Late at night, the whole of Germany was already asleep.

On the dark railway line, columns of troops galloped eastward.

By this time, 200,000 German soldiers had gathered near Dortmund, and Kaiser Wilhelm II and other ambassadors had arrived in Dortmund to watch the "Pineapple" exercise. Spies from various countries were dispatched in full swing, and they were active in the vicinity of the exercise ground in an effort to gather more information on the weapons and tactics of the exercise.

Moltke Jr., Chief of the General Staff of the German Army, did not participate in the exercise due to gastrointestinal discomfort, and the exercise was led by War Minister Falkenhain and Deputy Chief of the Army General Staff Waldzer.

The day after the start of the exercises, the Kaiser returned to Berlin due to ill health.

While the exercise was in full swing, 500,000 German troops had secretly arrived in East Prussia and had been assembled, and Moltke Jr. was enthusiastically accompanying the Kaiser to inspect the elite units of the German Army.

The 250,000 soldiers of the East Prussian Regiment were also ready to go.

East Prussia was rich in farms and pastures, and was not only a meat base for Germany, but also a continuous supply of high-quality war horses for the German army. The estates here were owned by the Junker aristocracy, and the place facing east near Russia was the land of "unsettling water and dense forests", with lakes and forests, pine and birch trees, swamps and streams. The most famous attraction here is the Rominten Forest, near the Russian border, which was the forbidden garden of the Hohenzollern royal family. In 1701, the first monarch of the Hohenzollern royal family was Königsberg and other Prussian monarchs.

In order to defend the birthplace of the Hohenzollern royal family, along the Angrap River all the way through the mouth of the Insterberg Gorge, Chentian has carefully built fortifications. In the eastern swamps, the roads were built with dikes above the ground, which made it possible to restrain the enemy on narrow dikes above the level. In addition, the railway network throughout East Prussia was crisscrossed to facilitate movement, and troops could be quickly transferred from one front to another to meet either wing of the enemy army.

In this exercise, Moltke Jr. led 500,000 German troops to play the role of "eastern invaders", and the East Prussian Army of Chentian was responsible for defense.

The exercise was codenamed "Who's the Big Fool".

About 60 km from the German-Russian border, the Insterberg Gap is an open area of about 50 km, stretching from the Königsberg fortress area to the north and the Masurian Lake area to the south. Moltke's attacking forces had chosen a small town 15 kilometers east of the Insterburg Gap as their starting point, and the surrounding population had been temporarily relocated ten days before, otherwise they would have been frightened when they saw the gray uniformed soldiers strewn over the hills, and also to prevent the Russians from spying on the army. Due to the swiftness and secrecy of the action, it was only after a few days of exercise that the Russians discovered that there was a large number of German troops moving in the area, and by the time they sent out scouts and spies, the German troops had already boarded the train and returned to the station.

The troops commanded by Moltke the Younger included 2 army groups, 10 corps (corps) and 4 cavalry divisions, of which 5 corps and 3 cavalry divisions belonged to the standing army, with a total of 512,000 men and 2,100 artillery pieces. He was ready to commit 8 corps and 2 cavalry divisions to attack the Insterberg Gap line, and the other 2 corps and 2 cavalry divisions were to bypass the Masurian Lake area.

The East Prussian Corps has now reached wartime strength, with 1 armored corps, 4 infantry corps and 1 cavalry division, a total of 246,000 men, 1,000 artillery pieces, 160 tanks, 100 armored vehicles, 500 trucks and 4,000 motorcycles. Chentian threw all the Panzer Corps and Infantry Corps into the defense of the Insterberg Gorge Line, and the Cavalry Division was responsible for the defense of the Masurian Lake area.

On the first day of the exercise, it rained lightly. The gray wave of the attacker did not have much to do with the trenches and barbed wire, and all 5 consecutive charges were repulsed, with the attacker "losing" 33,000 men and the defender "losing" 2,000.

The second day of the exercise, overcast. The attacking forces attacking the Masurian Lake area encountered Chentian's cavalry division, which was outnumbered and retreated. Chen Tian immediately mobilized the 1st Infantry Corps to take a train to the Masuri Lake area to block the attack, but due to the complex terrain of the lake area, the attacker was pinned down in the lake area and could not continue to advance. Moltke Jr.'s frontal forces intensified their offensive and captured the first line of defense at the Insterburg Pass in the evening, but the position was recaptured by the assault team organized by Chentian during the night. The attackers "lost" 41,000 and the defenders "lost" 12,000.

