The Vistula River flows from Warsaw through the provinces of Masovia, Kuyavy and Primorsky and flows into the Baltic Sea in the Bay of Gdansk. The barracks and headquarters of the German 11th Army were stationed in the middle reaches of the Vistula, not too far from Warsaw.

After more than two years of intensive training and equipment upgrading, this infantry group army composed of 10 divisions built the first solid defensive line in the Hexi region in accordance with the requirements of the United Front Work Department, and relied on the big river moat to undertake important eastward combat missions at any time.

Needless to say, as commander of the 11th Army, William Loeb, the pressure was understandable. Because Warsaw was surrounded by a U-shaped German encirclement, it became the most important part of the Soviet defense, and 24 ace divisions were stationed in this area.

In fact, the Germans only had 10 infantry divisions on this U-shaped line, and if the Soviets ventured westward at any point in the U-shaped encirclement line, the Germans would not be able to stop them, and could only watch as the Soviet ironclad captains drove straight in.

According to intelligence, the 24 divisions of the Soviet army in Warsaw were all ace units with very strong combat effectiveness. In comparison, General William Loeb's palms were sweating at all times.

It was only 580 kilometers from Berlin and had the same idea as the Germans, who saw it as a bridgehead for the attack on Berlin. If the war goes well, the Soviet top brass is confident that they will be able to tear through the only line of defense of the German army and take Berlin in six days.

"Let those damn Germans talk big all day long, it's time for them to taste the torrent of Soviet steel." Zhukov often confidently said this to his subordinates.

Of course, Zhukov's words were on the one hand to embolden himself, and on the other hand, to cheer up the soldiers at the right time.

Since the Soviet Union and Germany severed diplomatic relations because of the "Warsaw Incident", in order to prevent Germany's retaliation, the Soviet Union quietly began to work hard, while cleaning up all the abandoned factories in the rear, and at the same time inviting a large number of local technicians who had been working with German experts one by one, and arranging them to be in the front line of research and development and production in military enterprises.

It has to be said that the mobilization order of the Soviet Union was very fruitful, and it did not take long for a large number of weapons experts and many weapons enthusiasts from the civilian sector to respond positively, and the design drafts of the whimsical ideas were quickly piled up on the desk of the munitions equipment department of the Ministry of Defense. Military industrial enterprises are also not refusing to come, and the types of weapons and equipment they produce are even more varied, so that the army is overwhelmed.

With more than ten years of technological accumulation, the old industrial base left by Germany, and the abundant resource output, the Soviet Union armed hundreds of divisions in 1935 and 1936 alone.

Under the influence of the Germans, the use of armored units in the Soviet Union tended to be concentrated in combat, and Tukhachevsky, known as the "Red Napoleon", built the Soviet army into an army of steel. However, compared to the blatant and domineering of the Japanese, Tukhachevsky was more afraid of the undercurrents of the Germans, especially Eric's invisible "warriors".

There had been close cooperation and personnel exchanges between the Soviet Union and Germany for quite a long time, and this clever Soviet marshal had a deep understanding of this.

Others said that the British navy was invincible, but Tukhachevsky felt that the German army was also invincible in Europe, and the German navy was unsurpassed. If Germany and the Soviet Union were to fight, the Soviet Union's only hope of victory was to use the vast territory to consume the German army and drag it down.

In fact, Tukhachevsky still had confidence in the German-Soviet war, but if it was a long-term war of attrition, the German army would be defeated, and if it was a short-term local war, the Soviet Union would lose. In addition, France and Britain were also important factors, and if both countries could enter the war at the same time, and contain the German army from the west, and recreate the scene of World War I, the German army would be defeated.

It's a pity that except for a little friendship between Britain and the Soviet Union in the Spanish Civil War, Britain doesn't seem to like the Soviets at other times.

Diplomatic relations between Britain and the Soviet Union have been intermittent since World War I, and although contacts have been established occasionally, only on the spot, Tukhachevsky has wanted to change this situation, but he is not capable of doing so, because the new general secretary seems to have other ideas.

