The move is good, but the broadband will take a few days to be installed, so if it is convenient these days, it will be changed once a day, and if it is inconvenient, it will be changed once every two days, and the amount of two chapters a day will naturally not be less, so everyone has been waiting for a long time, I'm sorry :)

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Soon after sending an armored train to reconnoiter to the east, Chentian received a reconnaissance report from the troops west of Bialystok, saying that the main force of the Russian army, about 230,000 people, had all arrived by train in the city of Wape, 19 miles east of Bialystok, and that 10 infantry divisions and 5 cavalry divisions were rapidly preparing for an attack. There is only one railway line between Warsaw and Bialystok, and the Wape railway line is located west of the Leif River and the nearest city to the river, from there it is only 6 miles away from the Leif River, less than an hour's walk.

By noon, François's 1st Army had fully entered the eight-mile defensive field along the river, and 150 77mm rapid-fire guns and 46 mortars were deployed in 17 artillery positions behind the positions. In terms of artillery firepower, the German army's improved 77mm rapid-fire gun is still slightly inferior to the French 75mm rapid-fire gun in terms of rate of fire, but it is not inferior to the Russian army's 76.2mm field gun, not to mention the lack of ammunition and old-fashioned artillery skills to a large extent restricts the artillery power of the Russian army. Despite the fact that the Russian army on the opposite side had more than 800 artillery pieces, General François did not show much concern.

The 1st Army of the East Prussian Army had built a position along the river on the east bank of the River Leif consisting of two interconnected trenches - one dug at the top and one on the riverbank, reinforced with wooden or bamboo fences, and a machine gun position made of sandbags every 20 meters or so, with more than 1,000 light and heavy machine guns in the whole army, and a large amount of ammunition had been delivered to the defensive line, which was scattered and stored in various ammunition points in the trenches and behind the trenches. Several huge observation balloons were raised from the Russian battlefield on the west bank of the Leif River, and the Russian army even used two medium-sized airships.

In the evening, Chen Tian took several staff officers to inspect the field of the 1st Army, and the corps command post was set up in a bunker behind a small hill 300 meters east of the river bank.

"General François, how is it going here?" When Tatsuten arrived at the command post, François was standing on the top of the mountain and using a telescope to observe the situation on the other side of the river.

"Your Royal Highness, from the afternoon. The Russian army inflicted small shelling on our positions, which caused a number of casualties. I ordered me to put two artillery positions and fired back, after which the artillery was transferred to the new positions. The Russians have collected about 700 small wooden boats, which have been blown up by us, and now they have dragged the remaining 600 or so ashore and hid behind the positions. Two small Russian gunboats have appeared here in the afternoon, and we have put them lying there quietly! François pointed to the corner of the lower reaches of the river, where the water suddenly revealed the small halves of the two dinghys.

Stand on the mountain bag. Chen Tian could vaguely see that a large force of the opposing party was actively moving, and orange-red fires appeared in the distance from time to time, and then some shells fell on the river bank here.

"It looks like the Russians are going to attack soon, it's expected tonight or tomorrow morning!" Chentian and François chatted as they walked down the mountain bag.

"I thought so too! It seems that they are ready to make a forced crossing while attacking the bridge, and maybe build a pontoon bridge over the river! In addition, one of the Russian airships flew to this side of the river one hour earlier. I ordered the soldiers to shoot at him with machine guns, and it took more than ten minutes for it to slowly swallow and fly back to the other side of the river, and our artillery moved to position again, and I told them to conceal the cannon with branches and camouflage nets! Will our plane be ready to take off tomorrow? Russian airships and balloons are so annoying! François said as he looked back at the huge floats.

