The defeat in the Romanian campaign was a blow to Hindenburg and Ludendorff, who had just taken over command of the German army.

Now Hindenburg has turned its attention back to the Eastern Front. The Battle of Verdun, which drained the French blood, also drained the Germans. The Germans were the winners of the Somme Offensive led by the British, which was held to save the battle of Verdun, and the casualty ratio was calculated to prove this, but it also inflicted great trauma on the German army. All three sides of the Western Front, having ended two battles, were exhausted, and with the onset of winter, Ludendorff judged that Britain and France would not hold a large-scale offensive campaign for the time being.

From November, the Germans secretly transported troops to the Eastern Front in large numbers.

The Battle of the Somme strengthened the confidence of the German defense. After fully constructing a complete defensive system, one German division could block the attack of two British and French divisions without breaking through the position, even if the attacker's artillery was twice as large as the defender's. The Battle of Verdun proved to be extremely difficult to attack the Anglo-French positions and achieve a breakthrough as far-reaching as the one in the summer of 1914. The positive and negative lessons made the German army's top decision-makers realize that the only hope for victory in this war was on the Eastern Front.

Ludendorff believed that if the German army took an absolute defensive position, 30~35 divisions could be transferred from the Western Front for the Eastern Front. With the addition of the newly formed corps, it is possible to plan an offensive on the Eastern Front on a scale larger than that of 1915.

In fact, the Germans had planned the Eastern Front campaign before China declared war on the Central Powers. As soon as Hindenburg came to power, he set about the Polish campaign that Ludendorff and Hoffmann had been planning for a long time. The battle was conceived in the same way as in Kursk, another time and space, with two German forces deployed north and south of the Polish "balcony" moving in the opposite direction. Join forces east of Warsaw, encircle a large number of Russian troops in Poland, and then move from Courland to St. Petersburg, forcing Russia to withdraw from the war.

The battle for Hindenburg's fame was fought on the Eastern Front, and the Battle of Tannenberg had long since made Hindenburg famous. But within the German army, there were different evaluations of the old hero of Hindenburg. Hoffmann, a rising general who had made a name for himself on the Eastern Front, considered Hindenburg worthless except to be broad-minded, and he once told reporters visiting the site of the Battle of Tannenberg: This is where the commander (Hindenburg, then the commander of the German Eighth Army) slept before the war, this is where the commander slept in the middle of the battle, and this is where the commander slept after the war. The words are not without harshness.

But Hindenburg does have something special. This person was calm at all times and never panicked. This is actually a rare plain zhì of a commander. Other than that. Hindenburg was tolerant and generous. Showing a broad mind that is rare in ordinary people, even a genius like Ludendorff was full of respect for Hindenburg. One thing that proves Hindenburg's character is that in 1914 Berlin held a parade to celebrate the victory of Tannenberg. Hindenburg's car was stuck in traffic outside the city. A lesson in the face of the police who did not know him. Hindenburg, the supreme commander of the Battle of Tannenberg, was able to smile and wait quietly for the procession to pass through the rear of Guò before entering the city without revealing his identity.

Before the battle of Verdun was over, the perfect duo of Hindenburg and Ludendorff, who had succeeded Falkingham at the helm of the German army's supreme military command, had reached a strategic consensus. That is, in the current situation. It was impossible for the Germans to achieve a decisive victory on the Western Front to the point of capitulating France. Well, there is only one option, and that is to move troops to the Eastern Front and settle Russia with a decisive offensive.

At the end of June, Hindenburg convened a meeting of the main commanders of the German Eastern Front to discuss the plan for the Eastern Front. It was decided to concentrate four armies on the Polish campaign and crush Russia in an unprecedented encirclement.

Russia-controlled Poland was wedged like a giant wedge between East Prussia and Habsburg, and it was exposed on three sides. If you travel back in time to another world, it is very similar to the huge salient formed by the Kursk arc formed by the arrival of the "mud general" in the spring of 1943 on the southern flank of the Soviet Union, which ended the desperate struggle.

The core of the Polish campaign formulated by the German General Staff was to strike in the opposite direction from the north and south in order to encircle the Russian Western Front units in Poland. If the campaign is successful, it will weaken the Russian army and shorten the front, creating conditions for the second phase of the attack from Courland to Petersburg.

After the meeting, Hindenburg asked the Kaiser to approve the campaign plan. The strategic reserves of the German army, which were ready to be put into the western front, began to move eastward through guò, which they managed first-class railway lines.

