It was almost dark, and the town of Snaye, where the Austrian Eastern Front Command was located.

At the end of April, the air was filled with cold and humid atmosphere. The town seemed very quiet. It was located on the east side of the Tenica Mountain in Moravia. The Tisa River slowly flowed southward about 6 kilometers northwest of it. Outside the town, there is a castle, which is the property owned by the Slovak nobles Von Sutner family.

At present, the Duke of Sutner and his family are almost all in Vienna, and Lee Haydn's Austria-Hungarian Army Eastern Front General Command is located here.

The entire castle and the temporarily raised lights around it lit up. Fully armed guards stood at the gates and some side doors of the castle. Several other teams of patrolmen were walking back and forth around the castle. Their figures appeared among the trees and disappeared.

Two Mercedes cars drove over from a distance, stopped at a checkpoint about 200 meters away from the gate, and were released and drove directly outside the castle gate.

Colonel Schroer, the liaison officer of the headquarters, got out of the car and led a colonel in a German uniform into the castle.

Colonel Hoffmann came to the Austrian headquarters as the liaison officer of General Hindenburg. During this period, the performance of the Austrians made the Germans angry. They did not resist at all and put the Russians into Galicia, exposing the flanks of the entire Silesia and East Prussia to the Russians' attacks.

Hoffman brought a letter from Falkenhein to Kant, but unexpectedly, the chief of staff of the Austrian army was in Vienna. Colonel Schroer told him that the entire front-line army of the Austrian army was commanded by the Crown Prince Istria, which surprised Hoffman. He always thought that the entire Austrian-Hungarian army was commanded by Baron Hötsendorf, and the Crown Prince, just a symbol like Hindenburg in East Prussia, was in charge of the actual command in the hands of Chief of Staff Rudendolf.

The situation of the Austrian army was different from what he thought. The Crown Prince seemed to be the real leader, and Condra seemed to have lost command.

So he changed his mind and asked to see the Austro-Hungarian crown prince.

Colonel Schroer led him to the office of Lieutenant General Stelz, the slightly fat Austrian general, who seemed very enthusiastic, but he spoke more like a diplomat. Colonel Hoffman showed him the letter written by General Falkenhein, and Stelz seemed a little surprised.

"Falkenhein wants to send some consultants to the Austrian General Staff?" asked the lieutenant general.

"That's what he meant. He felt that the entire Austrian army had problems with combat and command." Hoffman said.

"What do you think?" Stelz said staring at Hoffman.

"General Hindenburg thought it was extremely inappropriate to do this, and so far, the Austro-Hungarian army had no major problems in combat, but sometimes surprised us." Hoffman said that Hindenburg's speech was actually his idea, and there was no reason to anger the Austrians at this time, and Falkenhein's approach would definitely arouse their strong resentment.

"That's good, it seems that we still have the possibility of cooperation." Stelz breathed a sigh of relief, and he put Falkenhein's letter aside. "It is impossible to pretend that this has not happened before. It is impossible to let the German military adviser command on our behalf. There is no need to let the crown prince know, so as to save him from getting angry and causing trouble for the next step of cooperation."

"Okay, I'll follow your advice." Hoffman sighed, "I want to rush to see His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."

Stelz agreed, and then walked upstairs in small steps.

"Come with me." The lieutenant general came back soon.

Grand Duke Istria was sitting behind a huge Italian-style desk in an office room on the third floor of the castle. The lights in the room were not very bright. There was a desk lamp on the desk, which was also on. On the wall behind the Grand Duke was hung a landscape oil painting that seemed to be a lively market in Vienna. It was strange, that is, a portrait of the Austro-Hungarian Emperor or his wife Princess Erin.

The room is large and the beautiful ceiling is also high, but there is a light tied to the gold-distilled candlestick above. On the wall next to the door is a huge Eastern European military map centered on Poland.

"Welcome to Moravia." The Grand Duke of Istria was a little thin and looked tired. He stretched out his cold hand and greeted Hoffman.

Hoffman sat on the sofa and slowly and carefully narrated to the real ruler of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the plan of the General Staff of the Eastern Front led by Rudendolf.

"General Hindenburg hopes that you can attack Galicia as soon as possible to cooperate with our operations on the Eastern Front." Hoffman said at last.

"It's not how we cooperate with you, but what kind of division of labor." The crown prince raised his head, as if correcting some of Hoffman's wording errors.

"Divide of labor?" Hoffman asked, "What method?"

"Do you want to hear my plan?" asked the crown prince.

Hoffman nodded.

"If you don't listen to my advice, we will fight each other. We will release several passes in the Carpathians, put two Russian armies into the Hungarian plains, and eat them." The crown prince walked to the front of the map, took a wooden stick in his hand and gestured on the map.

"Eat? Two Russian armies?" Hoffman was surprised. What surprised him even more was the calmness of the Austrian crown prince. It seemed that he did not take the three Russian armies on the Carpathian line seriously at all, but was talking about a very common thing.

"No problem," said the Grand Duke of Istria. "If you are willing to act according to my plan, then the two sides cooperate..." The stick in his hand drew a large arc on the map, "We will put all the Russian troops in Poland and Galicia in it."

There were 2 million Russian troops. Hoffman opened his mouth wide but said nothing.

The Crown Prince continued to explain his entire idea in front of the map. Later, Hoffman was attracted by this bold and wonderful idea, so he stood in front of the map and discussed it with the Crown Prince. The Grand Duke of Istria had a strange idea, but it was very suitable for Hoffman's appetite. He was to divide the Russian army as a whole, and then concentrate his superior forces to annihilate them, but turned a blind eye to some strong defenses fortresses and cities.

According to the great duke's ideas, many places in Silesia, Hungary and even East Prussia have no troops to defend, and the Russians can easily break through the defense there.

"Your Excellency, as you think, there are huge risks." Hoffman pointed out several points on the map. "The Russians can easily occupy these areas, such as the two Russian armies in the Carpathians, and together with the Romanians, they may capture Budapest."

"So what? We ate their four armies on the front lines of Silesia and Galicia. What can they do if they get half of Hungary? Do you want to stay in Hungary? I'm afraid it's impossible to retreat at that time," said Li Haidn indifferently. "If you don't care about them, the complex mountains of the Carpathians will slow them down. Our further goal is to attack the north and south, capture the Brest-Warren line, and cut off all the Russian retreat routes in the entire Polish region." He made a pliers with his hands.

"It's hard for me to imagine your army being so strong." Hoffman asked the last question.

"Don't worry about this. I admit that my army is not as tenacious as the German soldiers when they are in adversity, but if they catch prisoners, they will never be slower than you." Li Haidn said with a smile.
Chapter completed!