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……
……
Two MVS rifles and black and white shadows swept through the cracks of the town. Dozens or even hundreds of Soviet soldiers were still here, just to hunt a locust that was jumping around.
The gun that had shattered the wall had broken its shaft, leaving only the other gun in her hand to continue fighting. Amid the anger of the crowd, some found it hard to understand why she wouldn't surrender.
“Then what are you! Soviets!” Lilizia was utterly intoxicated by her own madness. “If you were truly at your wits' end, you never surrendered, did you?!”
"I'm sorry, but you're stepping on my land. So I must burn my blood to drive you all out."
"So you're just going to watch me get kicked out, huh?!" Lily roared in the cockpit, her voice like a ghostly cry from hell. "You want me to surrender? Am I, a warrior, to be slaughtered like a lamb?!"
As she spoke, she threw the remaining rifle in her hand at an anti-tank gun that was aiming at her in the distance, knocking its mount askew.
……
Just when everyone thought she was about to abandon the plane and surrender, she suddenly accelerated, made a sharp turn in the direction the DShK machine gun had just fired, opened the cockpit door the instant she approached the house, and used the centrifugal force to leap towards the still-firing machine gunner, grabbing a piece of wood and stabbing it into the machine gunner's throat.
"Looks like he doesn't want to surrender. Prepare the rocket launchers and tear her to pieces inside."
The two comrades had already set up the rocket launcher and were about to bombard the house.
"Lieutenant, the girl escaped from the back." At that moment, Soviet soldiers who had surrounded the house from another direction saw her struggling to get up from the gap in the blasted-out house.
"She has a rifle!" Lily had somehow grabbed a Mosin-Nagant rifle and was pulling the bolt back as she retreated.
The group continued to chase after her in the direction she had fled, only to find that she had picked up another PPSh and used it to knock down several people who tried to approach her.
The comrade who arrived just in time took a belt of DP machine gun ammunition and, in the instant the girl tried to escape, her body and her ear, which had been blown off by the machine gun, fell to the ground together.
"Don't think too highly of yourself, you piece of trash born in Siberia!" Several comrades rushed around the corner, only to find that she had actually grabbed a bayonet while cursing and was now fighting with the group again.
Clearly, the ear that had been shot off had made it impossible for her to hold on any longer. The onslaught of the PPSh rifle butt and the entrenching tool had overwhelmed her. The rifle butt struck her hard in the stomach, and the entrenching tool smashed into her forehead, tearing off the medals on her headband and causing blood to stream down her face.
"You Soviets taught us with gunfire that this place is hell, and then what? Do you think you can make your enemies lay down their arms just like that? Or is calling us 'aggressors' and 'defenders' your weapon?!"
Lily could only instinctively pick up the PPSh rifle, gritting her teeth in a daze, and continued to fire and retreat in the opposite direction from the Soviet troops who were surrounding her, while providing cover.
"Listen up, you Soviet fools! This is your battlefield, and it's mine! Either I shed my blood here today, or you all fall before me! Don't try to defeat me with those useless words; they're lies to deceive yourselves! Are the great Soviet soldiers only capable of killing the enemy with so-called justice and laughable idealism of the Great Patriotic War?!"
"You are nothing! You bunch of cowards who can only talk your way out of things!"
……
Lavrensky caught up with her not long after, and she had already run to the destroyed IS-2. Without hesitation, he shot her in the lower back, and the PPSh fell out. The girl's body also knelt in front of the tank.
“I… my first defeat was against the giant rhinoceros.” The lieutenant looked at her, still stubbornly gripping the hood of the IS-2, trying to pull his knees back up. “Even if it means death, I will never kneel before it again…”
Another cold gunshot rang out, striking her in the thigh. She collapsed to the ground, blood gushing from her ruptured artery, never to rise again.
Upon closer inspection, Lilizia was still using her last strength to turn over, leaning against the tank, and sitting facing Lavlensky. Seeing that she had no weapon in her hands, and noticing that more and more comrades were gathering around her, he thought for a moment and then pushed Kashrenko, who had been somewhat timid during the battle, forward.
"Go, kill her." That was the simple order given by the lieutenant.
“There’s no need, comrade.” Kashrenko hesitated. “She… she’s already bled to death.”
"Then let her flow faster, as if bringing the enemy's total defeat closer."
Seeing that Kashrenko had raised his gun but was still hesitating on the trigger, the lieutenant had no choice but to sit on the ground with his back against the sandbag and ask Lilizia if she had any last words.
"I will always be a citizen of the Empire, I will always be a warrior loyal to it..." In everyone's eyes, the girl was still trembling, trying in vain to press down on the gunshot wound on her thigh, her eyes glaring as if they were about to burst out and devour everyone. "I will always be true to my promise, my life belongs to Britannia..."
