The 3rd Lancer Division assembled in Krasno, and the 3rd Regiment was in the east of the small town, less than ten kilometers from the front line. Now all the transport vehicles have been handed over, and Rakowski and others will have to walk on their legs in the future. The entire company is concentrated in a large open space, and a major gave a pre-war mobilization speech.

His voice was very loud and loud, but Rakowski didn't quite understand what he was saying. He spoke German. Anyway, he knew one meaning, and the war was about to go.

The atmosphere in the entire company suddenly became tense.

In the moonless night, the company walked to the assault position five kilometers away. In the night sky, red and green signal flares did not rise, and the rumbling cannon sounded constantly since yesterday afternoon. Muffled thunder sounds kept coming from the north, and balls of fire burst out from time to time on the enemy's frontier positions.

From May 1, Austro-Hungarian artillery on the front line began to conduct test firing at the Russian positions. The artillery fire was not fierce, but it continued. The artillery commands marked the data of the enemy's important positions on the map one by one. Later, I heard that the Austro-Hungarian army had arranged more than 1,300 cannons on the front line, and an average of one cannon would be assigned every 70 meters of assault zone.

Under the hillside behind the assault position, strange armored vehicles were parked there quietly. Looking down from the hillside, they looked like a long row of neatly arranged large iron boxes, with a small round box equipped with small caliber infantry cannons or machine guns on their heads.

The commander said that it was the armored brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division. The ones that used crawlers like tractors were "tanks", while those with six wheels were armored vehicles. Rakowsky could not see any difference. It seemed that those tanks were equipped with infantry cannons, while armored cars like square boxes were generally equipped with only two machine guns.

"What's the use of this thing?" No one knew that anyway, every soldier was asked to carry a bundle of firewood behind him, and according to the order, he would charge behind these armored vehicles, throw the firewood behind him in when encountering enemy trenches or large pits, paving the way for these "iron cans".

"It's really troublesome!" Many people complained, but had to do so.

Rakowski counted about it and there were about 200 "iron boxes" behind the hillside, lined up in a long triangle, one in front and two in the back. From a distance, the row behind was much denser than the front, and it was indeed much denser.

On the artillery positions behind these "iron vehicles", artillery that carried out conventional test-fire and harassing artillery continued to slowly fire a round of shells. On those artillery positions, more artillery quietly raised their heads, pointing at the predetermined shooting targets, and boxes of shells were piled behind the gun positions, waiting for new orders to be sent from further back.

On May 2, 1915, at 4 a.m., the continuous artillery bombardment gradually stopped since yesterday afternoon, and the entire position fell into silence. The sky was slightly bright, and the clouds and smoke produced by the continuous artillery bombardment gradually dissipated. The sparse starlight appeared in the night sky at dawn.

This calm did not last long. At 5 a.m., three red signal flares suddenly rose from the southern horizon, and the red streaming light seemed very eye-catching and strange in the air.

The sky suddenly lit up, and thousands of cannons suddenly roared like mountains and seas, and fire lights crossed the sky and flew towards the Russian position in the north. Immediately afterwards, balls of fire lights rose up on the enemy's position, and the explosion sounded like a trembling sound. The fire light shone red in the air, as if it was burning.

The German and Austrian coalition's full-line counterattack in Galicia officially started.

The Austro-Hungarian army concentrated 12 150mm heavy artillery regiments and 32 105mm field artillery regiments on the front lines of Bohemia and Galicia. In addition, the huge artillery cluster composed of artillery units belonging to the divisions had a total of 1,362 artillery types, which began with a terrifying artillery bombardment carried out by the unprecedented artillery density. The Russian army on the eastern front had never experienced such fierce firepower. The shallow trenches built by the Russian army that did not meet the standards of the Western Front were razed to the ground in large patches, and the thunderbolts became the god of death of the Russian infantry in the trenches, while the Austrian super-heavy cannons turned the Russian army's solid support points into powder one by one.

The dense shells fell on the opposite position, destroying everything they encountered. The rising black smoke quickly gathered into a ball, covering the Russian position in a black fog. Only the flames after the shells exploded can pass through the black fog.

The earth was beating rapidly, and the rolling heat waves spread around the ground. The whistling shells seemed to fly towards the Russian positions with the grim smile of death. The Russian artillery positions discovered by air reconnaissance in advance were destroyed one by one under the fierce artillery fire.

Amid the roar of artillery, countless infantry rushed out of the Austrian position, and while the Russian army was suppressed by artillery, they waved their engineer shovels. The jingling sounds sounded, and the soldiers didn't care about hiding and ran forward to fill the craters. The dense bomb explosions covered the sounds made by the busy crowd, causing black fog to block the Russians' vision on the position.

The violent shelling continued and began to extend forward.

The roar of motors sounded on the front positions, and a wave of dust rose from the ground. A long line of tanks and armored vehicles climbed over the low hillside and began to advance to the Russian positions. The tanks in front brought out yellow dust in the sky, covering the chariots behind and the infantry following them for charge, and nothing could be seen in the blur.

These armored combat vehicles crossed the open ground in front of the Russian position, and braved the enemy's guns and bullets without any scruples. The steel chain rails easily crushed or tore up the barbed wire in front of the enemy's position, and soon broke into the forefront of the Russian position.

The tanks crossed the Russian trenches without any scruples and continued to advance, firing at the Russian army's still resisting with synchronous machine guns or small-caliber artillery.

However, those wheeled armored vehicles could not cross the trench and could only move continuously along the edge of the trench. The armored machine gun tower turned and swept a string of bullets to the Russians who were emerging from the position.

The infantry followed behind the chariots and threw the firewood bales they carried into the trenches. The trenches were quickly filled up. The armored chariots pressed the firewood and crossed the trenches. Groups of infantry appeared behind the chariots, constantly pulling the trigger of the rifle, and hitting a bullet in front.

Faced with the "steel monster" that could not be penetrated, the Russians quickly collapsed. The Russian soldiers shouted and jumped out of the trench and ran back desperately. However, most of them were knocked to the ground by dense rain of bullets fired from tanks or armored vehicles.

Rakowski climbed up from the ground, hid behind the chariot with a rifle and headed towards the enemy's position. He heard the sound of gunfire and various shouts from his comrades. Whether anyone was injured or killed was no longer concerned about these. He found that behind these armored vehicles was a good place to avoid gunfires, but occasionally poked out his body and shot it out.

A Russian soldier jumped out of the trench in front, and a tank ripped out loud and roaring overhead, and machine guns and large and small artillery shells kept drilling into the trench, causing the Russians inside to collapse. They discarded their weapons and howled like beasts, and rolled and crawled to escape backwards.
Chapter completed!