Chen tian remembers a Chinese idiom called "Wear the chicken and dance."
The East Prussian rooster just started crowing. Mr. Leninkamp from Russia was already up. With two thick dark circles, he drank the glass of milk in front of him without eating the bread. His troops began to pull out their camps and advance. He just thought that he would be severely punished by the Czar for urinating and defecating in the Berlin Palace. After all, he and the Kaiser are relatives. So he changed the vow he made in the morning to boo at the house of the prince of Königsberg, and then let the soldiers who had not slept for the same night move forward quickly, striving to accomplish his great goal as soon as possible.
"Did you sleep well last night? Did you feel nervous?" Chen Tian asked the very young soldier next to him while chewing on the bread.
"Report to your Royal Highness that I was not nervous last night, but I just got up and went to the toilet more than a dozen times!" The soldier straightened his back but didn't know whether to salute the prince with his right hand holding the milk or the left hand holding the bread.
"It's okay! Relax, in the trenches, I am a German soldier like you!" The night before, Chen Tian came to the defense line at the Instburg Gorge to inspect, and he slept with the soldiers in the evening. In the trenches, fortunately, the gods were beautiful, and the prince who planned to establish the image of a pioneer was soaked by the rain.
"His Royal Highness, the reconnaissance plane sent a report that the Russians have begun to march here. 3 infantry corps and 4 cavalry divisions have been deployed in the middle, and the other cavalry division is on the left flank. It seems that they intend to force a breakthrough in the gorge! The staff hurried over and handed a report to Chentian.
Chen Tian picked it up and glanced at it, then turned and walked towards the front command.
At this time, General Leninkamp, the commander of the Russian First Army, also received a report. His Cossack cavalry had detected that the Germans had deployed a defensive line at the Instburg Gorge, but the number of defenders was unknown. The scouts approaching the opponent's line of defense have all been killed.
"It must be these damned Germans that kept me awake yesterday!" Leninkamp yawned and cursed, and once again asked his soldiers to speed up. In his opinion, if the Germans were strong, they would not. Retracted in the trenches and waited for him to pass, so he was ready to make his first contribution to the Eastern Front.
"Adjutant, go and contact the 2nd Army and ask Samsonov when he can arrive. By the way, I will tell him that my Army is moving smoothly and will soon defeat the German troops in East Prussia. I will be on the Daviswa River. Wait for him!"
As his adjutant was about to leave, he added another sentence: "By the way, inform General Jilinsky, the commander of the Northwest Army Group, that our army is about to come into contact with the enemy's small-scale troops!"
"Although our army has the same strength as the incoming enemy, only by attracting the enemy to the front of the line of defense can we have the opportunity to set up a huge encirclement!" Chen Tian explained to the puzzled staff, "I want a different result. To repel this Russian army, I want to wipe them out, not leaving one!"
At ten o'clock in the morning, Russian field artillery began to bombard the German defensive positions at the Instberg Gorge, and the Cossack cavalry division on their left flank began to enter the Mazury Lake area.
The Russian artillery shells were supplied with 244 rounds per day. Without being resisted by the opponent's artillery fire, they dumped the shells at the German position with the highest firing rate of 440 rounds. They forgot that it was 60 kilometers away from the border. The logistics did not deliver enough supplies. Finally, the Russian cannon fell silent.
Although his artillery had no shells, Leninkamp was very satisfied with the shelling for several hours. At this time, the German position was silent, and it seemed that all the soldiers there had been killed by Russian shells.
"The cavalry began to charge! The infantry followed closely behind the cavalry! We are going to take down this defile in one go!" With the order of Leninkamp, hundreds of thousands of Russian troops were 50 kilometers wide in front of the Instburg defile. A charge was launched in the open area. Tens of thousands of Cossack cavalry wielded their sabers and rushed towards the German position. Behind them were countless infantry with bayonets. Looking out from the gorge, the black tide was rushing toward their faces.
At this time, Armored Corps commander Olger is carrying 100 armored vehicles, 150 trucks, 120 77mm rapid-fire guns, 30 large-caliber howitzers, and 20,000 soldiers from Inst Starting from the Fort Cornish Fortress area east of the Fort Gorge, they quickly circled to the right rear of the Russian army.
In the Mazury Lake area, the Russian Cossack Cavalry Division encountered the German motorcycle unit that had been waiting here for a long time. These 5,000 tricycles had a Firebird light machine gun or a Maxim heavy machine gun, so they became tens of thousands of sturdy men. When the Cossack cavalry rushed towards the 15,000 German army and 5,000 machine guns brandishing their sabers, there was a very violent noise like frying beans in the woods. The leaves fell, and no Cossacks came out of the woods alive. Subsequently, the motorcycle unit began to circle to the left rear of the Russian army from the other side of the lake area.
On the front of the Instberg Gorge, Leninkamp rubbed his eyes over and over again. He could hardly believe what he saw. He would rather it be an illusion caused by not sleeping well, but all of this is true. of. In just one hour, more than 30,000 Cossack cavalry and 45,000 Russian infantry fell in front of the gorge. They did not fall to the ground due to sleepiness. The countless shells flying from the back of the Xiakou position and the countless tongues of flames that burst out instantly made them lie there peacefully one by one, enjoying the poisonous sunshine at noon in summer.
