"Battalions stop shooting!"

The Austrian artillery position suddenly calmed down, and the instantaneous contrast made the pressure on the eardrums and heart increase sharply.

Nizametin gasped for air, and the other gunners beside him sat on the ground. For the previous two hours, the gunners were busy filling the chambers with shells, and it was physically demanding to lift large and small shells again and again.

The calm lasted less than half a minute, and the sound of cheerful military music came from the front. Nizametin knew that his infantry was beginning to advance towards the Russian positions.

"I hope those poor infantry don't be forced to retreat when they encounter a ditch like they did in the previous attack!"

Everyone burst into laughter, and it seemed that the infantry of the Austro-Hungarian 2nd Army could not get rid of this joke.

"We still hope that they can successfully repel the Russians, otherwise we won't want to sleep tonight!" Nizametin stripped off his ******-smoked jet-black shirt, revealing a body of dark, muscular muscles. The Hungarian citizen was stocky, but his companions jokingly described him as being crushed by a cannonball.

Soon, the artillerymen set up triangular tents near the position, and then placed the remaining shells not far from the cannons.

Behind the Austro-Hungarian infantry starting position, the soldiers dug a large pit in the ground and set up a large tent on top of it, but instead of camping here, they set up a temporary forward command here.

Archduke Friedrich stood on the edge of the wall of this humble headquarters, looking ahead with a telescope. In the moonlight, he could probably see the battlefield clearly. Not long ago, he was depressed by the news that his cavalry had encountered Russian cavalry. If this attack of the Austrian infantry could not take the Russian positions in front, the elderly Grand Duke would be even more humiliated.

The advancing Austrian infantry seemed to understand this, so their steps appeared to be extremely vigorous, and the momentum of the attack was much stronger than the previous one, coupled with the unremitting bombardment of their own artillery, there seemed to be no sign of human activity on the Russian positions, and even the Russian artillery did not fire at the advancing Austrian columns as they had done before.

The battlefield was unusually quiet, only the little flames left on the Russian positions by artillery fire were still burning silently.

The Austrian infantry continued to advance, and when they came to the trench that had dealt them a great blow, everyone looked cautious, and to their surprise, the Russian trench did not burst into a dense burst of bullets as it had last time. In this eerie calm atmosphere, the Austrians quickly set up simple pedals on the trenches, and then stepped over the trenches one by one.

Compared with the corpses of many Austrian soldiers on this side of the trench, the trench is obviously much cleaner next to the Russian trench, after all, only a few Austrian soldiers crossed the trench in the previous attack, and now the ground there is mostly a charred black and smoking crater.

Archduke Friedrich, who was watching the battle in the rear, was even more anxious than the infantry in front, and the answer to whether the Russians had retreated or had other plans should lie behind the Russian trenches. The Grand Duke looked forward to the shouts of victory from his own soldiers, if his own infantry saw the backs of the Russians fleeing after crossing the Russian trenches.

In the faint moonlight, the Grand Duke saw through the telescope the first Austrian infantry walking up the Russian trench at the top of the slope, then the second, the third, more and more soldiers walked up to the Russian trench, but the cheers he expected did not appear, the soldiers seemed to be looking into the distance, they seemed to see something special......

The first to reach the top of the slope were the infantry of the Rudiger Battalion of the 13th Infantry Corps of the Austro-Hungarian Army, and they did see something unusual there, something that stunned everyone.

In the silver-white moonlight, there was a thick black winding long line several kilometers away from the rear of the Russian trenches, and the edge of the long line was almost impossible to see at a glance. There are many small black dots behind the black lines, and the black lines and black dots are in a state of immobility, and everything there is as peaceful as moonlight, which makes people wonder if those objects are actually moving.

Major Rudiger raised his binoculars, and then his hands trembled, and he saw that in places where rifles and rear artillery could not reach, countless Russian soldiers lined up in a long horizontal line, and the white shirts of the Russian officers made the black line look a little speckled. He could only see the blurry faces of the Russians through the binoculars, but he could feel the murderous look in the other party's eyes.