China's declaration of war on Germany and the dispatch of an expeditionary force to Russia to fight in the war were not the main topics of the meeting, but were addressed at the end of the meeting. Ludendorff said, let the cannon teach the ungrateful Chinese, those yellow-skinned monkeys are willing to come and send them to death, let them send them to death.

General Hoffman, chief of staff of the Eastern Front, who was extremely strict in his style, also believed that the Chinese were not to be worried. He did not despise the combat effectiveness of the Chinese army, but calculated the speed of the Chinese army's delivery, believing that this expeditionary force with unknown strength would not be able to catch up with this campaign in any case.

Ludendorff, who became the Quartermaster General of the German Army (First Deputy Chief of the General Staff), handed over a former German general familiar to the reader. Hoffmann served as his assistant, and he was Colonel Strauss, the supreme commander of the Qingdao garrison. Hoffmann learned from Colonel Strauss about the situation in the Chinese army. In his letter to Ludendorff, Strauss was one of the few people in the German army who knew about the Chinese army, and he told me a legend that I couldn't believe. I have to get to know the Chinese again. Indeed, the Chinese have long proven themselves to be reborn. Japan defeated Russia, but lost to China. When I think of the rise of our German Empire, I think there are quite a few similarities between the two countries. The role of a leader with a strong will and vision is enormous, and China's failure to become our enemy is a serious failure in diplomacy. The Chinese expeditionary force must be on high alert, and its danger exceeds that of the Russians.

The Romanian campaign proved Strauss's prophecy and disrupted the German campaign plan on the Eastern Front. The Chinese Expeditionary Force simply defeated Falkingham, and the ten divisions of the two armies were basically annihilated, and less than 40,000 officers and soldiers (including Atz and Falkingham) fled back, and all heavy weapons were lost. A large amount of military funds fell into the hands of the Chinese. All of Falkingham's gains in the autumn were lost. Can't even wait for reinforcements to arrive.

That's not all, it's Romania's gains and losses that are staggering. Its effects were cascading, not to mention the fact that all the Romanian oil and grain that Germany desperately needed were wiped out. The adverse effect on the whole situation was fatal: Bulgaria was threatened, as Austria-Hungary drew troops from the Italian front to deal with the Romanian crisis, Italy was given a respite, Petersburg held a grand celebration for the Romanian victory, and the crumbling morale of the Russian army was undoubtedly boosted. The last one, in particular, was painful to Ludendorff, despite the lack of accurate information.

Ludendorff, who fought on the Eastern Front for a long time, admitted that more than two years of war did not destroy Russia. The vast strategic depth and endless human resources ensured that Russia would not surrender after losing several battles. It is difficult to destroy Russia by means of war. But that doesn't mean there is no other way. Ludendorff thinks more about politics than Hoffman. He was the inventor of total warfare. He had finally discovered the Russian deadhole. He summarized the current situation of the Russian army from various sources. Some were provided by the intelligence services, some from interrogations of Russian prisoners, and some were obtained from the diplomatic missions of neutral countries. Ludendorff aggregated and analyzed this intelligence and came to a conclusion. That is, a deep crisis is brewing within Russia.

The seeds of the crisis were planted from the defeat in the Russo-Japanese War. 1905 was the first time. The Romanov dynasty quelled the riots. However, the factors of the crisis were not completely eliminated, but were fermented by the war. The huge attrition of the war and the heavy losses of the Russian army exacerbated the crisis, and the lack of materials, especially food, the army, the government and the ordinary people hated the royal family day by day. Various opposition secret groups have quickened their pace, and they have already reached into the army. The cowardly Nicholas II, unable to find a solution to the crisis and lacking iron-clad means to cut off dissidents, did not even use the most commonly inspected army awards to boost morale after personally serving as commander-in-chief of the Russian army.

The seeds of revolution in Russia, which were worse than the crisis of 1905, had already been planted, waiting for only one opportunity. Ludendorff thought he had found this opportunity, and that was Ilyich, who was in exile in Switzerland and wrote books and propaganda about violent revolution. Vladimir - the soul of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. Ludendorff believes that this person is the key factor in detonating Russia's civil strife, and if he is financed with a huge amount of money to send him back to China, his role is worthy of that of a powerful group army. After taking over as de facto Chief of the General Staff, Ludendorff began to liaise with Ilyich. If Russia suffers one or two more great defeats, it will inevitably lead to a political crisis at home, and peace with Germany will be possible. Once an armistice was signed in favor of Germany, Germany could free up its tied hand and instead force Britain and France to end the war before the United States entered the war.

