I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 600 The first snow in 1914 years
The Balkan countries do not have the same Slavic brotherhood with Serbia as the Russian Empire does.

George hopes that Nicholas will let go of his desire to help others and respect the fate of others.

Nicholas was indeed in no mood to mediate the internal conflicts within the Balkan League.

The German counterattack was more fierce than expected. Mackensen's use of artillery was superb. The excellent Skoda artillery would only become a trophy of the Russian army in Conrad's hands. Mackensen concentrated the use of artillery and forced the Ivanov Corps, which had several times more troops than his own, to retreat hastily.

Hindenburg's attack was equally fierce, and he reached the outskirts of Warsaw before being desperately stopped by the Second and Fifth Armies.

The Second Army and the Fifth Army belonged to the Northern Front and the Southwestern Front respectively. Command and coordination became new problems and the two armies could not cooperate closely.

On October 10, the 3th Army led by Vasily took the lead in launching an attack on the Austrian Fifth Army.

Like Mackensen, the generals under George were also good at using artillery. The results of previous Amur exercises proved that artillery could only play its greatest role when used in a concentrated manner.

Compared with the Amur period, the 12th Army also received assistance from the Air Force. After the Russian-Romanian coalition forces occupied Orbey, Vasily built a field airport in Orbey, where more than a hundred aircraft were stationed.

With the help of the Air Force, the Austrian army was completely unable to resist the frenzied attack of the Gao Ri Corps and collapsed at the first touch. The Nagasaki Infantry Division, which was mainly composed of Nagasaki people, advanced 50 kilometers in one day and one night, which was a military miracle.

During the advance, the Nagasaki Division also broke through two Austrian lines of defense, killed 4000 Austrian soldiers, captured 1.5, and seized more than 100 artillery pieces.

On the 4th, the 13th Army joined the battle and launched a pincer attack on the Austrian Fifth Army from the flank.

The Fifth Army retreated across the board, and in just 48 hours, it retreated 120 kilometers, leaving Vasily and Andrei far behind.

This is also understandable.

The Austrians did not form a flank formation, but instead used the railways to retreat quickly and set up a new line of defense along the Tisza River.

The Austrians learned the lesson from the Battle of Galicia and blew up as many roads and bridges as possible during their retreat to slow down the Russian attack.

Vasily was very happy and ordered his troops to move faster.

Andrei reminded Vasily that the 12th Army's front line was too long and the Nagasaki Division, which was at the forefront, had become disconnected from the main force of the 12th Army and was at risk of being outflanked by the enemy.

Vasily was not worried, and even hoped that the Austrian army would take the initiative to attack so that Vasily could annihilate the enemy in mobile warfare.

What Vasily didn't expect was that his crazy attack not only made Conrad terrified, but also made Falkenhayn look at him sideways.

On October 10, Mackensen led the newly formed German 7th Army and rushed 10 kilometers from Galicia to the Tisza River defense line, and immediately surrounded the isolated Nagasaki Division.

The 10th Army led by Mackensen consisted of a total of 5 divisions, with the main force being the 2nd German Guards Division.

Vasily was curious, why was Mackensen, who was far away in Galicia, able to seize the 12th Army's flaw in the first place?

Based on the German army's performance during the counterattack, Vasily sent a telegram to George, suspecting that the Russian army's telegram code had been leaked.

This is not impossible.

The Russian army had suffered a major defeat at Tannenberg before, and the German army seized several military radio stations that the Russian army had not had time to destroy. The Russian army's communication codes were probably leaked at that time.

It was only then that George noticed that after two months of the World War, the Russian military codes had not been updated and they were still using last year's communication codes.

Regardless of whether the code had been leaked or not, George sent a telegram directly to little Nicholas to activate the second set of backup codes.

Miraculously, the German attack stopped just after the Russian army activated the new code.

This is not entirely due to the new code, but is also directly related to the battlefield situation.

The conflict between Ruzysky and Ivanov directly affected the Russian army's operations on the front line. Nicholas the Younger and the theater chief of staff Alexeev came to Ivanov's command headquarters to deal with the issue personally.

Ivanov was very angry and demanded that the commander of the Northern Front be replaced and Ruzysky be removed from his post.

Alexeev's investigation results proved that the defeat of the Southwestern Front was not due to Ruzysky's poor combat performance, but because of Ivanov's incompetence.

Ivanov had the largest field army under Imperial Russia. The combined strength of the Third, Fourth, Fifth and Eighth Armies was greater than that of George's troops. There was no reason why he could not withstand Mackensen's attack.

The German 9th Army previously led by Mackensen was hastily formed. Together with the Austrian cavalry divisions that cooperated in the battle, there were only 7 divisions in total, with about 10 people.

The Russian infantry divisions were even larger than the German ones, with an average of four more battalions per division.

Even if Mackensen could concentrate all his forces to attack every time, the Russian army's front-line forces were still more than three times that of Mackensen's corps.