The Austrian infantry were a little dazed, they didn't know what they should do, let alone what the other party wanted to do, but just a few seconds later, as the orange sparks appeared on the black dots behind the Russian infantry, the experienced Austrian veterans had already sensed that the situation was not good, and one by one the fiery red two points broke through the air, and then the sound of shells whistling also stimulated people's eardrums. Many Austrian soldiers did not have time to lie down, and soon, the Russian positions occupied by the Austrians were again bombarded with heavy artillery fire, but this time shells fell from another direction.

The black dots behind the Russian infantry were the rapid-fire guns and howitzers of the Russians, who were pouring shells on their positions at any cost, and at the same time killing and wounding a large number of Austrian soldiers exposed there.

Archduke Friedrich finally got the report from the front that the Russians had abandoned their trenches and lined up a few kilometers behind, which seemed to be a puzzling move, but the iceberg seemed to have been exposed to the archduke in connection with the encounter of his own cavalry on the right flank of the Russian position.

"Oops!" The Grand Duke cried out in a lost voice, "Order the infantry in front to retreat!" ”

When the news of the retreat of the Austro-Hungarian cavalry reached the headquarters, the Austrian infantry in front had just received the news of the retreat. While the soldiers were still bewildered by this order, the remnants of the Austro-Hungarian cavalry had retreated to this area, and behind them, a large force of Russian cavalry followed.

The retreating Austro-Hungarian cavalry was simply unable to organize a decent resistance, and the main force of the Austrian infantry had already advanced to the Russian positions, and the remaining infantry and machine guns were mostly deployed in the direction facing the Russian positions. In this situation, the Russian cavalry began to sweep through the Austrian artillery positions and infantry departure positions as if they were in a no-man's land.

The innocent and helpless Austrian artillerymen had to scatter and hide, unable to fight the hordes of cavalry with their pitiful weapons in their hands. Soon, there were Austrian soldiers with stab wounds lying in the open space, by the artillery carriages, by the cannons, and around the camp tents, especially some white tents, which were even more red by the blood of the gunners. The whole artillery position became a mess, except for the heavy cannons still in place, the horses pulling the cannons and gun carriages were scattered like crazy, and the tents where the artillerymen camped and the barracks where the ammunition was stored were mostly bumped and trampled.

The Austrian artillerymen began to drop their artillery and withdraw from their positions, but their legs could not compete with the Russian horses at all, and more and more people were cut to the ground by the swords of the Russian cavalry, and the murderous Guards cavalry had no idea of containing the prisoners of war, and even if the Austrian artillerymen had raised their hands to surrender, their sabers would be cut down mercilessly. The vicinity of the Austrian artillery positions suddenly became a human area, and the screams of the Austro-Hungarian soldiers were endless.

Nizametin picked up a sapper shovel and wanted to do something, at this moment, a Russian cavalryman also spotted this strong man holding a shovel like a dwarven elf, he rushed out of the cavalry ranks alone, brandished the saber in his hand and began to sprint from a distance of more than 50 meters from Nizametin, and the horse's hooves quickly stepped on the ground in a puff of dust.

Enraged, Nizametin did not retreat, but stood still, clutching the dirt-stained sapper shovel in his hand.

The saber hit the sapper shovel with a crisp "dang" sound, and the Russian saber broke alive, and the iron unit of Nizametin's sapper shovel also appeared a deep gap, and the huge shock made his tiger mouth numb for a while.

The Russian, as if ashamed of the quality of his sword, threw it to the ground and rode his horse straight towards Nizametin, ready to use the more than half a ton of body under his crotch and the huge impact of the high-speed movement to impact the dwarven elf in front of him.

