Unlike theughter and cheers in Austrsia, the situation inside Russia could only be described as miserable.


    Miserable, very miserable, extremely miserable, unbearably miserable.


    Ever since Archduke Nichs was relieved of his position as Russian Commander-in-Chief, chaos ensued inside Russia: the military, the people, the government, and the royalty all in disarray.


    Never mind the vast capability gap between Archduke Nichs and Nichs II, Nichs II''sck of importance for the position of the Commander-in-Chief alone had doomed Russia to its current chaos.


    Compared to Archduke Nichs, who would have loved to stay in the General Staff headquarters every single day, Nichs II appeared much moreid-back, only spending one hour daily on military affairs.


    One hour to decide the life and death of millions of Russian soldiers on the front line, plus the input from the Empress and Rasputin, led to the Russian army being incapable of receiving unified nning from the General Staff, and now the front line forces were in a state of chaos.


    Without orders from the General Staff, the frontline forces had no idea what to do next.


    Wanting tounch an attack but receiving no orders from the General Staff, themanders of various army groups did not dare to make decisions on their own.


    However, contracting defenses and seeing logistical supplies from the rear dwindling, the original canned goods and grains from Austrsia had mostly been reced by coarse grains and rye.


    Weapons and equipment had be diverse: the standard rifles sold by Austrsia to Russia had been reced by various old hunting rifles in logistical departments and then transported to the frontline forces.


    In just one week since Nichs II took over as Russia''s Commander-in-Chief, the level of decay in Russia''s logistics department had escted.


    More importantly, during that week, Russia had already experienced three aircraft crash incidents.


    And the root cause of those three crashes was that all three aircraft were missing some parts during takeoff.


    Yes, it''s just that outrageous. Russia''s few advanced weapons had already been dismantled by logistical officers colluding with other forces, with some parts removed and secretly sold.


    Even the fewer than 20 regrly used aircraft faced this fate, let alone those stored in warehouses awaiting new pilots.


    The frontline armymanders had sent multiple telegrams to the General Staff inquiring why the weapons they received were mostly Russian-made, or even old hunting rifles, rather than new equipment from Austrsia.


    Unfortunately, the single hour Nichs II spent on military affairs wasn''t enough for him to see themanders'' questions.


    These inquiring telegrams were mainly handled by Rasputin, who naturally destroyed them after receiving bribes from some capitalists and logistical officers.


    Even more outrageous, some logistical officers sold Russian weapons and equipment to Germany at a low price.


    If it weren''t for the Russian army''s inability tounch an attack due to theck of weapons and equipment, they would have discovered through their captures that a small number of East German forces were equipped with weapons from Austrsia, which were intended as support for Russia.


    After the problems with Russian aircraft, German aircraft began to take off inrge numbers, seeking and bombing Russian troops hidden in their positions.


    When Russian aircraft had no issues, the quality of German aircraft could not match that of Russian aircraft, and there was a noticeable gap inbat capabilities.


    Two German aircraft could barely hold their own against a single Russian aircraft and could not achieve ultimate victory.


    But now, when Russian pilots go into battle, they face life-threatening danger; they could die at the hands of enemy pilots, or, more likely, at the hands of their own country''s logistical officers and capitalists.


    This has led to a unique phenomenon in the Russian Air Force: before carrying out missions, pilots conduct extremely detailed inspections of their own aircraft, almost to the point ofpletely disassembling them andparing each part individually.


    By the end of October 1915, on the Russian front line.


    "Colonel Sergei, when will our logistical supplies arrive?" General Alexseyev of the Southwest Army urgently asked.


    The Russian Southwestern Front Army had been waiting for supplies from the rear for three days, and hundreds of thousands of troops were in desperate need of logistics.


    If supplies did not arrive within three days, some army groups would starve, and it would even affect the entire Southwestern Front Army.


    "The logistics department replied that the supplies should arrive before the start of next month. Heavy rain near Minsk has hindered the arrival of the logistics forces," Colonel Sergei quickly replied.


    "Damn it. Tell the logistics department that if supplies don''t arrive in three days, they will have to face the soldiers'' anger. If they send more of that ck bread and coarse grain, I''ll personally go to Saint Petersburg and inquire.


    The soldiers haven''t seen Austrsian canned goods for over ten days; they need to eat meat to replenish their strength." The exnation still couldn''t quell Alekseyev''s anger.


    During the time when Archduke Nichs served as Commander-in-Chief, there were also various logistical problems in Russia, but at least the soldiers'' food received basic protection.


