Dragon Clan: Lu Mingfei from All Quiet on the Western Front - Chapter 42: The Fall of Fort Douaumont

Chapter 43: The Fall of Fort Douaumont (Two in One)

Lu Mingfei and Paul walked cautiously down a long dark tunnel. The stone walls around the tunnel were freezing cold, and the footsteps were particularly clear in the silence, and every step seemed to remind them of the unknown ahead.

The sound of the shells exploding outside the fortress was deafening. When the shells hit the fortress, the whole fortress was shaking slightly, and the dust on the wall fell. The interval between the shells exploding was terrifyingly quiet, with only their breathing and heartbeats echoing in their ears.

The tunnel was dark and deep. Lu Mingfei and his companions walked for an unknown amount of time before finally reaching a heavy iron door. Lu Mingfei used his sickle-weasel to sense that there were fifteen people inside the door, scattered in different corners.

Lu Mingfei made a few gestures to Paul and the others behind him, indicating which direction each person was in. He also made a few more gestures to indicate which direction Paul and the others should attack.

When Paul and the others saw Lu Mingfei's gesture, they all nodded to show that they understood. A tense atmosphere filled the air.

"Attack!" Lu Mingfei shouted and kicked the door open. The iron door slammed against the wall with a loud bang. The moment the door opened, the gun in his hand started firing. He kept pulling the trigger and the bolt, and in a few seconds, he fired all five bullets in the gun. Each bullet hit a French soldier accurately. Blood splattered on the wall, and the soldiers fell to the ground.

At the moment Lu Mingfei opened fire, Paul and his men also rushed into the room and fired in the direction Lu Mingfei had indicated. Gunshots rang out, shell casings jingled on the floor, and the air was filled with the smell of gunpowder.

Paul and his men's shooting skills were not as accurate as Lu Mingfei's. Their hasty shooting only knocked down seven people, and three French soldiers were still alive.

The French soldiers had never expected that someone would break through the front line and get into Fort Douaumont. They watched their companions fall down one after another, and frantically tried to pick up the rifles at hand to fight back.

"Surrender! Or die!" Lu Mingfei shouted at the French soldiers in a slightly accented French, pointing his empty gun at them. Under the dim light, the dark shadow of the muzzle looked particularly terrifying.

Lu Mingfei did not stay in Champagne for so long in vain. There were many French civilians in the camp behind Champagne who did not escape. Lu Mingfei learned a lot of daily French when dealing with those French civilians.

When the French soldiers heard Lu Mingfei's words and the black muzzles of their guns pointed at them, they all dropped their weapons and raised their hands in surrender. Despair and fear flashed in their eyes, and some even collapsed on the ground, losing the will to resist.

Lu Mingfei and his men forced the French soldiers to an empty room and locked them all in. They did not send anyone to watch the French soldiers, but just locked the door tightly. They were short of manpower, and if they left someone to watch the prisoners, it would be even more stretched.

After locking the French soldiers into the room, they continued to move forward. The tunnel became narrower and darker, and Lu Mingfei could hear the rapid breathing of himself and his teammates. When they reached a staircase, they heard the rumbling of cannons above their heads, and the sound of empty shells being ejected from the barrel.

Lu Mingfei sensed that the strongest firepower of Fort Douaumont was above him - the turret of the 155mm heavy artillery, where four French soldiers were operating the heavy artillery to fire. Every time the heavy artillery fired, the floor would vibrate slightly and dust would fall from the ceiling.

He led Paul and the others up the stairs carefully. The roar of the heavy artillery completely covered the sound of their footsteps. Every step seemed to be on the surface of a drum, and their heartbeats accelerated with each step.

When Lu Mingfei kicked open the turret door, pointed his gun at them and shouted "Don't move!", the French gunners whose faces were blackened by smoke realized that the Prussians had already broken in.

They were so scared by Lu Mingfei's gun that they dared not move. They were pushed by Lu Mingfei to the room where the French soldiers were imprisoned. The strongest firepower of Fort Douaumont was completely silenced.

When Lu Mingfei and his men were escorting the gunners downstairs, they happened to see the French soldiers who had been locked up in the room before break open the door and run into another underground passage.

"Damn it, leave someone to watch them!" Lu Mingfei quickly left one person in the team to watch the gunners. He originally wanted to lock up the gunners somewhere randomly, but now it seems that someone must watch them.

