On 21 September, when the bloated and sluggish Russians had not yet gathered their forces for the Romanian offensive they were preparing to launch, the German logistics units had begun to unload the wagons from the military wagons coming from the rear and transport the arms and baggage to the front in horse-drawn carts. Since the battlefield would be Romania, hundreds of kilometers southeast of Poland, far from the interior of the German army, it was obvious that the Germans would need to stock up on enough supplies near the theater of operations in advance to ensure that the planned rapid assault could be achieved.

At the same time, the German defensive line in the Bukovina area began to be intensively constructed. Once the Russian army launched an offensive from the Bessarabia region into Romania, Bukovina, which was adjacent to it, would also be swept by the Russian flank, and the Germans would have to ensure that this key bridgehead to the right would remain in their own hands if they wanted to successfully encircle the main Russian army. For this coolie task of building a defensive line, the commander of the Austro-Hungarian army, Herzendorff, had no shirk to take on the lion's share, who allowed Vienna to annex this area from the Moldavians? On Austria-Hungary's own turf, it was naturally their turn to do their best.

Two days later, the German-Austrian troops began their move. The Austro-Hungarian 4th Army extended eastward from its current position to assume the defense of the Prut River north of Bukovina and the provincial capital of Chernałce. After spending several months in the same trenches as the Germans, they also learned how to lay out the trench lines and built the fortifications quite well. Since the disastrous Lombberg rout in history did not occur, the Austro-Hungarian regiments of the Austrian and Hungarian regiments still retained a well-trained corps of officers; Hinglu did not express any concern about Herzendorff's defensive arrangement.

As for striking the main forces of the Russian army from the flanks. There is no doubt that it was the Germans who took the role. The battle-hardened German 8th Army (with the 1st, 17th, 20th Armies and the 1st Reserve) began to assemble in Bukovina. They were all stationed in the rear of the Austro-Hungarian 4th Army. Avoid any pre-war contact with the Russian army. The old partners of the German 9th Army (under the 10th, 11th, and 21st armies, the 15th reserve army and the reserve guard army) and the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army left for Transylvania to welcome the arrival of the main offensive force of the Russian army with open arms. The main concern for the German-Austrian army was to drive the local population away to prevent rumors from leaking.

The task of luring the enemy in front was handed over to the Romanian army. As bait, they will use the two important towns of Iasi and Galatz as fulcrums to fortify the middle section of the Prut River, which flows north-south. The Russians were the original target, so only the Romanian army was beaten and fled, as in the Tsar's script. In order to prompt the Russian army to muster up courage, shouting and jumping into the trap dug for them by the Germans. The only thing that made Bregast feel psychologically balanced was that the two divisions sent by the Germans to support them were not withdrawn from the Romanian army, which gave some comfort to the disgruntled chief of the General Staff, Florescu.

In order to cover the withdrawal of such heavy troops from the Polish and Ukrainian fronts, from September 25, the units of the Austro-Hungarian 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th armies launched an offensive on the wide fronts of Belarus and Western Ukraine. To the north, the German 11th Army, commanded by François, was even more ferocious. Although it was only a skirmish between the vanguard troops, the subsequent ambitions of the German-Austrian army were already on full display in these battles.

"陛xià. The Germans had occupied Volkovysk on 28 September, and their forward forces had now crossed the Pregel River. Kaunas is less than 50 kilometers away. According to the reports sent back by the front-line departments, among the German troops engaged with them were already the names of the 38th and 39th Reserve Corps and the Lorraine Mixed Army, which was the entire corps of the newly formed 11th Army of the Germans. ”

In the spacious and bright General Headquarters, General Alekseev, who actually commanded the Russian army's operations, was holding a command post and reporting the current battle situation to Nikolai under a huge map. On the map, which was fixed with four corner nails, the blue-white territory that symbolized the vastness of Russia was swallowed up by the heavy gray and black of Germany. With the fall of this northeastern Polish frontier city, the remnants of Poland in Russia's hands finally fell into German hands. And Rao is Nikolai had long expected this day in his heart, but when it really came, an uncontrollable pain and anger still rose in his heart.

"It seems that the Germans are planning to launch an advance on the Northern Front, along the Baltic Sea to St. Petersburg."