"By tomorrow morning at the latest, our reconnaissance planes will be able to take off, and they should be able to take out the Russians' observation balloons and airships! In addition, I have given an order to the air force remaining in East Prussia that a group of bombers will come tomorrow morning to bomb it! It's a full 130 miles from Königsberg, and planes taking off from the base will have to return as soon as possible even if they fly here, so don't expect too much air support, tomorrow's bombing is only that one, and the main target is the artillery positions of the Russians! ”

Walking to the foot of the mountain bag, Chen Tian added: "This should be the main direction of attack of the Russians, in the afternoon a small detachment of theirs tried to cross the river downstream, but was met by our Fourth Army stationed near Munki, the Russians fled back with hundreds of corpses, and never appeared there again!" We have sent two teams of armored vehicles to monitor the situation over there, and so far the Russians have no idea of fighting there for the time being! ”

Later, accompanied by François, Chentian inspected the defense of the bridge over the Leif River. The railroad tracks on the bridge deck have all been removed, 2 battalions of soldiers are deployed to the east of the bridge, and the entire bridge is cross-blocked by more than 80 light and heavy machine guns and 2 artillery field 30 rapid-fire guns.

After nightfall, the searchlights of the German battlefield east of the river bank began to shine on the river, but the Russian troops on the west bank of the river were not active during the day, and more than 100,000 soldiers seemed to have suddenly stopped breathing, and the Russian positions were silent.

Since it had been impossible to make contact with the armored train heading east, and the reconnaissance planes searching east before dark had not found any trace of the train, Chentian ordered his Second Army to begin building a three-mile perimeter position two miles east of Bialystok.

3 a.m. is the darkest time before dawn, and people are also the most sleepy at this time, only the searchlights on the banks of the river are still tirelessly patrolling the river back and forth. Suddenly, thousands of cannons rang out on the west side of the Leif River, countless cannonballs dragging their bright tails across the silent night sky, and the east bank of the river seemed to have been hit by a meteor, and explosions rang one after another, and clusters of fire rose as densely as a whole box of matches had been struck. The rapid-fire artillery shells hit the German positions below the river bank with a slightly flat arc, carefully combing the empty trenches over and over again; The howitzer landed behind the river bank in a more sleek arc, exploding in places that had been artillery battlefields or suspected artillery positions during the day. Although most of the German artillery field had moved to the new position, the Russians still hit some of the artillery positions and ammunition storage points with such dense artillery fire. The chain explosion was accompanied by the sound of falling shells, and a singular symphony was played.

After an hour and a half, the symphony finally ended. More than 100,000 Russian troops began to attack in 3 waves in an area of 5 miles at both ends of the bridge, and the density reached 3~5 people per day. In contrast, the 45,000 infantry of the 1st Army of the East Prussian Regiment were spread over an eight-mile defensive line. On average, there are only one person in 3~4 meters, but the Leif River, which is 80 meters wide and has a depth of 2~4 meters, has become the best barrier for the defenders.

The German soldiers, who then entered the first line of trenches, barely had a chance to raise their heads, and the fire from the opposite side held them down. Under the cover of rapid-fire guns and machine guns. Some Russians began to cross the river in hundreds of small wooden boats, others began to build eight pontoon bridges with small boats and planks, and a few tried to cross the river on foot from shallow water, but they quickly gave up. The river's water level in the summer is much deeper than they thought.

The fiercest battle was naturally the steel-framed railway bridge, where thousands of Russian assault troops poured up the six-meter-wide bridge like a tidal wave, while the Russians continued to shell the east side of the bridge with about 50 cannons. The German soldiers guarding the bridge braved the artillery fire of the other side to shoot at the Russian soldiers on the bridge, and many of the Russian soldiers who were shot were trampled on the ground by the crowd of follow-up troops before they could groan, and the eastern part of the bridge was soon covered with thick Russian corpses, and the soldiers who charged behind seemed to be stepping on cotton. Russian soldiers constantly fell from the bridge into the river, and the sound of falling water was instantly masked by shouts of killing, the rattling of machine guns and the rumble of artillery fire.

On the front of the bridge. The bunkers built by the Germans with sandbags had long since been destroyed by Russian artillery fire, and several small houses near the bridgehead had also been blown away, only the machine guns in the trenches on both sides of the bridgehead were still firing desperately. There, two German soldiers operate a stop-and-go Mark's heavy machine gun. The sub-gunner busily fed new cartridge belts into the machine gun again and again, and the machine gunner in charge of the design no longer needed to aim, their fingers numb on the firing button, and the muzzle of the gun moved back and forth in a small area no more than 5 degrees to the left and right, but this was enough to cover the position where the Russians appeared. Countless strings of white machine-gun bullets rushed straight to the front and sides of the bridge, splashing countless sparks on the steel bridge trunk, and after a few minutes, it was not only the barrels of the German soldiers, but also the bridge trunks of the bridge.

