The train of time rumbled into mid-to-late June, and the "first round" of the war of the century came to an end. France survived the onslaught, and Germany crushed the Russian invasion; Austria-Hungary fought its rivals in Galicia with 50 percent more war losses than Russia, and the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers.

Prior to this, since the war was widely believed to be over in a short time, the most well-trained armies of the belligerents were all engaged in this first phase of the war, even Russia, which was the slowest to mobilize. Among the Northwest Army Group used to fulfill the Entente and launch an offensive against German East Prussia, not only the commanders of the two army groups, Leninkamp and Samsonov, were recognized as outstanding generals in Russian military circles, but all divisions and brigades in the Russian First and Second Armies were also the elite of the Russian Army.

However, this capable army of the Russian army was almost completely annihilated under the combined effect of various internal and external factors (refer to the analysis of the reasons for the defeat of Tannenberg in the previous article). A large number of Russian officers and men who had been trained for a long time and had considerable combat qualities either died under the German machine-gun artillery or entered the German prisoner of war camps in a dejected manner. Although Russia has a population of 173.2 million, which is theoretically enough to mobilize 27 million terrorist troops, these well-trained veterans are definitely not able to make up for it in a short period of time!

Compared with the losses of the gray cattle, it is their weapons and equipment that are more difficult for Russia to compensate.

Thanks to the Minister of War Sukh Holim, who firmly believed that "bayonets are better than cannons, and flagpole spears are better than machine guns", the Russian Army began in 1907. There is simply no proper management of their ordnance factories and weapons stockpiles. Add to that the rampant corruption in the Russian army, which looks like a "dense mole burrow". Its production capacity situation has deteriorated to a shocking extent. Military spending allocated by the Duma every year. Only God knows how many percent of it will be implemented. Grand Duke Nikolai, who was appointed commander-in-chief of the Russian army, when he first met with the personnel of the logistics department, said to them: "Gentlemen, no theft. ”

Although the army weapons manufactured in Russia are not very far behind the same type of products of the top arms giants such as Krupp, Skoda, Schneider, and Vickers in terms of technical performance, their biggest problem is that they are not large-scale and systematic, so that the speed of production is far from catching up with the consumption of front-line wars. The distribution of a little bit of arms from the production line among the countless gray cattle is a drop in the bucket. Historically, Russia produced a total of 11,700 artillery pieces and 28,000 machine guns during World War I. Germany's corresponding production volume is 64,000 doors and 280,000 units, which are 5.5 times and 10 times that of Russia, respectively. Although Russia withdrew from the war a year early, this number is too small!

In peacetime, the 1.3 million Russian standing army still retains the most basic armament, but once war breaks out, its inadequacy of equipment is immediately exposed. Millions of reservists were drafted into the army, and the existing reserves in Russian munitions warehouses were simply not enough to arm them. Many of the newly formed units had three men sharing a rifle, and those who did not have a rifle were armed with a sapper shovel or hunting knife. They were hoping that after the gun-owning robes were killed in battle, they would be able to recover their precious rifle legacy—even among the armies of the non-major powers that had not yet completed the process of industrialization. It's also completely unthinkable. As for artillery, it is even more rare among the newly formed Russian troops. A large number of Russian troops with such equipment. It has long been lost in previous battles. The two Russian armies attacking East Prussia had more than 1,200 artillery pieces by 15 May, accounting for one-fifth of the total number of artillery pieces possessed by the Russian Army. By the time they retreated to their homeland on June 14, there were less than 200 of them, of which nearly 800 had been captured by the Germans!

Therefore, in the second round of the next battle, the Germans had every reason to focus on Russia, a paper tiger with a strong foreign power. And Xinglu, who won great victories in the two battles of Tannenberg and Lake Masuria, also repeatedly stated to the high command the low combat effectiveness of the Russian army, and hoped to transfer all the main forces to the Eastern Front to force Russia to withdraw from the war as quickly as possible. So far, the results of the Eighth Army have been nothing short of spectacular, and a battalion of the François regiment has captured more Russian prisoners than a division. The Xinglu couple had every reason to carry on Moltke Sr's legacy and make defeating Russia their first priority.

However, the Emperor Wilhelm and the Chancellor Holwig were determined. The Germans would continue their offensive in Paris, using the victory of capturing the enemy's capital to completely win the "heart" of Italy and Romania. In this case, after some consideration, Moltke made his choice.

