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"I can't say for sure, but we've at least spotted several instances of Germans secretly crossing the Oder River at night, and others using small boats to smuggle east and west along the coast. If the German residents in the Soviet, American, and British-occupied areas also sense something amiss and start fleeing to even more distant places, hmm..."
"They're not camels, are they? They can't keep running away indefinitely, haha."
As she spoke, Angelina accompanied Griffin as they walked over.
"Hey! Warrant Officer! What do you want with us? To chat about who drank the most at last night's dinner party?"
"I'm just here to help you resolve some old questions." Xixi'an smiled politely. "Look over there, do you notice anything amiss?"
"Hmm?" The place where these people were located was in the suburbs of Berlin. Looking around, the buildings were arranged in a staggered manner, but none of them were complete. They were jagged like a stone forest.
“Look, what’s that?” Angelie quickly noticed the problem—a large, well-proportioned building with almost no structural damage had suddenly appeared there. “I don’t remember there being such a big thing here. Did we just build it? Is it for the imperial citizens who will live here in the future?”
"Haha, you two, come along."
……
As Xixi'an led the two closer to the building, Griffin, whether he was still half asleep or something, relied entirely on Angelie to discover something again.
"Hmm?" She realized that this building was not made of bricks and stones at all. Upon closer inspection, when the wind blew, the outer wall of the building actually floated up like waves, layer upon layer, and even the orderly scaffolding inside the outer wall was vaguely visible.
"What's going on? Is this building inflatable? Supported by canvas? And there's nothing inside?"
"Haha, Lieutenant, you're half right. Come on, let's go inside. What's inside? Take a guess?"
They were led inside, and Angelina and Griffin's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets—this giant canvas scaffolding was supposed to be a residential building? But the sunlight streaming in shone on the steel bases, and looking at that familiar fixed base, it was…
"A...train gun?" she asked incredulously, pressing Xixi'an for an answer. "Hidden a train gun here?"
“The officer I was just talking to already said that disassembling the gun barrels of the railway guns is very convenient and can be done in as little as half an hour.” Xi Xi paused for a moment. “Yesterday, Her Highness Elizabeth called a meeting with many officers to consider how to hide these railway guns in a more appropriate way, given that it is not possible to do so in underground elevator shafts at present.”
“Hmm…this camouflage support can be opened and closed, right?” Angelie looked around. “So, the plan you came up with is to have the train gun stay in this ‘building’ during the day, and then fire at night when the enemy’s visibility is not superior, right?”
"Don't you think the Soviets' idea of using telephone poles to disguise artillery positions was brilliant? We might not be able to find telephone poles that are only a few hundred millimeters thick, but at least the construction skills honed in Area 11 make such things a piece of cake, right?"
"However, I think there's a flaw in your idea. The Americans and Soviets aren't stupid. A perfectly intact building suddenly appears out of nowhere in Berlin after only a few months... and it's so abruptly located on the outskirts of the city..."
“You’re a little late to the party, haha.” Xixi’an walked up to Angelie with ill intent, bent down, and leaned close to the petite girl’s face. “Of course we should set up more places like this. You should go and take a look around Berlin and the surrounding towns. I think we’ve built at least a dozen ‘buildings’ by now, but they’re all empty inside, unlike here.”
"Ah, of course, in the end this is just a temporary expedient. Our enemies can't be kept in the dark forever. But I think no matter what... they always think they're smarter than us? Let them try to guess which building has our stuff from at least tens of kilometers away, hahahahaha!"
"Wow, what a genius! They've assigned such a smart, cheerful, and generous girl to our team. We're so lucky!" Griffin didn't notice that Angelie was tilting her chin up, staring at him with a jealous look. "She's really worked hard, solving so many problems for us. Is she going to be working her way up to the core command area?"
"Oh? That depends on luck. But Captain, could you please wash up properly when you get up next time? Or at least check your clothes?"
"Huh?" She never expected that Xixi'an would put her hand on the chest pocket of his shirt right in front of Angeli and the soldiers passing by.
The touch of her fingertips on his chest made him feel weak all over, but the young lady wasn't there to tease him; instead, she took out a note from her pocket.
