Since the German army chose to outflank in the northwest direction, it was impossible to move south, and now the tactics of outflanking and attacking the British and American supply lines in a roundabout way were resisted, so they could only stop the offensive momentum, after all, two large-scale attacks in a row did not advance, and the German army consumed a lot of war materials, and the combat effectiveness and morale of the soldiers also declined rapidly, and they urgently needed to rest, so they stopped the offensive and turned to the defense.

In this campaign, the greatest losses were suffered by the American army, the British and French losses were not large, the British army lost only 300,000, while the French army lost even less, only 150,000 people.

In the case of a large number of combat effectiveness, the French army did not dare to attack the German army, but the British army also knew at this time that the German army was extremely tired, so it began to attack the German army, the German army in front began to retreat, no longer carrying out trench defensive tactics, but has been retreating to the opposite side of the river, the British army pursued for a while and could not catch up, feeling that the fist hit the cotton, very uncomfortable, but it could not help the German army, from the current situation, the German army is getting better and better, and the senior commanders of the German army are no longer limited to the gains and losses of a city and a place, The British army did not dare to stretch the battle line too long, for fear of being attacked by the Germans, so they had to stop after a period of pursuit, and the war on the Western Front came to an end temporarily.

Bulgaria, Sofia.

Cai Guodong's theater commander's headquarters has been moved here, and it is arranged in the Sophia Cathedral, which was previously occupied by the German army, and all the priests and clergy in it were expelled by the Germans.

"General. General Cai Wei has arrived! The adjutant reported to Cai Guodong.

Cai Guodong, who was holding his arms and looking at the sand table, waved his hand: "Please let him in!" ”

"Yes!"

After a while, a voice sounded behind him: "Report to the general." Cai Wei came to report, please instruct the general! ”

Hearing this, Cai Guodong turned around and saw Cai Wei and smiled: "Okay." I'm about to send someone to ask if you've arrived, come, let's talk over there!" ”

"General, please!" Cai Wei hurriedly said.

As the two walked, Cai Guodong said with a smile: "There are so many people surnamed Cai in our army, and people who don't know it still think that our army is Cai's army, and they think that we and General Cai Yi are relatives!" ”

Cai Guodong said this is not without purpose, in recent times, the outside world has indeed spread that there are indeed too many high-level Chinese military officials with the surname Cai, and Cai Ye and Cai Guodong have appeared among the main cadres in the army. These two people are both high-ranking and powerful people in the military, and now there is another Cai Wei, although he is only in charge of the Ninth Army Corps, which is composed of all Japanese prisoners of war, but he is also a general, and some people who don't understand the inside story even think that these three people are not related, in fact, although the three of them are surnamed Cai, they have no relationship, and they are not even a ancestral hall.

Cai Wei had also heard this kind of rumor, and at this time he heard Cai Guodong say it as a joke. Suddenly shook his head helplessly: "Those people are some fools, what fools say, why should the general care?" ”

Cai Guodong waved his hand and smiled: "Forget it, let's not talk about these topics that have nothing to do with the battle situation." Let's get down to business, what's going on with your Ninth Legion? Have you found any cases of adaptation? How is morale recovering? Approximately when can an offensive be launched? ”

Speaking of business, Cai Wei immediately straightened his waist. Zhengse said: "Report to the general, my Ninth Legion has successively discovered that some soldiers and legions are not adapted. But there are not many of them, so far. A total of 3,862 people have been found, in order to prevent the occurrence of infectious diseases, now we have taken measures to isolate all these people, and set up a field hospital to treat them, has achieved good results, morale recovery is a little slow, after all, a month-long sea voyage, after going ashore and then a rapid march, no matter how good the body can not hold, but the Japanese patience is very strong, no one complained during the march. I guess it will take about a week to get back to full morale."

Cai Guodong thought for a moment and said: "Since this is the case, let's postpone it for another week to see the situation!" Now that the Ninth Army Corps has been put in place, the First Army Corps has begun to return to China one after another to recuperate, and the strength of our Wehrmacht on this side is weak, and the upper head is still not too relieved about the Ninth Army Corps, which is also normal, after all, your Ninth Army Corps has 500,000 people, and there are less than 20,000 people in the Wehrmacht sequence, and the control over those Japanese soldiers is weaker, although there are still the Fifth and Sixth Army Corps, but they also have their defense areas, if something happens, these two Army Corps may not be in a hurry, Therefore, I have transferred the 28th Army from the Fifth Army Corps to follow the Ninth Army Corps just in case, at this point, I think you should understand, I believe you have this awareness, but those Japanese generals, officers and soldiers are not easy to say, they may have some ideas, you must control the troops well, absolutely no chaos, in the control of the Ninth Army Corps, you can't blindly exert power, sometimes you still have to appease them, if you fight well, you should praise what should be praised, and what should be rewarded should be rewarded, You don't need me to teach you the means in this regard, do you? ”

Cai Wei stood up and said, "General, you know how to do it!" ”

Cai Guodong said: "The reason why the president chose you as the general of the Ninth Army is mainly because of your two aspects, the first is that you do not play cards according to common sense, and the second is because of your character, the Japanese nation is more and more deputy, and the more indulgent they are, the more presumptuous they are, so they can't be too weak to treat them, mainly based on coercion, supplemented by favor." In terms of military discipline, they must be strict and must not relax, once their murderous nature is released, the consequences will be unimaginable! ”

"Yes, General!"

