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Chapter 343 Saving Russia's Life [Three Watches]

[Today's third watch, there will be one or two more shifts in the evening]

Neither the Entente nor the Allies had the energy to think about the long-term, and their only immediate goal was to break the deadlock and defeat the other side, at any cost. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info//《网》t《网》//Therefore, even if the arms dealers of the Chinese Empire offered a higher price, they would choose to buy it.

At the same time that the Allies and the Entente were at a stalemate on the Western Front, the German High Command decided to soften the persimmon and first defeat Russia on the Eastern Front, and then break the stalemate in the war.

Serbia on the eastern front had been defeated, leaving Russia alone to resist attacks from Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Turkish Empire, while Britain, France, and Italy on the western front were unable to help, resulting in huge military pressure on Russia and it was very difficult.

At the same time, the domestic political situation in Russia was also unstable, and if it had not been for the outbreak of war, Tsar Nicholas II would not have known how to face the domestic situation. But although there is war to attract the attention of the Russian people, it will be very dangerous if the Russian front is defeated.

Russia had a common border with Germany and Austria-Hungary, which stretched for more than 1,100 miles. It was Poland, a Russian province, which formed a salient two hundred and fifty miles wide, two hundred miles to the west, bordering Germany to the west and northwest, and Austria-Hungary to the south. Its western border is only one hundred and eighty miles from Berlin. To the north is East Prussia, an eighty-mile-wide piece of German territory sandwiched between Poland and the Baltic Sea. A victorious Russian attack would have cut it off from the whole of Germany.

However, Russia was pinned down by the armies of Austria-Hungary and the Turkish Empire from the very beginning, and was never able to launch an attack on German East Prussia.

East Prussia was defended by a fortress strip that was intended to prevent the Russian army from advancing across the Polish border. Strong strongholds were built along the upper reaches of the Vistula River and around the provincial capital Königsberg. Across the eastern border is the 50-mile-wide Masurian Lake, which became a natural obstacle to the severe restriction of the Russian invasion. Austria took advantage of the Carpathian Mountains and set up fortifications from Krakow through Lemberg (now Lviv) to the Romanian border. Between Russia and its Polish province, and around the center of Pinsk, is the Pripyat Marsh, with 38,000 square miles of marshland, overgrowth, and several dirt roads.

Germany's railway system consisted of seventeen routes to East Prussia, which could run five hundred trains per day; Such a system can transport a large army in a short period of time. A number of feeder lines branched off from the main line to many border areas to quickly mobilize troops to deal with contingencies. Austria built seven railway lines to Galicia via the Carpathians, with a daily traffic of 250 trains. Russia has only six railway lines from the main inland cities to Warsaw, and there are too few branch lines to have much military value.

In order to deter invasion from the west, the gauge of the Russian railways was wider than that used by the Germans. The border zone has been deliberately made a semi-barren wasteland cut off by forests and scrubland, and the unpaved roads turn into mud when heavy rains. As a result, as the Russian army approached these border areas, it moved as slowly as a wagon. This transport system puts infinite strain on the already ineffective military machine. When the Russian High Command learned from France that the German army on the Western Front was preparing to move east against Russia, a panicked Nicholas II immediately demanded that the Russian High Command make the right judgment and prevent Germany from invading Russian territory.

The Russian high command then decided to strike first, and before the German ** team was transferred from the Western Front to the Eastern Front, the Russian army broke through the German defense line and burned the war into German territory.

What Russia never expected, however, was that this was nothing more than a means for French politicians to use Russia to distract Germany, which wanted to relieve German military pressure on France on Verdun and the Marne.

But what the French never expected was that their false information would lead to Russia being dragged into a huge abyss, almost destroying Russia, and thus depriving the Entente of Russia as an ally.

Ivan, who served as the chief of staff of Russia and would command the army participating in the war? General Gilinsky, assured France that more than 650,000 people were ready.

Gilinsky's forces amounted to thirty infantry divisions and eight cavalry divisions, divided into two army groups, led by Alexander Gillinsky? General Samsonov and Pavel? General Kampf commanded for many years. For successive years, Kampf commanded the First Army and Samsonov commanded the Second Army, both named after their city bases.

In order to invade East Prussia and break the stalemate on the Eastern Front before the Germans returned from the Western Front, both Russian armies had to follow a fixed route on both sides of the Masurian Lake area, with General Kampf advancing along the northern border for several years and crossing the border on 17 August, while Samsonov was scheduled to follow two days later, passing through the southern periphery. \\。 Starting\\

In the early years, Schlieffen spent a lot of time at Lake Masurian thinking about the most effective measures to deal with this type of transfer. He ordered to concentrate sufficient forces against the Russian army that appeared first, and then attack the other army. This tactic was brilliantly simple, but in East Prussia he commanded the German Eighth Army. Feng? General Prittwitz, afraid to make a decision. Cowardice, combined with inaccurate intelligence, led him to erroneously disperse his forces, and then launch a frontal attack on the 1st Army of Kampf instead of a flank attack.

