The current situation on the battlefield was very unfavorable for Austria-Hungary, and several units were broken through by the enemy from different points and divided by them.

Fortunately in misfortune, the Russian army has already run out of their shells, and now it is difficult to have any combat effectiveness.

Kuster quickly adjusted his deployment, bringing the number of combatants on the Eastern Front to 740,000.

They fought in tandem with their divided and encircled allies, and re-established contact with each other.

By the 29th, most of the small Austrian forces that had been surrounded had basically established contact with each other; Thin lines are formed on the map, which combine like a dense spider's web, and the spiders on it are eating away at the prey in its middle.

As the situation gradually turned around, the opportunity for the Austrian offensive finally came: the junction of the Russian Fourth and Fifth Armies was infiltrated by a small group of Austrian troops. These Russian troops were before this encircling an Austrian division.

Kuster asked them to attack from both sides in an attempt to crush the Russian forces here.

Perhaps they have been tortured too much in the past few days, the Russian army has no will to fight, and it was quickly defeated under the offensive of the Austrian army, and soon evolved into a collapse.

Upon learning that the battle at the junction had ended in victory, Kuster jumped to his feet with excitement and kept informing the various units of their next move by phone.

He was busy with this all night, so much so that by noon the next day the troops were ready to attack.

The offensive was prepared in all its forms, and the precision of the plan was outrageous: about 60 divisions had extremely detailed operational plans, and even some battalion-sized special operations units had their own independent combat operations.

The plan was to target the junction of Army Group to the east, and Kuster hoped to be able to encircle another Army Group with a successful breakthrough and constantly wear down its combat effectiveness.

But there is a huge variable in the whole operation, that is, the Russian Third Army; They had been surrounded a few days earlier, and although they had been cut off at the moment, and only 70,000 troops remained, who knows when he would come out and inflict heavy losses on the Austrians.

And for the next few days, Kuster will need to focus all his energy on the eastern battlefield, and there will be no leisure to care about this almost crippled Russian army.

But he wanted to get a stable rear, so he issued a combat request:

While breaking through in the east, there is also something to be done in the encirclement. It was the duty of every Austro-Hungarian officer to attack and seize the enemy's living space; By some means, the connection between the Russian troops in the encirclement is severed, so that their threat level is reduced and the subsequent offensive is prepared.

Flipping this term, it looks pretty much like this:

There is a war going on the Eastern Front, and you can't fish here. You need to divide and encircle the Russian troops in the encirclement again, so that they completely lose their offensive capabilities, and then settle accounts after the autumn.

On December 30, the New Year was approaching, but the war showed no signs of stopping.

Instead, a salute was offered for the New Year in advance along the San River: hundreds of thousands of shells pierced the sky and smashed into the positions of the Russian army, bringing them endless fear.

The climax of the whole campaign was about to begin - this was Kuster's idea. At the moment he was in a car, rushing to the front headquarters.

The Austro-Hungarian army, well prepared, defeated the Russians in accordance with the planned attack.

In just one day, they advanced 12 kilometers towards Przemyśl; There are only 14 kilometers left, but who knows how difficult it will be.

The Russians, sensing the crisis, immediately moved most of the Fifth Army to support the Eighth Army.

But what they don't know is that the main direction of attack of the Austrian army is not here at all!

Rather than expending a lot of manpower to break the siege, Kuster was more interested in constantly annihilating the enemy's living forces.

And at this moment the Russians personally leaked the flank of the Fourth Army just because of one of their feints.

Without hesitation, Kuster immediately ordered a joint offensive of 340,000 men in the northeast against the Russian army group, which had only 210,000 men.

Since he was not on the front line, he did not know at this moment that his army had advanced 9 kilometers deep into the enemy!

This is not the style of the Austro-Hungarian army! Even if he had put all three selectors here, it wouldn't have progressed so quickly.

Upon closer inspection, it turned out that it was General Mackensen of Germany who also attacked! And it looks huge.

As a result, the Russian Fourth Army had to defend itself with all its might from the north, leaving the south empty.

And they didn't know that the Russian Fifth Army had been withdrawn to defend Przemyśl.

What a tragedy that the Russian top brass did not even notify the officers before the transfer of troops.

In the face of the chaos in Russia, Kuster was even more excited - he was not a good person, and at this moment, the Russians directly leaked his ass to him, how could he not seize the opportunity!

He quickly readjusted the plan again:

With the leftmost wing of the Austrian army as the axis, the whole army was deflected counterclockwise. The cavalry division, on the far right, maneuvered directly and surrounded the Russian army around the rear. Avoid! Choose the path of least resistance, otherwise it is no different from swaggering to tell someone that you are surrounding him.

After the order was issued, the Austrian army immediately acted as if it had a backbone, and finally moved rapidly.

In just 4 hours, they occupied one Polish territory after another; Eventually, on the map, another fragmented and fragmented encirclement emerged.

Kuster soon called Mackensen and told him that he had succeeded in encircling the Russian forces here.

Mackensen on the other end looked surprised, he learned through the intelligence organization that Kuster had also launched an attack here, but he didn't expect it to be so fast.

But as an ally, especially a very reliable one, Mackensen had little reason not to trust him.

So in the evening of the same day, the two armies completed the handover:

270,000 Austrian troops will continue to surround the Russian army here; The other 60,000 Austrians were attached to Mackensen's army group and marched east with them to relieve the siege of Przemyśl.

Mackensen was straightforward and somewhat triumphantly departed with his army; Kuster, on the other hand, was a little depressed and returned to the San River headquarters with a sense of silence.

At this point, the Kuster counteroffensive was basically over.

All the countries were deeply shocked by this heavy blow of Kuster, and they could not believe that the Austrian army, which had suffered a crushing defeat a few days earlier, could burst out with such a great fighting force.

Wilhelm II of Germany laughed even more and told his men that he would award Kuster the Iron Cross.

Austria-Hungary was more reserved here, and the imperial government did not make any public moves; It's just that the tremors of the top officials seem to confess their fear and panic at Kuster.

Turning their attention back to the battlefield, the Austrians at the moment had only 400,000 troops on the Eastern Front, and the rest were engaged in various encirclements.

And the Russian army on the opposite side still has 700,000, and this huge gap in numbers cannot be balanced by any means, not to mention that the Austrian army is not elite.

However, there is also a German-Austrian army behind the Russian army, which has about 220,000 people, and it goes straight to the rear of the Russian army.

Next, the best battle is about to begin.

As for who will attack first, we won't know until next year.