The first wave of the Russian army's attack on the bridge was blocked back by the machine guns, and there were less than 100 Russian soldiers left in the 1st regiment, but the heroic sniping of the German machine gunners was met with more Russian artillery fire, and the east bank of the bridge was almost in a sea of fire, and the German casualties here exceeded 300 people, and the two battalions guarding the bridge lost almost half of the soldiers.

The fighting on the river was also extremely fierce, and when most of the Russian ships reached the middle of the river, François ordered the artillery to begin a full-scale return fire. In an instant, hundreds of columns of water rose on the surface of the river, countless Russian soldiers were thrown into the water by shrapnel and waves, several unlucky boats were even directly hit by shells, sawdust mixed with strips of cloth flew into the air, and slowly scattered on the water, and the entire river began to be covered with silt and blood. After two successive waves of artillery bombardment by the Germans on the river, the Russian artillery covering the German battlefield on the river bank began to look for the German artillery positions, the shells that fell near the trenches extended backwards, the Russian balloons floating in the air pointed the way for the artillery fire, and François's artillery began to encounter concentrated attacks from the other side. However, the artillery of the East Prussian regiment was not stupidly placed on flat ground in the battle, the artillerymen were asked to dig a bunker in the ground, and then put half of the artillery in the bunker, leaving only the muzzle to the outside, and the mortar was almost completely hidden in the bunker, so the damage of the Russian rapid-fire artillery to the German artillery and artillery has been minimized, and the accuracy of the Russian army's powerful howitzer is really not complimentary. The Russians were often surprised to find that they had already fired covering the German artillery field, and soon after, the Germans opened fire from that position.

Just when the Russian artillery was tired of dealing with the German artillery positions, the German soldiers in the trenches finally got a chance to breathe, and strings of machine gun bullets scurried on the river, and the Russian soldiers on the boat and pontoon bridge were hit one after another, and fell into the water one by one screaming. Then the German machine guns began to fire at the Russian troops on the opposite bank, and when the Russian army realized that the situation was wrong and repressed the German trenches with artillery fire, the Russian troops crossing the river had already suffered heavy casualties, and hundreds of small boats slowly drifted downstream along the river without maneuvering.

After the failure of the first wave of river crossings, the Russian commanders decided to stop the forced crossing and concentrate their fire on the attack from the bridge. Hundreds of artillery pieces bombarded the east side of the bridge, and the already scorched German bridgehead position was once again caught in a suffocating fire. As a last resort, General François ordered the German troops defending the bridge to begin a retreat. At the same time, the reserves of two infantry regiments were mobilized to enter the inner ring position with the bridgehead on the east bank as the center and a radius of about 500 meters, and the armored combat vehicle units hidden in the village east of the bridge also received orders to prepare to launch a counterattack on the bridge at any time.

After pouring thousands of shells on the 400-meter-wide bridgehead of the two German armies on the east bank, the second wave of Russian assault troops rushed across the bridge with a roar, and the Russian commanders did not have time to rejoice in occupying the bridge, but the Russian soldiers who had already rushed across the bridge were fired at 180 degrees in front of the enemy, and dozens of mortar shells also took the opportunity to penetrate into the crowd and lift groups of Russian soldiers into the air. As the number of Russian soldiers who poured across the bridge grew, so did the number of people who fell on the ground full of large and small craters on the east side of the bridge, and the Russians could not even rush more than 100 meters east of the bridge. The Russians who rushed across the bridge had no choice but to lie down in the crater.

Soon, the Russian infantry stopped the onslaught. Their artillery was preparing for a new round of shelling, and soon the entire battlefield fell into a dead silence. At this time, the east was already white. It was found that on the bridge, east of the bridgehead, west of the riverbank, and on the river, there were Russian corpses everywhere, and many fallen German soldiers were also scattered on the east side of the bridgehead and west of the riverbank. Flames that have not yet been extinguished and smoking craters are everywhere across the battlefield. The German soldiers clearly saw the huge balloon opposite, just as the Russians on the balloon clearly saw the German artillery positions.