But the addition of the Chinese disrupted Ludendorff's steps. Even the planned offensive on the Eastern Front had to be adjusted, he had to take into account the crisis in southeastern Europe and ensure the security of Bulgaria and Turkey, and a large number of troops were urgently transferred to Mackensen to organize a new line of defense against the Chinese attack on Bulgaria. Fortunately, the Chinese stopped near Ruse and gave themselves much-needed time, thank God. The Chinese are still worse, change themselves, will use Bucharest as a base, rush to the hinterland of Bulgaria regardless of Qiqi, and turn Southeast Europe upside down!

The Chinese did not do that. What does it mean? It shows that they have also suffered huge losses and have lost their offensive strength. He did not believe that the resolute General Ye Yanbing could not see this, and the Romanian campaign had proved to be a respectable Chinese general, whose command ability could not be doubted, and was not under the capable Brusilov.

In early November, intelligence confirmed that the Chinese Expeditionary Force in Romania had switched guards with the Russians, and General Brusilov's 8th Army had taken over Bucharest from the Chinese. The spy learned that Brusilov was extremely dissatisfied with the Chinese stopping the offensive, and a fierce clash broke out between Brusilov and General Ye Yanbing. For this reason, the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Army, General Alekshit, rushed to the front line to mediate the contradictions between the Chinese and Russian front-line generals. Perhaps the withdrawal of the Chinese from Romania was the result of Aleckhiff's mediation.

Now what? Reconsider the attack on Romania or continue the execution of the Polish campaign? If the focus of the war is on Southeastern Europe, then it is necessary to continue to increase the number of Mackensen's troops, and the Polish campaign will end without a hitch. On the contrary, it was necessary to strengthen the forces in the Krakow direction, since an offensive in this direction could meet the Chinese expeditionary force. However, Ludendorff did not think that the Chinese would perform another miracle, and the defeat in Romania once again proved that Falkingham was the sinner of Germany. The Chinese had only a dozen divisions, at best an army of two or three hundred thousand men, which would not constitute a decisive factor in the Polish campaign.

In early November, Ludendorff became nervous after receiving the news that the second batch of Chinese troops had entered Russia, and the time became short, and he could not allow the arrival of the Chinese follow-up troops, which would have to recalculate the Polish campaign. On 13 November, he led Hindenburg to make the decision to launch an early campaign in Poland to attack the Chinese Expeditionary Force before the arrival of fresh troops.

On November 15, Hindenburg convened a meeting in Berlin with the participation of the leading generals of the Eastern Front. After analyzing the situation on the Eastern Front, Hoffmann strongly demanded that the Polish campaign be carried out as much as possible by taking advantage of the change of defense of Brusilov's main forces. The reason was that there was a short-term gap in the Russians' southwestern front, and Brusilov seemed to have his eye on Bulgaria, and he transferred the 8th Army to Romania, which made the defense of the Russians' southwestern front significantly reduced, and the Chinese seemed to be at odds with the Russians, and this opportunity must be seized.

The meeting revisited the general battle plan and decided to launch a counter-attack from two directions: East Prussia and Krakow. The campaign was divided into two phases, the first phase focused on the southwest, the reinforced German 11th Army launched a surprise attack from Krakow to Lublin, defeated the main force of Brusilov's Southwestern Front, and firmly absorbed the Chinese Expeditionary Force, creating conditions for the main force of the northern flank attacking from East Prussia, the focus of the second stage will be placed on the northern flank, and the iron pincers of the northern flank with the main force of the German 8th Group will be directed towards Warsaw, and the southern flank of the German army in the direction of Warsaw-Lublin will close the jaws, In one fell swoop, the main forces of the Russian Western Front were annihilated on the Polish plain.

The difficulties of the German army were also not small, mainly because it took time to assemble troops. Hindenburg transferred a total of 24 divisions from the General Reserve and the Western Front to the Eastern Front, four of which were transferred to Bulgaria, and the new troops expected to participate in the Polish campaign were being assembled. Hoffman's plan to launch an attack on November 20 was fraught with difficulties. While the Berlin Military Conference was still undecided, Brusilov commanded two armies in Romania to launch an attack on Bulgaria. Its 8th Army, which had taken over the Chinese gains, attacked from the south, and the 9th Army and Romanian forces to the east also launched a forced crossing of the Danube, putting pressure on Mackensen's forces.

The news delighted Berlin's military magnates. This was simply wonderful, and Brusilov's actions created better conditions for the implementation of the German campaign in Poland. (To be continued......)