The battle began on 20 August near Gombin Nam (now Gusev). August? Feng? Mackensen's Seventeenth Army bore the brunt of the attack. For many years, Kampf feared to be surrounded, and when he was about to retreat, he learned that the Germans had retreated. Samsonov arrived at the border on the same day, his troops and horses were hungry, and his Second Army was clearly unfit to immediately enter the battle.

When Samsonov's troops and their exhaustion were reported to Prittwitz, he was incomprehensibly skeptical. In the meantime, Max? Feng? Colonel Hoffman drew up an offensive plan to Prittwitz's chief of staff, Count Waldze, that is, to strike at Samsonov's left flank. Three divisions were to be withdrawn from Combinam to reinforce the local forces.

Hoffman, a combat officer of the Eighth Army, was noticeably more clever than his colleagues. He was an expert on Russia in the General Staff and was fluent in Russian. Over the years he has accumulated a wealth of knowledge about his enemies, especially the confrontation between Kampf and Samsonov.

During the Russo-Chinese War, Hoffman was present as an official observer, when he inadvertently witnessed an unforgettable quarrel. On the platform of the Nebuchu station, two Russian commanders with angry eyes were scolding each other. Suddenly, they threw punches and fought until one knocked the other to the ground. Hoffman speculated that Kampf would refuse to aid Samsonov again in the coming years, and that this time he would stay in the Gombin area.

On August 24, Friedrich? Feng? General Scholz's Twentieth Army was defeated in a skirmish with Samsonov's forces, and then a division retreated to a more fortified defensive position. Mistaking this movement for a full-front retreat of the Eighth Army, Samsonov ordered a desperate pursuit, and his non-coded telegram was intercepted by the German signalmen. In fact, Scholz did not face a direct threat, since Samsonov's troops were too tired to pursue.

Realizing that this was a decisive blow, Markenson and Scholz retreated to the south, leaving only a symbolic cavalry division to face the twenty-four infantry divisions of Kampf. Within two days, large numbers of German troops were transported by efficient rail to the southwest, more than 100 miles away, and more than nine divisions regrouped on a seventy-mile arc facing southeast. Samsonov marched towards the deliberately weakened center and continued to pursue the enemy forces in the "retreat". By the time Samsonov marched into the weak, retreating center, the Germans had strengthened their flanks and were about to strike a blow to his two flanks that would surprise him.

Samsonov's right flank, which had advanced toward the center of the German army on the night of 25-26 August, left the rest of his forces about thirty miles away and made contact with the two German corps from Combinam. The German army, tired but well-fed, faced a tired and half-starved Russian army. After a short and chaotic battle, the Russians staggered back, while the Germans stared with relief, too tired to pursue.

Several companies of a Russian division, with their backs to Lake Bershaw, dizzily walked into the water, and some drowned. German propagandists portrayed it as legendary, saying that Hindenburg drove Samsonov's army into the swamp, killing tens of thousands. Ludendorff, who always took care to keep the record accurate when it came to his own prestige, dismissed it as a "myth...... There are no swamps nearby at all".

The dawn of August 27 began, and it was the end of the world for the Russian army, when Erman? Feng? General François's 1st Army, shelling Samsonov's left flank in the Ustau defense area. The German signalmen intercepted Samsonov's telegram for help, but Gilinsky and Liannian Kampf ignored his pleas. The hungry and demoralized Russian troops, inevitably broke up and fled in panic. Despite the danger to his troops, Samsonov ordered his central forces to attack, causing a brief period of unrest for the Germans. But the hungry and confused Russian army made them hunt like a flock of sheep. The Germans, who stretched for forty miles, had only to point the circle of prisoners to these brave men, who had fought to the point beyond their endurance. The total loss of the Russian Second Army; Of the commanders of the five corps, two were captured, and three were summarily removed from their posts for incompetence. Samsonov did not suffer the same fate as theirs.

On the evening of 28 August, he went into the forest alone, raised his pistol to his temple, and pulled the trigger.

This battle was a German victory and a Russian disaster. More than 92,000 people were taken prisoner. An estimated 30,000 people were killed and missing. About five hundred guns of the Second Army were destroyed or captured. Gilinsky was concerned about Samsonov's fate and ordered Nian Kampf to find the location of the now-defunct Second Army. But for many years Kampf turned around and fled, because the victorious Eighth Army concentrated fire on his troops.