First of all, by von? The cavalry corps under the command of General Marvitz no longer served in the French theater, but was left for East Prussia under the command of Hindenburg. At the outbreak of the war, this independent corps with 3 cavalry divisions accompanied the German right flank in a cluster (as is the case with history), and served a good sweep against the defeated Franco-Belgian army. However, as the confrontation on the Western Front shifted from a war of movement to a war of position, these cavalrymen completely lost their role in the face of machine-gun barbed wire, and at this moment they were already like chicken ribs. On the vast Eastern Front, however, the cavalry could still gallop freely on the battlefield without trenches and carry out an aggressive outflanking attack. With its high mobility, cavalry undoubtedly played an irreplaceable and huge role in the war of the Eastern Front in history!

Secondly, Moltke Jr. also gave Hindenburg regular forces as support. An active army, a reserve army, and a new army that had just been mobilized for the war gave fresh blood to the forces of the German Eastern Front, which had just gone through two major wars. By order of the German High Command, the three corps, together with the two corps (the Reserve Guard and the 11th Army), which had been withdrawn from the Western Front and transferred to the Eastern Front on 26 May, formed a new Ninth Army, commanded by Marckensen, a cavalry general who had distinguished himself in the previous two battles. Hindenburg was appointed commander-in-chief of the German forces on the Eastern Front and also took command of the Eighth Army. Even the most unruly François had little objection to Mackensen's promotion. Although they had previously been commanders, François's 1st Army was much higher than Mackensen's 17th Army, but the latter's actual ability was not inferior to the former's; His seniority, rank, and strict obedience to the orders of his superiors were undoubtedly beyond the reach of the impulsive François.

In addition to these, other cavalry serving in the French theater was also drawn in large numbers. At present, in every regular German regiment, there are 2 brigades with a total of 20 companies of cavalry troops: although Qingying has transformed some of these forces into chariots and tanks, due to time, funding and other reasons, the cavalry that has not been transformed still accounts for more than eighty percent. With Moltke's order, except for the cavalry necessary for reconnaissance missions, the rest of the extra Arima troops were all transported by train to the Eastern Front. At present, the German army still maintains a strong strength of 32 corps on the Western Front, and the number of cavalry drawn from them alone has exceeded 60,000. These units were then combined and formed into a formidable cavalry group.

As a result, the strength of the German army on the Eastern Front will be greatly expanded: 9 infantry corps, 1 cavalry corps, plus 8 or so independent cavalry units, the total strength of more than 500,000 people. The German cavalry of about 110,000 men was a formidable force even in the face of the endless Russian Cossacks. Unlike the Russian cavalry, which fought at close range with sabers and spears, the German cavalry under the intervention of the Qing Dynasty was also very skilled in the use of rifles, which undoubtedly enabled them to occupy a great advantage in the confrontation with their Russian counterparts. Strictly speaking, the German cavalry was actually a group of infantry on horseback; In the event of an encounter with the Russian cavalry, the German soldiers lined up with guns would use bullets to educate these gray animals on how to behave.

At the same time as the deployment of troops to the Eastern Front, the deployment of the German army on the Western Front was also in full swing. More than a dozen train guns that had made a big splash in the assault on Verdun were bolted out of their fastening bolts and rumbled westward along the railway line that had been seized by German engineers, rumbling to the front line in Paris. The rest of the heavy artillery of the train, as well as the Skoda 305-mm self-propelled siege guns owned by the Germans, were also assembled in the direction of Paris under the tight escort of the army. A large number of heavy artillery battalions and companies broke away from the direct command of their divisions and went to the direction of Paris to assemble and stand by. Trains carrying shells rolled in from the German mainland, one after the other; Looking down from the sky, it looks like a dragon snake winding forward on a thousand miles of plains, which is spectacular.

At the field airfield adjacent to the front line, slender planes are descending from the sky one by one, filling the hangars to the brim. In the flat and open rear base, fat and stout giant airships dotted the ground, and hideous shark mouth paint sprayed on the bow, which made every German ground crew full of pride. A large number of tanks that were not afraid of bullets were concentrated, and among them there were alternative products without turrets, but the tubes were noticeably thicker by a level; Countless soldiers in gray uniforms surged like a wave, filling the air with a tense aura of impending war. (To be continued......)