On the Leif River, the steel-framed railway bridge still stands quietly.

The fierce battle three weeks ago had left countless marks on its body, the bridge was covered with shrapnel marks and shallow craters left by bullets, and the blood stains on the piers and corners seemed to remind people of the lives that had been lost here.

With a heavy gasp from the locomotive, the trains stopped about ten kilometers from the Leif River Bridge. Soldiers in gray uniforms jumped out of the carriages, and they quickly lifted the canvas from the hills on the flat cars at the back of the train, revealing hideous bodies of steel.

"Onward, onward, keep this direction! Be steady, good! Guided by the infantry, the lumps of iron slowly climbed out of the carriages, and the train was completely enveloped in the rumbling sound of engines and the light smoke that smelled of gasoline.

The tank commanders leaned half of their bodies out of the turret, and their black tank suits were designed to prevent oil from affecting the appearance of the troops, and they also stood out from the rest.

A group of officers who looked like they were high in rank stood on a nearby hillside watching the lively scene, and after General Mackensen's arrival, there was another serious face in the group.

"We attacked on time at 8 p.m.! General Mackensen, Colonel Olge, let your troops hurry up and rest in the afternoon, it's going to be a sleepless night! Chen Tian said and glanced at the river and the bridge in the distance, on the other side of the bridge was stationed the Russian 9th Army drawn from the Galician battlefield, 230,000 Russian officers and soldiers under the command of General Letzsky, ready to cooperate with the Russian army east of Bialystok to flank the German army that was pushing into Russian Poland.

"Yes! Your Royal Highness! Both Mackensen and Olg had confident and determined expressions on their faces, "Your Highness, you have to be more careful here, presumably Agliini will take this opportunity to attack Bialystok in a big way!" ”

After receiving reinforcements, Aglini now has 200,000 elite Guards infantry cavalry and 80,000 ordinary Russian troops. However, according to the latest information, the Russian troops transferred from the Far East did not come to the battlefield of Russian Poland as expected, and most of them had already gone to the Caucasus to fight the Turkish army, so that Chentian and his corps were under less pressure.

"I'll just wait for him to come!" For half a month, Chentian has worked the fortifications of Bialystok, "Verdun has not become a meat grinder, so let this place become a hell to strangle the Russians!" ”

Everyone was stunned, for them, this defense system designed and supervised by Chen Tian himself was very novel, but no one knew how powerful it was.

"Well, I wish you all a great victory! Our Austrian allies will also have a full-scale counterattack from tomorrow, and this will be perhaps a decisive battle on the Eastern Front! Medals are waiting for you, France is waiting for you, and the British Isles are waiting for you! Chen Tian took the lead in saluting everyone with a military salute, and everyone also returned the military salute with a serious face.

As autumn approaches, so does the time for nightfall to fall earlier. It was only 7 o'clock, and the land was already ruled by hazy darkness. Soldiers on the side of the road, armed with flashlights to guide the way, watched their tanks drive unhurriedly along the railway line towards the Leif River Bridge. The commanders still leaned out half of their bodies in the turret, their black uniforms gradually blending into the environment, and under the brimmed tank caps were grim and grim faces.

At the head of the marching queue were tanks No. 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the 2nd Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 101st Tank Regiment, which were commanded by the company commander of the No. 1 tank, Second Lieutenant Krontilis, and the other three members of the No. 1 vehicle were the driver, Corporal Kyle, Private Hellishi, who was responsible for loading the shells, and Private Lao, who was responsible for communications and machine gun control. The four tanks of the Lontilis Company are all of the "Stone II" type, a light tank with a top speed of 25 km/h, a 37 mm rapid-fire gun and two water-cooled Firebird machine guns, which is currently the most heavily armed tank in the German army. On car No. 1 in Krontilis, there was also a transmitter for liaison with the regimental command. At present, each tank regiment in the corps of the corps has two specialized armored communication vehicles, which are responsible for receiving reports from each tank company and communicating the latest orders to each tank company, and reporting and requesting instructions from the division headquarters.

In the sky, dozens of planes were constantly circling, trying to hide the sound of the advance of the tank troops.

When the figure of the Leif River Bridge appeared a few hundred meters ahead, Second Lieutenant Lontilis raised his right hand to signal his company to stop advancing. The tank queue gradually quieted down, and by this time there were still 30 minutes left before the attack.

At this time, the infantry units began to enter the starting positions, and the artillerymen were also preparing for firing in a tense and orderly manner.

