In the early morning of May 26, the Sixth Army, which served as the right flank of the Russian Second Army, suddenly received news that a German army had appeared in their flank and rear. The commander of the army believed that this was a unit that had retreated from Lenenkamp, and decided to attack in a roundabout way; However, this force was not a rout at all, but the German 17th Corps, which came to attack.

Although Ludendorff intercepted the Russian army's clear telegrams, knowing that it would be difficult for the Russian First Army to threaten its flanks and rear flanks for the next week, Samsonov's forces were even superior to the German Eighth Army; If there is not sufficient time for combat, it will be difficult to deal an effective blow to them and achieve their initial operational objectives. Since François's headquarters, who came from afar by train, needed to wait for heavy artillery, Ludendorff tacitly acquiesced to his troops and let the nearby Mackensen corps attack from the right flank of the Russian army.

In order to prepare for this battle, the German 17th Army had been recuperating at the starting position for two days, and its physical strength and morale were at its peak; After nearly 10 days of trekking and lacking food, the Russian officers and men were already exhausted. They have relied on nothing more than blocking the Germans' retreat and recreating the desire for a great Teutonic victory at the Battle of Grunwald 500 years ago. And at this moment, the expected fragile dream sheep turned into a fierce and fierce roaring lion tiger; The Russian army is not only psychologically difficult to accept, but also powerless to resist in actual combat. In the evening, the Russian Sixth Army, which had been comprehensively crushed in all areas except the strength of the troops, such as soldiers' physical strength, combat skills, command skills, and firepower density, was defeated in Mackensen's raging attack; They suffered more than 10,000 casualties and lost more than 30 cannons. And at night. A series of capricious retreat orders from the commander of the Russian 6th Army, Blagovyschinsky, who was dazed. The confusion of the Russian army was further exacerbated: the various teams mixed with each other on the road. The horses neighed and the people drank, and it was a mess. By the early morning of the next day, the entire Russian Sixth Army had collapsed and fled backwards in disarray. Samsonov's right flank was crushed by a blow from Mackensen.

At the time of this situation, the main forces of the Russian Second Army, consisting of two armies and one division, were launching an offensive against the German 20th Army under the command of General Scholz. Although the Russian army has an absolute advantage in terms of troops, its battlefield fire support is even slightly inferior to the German army with aircraft calibration; After a day of fierce fighting, the Russian army, which had captured Alunstein, did not achieve the desired victory. The German 20th Army retreated undefeated. Still confronting the main forces of the Russian army at the front. At this moment, the main forces of the Russian army no longer have any ability to advance. A British correspondent with the army wrote in his report that "the Russian soldiers, after ten days of arduous marching, had fought valiantly for a whole day, and were now exhausted to a terrible degree...... They have been without bread and sugar for three days. The troops did not receive military rations from the 24th, and no supplies were delivered. ”

On the evening of the 26th, Samsonov had not yet received news of the complete collapse of his Sixth Army, but he had already realized that the situation had changed dramatically: it was not a question of encircling the enemy himself, but how to avoid encircling himself. Still, he decided to keep playing where he was. Because as long as his troops can entangle the Germans here, then the Army Group Leninkamp, which has been concealed from the east, will definitely be able to deal a fatal blow to the Germans. He ordered his First Army to hold the position at the end of the Russian left flank facing François. It is necessary to "keep the flank of the whole army at any cost." Samsonov is convinced. Even a superior enemy army could not break through the resistance of the "famous First Army".

Samsonov, however, miscalculated. His plan was to hold the position for two days, and wait for the arrival of the First Army to flank the inside and outside, but he did not expect that Lenningkamp would move completely beyond the provisions of the previous plan in order to stabilize the Germans and prevent them from escaping the encirclement in a hurry. Not only did Leninkamp lie still for three days after the Battle of Compinan, but the direction and speed of its re-opening changed considerably; If the Russian Second Army wants to wait for this force to come to its aid, it must at least hold on to its position until May 31. The drawbacks of the two Russian armies, which had been uncoordinated since the beginning of the war, were evident in this campaign: as the Russian army advanced, the radio signal weakened, and the commander of the Northwest Cluster, Gilinsky, had an increasingly vague understanding of the situation of his two corps, let alone an effective central command.

