November 17, 1914 in the Imperial Calendar, coordinates - west of Mozk, the capital of the Union in the north, the port of permafrost - the Murlinsk industrial base.

This is a white world of snow and ice, and at the time of winter, Morlinsk, located in the vast plains of the East and West, has long been frozen for thousands of miles, covered with goose feathers and snow, and the name of the permafrost port indicates that the city has penetrated more than 400 kilometers into the Arctic Circle of the Ukiyo-e.

Morlinsk is low and wide, close to the extremely cold climate of the northern ocean, the wind is sluggish all year round, there is no warm current, the winter here is long and dark, at a glance the endless white horizon, even the fir and cloud pine are attached to the ice and snow with a thick layer of white, completely a scene of ice and snow, extremely beautiful and extremely suffocating and depressing.

At this time, outside the temporary imperial barracks 170 kilometers east of the Morlinsk industrial base, the wind and snow danced, and several imperial soldiers skillfully lit a fire in the snow outside the tent, sat around, and roasted some potatoes with penicillium.

On the snow beside the fire, there were two transparent wine bottles, and the bottles were less than half full. Several soldiers drank these little warmth in this way, and when their bodies warmed up, several people began to talk and laugh, and when they were a little drunk, they began to speak eloquently, and their eyebrows danced, quite self-satisfied.

They have been here for many years, and everyone has become very accustomed to seeing everything in the white, and has learned to make fun in suffering, and of course not everyone can do so, and those who cannot adapt to the freezing white world have long been abandoned by nature and the empire, and have perished, either freezing to death, or dying of disease due to soil and water adaptation or malnutrition.

It has been more than six years since the Imperial Royal Icebreaker Fleet occupied Frozen Harbor and stationed here, and it is not what they want to do if the battle line is stretched here for a long time, and it is difficult to advance half a step, because the length of the battle between the two sides is more than 2,000 kilometers from north to south, and the garrison of the Federation Army is very tenacious, and the resistance is extremely strong.

On the other hand, the sergeants on the side of the Imperial Army are all in the warm capital world of the temperate zone of Xizhou, arrogant and lascivious, and when they first came to the north, most of them could not adapt to this harsh climate, and the soldiers were like wilted eggplants, coupled with the cold and freezing sub-zero climate, there were very few varieties of crops that were convenient for storage, and they were really single and scarce.

Recently, the empire has sent a large number of elite reinforcements, so these ruffian-like veterans are even more insignificant, they began to be only responsible for providing physical strength, relying on the construction of fortifications, and slowly advancing on the whole line, of course, if the federal army counterattacks fiercely, these soldiers who build fortifications and trenches are also the first cannon fodder.

It is precisely because of the Empire's decision to move forward in a big way and its steady actions that the two sides have previously fought in a positional battle, and the turn-based game of occupying me today and recapturing tomorrow and wasting each other in vain has since come to an end, and the offensive of the Imperial Army has become aggressive, and the high-level leaders of the Federation have also been actively holding meetings in recent days to discuss countermeasures and try to respond accordingly.

So among the veterans who were stationed here six years ago, it is not surprising that there are groups of lazy soldiers like this, gathering and pushing, after all, they also know that their importance is getting lower and lower, dispensable, and they have a deep understanding of the fate that they may become cannon fodder......

Just when these soldiers were talking and laughing, a car quietly drove over on the road far away in the east, and when they were a little closer to the tent, the soldiers were about to hear the sound of the engine, the car turned off, and a man with short brown hair in an officer's uniform coat stepped down from the car, and walked around from behind the tent of several people, he was angry, menacing, rushed to the middle of the soldiers, stepped forward and raised his icy boots directly, and stepped on the fire with one foot, and a soldier was about to have a seizure, and said in a foul language:

"Fuck, who lives impatiently, dares to be in the grandfather ......"

However, he was only halfway through his sentence when another soldier beside him hurriedly covered his mouth.

Only then did they see clearly the epaulettes of the comer, so they hurriedly stood up one by one, lined up in a row in a panic, neatly bowed their hands to the navy, and said in a loud and respectful voice:

"I've met the lieutenant, sir, we're here because ......"

The officer didn't buy it, and directly interrupted the excuse that the leaders of the team of these people had arranged in advance, and shouted and cursed:

"You old oilmen, what a bunch of slippery heads, no one looks at them and slips away, you will only be lazy all day long, if it weren't for Lao Tzu having something important to go back to the base, I really let you get through, quickly give Lao Tzu back to the position, each of you will be fined eight hundred, immediately go to build fortifications, and today I will advance thirty miles! I will go back to check in the evening, I already remember your faces, I can't finish the repair before sunset, and you are not allowed to eat in the whole camp, this responsibility will be all on a few of you, get out. ”

Then he kicked a few people into a panic, one by one hurriedly ran to the east fortification position, they didn't care much about deducting some wages, it was just a number for them, they didn't know what year and month they would be able to go home, in this deserted white world, no matter how much money there was, there was no place to spend it, and they couldn't squander it if they wanted to.

