Sunday, October 4, 1914.

This day is also the traditional festival of the Chinese - Mid-Autumn Festival. (Awesome, this has been checked, wahahahaha!) ）

The vast majority of Russians were unaware of the misfortunes of the Russian royal family outside the port of Pokhara, and for them, the Tsar and Grand Duke Nicholas were missing in the face of the sudden Russian Revolution. Most of the Russian troops who supported the imperial power were in a state of fighting their own battles, but the Belarusian region was relatively stable, not only the area where the development of the revolutionary forces was relatively weak, but also the few elite troops left in Russia, the main force of the Russian Royal Guard, and the remnants of the Russian Southwest Army Group, plus some of the new troops and garrisons in the Belarusian region that had been transferred from all over Russia, where there were still as many as 800,000 regular Russian troops. They were all under the unified command of Grand Duke Aglini, the commander of the Russian Guard.

However, even in these Russian units, an atmosphere of unease still existed, not only because the underground revolutionary party that had infiltrated the army was ready to move, and the commander of the Guards did not take the main force of the Guards to defend the capital and the tsar, and many Russian officers and soldiers loyal to the tsar complained about this, but Aglini only sent a small number of cavalry back to Moscow and St. Petersburg on the grounds of a large-scale attack by the German and Austrian troops, and after encountering a slight resistance from the Russian Revolutionary Party on the way, these cavalry were ordered to withdraw to Minsk "in a hurry".

In just four days, the main force of the Austro-Hungarian army under the command of Archduke Friedrich had penetrated deep into the heart of Belarus, and its vanguard was less than 100 kilometers from Minsk. His Austro-Hungarian army was now advancing in three directions, with the 1st Army under the command of General Dankel on the right flank, which had entered and crossed the border and advanced towards southern Belarus; In the center was General Offenberg's 4th Army, which advanced at a rapid pace towards eastern Belarus; The Grand Duke led the 2nd Army and the 3rd Army to form a left flank corps and advanced to Minsk, the capital of the Belarusian region; Most of the Austrian 3rd Army remained in Poland to build a line of defense along with the Germans stationed in Poland, although it was now meaningless to the Austrians.

The blue-clad and gray-pants marched slowly along the Belarusian country roads, and the Austrian officers and men were clearly in a good mood, and the cheerful singing drifted far and wide, even the many Russian cavalry hidden in the distant woods could hear it. The cavalrymen, dressed in blue-gray or dark green uniforms, had no expression on their faces, and they reassured their mounts over and over again, and now, it was still some time before they showed their skills.

The vanguard of the Austrian left flank was a pure Austrian cavalry unit, and the 2,975 soldiers of the Cheney cavalry regiment were all Austrians, and Major Cheney was proud of the single national composition of this cavalry regiment, which in his opinion was much more effective than those "motley troops" composed of soldiers of several or even a dozen nationalities.

Belarus is flat, most of the territory is plains and basins, its south is vast lowland, the central part is plains and low hills, the north and northwest are slightly higher, there are some highlands and rolling hills, the highest point in the whole of Belarus is only 345 meters above sea level, which is very suitable for the march of large troops, especially cavalry units. Therefore, the Cheney cavalry regiment always pulled the main forces far behind, and the occupation of Russian villages without resistance could no longer bring a sense of honor to these proud cavalrymen, and all they had done these days was to numbly plant the Austro-Hungarian flags on the roofs of the Russians, and then accept the contempt and contempt of the Russian soldiers and civilians.

For the Cheney Cavalry Regiment and many Austrian officers and men, the situation seems to have changed since this morning. First of all, the Russian planes, which had not been seen for a long time, appeared above the heads of the Austrians just after dawn, and they circled in the sky, not counting them, and dropped a few improvised bombs before leaving. Because the Austrians were advancing too fast, their planes and the temporary airfield were still far behind, and by the time more than a dozen Austrian planes that had passed by German technicians to equip their weapons arrived, the Russian planes had already disappeared without a trace, and when the Austrian planes returned from fuel, they appeared in the sky like lingering flies, and the Austrian machine guns were helpless against these Russian planes that flew relatively high, and although the bombs dropped by the Russian planes were not very powerful, they made the Austrian officers and men irritable.

