The sudden encirclement of the 2nd Army undoubtedly directly disrupted the chess game that the Grand Duke had planned in advance.

For the Russian army, the 2nd Army is something they cannot afford to lose in any case. Although this force consisted of only three and a half armies, it was the lowest among the armies of the current Russian Eastern Front; But those legions were the elite assembled from the rear, and they were by no means comparable to those who had just laid down their hoes. According to the Grand Duke's original plan, it was to let this army form sharp pressure on the German flank and delay the advance of the German army on the southern flank; However, to his surprise, the Germans abandoned the enemy in front of them and ran directly to this unit deployed on their flank!

Grand Duke Nikolai immediately ordered the Russian army on the southern front to launch a rescue operation. The 4th Army, which had retreated to the vicinity of Kielce, was on the offensive and launched an offensive on the Otsen-Nirachai line with all its might; The 2nd Army in the encirclement broke through to the east, joined forces with the rescue forces, and jointly fought a way to retreat. In order to strengthen the advance capacity of the rescue force, the Grand Duke also transferred an army subordinate to the 9th Army. Compared to the defeat of the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army, rescuing his own 2nd Army has become a top priority for the Grand Duke.

However, the secret of the Russians' actions was once again revealed. Shortly after Grand Duke Nicholas gave this order, a telegram sent by the Russian 4th Army to the besieged troops was intercepted by the Germans. With this telegram, Hindenburg once again opened the whole picture of the plug-in in the strategic game. Hindenburg later recalled: "At this point, I have to admit that we were able to defeat an enemy with numerical superiority in succession. It was due to the inexplicable carelessness of the Russian army in the use of wireless telegraphy. It can also be said that they were naively helped. Eavesdropping on the enemy's wireless telegraphy. Not only can we understand the situation, but we can fully grasp the intentions of the enemy. ”

In the early morning of July 10, two Russian troops inside and outside the encirclement simultaneously launched fierce fire preparations for the same area, and a huge explosion swept through, wantonly ravaging this Polish land that had been part of the Russian territory for more than 120 years. Due to the lack of shells, the Russian shelling lasted less than an hour before ending hastily, with a large number of foot riders armed with rifles and sabers. Roaring towards areas where German troops were entrenched. However, Hindenburg, which deciphered the Russian telegraph, has focused on strengthening the defenses of the sections where the Russian army has broken through; The German troops, who had been prepared for a long time, were ready to fight with dense and staggered machine gun fire to beat the attacking Russian troops to the ground. The three large-scale attacks launched by the Russian army in a row were all blocked by the Germans, and one of the infantry brigades was also destroyed in the German counter-attack, and in the end there was not one person who could retreat with his whole body. In the face of the Russian army, which lacked the supply of artillery shells, the shallow trenches built by the German army have also become an insurmountable gap for the other side!

At the same time that Hindenburg beat the Russian rescue troops, Ludendorff's troops on the northern front also made a breakthrough. Facing the Russian 5th Army. and the remnants of the Russian 1st Army, which escaped from Ascension in the Battle of Lake Masuria, Ludendorff wisely chose to attack the latter first.

Under the dispatch of Ludendorff. The Germans were on the defensive in front of the Russian 5th Army with the strength of one corps, and the two armies attacked the remnants of the Russian 1st Army, which was roughly equal in strength; The 1st Army, commanded by François, did his old job, that is, to break through the weakly defended positions of the Russian army and outflank the Russian army. For Ludendorff, who almost completely deciphered all the telegrams of the Russian army, it could not be simpler to create a hole in the Russian defense line and take advantage of it.

Four days later, the situation on the Russian army's northern front suddenly took a sharp turn for the worse. Seeing that he was in danger of falling into the German encirclement again, the commander of the Russian Third Army, Palatov, was terrified. In the previous Battle of Lake Masurrey, his troops were able to escape François's encirclement due to their timely retreat; And when he faced this similar situation again, out of fear of the German army, the panicked Palatov did not have the slightest idea of holding on to the reinforcements or facing the attack, and only the thought of retreating was left in his mind!

That night, the Russian Third Army began to retreat. In order to prevent the commander of the 5th Army from letting him hold his position so hard that he actually died on the ground, Palatov did not inform his superiors of the situation until the early morning of the next day. Due to the imminent retreat of the Russian Third Army, a gap was opened in the solid front north of Warsaw. Seeing that the situation was changing, François Den, who was extremely good at seizing opportunities on the spot, smelled the opportunity: he immediately ordered his troops to turn and smash through the pit that the Russian Third Army had left behind, and approached the rear of the flank of the Russian 5th Army. Ludendorff immediately telegraphed back for approval, and ordered the two armies on the front to attack with all their might.

