Chapter 45 Medal ( in )
Lu Mingfei leaned against the cold stone wall of Fort Douaumont, holding a cigarette between his fingers. The smoke drifted gently in the breeze, and his golden eyes flickered in the smoke, like two stars buried in the clouds.
Soon, the cigarette in his mouth burned out, and the cigarette butt drew a red arc in the air and finally fell to the ground. Lu Mingfei stretched out his hand to Xi Er to signal for another one, his fingers trembling slightly in the cold air.
"Corporal, this is the tenth cigarette. We are out of cigarettes." Hill frowned and looked at Lu Mingfei, his eyes full of worry.
Hearing Hill's words, Lu Mingfei also frowned, took a deep breath and exhaled, as if he wanted to spit out all his fatigue.
He looked up at von Brandeis, who was sitting not far away, and said in a hoarse voice, "Hey, do you have any cigarettes?"
Von Brandeis said nothing, but silently took out a cigarette from his pocket, lit it and handed it to Lu Mingfei. The firework flickered faintly in the night.
Lu Mingfei took a deep puff of the cigarette, as if it relieved his splitting headache a little. He closed his eyes and leaned against the wall, thinking about everything he had just experienced.
Not long ago, Lu Mingfei and his men were trying to return to the rear camp with the captives. As soon as they left Fort Douaumont, they saw von Brandeis and his men being shot at by machine guns.
Lu Mingfei opened fire without hesitation to rescue them. The bullets drew silver tracks in the night, accurate and deadly.
Originally, Lu Mingfei and his team planned to go back and reunite with the company, leaving Fort Douaumont to the defense of von Brandeis' company.
But before they had taken two steps, French reinforcements arrived. The 95th Regiment stationed in the village of Douaumont near Fort Douaumont saw the Prussian flag raised on the top of Fort Douaumont and immediately realized that the place had been occupied by the enemy. They hurriedly sent two companies to recapture Fort Douaumont and also sent people to stabilize the machine gun positions on the front line, trying to slow down the Prussian advance and buy time to recapture Fort Douaumont.
Lu Mingfei and his team were forced to retreat to Fort Douaumont and engage in a fierce battle with the French reinforcements. Together with von Brandeis's company, which suffered heavy losses, they only had more than 60 people in total, while the French company outside had more than 200 people. The disparity between the enemy and us was so great that every moment was like walking on the edge of a knife.
He found a path that was not guarded by the French army, and asked Paul to report the situation here, while the rest of the people stayed to defend Fort Douaumont.
To be honest, Lu Mingfei and his men were lucky to capture Fort Douaumont. Normally, there were more than 500 soldiers defending Fort Douaumont, but not long ago, Joffre ordered the troops from various forts to fill the front line, leaving only more than 100 people to defend Fort Douaumont. Those who were withdrawn were exhausted in the Corre Forest.
In addition, Joffre's previous order to withdraw artillery also removed all movable small mortars, field guns and other artillery in Fort Douaumont, leaving only the immovable 155mm and 75mm gun platforms.
If it was Fort Douaumont in its heyday, it would be almost impossible for Lu Mingfei and his team of ten to capture it. It would require at least an entire regiment to pay an extremely heavy price to capture it. And this could only be done if no French troops from other lines of defense came to reinforce it.
In fact, as long as the remaining 100 soldiers in Fort Douaumont all stayed at their posts, the possibility of Lu Mingfei and his men breaking in would be minimal. But the French soldiers were too careless and did not expect that someone would break through the front-line positions so quickly and enter Fort Douaumont directly.
At first, von Brandeis was very dissatisfied that a small corporal had broken through Fort Douaumont before him, but when the French troops outside surrounded them, Lu Mingfei's amazing marksmanship and his knowledge of the enemy's position completely convinced him. Under Lu Mingfei's command, they successfully repelled the first round of French attacks.
After the first attack by the two French companies failed, they left behind dozens of corpses and hid in the woods not far away, discussing their next attack.
Lu Mingfei activated the sickle weasel to monitor their movements. The previous battle had exhausted his physical strength and even his mental strength. However, he didn't know when the enemy not far away would attack again, so he had to forcefully use the sickle weasel to detect their movements.