In the morning, a small group of Austrian cavalry stumbled upon a Russian cavalry unit in the woods near a Russian village, and there was a brief exchange of fire between the two sides, and then the Russians, who had the advantage in numbers, chose to retreat, and the Austrian cavalry did not dare to pursue, although only a few soldiers were killed or wounded on both sides, and the ominous suspicion had slowly climbed up the brow of the Archduke Friedrich.

Soon after, the Austrian reconnaissance plane discovered the east-west Russian positions and an ominous number of Russian troops northeast of Stolbutsy, and then the Cheney cavalry regiment also found itself in front of the Russian defensive line.

After putting down the binoculars, Major Cheney noticed that the deployment pattern of the Russian positions was somewhat familiar—wide trenches, sparse barbed wire, crisscrossed trenches, and wooden and stone bunkers.

Major Cheney was impressed by this mode of defense, and the German positions on the outskirts of Warsaw and the field defense of the Central Border Line were similarly arranged, and most of the Austrian generals who visited it praised it as the standard mode of positional defense. It seems that after suffering the losses of the German positional defense, the Russian army also began to imitate.

Before the main Austrian force arrived, Cheney sent a cavalry team of five to conduct a detailed reconnaissance of the Russian positions here, and he was surprised by the results of this defensive line, which was 20 kilometers long, with a wide river on the left flank, a small town on the right, and a large dense forest to the west of the town. This also means that the Austrian army can only force Minsk from this direction if it breaks through this line of defense.

The Russian army did not react to the reconnaissance of the Austrian cavalry, but only used bullets to drive away the Austrian cavalry who dared to enter, which made Major Cheney feel both curious and contemptuous of the Russian troops there, and he then called his signal corps, "Sergeant, you take a squad back to report to the Grand Duke, we have found the Russian defensive positions and the remnants of the Russian Southwest Army Group here, judging from the number and uniform, there are no Russian Guards troops here!" As for the number of Russian troops, it is preliminarily judged that there are at least two armies of 100,000 people! ”

After the signal corps hurriedly left, Major Cheney once again picked up his binoculars to observe the Russian positions ahead. The Russians seemed to be very well prepared, although their defensive positions were on the plains, but in the Battle of Lodz-Warsaw, the Austrian cavalry suffered heavy losses, making the already weak Austrian cavalry even less of a threat to the Russians. Of the 860,000 Austro-Hungarian troops currently entering Russia, there are only 110,000 cavalry in 7 divisions, and the rest are infantry and artillery, except for a small aviation unit.

"Artillery ......" Thinking of this, Cheney smiled with disdain. It won't be long before the Russians here will get a taste of their artillery. In the Battle of Lodz-Warsaw the Russians discarded a large number of artillery, most of which went to the Austro-Hungarian army, although there was not much ammunition left in these cannons, but after all, there were quite a few large-caliber guys.

Cheney was born into an Austrian aristocratic family, and his upbringing from military school to the army was smooth sailing. His first experience of defeat occurred in August, in the middle of the Battle of Galicia, the Russian army launched a wave of frenzied attacks, Cheney's cavalry regiment retreated again and again with the main force of the Austro-Hungarian army, and the scene of desertion and flight has become an indelible memory of Cheney, and the imprint of shame has been deeply rooted in his heart.

In the Battle of Lodz-Warsaw, Cheney and his cavalry once again felt the terrifying fighting power of the Russian Cossack cavalry, these barbarians, who usually did not even have to pay taxes, had strong bodies and superb horsemanship, and every time they collided with their blades, Cheney felt a little frightened, although the Austrians defeated the Russians with the help of the Germans, but the Russian cavalry earned the last glory for the Russian army. Cheney eagerly awaited the defeat of the Russians here to prove that the Austro-Roulettes did not rely on the Germans for victory, and their commander, Archduke Friedrich, may have had similar thoughts, so the Austro-Hungarian forces that entered Belarus this time did not include regular German troops except for some German technicians who assisted in the maintenance and repair of Austrian aircraft in the air force, and the German reserve corps that had previously assisted them and the German East Prussian Corps formed a Polish cluster for the security and defense of German Poland.

Despite the expectation of proving their fighting ability, the Austrian infantry did not appear in Cheney's sight until 4 p.m. that day, and when the main Austrian army arrived, it was already 6 p.m., and the autumn sun could not wait to go home and rest, leaving only the fiery red sunset still hanging in the sky.