"Hey." Griffin didn't know what was going on, but Angelie was anxious. She watched as Xixi'an took the note away and stomped her feet in anger. She wanted to snatch it back, but after exchanging a glance with Griffin, she shyly turned her back to him, as if she was hiding something from him that she was embarrassed about.
"Uh... haha." After reading it, Xixi'an handed the note back to the captain. "Looks like something quite exciting. Alright, I won't disturb you two. This dark place is actually quite suitable for your situation, hehe."
The warrant officer slipped away. Griffin glanced at the note, then grabbed Angelie, whose face was flushed, and burst into laughter.
"...Dear Griffin, I have a few requests to make: First, you're not allowed to be too nice to other girls anymore; second, you're not allowed to touch me without my permission; third... (a long string of words)... If you don't make any mistakes in the next week, I'll allow you to apply for a separate barracks room for the two of us. As for sharing a bed... we'll see how you behave..."
Chapter 180, Section 250: List of Prey
"Alright comrades, you'll be setting off soon. Next, there are some important things I need you to look at."
As noon approached, Anton and Lemilia, each dressed in their own gear, stood in front of an open space in a town. Dozens or even hundreds of Soviet soldiers stood in front of them with their rifles slung over their shoulders, while behind them, two trucks had just towed in a large object lying on the ground.
"Thank you for coming to Germany with the 193rd Infantry Division stationed in Poland to fight alongside us and drive out and eliminate our new enemy. As you all know, the country we are facing is called the Holy Britannian Empire, a powerful entity from another world whose level of warfare is so absurd that it turns black into white. Therefore, before you go into battle, you need us, your experienced comrades, to help you understand what weapons our enemy possesses that are worth noting."
As he spoke, Anton climbed onto the blue-purple steel figure behind him, while Lemilia stood on the purple one next to him.
"This is what we've spent a long time summarizing: the main combat vehicles of the Britannian Empire." Anton jumped, drawing his comrades' attention to himself and what he was standing on. "Knightmare Frames, we can call them кошмар рыцарь (Nightmare Knights), that's what they call the steel golems they create, four or five meters tall. They are also Britannia's most important combat weapon, probably the most numerous among them. Encountering them will be very common, so you must remember their capabilities."
"Most of the enemy aircraft are identified by their KMF paint scheme. The one I'm standing on is called Sunderland. The main way to identify it is by its blue-purple paint and the insect-like horns on its head. It's the most numerous of the enemy's KMF aircraft."
"Then there's Lieutenant Lemilia's guy, Gloucester. He's painted purple and doesn't have anything particularly special about him. But like Sunderland, he's one of the most numerous. If you spot one that's operating in a group like Sunderland, but without horns on its head, then you've pretty much recognized it."
"Both are basically armed the same way. Sometimes they carry heavy machine guns, and sometimes they carry cannons that fire armor-piercing rounds into the battlefield. Based on our experience so far, the T-34 tank cannot guarantee that it can completely withstand KMF armor-piercing rounds from the front. You can talk to your tank crews about this. Also, when their machine guns fire, you must treat them like the cloth-tearing machines of the German fascists back then."
“However, you don’t need to be too afraid. With their defensive capabilities, they are still very easy to destroy.” Anton smiled. “The KMF is mainly divided into several parts, just like the human body: the head has its observation devices, the back is the pilot’s cockpit, then the power unit is in the torso, the arms are responsible for holding weapons, and the legs can walk. However, the main way of moving is to use the drive wheels on the feet to make it run fast.”
"You can use anti-tank mines to completely destroy their legs, and you can use DShK machine guns to penetrate any armor except the torso to partially paralyze or even destroy them. If you really want to say what the difference is between your tactics against them and those against fascist half-tracks, you can try laying steel cable nets along their high-speed path and letting them crash into them, and then you can complete the dismemberment operation."
"Hahahahaha!"
"So relax, comrades. At long range, just fire the anti-tank guns right in their faces. At medium range, use machine guns and anti-tank rifles. If you have rocket launchers from the United States, that would be even better. At close range, use cocktails, grenades, and flamethrowers. We're tired of stewing Nazis. Now we can stew Britannias. Don't miss out."
