On December 31, Mackensen's 220,000 men had moved to the flank of the main Russian army; But instead of stopping, they marched towards the rear of the Russian army.

The Austrian Third Army also marched to Sambol (upper Transnistria, 30 km south of Przemyśr) in an attempt to contain the Russian forces.

The 450,000 troops of the Austrian First and Fourth Armies, which presided over the frontal attack, sharpened their swords and were ready to relieve the siege of the fortress at any time.

In order to ensure that the various units could be fully recovered, the Austrian Second Army was dismembered.

It was split into divisional/brigade units, of which 220,000 were transferred to other units. As for its commander-in-chief, General Elimoli, naturally he did not dare to challenge the authority of Kuster at this time, so he had to complain to the high-level.

The Austro-Hungarian top brass was very dissatisfied with Kuster's private revocation of the establishment, but they did not dare to do anything with him at the moment.

His friends defended him, and even demanded that the top brass hand over the command of the Second Army to Kuster.

The top brass rejected such unreasonable demands. But Kuster's good friend Wiltok turned the back and pressed forward step by step, threatening them to make the matter public if they didn't compromise.

Thanks to the propaganda of the royal family before, Kuster's popularity among the people was the highest among all the Austro-Hungarian officers, and if the matter was brought to the masses at this moment, they would definitely fail.

Although those nobles were a little troubled, they could not interfere with Franz, who was full of excitement when he looked at the battle report from the front; As far as he was concerned, as long as it did not endanger his rule, it didn't matter which capable person would be the minister, so he would not interfere in their conversation.

Eventually, each side took a step back: the Imperial Diet stopped spreading rumors against Kuster; The Kuster supporters, led by Wiltok, have also made no more demands and will not make the topic of discussion public.

Although the political strife within the empire is interesting, Kuster in the distance is sad because of the urgency of the war.

The Austrians deployed 240,000 men in the center, 120,000 on the southern flank deep into the Russian flank, and tens of thousands more as reserves.

Correspondingly, Russia deployed 280,000 and 140,000 men respectively to defend.

It stands to reason that they should have more than 700,000 people, but why did he only see more than 400,000 people?

Of course, this is not because the Russian army has any superb strategy, it is just that Mackensen's army arrived in their rear and deployed these 300,000 people there.

But at the moment, Kuster has no accurate information, he doesn't even know where Mackensen is now, but he knows the specific deployment of the Russian army.

This made him mistakenly believe that the Germans wanted to act alone, and he did not dare to make any moves, for fear of being discovered by the Russians.

But in order to cope with his superiors, he had to let a small force harass the Russian army and try to infiltrate it, so as to lay the foundation for the next offensive.

In the early hours of January 1, 1915, the Germans, led by Mackensen, launched a surprise attack on Przemyśl.

True to the German style of warfare, the offensive was full of surprises and surprises.

As soon as Kuster got out of bed, he learned that the Russian army in the east was showing signs of collapse, and kept retreating.

Although he couldn't figure out what was going on, he didn't miss this opportunity and let the army launch an attack on all fronts.

The small Austro-Hungarian forces were at the mercy of a tactic that Kuster loved. Whenever he saw an area where no one was stationed, he would always send a few troops to occupy it.

There may be a threat of ambush, but if you dare to extend the gains, then there is a good chance that the enemy will be divided and create an opportunity for encirclement.

And this is at the strategic level, the smallest units commanded are all at the division level; Can one division completely annihilate another? This is obviously impossible!

As Kuster expected, several vanguard divisions of the Austrian army were not immediately counterattacked after they were stationed in the Russian positions.

When the news reached Command, Kuster's eyes sharpened.

He realized that now was the best time to attack.

So he summoned all the officers, waved his hand to them, and said:

"The Russians are gradually retreating, and this must be the Germans attacking! They didn't inform me beforehand, but we still need to cooperate with them in a massive offensive immediately.

Gentlemen, remember that the Russians are on the verge of collapse, and we only need one foot to kick it into the abyss so that it can never get up again.

I have codenamed this operation the 'New Year's Offensive', and I hope that you will surprise me with the war. ”

The officers saluted each other, and soon they all walked out of the headquarters, got into their own special cars, and went to command the battle.

After seeing off the officers, Kuster was still a little worried—his third son's tank battalion had left a few days ago, and there was no information until now.

Worry gradually turned into impatience, but he was still the commander-in-chief, and could only wander back and forth on the floor to relieve his emotions.

Soon, good news followed, leaving Kuster excited and a little settled at the same time.

The Austro-Hungarian forces advanced by leaps and bounds; In particular, the three select divisions, round-the-clock towards Przemyśl, are now less than 2 kilometers away.

The Third Army in the south also broke through the Russian defense line, and the troops went straight to the fortress to stab.

Later that evening, Custer finally got a message from Mackensen.

In a telegram, Mackensen said that their army was less than five kilometers east of the fort, and that he asked Kuster to immediately lead the Austrians to join his attack.

Truth be told, after reading the telegram carefully, Kuster was furious.

However, for the sake of the war situation, he still held back and rushed to the front line overnight in a car.

On 2 January, the 19th Army welcomed a familiar face - Kuster arrived, who would personally direct the selected divisions to launch an assault on the fortress.

The fighters were all excited about his arrival, and they were more active in preparing for the attack.

Kuster looked at the fortified fortress two kilometers away, the outline of Przemyśl was clear, and even the tattered Austro-Hungarian flag on top of the fortress could be seen.

He put down his binoculars and felt a little emotional. The impregnable fortress endured the consequences of the Empire's misery on its own, and after several months, it was finally about to return to the Empire.

Listening to the sound of artillery fire in my ears, my heart is grateful; But the third son was nowhere to be seen, and his emotions piled up into a bubble with worry.

Suddenly, as if a needle had punctured the foam, it woke up Kuster.

There was an abrupt sound of artillery in the distance, and with his many years of combat experience, it was certainly not the artillery used by the Russians, let alone the artillery used by Austria-Hungary.

Leaned over and took out the binoculars and took a closer look into the distance.

Next to the ruined bunker of the fortress was a Type B tank; It ran out of shells and had to use machine guns for defense.

After seeing this, Custer jumped around excitedly, pulled out his saber and roared vigorously:

"Charge!"