"Tsk, resisting to the end will only lead to certain death."
Lavlensky couldn't help but laugh out loud, just as he was about to get up and give the private a massage.
……
"When you joined the Soviet army, you said something similar to what I did, didn't you..."
Upon hearing these words, the lieutenant froze, completely stunned.
"Loyalty to the Soviet Union, loyalty to duty, loyalty to orders, and never betray your motherland... Your leaders must have taught you this, so," Lilizia raised her head with difficulty, "when you, as invaders, invade others in the name of the Soviet Union, will you still follow these words?!"
"Should I fire or not, comrade?" Kashrenko asked, turning around, only to see Lavlensky suddenly furrow his brow.
"The Soviet Union was so large, and there were other countries that depended on you and bowed down to you. It was definitely not built solely on so-called ideals and words, right?" A mouthful of blood was coughed up in front of Lilizia.
"I don't know who will win this war, but if the Soviet Union still exists in the future... when you one day go to someone else's land as invaders, think about what you said to me today, what you did! If you're still reciting what you said today before you die, you'll be mocked by the Soviet Union you served and thrown into hell to join me!—"
No sooner had he finished speaking than Lavrensky suddenly drew his pistol, and a bullet lodged itself in Lilizia's neck. Crimson blood lay scattered on the ground, and the girl whose words had just sent chills down his spine slumped to her chest like the hands of a clock returning to zero, and there was no more sound.
Kashrenko thought it was all over, but the lieutenant shoved him aside. In an instant, more than a dozen Soviet soldiers standing behind the lieutenant raised their guns simultaneously. Bullets struck Lilizia's lifeless body, like ants being gnawed by bullets. Flesh and clothing were torn away from her torso, leaving her ribs and internal organs exposed on the ground.
[System notification: Lilizia Lütjens' character profile has been updated.]
……
“You have no right to shout, I am the one who is justice.” Lavlensky coldly walked towards her corpse, grabbed Lilizia’s hair like a butcher, took out his bayonet and cut off her headband, along with all the medals on it, and put them in his pocket.
"That's why you're here, comrade." The lieutenant casually patted Kashlenko on the shoulder, and the Soviet soldiers behind him walked over laughing and joking. Some of them would come over and touch her, looking for any other "souvenirs" inside her small body.
Many others spat mockingly and left with the lieutenant.
"What are you waiting for, Kashrenko?"
The private didn't leave immediately. He looked at Lilizia's lifeless and bloodied body, carefully walked over, squatted down to fasten her clothes, and noticed the lieutenant's collar insignia, which was stained red with blood along with her white shirt. Slowly, he covered her eyes.
At that moment, he noticed that the girl's face no longer held that fanatical fighting spirit, but instead showed a contented and regretless expression. It was as if, in the instant that Kashrenko wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth and "smiled," she had softly uttered, "Thank you."
Chapter 292, Section 375: Next Stop, Sudetenland, Delayed (Part 1)
What distinguishes humans from other animals is their capacity for thought, their humanity.
But humans are still animals, and when they fight each other, their desire for the blood and corpses of their opponents is something that carnivores such as crocodiles and vultures can only dream of.
As war evolves along with human evolution, civilians who were originally "uninvolved" will also be drawn into the clashes of soldiers. So how should we define "human" in this situation?
It's very simple: it's the most insane existence in the world, devoid of humanity and reason, packaged in all sorts of slogans and principles, whether irrefutable or self-righteous.
……
Indeed, it is undeniable. If you had climbed every island in the South and West Pacific with the U.S. Marines, you would understand: how gleeful it must have been for the capital of the old Japanese Empire, a country built by pure madness, to turn over 100,000 civilians and rows of houses in Tokyo into burning candles to commemorate the lives lost under the iron heel of the Japanese army.
That's how it should be. Since they claimed to "die for the emperor," and considering the group of suicide attackers who feigned surrender and the Japanese officers who committed seppuku, the Allied forces' solution was to use real heavenly fire to extinguish the burning desire for "Banzai," and to use real atomic bombs to crush the spiritual atomic bomb.
……
Indeed, it was a noble and awe-inspiring act. If you had traveled across the European continent with Soviet and Allied soldiers, you would understand how important the military strategy was to eliminate the enemy with the divine punishment of propellers before they even reached the battlefield.
So why not? As the capital of Saxony, Dresden was Germany's most robust tree, standing tall on the land south of Berlin with its intertwined railways and highways. On the eve of the Soviet army's advance on Berlin, its destruction rendered the German army's plan to retreat from the south a mere illusion.
Thus, in mid-February 1945, this three-day bombing, which resulted in the deaths of 25,000 civilians and varying degrees of damage to nearly 200,000 houses, became a major controversial topic of the century, distinct from Tokyo.