Yes, it is! This is slaughter! The German massacre of the Russians, the massacre of 200,000 soldiers by 250,000 soldiers, the massacre of countless sabers and rifles by 800 cannons, and 7,000 machine guns.
If there is a God, God will cry for it!
Chen Tian silently watched this hellish scene. This is exactly the effect of his huge investment in equipping the East Prussian Army with a large number of machine guns. It is also the result he wants. There is no army in the world that has a machine gun ratio that exceeds the 8th in Germany. The group army is the East Prussian regiment of Chentian. A large number of Maxine heavy machine guns and "Firebird" light machine guns have been distributed to every company or even shift. The astonishing consumption of ammunition makes half of the vehicles of the logistics unit carry machine gun bullets.
But Chentian couldn't be happy at this time!
But this is war, and no one has the power to soften!
"General, the other party is asking for negotiations!" When the head of the Russian commander General Leninkamp was in confusion, his adjutant told him that someone was coming over with a white flag in the opposite position.
"This... tell the soldiers to stand by and pay close attention to every move on the opposing position to prevent the opponent from launching an offensive at this time!" Leninkamp stood up and carefully sorted out his uniform. He hadn't lost yet. !
"Idiot! You have already lost!" Chentian stood at the front of the position, using binoculars to watch his envoy holding a white flag pass through countless Russian corpses, then walked to the Russian army's position, and the Russian soldiers surrounded him. Came up, but was drunk away by their officer. The envoy went to persuade him to surrender, but Chentian knew that the Russians would not surrender now. He just hoped to delay another half an hour so that his flanking forces could complete the encirclement. It would be better to anger the Russian commander and let him start again attack.
Leninkamp tried his best to maintain the manners of a nobleman, and politely drove away from the German envoy.
As the envoy walked back, he glanced at the Russian artillery, and there were only empty shell boxes and a lot of shell shells next to him.
After the German envoy left, Leninkamp stood blankly in his temporary headquarters, and the staff around him stopped their work, waiting for him to issue an order to attack or retreat.
"Offensive or retreat?" Leninkamp didn't know what to do.
"General, why don't you attack? We must avenge the dead brothers! We are going to kill those Germans alive!" Two Cossack cavalry officers rushed into the command post, waving the swords in their hands frantically, frightened to the staff. They hid one after another.
"General, attack! Otherwise, what face do we have to go back to see our Grand Duke, our Tsar, and our people?"
Leninkamp nodded in a daze.
The 20,000 Cossack cavalry and their mounts rushed madly towards the German positions like doping, but after a few minutes, they all fell off their horses, and the following Russian infantry began to retreat.
"Retreat! Retreat!" Leninkamp woke up. The Germans were already fully prepared, and even this was a trap they laid down.
"late!"
When several flare flares rose from the back of the Russian army, Leninkamp sat on the ground, letting the staff unwilling to pull it no matter what.
Just after Olger's armored forces and motorcycles completed the encirclement of the Russian army, the remaining more than 100 armored vehicles of the armored force began a full charge with more than 100,000 German troops. The German soldiers stepped over countless corpses of the Russian army, screaming with bayonets, and rushed towards the Russian army that was retreating.
The armored car quickly rushed into the Russian army and separated them. Several machine guns on the car violently fired at the crowd. The rout of the Russian soldiers finally evolved into fleeing in all directions.
On the back of the Russian army, armored vehicles, trucks, motorcycles, and German soldiers of armored army formed a huge semicircle. 6,956 machine guns, 150 cannons, and 35,000 soldiers formed a huge Aegis, and all attempted to escape from the encirclement. The Russian soldiers shredded under the dense fire net.
There was a life-killing firepower net in front, and countless pursuits behind. The Russian soldiers had lost their fighting spirit and surrendered one after another.
Just as Leninkamp attempted to commit suicide by raising a gun, a German soldier kicked his pistol out and then pressed him to the ground. On this sunny summer afternoon, all fools could see that this guy in the gorgeous general's uniform was a big fish, a big fish.
The fighting ended at 4 pm, and the German soldiers were able to catch up with dinner. Large groups of Russian prisoners were gathered into a huge open space, just as they were when they attacked, all in black. It's just that at this time these people have lost the spirit of moving forward in the morning, one by one, their heads down and sitting there silently. They had only left their homes for a few days, but they were about to start their long career as prisoners of war. It was extremely sad.
Except for the troops responsible for logistics and transportation, 210,000 people of the 1st Army of the Northwest Army Group in Russia were annihilated, of which 108,000 were killed and the remaining 102,000 were all captured. It took nearly 70 trains for the Germans to transport these prisoners to the rear. The more than 400 Russian artillery pieces were all captured except those damaged during the battle. As for the captured horses, they were driven into makeshift stables in groups. .
In this battle, the tanks of the Panzer Army did not directly appear in front of the Russian army. However, after the Russian bombardment of the Instberg Gorge position, they drove to the back of the position and participated in the bombardment of the Russian soldiers who were charging.