After 10 minutes, everything calmed down, and the only sound in my ears was the sound of the water flowing in the Leif River. A breeze ruffled Rontilis's soft hair, and the young lieutenant set his sights on the other side of the bridge. After the Battle of East Prussia, he and his company had been idle for a month, and it was good to be away from blood and death, but when he saw the wounded German soldiers on the returning train, he began to yearn to fight alongside these infantry brothers, whose tanks were so strong and steely.

Lontieris raised his binoculars, the Leif River Bridge, which was also made of steel, and the banks on both sides were illuminated by high-powered searchlights on both sides, and every detail was unmistakable, and he could even see the Russian sentry posts, pillboxes and trenches on the other side of the river.

Time seemed to slow down here, 20 minutes was so long, the tankmen checked the artillery, machine guns, and ammunition over and over again, but Rontilis had a feeling that he and his car No. 1 would be the first to taste whatever danger there was on the other side of the bridge. The planes may be able to drown out the sound of some tanks marching, but the Russians may still be alert, and perhaps countless gun ports are waiting for them.

When the hands pointed to 8 o'clock, the silent air began to boil, and in a burst of rolling thunder, the Germans began to cover the west bank of the Leif River with heavy artillery fire, and countless shells whistled and shuttled over the Leif River. The Russian soldiers were stunned by the sudden artillery fire, and their commander, General Letssky, judged that the Germans would attack in the early hours of tomorrow morning, based on the unusual noise of the afternoon and the habits of the German army, at a time when the Russian units were actively mobilizing, and many soldiers were still exposed in the fields and roads. Many people were blown to pieces, and the severed limbs were thrown into the air, along with large chunks of earth and rock, and the air expanded rapidly from the explosion, pushing each other like a rolling liquid, washing and sweeping everything on the ground that could be shaken. The Russian soldiers, who had not yet lost their lives, were so shocked by the loud roar that their noses and ears were bleeding, and they cowered on the ground and did not dare to raise their heads.

"Forward!"

Lieutenant Lontilis pointed his originally raised right hand horizontally forward, and the sound of more than 200 tanks rumbling and starting seemed so insignificant in the roaring artillery fire, a light smoke filled the air, Lontilis's body suddenly leaned back, and Tank No. 1 began to drive towards the bridge with the sound of sonorous tracks.

At this time, the German machine guns on the east bank also began to fire, and a series of small white bright spots flew over the river, and the Russians did not expect the Germans to launch a ground attack as soon as the artillery was ready, so Lontilis's No. 1 tank drove onto the bridge without any resistance.

Both sides placed a large number of wooden fences with barbed wire at both ends of the bridge, and the Russians also arranged a large number of triangular nails and triangles on the bridge deck in order to stop the German armored vehicles from advancing, but these did not stop the German tanks in the slightest, only making their tracks make a piercing sound.

Tank No. 2 drove up and ran parallel to Tank No. 1 on the bridge. The commanders were now in the noisy turret, watching through the narrow viewing window.

The railroad tracks on both sides of the bridge had already been damaged in the last battle, and on the west side of the bridgehead, the Russian army dug deep trenches to cut off the railway line that originally ran from east to west. In addition to the trenches, the Russians also built several earth-and-stone pillboxes at the bridgehead, and their heavy machine gun muzzles protruded from small holes in the walls of the pillboxes, intending to block the bridge deck from there. After the German tanks drove up the bridge, the Russian machine guns in the pillboxes finally opened fire, and the bullets made a clanging sound on the steel plates of the tank, but these machine gun bullets were only like an itch to the 30mm thick frontal armor of the "Stone II".

Just as Rontilis and his No. 1 tank were driving through the middle of the bridge, there was a sudden muffled sound of an explosion at the bottom of them, and the tank shook violently before finally coming to a slow stop.

"Not good! It seems to be a landmine! Rontiris's heart was uneasy, "Kyle, are you alright?" ”

If the mine is powerful enough to penetrate the bottom of the tank, the driver in the lower front position of the tank will bear the brunt of the damage.

"Ensign, I'm fine! I think we ran into a Russian mine, I stopped the tank and there was nothing wrong with the engine, I'll go down and look at the tracks now! Kyle said as he opened the escape hatch at the bottom of the tank.

Rontilis waited anxiously, and if the track was blown off, the situation would be very bad. The Russians' machine-gun bullets were still ringing against the steel plates of the tank, and Tank 2 seemed to be rumbling forward.

