Bialystok, 45 miles southeast of Lake Masuria and 60 miles northeast of Warsaw, is Russia's largest railway junction in Poland. Late at night on August 31, two motorized infantry regiments and dozens of armored vehicles of the East Prussian Regiment launched a surprise attack here, and after one hour of fierce fighting, annihilated a Russian garrison regiment.

When the sun first shone on the land of Eastern Europe in September 1914, the main forces of East Prussia arrived in the small city. Chentian's soldiers began to construct a ring of imperial positions around Bialystok, and he himself led General Prittwitz, General François, Colonel Olge, and Colonel Matthew to set up the field headquarters on a nearby hill.

At this time, more than 200 miles southwest of them, more than 2 million troops and more than 5,000 artillery pieces of Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires were engaged in fierce battles between the Vistula and Transnistrian rivers. 36.5 infantry divisions and 12 of the Russian army. 5 cavalry divisions against 39 infantry divisions and 10 cavalry divisions of the Austrians.

The Russian Southwestern Front under the command of General Ivanov was ordered to encircle and annihilate the main force of the Austro-Hungarian army in Galicia, and prevent the other side from retreating south across the Dniester River to the west to Krakow. The Russian army launched an offensive against the Austrians with the 3rd and 8th armies in Dubno, Lviv, Proskurov, Galich and other places, and the 4th and 5th armies attacked Przemyśl from the north. Due to the repeated requests of the British and French armies to speed up the offensive, the Russian and Korean armies began to attack the Austrians before they had all assembled and deployed.

The Austro-Hungarian army under the command of Archduke Friedrich planned to attack Lublin and Cheum with the forces of the 1st and 4th armies, and their goal was to crush the 4th and 5th armies on the right flank of the Russian Southwestern Front. The right flank of the Austrian army was supported by the 2nd Army. The Austrians concentrated 2/3 of their forces in this main assault direction. The remaining 1/3 of the forces were used against the Russian 3rd and 8th armies.

On 18-19 August, the armies of both sides began to engage the enemy, and on 23 August, an encounter took place on a frontal 320 km wide. In the course of the engagement, the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army, which was attacking Lublin and Cheum, inflicted heavy losses on the Russian 4th Army near Krašnik. The 4th Army inflicted heavy losses on the Russian 5th Army near Tomaszów, forcing it to retreat to Lublin, Cheum, Vladimir and Volynsky. But in the following period, the Austro-Hungarian armies were met with stubborn resistance from the Russian army. Heavy losses, the pace of the offensive slowed down, and finally switched from offensive to defensive. On 18 and 19 August, the 8th Army and the 3rd Army of the Russian Southwestern Front launched an offensive on 26-28 August. Russian troops defeated the Austro-Hungarian 3rd Army in the area of the Zolota Yalipa River. On August 29-31, in the battle in the area of the Yalipa River in Gnjira, the Russian 3rd Army broke through the Austrian front southeast of Lviv, while the 8th Army repelled the counter-assault of the Austrian 2nd Army transferred from the Serbian battlefield, and the right flank of the Austro-Hungarian army began to retreat to the Gorodok position 30 kilometers west of Lviv.

At this moment, due to the sudden insertion of the East Prussian regiment into the rear of their own flank. and the occupation of one of the two main railway lines from Poland to the Russian hinterland, the commander-in-chief of the Russian Southwestern Front, General Ivanov, was greatly alarmed. On the one hand, he ordered the armies to temporarily stop attacking the Austrians, and on the other hand, he transferred two wings of troops to counterattack the East Prussian Army in Chentian.

In Bialystok's command room, the adjutant approached with a telegram he had just received from the Austro-Hungarian Allies. "His Royal Highness, Archduke Friedrich, Commander-in-Chief of the Austrian Army, sent a telegram. His army is currently unable to launch a full-scale counterattack for the time being, and his reinforcements will not arrive until a week later, and in this week he can only launch a partial attack on the Russian army, and I am afraid that he will not be able to contain the large number of Russian troops! According to his estimates, the Russian army has already drawn 13 infantry divisions and 7 cavalry divisions from his front! ”

Chen Tian looked at the map silently, according to the reconnaissance report in his hand, the Russian army not only transferred 1/3 of the troops from the frontal combat site with the Austrian army, but they also transferred 3 cavalry divisions from the Belarusian region to prepare to outflank themselves. This time the operation would be carried out entirely in Russia, and the logistical support would be far more difficult than in the defense of the homeland, and the strong firepower of the East Prussian Corps would be very logistically transportable. Tanks not only need a lot of gasoline and ammunition, but also need considerable maintenance personnel support, the aircraft needs airstrips and a lot of aviation fuel, and they also need to send responding troops to protect the airport, and once they are captured by the Russians, the consequences are very bad, so Chen Tian did not bring a tank this time, and the plane only has more than 20 reconnaissance planes. The power and firepower are very outstanding, and the armored vehicles and motorcycles that the Russians are also equipped with a small number of times have become the best choice for Chentian, and gasoline and machine gun ammunition are the focus of logistics supply. Despite this, the 200,000-strong force still needs to be divided into 1-20,000 people to defend the transportation line, and as the battle line penetrates deeper into Russia, the logistics transportation distance will become larger and larger, and more and more soldiers will be put into logistics support.