"In addition, KMFs have a pair of steel cable grapples on their chests, which can help them climb cliffs and house walls. And be careful, although it is debatable whether they can smash through trucks, they are sure to kill people. It is better to be careful."
"Next is our focus, and there are some things you need to pay close attention to, which is about the KMF's maneuverability. Although because their pilots have a limited average level, they mostly stay in a straight line or simply stand still when firing, but if you encounter some formidable opponents, their KMFs are very dangerous. Sharp, zigzagging maneuvers are nothing, and they can also carry out accurate firing on the move. These are their elite pilots, and they are the opponents you need to be most careful of in combat."
"First, let me tell you what to do: Call in all weapon groups around you that can destroy KMF's armor, unleash your strongest combat awareness as quickly as possible, maximize the firepower network to intercept him like a fighter jet, it must be! The shortest time! The fastest reaction! Anti-tank guns may not be effective, but you can call in heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft gun groups first."
"As for how to identify them, it might be too late once they start moving. Here are a few methods you can remember: First, the paint scheme of enemy elite aircraft will be somewhat different. They might have some eye-catching patterns or even be painted entirely in unusual colors, such as green, red, etc. Of course, there are also quite a few that are painted in a messy way. And it's not just the paint scheme; elite aircraft may also have a very eye-catching cape on the back. How about that? The identification rate has increased again, hasn't it?"
"Besides that, these aircraft usually have their own unique weaponry, although in our eyes this is no different from being detached from the organization. According to current statistics, the elite's weaponry usually includes rifles, longswords, or multiple machine guns and twin-barreled cannons. A month ago, we even encountered one that could shoot red tornadoes and destroy a train station in the blink of an eye... cough, but that's gone now. Anyway, it's easy. First, memorize the outline of the KMF with ordinary weaponry. Then, when those unusual outlines appear, don't worry about anything else, just call in the fire network immediately. Understand?"
"Yes, comrade!"
"Finally, you need to be careful. KMFs can take off with a rather unique type of flying wing and become aerial combat units. That means if you are suddenly attacked by air, don't think that you're safe just because you've dodged it. They are quite likely to come down and open fire. If they land directly and start ground combat, do as I just said. But if they hover several stories above the ground, I'm sorry, comrade, without enough large-caliber machine guns and anti-aircraft guns, you can only wait for the fighter jets to take care of them."
“Ahem, I know you guys don’t quite understand their aerial weapons.” Anton scratched his head. “Anyway, just remember that the KMF and their aircraft can do this. And those things that can hover and take off vertically, you can call them helicopters, just like the flying KMF. You infantrymen don’t have heavy weapons, so you need to be especially careful.”
"The helicopter wreckage will be brought to you tomorrow for you to see and learn from. Next, Lieutenant Lemilia will introduce you to the status and weaknesses of the Britannian army's assault guns and infantry fighting vehicles. Don't worry too much, but don't be too complacent either. At least they have many advantages that our armored vehicles can't match. Of course, at most, they are comparable to the capabilities of the German Panzer IV."
……
Alright, time to rest. Jump off Sunderland, and Sheva, who was standing guard with the lieutenant, came over.
"Comrade? You seem to have missed something just now?"
"is it?"
"You forgot about the thing that supposedly shot down Comrade Kozhedub before? And I heard that when our comrades were retreating by sea north of Berlin, they encountered something that looked different."
"Where did you hear that? There are no photos or actual objects of these things, and I've never encountered them myself. Just talking about them isn't enough to make it concrete. Anyway, the statement 'how outstanding one's appearance determines how dangerous one is' is definitely true."
"Alright then. Speaking of which, now we can finally have a good fight with those guys who started the trouble in Berlin."
"Of course, we're not the only ones seeking blood debts from Britannia, there are others too."
As he spoke, Anton looked towards the western sky and saw several fighter jets with faint white stars painted on their fuselages heading north.
"You should still be alive, Jonathan..."
……
"This grove is a little too quiet."