"Ensign! The mine exploded under the track on our left, but fortunately the track did not break! After a while, Kyle climbed up and shouted in frustration.

"That's good! Keep moving! Rontilis let out a long breath, the Russians were a great threat to the tires and floors of armored vehicles against infantry mines, but they failed to damage the tracks of their tanks.

Soon, Tank 2 met the same fate, and after a short pause, they restarted, and Tank 1 was already in the lead.

Approaching the bridgehead on the west side, Tank 1 stopped, the turret began to rotate slowly, and the short muzzle was aimed at a Russian pillbox 30 meters away, and several tongues of fire were erupting from the firing holes in the pillbox.

The gunner pulled the gun rope suddenly, and the recoil caused the entire tank to shake back, and a red bright spot hit the Russian pillbox almost instantly, and the wall of the pillbox was blown out of a big hole on the spot, except for the smoke that kept coming out, there was silence inside the pillbox.

Soon, the No. 2 tank was also concocted, and another Russian pillbox suddenly fell silent.

Lontilis's No. 1 tank restarted, and after running over the Russian obstacles, it began to clear the Russian soldiers in the trenches with machine guns, and many frightened Russian soldiers even climbed out of the trenches and fled backwards, only to be naturally subjected to more violent and direct machine-gun bullets. Then, Lontilis and his tanks drove effortlessly through the Russian trenches, which were just over a meter wide. Here, Rontilis could already clearly feel the ground shaking, the deafening explosions mixed with the wails and cries of the Russian soldiers, like a roar from hell. Gravel and scorched earth roared down from the sky, and countless craters of various sizes and depths filled the east bank of the Leif River. Suffocating smoke and dust rolled. Rising, pervading, a wave is not finished, and a wave is rising again. The Russian positions were littered with smoking, distorted, slightly reddish fragments of artillery shells and bloody limbs.

"Send a report! Let the artillery extend its firepower to the depth of the Russian army! "Inside the noisy tank, Rontilis had to shout loudly at the top of his throat. His company began to slow down and move forward, and the follow-up tank units and infantry also rushed across the bridge, and they began to clear the Russian troops near the eastern bridgehead.

In the ruins of the pillbox, behind the broken walls, and even in the fields not far away, the Russian soldiers were still resisting, strings or single bullets were constantly splashing sparks outside the tank, and the gunners of Longiris were busy stuffing shells into the chambers, and Longtilis kept his eyes firmly on the scope, and the outside world flickered in the light of the explosion, and when he saw a string of bright spots flying out, he aimed the muzzle of the gun there. Although the Stone II had been fitted with more effective ventilation than the Stone I, the entire tank was still filled with ****** smoke, and Lontilis and his tankmen had to wear improvised gas masks to continue the battle.

After about 10 minutes, German artillery fire clearly began to extend from positions on the east bank of the river to the rear, and Lontilis and his company continued to advance west along the railway line, while some German tanks and infantry that had crossed the bridge began to advance towards the Russian positions on the west bank of the Leif River on either side of the bridge.

Rontilis couldn't see anything from his observation window except for the flash of the explosion not far away, so he ventured to open the lid and poke half of his head out of the turret.

Although the air outside is full of peculiar smells, it gives people a refreshing feeling compared to the air inside the tank. Rontilis reluctantly turned his head to look behind him, where tanks 2, 3, and 4 were all following him unharmed, and behind the company were other tanks and armored vehicles, their tracks rattling against the stone land bases on both sides of the railway. In the fields on both sides, there are burning objects everywhere, and the light of the fire faintly reflects the corpses of Russian soldiers everywhere, and there is a Russian artillery position not far from the left front, where some small-caliber artillery lies crookedly, which seems to be used to block the bridge, but the Russians have not built good bunkers for them, so that the artillery and artillery here have been lost in the first wave of German shelling.

The farther fields were almost completely shrouded in darkness, and the Russian soldiers were constantly firing sporadic bullets from them, and Rontilis had no interest in wasting shells for those small fish and shrimp, but the bullets that kept flying nearby made him a little worried about sticking out half of his head from the turret.

In less than an hour after the start of the battle, the armored units of the East Prussian Corps had broken through the Russian defense line on the west bank of the Leif River, and nearly 100,000 troops of the Panzer Corps and the 2nd Army quickly advanced into the Russian depth after crossing the Leif River bridge.