In the middle reaches of the Vistula, at the headquarters of the 11th Army of the German Army, staff officers were very busy coming and going. The commander-in-chief, General William Loeb, was scusing an encrypted telegram from the presidential palace when the confidential secretary stood behind him, waiting for him to draft a reply.

The Provisional Command is located in a narrow tidal flat in the middle reaches of the Vistula, with a low hill to the northeast and a gently flowing river to the southwest. In this endless beech forest, the green camouflage of the barracks is so realistic that if it were not for the officers and soldiers walking back and forth, it would not have been possible to find that this was the command center of a large army.

William Loeb's desk, a makeshift wooden platform made of local beech wood, was an unusually sturdy facility not only where he reviewed documents, but also where he studied military operations.

In the center of the command headquarters, a huge sand table occupied a large area, but did not give the slightest sense of crowding to the actions of the staff officers.

Like other generals, William Loeb liked to hang Eric's portrait on the wall in the middle of the headquarters to show that he would always follow the leader of his country.

The haze of war is getting thicker day by day, and the Ministry of National Defense, the General Staff Headquarters, the Army General Headquarters, and, of course, the Presidential Palace are also indispensable, and every day they are constantly exchanging letters and communicating with each other, and dozens of telephones in the forward command are ringing 24 hours a day. With the ticking of the transmitter buttons and the call of the walkie-talkie, the atmosphere was extremely tense.

"Damn the Soviets, they should be made to pay a heavier price......" There was a loud shout from outside the command post.

As a long shadow cast over the room, a tall figure appeared in front of General William Loeb.

The person who came was a second lieutenant of the Wehrmacht, and judging from his behavior, he seemed to be very familiar with the headquarters.

Faced with William Loeb's surprised look, the second lieutenant was out of breath, and did not bother to answer his superior's question, but took the large cup in front of the chief secretary and drank the tea, as if he didn't care that it was their general sitting in front of him, and he didn't even pay the least military salute.

The second lieutenant drank water while muttering that something was wrong at the front, which made Loeb baffled. Because he hadn't received any news of the imminent war between the two sides, he felt that something was wrong no matter how he heard it.

Wilhelm Loeb was a well-known German hot-tempered man who didn't even sell Rundstedt's words, but such a coaxing general didn't care about the rudeness of his subordinates, and even tolerated them in front of him.

The second lieutenant was covered in mud and had several long cuts in his clothes, and if it weren't for his boar-like voice, the staff officers of the command would have barely recognized the man in front of him, whose face was blackened by gunpowder, as General William Loeb's former guard Martin.

"God, my poor Second Lieutenant Martin, you ...... Can you clearly explain what happened? General William Loeb asked in surprise as he looked the embarrassed Second Lieutenant Martin up and down.

"Your Excellency, General, our patrol has been attacked by the Soviets."

"When did this happen?"

"Two hours ago, our patrol car had an encounter with the Soviets."

"Casualties?"

"A few brothers died."

William Loeb motioned for the military staff to bring a wooden chair for Martin to sit down and talk.

Martin begged for a glass of cold boiled water again, drank half of the jar in one gulp, calmed down a little, and began to slowly recount the events that had occurred during the patrol.

It turned out that a clash between a patrol of the 92nd Division garrison stationed in Bialystok and a Soviet patrol led to a heated exchange of fire across the Bebuza River. After a brief period of contact, both sides suffered casualties.

"Why don't you just go back to the division headquarters and report to Vistula, but go to Vistula?" William Loeb asked solemnly.

"You know, General. Our division headquarters is stationed in a complex swampy area, and usually the car is stuck in the wheels, so it is better to go directly to the headquarters faster, and of course, there are wounded who need to be treated immediately, so we dare not delay. Martin took another sip of tea.

"Where are the wounded?" William Loeb asked.

"I've been taken to a field hospital." Martin said, placing the empty teacup back on the table.

