According to reports from the German airship forces, the First Army of Lenningkamp had re-advanced on the 23rd. Ludendorff feared that Leinenkamp would inflict irreparable defeat in his rear, so he was anxious to fight Samsonov's Second Army to the death. He ordered the first phase of the campaign to begin on the 25th, with the First Army under François attacking first. François, however, did not follow the orders given by the young major general, who was nearly 10 years younger than him.

Since the beginning of the war on the Eastern Front, the commander of the First Army, Hermann? Feng? François was like a fierce and aggressive steed; He repeatedly defied orders from his headquarters and acted on his own penetrating insights into the situation. Long before the Battle of Compinan, François had defied the retreat order of Commander Plitwitz and defeated a Russian force that had taken lightly the enemy, and even captured more than 3,000 prisoners. François, who had tasted the sweetness, was more convinced that his judgment was wiser than the decision of the command; And this time, he disobeyed Ludendorff's instructions based on his own judgment of the battlefield.

Since the German First Army was transported by train from the Compinan front, all of its heavy artillery units and part of the infantry were still in the process of getting off the train and did not enter the departure position. Without sufficient artillery support and a lack of adequate ammunition supply, François had every reason to believe that such a hasty attack would lead to a crushing defeat, so he immediately rejected Ludendorff's order to attack.

The first order after taking office was ignored by his subordinates, which made Ludendorff furious. He personally and Hindenburg rushed by car to François's headquarters, insisting that the order remain unchanged. But in the face of the refusal and resistance of this veteran general, "can only attack with bayonets". The two of them then roared face to face in the headquarters for an hour. Ludendorff, in a fit of rage, prepared not to listen to François's explanation. It was time to use the power of his chief of staff to force a showdown against François. A communications officer suddenly hurried into the room and handed over two clear-code telegrams intercepting Russians to Hindenburg, who had been silent all along. Hindenburg didn't look at it for a moment, even if he was as calm as him, his face suddenly revealed shock, excitement, ecstasy, confusion and many other expressions.

The first telegram was an order to march to his subordinate units sent by Leninkamp, commander of the Russian First Army, in the early hours of this morning. It shows that the Russians have shifted from the southwest to the west, which is approaching the Germans, and that the pace of their march is far less rapid than the Germans had expected. Judging from this situation, even if the Germans postponed the date of the attack to the 28th or even the 29th, the Russian First Army would not be enough to threaten the German flank. The second telegram was sent by the commander of the Russian Second Army, Samsonov, to his direct troops. In the telegram, he described the German 20th Army's return to the horse as a total rout, and ordered the route and time of the march to pursue the enemy, whom he regarded as defeated.

In the nearly 2,400 years since a Greek traitor led the way for the Persians to bypass Thermopylae, allowing the Persians to breach a perilous fortress that they had been unable to conquer for so long, no commander had received such a perfect gift. After seeing these two telegrams, Ludendorff, Hoffmann, François and others all froze in place, and then their faces were full of shock, excitement and disbelief. Hoffman's immediate boss, General Gruttner, was hesitant by these two telegrams, because they were so complete that all the operational plans of the 25 divisions of the Russian Northwest Army Group were readily available. However, these two telegrams are so consistent with the current situation in the hands of the German army that the Russians cannot forge them even if they want to!

After a short time, Ludendorff walked out of the headquarters of the First Army with these two telegrams, saying that he wanted to return to the headquarters to study the battle situation in detail. The heart of Hindenburg who followed the side was bright. His chief of staff already had a full picture of the situation: Leiningkamp, who was in the wrong direction and moving slowly, was no longer worried, and the German Eighth Army could eliminate the interference of this Russian army in the coming week. Concentrate on picking up the Russian Second Army that came from the south.

A two- or three-day delay in this time would have been more conducive to the German battle than the planned offensive on the 25th: the German First Army would be able to concentrate its heavy artillery units during this period, and the Russians would have exhausted their supplies and physical strength in the protracted advance. The reason why Ludendorff had to go back to the headquarters to analyze the situation in detail was only to maintain his prestige and not to admit François's disobedience to his face was a more correct decision. With the roar of the engine, the open-top command car began to start again, and Hindenburg, who was sitting in the back seat, looked at Ludendorff, who had a complicated expression and did not say a word, and a trace of sleepiness quietly appeared on his face.