In the early morning of the 27th of the next day, the time for the general assault that Ludendorff had been eagerly waiting for finally came. All 12 heavy artillery batteries of François's 1st Army arrived in attacking positions, and together with the field artillery units, an earth-shattering roar of wind and thunder erupted into the Russian positions opposite. The surging waves of air stirred up by the violent explosion were like hurricanes and thunder, and they swept in all directions. The leader of the German Eighth Army walked out of the headquarters, Hindenburg was as calm as an ancient well, Ludendorff was sharp-eyed and slightly nervous, and behind them were Hoffmann and Grüttner. They are all eagerly awaiting the final outcome of this offensive.

The artillery fire was raging, like thunder rushing from the sky; As soon as the shells exploded, the surrounding soil, rocks, grass and trees all burst into pieces, setting off bursts of death and blood rain. The officers and men of the First Army, whom Samsonov called "famous", had long since lost their fighting spirit from extreme fatigue and hunger; In the face of the German army's meteor-like rain of bullets, the Russian officers and soldiers who were smashed to heavy casualties were left with only one thought of escaping in their minds at this moment. By 11 a.m., the Russian First Army had completely fled the entire position, and the Germans had won the battle with artillery alone. If François had launched an offensive on the 25th instead of waiting for the arrival of heavy artillery, his attack would have been likely to fail in the face of the Russian First Army, which was much better in strength and fighting spirit than it is now.

Early that morning, the German First Reserve Army, commanded by Bello, joined the battle; At this time, with the exception of a division and a brigade that were pinned down as suspicious troops in front of Leninkamp, the entire strength of the German Eighth Army was now devoted to the attack on the Russian Second Army. The more than 350,000 troops of both sides collided like two staggered and hedged rushing rivers, and collided on a 70-kilometer-long front in Mozambique. The two armies swarmed up, trampling each other and fighting each other, artillery fire rumbling, and gunpowder smoke covering the air. Divisions and brigades are entering positions, and divisions and brigades are withdrawing from positions; The captives blocked the way of the troops, and the warriors who fought did not know the good luck in the battlefield. The field commander did not know where the troops were, and the staff officers' vehicles sped around; German reconnaissance planes circled in the sky to collect information, and the commander of the army group tried by all means to understand the real situation at the front line.

By late on the 27th, the left and right flanks of the Russian Second Army had collapsed on all fronts. However, the Germans did not achieve a complete victory in these two days of fighting. The two armies in the middle of the Russian army are still attacking, and various news from time to time on the battlefield that is difficult to distinguish between true and false. The German front-line troops were also suspicious, and when they heard the sound of horses' hooves, they thought that a large number of Russian Cossacks were coming. For a time, rumors spread about various battlefields, and the German high command even received the news that François's corps was fleeing in a hurry, which made even Hindenburg sweat on his forehead, but fortunately this news was clarified soon after.

Under these circumstances, Ludendorff actually began to look forward and backward a little, lest the Russian army form a breakthrough in the middle and let his two flanks outflank plan go to waste. He ordered François's First Army to turn north to support Scholz's Twentieth Army, which he considered "exhausted" on the front. However, François once again ignored Ludendorff's orders and insisted on advancing eastward, determined to cut off Samsonov's retreat and encircle the entire Russian Second Army. Since his disobedience had yielded a resounding victory the other day, Ludendorff was almost pleading with François to obey orders. But François remained deaf and marched eastward, placing detachments along the way to prevent the enemy from breaking through.

On the fourth day of the battle, the overall situation was finally clear. The exhausted Russian troops in the center have sharply reduced their offensive, and Scholz's troops have begun to launch a counterattack; And the two armies of Mackensen and Belo had also figured out the situation through a staff officer who flew to the headquarters, and began to press the flank of the Russian army step by step according to Ludendorff's instructions, tightening more and more. At this point, François's march could not have been better. Although it was a shame to do so, for the sake of the final victory, Ludendorff revoked yesterday's edict and re-ordered François to continue to attack in the direction he had already advanced.

After a while, another piece of good news came from the communications department. According to the latest telegram from Leninkamp intercepted by the Germans, the first corps of the Russian First Army is still nearly 50 kilometers away from this battlefield, and it is certain that this powerful Russian army will not be able to catch up with this big battle. The German battle in the south was already about to be won. In fact, the mutual coordination between the two Russian armies was even worse than Ludendorff had expected; Over the next two days, Leningkamp's forces advanced less than 25 kilometers and did not move a single step since. They did not get in touch with Samsonov and could not have been in contact with him again.

The waning moon is in the west mountain, and the morning star is hidden. The darkness of the long night receded, and the sun once again illuminated the land of East Prussia. For the Russian Second Army, the rising sun symbolized the coming of the moment of destruction and death. (To be continued......)

PS: Thank you for the reward from book friend Xichen and February 30th Ring Book~~~