"You have a good rest first, and then rush back to the station overnight after dinner. By the way, tell you bastard master, from now on, cancel all vacations, and of course, you can't fucking fish in the swamp anymore, understand? Otherwise, I'll have him and your head first. Oh! No, no! I'll call your division commander personally. William Loeb said seriously.

Second Lieutenant Martin nodded obediently.

At present, relations between the Soviet Union and Germany have become tense to the point of no further importance, and the intricate border defense lines of thousands of kilometers are intertwined, and the patrolmen of the two sides often look at each other angrily, and the smell of gunpowder is full. If it hadn't been for the timely handling of the two sides, it would have triggered an even more bloody conflict.

In extremely sensitive areas, even with multiple means of communication, it is difficult to prevent the soldiers on the border line from acting aggressively against enemy soldiers, and this has happened several times, and each time it is getting more serious. It is incomprehensible that in the absence of a declaration of war between the two sides, the German top brass often deliberately downplays such fatal encounters.

William Loeb seemed to know the reason for this, but as a conjecture, he could never directly identify it with his subordinates.

In fact, Eric was like a master gambler, and only when the Soviets continued to go out of line could the Germans really arouse their fighting spirit. This is the political pathos card, and when all the people begin to participate in this game with all their hearts, even the national mobilization order can be directly omitted.

The incident happened suddenly, and Wilhelm Loeb did not dare to delay, and ordered the clerk to immediately form the news into a detailed text, and prepare to send the information back to the Berlin presidential palace, the Ministry of Defense, the United Front Work Department, and the Army General Headquarters in quadruplicate overnight.

At this moment, the commander of the 92nd Division and the chief of staff of the division, stationed in Bialystok, and others rushed to the headquarters of the 11th Army overnight.

William Loeb was so pleased that the chief of staff of the 92nd Division personally wrote and wrote the report materials, which were then jointly signed by the army group and the 92nd Division.

"If this continues, I don't think this battle can be fought, Your Excellency Commander. We should ask Berlin to give us the power to make decisions on the fly. The chief of staff of the 92 Division said indignantly.

"Well, well, I can understand your feelings, I am more worried about this matter than you, but fortunately, Commander-in-Chief Rundstedt is fighting for us, and you should know that Mr. President will not delegate all power for the time being until the two countries have torn their faces. Sooner or later, though. William Loeb said, motioning for the new guard to pour each of them a cup of hot water.

That night, Defense Minister Zekter, Chief of Staff Hoffmann, and Army Commander-in-Chief Rundstedt all received telegrams from the Vistula outpost at the same time, and the three drove to the presidential palace in unison.

At this time, the presidential palace was brightly lit, and Ananta and all the staff of the agency were working overtime.

The three parked their cars on the grass in front of the presidential palace and walked together to Eric's office.

Strangely, the three of them didn't seem to greet each other, but they were surprisingly united in their actions, even walking in unison. However, each of them was thinking about each other in their hearts and testing each other's thoughts.

Zecht was worried that his decision would undermine the specific arrangements of the United Front Work Department, and Hoffman did not want to go beyond the Ministry of Defense to directly command the three armed forces, while Rundstedt, who was in third place, always wanted to get the delegation of power from the two of them, so that he could have the right to come up with emergency measures at the front at any time.

Before entering the president's office, all three of them held their heads high, strutted with their heads held high, did not squint, and did not say a word.

Zeckert, who was extremely calm in the past, had no idea at this time, and the president's arbitrariness and the functions of the United Front Work Department made him, the minister of defense, look ahead and backward many times, which is redundant. At the same time, he was worried about whether Rundstedt was in a similar situation to himself.

At this moment, Hoffman's heart is even more upside down, the enemy is at present, in addition to the overall plan of the country, the president should make a decision at the right time and let the grassroots troops deal with the battlefield on the spot, otherwise, it is tantamount to tying up his hands and feet and delaying the fighter. However, he is more anxious about how to tell Mr. President what is in his heart.

The three of them entered through the gates of the presidential palace and walked down the long, soundproof corridors as if they had walked through a whole century.