The golden sunlight of the early morning sprinkled softly on the earth, and the fresh air was filled with a clear plant fragrance mixed with dew. The calm waters of the Somme were covered with a veil-like mist, and a huge white waterfowl flew slowly against the water, and the air currents from the flapping of its powerful wings left a beautiful ripple on the water. A few early teals burrowed in and out of the lush aquatic weeds along the riverbank, sticking their heads into the water to look for the small fish that had spent the night in the aquatic weeds, or raising their heads and chirping a few times to show off their achievements to their companions, not caring whether they had intruded on the tranquil tranquility of this beautiful fairyland.

This is the battlefield where 1.5 million lives were buried? Although he had seen this early morning beauty countless times, when this fantastic scenery appeared in front of Lafayette again, it still brought him an irrepressible emotion, the world became so peaceful and peaceful, as if war had never happened, and the blood and violence were like things that happened in another world, and had nothing to do with this world. But reality is reality, the cold touch of the steel body of the M1924 machine gun in his hand and the faint smell of gun oil separated him from the beautiful and quiet world in front of him, and they constantly reminded Lafayette that he was now on the front line of the battle, and maybe in a minute, this heavenly scenery in front of him would become a hell, blood and fire would replace the beautiful verdant as the only color here, and he might become a part of that hell. Add a touch of red to the wreckage of this paradise.

"Lafayette, Lafayette." A hoarse voice interrupted the romantic machine gunner's thoughts.

"Something." The Heavy looked back at the speaker in frustration. It was Sergeant Ledur, a veteran of the last war. Ledur's face was always one of nonchalance, he had won several medals in the last battle, and he was arguably the most experienced in the regiment. But it is strange that he is still only a sergeant, and I heard that it is because he has always had a bad relationship with his superiors, and even the regimental commander, Lieutenant Colonel Devadouet, has said in private more than once that if old Ledur had been more clever, he might have become an officer a long time ago, and put on a beautiful bowler cap.

"Do you still have butter there? Mine ran out. Ledur sat there smiling and said to the Heavy, who had set up a frying pan and was about to make breakfast, when a faint steam had begun to rise from the soup pot on the stove, and a strong aroma of food had begun to fill the air, which provoked the romantic Heavy to swallow several gulps of spittle.

"I have one more point, Sergeant." Lafayette hurriedly ran to his backpack and pulled out his butter can.

"Sergeant, what do you want to do today?" Lafayette handed the butter to Ledur.

"Good thing, I got it from the battalion kitchen yesterday." Ledur took the jar and set it aside, then pulled out a large piece of bacon and a piece of bacon at least ten centimeters long from his carry-on backpack.

"Sgt. Soldier, you are so great." Several soldiers who had just woken up from their sleep rubbed their sleepy eyes and gathered around the old non-commissioned officer, and they looked at the two pieces of delicious food that had been lost for a long time with expectant expressions.

"Everybody, don't look at me like that, Pierre. Damn don't move that lid, Donovan, look at the way you look, you guys don't go wash your faces, don't get your gossip into my soup. You slanderers! Ledur laughed loudly and drove away the newly awakened predators, and continued his work to the cheers of the soldiers.

"Lafayette, you know what?" Ledur pulled a sharp folding knife out of his trouser pocket and began to cut through the piece of bacon.

"Oh, you know what." The Heavy didn't look back, he looked at the sparkling river in the sunlight and asked faintly.

"The best way to fry bacon is to use butter, because frying it in other oils will lose that special aroma."

"Oh? Is that so? ”

"Didn't your mother tell you this?"

"No, my mom fried it in lard." Lafayette remembered the day she joined the army, when her mother secretly cried in the kitchen, and she couldn't help but let out a long sigh. Now he wanted to eat another slice of bacon that his mother had fried herself, no matter what kind of oil it was fry.

"Ah, then you're lucky today, I'll let you try the exclusive flavor bacon cooked by Uncle Ledur himself. I'll give you two more when the time comes. ......"Ledur didn't notice Lafayette's abnormality, and he continued to happily make his delicious breakfast."

"Fla-la-la-la......" is the sound of bacon and bacon being put into the pan, and the unique aroma of bacon and butter begins to waft through the air. This old Ledur. Lafayette smiled as he looked at the dense woods on the other side.

It is not allowed to cook food at the front line, let alone cook on the fire, and you can't even boil a pot of boiling water. Lafayette's position can't be said to be a position, but in fact a lonely forward post. Ever since Marshal Weygand issued a combat mobilization to fight to the last man, the French Army's defensive positions have been fortified.

