When Lieutenant General Andrew made a surprise attack on Cluj, Lieutenant General Freit, the commander of the Northern Army Group (Northern Army Group and Central Army Group were merged here for the convenience of command) who was responsible for containing the frontal battlefield, was already preparing for the counterattack the next day.
Looking at the division commanders who had been summoned late at night, Lieutenant General Freit, who did not know that the enemy was about to escape at this moment, talked about the plan for the next day. "We will launch a counterattack early tomorrow morning. The mission of this counterattack is not to let the enemy
We have the energy to mobilize troops to return reinforcements. Therefore, we must entangle ourselves with the enemy and not let them break away. As long as Lieutenant General Andrew captures Cluj, they will be rats in a tin barrel with no place to hide."
Of course, Major General Rakoff's persistence bought some time for Lieutenant General Fan Siteng to evacuate. The next day, Army Group North felt something was wrong as soon as they attacked.
"Isn't the enemy's defense strength a bit too weak?"
Looking at the summary of battle reports in front of him, Lieutenant General Freit was a little confused, but it seemed to him that the problem was not a big one.
"It seems that the troops have been mobilized and sent a message to Lieutenant General Andrew to be careful of the enemy's return reinforcements."
After finishing speaking, His Excellency the Lieutenant General issued another order: "Send a message to the troops and ask them to hold back the enemy in front of them. Don't give the enemy a chance to mobilize troops."
Major General Rakoff's persistence in Cluj confused the two Romanian generals. They both thought that the troops transferred by the Austro-Hungarian Ninth Army were return reinforcements. However, as time went by, Lieutenant General Versten's intentions were gradually exposed.
come out.
"What, the enemy didn't show up?"
The message replied by Major General Doles, commander of the Second Division, who arranged to defend the enemy's reinforcements, shocked Andrew. His first thought was that the enemy would bypass the Second Division's position.
"Immediately send telegrams to all units to inquire whether any large-scale enemy forces have been discovered."
However, soon none of the troops found the enemy.
"It's really strange, where are the enemy's reinforcements?"
Lieutenant General Andrew was troubled by the delay in the appearance of enemy reinforcements.
"Is there any conspiracy?"
The staff officer in charge of the combat map said casually.
"What conspiracy is more important than Cluj? Does the enemy want to see his soldiers besieged?"
"Soldiers...are besieged..."
Lieutenant General Andrew, who had been thinking hard, suddenly thought that what was more important than Cluj was the Ninth Army itself.
"No, the enemy wants to escape."
Lieutenant General Andrew, who had figured it out, immediately ordered. "Immediately send a telegram to Lieutenant General Freit, saying that enemy reinforcements have not been found on the Cluj front line, and the Austro-Hungarian Ninth Army wants to escape."
The radio waves soon transferred to Army Group North.
Holding the telegram sent by Lieutenant General Andrew, Ferreit said to himself, "Lieutenant General Versiteng, you are so courageous, you gave up Cluj directly."
He immediately believed Lieutenant General Andrew's judgment. According to the intelligence obtained from the offensive of the troops below, the enemy had withdrawn the strength of four divisions last night. It now seemed that the enemy was arranging a retreat plan.
Lieutenant General Freit looked at the position of the enemy's Ninth Army on the map and muttered to himself. "If you want to leave, you must leave something as a souvenir."
After finishing speaking, Lieutenant General Freit called the communications staff officer. "Now I give the order."
Lieutenant General Freit's order was shown in the writing of the communications staff. "At present, all troops immediately entangle the enemy in front of them and do not give them a chance to escape. November 27, Freit."
Lieutenant General Ferreit's order immediately made it much more difficult for the Austro-Hungarian army to break away. A large number of Romanian troops clung to their opponents and did not give them any chance to break away. This forced Lieutenant General Versiten to make the decision to abandon part of the army.
painful decision.
However, in the face of Lieutenant General Fan Siteng's tail-cutting to survive, neither Lieutenant General Freit nor Lieutenant General Andrew had much to do. The main reason was that the enemy was decisive and did not have much time to make arrangements.
Lieutenant General Fan Siteng's decisiveness was difficult for Lieutenant General Sam of the Tenth Army to accept.
"Damn Fan Siteng, damn it."
Lieutenant General Sam's roar resounded throughout the entire headquarters, and it also made the officers in the headquarters dare not come forward to persuade the Lieutenant General to lock him up in the war room.
All this was caused by a telegram that had been torn into pieces. If it could be pieced together, it was a telegram indicating that Lieutenant General Fan Siteng of the Ninth Army decided to abandon Cluj.
In the telegram, Lieutenant General Fan Siteng expressed his reasons for abandoning Cluj. Lieutenant General Sam believed that Ver Siteng was afraid that if he did not take Cluj for a long time, he would be in danger of being destroyed. These were all excuses. This was an exaggeration of Fan Siteng's assessment of the enemy's strength.
caused by.
It was like being on the battlefield of Deva, and I had a new understanding of the Romanian army. These Romanian standing armies are indeed relatively elite and can compete with the German army directly led by the empire, but their mobilization forces are far inferior to those in other territories of the empire.
troops. In the battle with the enemy's Southern Army Group in the past few days, Lieutenant General Sam relied on his advantages in strength and artillery to firmly control the initiative on the battlefield, and tortured this elite Romanian force into misery.
But now that he gave up this good situation due to the mistakes of his friendly forces, Lieutenant General Sam seemed very unwilling to do so.
"crunch"
At this time, the door to the war room was opened. The loud sound of the door opened made Lieutenant General Sam frown. "Didn't I tell you not to come in? Do you think I dare not punish you?"
"It's me, what's wrong with you?"
The person who came in through the door asked, and the familiar voice made Lieutenant General Sam unable to express his anger at being disturbed.
Lieutenant General Sam lit up a cigarette to relieve his inner irritation and asked the visitor, "Didn't you go to inspect the troops below? Why did you come back so soon?"
"If I go and don't come back, you don't even plan to go out."
"How could it be? I was just angry at Fan Siteng's cowardly behavior. Now I'm normal. Chief of Staff, you don't have to keep staring at me."
During the conversation between the two, the person who came was surprisingly the partner of Lieutenant General Sam, Major General Hans Kohl, Chief of Staff of the Army Group. As Major General Hans with a popular German name, he was born in a military aristocratic family in Austria. He has a good reputation.
Family conditions gave Hans Cole enough opportunities to display his talents. He successively served as a royal guard, company commander of the Austrian 3rd Infantry Regiment, battalion commander, combat staff officer of the staff, team leader, and deputy director of operations.
Then when World War I broke out, he was transferred to the Fifth Army as Chief of Staff to partner with Sam. Then the two worked together tacitly and were transferred to the Tenth Army together. Everyone in the group army knew that Lieutenant General Sam was angry, and only Chief of Staff Hans
Only then can it calm down.
"Now that your anger has been vented, we need to consider what to do next."
Major General Hans' words calmed Lieutenant General Sam down, and he really needed to consider his next move.