Lu Mingfei's sickle-tailed beast locked onto the fleeing French soldiers and followed them underground. The tunnel was winding, the air was filled with dampness and mold, and the stone slabs on the ground were slippery because they had not been cleaned for a long time.

Soon, those French soldiers ran to an empty space, which was the location of the French barracks. Lu Mingfei sensed many heartbeats in the barracks, at least more than fifty.

Lu Mingfei lowered his body and followed closely behind the French soldiers, being careful not to make any noise. Paul and the other team members behind him also quickly adjusted their formation to ensure that no corner was missed.

The lights in the barracks were dim, with only a few yellow oil lamps flickering in the corners. This was once a resting place for French soldiers, but now it has become a potential battlefield.

Lu Mingfei held his breath, and after his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he could vaguely see the fleeing French soldiers trying to wake up their companions. The soldiers on the beds began to turn over, asking vague questions, and some had already reached for their guns.

"Action now!" Lu Mingfei ordered softly and quickly made gestures to assign tasks. They had to eliminate those French soldiers before they were fully awake.

Paul and Hill each led a team and quietly went around the two sides of the barracks to form a siege. Lu Mingfei aimed his gun at one of the soldiers who had woken up and was about to pick up the rifle. He knew that time was running out. If the situation could not be quickly controlled, this would become their burial place.

"Surrender! Otherwise you will be killed without mercy!" Lu Mingfei shouted in French again, his voice echoing in the empty barracks. As his voice fell, Paul and Hill's team opened fire at the same time, and the accurate shooting made those French soldiers who picked up guns and tried to resist fall down quickly.

The gunshots were deafening in the small space, and the shells bounced on the ground with a crisp sound. Blood splattered on the bed and walls, and the air was filled with the smell of gunpowder and blood.

The remaining French soldiers were in chaos, raising their hands in fear, and some even knelt on the ground begging for mercy. Under the light, their faces looked extremely pale, and sweat and blood mixed together and flowed down their cheeks. However, many people still fled from the barracks to deeper places in the fortress.

Lu Mingfei raised his gun and shot and killed five fleeing French soldiers in a row, but a few still slipped away and escaped.

Lu Mingfei quickly scanned the surroundings and confirmed that there were no other threats, then ordered the surrendered soldiers to be gathered together. Their eyes were filled with fear and despair, and they dared not make any moves to resist.

"Lock them all up, and leave two people to guard them." Lu Mingfei did not panic when he saw several French soldiers escape. He calmly gave orders while checking his weapons. He knew that this operation had gone much smoother than expected, but every step forward was full of unknown dangers.

He couldn't believe that there were only so few people in this fortress. Lu Mingfei realized that this was just the beginning and greater challenges were still ahead.

"Hans, can we really get out alive?" Paul whispered, with a complicated light in his eyes. He knew that this question might be too heavy, but he still needed an answer.

"We must get out alive." Lu Mingfei answered firmly and patted Paul on the shoulder, "Not only for ourselves, but also for those brothers who fight with us." They continued to move forward, taking every step with extreme caution.

The depths of the fortress seemed endless, and the winding passages were like a huge maze that could become their grave at any time. Finally, they came to a more spacious underground hall with several thick stone pillars supporting the high ceiling.

This was obviously an important command center. Lu Mingfei sensed that there were more people active inside, at least nearly a hundred people. They probably had received the report from the French soldiers who had just escaped.

Lu Mingfei heard the sound of countless bullets being loaded, but what was a little strange was why these French soldiers did not defend on top of the fortress but instead hid at the bottom of the fortress.

However, Lu Mingfei did not think about this issue in detail. He was now a little conflicted about whether to retreat. There were only seven people left in his team, and the other three were guarding the prisoners on top, so the ratio was seven to one hundred.

Lu Mingfei didn't think that the seven of them could survive a battle with a hundred people in such a small environment. Soon, the question that Lu Mingfei had not thought about in detail before, why all the French soldiers were hiding below instead of defending above, was answered.

A terrifying roar spread from the top of the fortress to the underground, the lights in the hall were extinguished, dust began to rise in the hall, and the whole fortress was shaking violently.

Lu Mingfei and his men at the bottom of the fortress had their ears ringing from the huge explosion. They couldn't imagine what kind of impact the French soldiers stationed above would have to endure. No wonder they all had to hide at the bottom.

Although the Prussian army's terrifying 420mm cannon failed to penetrate the concrete roof of Fort Douaumont, it still made the fortress feel shaky.

