Kuster leaned against the wall of the train station to relieve the fatigue of a sleepless night. His greatest hope now is that the person who bestowed him the medal will come soon, so that he can go home and sleep early.

Perhaps God favored him, and after the train stopped, three conspicuous people came down, wearing military uniforms, holding pictures in their hands, looking for something.

It wasn't until they saw the sleepy-eyed Custer that the three looked at him, and then at the person in the photo, and finally one of them said with affirmation and some apologies:

"I'm so sorry, Mr. Kuster, we've had a long journey and you've waited so long."

Kuster immediately perked up and said:

"You're welcome, I've only been here for a short time."

"Oh? That looks like the general doesn't value honor, but why are you so sleepy? The other said a little bitterly and harshly.

"I spent the night last night discussing military matters with my subordinate, Brigadier General Franz. We were so excited that we didn't even notice it at noon, but thankfully my guard reminded me in time, so thank you so much! ”

As he spoke, Kuster took out a crumpled stack of paper from his pocket and showed it to them.

The three of them were also very interested, and each took a few of them out of them and looked at them alternately.

Kuster also took advantage of this moment to take a closer look at the three men, and was surprised to find:

The man who had just uttered the harsh words was General Oscar Potiorek, the governor of Austria-Hungary and somewhat neurotic.

He was very good at talking on paper, he was an excellent staff officer, and he was very eloquent in his words, so he was able to get the support of many officials. However, his actual combat command ability is not outstanding and experienced, so he was evaluated by Carl Krauss as:

"As long as war is shed with ink and not blood, then he will always be a god of war."

He believed that heavy forces should be massed on the Serbian border in order to quickly deal with them and liberate part of the forces on the Balkan front.

This view impressed the emperor, as well as a group of officials and commoners, many of whom supported his idea, except for his opponent, Conrad, who had just taken the initiative to greet him.

He was the chief of the General Staff of Austria-Hungary, very shrewd, but unrealistic.

He has something in common with Portiorec in that he is good at talking on paper. But he is more like a soldier, speaking bluntly, and being isolated by officials.

His strategic vision was very good, but he ignored the fact that the ethnic complexity of the Austro-Hungarian soldiers seriously affected their actual combat effectiveness, and coupled with his somewhat arrogant actions, he buried a large number of Austro-Hungarian officers and soldiers. As the people say:

"His ideas are solid, but the sword in his hand is fragile."

He always believed that if war broke out and Russia did not enter the war, then Serbia would be killed with all his might.

If Russia were to be involved in the war, it was to place its main forces on the Russian border, attacking Russia with the German army, and taking a defensive position in Serbia and other areas.

The one who did not intervene in the middle was Archduke Friedrich, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of Austria-Hungary, who was smart in some area.

Although he held military power, in fact, most of the command was given to Conrad, and he was a nominal one, not very involved in campaign command, and often appeared as a mascot.

As the Prince of Austria-Hungary, he had to protect his interests. Therefore, when the generals around him discussed the strategy, he did not mix it with a smile; And if any general dares to make some 'small moves' and speak ill of him, he will not hesitate to send these generals to the front.

Kuster didn't like these three very much, although they were very different, but they also had one thing in common, that is, when the Habsburg army collapsed more than 130 kilometers away, they still took a leisurely walk, read the newspaper for hours, and drank some black tea, just like the old man who had nothing to do all day.

When they finished reading it, their eyes could not help but light up, and Conrad took a deep breath and said politely and excitedly:

"It's really wonderful! These ideas of yours are very wonderful, no wonder Boroyevich would send a beautiful man who fought in battle to the rear, it turns out that you are also very good at this! ”

Before the tired Kuster could react, he again fumbled for two boxes from his pocket, opened them, pulled out the cross-shaped medal inside, and pressed them on Kuster's military uniform without ink. And said:

"Since you are so sleepy, hurry up and rest, I have prepared for you a train to Vienna, which is free for you and your entourage. As long as you don't bring hundreds of people up. ”

He looked at Portiorek again, and said with some mockery:

"As for us, you don't have to worry, we'll be here for a few days to get better information about the fighting on the front lines to prove I'm right."

Portiorek was a little angry, but he didn't want to make a bad impression on Kuster, so he held it back.

But he didn't know that Kuster now already knew what he was like.

Archduke Friedrich looked at the two people who were tense, walked to the middle, played a round and said:

"Gentlemen, it would not be good if we were to remain so contradictory. In fact, we don't need to be so persistent, the ethnicity of our army is very complex, so what's wrong with the two operational concepts being used together in the troops?

You know, as senior officers, what we should do is not to preserve the combat effectiveness of the soldiers. On the contrary, we must do everything we can to send our soldiers to the front, to make them fight for the Empire, to carry out our will, and to impose it on the enemy. Instead of fighting here for a tactical idea, it would be nice to leave that kind of subtle matter to the junior officers, and we only need to be responsible for the overall command. ”

These words did not settle the dispute between the two, until Custer said with some anger:

"This irresponsible behavior is simply a shame for the military!"

Friedrich was stunned for a moment, then walked up to Kuster with a grin, and said in a whirlwind:

"Oh! I forgot, you are also part of that group of junior officers. I'm sorry, but you're so plain that I didn't notice you just now, and I'm sorry for that.

Of course, I also want to thank you. Your approach to the reorganization of the army has inspired me to think that this kind of thing should be left to the commanders at the grassroots level, and that we at the top just need to turn a blind eye to this unconstitutional violation. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for making me understand for the first time that in times of war, the Constitution can be violated. ”

Hearing his strange words, Kuster's blood pressure soared, so much so that the world darkened a little.

Conrad quickly walked up to Custer, put his hand on his shoulder and said:

"You have a good rest, don't care about what others say, and do a good job in developing armaments with peace of mind, I have applied to the top to promote you to the Minister of Armaments."

Portiorek also slowly walked over and said:

"It's hard to succeed, your reputation is not good, and those nobles who pay more attention to face will not agree. I'll do my best to help you get out of the gossip trap so that your ideas can be put into practice quickly. ”

Custer was a little surprised that they were able to come to an agreement, but he straightened up and saluted them with his broken right hand. After a few words of thanks and admiration, he left again in the car he had been in before.