In the early morning, when the sky was just dawning, Weiss got up early, sat at his desk and looked through various materials, books, and notes. This is the Château Clumber-Heisen in Somsonas, where the "natives" have all been relocated to a new settlement in Mason, the capital of Lorraine, and is now the field headquarters of the Union Army. As chairman of the Lorraine Defense Mobilization Committee, commander of the Lorraine Reserve Forces, and one of the few governors who could maintain "zero distance" from the front line, Weiss conquered his colleagues in the military with his indisputable performance. This time, the defense of Somsonas was nominally under the personal command of General Arteus, but in fact the three-member committee, including Weiss, was responsible for the specific defense - the other two were orthodox Federation generals, including the rather senior Lieutenant General Mousen Baglet, and they all had full respect for Weiss's role.

In his familiar study, Weiss once again flipped through the summaries of the war he had written in the post-war years. A few years later, as circumstances permitted, he was happy to compile these manuscripts into a war memoir, which he believed would become a bestseller with his unique perspective and coherence and rendering...... Leaving aside the rest of the story, his mind lingered for a long time on the memories and summaries of the Battle of Aocheng. It can be said that it was the most arduous battle he had ever experienced, and even imaginable, although the battle ended in the defeat of the Union Army, but after the war, military historians generally believed that it was a key battle that affected the course of the war.

The Battle of Aocheng was a resolute urban defense battle, and now, the Federation army was massed in the area of Somsonas to resist the offensive of the Norman army in Lorraine, but objectively analyzed, the two are not comparable: Aocheng is a large industrial city with a population of one million, the urban area is composed of 27 blocks, tens of thousands of buildings, and hundreds of factories are located around the city, most of the buildings were built in the industrial age, with all the elements of urban defense warfare, The area and population of Somsonas are only one-tenth of the size of the city, and the buildings are mainly no more than four storeys, lacking the rigidity and depth of defensive operations. Lorraine Free Canal Industrial Zone is known as "our Aocheng" by Lorraine people, there are nearly 100 factories, thousands of factories, the contiguous factory area has both solid walls and workshops, and there is an underground pipeline system for drainage and sewage, and adjacent to the canal, both in scale and form are similar to the industrial city, but compared with the real Aocheng, it is still far behind, copying the model of the Aocheng campaign to deploy defensive operations is obviously not feasible. After repeated calculations and deliberations, the three-member committee reached an agreement to deploy defensive forces in the "elastic defense" model proposed by Weiss, that is, to build complete fortifications in urban and industrial areas, but only to station relatively few troops to station, so as to reduce the casualties of the defenders during the preparation of the enemy's artillery fire, and wait until the enemy's ground forces are engaged in the offensive, and then mobilize the main forces from the deep defense line into the front-line position.

Given the terrain conditions in central Lorraine and the strength and equipment characteristics of the Normans on the Western Front, "elastic defense" may be the wisest defense strategy at the moment, but it is by no means foolproof. If the Normans had an insight into the deployment of the defenders, and offered their expertise in surprise attacks, frontal assaults, or even the use of flying ships to deliver landing troops at the offensive stage, cutting off the defenders' front line from the depth, they could in turn make the defenders fall into passivity, and then win at a relatively small cost. In view of this, on the one hand, Weiss demanded that his colleagues strictly guard secrets, that they could only issue individual orders before the war, and that they must not disclose specific combat plans to lower-level troops, especially grass-roots combat units, in advance, and that they should be on strict alert in the defense area to prevent the enemy's infiltration and reconnaissance. On the other hand, he also began to draw up various plans so that the participating units could deal with all kinds of emergencies in a more calm manner after the battle began......

After a morning of intently working, the aroma wafting from the window whets Weiss's appetite, and he walks out of the room and takes a "shortcut" to the dining room. The castle's original hired staff had been withdrawn, the army had taken over the service, and breakfast was now sorted into insulated basins for the officers to fetch for their own use. Weiss had prepared two sausages, an omelette, a scones, and a large glass of fresh milk, and as soon as he sat down, he saw the officer on duty hurrying over. Looking at the expression on his face, it didn't look like something big had happened, so he picked up his knife and fork.

"Chief Clumber Haisen, excuse me for a moment. This morning, the soldiers of Sector IV captured an enemy soldier who was unarmed, spoke Ulster, and ...... He wants to see you by name. In the last sentence, the officer deliberately lowered his voice, but there was a twinkle in his eyes.

Weiss had neither the heart of collaborating with the enemy nor the idea of treason, so his demeanor was calm and his expression was calm: "How old is that person, and what are the characteristics of his appearance?" ”

The officer replied: "His face is full of burn marks, and his appearance and age are not at all, and his voice is not quite right, and I suppose that he is probably between thirty and forty years old." ”

When Weiss heard this, he could not help but be stunned, and he hurriedly asked the officers to bring the captured Norman soldiers to the castle, and told them to take strict precautions on the way, and not to have any accidents.

After the officer on duty left, Weiss had no intention of enjoying breakfast, and hurriedly swept the food in front of him into his stomach, got up and walked out of the dining room, pacing back and forth outside the main entrance, thinking about all the possibilities and potential effects. A short time later, the officer on duty came and reported that Defense Area IV had sent a vehicle to escort the strange prisoner of war and would arrive shortly.

