The Russians deployed a total of 80,000 men in the 50-kilometer strip of Gorlice-Rzeszow, and the front was very tight.

And at this moment, the friendly forces have not completely abandoned the defense of Gorlice, and you can ask Konrad to directly order the friendly troops there to hold on to Gorlice, so that a large number of Russian troops can be delayed.

The First Army was responsible for defending the area around Tarnoów (20 km northwest of Gorlice), and it was also possible to have the upper echelons directly anchor the local defenders.

After receiving Conrad's approval, the next thing he had to do was much simpler, which was to break through the enemy's line vertically from the northwest.

After a series of internal adjustments, the successful use of friendly forces attracted 20,000 Russian troops, and at the moment there are still 60,000 Russian troops able to defend.

But Kuster didn't take them seriously. Their current shells are already running thin, except for the inexhaustible number of bullets. But what's the use? Without more powerful support firepower than the enemy, any battle is a dead end.

The Austro-Hungarian leadership hoped that the battle would turn the tide of the war by successfully relieving the siege of Przemyśl. In order to ensure the success of the operation, the top brass granted Kuster the highest right to freedom of battle and the right to make military advice.

The Austro-Hungarian 19th Army had a total of 70,000 men, and three of the four divisions under its command were Austrian select divisions as the main attack, and one mixed division was used as a reserve.

Surprisingly, they had four tanks at their disposal, numbered as the 1st Tank Battalion of the Reich.

HE HAD A HEAVY ARTILLERY BATTERY (2 305MM HEAVY GUNS), TWO MEDIUM CANNON BATTERIES (12 149MM GUNS), A SELF-PROPELLED ROCKET ARTILLERY BATTALION (8 140MM ROCKETS), AND THREE ROCKET ARTILLERY BATTALIONS (24 140MM ROCKETS) AS SUPPORT.

400 305MM SHELLS, 3600 149MM SHELLS, 5000 140MM ROCKETS.

The top brass kindly told Kuster that if this was not enough, it could be drawn directly from other army groups. It can be seen that the empire attached great importance to this battle.

Once he had determined the location of each of his troops, Kuster put his gaze back on the map.

If Tarnoff's defenders were willing to launch a counteroffensive, the tide of battle would have turned out; Unfortunately, the officers were not willing.

Even with the pressure of the High Command, the defenders barely survived a few times, and Kuster simply ignored them.

Look back at the army they were fighting with.

They totaled 30,000 men and were organized into two divisions (called the Filler Division), which were attached to the First Army. Before Kuster's 19th Army came, they were specifically defending the Russian army in Rzeszow.

Now that Kuster has supreme military power here, and if he wants to forcibly requisition them, the First Army will not dare to fart.

They had 100,000 men (6 divisions), while the Russians opposite had only 60,000 (4 divisions). The superiority of forces against the Russians is already very large, the advantage is in me, let's fight!

In the early hours of December 11, shells and rockets pierced the clouds and bombarded Russian positions. The general offensive of Austria began.

The offensive from the north was well underway, and with strong fire support, it took only half an hour for the two Austrian select divisions to take Rzeszow.

Another select division and a line-filling division also managed to break through the Russian defenses to the west. There were also two divisions in reserve, without any action, in case of emergency.

To the south, three divisions of the Third Army also attacked north. However, the attack was not swift enough, and the enemy fell into a fierce battle.

To the west, despite the reluctance of the Austrian defenders of Tarnów and Gorlice, under pressure from Kuster, they also began to launch a counter-offensive against the enemy in order to exert pressure.

All the Russians in this area suffered successive defeats under this concentrated offensive, and continued to retreat to the east.

On 12 December, the fighting expanded. The Russian army again committed 30,000 men (2 divisions), and Austria-Hungary also committed 10,000 people in reserve.

The battle even spread to the belligerents on other fronts.

When Wilhelm II of Germany learned of this, he repeatedly asked the two armies of the Eastern Front to launch an offensive in order to relieve the burden on Austria-Hungary.

The British and French did not provide material support, but only encouraged the Tsar in the hope that they would win again, as Galicia had done.

Even the Tsar himself was confident in the battle, believing that Kuster's attack was nothing more than a death sentence.

But they didn't know that Austria-Hungary's new armament was several grades higher than before, and it was impossible for the current Russians to be able to fight it.

The situation on the battlefield was also favorable to Austria-Hungary in general, especially to the north.

After only one day, Kuster's army advanced 12 kilometers into the enemy's depth, gradually encircling Tarnof's Russian army.

Bad intelligence kills people! The Russian troops inside had no idea that their flank friendly forces had been broken through, and it was even more impossible to know that they were facing the enemy in the ass at the moment.

Kuster mercilessly ordered a division to surround it, and then, in conjunction with Tarnoff's friendly forces, it took only 2 hours to eat the enemy's 14,000 men.

Seeing that Custer's battle plan had been successful, the defending officer decisively wrote a letter to his immediate superior, and then happily followed Kuster into battle.

On 13 December, an Austro-Hungarian reserve division was in place; However, Russian support was delayed, because the railway was seriously damaged after a long period of unmaintained maintenance, and the soldiers on it had to change trains.

When the Confederates learned of this information, they all laughed off their big teeth, and at the same time drew attention to such figures as Custer.

On this side of the battlefield, Kuster still maintained a ferocious attack.

In order to keep efficiency from dropping, Kuster added a reserve division into the battle.

Gradually, the Russian army in Gorlice was also heavily surrounded.

In the same fate as Tarnoff's Russian army, they were completely annihilated without exception, and the Austrian army inside also joined Kuster's attacking brigade again.

At this point in the battle, the northern front had been united with the western front, and gradually controlled part of the army on the western front.

In the south, because the Russian army finally learned that the northern front had been breached, it was scared. But they did not retreat as fast as the armoured battalions marched, and they were soon surrounded.

I remember when a few Russian soldiers saw the four iron boxes and dared to block their retreat, they angrily shot at it, and then they were horrified to find that they could not penetrate it at all.

And when they opened fire on the Russian soldiers, it was a big sweep! Machine guns, machine guns, and small-caliber artillery were fired at the same time, killing the hundreds of Russians. Of course, there are still some Russians who have died without even scum.

Kuster's army has also rushed over, and with the consolidation of the encirclement, the Russian army inside can be regarded as giving up resistance; Their general led 20,000 men to surrender to Kuster, while he himself committed suicide.

So far, Austria-Hungary has invested a total of 160,000 people, and there are still 120,000 people left (excluding support), and no one has been captured.

The Russians invested 130,000 men before the war, and now only 40,000 remain, and 50,000 of the losses are captured.

Seeing that the situation was out of control, Ivanov, the commander-in-chief of Russian operations at the time, ordered all soldiers to abandon the battle and withdraw to the east bank of the San River.

They will wait there for Kuster, and then hold on; In order to provide cover for Brusilov's siege of Przemyśl.

The top politicians on both sides of the war held the battle report, each with a different expression.

Of course, there is no one happier than the German Wilhelm two fools.