The French soldiers were afraid that the roof would collapse at any time, and the huge explosion would have a huge impact on their physical and mental health, so they all hid underground and sent people to take turns to operate the cannons and machine guns.

Lu Mingfei heard a violent cough coming from the dim basement, and realized that this was a great opportunity.

"You stay here." As soon as he finished speaking, before Paul and the others could react, Lu Mingfei bent down and jumped into the basement. For Paul and the others, they couldn't do anything in a completely dark environment, but darkness was Lu Mingfei's home turf.

Lu Mingfei jumped into the basement, closed his eyes and listened carefully to the heartbeats around him, as well as the heavy and panicked breathing of the French soldiers. Every breath was like a pulse signal on the radar, drawing a clear map of the enemy's distribution in his mind.

"Bang!" A gunshot rang out, and the sound of a heartbeat disappeared from Lu Mingfei's detection. In the dark space, the muzzle fire briefly illuminated a terrified face, and then quickly returned to darkness.

The already panicked French soldiers became even more panicked after hearing the gunshots, and their footsteps sounded chaotically, like headless flies running around. Lu Mingfei immediately changed his position after firing a shot, and another gunshot was heard, and another life was lost.

Lu Mingfei changed his position every time he fired a shot. The French soldiers could not figure out Lu Mingfei's position at all from the gunshots coming from all directions, but they did not dare to shoot casually for fear of accidentally injuring friendly forces. Fear spread rapidly in the darkness, oppressing them to the point that they could hardly breathe.

"Light the lights! Light the lights!" a French officer shouted anxiously. A French soldier next to him heard the shouting and quickly took out a match from his pocket and lit it.

At the moment the match was lit, a bullet pierced the palm of his hand holding the match, and the match fell to the ground and went out instantly. The French soldier covered his palm and wailed in pain. Blood gushed out from between his fingers and dripped onto the floor, making a creepy sound.

At this time, a strange chanting sounded, which had a strange sense of oppression, like a whisper from the depths of hell. A French soldier could not stand the wailing and chanting in his ears, his eyes were red, his face was crazy, and he fired randomly around. The gunshots were like the roar of a wild beast, echoing in the small space.

The Spirit of Words·Jun Yan.

"Bang!!!" A huge explosion erupted from among the French soldiers, and the flames engulfed more than a dozen French soldiers at once. The fierce flames illuminated the entire basement, and the painful wails filled the entire space. The soldiers engulfed by the flames rolled on the ground, trying to put out the fire on their bodies, but it was all in vain.

Some French soldiers who were not affected by the explosion were also driven crazy by the sudden explosion and fired wildly around them. Bullets flew around in the narrow space, hitting the walls, ceilings and their own companions, causing chaos.

Lu Mingfei leaned against the wall outside the basement and panted heavily. The long-term use of the Word Spirit and several fierce battles had almost exhausted his physical strength. The Lord Flame just now completely drained his physical strength. His forehead was covered with cold sweat, and his breathing was rapid and heavy.

He fumbled around in his pocket, trying to find a cigarette to light, but couldn't find one. He suddenly remembered that his addiction to smoking had been getting worse recently, and the cigarettes in his pocket had long been smoked, and he felt irritated.

At this time, a lit cigarette was handed over to him. It was Hill, and he and Paul sat down around him. Hill's face was full of anxiety and worry, but more of it was admiration for Lu Mingfei.

Lu Mingfei took the cigarette from Hill and said nothing. He listened to the gunshots, wailing and shouting in the basement. The firelight reflected his face, and the smoke filled the air around him, making his face look a little blurry.

Gradually, the sounds in the basement stopped, but Lu Mingfei felt that they were still lingering in his ears. Those painful cries and desperate wails seemed to have become a shadow in his mind, lingering.

The fort shook violently again as another 420mm shell landed on Fort Douaumont. The entire underground space seemed to collapse, dust fell from the ceiling, and the vibration made it difficult to stand.

"Go and put up the signal flag to tell the artillery to stop firing. We have won." Lu Mingfei's voice was hoarse and tired, as if he had used up all his strength. Although he was telling the news of victory, his voice did not contain any joy, only endless fatigue.

Hill heard Lu Mingfei's order and said nothing. He immediately climbed to the top of the fortress of Fort Douaumont and waved the signal flag belonging to Prussia. The wind whistled in his ears and the flag fluttered in the wind.

Fort Douaumont falls.

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