"Well, let's play our strengths, fight an active defensive battle in the Bialysk area, and try to hold out until a week later, the Austrians will launch a counterattack! We'll need to stock up on a lot of ammunition here for the next two days, and at the same time send a force to defend Munki, 20 miles to the north, both to defend the transport line and to act as a reserve in case of a counterattack! Chen Tian said as he drew two hair circles on the map, which is a defensive counter-attacking tactic that he is good at.

"The Russians are completely vulnerable, and sooner or later we and the Austro-Crarian allies will go to the Tsar's bedroom to have a good time, hahaha!" Chentian's lieutenant, the timid, incompetent and obscene General Prittwitz, suddenly interjected, and then laughed to himself with his stomach in his hands, as if he were having fun with the women of the Kremlin. Everyone ignored him, only a few staff officers opposite him cooperated to squeeze out a few smiles. In order to prevent this incompetent guy from making trouble for himself in the rear, Chen Tian insisted on bringing him to the Russian battlefield, this guy refused to come at first because he was sick, but Chen Tian told him how the Russian army was incompetent, and he would soon be able to return from Moscow with the generals, he immediately changed his face and was full of spirit to fight the Russians. The East Prussian garrison was now under the command of General Augustus von Mackenyan.

"General Prittwitz, I see that every time you come out, you are so arrogant and unrestrained, and you are really enviable! Why don't you lead a cavalry regiment to repair the forward units of the Russians and dampen their spirits? As soon as Chen Tian said this, everyone agreed, and Prittwitz immediately left the command room with a stomach ache, and after he walked away, there was a burst of laughter in the command room.

"Alright, let's move on! The Leif River, to the southwest of us, was at this time at a high level, and we set up a first line of defense along this river to block the Russian troops that had been brought back from the Galician front. We will not blow up the only railway bridge over the river for the time being, so that it can be used in the event of a counterattack in the future, Olg, your Panzer Corps will send a unit of armored combat vehicles to quickly hide on this side of the bridge, once the line of defense of the bridge is broken by the Russians. This unit quickly attacked and recaptured the bridge! The main forces of the armored division were distributed at various points along the river and were responsible for plugging the loopholes of the First Army! ”

"Yes! I will arrange for 20 armored combat vehicles to ambush in this small village! Org pointed to a small dot on the map, a village of only a few dozen peasant families.

"Yes! OK! General François, your first army is deployed along the river, and your task is to try to hold the river, and if you break through, retreat to the vicinity of the city of Bialystok, relying on the pre-built ring city for defense, and finally, we can also use the buildings in the city for street fighting, but this is the next choice, after all, the city is too small! ”

"Yes, Your Highness! Resolutely carry out your orders! François, who was half a head taller than Chentian, snapped upright, and Chentian had to look up at him.

"Excellent! But don't be too restrictive. Colonel Matthew, your Fourth Army is stationed in Monge! The Second Army, which I commanded, and two mechanized infantry divisions of Org were laid out in the defensive line around the city of Bialystok. Once we find out about the 3 cavalry divisions from Belarus, Olg, when the time comes for one of your mechanized infantry divisions to cooperate with my Second Army, we will destroy this enemy first! Chen Tian gently threw the pencil on the table, 180,000 men defended, 280,000 attacked, the Russians did not seem to have learned the lesson of East Prussia, did they think that the 400,000 troops they had entered East Prussia had fallen into the swamp? Thinking of this, a trace of bad premonition suddenly appeared in his heart. On August 23, Japan declared war on Germany and immediately sent its navy to blockade Jiaozhou Bay. The Japanese appointed Lieutenant General Mitsutomi Kamio as commander, mobilized 50,000 troops with the 18th Division as the main force, equipped with hundreds of heavy siege artillery, mountain artillery, field artillery, and many aircraft, to attack Qingdao from land. The Japanese Navy dispatched more than 60 warships of the Second Fleet, and the First and Third Fleets guarded and captured German colonies in the Pacific Islands in the South China Sea. After Japan joined the Entente and declared war on Germany, Tsarist Russia could have drawn large numbers of troops from the Far East, but he was slow to receive this information.

"Order the reconnaissance plane to strengthen the reconnaissance in the east!" Chen Tian had just given the order, but his mood was shrouded in the dark clouds that appeared in the sky. He silently prayed that it was just a summer shower, but the heavy rain that lasted for three hours left the ground nearby muddy and the reconnaissance plane could not take off for a whole day. The French army, which believes that attack is everything, tasted the bitterness in the border battle, and it seems that Chentian, who is accustomed to defensive counterattacks, will also face a profound lesson!