On February 2, 1916, nearly one and a half years after the first appearance of the German tank forces in front of the world, Guderian had grown from the vice-president of the Panzer Academy and an instructor in tactical theory to an excellent commander of the Panzer Forces, and his Panzer Corps continued to improve over time.

Compared to the original "Stone 1" tank, the current "Monster 1", also known as the No. 3 tank, has improved its technical performance by more than one level. In the past, the armored unit had to refuel once after 30 kilometers of walking, and the failure rate was nearly 5 percent, but now the No. 3 tank can continue to travel 150 kilometers on the road, even in potholed fields for 70 to 80 kilometers, and the failure rate has dropped to less than 1 percent.

In the past, when a good tanker had to learn to repair the tank, now, the tanker can concentrate more on the tank's march, offensive and defensive tactics, because now each regiment has a special repair team, as long as the tank breaks down, they will come in a special maintenance truck, professional technology, professional equipment, mechanical failure is no longer a headache for commanders.

Ten minutes later, the communications officer returned to Guderian's side.

"Report, General Fleming sent a telegram that the forward unit of his 2nd Panzer Corps had arrived on the outskirts of St. Pölten, and according to the information obtained from aerial reconnaissance, the Austro-Hungarian ** team had formed a temporary defensive line in St. Pölten, and the Austrian troops gathered there were about 100,000!"

"100,000!" Guderian could only smile bitterly, it seemed that his colleagues were in a big trouble, the two countries had not yet officially entered a state of war, and according to the orders of the army command, they should avoid the use of force as much as possible, except for self-defense, and try to drive the Austrians away by crushing, intimidating, and firing guns. Nevertheless, no less than a thousand people on both sides had been killed in the battle in a single day, and when large forces of the opposing side met. One mistake could turn into a battle that neither side wants to see, or even escalate the operation from intervention to war.

For these reasons, the German commanders were asked to advance boldly and cautiously, which was a rather contradictory and profound demand.

The situation of the German follow-up troops may have been better, but as the double arrows to break through into Austria, Gudry's armored army and Fleming's armored corps had to face the brunt of this strange situation. In the morning, the Austrian border guards were almost frightened by the German armored forces to break through the defensive line, and the five tank regiments led by the Gudeli Army alone captured many of the Austrian officers and men. In the process, both sides fired shots and killed people. But in general, the situation is still under control.

However, with the redeployment of the Austrian army, it may not be so easy to run over the opponent's defensive line, and perhaps some unknown Austrian commander will order to return fire with artillery and grenades, and by that time......

Thinking of this, Guderian could only mock the situation with "strange war". He, Major General Fleming and Major General Bair of the 3rd Panzer Army are all young generals under the age of 40, among which Guderian and Fleming are both veterans of the East Prussian Army, when Guderian was the commander of the 2nd Tank Division, Fleming commanded the 2nd Panzer Division, and made outstanding contributions during the British Campaign. Major General Beyer was the commander of the armored forces of the Royal Guards under William II. Later, he was transferred to the former crown prince Prince. During the war, he commanded the armored units of the 5th Army and participated in the Battle of Verdun, the Battle of the Seine, the Dover Landing, the Battle of London, the Battle of Birmingham and the Battle of Scotland, and was one of the most experienced commanders of the armored forces in the army.

In this operation. With Guderian and Fleming leading their troops into Austria, and Bayer's troops marching into Bohemia as the vanguard, Major General Bayer's task was much easier for the first day.

As soon as Guderian's communications officer walked back to the communication van and received another telegram from a corporal, he turned it back.

"The report, the 23rd Tank Regiment sent a telegram that they had encountered an Austrian tank unit near the Eisen Flat, with about 30 tanks and some armored vehicles, judging by the current situation. There may be an Austrian barracks nearby! They have already asked for aerial reconnaissance! ”

"Essen Flats?" Guderian leaned down as he spoke, and it took a moment to find the place on the map.

"General, do you need to give them any instructions?"

