Iron Cross Fire

On December 26, as expected by Kuster, this place soon became the center of the war between Russia and Austria.

In order to rescue the besieged army, the Russian army dispatched the 6th, 4th and 8th armies. Together with the 3rd army, the Russian army had a total of 970,000 people.

The pressure on the Austro-Hungarian Second Army also dropped sharply due to the enemy's mobilization, and it gained a high degree of combat freedom.

The then commander-in-chief Boehm-Elimoli wanted to launch a counterattack to break the enemy's defense line; but he was stopped by the highest level of the empire. They asked him to go to the San River in the north to assist Kuster in completing the battle plan for relief.

I don't know how he felt, but he still led his army to the east bank of the San River, threatening the enemy's flank while assisting in defense.

Now, Austria-Hungary also has 860,000 people in this area, which can barely fight with Russia.

But the fatal thing is that they only have 400,000 people on the front battlefield to defend against the attack of 890,000 Russians.

The remaining 460,000 people were just picking up leaks, just encircling the remaining 80,000 people of the Russian Third Army without launching any attack. They tried to make the Russians inside surrender by cutting off information and supplies.

Nothing could be more stupid than this!

To stop the enemy's attack, the first thing to do is to make the difference in manpower, and the number of Russian troops is more than twice that of the Austrian troops on the defense line. This is impossible to fight!

At this moment, the Austro-Hungarian army is like the Roman Legion. They surrounded the Russian defenders who were far weaker than them; and outside were the three Russian armies that were far stronger than them.

Should we defend or attack first? This must be decided by Caesar. And who is the Caesar of Austria-Hungary? Without a doubt, it is Kuster. He has the most power and ability here.

He made a suggestion to the General Command: requiring most of the Austrian troops participating in the siege to transfer to the Eastern Front for defense.

He gave a number requirement: it must not be less than 700,000, otherwise this battle cannot be fought, and he will resign from his post as lieutenant general and go home to farm.

Yes, Kuster was threatening the top leaders of the empire, threatening to resign.

This threat was very effective. A few days ago, due to excessive propaganda, the Austro-Hungarian people believed that if they lost Kuster, they would be beaten to death by the Russians, so every citizen of the empire took to the streets and used all means to force the top leaders to issue Kuster's order.

The Germans acted faster than Austria-Hungary, and they learned about it earlier. Emperor William also put pressure on the Austro-Hungarian government to agree.

The hesitant Austro-Hungarian government had to agree to Kuster's request after being pressured from many sides.

Conrad, the Austro-Hungarian Chief of Staff, excitedly asked the First and Fourth Armies to transfer most of their forces to the east to fight.

He had a good strategic vision and had long regarded the defensive war in the east as a top priority, but he could not mobilize them.

At this moment, Kuster's threat of resignation was an excellent opportunity to reasonably mobilize the army.

But Conrad suddenly stopped from his joy and sat down quietly to think about the gains and losses.

Conrad was in Vienna, far away from the front line, and could not know the specific actions of each army group. He could only give them some suggestions.

If you want to fight together, you must have someone who understands the war situation to be the commander-in-chief. This person must have both ability and reputation.

But now the capable officers of Austria-Hungary are basically dead, and most of the remaining army group commanders are newcomers with no reputation, or a group of good-for-nothings.

After thinking about it, there is no one at the level of army group commander who is suitable.

Therefore, we have to settle for the second best and move down a level, and the best candidate for the army level is Kuster.

But Kuster had already gained a lot of reputation before, and now he is the supreme commander. I don’t know what kind of disaster will be brought in the future. And he likes to make trouble, and the empire has wiped his ass many times.

As time passed, the tension of the war on the front line made the civilians in the rear more panicked.

Maybe Conrad had time to worry about all this, but those civilians did not.

In the afternoon of that day, they finally couldn’t wait any longer. They joined forces to smash the state-owned buildings of the empire in an attempt to make Conrad choose Kuster quickly.

The German side also expressed the Emperor's idea through the embassy: He specifically asked Kuster to be the commander of the three armies for no other reason; among the Austro-Hungarian officers, William II only knew Kuster and thought he was very powerful.

More and more pressure came to him, and Conrad cast a begging look at the Austrian Emperor Franz, but he just shook his head helplessly.

There was no way. Since the Battle of Galicia, Austria-Hungary has basically been a pendant on Germany's thigh.

Everyone in the command center couldn't help but sigh, and finally issued a promotion list:

After December 27, Kuster became the temporary commander-in-chief and had the supreme command of the four armies deployed by Austria-Hungary on the Eastern Front. This appointment will last until there is no more gunfire in the San River section.

There are three eye-catching names in the lower right corner: Emperor of the Empire - Franz, Commander-in-Chief of the Empire - Friedrich, and Chief of the Imperial General Staff - Conrad.

Maybe there were some negative emotions in the process, but they still unanimously agreed to Kuster's command and handed over the future of the empire to him.

As soon as the news came out, the whole of Vienna was filled with singing and dancing; when the German high-level officials in the north learned about it, they also generally became optimistic.

Hindenburg and Ludendorff on the Eastern Front launched a series of offensives against Russia again, directly expressing their expectations for Kuster in a crude physical way.

General Mackensen was also scavenging for them not far to the north: once there was a gap in Kuster's front line, they would tear open the Russian defense line like a tiger to relieve Kuster's pressure.

It can be said that the time, place and people are all there, and it depends on how Kuster fights; all countries also focus on the San River area.

But the rear is full of confidence in Kuster, because they have not experienced the war personally, and they have no way of knowing the difficulties Kuster is facing at this time - Russia's full-scale attack.

Although a certain number of Austrian troops have been drawn out of the encirclement, many people still resist going to the front line, so that when Russia launched the attack, the Austrian army barely gathered 600,000 people, and it was difficult to withstand the power of the Russian steamroller.

First of all, the Russian cavalry successfully broke through part of the Austrian army; but they suffered a lot of losses in the process of breaking through, and it was difficult for them to have any organization to support them to expand their results, and in the end they did not make a passage.

Then the Russian infantry launched a general offensive across the board, accompanied by fierce and magnificent artillery fire, rushing towards the Austro-Hungarian fortifications and fighting fiercely with the Austro-Hungarians in them.

They were so brave that they were about to rescue the besieged Third Army - if it weren't for the big villain Kuster who mobilized two selected divisions in time, they might have really won.

But because of the arrival of these two selected divisions, the Russian offensive came to an abrupt halt. The reason was not that the Austro-Hungarians resisted stubbornly, but that the Russians had run out of shells; not just today, but also for the next few weeks.

With Russia's stop, the next initiative was Kuster's turn.

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