"Dresden stood in the way of the expeditionary force, so it seemed expected that it would be reduced to ruins. But it had already been destroyed in another war that preceded ours. Ironically, it did not stand in the way of the Soviet army crossing the Oder River and capturing the German capital."
Sitting in the car, gazing at the ruins, Colonel Carry accompanied Duke Sasler through this city, which was even more tragic than Berlin—lacking so much fierce fighting and significance in various aspects, yet leaving behind a more heartbreaking sight.
"Article Two of the Expeditionary Force's Operational Regulations: Never trust the mercy of District 45, and never underestimate the cruelty of District 45." The colonel sat next to the Duke, looking at the soldiers on both sides of the road.
The Soviet army had long since packed up and left with many civilians, handing over this poorly defended city. This made everyone seem no different from the civilians who had survived the bombing raids—there were no enemies, no hail of bullets, only people walking aimlessly on streets that looked like they had been through a volcanic eruption. All the shop counters, all the plates and bowls, all the beds were just covered in dust.
“Do you know how much tenderness you need to do when dealing with a city like this?” the Duke said with a sigh. “You can’t even lean against a wall when you’re tired, because they’re so fragile that they’ll just build an even higher grave for the corpses on the other side.”
“However, we’ve been in this world for too long and have forgotten how to handle things gently.” Kari shook his head helplessly.
"You, along with General Marendor, were among the earliest pioneers, and your contributions are undoubtedly immense, Colonel." The Duke put his hands behind his back and looked up at the sky. "You have borne the most terrible price and witnessed the most ruthless reality. Forgive my bluntness, but to see General Marendor transform from a hot-tempered, iron-fisted commander into an approachable man is a great asset to the Empire. I think if I had said this six months ago, he would have glared at me and stamped his feet."
"Perhaps you're a little late in saying this, as you missed the opportunity to speak with him not long ago." The colonel smiled. "He told me that the Soviet troops on Rügen Island are now in the same predicament as those on the mainland, retreating in panic under the general's relentless pursuit."
“Hmm, yes, the Soviets have so few warships that if you piled them all up with KMFs, you could sink them all, right?” Sasler lit a cigar and offered one to Kari as well. “I’m glad, Colonel, that the General sent you here to keep me company. It’s like preparing a loft for a carrier pigeon. I sincerely hope that good news will arrive quickly.”
……
The two arrived in Pirna, a small town southeast of Dresden, less than 20 kilometers from the border between Germany and Czechoslovakia. They could clearly see smoke rising from the hilltops to the south.
The Ore Mountains acted like a dam, hindering Britannia's pursuit of the Soviet army. The undulating peaks, though no more than a thousand meters high, along with the winding roads, hillsides, and valleys, and the various firing positions on the hilltops, prevented them from reaching another country.
Thus, the city beneath their feet, formerly the site of a German military hospital, became an important forward base and command post.
Looking up, I saw an infantry fighting vehicle parked next to the command post. A body was being carried out of the vehicle and prepared to be put into a body bag. On the other side, a soldier brought a water hose to wash away the bloodstains and bandages inside.
"Sergeant Major Kan Hu reporting for duty from the 6th Main Island Brigade." The Duke and Colonel approached, and the sergeant in charge greeted them.
"Did you retreat from the east?"
“Yes, and then we asked where to store the body, and after some twists and turns, we were brought here, so…” The sergeant was a little puzzled, as he saw Colonel Kari staring at the body, clearly attracted by the insignia of the Knights of Agincourt on the soldier’s body.
Where did you find her?
"Lieutenant Angeli of the Knights, her subordinates, have been advancing with us on the ground. Is there a problem, sir?"
"The Duke and I received a message from the Knights' higher-ups that a member of the order had gone out on his own without permission, just as they were preparing to mobilize the rest of the order to fight the fire on the front lines."
"Huh?" Syndra, who was washing the infantry fighting vehicle with the soldiers nearby, heard this. "Could you please elaborate, Colonel?"
“I forgot her name, but I know she was the only girl in the Knights who had almost all of her missions suspended due to a mental breakdown.” Kari paused, recalling carefully. “She was originally kept inside, but she ran out when the medical staff weren’t looking, changed into her own uniform, and even went back to her barracks. Then she flew away in her Vincent, violently disarming the KMF’s restraints.”
"The Knights of Agincourt, a force to be reckoned with, and the fact that they go back to change into their armor before going into battle... there must be some kind of sentiment behind this..." Kan Hu and Syndra exchanged a glance, recalling their conversation with Angelie and the others, and their expressions changed drastically.
"Have you encountered such an unruly individual on the battlefield?"
"Uh, it seems not, no." For some reason, the two shook their heads in unison. "Then, why was this girl locked up?"