"Tell them not to be too nervous, the Austro-Hungarian armored forces will just order the old tanks, leave a tank battalion and two armored companies to keep a close watch, and the rest of the troops will continue to advance!" Guderian decisively gave the order, because he knew that the Austro-Crarian tanks were all the "Stone 1" type eliminated by the German Army, based on the current military industrial strength of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It is more difficult to build a tank more advanced than the "Stone 1" on your own than to climb to the sky.

By 4 p.m., five hours had passed since the first German troops had crossed the border, but in the Imperial Palace in Vienna, the ministers and generals were noisy and could not come to an end.

"Let's ask Field Marshal Friedrich to come out and preside over the situation!" Baron Kondla, the Austrian chief of staff, who was usually arrogant and domineering, but hesitated when encountering things, also had to find ways to turn to the wartime allied commander Archduke Friedrich.

"No, the Grand Duke has long stopped asking about political affairs, and now inviting him out has no effect at all! What's more, he is now very seriously ill, and as far as I know, he can't even take care of himself! Duke Casbah, Minister of War of Austria and Minister of War of the Central Government of Austria-Hungary, loudly raised his objections, "It is better to obey the will of His Majesty the new Emperor Linda I!" ”

Baron Kondra snorted coldly, this kasbah was either bought by the Russians, or fell under the pomegranate skirt of the new empress, in short, the result was the same - the new emperor and the new emperor, although the new empress was graceful, but after all, she had not yet been crowned and enthroned in Vienna, and most of the senators in the court were opposed to obeying the command of St. Peter at this time.

Duke Andras, Franz's important minister and chancellor of the exchequer of both the Austrian government and the central government, was the most staunch opponent, and he unceremoniously refuted:

"Humph! That woman is still dreaming in her Winter Palace! How did she know what was going on here? What does she know? War? Joke, we are not prepared at all now, the army is not mobilized and not assembled, what to fight with the Germans? ”

"Presumptuous! How dare you call Your Majesty that? German lackeys! Duke Casbah reprimanded sharply.

As we all know, the contradiction between these two men has a long history, and whenever the annual military budget is formulated, they will fight over the amount of funds. In this regard, the old Ao Huang had to be kind and persuasive. People originally thought that with the establishment of the new imperial land, Duke Casbah, who was very close to Linda I, would gain an unprecedented advantage, but before Linda ascended the throne of Vienna, the German invasion broke this situation - Duke Andras has always advocated imitating the Germans to take the route of the industrial revolution.

"Here we go again......" The people around them were eager to cover their ears, but a cabinet meeting of the central government was delayed because of the quarrel between the two. The patriarchs had their own local support. The Austrian generals had some main battles and some were peaceful, and the Hungarian generals reacted coldly, and for the most part only the navy was more unanimous - the Admiralty, led by the Austrian generals, under the leadership of the commander-in-chief, Admiral Anton Millis, advocated a declaration of war on Germany and a confrontation by force, however, their opponent, the German navy, had so far made no action in this invasion.

"Alright, alright! Guys, now is not the time to argue about this, in 2 hours, I'm afraid the German team will enter Vienna! Now the most important thing is how to deal with this embarrassing situation! "Mario Weber, Prime Minister of the Austro-Hungarian Central Government, continues to play the role of peacemaker, but in the past when the old Austrian Emperor was on the ground. These two people will be more or less restrained. Now that I finally found an opportunity to vent, how can I easily stop it?

Mario had to slap the table hard, like that. The red-faced two barely sat back in their seats.

"War or endure, now there are only two ways!" After everyone expressed their opinions, Mario could only summarize it like this.

These, the ministers and generals are more unified, and they shouted one after another: "I can't bear it!" ”

"That's war?" Mario looked at everyone with a serious face.

