Rasputin of the East

23

In the early days of World War I, the German Army concentrated its forces westward according to the Schlieffen Plan.

The French Army activated Plan 17 and sent troops to Alsace-Lorraine, but the brunt was broken by the 6th Army of the Crown Prince of Bavaria, Ruprecht. .

The French and British Continental Expeditionary Forces came to their senses only then.

“If the northern part of France passes…”

“Paris! They must be targeting flies head-on!”

“Oh, no! This is a nightmare! When the fly falls, we lose!”

Reviving the nightmare of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, the French army redeployed their troops to the north like a cat with a burning tail, and sent all their reserve forces to the north.

And the German army’s northern and right flanks were also slowing their offensive.

“The 1st and 2nd Army of the Northern Front are reporting increased resistance.”

“The estimated troop ratio is 3:1.”

“Though the plan was 7:1.”

“General, we have received the news of victory in the 6th Army. It seems that they pulled out their troops from the South and moved them to the North.”

“If the right hand trying to hit the face is blocked, you can hit the abdomen with your left hand.

When this happened, France made the fall of Paris a foregone fact, announced that the capital would be relocated to Bordeaux, and sent an envoy to the Russian Empire.

“your majesty! You must start the offensive immediately!”

“No, that’s why the mobilization isn’t over yet…”

“If the mobilization of the Russian Empire was over, by then we would have been defeated! Can the Russian Empire be able to face the German Empire alone without France! If not, right now! Strike those damn Germans in the back!”

And the result was a quarrel between me and the generals, and although I pointed out all the loopholes, the generals only said that they would improve, and did not say a word about the improvement plan or postponement of the operation, and the offensive began in the end.

“Tsuk, the yellow monkey ran wild because it got some favourites.”

“I wonder what his excuse will be when he comes back with a perfect victory.”

“30 infantry units, 8 cavalry divisions, 800,000 total troops, this would be enough to keep the Germans down,”

“Based on Lake Missourian, the 1st Army will advance to the north, and the 2nd Army will advance to the South.”

“The 10th Army will join the reserve. The mobilization is not over yet.”

“According to the information shared by the GRU, there are 11 infantry divisions, 1 cavalry division, and about 160,000 enemies deployed in East Prussia. It’s not spread out across the country, it’s central, but we have a five-fold numerical advantage.”

And the beginning really went back to their confidence.

“The German Eighth Army is retreating!”

“haha! It’s so easy!”

“After all, the Count of Vostok’s warning must have been a fallacy! The German army is a scarecrow!”

“report! Gumbinem has been captured!”

“Oh oh!”

“Tell St. Petersburg! I’m asking you to prepare some decorations!”

On the other hand, the German army was also urgently responding.

“The 1st Corps under the 8th Army defeated the 1st Russian Army.”

“But why did Gumbinem fall?”

“I decided that the risk of being surrounded and destroyed by the 1st Legion was too great.”

“But just give me the strategic point? Isn’t that true?”

“In the judgment of the jurisdiction, it is right to give up East Prussia and stop the Russian army from the Vistula River…”

“Fritwitz, you are fired! To give up our spiritual homeland in Germany, is it absurd?”

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Moltke, enraged by the noise of Fritwitz, fired Fritwitz and appointed a new person in his place.

“I’m sorry for letting the old man come back to the front line.”

“No, I feel rejuvenated by breathing the air of the frontline again, is this my new chief of staff?”

“That’s right! It is an honor to meet the renowned General Paul von Hindenburg!”

“Yeah, what’s your name?”

“This is Erich Ludendorff.”

“Ah, I’m getting older these days, so I keep forgetting what I heard. Alright, Mr. Ludendorff, are you ready to crush the Slavic barbarians together?”

“Anyway, there was a plan that the 8th Army Command was preparing on its own. This is a plan suggested by General Staff Max Hoffman, whose right wing has stopped advancing at Gumbinen and the 2nd Army is slowly advancing west from the marshes. So, with one cavalry division, we check the Russian 1st Army, mobilize all the remaining troops to annihilate the 2nd Army, and then encircle and destroy the 1st Army.”

“One division to stop one Army Group? What reason do you have for thinking it will work?”

“The command of the Russian army has been waterproofed, the 1st Army is to stop the advance and stand by for the siege of Königsberg. Surprisingly, the communication was conducted in plain language without a password, and to be honest, it is doubtful that it is disinformation, but so far, the Russian military has faithfully followed this order.”

“You’re either arrogant, you’re an unimaginable idiot, or both. It’s probably one of the three, but I’d prefer to focus on the latter. Approve the plan of action, let’s press down on the Slavs’ noses.”

“The 8th Army has already completed the preparations for the operation. Just give me orders.”

