At noon that day, 30 kilometers west of Przemyśl, the first artillery fire rang out.

The Austrian 19th Army took the lead in the attack: three damaged selected divisions merged into one and plunged into the enemy's weak line with a sword; And the line-filling division encircled the Russian army from both flanks.

This time, the Russian army learned wisely, and in order to prevent being outflanked, they simply retreated directly.

But this also completely exposed their weaknesses, and Kuster ordered the front-line troops to intensify their attacks.

Soon, the still disciplined retreat of the Russian army turned into an unorganized rout, and the Russian front was torn into several pieces.

"The Russians' front is as weather-beaten as their faces, full of cracks that can't hold back the wind."

So said one of Kuster's officers.

The prepared reserve divisions were inserted into the gaps to fight for the fighters.

Sadly, the Russian army retreated as fast as the Austro-Hungarian advance.

But they are not to blame, for it was previously the territory of Austria-Hungary; The Russians were not able to apply the Russian system to Austro-Hungarian transport in just two months.

As the reserve division marched deeper, the more the Russians' defenses collapsed, and their retreat became more chaotic.

About half an hour later, the first Russian army to surrender appeared, a total of 8,000 men surrendered to Kuster's iron heels.

Soon, almost all the Russian troops in this area also surrendered - a total of 34,000 people.

At this moment, the entire southern defense line of the San River had collapsed, and the Russian Third Army had also lost a large number of troops, and only 130,000 men could defend at present.

But the commander of the Russian army group at that time was not willing to abandon the rest of the San defense line, but only filled the vacancy in the south with more reserves.

Ivanov believed that although the southern side was breached, once they abandoned the entire San River defense line, they would be forced to retreat continuously.

In addition, the quality of the Russian soldiers is not good, and they may be defeated at any time.

So they might as well hold the line so that at least there won't be much threat to the west, and then sit back and wait for help from the Russian rear, so that Kuster can taste the steamroller.

But if his wishful thinking is played well, it does not mean that he can succeed.

Kuster hoped that the main force of the Russian army would not change, so that he could expand the results of the battle and eventually encircle the entire Russian Third Army Corps.

But if they want to break through, they will need to face a tougher opponent - the Russian Eighth Army led by General Brusilov.

In the Galician campaign, this army group defeated the Austrian 2nd Army on the flank. Austria-Hungary, which had extended the front to Galich, was driven back to Lemberg overnight.

Now this army group is digesting the fruits of its labor - the Przemyśl fortress.

It was a very strong fortress, and it was historically besieged by the Russians on September 21, 1914; It was held until March 22, 15 years, which shows the bravery and fearlessness of the defenders in the city.

But Kuster did not dare to slack off, lest an abrupt action might provoke it, and Przemyśl would be taken down by him at once.

And now the losses of the Austrian 19th Army are too large, the original 70,000 elites are only 50,000 left, and the bones of those dead Austro-Hungarian soldiers have long been buried in the west.

Therefore, Kuster did not plan to find the stubble of the Russian Eighth Army, but instead concentrated on finding a way to encircle the Russian Third Army. The work of filling in the line was entrusted to the Austrian Third Army.

Kuster continued to swing north, and the two Russian divisions in the path were also defeated.

Soon, the flank defenses and reserves of the Russian Third Army were defeated by Kuster; At the moment their rear was completely leaked to Kuster.

"March to the north bank of the river!" Kuster shouted from the command.

His orders, like his army, were as powerful as thunderbolts and unstoppable.

Only half a day later, on December 23, the rear of the Russian Third Army was completely cut off, and they were separated from the Russian base camp by a distance of 500 meters.

It can be said that as long as the Russians dare to launch a counteroffensive, the Third Army will be able to be rescued. With only 500 meters of road, you can dig countless lines on the map.

But they didn't, and the Russians were all stupid by Kuster, huddled in the trenches and didn't dare to leak out; They had never seen such a fierce attack by the Austro-Hungarian army, and thought it was a divine soldier sent by God.

Perhaps they don't know that these so-called 'divine soldiers' have only been trained for a few days, and they have touched a gun, fired once and then gone into battle, and have no combat experience at all.

General Ivanov, who was in the encirclement, angrily asked Brusilov why he didn't help them, only to find out that it was the Austro-Hungarian Kuster who was talking to him, and he was so frightened that he quickly hung up the phone.

Yes, as early as when their back roads were cut off, Kuster had the Russian army's telephone lines cut off - he had always been very focused on intelligence control.

During his inspection work, he suddenly encountered a group of Austro-Hungarian soldiers escorting a Russian telephone operator and forcing him to ask him which telephone line was at the level of the army group; Out of bad taste, he replaced the cut part with his own army's telephone line.

As for what Brusilov is doing further east, ha! He did not know that Kuster had already broken through Ivanov's defenses, and therefore that Ivanov was already heavily surrounded.

It wasn't until December 24 that Kuster made the information public, along with some overheard black information from Russian officers.

When the countries learned of this, they were all shocked, they did not believe that a small army commander could lead a local battle, and in the process surrounded the Russian army with several times their strength.

Soon, almost everyone in Europe knew about Kuster.

In Austria-Hungary in particular, the Habsburgs mythologized him to the point of 'omnipotence', and Germany called it 'a rare and reliable ally'.

But as the saying goes: the lower you stand, the more you rise; The higher you stand, the worse you fall.

Because of this high praise, Kuster had to be more careful in his future actions, otherwise a mistake would ruin all his reputation and future.

Back on the battlefield. Because of the successful operation of Kuster, all the Austro-Hungarian troops were inspired.

The Austrian First Army and the Fourth Army joined the campaign, raising the number of Austria-Hungary to 700,000 at once.

Of course, most of them went to pick up the leak - to eat the encircled Russian Third Army.

This forced Kuster to let the already badly damaged 19th Army defend the Russians to the east again, preventing them from successfully breaking the siege of friendly forces.

However, he was not alone, and he was joined by Borojevich's army.

But Kuster was uneasy: he felt that what he had done before was only the prelude to the battle, and that the next army group battle was the real core.