On the way to the hill town of Slien from Wallens and Somsonas, there is a crossroads, known locally as the "Helvet fork" because of its proximity to the Helvet Forest. Due to the limited terrain and natural resources, Slane has not been able to pass the railway, and military transportation has entered the aviation age in advance, but ground transportation is still in the stage of coexistence of animal power and automobiles.

Previously, Weiss led the "Lorraine guerrillas" to lure and ambush the Norman army, and the exchange of fire was five or six miles away from the fork in the Helwitt road. After more than half a month, Weiss passed by here with an elite combat team, and saw that the Normans had built a strong watchtower and a bunch of field fortifications at the fork in the road where there were no buildings, and knew that the enemy had adjusted the occupation strategy, from "only occupying the city and ignoring the countryside" to the blockade mode of "city + stronghold", and regardless of the actual effect of this blockade war, at least it shows that the Normans were determined to clean up the mountains of Lorraine, and did not hesitate to invest more troops for this purpose- This small fork in the road alone contained about a company of troops, and was equipped with a small number of light artillery and armoured fighting vehicles. Looking at the entire mountainous area of Lorraine, there are not a hundred but seventy or eighty such forks, and the garrison alone will have to increase by three or four regiments......

Under the cover of night, Weiss quietly bypassed the Norman stronghold with an elite combat detachment of thirty men and continued to sneak in the direction of the mountain city of Slane. Nowadays, under the increasingly tight sweep of the Normans' open space, the possibility of the resisters being exposed to the secret camp is increasing, and once discovered, they will either fight to the death and all the members will be killed, or they will give up resistance and all the members will be captured, and the structure is that the secret camps will be swept away by the enemy one by one. With no outside forces to help, the only way now is to divert the enemy's attention from the secret camps, to preserve the men, equipment, and supplies of the secret camps, and to preserve the spirit of resistance that has given hope to the people of Lorraine during this dark period.

Before dawn, the brave Lorraine warriors arrived at a farmhouse about five miles from the mountain town of Slien, and with the help of their master, they entered the cellar beneath the farmhouse. At first glance, this cellar looks like an ordinary cellar used to store grain, bacon, and wine, but in fact there is a secret passage that leads to an ancient and hidden cave, and this cave is the place where the soldiers and civilians of Slane kept their "resistance to fire". The Normans certainly did not expect that in the heavily garrisoned city of Slien, under their noses, there was such a cave, where thousands of guns and weapons, hundreds of boxes of ammunition and various military supplies were stored. Aside from the absence of heavy weapons, combat vehicles, and a lot of fuel, it's a medium-sized arsenal!

The fact that the peasants outside the city of Slane were able to risk their lives to keep such a large amount of arms was not only an expression of patriotism, but also a manifestation of the fierce folk customs and perseverance. In the process of capturing the strongholds of Lorraine, the Norman army encountered the strongest resistance in the mountain town of Slane, not only the federal garrison fought desperately, but the local reservists and security forces also fought stubbornly in the ruins, and many troops truly fulfilled their promise to "fight to the last man". Even after the battle, the Normans still deployed half a division of troops in this small, almost ruined mountain town, and imposed extremely strict control on the surviving inhabitants of Slane, but these measures failed to break the will of the inhabitants of Slien to resist, and their secret resistance group became one of the most active and representative resistance forces in the mountains of Lorraine. After the "Lorraine guerrilla fighters" led by Weiss became famous in World War I, they took the initiative to send people to meet and propose to cooperate with each other and support each other. It was precisely because of such a group of like-minded people that Weiss decisively led his troops to jump out of the enemy's blockade line to "do something" when there was an imminent threat to the secret camps everywhere.

Shortly after Weiss and his party arrived, a lame middle-aged man came to the cave. The two have never met, but in this special and difficult situation, the mentality of sympathy for each other makes their hands clasped tightly.

"Lore Wad Stein, retired Federal Army Major, Commander of the 'Knights of Slane'!"

"Long Clumber Haisen, Captain of the Union Army transferred to the reserves, commander of the 'Lorraine Guerrilla Fighters'!"

Out of prudence and secrecy, when the two resistance groups made contacts, they did not reveal their respective "family backgrounds" and stocks, but finalized the way to contact and cooperate in the battle. After Weiss reported his name, the other party immediately exclaimed: "Oh, you are the wonder boy of the Clumber-Haysen family, the great dragon of Somsonas!" The K-type sniper rifle and KT semi-automatic rifle you designed are small in caliber, but they are very high, and we all think they are very good after using them! ”

Weiss smiled and asked the soldiers to bring out the "greeting gifts" they had brought, two mortars, twelve shells, and a batch of precision detonators made at the Clumberg-Haisen factory.

"These are our secret weapons for inflicting heavy damage: special guns that can shoot shells in a curve, detonators that can precisely control the detonation time."