    Not to mention, they often had meat. Whether it was Russian beef and mutton or Austrsian canned goods, they could all provide a good boost to the soldiers'' strength.


    Ever since Nichs II took over as Commander-in-Chief, logistics support for the Southwestern Front Army had be scarcer, evolving from initial shortages of weapons and ammunition to nowcking even food.


    The hard-earned food supplies were ck bread and coarse grains, some of which were too tough to bite.


    Ravenous Russian soldiers had started catching rats in the trenches, which was not a good sign, despite the abundance of rats there.


    "Yes!" Colonel Sergei had just nodded in response when a piercing rm suddenly sounded.


    Woo ~ woo ~


    General Alexseyev''s face immediately changed, and he quickly ordered: "Damn it, German nes areing. Order the soldiers to move quickly to the air-raid shelter."


    Before he could finish his sentence, Alexseyev went straight to the air-raid shelter. During this recent period, the Russian army had gained experience in dealing with German airnes. Upon hearing the air-raid warning, they didn''t hesitate and went straight to the shelters.


    Being one of Russia''s few high-ranking officers, Alekseyev naturally cherished his life and hurried to the sturdy air-raid shelter near the General Staff.


    This was a solid air-raid shelter set up for the headquarters and the General Staff, which was much sturdier than the ordinary shelters above the trenches.


    Army Group Headquarters often built such air-raid shelters to shelter theirmander-in-chief and staff officers.


    Soon, the German aircraft dropped bombs one after another, exploding in Russian trenches and nearby positions.


    Hearing the nearby explosions and tremors, Alekseyev ordered: "Contact the aviation units, dispatch fighter aircraft to bring down these damned Germans. Don''t spare machine gun bullets, use all firepower, let these damned Germans know our power."


    Theoretically, rifles and machine guns are capable of hitting airnes now. The Russian army had already managed to bring down German nes with rifles and machine guns before, which was why Alekseyev decided to counterattack against German nes.


    As the previous main target of the Germans, Russia''s ten or so aircraft were all deployed in areas close to the Southwestern Army Group, which allowed Alekseyev to mobilize these nes urgently.


    It took more than half an hour for the Russian nes to arrive in a hurry. By this time, the German nes had basically finished bombing Russian positions, but faced with the pursuit of Russian nes, they had no choice but to confront them head-on due to the performance gap in airnes.


    There were about 20 German nes, and just 15 Russian nes.


    Although outnumbered, thete-arriving Russian nes quickly gained the advantage in aerialbat. In one-on-one or two-on-one situations, Russian nes could basically take the upper hand and even find opportunities to deal heavy blows to German nes.


    In this era without radar, airbat entirely relied on the naked eye for observation. Various weapons alsocked tracking capabilities, relying solely on the aircraft''s performance and the pilot''s skill.


    After all, airnes were new weapons, and neither Germany nor Russia had delved deeply into their research. German pilots were more capable and better trained than Russian pilots, who were hurriedly trained, while German pilots had been training for a long time.


    However, the gap in the pilots'' skills was not that significant and could bepensated by the disparity between the two sides'' nes.


    Although Russia only had the first-generation Austrsian military aircraft, their actual performance had already surpassed that of the nes in the middle of World War I in history.


    Due to the influence of the Austrsian airships in this world, the development of airnes by various countries was slower than in history.


    As a result, a noticeable gap emerged between German and Russian nes, which was enough to have a significant impact on airbat.


    After all, Arthur had attracted more than one-third of the world''s aerospace power talents in order to develop airnes.


    In terms of aircraft research, Arthur could confidently say that no country had yet surpassed Austrsia, or even came close to being on par with it.


    Looking at the current technical level of German nes, given another 1 to 2 years, they might be able to match or even surpass the first-generation military aircraft in performance.


    However, this war would not give the Germans that much time. At least in World War I, the first-generation military aircraft owned by Britain, France, and Russia would still have no difficulty maintaining an advantage over German nes.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    At present, aerialbat was rtively simple, mainly relying on the machine guns mounted on the nes for strafing. Pilots didn''t have to performplicated maneuvers either.


    This air battlested for more than half an hour before hastily ending. The Germans lost half their nes, while the remaining nes quickly fled, with two more being shot down by pursuing Russian nes.


    On the Russian side, they lost three nes to the Germans, and more than five were damaged.


    After some simple repairs, these damaged nes could be put back into the war, provided there were enough spare parts.


    Although Russia possessed the technology of first-generation military aircraft and the ability to repair them, it was still difficult for them toplete the repairs on their own, given their current situation.


    Even if they purchased parts from Austrsia, those parts would not necessarily be used on these nes.