, the two assault guns on the left immediately opened fire after a sharp stop, one 75-mm shell missed several meters, and the other hit the machine gun fire point on the left, and the earth mixed with broken wood flew more than ten meters high.

"75mm field guns?!" Lieutenant Vick exclaimed, the firepower of the armored cars of the Germans was clearly beyond his imagination! One of the two points of fire has been eliminated, and the next one is your turn!

"What about artillery? Hurry up and get rid of the armored cars of the Germans! Victor could only hope that his field artillery would wipe out all the remaining three armored vehicles as he had just done. However, in his frightened eyes, orange-red flames erupted from the muzzle of the German armored car that had just been directly hit by the M1900/02 field gun!

The German armored car, which had been hit directly by a 76.2 mm grenade, only stopped there for more than ten seconds and continued to rush towards the defensive line! And the shells that the Germans responded with bombardment of the regimental field artillery positions into the sky!

Learning from the wooden stakes placed by the Germans in front of the trenches, even if they were not blown up by the overwhelming shells, could not stop the progress of the German armored cars, and the Russians could only watch in despair as the wooden stakes were smashed hard.

As the assault guns approached a distance of 300 meters, removing the last machine-gun fire from the Russians at a distance of hundreds of meters, Lieutenant Victor was deeply imprinted in his mind at the last moment of his life by the dazzling fire that erupted from the black hole of the German armored car.

The Russian soldiers, who had already been crushed by the overarching artillery bombardment, and who had fought only under the pressure and mass behavior of the officers, finally lost the last ounce of courage, and collapsed after the German armored vehicles ignored the trenches and overheaded them with their indestructible bodies, and the German infantry who followed the massive bodies jumped into the trenches.

At 9:27, less than an hour after the Germans launched their attack, the command of the First Army received a report from the front that the 3 divisions attacking frontally had broken through the first line of defense of the Russian army and were continuing to attack the Russian army in depth!