At this time, there was a buzzing sound in the sky, first in the east and then in the west, and black dots appeared on both sides, and due to the influence of the rain showers the previous day, the commanders of the Russian and German sides invariably sent reconnaissance planes at this time.

To the east, there were 15 German reconnaissance planes in three formations, and these old "Sky III" reconnaissance planes painted with huge iron crosses were not much different from the Russian planes in terms of performance, but the machine gun in the co-pilot's seat was deadly - the Russians were using the planes for reconnaissance at this time, and there were almost no weapons on them, except for a pistol and a few grenades specially brought by the pilot to attack the German ground forces.

The Russian aerial reconnaissance force consisted of 7 ordinary reconnaissance planes flying from the west, as well as 6 artillery observation balloons and 2 medium airships on the west bank of the Leif River, and the first air battle of the East Prussian Corps on the Eastern Front took place under this unexpected situation. Although it seems that the combat effectiveness of both sides is completely one-sided, the course of the air battle is far from simple.

The first German plane flew horizontally over the Russian observation balloon, but the co-pilot found that his machine gun could not shoot at the balloon at this angle, so the second plane flew over the beautiful sideways flight when the co-pilot came, and a string of shiny bullets was shot from the co-pilot's position, but he staggered past the balloon, and was shocked to find that the Russian observer was in a cold sweat in the blue hanging under the balloon, and he immediately slid down the rope to the ground. The third German plane finally hit the balloon at a distance of 20 meters, and the huge hydrogen balloon exploded. A huge fireball appeared in the air. The Russians were stunned, the observers began to slide to the ground, and the approaching Russian reconnaissance plane completely forgot its mission, and they actually began to chase the German plane.

"What do the Russians want to do? Are they crazy? When the Russians approached, the German pilots were stunned to find that their planes were not armed.

A minute later, a Russian reconnaissance plane rushed towards the German pilot Freeton's plane, and just as he was about to fly over Freeton's head, it suddenly sank. Then the wheels slammed into the upper wing of the plane, and a large amount of wooden skin was torn off. Freeton felt like his plane was stumbling and almost out of balance. The plane spun around and slashed diagonally towards the ground, but instead of closing his eyes in prayer, Freeton pulled the joystick tightly. Its plane slid from a height of 200 meters to 50 meters, and then resumed horizontal flight, but the strong turn almost caused the plane to fall apart in the air, and Freeton even heard the sound of the plane skeleton being torn so hard that it was almost broken, and he continued to fly flat for a distance before he began to reduce his flight altitude, and half a minute later there was a frightening forced landing on the German position on the east bank, and dozens of German soldiers rushed up to take him and his co-pilot back into the trench.

See this happens. The other German pilots finally understood the tactics of the Russians, which had in fact been used by the Russians in previous encounters with Austrian planes, and even shot down two Austrian planes, although one of their own planes failed to make a forced landing after losing its wheels, killing the pilot instantly. However, the Russian pilots actually regarded this tactic as a sign of glory and bravery, and began to study and practice this ramming tactic.

However, the German planes equipped with machine guns had to keep a certain distance from the Russian planes, and the Russians had to be beaten. Soon, three Russian planes were planted in smoke, and the Russian pilot who landed on the river was able to save his body, and only the bones that fell to the ground were shattered.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the remaining four Russian planes began to flee to the west, and the Russian infantry, who had just been cheering, suddenly became silent, and only German soldiers could be heard cheering and singing on the battlefield.

After driving away the Russian planes. German reconnaissance planes returned to the skies over the battlefield and slowly repaired the remaining Russian balloons and airships. The poor Russian airship tried its best to escape, but without the speed of the Russian plane, they were soon caught by the German plane and exploded, and none of the seven Russian pilots on the airship were spared. After watching several other Russian observation balloon pyrotechnic displays, the Russian and German soldiers on the ground began to engage in fierce battles again.