Two days later, Senwal lived up to the trust that Custer had placed in him and completed the task well.

Kuster then organized the various formations, and finally got the following result:

4 Austrian, 3 Hungarian, 1 Croatian, 1 Italian and 1 mixed battalion, 2 cavalry companies and 12 old bronze howitzers.

Soon, shortly after Kuster had finished readjusting his troops, he received a telegram from Boroyevich. The telegram was also clear, asking them to deploy at the junction of the Third and Second Armies, 20 kilometers south of Lviv and on the south bank of the Dniester River.

This is exactly what Kuster had planned, and the fact that the river is a horizontal line dividing the two sides here, makes it very easy to play tactics.

As he expected, there was still a bridgehead left on the northern bank of Transnistria, forming a salient point on the front. This was originally the responsibility of the 49th Division, but now that they came, it was handed over to the 27th Division.

Kuster simply ordered three battalions to form a 'Bulge Infantry Regiment' to defend the area, with Gerstori as the commander.

Kuster looked at the map and the intel in his hand again, and he learned:

His left flank was under the responsibility of the 49th Division, which had a total of 9 battalions, and his right flank was under the responsibility of the 17th Division, which had 14 battalions.

On the other side of him, that is, the Russians, there were 4 divisions, from west to east, 22 (12 battalions), 24 (4 battalions), 32 (7 battalions), and 12 infantry divisions (17 battalions).

With such a disparity in forces, it seemed impossible for them to win. But Kuster kept a close eye on the intelligence in his hand, and the Russian 22nd and Russian 24th divisions, which were responsible for attacking the bridgehead, deployed very few troops at their junction, but Kuster did not intend to break through from here.

He looked at the 24th Division on the map, which was weak but was responsible for attacking most of the 27th Division. Poor for them, probably miserable by rotten communications, did not know that Austria-Hungary had a division that had been replenished.

The Russian 32nd Division on the right side of the Russian 24th Division is also not abundant, and their role is to cooperate with the Russian 12th Division to attack the Austrian 17th Division. Of course, they didn't know that they still had part of their forces to attack the 27th Division.

At the easternmost point of the battlefield, the river is very narrow, making it the place where the fighting between the two sides is fiercest.

At the westernmost end of the battlefield, the Austrian 49th Division attracted most of the attention of the Russian 22nd Division, and Kuster did not think that there was any possibility of a breakthrough here, so he simply ignored it.

For the sake of simplicity, Kuster called the four divisions of the Russian army on the north bank from west to east: R1 (22), R2 (24), R3 (32), and R4 (12).

Similarly, the three Austrian divisions on the south bank are called: A1 (49), A2 (27), and A3 (17).

In this way, the command is relatively easy to understand.

After analyzing the situation, Kuster immediately arranged his troops. In addition to the three battalions on the north shore, he had seven battalions.

Kuster deployed 4 battalions as the main force on the south bank of the R2 Division, ready to cooperate with the north bank salient in the attack at any time. Three battalions were deployed on the south bank of the R3 Division to share the pressure on the A3 Division. There are also 2 companies that remain by their side, protecting the division headquarters and ready to be inserted into the battle line at any time.

After the initial strategic deployment was completed, Kuster rushed to the main forces of the front line and tried to further understand the strategic deployment of the Russian army.

The German intelligence service gave Kuster a big surprise, and they accurately informed Kuster of the deployment of the four divisions on the battlefield.

Nine battalions of the R1 Division were deployed on the north bank to confront the A1 Division, and three battalions were deployed to attack the bridgehead.

The R2 Division had two battalions to cooperate with the R1 to attack the bridgehead, and the other two battalions were to face the attack of the main force of the A2.

Four battalions of R3 will meet three battalions of the A2 Division, and the remaining three battalions will attack the A3 Division with a total of 21 battalions of the R4 Division.

With only 14 battalions, the A3 Division would never be able to hold the river with such a huge gap in numbers. In particular, the river is very narrow, which makes it not too difficult to launch a forced crossing.

Therefore, if Kuster wants to make a difference here, he must fight quickly, or his flank allies will collapse.

Kuster soon made a phone call to the commander of the A1 division, and Kuster told him about the plan, hoping that he would support his operation.

The commander of the A1 division was very cheerful, and he quickly handed over 2 battalions as reserves to Kuster's command.

Then, Kuster communicated with the commander of the A3 division again, also revealed the plan to him, and hoped that he would be able to attract enough Russian troops.

The A3 Division was somewhat silent at first, but then also agreed to Kuster's request. At the end of the dialogue, he hopes that Kuster will end the fight quickly.

With the consent of the two divisions beside him, Kuster made another phone call to Borojevich. He was not told the specific plan, but hoped that he would be able to provide some reconnaissance aircraft for the sake of the three division commanders.

Borojevich said he could only give him 2 planes and asked Kuster to keep the soldiers under control and not let them kill the pilot.

After a series of successful internal negotiations, Kuster went to the front line to inspect the terrain. Prepare to establish a general course for the next steps.

However, even though Kuster had traveled all over the south bank, he still did not know the terrain on the north bank, so he ordered the soldiers in the bridgehead salient to explore the surrounding terrain as much as possible.

Next, Kuster needed to make some adjustments to the arrangement of his main force. But before the adjustment, in order to be able to carry out the troops, it is necessary to establish a point of view:

First of all, it is important to know that the attacking side in this range is the A2 division, not the R2 division. Only 2 battalions of the R2 Division were able to fight here, while 4 battalions of the A2 Division were able to be put into operation. As a result, Kuster is adamant that they are the real attackers.

Secondly, it is important to know that the offensive of this era is extremely dependent on artillery. In many cases, the troops are unable to move further after advancing a certain distance. This was largely due to the extremely poor mobility of large-caliber artillery, and it took a lot of time just to build positions. Therefore, Kuster decided that it was necessary to deploy the artillery as far forward as possible.

Finally, it is important to know that the intelligence of the 4 Russian divisions here has been infiltrated. They know the information of the Russians at all times, and the Russians need to exchange their lives for information. The R2 division did not know that there were enemy troops several times their size stationed here, and in order to comply with the order, had to attack the Kuster division. And such an attack would inevitably come at the expense of the entire R2 Division, so Kuster agreed with the idea that the troops would defend first and attack later.

Through Kuster's statement, the officers and soldiers were impressed. The rest of the adjustment work went smoothly.

Kuster hid his machine-gun position 20 meters on the south bank, a distance from which he could fire and kill the enemy without even waiting for the enemy to start forcing his way through.

The artillery position was 200 meters south of the machine-gun position, which was somewhat close. If the enemy had observed the artillery, Kuster could have suffered a heavy blow.

But Kuster had already made a good guarantee, and there were means of maneuvering everywhere in the artillery position, and Kuster gave the artillery a death order: it is okay to die, but keep the artillery for me.

All four infantry battalions were placed 50 metres south of the artillery position, which made it easier for them to quickly engage in battle in the event of a crisis. In normal times, this allows them to gather all the resources to cross the river safely and quickly.

After Kuster had adjusted the formation, they waited quietly for the Russians to arrive, ready to annihilate them at any moment.