Meanwhile, on a highway leading north, a convoy of soldiers in green uniforms and white Star patrol cars was slowly advancing. Leading the way were two M24 Chaffee tanks, followed by a jeep with an M2 machine gun mounted on its rear seat. At the rear of the convoy was a truck with a heavy machine gun mounted on the cab. The American soldiers either sat in the truck, stood behind the machine gun, or simply ran alongside the convoy.
"Relax, Karl. This distance isn't even enough for a German tank to reverse into; we could run up to it."
Finally back on the battlefield, Jonathan leaned against the turret and the roof-mounted machine gun, his back to the direction the Chaffee tank was traveling. His own corporals and soldiers either took turns resting on the tank or followed closely behind.
"Hey boss, we've come all this way to Russian territory, aren't we going to get shot in the back?" Tommy mumbled between sips of his liquor. "We only have about a hundred of us, what if something happens?"
"Sergeant!" the captain leading the group shouted from the back jeep, "Can you tell how far we are from the village we're going to?"
“Let me see!” Jonathan picked up the binoculars. “Well, never mind, Pat, you’re in charge of telling him.”
"If I remember correctly, we are ordered to quickly capture the village of Osleben on the banks of the Salle River, and then follow-up troops will go to capture the village of Pozkao further north. It is said that the Britannian army has already reached Bainburg. If we capture it, we can restrain their actions."
"Then, supposedly, after this series of follow-up operations were successful," Karl added, "we were able to continue north to occupy Magdeburg and drive out the Britannian territories west of the Elbe."
"Hey! Then I'll rush back to Berlin, go home and cry my eyes out to my mom!"
“OK! Guys!” Jonathan put down the binoculars hanging around his neck. “We’re at least two thousand yards from the village. We’d better check it out first…”
"Wait a minute! What's that sound?!"
In an instant, the soldiers raised their guns and hunched their shoulders, listening to the strange sounds coming from the northern sky, from the direction of the village, and from the houses.
"Hmm?" Looking up again, several Thunderbolt fighters, their propeller engines churning, flew close to the heads of the soldiers and treetops. It seemed that only the faint sound of machine guns from the fighters could explain anything.
"There might be a firefight in the village... Scatter, scatter, get off the road!" The captain got out of the jeep and followed the soldiers to both sides of the road. Just then, seemingly on the outskirts of the village, a thick plume of smoke and flames appeared in the sky behind the trees, accompanied by the sound of a plane crashing.
"Everyone take cover in the woods! Tanks and vehicles, take cover nearby! Quick! Sergeant Campbell, go check what's happening over at the village!"
Chapter 181, Section 251: Armour-Father Dance
"Ahem, calling command. We have successfully captured Osleben village. There is no trace of enemy troops. We need more infantry to search and clear the village, and air units to scout the roads in the distance. Over."
The village of Osleben had just been disturbed by a group of uninvited guests who had crossed the river and bridge. They either drove their four- or five-meter-tall KMFs directly onto the village streets, or got off trucks and infantry fighting vehicles that had crashed into the fields, and searched around the houses. These Britannian personnel were few in number; Sunderland could be counted on one hand, and the vehicles were just enough to fill a small group.
"Reporting, Captain." At that moment, the voice of an infantry squad leader came through a Sunderland radio. "We have roughly searched the village and found only a few elderly people lying in bed, two of whom are already on the verge of death. As for the rest, we have not been able to find any military supplies in the village, and food is also scarce."
"No one was hurt, right?"
"Well, someone claims to have sprained their ankle because the snow was too soft."
"Okay, I understand. Classify this wounded soldier as a psychological trauma patient. The rest of you continue with your mission."
The captain leading the team had an axe painted on his plane, which probably referred to his nickname. After giving a few orders to the other KMF pilots, he moved a few steps onto the road leading into the village and looked up at the sky.
"Hehehe, look at this setup, is this our support?"
What's flying over from the sky? Three vertical takeoff and landing transport planes lined up in formation. Not only are they unarmed, but each one can only provide short-haul flights for a small squad of infantry at a time.
"Captain, we've spotted you." The infantry leader on the plane telegraphed him. "You're not in such a hurry right now, are you? Could you let my soldiers rappel down? Consider it a practical exercise for these newly arrived Chinese Federation soldiers."
