When Lieutenant General Andrew made a surprise attack on Cluj, Lieutenant General Fereitt, the commander of Army Group North (where Army Group North and Army Group Center were combined) in charge of pinning down the frontal battlefield (for ease of command, Army Group North and Army Group Center were combined here), was already preparing for the next day's counteroffensive.

Looking at the division commanders who were summoned in the middle of the night, Lieutenant General Fereit, who did not know that the enemy was going to flee at the moment, talked about the plan for the next day. "We will launch a counteroffensive early tomorrow morning, and the task of this counteroffensive is not to give the enemy the energy to send troops back for reinforcements. So you must be entangled with the enemy and not let them get out. As long as Lieutenant General Andrew takes Cluj, then they are rats in a tin bucket and there is no place to hide. ”

Of course, Major General Lakauf's insistence bought a certain amount of time for Lieutenant General Van Sten's evacuation. The next day, as soon as Army Group North attacked, it felt wrong.

"The enemy's defenses are a little too weak, aren't they?"

Looking at the summary of the battle report in front of him, Lieutenant General Fereit was a little puzzled, but he didn't think the problem was too big.

"It seems that troops have been dispatched, and a message has been sent to Lieutenant General Andrew asking him to be careful of the enemy's reinforcements."

After speaking, His Excellency the Lieutenant General gave another order. "Send a message to the troops, let them drag the enemy in front of them, don't give the opportunity for the enemy to draw troops."

Major General Lakauf's insistence on Cluj confused the two Romanian generals, who both thought that the troops drawn from the Austro-Hungarian Ninth Army were reinforcements. However, as time passed, Lieutenant General Vansten's intentions were gradually revealed.

"What, the enemy did not appear?"

Andrew was taken aback by the news that Major General Doles, commander of the 2nd Division, who had arranged for the defense of the enemy's reinforcements, and his first thought was that the enemy had bypassed the positions of the 2nd Division.

"Immediately send a telegram to the various units asking if there is any situation of a large-scale enemy force being found."

Soon, however, the troops did not find the enemy.

"It's strange where the enemy reinforcements have gone."

Lieutenant General Andrew was distressed by the delay in the appearance of enemy reinforcements.

"Could there be some conspiracy?"

The staff officer in charge of the operational map said casually.

"What conspiracy is more important than Cluj, does the enemy want to watch his soldiers besieged?"

"Soldier...... Besieged ......"

Lieutenant General Andrew, who had been thinking hard, suddenly thought that more important than Cluj was the Ninth Army itself.

"It's not good, the enemy wants to escape."

Lieutenant General Andrew, who had figured it out, immediately ordered. "Immediately send a telegram to Lieutenant General Fereyt saying that the Cluj line has failed to find enemy reinforcements and that the Austro-Hungarian Ninth Army wants to escape."

The radio waves soon shifted to Army Group North.

Holding a telegram from Lieutenant General Andrew, Fereit muttered to himself. "Lieutenant General Van Sten, you are really bold, and you gave up Cluj directly."

He immediately believed Lieutenant General Andrew's judgment. According to the information obtained from the attack of the troops below, the enemy had withdrawn four divisions of troops last night, and it now appears that the enemy was arranging a plan for retreat.

Lieutenant General Fereit looked at the location of the enemy's Ninth Army on the map and preached to himself. "If you want to leave, then you should also leave something as a memento."

After speaking, Lieutenant General Fereit called the communications staff officer. "Now I command."

In the pen of the communications staff officer, the order of Lieutenant General Fereitt was revealed. "At the moment all the troops are immediately entangled in the enemy in front of them, and they cannot be given a chance to escape. 27 November, Fereit. ”

The order of Lieutenant General Fereit immediately made the separation of the Austro-Hungarian army much more difficult, and a large number of Romanian troops were entangled with their opponents, not giving them the slightest chance of separation. This forced Lieutenant General Van Sten to make the painful decision of abandoning part of the army.

However, in the face of Lieutenant General Vansten's severed tail survival, neither Lieutenant General Fereitt nor Lieutenant General Andrew had much to do. The main thing is that the enemy decisively decisively decided that they did not have much time to make arrangements.

Lieutenant General Van Sten's decisiveness was difficult for Lieutenant General Sam of the Tenth Army to accept.

"Damn Vansten, damn it."

Lieutenant General Sam's roar resounded throughout the command, and the officers of the command did not dare to step forward and persuade him to be locked up in the war room.

It was all caused by a telegram that had been torn to shreds. If you can piece it together, this is a telegram from Lieutenant General Van Sten of the Ninth Army who decided to abandon Cluj.

On the telegram, Lieutenant General Van Sten expressed his bitterness in abandoning Cluj. In the eyes of Lieutenant General Sam, Lieutenant General Sam's judgment that Versten was afraid that he would be in danger of annihilation if he conquered Luge for a long time was caused by Versten's exaggerated assessment of the enemy's strength.

Like I was on the battlefield of Deva and had a new understanding of the Romanian army. These Romanian standing armies were indeed elite enough to compete with the German armies under the direct command of the Empire, but their mobilized forces were far inferior to those in the rest of the Empire. In the past few days of competition with the enemy's Southern Army Group, Lieutenant General Sam firmly controlled the initiative on the battlefield by virtue of his superiority in strength and artillery, and tortured this Romanian elite army unspeakably.

And now he has given up this great situation because of the mistakes of friendly forces, and in the eyes of Lieutenant General Sam, he is very unwilling.

"Crunch"

At this moment, the door to the war room was opened, and the sound of the door opening made Lieutenant General Sam frown. "Didn't you tell you not to come in, don't you think I dare not punish you?"

"It's me, what's wrong with you?"

The man who pushed the door in asked, the familiar voice holding Lieutenant General Sam's anger out of his disturbance.

Lieutenant General Sam, who lit a cigarette to relieve his inner irritability, asked the visitor. "Didn't you go to inspect the troops below, why did you come back so soon?"

"I'm going to go and never come back, are you not going to go out?"

"Why, I'm just angry at Van Sten's cowardly move. Now that I'm normal, you don't have to keep an eye on me, Chief of Staff. ”

In the conversation between the two, the person who came was Lieutenant General Sam's partner, Major General Hans Kohl, Chief of Staff of the Army Group. Major General Hans, who had a popular German name, was born into a military aristocratic family in Austria. Hans Kohl had ample opportunities to display his talents, and he served as a royal bodyguard, company commander and battalion commander of the Austrian 3rd Infantry Regiment, and an operational staff officer, team leader, and deputy chief of operations of the General Staff.

Then World War I broke out and he was transferred to the Fifth Army as Chief of Staff and Sam's partner, and then the two cooperated tacitly and were transferred to the Tenth Army together. Everyone in the army group knew that the anger of Lieutenant General Sam could only be quelled by Chief of Staff Hans.

"Now your anger has been vented, but we need to think about what to do next."

Major General Hans's words calmed Lieutenant General Sam down, and it was indeed necessary to think about the next move.