Archduke Joseph Ferdinand, in good spirits today, was shouting back and forth in front of the procession with his horsewhip. Just let him roar with all his strength, the team was still moving at a turtle speed, and it was not affected in the slightest, and the soldiers who lacked supplies had not eaten for 2 consecutive days. But he didn't care whether the peasants had enough to eat or not, and the horsewhip was directly greeted on the soldiers' bodies, and the sound of crackling was endless.

This microcosm was only a small part of the closest to the destination, while the rest of the Austro-Hungarian troops were still on the way. No commander knew the significance of the operation, received no objectives or instructions, only one destination.

"Hans, do you know what this operation is all about?" A Hungarian-Czech lieutenant in a top hat asks a fellow German Slovenian lieutenant.

"I don't know, but..." Hans didn't go on, knowing that if he continued, he might be treated as a spy. Hans had a good education, was a top graduate of the University of Hamburg, served on the Western Front, and was rewarded and promoted after a wound. When he recovered from his injuries and was discharged from the hospital and regained his sight, he was assigned to the Slovenian Army in the Austro-Hungarian Army as an officer to assist in the battle. The reason is that his grandmother is of Slovenian descent, but he doesn't speak the national language of Slovenia at all. Although there was a great deal of disagreement with this redeployment, the Prussian soldiers, who had always regarded obedience as their duty, were not allowed to oppose them in the army.

"But what? Go on. The Hungarian with the top hat was curious, he knew that Hans had some skills, and that being a lieutenant was a condescension. But he was only a foreign officer who temporarily served as the commander of the Austro-Hungarian Empire during the war, and it was impossible to go any further, only to be dispatched.

While Hans was still hesitating to speak, he heard a herald staggering all the way on a horse that swayed from side to side, shouting nervously in a dialect of unknown people.

Hans asked left and right, and no one knew what the man was talking about, but he didn't need to ask any more, and the next scene made him understand what was coming, and it confirmed what he was thinking.

I saw that the long line suddenly someone began to roll down the right slope of the road, and then nervously seemed to wait for something.

Hans hurriedly told the translator beside him.

"Let everyone dig a pit in the ground on the right side of the road that is big enough for one person to hide, quickly." After the order was issued, many soldiers were very puzzled, and some were still asking what to dig with, but they didn't even have a shovel!

"I don't care what you dig with, if you don't dig the hiding place before the arrival of the Russian army, then wait for death!" Hans was in a hurry and ignored the peasants, so he dismounted and grabbed a Mauser rifle and ran into the field. When the soldiers saw that their commanders were like this, they had no choice but to run with them. Seeing that someone began to dig a pit, others also followed suit, but before the pit was dug into a shape, a dull sound was heard and gradually became clear.

Hans's heart sank when he heard this voice, and he thought to himself that he was afraid that he would not be able to escape, this momentum was obviously not something that a small army could create.

The muffled sound faded as the Austro-Hungarian soldiers craned their necks and curled up to stare cautiously at the left side of the road.

A minute passes...

Two minutes have passed...

Three minutes have passed...

I don't know how long it was, Hans didn't bother to count, but just as he was thinking about it, the sound suddenly seemed to explode in his ears.

I saw that people all over the mountains appeared on the left side of the road, rushing towards this side in black pressure, and the Hungarian officer in the top hat who was beside Hans probably understood Hans's unspoken words when he saw the scene at this moment.

Where is this an operation, in fact, it is a retreat! No! Retreat can't even be talked about! It's a rout!

Just when Hans thought it would be a bloody battle, the thing that had shocked him happened again.

The Austro-Hungarian soldier, who had been curled up on the ground, suddenly stood up with sparse shots, and then threw the rifle in his hand on the ground with great disgust. Then, more and more began to follow suit.

Looking at the scene in front of him, Hans had a lot of horses in his heart, but he couldn't speak, because he couldn't even raise the strength to complain. You can just ask these peasants to fight a good fight, and if you really want to resist the pressure, you don't have to think about it if you want to have fewer enemies and more enemies.

Vance, a peasant boy, was forcibly conscripted into the army after the outbreak of the war, and the most he did after serving was marching and squatting, and he no longer even had the idea that the Russian army would win. But not long ago, after the new marshal took office and led them to a series of remarkable victories, Vance's hidden blood seemed to be activated again, and he no longer became passive and lazy, but became more active and diligent. In this way, he was given an opportunity that no one else would ever have in his life, to be the temporary leader of a team made up of ethnic minorities. Yes, there is no official position, no military rank, just the head, but this also makes Vance, who was born in mud, willing to die for the new marshal. In this charge, Vance led the team to the front, although it was very dangerous and very easy to die, but he thought that if he could catch a guy with a military rank, then he could turn positive.

To Vance's surprise, there was no risk at all in this charge, but the people who rushed to the front got the benefits, and a large field was full of unarmed enemies, waiting for them to be taken prisoner one by one. But Vance didn't care at all about these big-headed soldiers, who were also from mud legs, but an officer who could carry flowers on his shoulders. And God is pitiful, Vance finally found it in the crowd, and it is still a couple, Vance doesn't know what kind of military rank this is, but for him, as long as there is a flower on his shoulder, he must be an officer. The joyful Vance hugged a handful of weeds on the ground and skillfully performed one of the farm tasks in front of the two officers - weaving straw ropes.

When Hans saw that the guy in front of him, who did not even have a military uniform, had separated himself from the Hungarian officer and other soldiers like a captive and braided a rope, he wanted to commit suicide, but remembering that he had a wife at home waiting to go home, Hans was so angry that he tried his best to persuade himself to calm down.

While weaving straw ropes was being performed here, the same farce was played out everywhere along the entire long retreat route.

The 5th, 6th, and 7th Army Groups of the Russian Army, in accordance with Brusilov's deployment, completed the most beautiful victory since the beginning of the war. The three army groups of the Russian army suffered less than 1,000 casualties and captured more than 160,000 German-Austrian troops. This was the first to receive it by Brusilov, who was sitting far behind. On the German side, Adrian and Hindenburg, who had been paying attention to the situation here, received news from different sources almost at the same time, but it was three full days later. Hindenburg was so angry that he took out the revolver that he had long since used in a drawer, and claimed to shoot the runaway Grand Duke with his own hands. Adrian, on the other hand, sat on the chair with an expressionless face, but everyone around him could see that the young major general was in a bad mood, and it seemed that he was just missing an outlet.

Adrian wasn't just in a bad mood? He even thought of fleeing, and the entire Carpathian Mountains were one of the most critical defense areas on the Eastern Front. Even if Adrian is a military idiot, because he has been the chief of logistics for so long, he knows the importance of this place. As soon as the Russian army crossed the Carpathians, the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire lay there almost flat waiting for the Russian army to carry it away. If only Austria-Hungary suffered, the German Eastern Front, which lacked enough troops, would also face the danger of collapse because of the further elongation of the front.

There is a saying that misfortune is not a single line, and blessing is incomparable. Adrian very much agreed with this statement after hearing about the state of affairs on the Western Front.