Nikolai forced himself to suppress the unwillingness surging in his heart, and slowly spoke: "The Germans should have realized that if they want to fight for attrition, they are by no means our opponents of Russia; Therefore, they want to take advantage of the current situation when their army is in full swing to choose the nearest route to attack the capital of the empire, so as to try in vain to win a decisive victory and force us to submit in the short term. ”

Alekseev respectfully made a big salute to the Tsar, and his words were full of reverence and admiration: "Your Majesty is wise. Only a quick capture of St. Petersburg was the only chance for the Germans to win the war. And we have to admit that the commander of the other side has considerable battlefield insight. For if the Germans chose to attack on the northern front, they would be able to make full use of the railway network in East Prussia that stretched all the way to Compinan, thereby significantly reducing the logistical pressure they would have to endure in the attack. In addition to this, the Germans had an advantage in the Baltic; This allowed them not only to supply their ships through guò, but also to use their naval fleet to carry out shore bombardment or landing campaigns. ”

Nikolai nodded. Far from the capital Berlin, East Prussia covers more than half of the southern Baltic Sea to the east. St. Petersburg, the capital of Russia, is less than 800 kilometers away from German territory. This is not a safe place for Russians in relation to the vastness of Eastern Europe. It is for this reason that the Russian army sent 2 army groups to attack East Prussia in the first phase of the war, in order to eliminate the threat of this salient to the capital St. Petersburg. However, thanks to the brilliant maneuvering of the Hing-Lu, the two elite Russian armies were attacked in a pincer offensive, and were completely driven out of the territory of East Prussia. Now, the Russian army is about to face this immediate threat.

"The deployment in the northwest direction will be arranged by you. In any case, we must hold this front and must not allow the tragedy of the Polish campaign to be repeated. Nikolai spoke softly, his words full of irreversible firmness. He paused, then added: "In addition, in Lithuania, Latonia and Estonia, the army and the secret police have also stepped up the search and suppression of the rebels. The cattle of these regions have always resisted the rule of the empire, and all kinds of rebel independent forces have been wiped out; At this point in time, we must strictly guard against their acts of unrest. "Alekseev should claim to be.

"At the moment, our priority remains to ensure the offensive that will be launched in Romania. As long as the Empire can deal a fatal blow to this shameless traitor, the current unfavorable situation on the battlefield will be fundamentally changed. Nikolai set his sights on the once neglected Balkan country south of Ukraine, on the shores of the Black Sea, but now looks so bored and unsightly. A flash of fierce anger flashed in his eyes, and he said to Alekseev: "How is the readiness of our army, and when can we attack?" ”

Alekseev replied respectfully: "According to the wise instructions of His Majesty, our army has now assembled the 3rd and 11th armies and one part of the 9th army north of the Dniester River, and the other part of the army and the 7th army are on their way, and it is expected that the overall combat readiness will be completed by October 20. Most of the officers and men in these armies were veterans of previous battles against the Germans and Austrians; They have a lot of combat experience, and it is as easy to deal with Romanian zombies dressed as brighter than the aurora in the sky of St. Petersburg. Even the newly formed 11th Army was under the regular divisions and brigades of the empire originally stationed in the hinterland and the Far East; From our previous experience, these troops were able to defeat the Austrians of the same number as them, and it was not difficult to deal with the Romanians. ”

"Do you have to wait nearly three more weeks?" Hearing Alekseev's announcement of the date of the attack, Nikolai's originally uplifted mood fell again, and he said with some displeasure. The fact that the execution of the first campaign order led by himself as commander-in-chief was so procrastinated really made Nikolai, who had never dared to disobey his will, feel that his authority was damaged, and his tone became slightly unkind.

Alekseev's heart tightened when he heard this, and he hurriedly explained: "Your Majesty! This time we concentrated a huge army of 37 infantry divisions and 11 cavalry divisions, with a total strength of more than 900,000 men; And in order to strengthen the assault, these units will also be equipped with a large number of heavy weapons and ammunition. As you know, the roads of the Reich are that we can only carry a small part of the transportation on our limited railroad mileage, and the vast majority of the rest have to be carried by animal power, so it is impossible to maneuver as quickly as the Germans did on the inner routes of the homeland. Speaking of this, he glanced at Nikolai's face, and after confirming that there was no major problem, he cautiously spoke again: "The previous defeat of the Empire at Tannenberg had a lot to do with the lack of preparation time; The 2nd Army did not have time to carry enough supplies to declare its march, which led to their destruction in starvation without food. ”

Nikolai exhaled a long breath and said hatefully, "Then do as you say." (To be continued......)

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