The forced use of Kamaitachi made his head hurt so much that it felt like it was about to split, and he could only relieve the pain by smoking continuously.
Not long after, the French army launched another attack. Lu Mingfei hurriedly asked the others to get ready. The others were exhausted after a series of battles, but they still organized a new round of defense under Lu Mingfei's command. However, this time, due to being too tired, their reaction speed was not as fast as before.
Just when they were about to be unable to withstand the French attack, fierce gunfire suddenly broke out from the woods behind the French army. Lu Mingfei detected that the heartbeats of the French soldiers outside were gradually disappearing, while at the same time a large number of heartbeats were rushing towards Fort Douaumont, but the language those people spoke seemed to be Prussian.
"Reinforcements are coming..." Hearing the familiar language outside, Lu Mingfei finally relaxed.
-
"Your Highness, are you really going to Fort Douaumont in person?" The Crown Prince's adjutant looked worried and his tone was uneasy.
"Of course. I heard that our heroes are trapped in Fort Douaumont. Let's go and bring them back." Prince William said firmly. He was wearing a gorgeous military uniform, his eyes were firm, and he exuded the unique majesty of the royal family. He personally led a battalion of troops and quickly marched towards Fort Douaumont.
The sound of fighting gradually approached, and Prince William and his entourage quickly suppressed all the French troops outside Fort Douaumont. In the smoke, he finally stepped into Fort Douaumont, and the scene in front of him made him frown slightly.
The castle was full of traces of battle, with bullet holes, bloodstains, and broken weapons scattered all over the ground. As soon as Prince William entered the castle, he saw Lu Mingfei leaning against the wall smoking. At this time, Lu Mingfei was exhausted, his golden eyes were dim, his face was full of traces of battle, and the cigarette butt in his hand flickered.
"Half-blood... I should have thought of it earlier..." Prince William muttered to himself, with a complex emotion flashing in his eyes.
Prince William walked towards Lu Mingfei and the others. When Lu Mingfei and the others saw Prince William coming, they all stood up with difficulty and saluted.
"You are all heroes who have made great contributions to the country. There is no need to be so reserved." Prince William said with a smile, his voice full of warmth and appreciation.
"I'm here to commend you." Prince William had already heard Paul's account of what happened here before coming, so he naturally knew who the biggest contributor was.
He took out a box from his body, which contained several second-class Iron Cross medals, and he put them on Paul, Hill and others one by one. The people who were awarded the Iron Cross medals were all excited and flushed, and their hearts were filled with a sense of honor.
Finally, Prince William walked up to Lu Mingfei. Paul and the others all looked at Prince William and Lu Mingfei, expecting what medal Prince William would award to the greatest hero in conquering Fort Douaumont.
“I didn’t expect that there would be mixed-bloods joining the army.” Prince William sighed as he looked at Lu Mingfei’s eyes, whose pupils had turned back to black.
"I have read your information before. You are an orphan. I also guessed that you probably didn't know about the Abraham Treaty made by the Elders, so you joined the army."
"I had prepared a medal of merit for you, and was planning to take you back to Prussia to be publicized as a hero." As he spoke, Prince William took out a box from his pocket, and this time there was only a medal in it.
The medal was magnificent, with a circle of golden eagle emblems on the outside, and the cross arms extending in the middle were coated with sky blue porcelain enamel, which was very eye-catching. There was also a crown at the top where the slings were hung. Everyone around who saw the medal breathed heavily, because it was the Blue Max Medal, which represented the highest military achievement of Prussia. There was no Prussian soldier who did not want this medal, and everyone looked at Lu Mingfei with envy.
But Prince William's next words shocked everyone.
"But now I can't bring you back to Prussia because you are a half-blood. We have hyped you up and made you into a hero. If the Elders knew you were a half-blood, you might be assassinated. I am doing this to protect you."
"What do you mean? That is the honor that Corporal deserves! What Presbyterian Church! You are the future emperor of Prussia, how could you be afraid of others?" Hill shouted in disbelief, his voice full of anger and confusion.
Prince William ignored Hill's shouting and stared at Lu Mingfei, who had been silent since a while ago.