"Follow me!" Cai Guodong stood up and walked to the sand table.

The two came to the sand table, Cai Guodong pointed to the sand table and said: "At present, your Ninth Army Corps is in Serbia north of Belgrade, south of Novi Sad and Zrenjanin, right?" ”

Cai Wei looked at it, nodded and said, "Yes!" ”

"Well, I am ready to advance on three fronts at the same time, first of all, the southern front will be advanced by the 1.5 million troops of the Balkan Peninsula countries from Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, attacking Croatia and Slovenia along the way. The central line is advanced by your 9th Army Corps from Novi Sad and Zrenjanin to the northwest to Osijek and the Austro-Hungarian territory of Szeged, your task is to fight as fast as you can, until Budapest, and then wait for new orders, if you encounter obstacles on the way, you can find a way to take a detour, do not have a tendon, in short, I want you to take Budapest as quickly as possible, this is the capital of the Kingdom of Hungary of Austria-Hungary, and the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Kingdom in Budapest, If you can take it, both the political and strategic significance is very great, once Budapest is captured by our army, the Austro-Hungarian Empire will definitely be frightened and in chaos, what I want is this effect, in this way, the command of the Hungarian Empire's high-level command of the army will be greatly weakened, so as to win good fighters for the offensive of other fronts of our army, so your Ninth Army is very heavy and extremely critical, do you understand what I mean? ”

Cai Wei said: "Understand, please rest assured that the general will complete the task assigned by the general?" ”

Cai Guodong thought for a few seconds and then asked, "How are you going to fight?" ”

Cai Wei had already been prepared, he said: "General, I want to give full play to the Japanese army's white-knuckle combat expertise, in the offensive tactics first use a large number of artillery to clean up the enemy's position, if the air force can provide support, I will first knock out the enemy's artillery position, and then use large and small artillery fire to provide cover for the infantry to attack, send the infantry to the enemy's defensive position, let the infantry and the enemy engage in white-knuckle combat, with the bravery of the Japanese soldiers in white-knuckle combat and their short stature suitable for close combat, I believe that the Austro-Hungarian army, which is relatively weak in combat effectiveness, will definitely not be able to resist, and I am about to give full play to this tactic, the Austro-Hungarian army will not be able to hold on and flee, and I will pursue it as quickly as possible, so that the enemy will not have time to deploy a new defensive line, and if I can, I will rush to Budapest."

Cai Guodong thought for a moment and affirmed his tactics: "Your tactic is feasible, but I want to remind you that some units in the Austro-Hungarian army are equipped with a lot of machine guns, both light and heavy, and there are these automatic firearms, and the lethality they cause to the impact of infantry is very large, so you must pay attention!" ”

Cai Wei hurriedly agreed: "Okay, general, I remember!" ”

Cai Guodong said again: "Since the three fronts are attacking at the same time, then I will tell you the offensive routes of the Fifth and Sixth Army Corps of the Northern Front, so that you can cooperate in the battle situation and communicate in time if there is anything." At the moment the 5th and 6th Army Corps are deployed in the western part of Romania, they will attack from the line of Satumare and Arad, the direction of the attack of the 5th Army is to the line of Gyulo and Sornok on the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary, and the direction of the attack of the 6th Army is the line of Buderessen and Eger! Let's not talk about the coalition forces of the Balkan Peninsula countries on the southern front, just say that the fifth, sixth and your ninth army corps, the total strength of the army is 1.1 million troops, with the current strength of the Austro-Hungarian Empire on the eastern front, it is absolutely unstoppable, our side has an absolute advantage in strength, and the combat effectiveness of the soldiers is definitely not comparable to the Austro-Hungarian army, so you should not be afraid when fighting, let go of the courage to fight, but you must not be careless, and treat any opponent as the strongest and most ferocious enemy! ”

Cai Weili saluted and said: "The general's teachings, the humble duty is in mind, please rest assured that the general will definitely come to the city of Budapest within a month, otherwise you will come to see you!" ”

Cai Guodong waved his hand and smiled: "What is the use of my head?" I'll give you a month and a half to take Budapest! ”

"Yes, General!" (To be continued......)