For the Austrians, spending the night in front of the Russian positions was not an ideal option, so Archduke Friedrich, hoping for a fluke, ordered his troops to launch an attack before night fell completely. After a brief artillery preparation, the Austrian infantry began to advance on the Russian positions.

Cheney and his cavalry regiment were incorporated into the covering force on the left flank of the Austrian army, while the 1st and 2nd Infantry Corps of the 2nd Austrian Army were responsible for the main attack, the 3rd Army served as the general reserve, and the 1st of the 3rd Army served as a feint on the right flank.

In dozens of battles since the outbreak of the war, the cavalry had proved unsuitable for attacking the enemy's trenches and barbed wire positions, so after the Austrian artillery fire ceased, the Austrian cavalry units, including the Cheney Cavalry Regiment, launched a tentative attack on the town to the right of the Russian position.

Archduke Friedrich rode his horse in front of a small forest, holding a telescope and looking at the Russian position in front, thousands of meters in front of the Russian position, more than 100,000 Austrian infantry lined up in a straggler queue and quickly advanced. Soon, the Russian artillery began to shoot at the Austrians, and the gray smoke became more and more difficult to see clearly in the fading light, and the flames after the explosion of the shells became more and more dazzling. The Grand Duke could not clearly see how many Austrian soldiers were hit by Russian artillery fire, but based on the approximate location of the charging queue and the density of the infantry, he knew very well that the infantry losses were gradually rising, but fortunately the Russian artillery fire did not look so dense.

The Russians were neither the ancestors of the use of barbed wire, nor the large producers of barbed wire, and the Russians did not pay tuition to the Germans when they imitated them, so the barbed wire strip at the front of the Russian positions was far less dense and wide than the German positions, and the Austrian artillery successfully opened several wide passages there.

However, the Russians seemed to have dug their trenches wide and deep in order to show that they had great human resources, and the Austrian soldiers soon found themselves unable to jump over the trench in one go, and once they did, they needed tools to climb out again. Behind the trench, the Russians piled up a small slope with the dirt obtained from digging the trench, and the first trench of the Russian infantry was on top of this slope, from which they could get a good view of the shots.

Although the vanguard had warned the Grand Duke in his reconnaissance report that his attacking troops needed to prepare some tools to cross the Russian trenches, the infantry did not gather enough tools before the hasty attack. So when the infantry in the front row tried to use the few planks to build a tread on the tower of the Russian trench, the Austrian soldiers in the back could only stay on the side of the trench and shoot at the Russians.

In terms of machine guns, the Russian and Austrian armies were loyal supporters of machine gun defense when they started the war, and in their opinion, machine guns were just a defensive weapon, but under the careful teaching of the German army, the Russian army has fully realized that machine guns also have amazing power in the offensive, but Russia's economic and industrial strength and the revolutionary war that has just broken out have made it impossible for the Russian army to get more machine guns; The Austrians only admired the German armoured weapons, but they still only had some old iron trucks on hand, and the German factories did not produce enough to supply their own armoured troops, let alone help others to produce them, so the Austrians' orders for tanks and armored vehicles still had to wait patiently for some time. All in all, in the cross-fire on both sides of the trenches, the Russians had machine guns, but in small numbers; The Austro-Hungarian forces barely carried heavy machine guns during the charge, and the fire between the two sides appeared somewhat monotonous and lacking in momentum, and the sound of lonely rifles spread through the air.

With the passage of time, the number of Austrian soldiers who were shot in the trench gradually increased, and the Austrian platoon shot did not pose much threat to the Russian soldiers in the trench.

100,000 Austro-Hungarian soldiers were actually blocked by a trench!

Archduke Friedrich's nose was almost crooked, it was just a trench 3 meters wide and 2.5 meters deep, and the Austrians seemed to have encountered a situation where living people were suffocated by urine. If he had been a teenager younger, the Grand Duke would have rushed to the front and personally jumped over the trench to teach his infantry a good lesson, but only on horseback.

However, at this point, and night had fallen, the Grand Duke had no choice but to order the whole army to build improvised positions on the spot, and at the same time collect more tools for crossing the trenches, and prepare to launch another attack at night.

In the command headquarters behind the Russian positions, Admiral Ivanov looked surprised and mocked, "The Austrians are nothing more than that!" ”