The former linear defensive positions, marked by dense trenches, were abandoned, because the marshal believed that they were as fragile as a piece of paper in the face of the terrible armoured forces of the Germans, and that they were not at all suitable for the present mode of warfare. He ordered the troops to gather in a series of villages and towns near the line, where they would then build strong fortifications to connect the towns and fortresses, known as the Weygand Line.

The marshal believed that these fortified villages and towns would stick there like nails, and that they could effectively stop the advance of the German torrent of steel, and also consume a lot of valuable war resources and strength of the Germans. Weygand wanted to use this method to stop the Nazis from continuing their advance into the French interior, and he wanted to turn the war into a simple war of attrition, because he knew that there was only one way to stop the crazy German war machine.

Wei Gang's judgment was accurate, his strategy was correct, and the tactics he chose were really speechless.

Lafayette's post was what the marshal called the first line of steel defense...... , but no matter how you look at it, this ring is a little smaller. Their outpost was built on a small dirt slope only a dozen meters high, more than thirty meters from the banks of the Somme, and was geographically an ideal place to observe the Spirit, but it was definitely not an ideal place to defend it. Because they were all gentle fields near them, this lonely little dirt bag stood conspicuously there, and had no military value at all except to be able to detect the enemy's movements on the opposite bank at the first time and set up a perfect target for the enemy's artillery.

This is also the reason why the regimental commander set up this post here, and if the Germans wanted to attack from here, they could not have seen this post. If the post reports an attack, then it must mean that the attack has begun, so that he has enough time to prepare for the battle. There is no way out, and he has not received any aerial reconnaissance intelligence for more than a month. The troops of his brothers on the left and right flanks had cliffs and swamps and hills high on the banks of the river, and the defensive line he defended was all flat fields, without any geographical advantage to rely on.

It is dangerous to place troops in such unsafe positions, especially in the absence of definite information about the enemy. So Lieutenant Colonel de Vadouet strictly obeyed the orders of Marshal Weygand and concentrated all his troops in the village of Itna, twelve kilometers from the outpost, and built three layers of fortifications there. Although he was not sure that he would be able to resist the German onslaught, he believed that no matter how strong the Germans were, they would have to pay a lot of money to capture the village fortress. Any sacrifice was worth it as long as it was possible to delay the Germans and give his troops in the rear time to prepare, and Lieutenant Colonel de Vaddouai was willing to give everything for the final victory of France.

Lafayette's post was the first casualty of this strategy, a small outpost with a fortified defensive bunker and a circle of 50 centimeters of chest-high stone walls forming the main body of the outpost. The stone walls were there before Lafayette arrived, and they had been there for at least a hundred years, judging by their dilapidated and weathered condition. I heard from the village elders that a Roman army was once stationed there, and these stone walls are the remains of the fortress built by the Romans. Lafayette was convinced of this, for the stone wall was indeed unusually strong, but this solidity was based on the fact that the enemy had no artillery, and it would not last longer than a wooden house under the bombardment of German large-caliber heavy artillery.

Lafayette and the others had seventeen men in all, not even a squad, and the highest military commander was the sergeant Ledur. Although life was very happy under the leadership of the sergeant, Lafayette still vaguely felt that his people were exiled in disguise. The lieutenant colonel must have wanted to throw some unpleasant-looking soldiers to the front line as punishment for their past violations. But Lafayette was puzzled by how he could be ranked as an exile, he had always been proud of being an exemplary soldier, and it seemed that the lieutenant colonel had been blind to him sometimes.

However, Lafayette's outpost, although small in number, was surprisingly powerful, and in addition to an M36 rifle, the lieutenant colonel also equipped them with three M1924 machine guns and a 37mm rapid-fire gun, and they were also well stocked with ammunition. In fact, the lieutenant colonel did not need to place such a strong firepower here, these weapons should be placed where they were needed more, Lafayette thought that this might be a disguised compensation for the lieutenant colonel to put his people in such a dangerous place. Lafayette, however, did not believe that he could defend himself against the Germans with these weapons, and that this neither weak nor strong firepower might have found a better reason for the Germans to blow up the post with artillery.

"Lafayette, come here, take your portion, I've given you a few more slices of bacon." Once again, Letour's voice pulled Lafayette back from his thoughts. He looked back and saw that a group of soldiers were already sitting around Ledoux, one of them eating with a plate, and Ledur was smiling at him with a plate.

"Thank you, Sergeant." Lafayette walked over and took the plate.