"Good." Captain Axe watched as the transport plane hovered in mid-air, the hatch opened, steel cables were lowered, and figures dressed entirely in black slowly slid down. "Heh, speaking of which, these people smuggled from China are already so well-trained?"
"Heh, you might not believe it, but the pilot in front of me is the same, born in Mongolia. I don't know whether to say I'm lucky or stepped in someone's dog poop, but he's doing just fine in the second-line unit. So why is the 45th District so eager to become a testing ground for foreign recruits?"
"People with Britannian blood are risking their lives, while these honorary members who do nothing are thinking about sleeping all day? I really hope that more and more officials and nobles will listen to Duke Sasler. Whether you were just captured in the EU or just fled from the Chinese Federation, all qualified people should be sent to the battlefield."
"Looks like the chaos of the battlefield has forced you to talk about controversial topics, huh? Is that right?"
Just then, amidst a collective gasp from the entire village, four eagle-shaped figures swooped down from the sky, dropping their auxiliary fuel tanks and accompanied by a sharp whistling sound.
"Damn it, the transport planes seem to have given us away?!" Captain Axe ordered the transport planes to speed up and fly away while simultaneously urging his men, "Anti-aircraft fire! Everyone, get your machine guns and cannons ready!"
What use are a few KMF machine guns and infantry fighting vehicle cannons, except to scare the enemy pilots who may also be new to the country? The four fighters didn't bother with any more talk. With eight machine guns on each of their wings and ammunition loaded all over their fuselages, they randomly picked a guy on the ground who dared to raise his gun and gave him a good TNT blast.
"No!" Half the village was covered in mud kicked up by bombs and rockets. It was a terrible mess. All the trucks were destroyed. A KMF and two infantry fighting vehicles lay on their backs, burning on the roadside. As for the infantry, all you could do was clean up the dozen or so corpses and wounded, and guess the cause of death—the wounds from machine gun fire were not as terrible as those from explosions.
Worse was yet to come. After flying back and forth several times and unloading their loads, the fighter jets began to graze the scattering transport planes as they fled.
"We've been hit! Captain! We need help!"
As a transport plane circled and accelerated away from the village, its engine was ignited by machine gun fire. Trailing a plume of black smoke, it crashed south into a clearing near the woods. Only the figures the captain had just recognized remained—fat bodies, sleek wings. The American P-47 Thunderbolt fighters left behind the deep, menacing snoring of their engines as they finished off the Britannian soldiers and flew back south.
……
"Hmm, this little thing looks quite unique."
Meanwhile, hidden in the winter shade and snow, Jonathan and his group of soldiers had already taken cover in the woods south of the village.
"It doesn't seem much smaller than our C-47, huh?" The sergeant looked at the wreckage lying in the snow through his binoculars. "It's also a propellerless thing, maybe it's from the same mother as their helicopters."
"They've come; it seems there's been news of them in the village."
He and Carl watched as two KMFs followed their infantrymen slowly out of the village and finally stopped next to the crashed plane.
"Oh, look at the babies those milk tankers shot down, the way they're carrying them around, is the pilot still alive?"
"Isn't it lucky that I survived?"
"Hey, what are those guys in yellow vests doing? And they have Red Crosses wrapped around their arms?"
"What?" The corporal took Jonathan's binoculars. "Are you kidding? These aliens follow the Geneva Convention? So, should we fight or not, sir?"
“Let me tell you, if I were the leader, I would… oh well, let’s go, let’s talk to the captain.”
After explaining the situation, Carl went back to keep an eye on the boys in his own platoon, while the sergeant ran to a Chaffee tank with "Peanut" written on it and patted the turret.
"What's wrong?" Peanut, the tank commander, popped out and watched as he rearranged the heavy machine gun ammunition belt box behind the turret.
"The captain wants to tell you two tank teams that once you've found your chance to fire, we'll let go."
"Alright." The commander crawled back in, picked up the walkie-talkie and called another Chaffee. "Peanut, call Pig Brain, calibrate the target and prepare to fire. I'll take out the aircraft puppets. You guys deal with the infantry."
"Ah, judging from the chart, that should be Sunderland... Got it."