"To put it simply, there are two points: First, if he doesn't fight, he will be tormented to death in his dreams; second, if he fights, he will rush to the front lines to die. To put it bluntly, if the doctor doesn't give him sedatives, he is a war-loving monster who can't sleep."
"That's a bit of an exaggeration." Kan Hu scratched his head. Although the girl in Puersnitz was somewhat similar, "Although there are still some in the expeditionary force who have lost their fighting spirit due to battle, there are still some now."
"What kind of special soldiers could do that?" Syndra frowned. "Were there such madmen among the Germans and Soviets back then?"
“But given the special circumstances of District 45, he probably wouldn’t have survived until today.” As he spoke, Kan Hu pulled out something that looked like a notebook in front of everyone. “I was looking for a piece of scrap paper to wipe the bloodstains, and I found this one at the entrance of the hospital. I found a German word, Euthanasie, in it, which is only one letter different from Euthanasia (euthanasia).
Upon hearing this, Kari's heart tightened, and he quickly grabbed the document and showed it to the Duke. He turned to a volume from August 1941, and there wasn't even a single page to list all the names of those who had been "dealt with" that month.
“What disease in District 45 would warrant such large-scale drug euthanasia? A malignant infectious disease?” The Duke had a bad feeling. “Or is this hospital actually a mental hospital? And then, they ‘cure’ the mentally ill?”
“Germany is such a strange place, and I’ve discovered other secrets as well.” Kan Hu seemed very excited, swallowing hard repeatedly. “On our way back, there was a former German artillery observer dressed as a refugee who gave the Soviet artillery the coordinates for their artillery fire. I found our radio on him, and…”
The sergeant's words were slowly silenced by Colonel Carrie's actions—the latter pulled out two bloodstained strips of cloth from his pocket, roughly painted with a red five-pointed star and a black Iron Cross, respectively.
“We received it before we and the Duke arrived in Dresden,” the colonel explained. “Look, right in front of you, in those enemy positions in the distance, there are probably two civilians with these two strips of cloth wrapped around their arms. They were originally German soldiers, they just haven’t received their uniforms yet.”
"Huh?!" Kan Hu and Sindra were taken aback. Had the Soviet Union really regrouped the German soldiers?
“We have more and more enemies, and their composition is becoming more and more complex.” The Duke sighed and indifferently threw his nearly finished cigar on the ground. “The operation to bring the Germans back to Area 11 can no longer be carried out as recklessly as before. His Highness should understand the importance of vetting.”
"So, what do you want us to do now?" Kan Hu and Syndra straightened their backs and asked the Duke.
"There's virtually no chance of a large-scale ground counterattack from these mountainous areas, so keep an eye out for any unfamiliar aircraft insignia you might see in the sky."
……
At this time, Marshal Konev, as the commander-in-chief of the Soviet forces stationed in Czechoslovakia, was busy taking Comrade Gottwald by car to the Soviet defense line on Mount Ore.
"Comrade Marshal!" Just as he was about to close the car door, General Kurasov, Konev's adjutant, brought him a telegram: "The Czechoslovakian Air Force wants to put the 'horn' back on those German planes."
"I'd like to ask General Genoschk, do his engineers think the 'horn' might affect flight?"
"The impact won't be too great, as long as the fighter jets provide adequate cover."
“Then let’s do it.” Konev waved his hand cheerfully. “Britannia has already seen the German soldiers by now, right? Let them hear the German voices again.”
Chapter 293, Section 376: Next Stop, Sudetenland, Delayed (Part 2)
Having driven across the German plains for so long, I've almost forgotten what mountains and hills look like.
Two days later, Syndra and Kan Hu finally returned to the front line and broke through the numerous obstacles of the mountain fortress. The former's infantry fighting vehicles could no longer advance on some steep slopes, and the latter's infantry had become the main battleground.
Fortunately, Lieutenant Torres and his Sunderland, who had been away for a long time, returned. The men in black were finally spared the embarrassment and predicament of climbing the mountain without accompanying heavy firepower—if the wheels couldn't go up, they would walk; if they didn't have enough legs, they would use the grappling hooks and steel cables to pull themselves up the mountain.
Having climbed to this point, halfway up the mountain, the battle situation on this hill was basically clear, and the bits and pieces of information gathered by everyone were also transmitted to the Duke's command post in Pierna.
The highway through the Ore Mountains had been destroyed by Soviet artillery and warplanes, and the road ahead was undoubtedly riddled with mines, with strongpoints blocking its path. Britannia, which had stopped before Poland on the Oder River, was now resentfully halted by this mountainous region.
Not only were there anti-tank guns hidden in the distant woods, but also T-34 tanks and self-propelled artillery such as the SU-100 and ISU-152. The Soviet armored vehicles dug their own bunkers in these places to hide.