"The bread hasn't been delivered yet, it would be better if it could be served with a little bread." A soldier grumbled as he munched on bacon.

As already mentioned, it was not permissible to cook food in the forward positions, and the conditions of this post made it impossible to store fresh food, and those canned goods were already included in the list of luxuries in the French front troops, and the quantity was only enough for the officers to enjoy, and they ordinary soldiers did not have to dream of such things. So, the three meals a day at this post are delivered by truck from the village of Itna, twelve kilometers away, and you can imagine what the food will look like after a bumpy ride. And because of the shortage of supplies, the quality of the food has also deteriorated, and each person can only receive half a kilogram of bread and three plates of cabbage and potato broth every day. Because it is impossible to run three times a day for them, I send a day's amount at once.

For this reason, Ledur secretly got a small stove and a set of kitchen supplies from nowhere, and began to build his own small kitchen. At first, Lafayette questioned this, but when Ledur smiled and asked him to choose between delicious and "dog food", Lafayette relented. If you think about it carefully, it's actually right, that kind of military regulations are set up to prevent the enemy from discovering our hidden positions, and my own outpost is now standing there in such a big way, and I am afraid of exposing any targets, let alone lighting a stove, even if it is a fire.

"You're going to eat yours, can't such a delicious thing stop your mouth?" Ledur smiled and raised his hand to the gourmet's head.

"I hear the truck, Donovan, you're lucky, you're going to have bread to eat right away."

The soldiers all stood up and looked towards the road behind the outpost.

"Don't look at it, everyone clean up quickly, don't let the guy who delivers the food see these things."

Ledur ordered loudly, and the soldiers hurriedly hid their plates carefully in their corners, and in a few moments, the outpost returned to its usual messiness.

"Here's a few people to help you, your food has been delivered." As soon as he finished speaking, a tall middle-aged sergeant walked into the outpost.

"Sergeant Dewar, why are you here?" Ledur smiled and stepped forward and grabbed the sergeant's hand.

"What's the matter, tired of being in that officer's kitchen of yours and getting out for a change of air?"

"I don't have that idea yet, this time to show the way for the two new soldiers, the two guys who brought you food had a car accident yesterday and the whole car overturned into an irrigation canal and are now lying in the hospital. The lieutenant colonel chose two of the new recruits to replace them, they didn't know the way, and I just wanted to see you, so I took the opportunity to come over. Sergeant Dewar replied with a smile, he was the head chef of the company, and had squatted in the same trench as Ledoux before, and the two men had a good relationship in private.

"Huh? What are you doing in front of you? I smelled bacon, and bacon. Where did you get these bootleggies? ”

"How can there be any such things, do you think I'm the one who can get them?" Ledur struggled to play haha.

"Don't give me this, won't my nose be able to keep the smell of these things steady? Don't look at what I'm doing. But I really admire you, you can get those things in a place like this, even I haven't seen them in a week or two. I heard that the battalion headquarters has some stock, is it difficult to ...... Forget it, I don't care about your kind of idleness, ask your people to go out for two, and help those two novices carry things in, there are more today's volumes. I also sent tomorrow's portions together. Dewar said loudly.

"What? Pierre, David, you two go out and help. Ledur turned to the two soldiers and ordered, then he looked at Dewar suspiciously and asked, "Why do you want to bring food for two days together?" ”

"I don't know about this, I heard that an order has been issued from above, saying that all motor vehicles should be parked in their respective fortresses for the next two days, and they are not allowed to go out casually without special circumstances. So the lieutenant colonel ordered us to prepare two days' worth of food and deliver it at once. Dewar scratched his head and looked helpless.

"Is the enemy attacking?"

"I don't know, I didn't say why, and I don't want to ask. However, several German planes did fly over the village during the two days. Dewar whispered.

"Planes, we haven't seen a single German plane? It seems to have flown in some other direction. I don't think it's right. Ledur said with a serious expression.

"I don't think we need to guess anything, I don't think our bosses know much more than we do. I think you should be the first to know if the Germans attack us, who told you to be at the front. But I don't think it's very likely that the Germans will attack, I heard that they are in some trouble now, otherwise they would have fought a month ago, and they will wait until now. I don't think the Germans will make any big moves in the near future, and Chancellor Reynolds gave a speech on the radio in Paris yesterday commending the bravery of the French team in the previous stage, and I didn't feel any sense of danger in his speech at all. ”

"Command has not issued any good news to us. That's what worries me even more, and I now have a bad feeling that something is about to happen. Ledur said with a melancholy expression.