Compared with Ivanov's Corps, Ruzynski's Northern Front only had the hastily reorganized First and Second Armies. The 10th Army had not yet been assembled and could not be put into combat. The fact that it was able to withstand Hindenburg's attack in Warsaw fully demonstrated Ruzynski's ability.

Nicholas the Younger acted decisively, dismissed Ivanov from his post, and appointed the theater chief of staff Alexeev as the commander-in-chief of the Southwestern Front. He also transferred the Fifth Army, which originally belonged to the Southwestern Front, to the command of the Northern Front led by Ruzynsky.

Ivanov's problem was very serious. In the Battle of Galicia, Ruzyski's outstanding performance concealed Ivanov's mediocrity and did not expose it. After Ruzyski took over the command of the Northern Front, Ivanov's true colors were exposed. His command was very poor and he sent troops to the front in batches, which resulted in the Russian troops on the front line being almost the same as the German troops, and they did not show their superiority in manpower at all.

After obtaining the Fifth Army, Ruzynski had enough troops to resist Hindenburg's attack, and the German offensive came to a standstill.

Mackensen hoped to replicate the miracle of the San River on the Tisza River, destroy the Nagasaki Division, and dampen the morale of the 12th Army.

Makarov, the commander of the Nagasaki Division, did not let Mackensen get his wish. After discovering that his troops were surrounded, he immediately withdrew his forces to hold on and wait for reinforcements.

Mackensen did not have much time left. Reinforcements from the 12th Army would arrive within 24 hours. Mackensen had to destroy the Nagasaki Division before the reinforcements arrived in order to achieve his tactical goal.

The Nagasaki Division advanced lightly and did not carry heavy weapons.

The continuous heavy rains in the past period of time have completely turned the area near the Tisza River into a swamp.

So in the muddy swamp, the Nagasaki Division and the German 2nd Guards Division engaged in a brutal hand-to-hand combat.

The German Guards and the Russian Guards are different in form, but in essence they are the elite among the elites and their combat effectiveness is exceptionally outstanding.

When George recruited the Gao Ri Corps to fight in Europe, he promised them that if they could survive the war, they could become Russian citizens.

Before every soldier joins the army, their families have received a generous resettlement allowance.

In the event of injury or death, the soldier himself or his family can also receive generous pensions.

With George's promise, the soldiers of the Nagasaki Division may not be as tall as those of the 2nd Guards Division, but their fighting will is more tenacious.

Faced with brutal hand-to-hand combat, the soldiers of the Nagasaki Division did not retreat and fought with the 1nd Guards Division in an exchange ratio of nearly 1:.

Makarov didn't care. He would replace every colonial vassal soldier if he died, without any delay or debt.

Mackensen could not accept this loss.

The battle lasted until midnight on the 7th, when the German army retreated on its own initiative and Makarov escaped.

The German army's combat effectiveness is still very strong.

When the German army retreated, there were less than 3000 combat soldiers left in the Nagasaki Division. Makarov's divisional command staff had also been armed and were ready to fight a decisive battle with the German army.

After suffering such a great loss, Vasily was furious and ordered the 12th Army to cross the Tisza River and continue to attack the German-Austrian coalition forces.

As a result, the Kumamoto Division, which was mainly composed of Kumamoto soldiers, suffered a devastating blow from the German-Austrian artillery while crossing the river.

Although the 12th Army's attack was forced to stop, Vasily and Andrei's offensive had already achieved its tactical goal, and the next target would be Budapest.

While the Tisza River front was in a stalemate, Alexeev and Ruzysky finally began to counterattack the German army.

Alexeev took the lead and ordered the Fourth Army to cross the Vivas River and launch an attack on the Austrian army.

The Austrian army lost more than 4 men and retreated 60 kilometers before reorganizing its front line.

The Austrian army's retreat also left the German flanks unprotected, and Hindenburg had to order a retreat.

When Hindenburg retreated, he completely destroyed the transportation facilities along the way. Roads and bridges were blown up, railways were dismantled, and the property of residents in Russian towns along the way was all looted.

Vasily and Andrei were also busy.

Transylvania was a territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. According to the agreement between George and Ferdinand, Transylvania would be handed over to the rule of the Kingdom of Romania after the war.

So for Transylvania, the Russian army was just a passer-by.

Since you are just a passer-by, there is no need to be polite.

For a long time, the Kingdom of Hungary has benefited greatly from its privileges within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, so Hungarians living in Transylvania are generally quite wealthy.

The Romanians living in this area were protected by the Kingdom of Romania, so the Russian army was not too aggressive.

The Austrians and Hungarians were unlucky. They were liquidated by the Russian army and suffered huge property losses. The real estate that the Russian army could not take away was also divided up by the local Romanians.

George didn't care what the Russian army did on the front line. In those days, the armies of all countries were essentially bandits. Kitchener fortified his army in South Africa, and Hindenburg allowed his troops to plunder in Warsaw. George could not use overly high moral standards to demand the Cossacks of the 12th and 13th Army Groups.

On October 10, the first heavy snow of the winter of 15 fell on the Tisza River front, and military operations on both sides came to a standstill.

(End of this chapter)