What they are afraid of is that if they provoke the commander to be written down and miss the quota for the next batch of veterans to return to their hometowns, it will be miserable.

The man lifted his trouser waistband and complained while walking in the direction of the car in a figure-eight step:

"Fuck, this group of lazy veterans, all fucking lifeless all day long, where is the elite of the naval fleet back then, how can all the survivors be such a fucking group of waste! ”

The brown-haired man opened the car door, sat in the back seat of the car, lit a cigarette, took a puff, slowly exhaled the smoke ring, and showed an expression of enjoyment, and said to himself:

"This group of people is just fucking not satisfied, in this generation, how happy is life to be able to live on the battlefield? What a pleasant thing it is to be able to experience the expansion of the empire and be a pioneer! How can these bastards understand the joy of war? It is really a good opportunity that they do not understand, no wonder the old men of the headquarters only let this group of naval remnants be responsible for repairing the trenches, too, what is the use of these other group of bastards, can they be expected to go to war?"

After that, the man took another deep sip, the cigarette in his hand burned straight to the filter, he spit out the smoke, the car did not open the window, so the smoke drifted to the driver in front of him, choking and coughing violently.

For military bulletproof, this imperial military car is designed to rely on the co-pilot's single-window type, so the man looked at the blonde short-haired young man driving in front of him and was extremely embarrassed, looking at his one-handed driving, freeing the other hand to reach the co-pilot's seat and then the left window crank, but he almost couldn't reach it, and he kept looking left and right to look at the road in front of him, which seemed very funny, so he couldn't help but laugh, and said jokingly:

"You're right, Merlin?"

"Uh-huh, what do you mean?"

Merlin, who was in charge of driving, finally opened the window, breathed a big sigh of relief, and said with a little red on his face.

The short-haired man in the back seat is his partner, the captain of the second brigade of the Knights of Holy Magic, who is under the command of the Northern Army Headquarters of the Crusader Magic, Bazere Bartolomeo.

He snuffed out the cigarette butt with his fingers on ice-covered leather gloves, and casually put the cigarette butt in the pocket of his military coat, and responded:

"War, war is so beautiful, this era is simply created for the lord himself, full of pleasure and infinite possibilities, don't you think so. ”

Merlin was stunned when he heard this, not knowing what to say, and said casually:

"Maybe...... I don't know ......."

Bazelle, who was in the back seat, simply tilted his head and closed his eyes, and continued to talk to Merlin:

"Then why did you join the Holy Bath in the first place, and why did you join the Holy Bath? I was in order to be able to fight, and originally our Marine Corps was only responsible for garrison patrols and exercises at sea, and had no chance to go to the front line, so I joined the Holy Bath, what about you? Although you are not very old, as far as I know, you have been in the army for four years long before the so-called Holy Bath of the Church and the Empire began. I had heard your name back in Putzmores, you were a famous sharpshooter in your brigade, you didn't really go to St. Bath for the so-called immortal glory and Noah's ticket. ”

"Probably because I can't do anything else...... I didn't do anything since I was a child, I didn't eat enough, until I joined the army later, and when I first touched the gun, I couldn't do without it anymore, and I knew at that time that I would probably stay in the army all the time, but if the army didn't fight, I didn't need me, I really didn't know what to do, and the longer I stayed in the army, the more I could feel that I could only really feel that I was alive when I held the gun...... As for other times, I've been confused since a long time ago...... Anyway...... I don't know, but I know that now I just need to listen to my boss and the saints......"

"Cut, that's the reason, then you're really boring, but, it seems that the reason why we joined the army is similar to that? Wait...... Doesn't that mean that Uncle Ben is also quite boring?"

"No, at least I feel that Bazere, you are different from me, you always know what you want, you are more assertive than me, but most of the time I only listen to the ...... of my boss"

"Hehe, I think so too, then you have to listen to me more in the future, you can do whatever I tell you to do. ”

"Why, we're at the same level. ”

"Didn't you say that I am more assertive than you, it is right to listen to me in everything in the future, Uncle Ben will naturally cover you!"

"Wouldn't that become your little brother, so I don't want to ...... You're definitely trying to get me to run errands for you or something. ”

"You...... You're not stupid...... Hmph, Merlin, how long will it take to get to the industrial base?"

"One more hour. ”

..................