Without facing the Russian cavalry without a war knife, Nizametin deftly dodged the impact of the Russian war horse again and again, and then seized the opportunity of the Russians to pass by, and used his strong and advantageous arms to quickly swing the sapper shovel, and actually shot the Russian cavalry down at once.

The frightened Russian horses ran wildly into the distance, and with nervous and excited feelings, Nizametin walked up to the Russian, only to find that the guy had passed out. At this time, Nizametin looked up and looked around, and he found that the battlefield here was completely dominated by the Russian cavalry, so he quickly searched the Russian cavalry, but found only a short dagger and a few Russian coins. He quickly slipped them into his pocket, dropped the shovel and hurried backwards.

In front of the Austrian artillery positions, the starting positions of the Austrian infantry were also frantically attacked by the Russian cavalry. Archduke Friedrich barely organized a temporary and thin defensive line with the 60,000 infantry that had not yet attacked, while the 130,000 infantry who had already rushed to the Russian position were blocked by Russian artillery fire and cavalry at the other end of the battlefield.

The Austrian infantry had to use rifles and bayonets against the Russian cavalry at high speed, and their machine guns and iron trucks became the most effective weapons against the cavalry, but the disparity in numbers did not allow them to stop the Russian cavalry. In front of some of the Austrian machine-gun positions, the Russians did not flinch at all because of the fall of some of the cavalry in front, and instead they attacked simultaneously from all sides. The effect of the moonlight was offset by the superiority of the Russian cavalry's clothing, the Austrians' bullets could not hit the Russian cavalry in the distance very accurately, and the flat terrain here gave the Russians the upper hand. Archduke Friedrich and his infantry were compressed in a small area, using bayonets to desperately resist the onslaught of the Russian cavalry.

In the soft and bright moonlight, the Austro-Hungarian infantry stranded in the Russian positions could clearly see their way back, but the road was full of thorns.

At this time, most of the main Austrian infantry had already crossed the trenches again and retreated towards their positions, and most of the soldiers were lined up in neat squares under the command of the officers, using rifles and bayonets to resist the attacks of the opposing cavalry like the infantry of the Napoleonic era, and the Austrian infantry who had not been able to form a formation were killed by the Russian cavalry. The other Austrian soldiers in the infantry phalanx were helpless, and apart from firing at the approaching Russian cavalry, they could only endure the heart-rending wails of their comrades.

Although the Russian cavalry was somewhat helpless against the Austrian infantry phalanx, they roamed back and forth in groups not far from the Austrian infantry phalanx like wolves, picking on small groups of Austrian infantry that were alone and would not hesitate to pounce on them once they had a suitable target.

The remaining Austrian infantry could only keep the phalanx cautiously along, their ranks neat and compact, their pace heavy and slow.

The Rudiger battalion, which was the first to ascend the Russian trenches, became the rear guard at this time, and the soldiers lay on the edge of the trenches and watched the feared Russian infantry slowly advance towards them. What Rudig's battalion and the rest of the rearguard had to do was to hold back the Russian infantry with rifle bayonets and flesh and blood before their main forces withdrew to safety, but the Russian artillery fire alone had already crushed them to the point where they could barely lift their heads. The advancing Russian troops remained in dense formation, knowing that these poor Austrian infantry did not have many machine guns. If it were a German unit, these Russians would not dare to be so arrogant.

As the Russians expected, the Rudiger battalion did not carry the bulky Maxim heavy machine guns, and the number of light machine guns in the Austro-Hungarian army could almost be described as scarce. Rudiger's soldiers pulled the bolt again and again, and then lowered the muzzle of the gun, and the dense queue of Russians saved them from aiming, but the bullets they fired seemed to have little effect on blocking the "black tide" ahead.

2000 meters! The Russian infantry began to pick up the pace.

1000 meters! The Russian infantry began to trot.

500 meters! After a roar of "Ula", the Russians began to charge.

200 meters! The Austrian soldiers stopped firing, they crawled out of the trenches with bayonets, and the last moment had come.