This time, however, few people made a sound, and Baron Kondra had already briefed everyone on the development of the situation, and Germany had mobilized almost the entire standing army, with 80 invaders, and they were well equipped and ready, in terms of the number of standing troops. Austria-Hungary did not fall behind, but the Austrian army was scattered throughout the country and unprepared, and even if the whole country was exhausted, the air power was only a quarter of that of Germany and one-seventh of the armored force, and the quality and morale of officers and men could not be compared with that of the German army. When the war started, the Austrian army had almost no chance of winning, and if it was lucky, it would only be a miserable peace, and what was even worse was that the war was fought entirely on the ground of Austria-Hungary. The damage to cities, industry and agriculture is incalculable.

There is another point that Baron Condra did not explicitly say, that is, the current discord within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and it is precisely because of the great disagreement on the matter of the appointment of the crown prince that the Germans have the opportunity to intervene. Bohemia and Hungary were unwilling to recognize Linda I as the new emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Bohemia directly attracted the German army, although Hungary did not declare independence at this time, but also refused to send troops to the German-Austrian border. Without the support of the Hungarian army, the strength of the Austrian army was greatly reduced, and it was difficult for Austria alone to compete with Germany, not to mention that the Austrian people did not have a strong sense of resistance to Germany......

Mario sighed secretly and said, "The negotiations with Berlin are still inconclusive, and we should consider issuing an ultimatum!" ”

The so-called urgent diplomatic consultations began after the German military issued a diplomatic statement, however, the Austro-Hungarian ambassador to Berlin could not even see the Kaiser, and the German government only sent a foreign ministry official of the corresponding rank to fight with the Austro-Hungarian ambassador, and it is said that German Foreign Minister Stresemann met with the ambassadors of the United States, Japan, Turkey, the Netherlands, Spain, and other countries in succession, in order to gain the understanding and support of countries other than Austria and Russia.

Compared with Berlin's "long-planned", Vienna's diplomatic activities were hasty and blind, and it was not until 2 o'clock in the afternoon that Vienna and St. Petersburg agreed for the first time on the seriousness of the matter, and only then did the first oracle of the "new empress" - to resist the armed invasion of the German ** army with all its might.

Now, the central government of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which had the right to go to war, was debating whether to carry out this "holy message".

"Ask Russia to issue an ultimatum with us!" I don't know who shouted, and the others echoed, and the scene was like a person in the water grasping a life-saving straw.

At the beginning of the last war, Britain, France, and Russia jointly demanded that Germany and Austria stop mobilizing, but this time, it was the turn of Austria and Russia to jointly issue an ultimatum to Germany.

"Let's do it!" Mario reluctantly decides.

More than an hour later, the important ministers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire finally received important news from St. Petersburg, and the Russian Empress had left St. Petersburg by special train, and was expected to arrive in Vienna in four days. In addition, the Empress decided that Russia and Austria would jointly issue an ultimatum to Germany, demanding that Germany withdraw all its troops from Austria-Hungary within a limited time, otherwise Russia and Austria would consider a general mobilization of the whole country and military means against Germany.

For the officials and generals of the central and Austrian governments of Austria-Hungary, this was the only good news they had received since the German invasion, and at this moment even the opposition Duke Andras put aside his political views for a while, and everyone was rejoicing at this significant foreign traffic, and diplomats were eager to write about it.

"Well, the Empire is finally saved!" Mario breathed a sigh of relief, from his point of view, only to survive tonight, the Germans had to be forced to stop the invasion by the joint ultimatum of Russia and Austria, and then no matter whether the Germans immediately withdrew their troops or deliberately delayed, as long as Linda I arrived in Vienna and officially ascended the throne, and then declared the invitation of the Duchy of Bohemia, the Duchy of Caniola, the Kingdom of Hungary, and the Primorsky Autonomous Province to the German army to interfere with the German army as an act of treason, then the German excuse would not be tenable.

Unfortunately, before this foreign communication was delivered to the German diplomatic department, the news of the German army's attack on the hundreds of thousands of Austrian troops around St. Pölten reached Vienna, which undoubtedly gave cold water to the important ministers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, who had just raised their hopes - a large-scale conflict could probably mean the early arrival of war, but in such a situation, it was obviously unrealistic to order the front-line troops to resist passively or even not resist.

"God bless Austria-Hungary!"