"Don't scare me, I don't know what you are, if you had this hunch, the authorities would have transferred you to the Ministry of Defense a long time ago, and you still need to bask in the sun here." Dewar smiled and patted Ledur on the shoulder, then turned his head to look out the door.

"Why haven't those guys brought things in yet, I'm still waiting to go back and prepare a menu for lunch for the company commander."

At this moment, Lafayette, who had been watching the other side of the river with the machine gun in his hand, suddenly exclaimed. "Sergeant Letour, come over quickly, I think I've found something, there's movement on the Germans' side!"

Lafayette's screams startled the entire outpost, and the soldiers rushed to their respective shooting holes to look across the river.

"What do you see? Lafayette. Ledur walked over to Lafayette's side and looked across the bank.

"Over there, on the edge of the woods, I saw reflections, as if there were people walking around there." Lafayette called out as he pointed to the woods opposite.

"Calm down, Private Lafayette." Ledur pulled out his binoculars from his backpack, and he picked them up and looked at the woods. Suddenly, what he found made him gasp.

"Oh my God......" Ledur quickly adjusted the focus carefully. He then threw the telescope into Lafayette's arms, turning and throwing himself at the telephone set on the ground.

"What do you see, Ledur."

Dewar was frightened by Ledur's reaction, not only him, but everyone present was frightened by the old sergeant's reaction, and everyone looked at Ledur in horror. Le Dur did not answer the head chef's words, he removed the receiver of the telephone and began to shake the handle of the telephone desperately.

"Operator, quickly pick up the regimental headquarters for me. Emergency. Ledur shouted into the phone, and then he looked at the frightened Dewar and said in a deep voice: "The Germans are attacking." ”

"What, what the hell did you see, why did you say the Germans were going to attack."

"See for yourself." Ledur replied angrily.

"I'm here to see what makes you so panicked. Soldier, give me the binoculars. What do you see? Dewar walked over to Lafayette.

"I don't know what Sergeant Ledur saw, but there were Germans moving in the woods opposite." Lafayette said.

At this time, Ledur began to report loudly from the telephone: "Lieutenant Colonel Devadouer, I am Sergeant Letour, I have found out something, and I think that the Germans are about to attack us...... I am quite sure that I found the German artillery observation post lurking in the woods opposite us, as well as an untold number of infantry...... Yes, I saw it very clearly, the artillery rangefinders and artillery sight glasses of the Germans...... They're demarcating our coordinates, and they're probably going to shell us right away.

I know what's going on...... Doesn't that mean something? What do you say? I don't understand what you mean...... What, it will be too late for them to attack...... I...... I understand, I hope you are ready for battle right away. I will inform you as soon as there is a new situation. Goodbye, Mr. Lieutenant Colonel. ”

Ledur hung up the phone angrily, and then began to curse: "This damn bureaucrat didn't believe me, and said that he would report to him if he had more accurate news, and that he had not received any information in this regard. What proof does he need, will he not be able to believe it until the German shells blow us all up into the sky? ”

"I think you're probably right, I see ...... too," Dewar said, turning his head.

"You saw it, right, they're well hidden, but they're still a little worse than their predecessors from more than twenty years ago." Ledur said excitedly to Dewar.

"But this does not mean that the Germans are going to attack us. They may be doing a reconnaissance. Dewar said solemnly.

"Reconnaissance, reconnaissance with an artillery rangefinder?"

"It's also possible, you know that kind of thing works better than a normal telescope. Without having definite evidence, I would have said this to you if I were Lieutenant Colonel de Vadoue, your nerves are too sensitive. ”

"What, you said I'm too sensitive...... You ......" Ledur's face turned red at once, and he was about to rush towards Dewar, when suddenly a strange sound sounded in the air, sounding like sharp bagpipes, and then a violent explosion came from outside the outpost, and for a moment the whole world began to shake.

"Sergeant Ledur! The Germans are shooting at us! ”

Lafayette screamed loudly, and the soldiers all shrank to the base of the breastwork, clutching their heads.

"Dewar! Don't you want to look at the evidence? With a grim face, Ledur grabbed Dewar by the collar and dragged him to the shooting hole. At this moment another shell fell, but this one was a little off target, and it smashed right into the Somme. After the violent explosion, a thick column of water tens of meters high mixed with the silt at the bottom of the river rose into the sky.

Ledur grabbed Dewar's collar with one hand and pointed at the falling water jet and roared: "This is the evidence, this is the evidence you want, now you can talk about it, am I the nervous you say." You tell me......"

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