Two weeks later, at the Battle of Lake Masuri, the Germans cleared East Prussia of all Russian troops. Compared with the German casualties of 10,000, the casualties of Kampf's troops in successive years amounted to 145,000. Hysterical about this disproportionate loss, Kampf abandoned his army and fled back to Russia.

Furious at his cowardice, Gilinsky sent a telegram to the Grand Duke, demanding that he be removed from office immediately.

In the following three months, the German General Staff decided to concentrate its forces on the defeat of Russia and force Russia to cease the war on the Eastern Front, so as to avoid continuing to fall into the dilemma of fighting on two fronts, and the Eastern Front became the main battlefield.

In January 1914, the German-Austrian forces pursued the victory, with 18 divisions and more than 2,000 artillery, 1,000 Fokker fighters, and 50 airships, and attacked the Russian army in two ways, and planned to force the Russian army into the "Polish pocket" to annihilate.

The Germans used poison gas bombs, white phosphorus bombs, and aircraft on a large scale in the battle, and attacked the backward Russian army, and successively captured Lemburg, Ivangorod, Warsaw, Brest, Vilno, and Riga, and forced the Russian army to retreat to the line from the Gulf of Riga to the Dniester River.

At the same time, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Turkish Empire also launched a fierce offensive against Russia in the Caucasus and Persia, pinning down part of the Russian army.

The Russian army was besieged by more than 2 million troops of the German, Austrian, and Turkish countries, and the Russian army suffered heavy losses. Especially in the face of the strong combat effectiveness of the German army, it was beaten all the way by the German army, and lost more than 700,000 people in just three months.

The Germans won a great victory, and vowed to completely defeat Russia in the next few months.

The defeat of the Russian army on the Eastern Front shocked the Entente side, and France regretted encouraging Russia to take the initiative to attack Germany, because they did not expect the Russian army to be so vulnerable.

On the Chinese Empire's side, the Imperial General Staff was also very shocked, because the large number of weapons and equipment imported by the Entente from the Chinese Empire was basically rarely used by Russia, so that Russia's equipment lagged too far behind Germany, and it was defeated in the first Armageddon.

The imminent imbalance on the Eastern Front in Europe was an undesirable outcome for the Chinese Empire, so the General Staff of the Chinese Empire immediately decided to provide large-scale military assistance to Russia, while at the same time delaying the export of white phosphorus bombs to Germany, and in turn supporting Russia.

Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, although he hated the Chinese Empire very much, had to give in and accept the military support of the Chinese Empire at this critical juncture of imminent defeat.

Of course, considering that Russia is too poor, the Chinese Empire may not be willing to spend as much money as Britain, France, and Italy to buy advanced weapons and equipment from the Chinese Empire. But the Chinese Empire was not a philanthropist either, so it lowered prices and preferred to make less money while maintaining the balance on the Eastern Front.

The number of Russian planes was too small, only more than 500 Camel fighters and Newport fighters provided by Britain and France, and their performance was far inferior to the German Fokker fighters (Britain and France did not give the Cat Demon fighters to Russia on the Western Front), resulting in the Russian Air Force and the Luftwaffe after the decisive battle, the entire army was wiped out.

The Chinese Empire urgently provided Russia with 300 Cat Demon fighters, and because there were no ready-made Cat Demon fighters, the Chinese Empire had to transfer back 300 Cat Demon fighters from the battlefield against Japan, and directly transferred them to Moscow, Russia 10 times, and delivered them to the Russian Air Force for use.

The Russian Air Force used almost all the pilots to be wiped out, and the novices did not know how to fly at all, so the Chinese Empire had to provide Russia with a group of "volunteer pilots" who, under the banner of democracy and humanity, protested against the German army's use of poison gas bombs on Russian soil, and used this excuse to participate in the Russian Foreign Flying Corps as volunteers to help the Russian Air Force build the shelves first.

At the same time, the Chinese Empire also wanted to understand the strength of the Luftwaffe so that it could decide whether to export more advanced fighters to Germany in the future.

During the Battle of Warsaw in May 1914, 300 Cat Demon fighters of the Imperial Chinese Volunteer Pilot Group fought fiercely with 823 Fokker fighters of the Luftwaffe. The volunteer pilots of the Chinese Empire, with a fearless spirit, repelled the Luftwaffe.

In this battle, the Chinese Imperial Volunteer Flight Brigade lost 103 Cat Demon fighters, sacrificed 23 pilots, and other pilots parachuted to escape and fell to the ground to be protected by the Russian ground forces at any cost to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Germans. The Luftwaffe lost 643 Fokker fighters, 541 pilots were killed, others were captured by the Russian army on the ground 103 people, and other German pilots were rescued by the Germans on the ground.