Weiss then instructed the officer on duty to wait for the arrival of the waiter in the duty room.

After that, he went back to his room and took out the photo album from the drawer, which contained large and small black and white photos, which became blurry as he went, and the first few were family portraits taken by the Clumber-Haysen family twenty years ago, as well as a group photo of the three siblings, but unfortunately the faces were unrecognizable on this yellowed photo.

It did not take long for the military vehicle escorting special prisoners of war to arrive at the castle and be taken to the duty room. After receiving the report, Weiss suppressed the apprehension in his heart and came to the duty room without hurrying. What appeared in front of him was a man in a Norman Army field uniform and a private's collar badge, with extensive burns on his face, his face was unrecognizable, and he even looked a little hideous, but from his tearful gaze, Weiss noticed something unusual. After a moment's thought, he asked the soldiers to wait outside the duty room, and then circled around the man: "They told me that you wanted to see me. ”

There was no third person in the room, and this man said in a low, hoarse voice, "My brother, Dragon, what a change you have made!" ”

Weiss did not immediately recognize his relatives, but quietly observed the other party's words and deeds, especially his voice and eyes. He found a lot of fragments of the past in the memory fragments of the "host", and the impression of Ze was indeed such a figure, the age was roughly the same, the hair color was also the same, and the feeling of authenticity was more than ninety...... If it was him, what had he been through over the years, why was he here at this time, and was what he said next credible? A series of questions diluted the joy that the brothers should have had when they were reunited—objectively speaking, although they had a common blood in their bodies, the same connection in their hearts had long since disappeared.

Seeing Weiss so hesitant and calm, the visitor did not seem surprised, nor was he obviously frustrated, but waited patiently for him to speak.

Fragments of memory, piecing together a complete life, Weiss can't find the habits of the past, including mannerisms and tones, but this obviously doesn't matter - people always change in all aspects as time passes. I think the Lord and his wife were also curious about the strange things in their youngest son, and they slowly got used to it.

"Are you Ze?"

"Yes, it's me, I'm alive." As he spoke, he spread his arms and prepared to accept the hug.

Out of calm vigilance, Weiss did not step forward to hug him, but said unhurriedly: "Your son, Kemp Jr., has been in our care since the end of the last war. He is witty, brave, and humble, and will grow into a man as good as you. ”

The visitor slowly lowered his arms, and the joy of reunion was finally replaced by disappointment and doubt.

Weiss looked at him without humility, arrogance, or lukewarmness, and then said in a sincere and warm tone: "No matter how the world changes, this is your home!" Welcome home! ”

"Yes, this home is a place that haunts me, especially in the past few years, I will come back here almost every night, but I can't find you in my dreams." The ugly face of the visitor squeezed out a strange-looking smile, but there was an affectionate look in his eyes.

It was this change of gaze that led Weiss to conclude that the man was indeed his brother, Ze Clumber-Haysen. The last time the two met face-to-face was in the last war, at the Château Clumber-Heyssen in Somsonas, and the last time the two met was in the battle between the guerrilla advance team of the Union Army and the Norman occupation force of Lorraine, when each side was the master, fighting wits and courage on the battlefield, even if it was just to defeat the other party, not to put it to death, but the guns were eyeless, the war was ruthless, and the news of Ze's death was really sad for a while, until he brought Kemp Jr. back to Lorraine, The dark clouds that hung over the Clumber-Haysen family had just lifted.

Weiss finally stepped forward and gave the other a tangible hug. The temperature from his body showed that he was not a ghost who had escaped from hell, but a real living person.

"They know you're not dead." Weiss whispered, "After the war, Baras fell in love with Gunevere of House Grumman, and because of this relationship, I met him a few times at the Bellakaser Trading Port...... He said to me with his own mouth, "You are not dead." ”

Ze's eyes did not flicker, but sighed: "I feel it, they have been following my tracks, but the people they sent to follow the clues are not smart enough, and they have not found the right way for so many years." I cautiously changed my identity, living in a remote town instead of a fallen colleague in the army, pretending that something was wrong. It wasn't until the outbreak of war that I found an opportunity to return to Lorraine. ”

Through his outfit, Weiss can also guess a thing or two: as the war progresses, he will join the Norman Army as a reserve soldier in the subsequent echelons, waiting for the opportunity to go to the front line and wait for the opportunity to escape. This is easy to say, but it is not easy to do, and it is even more difficult than faking death to leave the Free Federation.

Ze continued: "That day, I thought I was dead, but I didn't expect God to let me continue to live, and the severe pain in my body made me determined to get rid of that kind of mental pain that I couldn't help myself. So, in the past, I have died on the battlefield. Now I am the eldest son of the Clumber-Heisen family, your elder brother...... Whether you accept it or not, I will atone for my mistakes. ”

After all the past, Weiss did not dare to easily put trust in others, but he would never refuse to give up food because of choking, and reject people thousands of miles away. He nodded, and changed the once familiar saying: "The brothers are here, and they meet with a smile and enmity." ”