Although this lame middle-aged man has some inconveniences, he still has the temperament of a tough guy forged by his long-term military career, he looked at the equipment sent by Weiss lightly, and asked: "I heard that you ambushed the Norman army in the Lysten scrap mine and killed a battalion of the enemy?" ”

"We didn't have time to clear the battlefield, so we weren't sure if we killed as many of the enemy as a battalion, but on the whole, the results of that battle were quite impressive - we captured the enemy's radio code book and used it to cause some problems for the enemy." Weiss said as he pulled out a soft-cover notebook slightly larger than a slap from his pocket.

Seeing the enemy's codebook, a gleam suddenly flashed in the middle-aged man's eyes, but he didn't rush to get the book, but asked rhetorically: "Is this communication codebook invalid now?" ”

"That's inevitable." Weiss replied, "The enemy soon discovered that they had lost their codebooks, so it would be difficult for us to use this trophy to contribute more to this war than to cause them some trouble." Of course, if it were to be handed over to the radio experts of the Federal Army, it might be possible to figure out some of the enemy's coding patterns. ”

The middle-aged man took the codebook and flipped through a few pages: "In fact, in the last war, we also captured the Normans' communication codebook, and before they replaced the new codebook, this thing can indeed play a great role, but as soon as the enemy changes the new codebook, it can only be used to wipe the buttocks." The Norman radio cipher system is a combination of all kinds of disorder, and even our radio geniuses can't find a pattern in it. ”

And so it was! Weiss shook his head helplessly, but he was a little glad in his heart. If the telegram had not been sent to "declare war" on the Norman Empire in the name of the Norman army, the capture of the codebook would have been of little value.

After a cursory glance, the middle-aged man handed it back to Weiss and set his sights on the gear they had brought.

"Detonator? Just in time! Did you get any news from a special source? ”

"Why do you say that?" Weiss asked rhetorically.

The middle-aged man stared at Weiss, obviously observing his expression when he spoke, and felt that there was nothing suspicious, so he replied: "We have found that the intensity of the Normans' vigilance patrols has increased significantly in the past two days, and from this change, it is likely that there will be important people from them in the near future." ”

Weiss looked him in the eye: "Aren't you worried?" ”

"Worried?" The middle-aged man bared his teeth and said, "In Srien City, who survived, who did not have a loved one die under the guns of the Normans?" If you're worried, you and I won't be standing here unharmed at the moment, either you're talking to a ghost, or the Norman soldiers are already surrounding this place and will rush in at any moment. ”

When he said this, Weiss's reaction was very calm, but the surrounding Lorraine guerrilla fighters who only heard a few words were unconsciously vigilant. In order to ease this unnecessary tension, Weiss laughed heartily: "If we didn't even have this trust, we wouldn't be here." ”

The middle-aged man looked around, his gaze swept over these old and young, thin guerrilla fighters, and instead of contempt and disdain, he asked in a rhetorical tone: "If there is a firefight with the Normans, are you all ready to fight to the death?" ”

Everyone, you look at me, I look at you, and finally their eyes fall on Weiss.

Weiss replied calmly: "Outside the city of Slien, we ambushed two Norman convoys, killed 9 armored vehicles and 8 military vehicles, and killed more than 100 Norman officers and soldiers; At the Lysten Abandoned Mine, we raided the Norman troops, destroying more than 20 enemy armored vehicles and trucks, and killing and wounding 200 or 300 Normans. The Normans will definitely settle this account with us, and if they can't find us, they will also take their anger on our innocent civilians. Since both horizontal and vertical are dead, of course we are willing to die vigorously - exchange our lives for the lives of a few big men in the Norman Empire, such a good deal, how can we refuse? ”

The middle-aged man should be satisfied with the answer itself, but he seems to have doubts about the authenticity and reliability of the answer. So, he changed his words: "I heard that Captain Clumber-Haysen graduated from the Bathton Military Academy less than two years ago, and had the opportunity to go to the Dale Fig Senior Staff College for further study...... I'm a little curious, so many things happened to one person in just over a year, is it the times that make heroes, or heroes that make the times? ”

The other party euphemistically expressed his doubts, and everything was being cleaned up. Weiss didn't bother to defend himself, but squinted his eyes and looked at the middle-aged man and his two subordinates: "Major Wade-Stein, although you have inconvenient legs and feet, you are not too slow to move on the battlefield, and you have excellent combat skills and very quick thinking, which is not much more reckless than the officers on active duty. Your two fighters, the one on the left should be good at hand-to-hand combat and strong-willed and not easily overwhelmed by difficulties, while the one on the right is fast and capable of shooting, but is easily frustrated when faced with difficulties. I wonder if what I'm surprising is in line with the actual situation? ”

The middle-aged man was very surprised by these words, and he stared at Weiss's calm and unassuming, confident and not proud face for a long time, and asked, "We have never met before, and the two of them are unknown ordinary soldiers who don't often follow me. You...... How, exactly? ”

In order to gain the trust and support of friendly commanders, and to achieve what he wanted, Weiss did not mind occasionally pretending: "As long as the enemy appears in my sight, I can find out the enemy's weak points without long observation, which is the secret of my repeated victory over strong enemies!" The talent to win, to be exact! ”