After the Battle of Warsaw, the Luftwaffe's superiority was repulsed, and the Chinese Empire then urgently provided the Russian Air Force with 300 Jian-1 and Jian-5 fighters in stock, which finally blocked the Luftwaffe and regained air supremacy.

At the same time, the Chinese Empire gave priority to 1,000 tons of advanced artillery gas bombs and white phosphorus bombs, as well as 400,000 sets of gas masks, to the Russian Army.

The Battle of Warsaw broke out on May 11, and the Russian Army and the German-Austrian forces launched the largest poison gas operation in human history. In order to retaliate for the huge casualties caused by the release of poison gas by the German-Austrian army, the Russian army fired white phosphorus bombs and poison gas bombs at the German-Austrian positions at all costs, and poured 1,000 tons of poison gas bombs and white phosphorus bombs onto the German army's position of 93 kilometers in just four hours.

Since the poison gas bombs used by the German army have not yet achieved a real way of shelling and explosive dispersion, the release rate of the canister gas bombs launched by the Germans into the Russian positions is slow, and the Russian army has had time to wear gas masks, so the casualties have been controlled. However, the poison gas bombs and white phosphorus bombs used by the Russian army from the Chinese Empire have been shelled, and they exploded instantly when they hit the German positions, and many German troops won the bid before they had time to react, causing a surge in German casualties.

The Battle of Warsaw lasted for a month, the Russian army from the initial panic, gradually recovered its fighting spirit, in the Chinese Empire continued to airlift a large number of military supplies to Russia, the Russian army, which also had advanced weapons and equipment, began to counterattack, driving the German army out of Warsaw.

In the Battle of Warsaw, the Russian army accumulated more than 1 million casualties, and the German-Austrian army was not much better, with 790,000 casualties, which was also a serious injury.

During the German invasion of Russia, Russian civilians suffered a huge number of 2 million casualties, most of them under German poison gas bombs.

Although the German army was considered a victory, it also suffered great losses, and did not destroy the main force of the Russian army, and as a result, the real purpose of Russia's surrender could not be forced, and the strategic task was not completed.

In this Polish battle, Russia suffered more than 1.7 million casualties before and after, and its vitality was also greatly damaged. After driving the Germans out of Warsaw, they were no longer able to continue their advance, so they once again confronted the German-Austrian forces, and the battlefield returned to a stalemate.

After the Battle of Poland, Russia had to admit that it was the Chinese Empire that saved them, otherwise the Germans would definitely be able to reach Moscow.

Therefore, Tsar Nicholas II had to write a letter of thanks to the Chinese Emperor Wang Chenhao, expressing his gratitude for the generous assistance of the Chinese Empire.

After this battle, the Russian side was finally able to break through the obstruction of Tsar Nicholas II and the Russian Duma and import the military and strategic materials needed by Russia from the Chinese Empire. Previously, Tsar Nicholas II had always been attached to the Chinese Empire, so he did not trade materials with the Chinese Empire.

Since China and Russia are neighbors, Russia can get the supply of weapons and materials from the Chinese Empire at any time, and once the negotiations are successful, it will naturally be of great help to Russia.

After some negotiations, the Chinese Empire approved the export of aircraft, artillery, heavy machine guns, and other weapons and ammunition to Russia, but stopped exporting poison gas bombs and white phosphorus bombs to Russia to prevent being criticized by international public opinion.

The first arms deal between China and Russia amounted to 70 million dragon coins, all paid to the Chinese Empire in gold and silver. At this time, Russia was in turmoil and urgently needed weapons and equipment to arm the army in order to suppress the revolutionary party in the country.

At the same time, Russia urgently needed a large amount of living materials to appease the Russian people, and the young and strong men in Russia basically went to war, and Russia's light industry and agriculture were almost abandoned, so it had to import light industrial products such as oil, salt, rice vinegar and agricultural products such as grain and vegetables to the Chinese Empire on a large scale.

The Russian ruble had depreciated wildly, and the Chinese Empire required Russia to use gold as collateral before it could be allowed to export to Russia. To this end, Russia had to take 300 tons of gold from the treasury and ship it to the Chinese Empire as collateral.

With the great help of the Chinese Empire, Russia temporarily stabilized the domestic political situation, so that the Russian army gradually regained its strength and fought against the German, Austrian, Turkish, and Bulgarian forces.

The Entente countries, Britain, France, and Italy, knew that they had almost killed Russia this time, so they immediately expressed their stance to contain the military strength of the Allies and force the German army to return from the Eastern Front to the Western Front in order to relieve Russia's military pressure. Italy also launched a fierce offensive against Austria-Hungary, also hoping to force the Austro-Plenum ** team to come back, but the Italian army was not strong and did not have much effect.