"Even the entire country has no way to fight against the Elders' Council?" Lu Mingfei's voice was low and calm, with complex emotions flashing in his eyes.
"It's not that there is no way to fight against the Council of Elders. No matter how strong the mixed-bloods are, they can't fight against an army of 10,000 people. But the Jews in the Council of Elders control the country's economic arteries. If we take action against them, it will have a huge impact on the domestic economy."
"It's not that we haven't thought about fighting against the Elders. Some mixed-blood families in the country first formed a small organization called the Lionheart Society, which later gradually developed into an organization called the Secret Party, which attracted a large number of mixed-bloods who were unwilling to join the Elders. But in an accident more than ten years ago, all the top leaders of the Secret Party died, and the rest of the Secret Party members either fled to the United States or were absorbed by the Elders."
"Because the Elders signed the Abraham Treaty, they agreed not to participate in the wars of ordinary people, nor to let ordinary people know of their existence, so we have always tolerated them."
Prince William's words were full of helplessness. He knew how unfair these words were to the young corporal in front of him, but the cruelty of reality prevented him from making any more promises.
"You can keep this medal, but you cannot publicize it. I will also promote your military rank, but I will give the credit for capturing Fort Douaumont to someone else. The country needs a hero to boost morale. I hope you understand."
"I understand, but who do you plan to let be the hero?" Lu Mingfei said calmly. Anyway, he had never thought of being a hero.
Prince William glanced at the faces of Paul and the others beside him, and finally his eyes fell on von Brandeis's face.
"Your name is von Brandeis, the noble?"
Von Brandeis nodded blankly.
-
Castelnau's adjutant hurried to Pétain's office but did not see him. He quickly grabbed an officer next to him and asked.
"Where is General Pétain?"
"It's already ten o'clock in the evening. General Pétain should be asleep by now." The officer said, looking at the watch on his wrist.
"But I didn't find General Pétain in his dormitory just now. If you know where General Pétain is, please tell me. This is related to the life and death of France. General Pétain has been appointed as the new commander of Verdun and must go to Verdun immediately to stabilize the situation!" Castelnau's adjutant shouted anxiously.
"Follow me!" Hearing that this was a matter of life and death for France, the officer did not dare to delay and quickly called the adjutant to go out.
The officer drove Castelnau's adjutant at full speed to the entrance of the Grand Hotel at Paris Nord Station.
"General Pétain lives here? Isn't he sixty years old this year?" The adjutant looked at the hotel sign with some disbelief.
"Cough cough cough... General Pétain is in good health..." The officer coughed twice awkwardly and came to the front desk with his adjutant.
"In which room is General Pétain?" the officer asked the landlady standing at the front desk.
"General Pétain is not here." The heavily made-up proprietress yawned in boredom and said casually.
"Please! Please tell us which room General Pétain is in. This concerns the life and death of France!" Before the officer could continue asking, the adjutant rushed to the front desk and shouted anxiously.
"Elisa, this time is really different. This time we have something important to discuss with General Pétain." The officer also shouted.
"Come with me." The proprietress looked at the two anxious faces, reluctantly left the front desk and took them to the door of a room upstairs.
Outside the door of the room was a pair of officer's boots, and next to it was a pair of ladies' small leather shoes.
The adjutant knocked on the door of the room anxiously. After a minute or two, the door opened. A strong man naked in only a pair of shorts opened the door.
"General Pétain, Commander-in-Chief Joffre has appointed you as the new commander of Verdun. Please go to Verdun immediately to stabilize the situation." The adjutant finally breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the man and quickly told Pétain the situation.
Unexpectedly, Pétain just glanced at the adjutant and shouted to the proprietress standing nearby.
"Open a room for him to rest and wait for me for four hours." After saying that, the door slammed shut.
"This..." The adjutant looked at the proprietress and the officer standing next to them. They both spread their hands to show that they were powerless. The adjutant had no choice but to wait for Pétain to finish in the next room. He listened to the sounds coming from Pétain's room with some despair.
Four hours later, the savior of Verdun set out for Verdun.
Sorry, I'm so busy today.
(End of this chapter)