Everything was ready, and now that he had nothing to do, it was time for him to get a good night's sleep.

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Just when the German army completely eliminated its worries and was preparing to make a big deal on the southern front, the Russian Second Army, which had been regarded as the prey of the German army, had no idea about it and was drilling headlong into the German encirclement. Not only that, but their current situation is staggeringly worse, even worse than in the last war.

On May 23, the Russian Second Army finally entered German territory. For Commander Samsonov, the situation of his troops was in a rather bad situation at the moment: supplies from the rear were almost completely cut off, and the sporadic supplies sent were a drop in the bucket for the 230,000-strong army of 13 divisions. Although the commanders of the armies ordered the troops to raise their own food and forage, the nearby German villages were already empty and there was nothing for the Russians to loot. The soldiers were forced to start eating the food they had brought with them, which could only last for two days. In addition, after a continuous march of 12 hours a day for a week, the Russian army was already exhausted, and the commanders of the various armies responded to Samsonov, asking for a day or two of rest before advancing.

However, this is not possible. With the encirclement and annihilation of the main force of the French Third Army at the foot of the Ardennes a day ago, the French ambassador even more cried out and begged the Russian army to quickly launch an attack on Berlin and save France from danger. These demands were tossed and turned, and all the pressure fell on General Samsonov, who had already set off two days later than Ji Luzhong. After cursing the incompetence of the French countless times, Samsonov had no choice but to drive his tired division onwards. The report from Leningkamp in the northeast also relieved Samsonov's anxiety about the stride: the Germans were in a panic and there was nothing to threaten his troops. If, because of his sluggishness, the main force of the German army that should have fallen into the middle of the army escaped, the consequences would not have been something that he could have borne as an army commander!

On the night of May 25, the Russian Second Army, which had advanced to the vicinity of Lake Masuria, was exhausted. When they had exhausted their provisions, they were hungry and exhausted, and stumbled to their destination, and then they did not set up camp, but fell asleep with their heads resting on their rifles. Samsonov sent an urgent telegram to the commander of Army Group Northwest Jilinsky, demanding that a regular military conscription force be organized immediately, but Gilinsky, who was 300 kilometers away, lacked a perceptual understanding of the situation of the front-line troops and still urged Samsonov to move forward.

If it is just like this, the German army, which does not know the specific deployment of the Russian army, may not dare to let go of its hands and feet; However, the Russian army has made a huge and jaw-dropping mistake in intelligence communications.

Due to the severe lack of wires to build its own lines, the Russian First Army entering German territory relied almost entirely on German telegraph lines and telegraph offices. And when they found out that all these things had been destroyed by the Germans, they sent telegrams by radio code, because they did not have ciphers or cipher clerks in the staff headquarters and departments of all their parts! Before the Battle of Compinan began, because the Russian army was not far from the German border, the wires were still sufficient, so the German army's deployment of the Russian army was blank; And when Lenenkamp moved back on the 23rd, they were immediately exposed to their original form due to the lack of wires. The newly appointed Xing and Lu took office without much effort, and they unexpectedly obtained all the information on the deployment of the Russian First Army, and this was undoubtedly a tiger with wings for them.

Although the situation of the Russian Second Army is slightly better, the overall situation is the same. One corps had run out of wires and was relying on heralds to deliver orders on horseback, while the other two corps did not have the cipher code for each other, so they could not communicate with each other at all. In order to ensure that the order could be heard, Samsonov had to use radio code to issue the order, which was easily intercepted and deciphered by the Germans, so there was the scene where the senior German generals were stunned in the headquarters of the First Army. The problems of the Russian army's low organizational capacity, chaotic logistical supply, lack of technical personnel, and scarcity of communication equipment were most intensively manifested before the decisive battle.

At dawn on the 26th, Samsonov ordered his central army to attack Alunstein. He still thought that the German army in front of him was only a remnant of a retreat from the east, but the German encirclement was fully unfolded. The entire main force of the German Eighth Army has been assembled here, and in addition to the number of people, the German army has an overwhelming advantage over this exhausted Russian army, which uses clear codes to send reports. (To be continued......)

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