A few hours later, German artillery fire exploded on the Russian positions. Although the 210 mm and 240 mm howitzers were pulled to the Paris battlefield on the Western Front, the sound of the explosion of the 150 mm shells still made every Russian soldier shudder. In the face of the fierce attack of the German army, several other scattered Russian divisions and brigades did not have any ideas, and immediately joined the retreat queue of the Russian Third Army. Even with the Third Army holding its ground, it was difficult for them to stop the German offensive; Now that the Third Army has fled, where can they resist?

The retreat of the Russian army triggered a domino effect. Their 5th Army flanks were exposed, the rear was empty, and François's army was rushing at full speed towards its flank rear; In order not to repeat the defeat at Lake Masuri, the Russian army currently has only two options: one is to turn around the retreating Third Army and several other units and force François to stop by slamming his flank; The second was to let the 5th Army retreat at full speed and break away from the arc encirclement of the German army. Grand Duke Nicholas apparently did not want to see his northern battlefield, so he completely collapsed because of this. He immediately ordered Palatov and several other division commanders to immediately turn around and advance to attack François's First Army; The 5th Army also launched a counterattack at the right time to respond on the battlefield.

However, Grand Duke Nikolai once again miscalculated. The remnants of his First Army had already been psychologically shadowed by the Germans in previous battles, and officers and soldiers were generally pessimistic about fighting the Germans. The Grand Duke's order reached the army, and immediately made these officers and soldiers who had fled in front of the German army and secretly rejoiced in a thunderbolt. Palatov had no idea or self-confidence to fight the Germans at all, and it took him more than half a day to restore order to the soldiers who had become chaotic and chaotic during the retreat; And its counterattack against François was also weak. Once the Russian army encountered the intensive fire of the German army, it withdrew to the rear of the starting position and acted as a shrinking turtle, which did not have the effect expected by the Russian Grand Duke at all.

Originally, François was still worried about the counterattack launched by the Russian army, and felt that his too unrestrained assault would meet with misfortune; But as soon as he found out that the Russians were actually this virtue, he was immediately not afraid of anything. After leaving a brigade to defend himself, François did not engage in any entanglement with the Russian army, which had gone and returned, but concentrated his forces on the flank and rear of the Russian 5th Army.

Faced with this situation, Grand Duke Nicholas was angry and anxious. His 2nd Army had been caught in a circle by the German cavalry, and many rescue and breakthrough operations were perfectly blocked by the Germans, losing tens of thousands of troops in vain but not working; The 5th Army was also defeated by the Germans, showing a tragic battle loss ratio that he could not accept at all. If this force were to suffer another misfortune, the situation in the entire Polish pavilion would be unimaginable! In desperation, the Grand Duke had no choice but to painfully order the 5th Army to retreat quickly during the night, and the whole army withdrew to the northern suburbs of Warsaw, giving up a large part of the northern land to the evil Germans.

Didi's crisp voice is like an elegy for the end of the Russian army. Due to a malfunction in the telephone line from Warsaw to the headquarters of the 5th Army, the Grand Duke used a telegram to give this order; This procedure, which was commonplace on the battlefields of the Western Front and did not cause any problems, demanded the lives of the Russians on the Eastern Front.

At 10 o'clock in the evening of July 11, in a clear moonlight, the front-line troops of the Russian 5th Army had already packed up their bags and began to retreat south along the road under the leadership of the officer. In the beginning, everything was as calm as the Russians expected. However, just half an hour later, the northern and western horizons suddenly shone with orange-red light like fireworks; With a piercing scream, a thunderous explosion burst into the ranks of the Russian army. The Russian troops gathered in a group were caught off guard, and they were blown up by the sudden thunder and artillery fire, and they ran away.

Red light gushing out, a sea of fire raging. The loud noises were surging one after another, and the horses were neighing, running wildly like crazy. An ammunition truck was hit by a shell, and the dazzling light of the sudden explosion was like the beginning of daylight, instantly illuminating thousands of kilometers of nearby territory. The flames caused by the explosion of the shells became the best observation point for German artillery shelling in the darkness of night. Compared with the direct damage of German shells, the Russian army lost more of it by pushing and trampling on each other; A panicked exclamation of "the Germans are coming" can trigger a large-scale panic rush.

Since the Russian officers had already given the order to retreat, and their retreat had been going on for some time; After encountering this sudden shelling, the Russian soldiers have completely lost the idea of holding on to resist. Compared to fighting to the death with an unknown number of enemy troops in the dark night, following the original order to smear oil on the soles of your feet is the best choice from any angle! And by this time, the German army was ready for pursuit; As soon as the artillery fire was ready, he took advantage of the situation to launch an attack on the retreating Russian troops. (To be continued......)

PS: Thank you for the reward of zhouyu1976~~