On the third day of the exercise, it was sunny. The 1st Army of the East Prussian Corps, which was defending the Masurian Lake Zone, was routed by the attackers, who then rushed out of the Lake Zone and around the flank of the Insterburg Gap line. Chentian sent 2 mechanized infantry divisions of the Panzer Corps plus 2 infantry divisions to intercept the attack, and their rapid advance drove the attackers back to the lake area. Moltke's frontal forces launched another fierce attack, reoccupying and consolidating the first line of defense, but the night did not launch a counterattack, and the two sides faced off between the two defensive positions. Due to the rout of the attacker's troops breaking through the Lake Zone, one corps and one cavalry division was sentenced to withdraw from the battle, "losing" 75,000 men, and Chentian's Second Army was also sentenced to withdraw from the battle, and the defender "lost" 61,000 men.

On the fourth day of the exercise, it was sunny. The previous day's sun had dried the muddy ground a lot, and after several days of gunsmoke, the Insterburg Gorge looked particularly quiet in the morning, but before the sun rose, it would become a field for countless people to gallop. Little Moltke was drooling in his sleep, and three days had passed, and his troops were still 350,000, almost three times as many as the defender's 120,000 troops, and it seemed to him that victory was within reach. Last night he had given an order to all the troops to storm with all their might today, and to break through the last line of the defenders.

"Your Excellency Chief of the General Staff, no! The other side is attacking us! Little Moltke's good dreams were interrupted by officers rushing in in a panic.

"What?" Little Moltke jumped up from the marching bed.

"The other side has already launched an attack on us, and without artillery fire prepared, their so-called tanks and armored vehicles rushed over, and now they are approaching our position!"

As Moltke hurried out of his tent, dozens of planes flew over him. On the flat ground ahead, hundreds of "iron lumps" were rapidly advancing towards him, and the attackers' positions were only dug trenches and some machine-gun bunkers, and they did not expect the opponent to launch a counterattack.

Little Moltke quickly calmed down from his shock, though. Although the opponent's attack was very sudden, it seemed that there were only tens of thousands of people, and he still had more than 200,000 troops here, so he ordered his soldiers to go to the position as soon as possible and prepare for a counterattack. Unfortunately, the rifles and machine guns in the hands of his soldiers were of little use against these iron guys, and more than 100 tanks and armored vehicles quickly tore a big hole in Moltke's position, followed by soldiers in armored personnel carriers and trucks. The disorganized soldiers were driven into scattered places by the machine guns on tanks and armored vehicles, and even decent defenses could no longer be organized.

At this time, Moltke Jr.'s troops in the Masurian Lake District were also pursued by machine guns mounted on three-wheeled motorcycles, and after losing a large number of artillery, they withdrew from the Lake District.

At noon, the Emperor declared the defeat of Moltke the Younger's side and the complete victory of the East Prussian Army of Chentian, and Moltke the Younger retracted his proposal to mobilize troops from the Western Front to strengthen the Eastern Front. Kaiser Wilhelm II praised the powerful impact of the armored forces and said that he would build up several more armored units. Chentian believed that this weapon should be used as a secret weapon, and he suggested that an armored academy should be established first, and at the same time tractor factories would be built throughout the country, and in wartime these tractor factories would all be converted to tanks and armored vehicles, and Germany would be able to assemble a large number of armored forces in a short period of time, while at the same time taking the opponent by surprise. The emperor took his suggestion, he ordered the destruction of all records of the exercise, no one was allowed to disclose the course of the exercise, and at the same time, in addition to approving Chentian's investment in tractor factories in various places, he also put him in charge of preparing for the establishment of an armored academy to reserve armored talents for Germany, the tractor factory did not need to pay taxes to the government, and the armored academy would receive a special fund.

On the other hand, ambassadors and observers who watched the exercise in Dortmund said that the "Pineapple" exercise was unremarkable and uninspiring, and they were very disappointed about it.

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