50 meters! The Austrian soldiers could finally see each other's faces, the Russian faces of different appearances under the yellow and felt hats looked so cold, and their shiny and slender bayonets had the same cold color. The equally slender bayonets in front of the rifles of the Austrian soldiers had not been used since the beginning of the offensive, and now they were finally able to play a role in keeping with the times.

A small patch of blue merges into the black tide, and in an instant it is gone.

Behind them, the main force of the Austrian infantry was still advancing slowly under the interference of the Russian cavalry.

When the main force of the Russian infantry shouted to attack from behind them, they couldn't help but speed up their pace, and the team was not as neat and orderly as it was at the beginning.

The Russian artillery fire had stopped firing before their infantry could return to their positions, and the only sound on the battlefield was the sound of horses' hooves, rifle fire and chaotic footsteps in the ranks of the Austrian infantry, but after the Russians shouted and began to charge, everything was muffled by this sound.

The Austrian troops marched slowly in a neat line, while the Russian infantry chased forward with bayonets. The Austrians' pedals on the trenches became a tool for more Russians, and some of the planks and ladders that the Russian soldiers had prepared for this purpose could be thrown into the garbage heap.

As the Russian infantry got closer and closer, the Austrian officers and soldiers finally stopped their steps. The neat phalanx had to make a 180-degree turn, like a battleship floating in the shark-surrounded waters, but at this moment it had to face the impact of another battleship, as long as the queue was broken up, the Russian cavalry, which was as fierce as the sharks, would not hesitate to come up and tear their prey, and from the current situation, this outcome was inevitable.

In the voice of the officers' orders, the Austrian soldiers raised their rifles with helplessness and worry, the black tide composed of the Russian infantry was surging, and the large group of Russian cavalry cut off the attempt of the Austrian soldiers to come up to support, and the infantry who left the position and queue looked powerless in the face of the cavalry in this plain area.

"Raise the gun ......"

At a distance of 500 meters, the Austrian soldiers in the front row quickly crouched down to aim, and the soldiers in the second row stood and raised their rifles.

"Shoot!"

In the raindown of gunfire from the Austrians, the Russian infantry who rushed to the front fell one after another.

"Forward in the back row!"

When the Russians rushed to a distance of 400 meters, the Austrian soldiers in the third and fourth platoons had already switched to the front row, and they shot at the Russian crowd again according to the movements of the previous soldiers.

The Russians fell a little more, but those behind continued without blinking on the corpses of their comrades.

"Raise the bayonet ......"

Some of the Austrian soldiers held their breath, others took a deep breath, and all of them were making final preparations for the upcoming fight.

"Slow on!"

The large Austrian formation began to move, and the soldiers slowly advanced with their rifles held diagonally.

"Charge!"

Oh......

An earth-shattering shout erupted in the ranks of the Austrian troops, and the soldiers clenched their rifles and rushed forward shoulder to shoulder with their companions.

The Russians were already a little out of breath after jogging for such a distance, but they also accelerated again, and collided violently with the Austrian column with the same deafening roar.

In the moonlight, a black tide seemed to crash into a huge reef.

At the beginning of the fierce hand-to-hand combat, the two sides seemed evenly matched, but with the addition of the Russian cavalry, the black wave quickly took over, and although the remaining part of the Austrian cavalry also joined the chaotic battle, their efforts seemed so weak.

Seeing this, Archduke Friedrich felt a deep despair, he was now unable to save the Austro-Hungarian infantry who were caught between the Russian infantry and cavalry, and sending more infantry would only increase the Russians' achievements. Protected by a group of Austrian cavalry, the Grand Duke left the battlefield in panic. The other Austro-Hungarian soldiers who remained in the starting position had no intention of fighting any further, and they followed their commander and began a great retreat along the way they had come.

On the road of the Austrian retreat, countless Russian cavalry lurking in the woods had already bared their hideous fangs.