“The 1st Army is still alive and the 2nd Army is exhausted, so I’ll have to annihilate them first, or send the 1st Cavalry Division into the enemy 1st Army area, and the 1st and 3rd Reserve Corps to join the 20th Corps and send them south, 1, 17 Let the corps subdue the northern end of the Russian 2nd Army.”

“Okay, and there is one more thing, the headquarters said they would call out one corps from the Western Front to support the Eastern Front.”

“That’s bad news.”

“Yes?”

“We can’t arrive on time, we can win without it, and it would be better to turn that one corps back to its original western front and take one step forward before the French form a front. ttt.”

Hindenburg clicked his tongue. If you can’t arrive on time in the first place, you only increase the number of victims in a defeated situation, and if you win, it has no effect on the war situation.

It would be meaningful to prepare for the next campaign, but Hindenburg was of the opinion that it would be better to take one more step toward Paris, leaving a corps on the Western Front that would cause a power gap of at least two months.

Panic over the threat of loss of East Prussia, however, the Command ignored Hindenberg’s claims.

What kind of region is East Prussia?

It is the site of the Prussian kingdom, which became the root of the German Empire, and the Teutonic Knights, which became its roots.

They are also the power bases and territories of the empire’s nobles and Junkers, the core forces that lead the empire.

If the day comes when East Prussia is trampled on by European military police and the military boots of the Russian Empire, how will the Junkers within the empire react?

The German High Command could not bear the risk, and in the end, despite fierce opposition from the local commander, Hindenburg, the plan to support the 8th Army by turning 1 Corps from the Western Front to the Eastern Front was carried forward.

Regardless of the fight between Berlin and the 8th Army headquarters, the Russians were stepping into the encirclement established by the 8th Army.

On 28 August, the Germans launched a massive offensive as the 2nd Army stepped into a position where it was virtually impossible to get out of the encirclement.

“It’s also… German Army! Commander! German forces are pushing in from all sides!”

“Ask the 1st team for support! hurry!”

It was not until that point that the commander of the 2nd Army, Commander Samsonov, remembered the warnings of the GRU Director, the Count of Vostok, whom he had so much admired.

‘The first target to be siege will be the 2nd Army. Call in reinforcements while holding out somehow, especially if both sides are pierced, just retreat. Unless the internal affairs army can’t participate in the war, there are only 10 reserve units, but the 10th army is not at the time when it is possible to complete the formation. You’ll only bleed more. If you don’t like it, we ask that you keep our internal forces in reserve.’

didn’t listen It was because of the confidence that he could not fall into the classic siege and annihilation because he was too textbook. I didn’t listen to it because I thought it was nonsense from someone who didn’t even know about the military.

“The Ministry of Home Affairs, military support to the Ministry of Home Affairs…”

“Commander, the internal forces are all in the Urals.”

It is because he himself refused. Thanks to this, all the combat units of the Interior Army are gathered near the Ural Mountains, and it is impossible to run in time by any means possible.

“Then ask the 1st Army for support!”

“All right.”

“Retreat… you can’t retreat, even if the advance stops, you have to persevere…”

However, that request was not answered.

“Commander, the 2nd Army is requesting troop support…”

“In the second team alone, the number is more than doubled, can’t we win that too? Like an incompetent little boy.”

“Aren’t we still going to need support?”

“No, we have to protect Gumbinem. Gumbinem is a strategic location. If you leave this road, what will you hear from the non-gong peddlers later? Gumbinem protects.”

The commander of the 1st Army, Rennenkamp, ignored the urgent rescue request of the 2nd Army.

They looked at the troops only in numbers, and overlooked the fact that the German Army, at least the German Army, was the most powerful military group of our time.

And the cost of that neglect was truly disastrous. Shortly thereafter, the news was sent to Stavka, the highest command of the Russian Army.

“The 2nd Army is completely surrounded!”

***

“retreat! Retreat!”

A procession of remnants was heading blindly to the east.

German shells also fell on the military headquarters, and Samsonov and the commanders had to join the tumultuous procession on foot, without a horse, let alone a vehicle.

Remnants of the waving and discarded goods everywhere.

Samsonov, staring blankly at the procession of the retreating 2nd Army, smiled in dismay.

What day would you go back to the Summer Palace like this?

What day will you see the Tsar?

“Commander?”

“Leave me alone.”

“Yes?”

“Someone has to take responsibility, and I have no intention of surviving poorly by passing the responsibility on to someone else. I want that person to be satisfied with my life alone.”

Samsonov, who had almost forced the dissuading staff to be driven out, walked towards the rear of the remnants and looked at the retreating men and St. Petersburg in the distance.

I felt the cold metal on my forehead. But within that coldness there was a strange heat.

The strange feeling made Samsonov dizzy.

His end would be marked by disgrace. Over the next hundred years, the name Samsonov will be passed down as one of the pronouns of sergeant.

But he didn’t want to think that far.

“Long live the Russian Empire.”

A gunshot rang out from the rear of the ranks of the defeated.