July 26, 1940, was a sunny day, as usual.

Second Lieutenant Hans of the Wehrmacht. Lugner sat leisurely in the shade of the trees by the checkpoint, happily eating breakfast.

After taking the last bite of the scrambled eggs on the aluminum plate, Rugner wiped the soup from the fried sausages and scrambled eggs on the plate with a small piece of black bread, and then swallowed the piece of black bread in one gulp.

With a satisfied look on his face, the second lieutenant took a large sip of the military aluminum cup with coffee on the ground, and then burped in satisfaction.

Second Lieutenant Rugner picked up his cutlery and stood up and walked over to his men who were gathering around the bunker on the other side of the post.

The German soldiers were now lounging on sandbags and barricades, chatting and enjoying a delicious hot meal.

The flames in the stone-built marching stove had long since been extinguished, and the air was filled with the smell of burning resin, mixed with the pleasant aroma of the coffee pot on the military folding grill and the tantalizing smell of scrambled eggs and fried sausages, giving a very warm feeling.

It's late July, and the weather is starting to get hot.

For those Germans from the north, the temperature is so pleasant that the warm sun is shining on them, and the feeling of comfort almost makes them forget that they are still at war.

The German soldiers had already begun to change their outfits half a month ago, taking off their gray tweed coats and changing into their crisp summer uniforms.

The officers seemed to welcome the order more than the soldiers, as if because it allowed them to show off the medals on their chests every day.

Compared with other German units on the French front, the besieging troops on the outskirts of France were now like vacations, with comfortable barracks, abundant logistical supplies, warm and pleasant sunshine, plenty of leisure time, and even a comfortable hot bath every day.

The officers of the unit also saw this, and they did not want these fierce and brave soldiers to become weak and decadent because of this comfortable life, which they absolutely could not tolerate.

In order to avoid this problem, the officers racked their brains to keep the soldiers busy, but no matter what new ideas they came up with, the status quo never changed.

In order to drain the excessive energy of the troops and maintain sufficient morale, the command was initially prepared to solve the problem once and for all with infantry shovels and sweat.

Four infantry divisions built a whole circle of fortifications on the outskirts of Paris, the trenches dug like cracked riverbeds, and the positions were full of dense communication trenches and firing points, and the barbed wire was as thick as a bush.

But more than 50,000 able-bodied soldiers and a large number of construction machinery troops had done all this in two weeks, and the wisdom of the crowd was perfectly manifested here, and the outlying positions of Paris were now like a museum of battlefield fortifications, so that the veterans who had participated in the trench warfare of the last war trembled and burst into tears when they saw those fortifications.

The German commanders felt a sense of pride and relief at the sight that such a large fortification could be completed so quickly, and at the same time a little worried, because it meant that they had to start having a headache again about what to do with the idle soldiers.

The land is limited, and if you build any more fortifications, you may have to dig into the city of Paris, which is absolutely not allowed.

Extend the fortifications to the periphery? It was also unlikely, and the generals of the headquarters and army group headquarters stationed in the outer estates would never agree to this, and none of the generals wanted to get up early in the morning and push open the windows to get some fresh air, only to see a trench and barbed wire and a group of stupid soldiers with infantry shovels.

It might have been a good idea to dig another anti-tank trench around Paris, but the front-line commanders didn't know how to explain to their soldiers why they had to dig a canal around Paris in order to stop the thirty poor, fragile and worthless light tanks in Paris.

The commanders, who really didn't want the soldiers to be idle, finally came up with the idea of organizing an infantry patrol to take out armed exercises.

Let the soldiers who are so bored that they crouch in the trenches and play with buttons to form foot patrols, and the daily task is to make a circle around the ring road of Paris.

At the same time, having the off-duty infantry train in the woods and wilderness on both sides of the ring road is the best of both worlds, which can not only drain the excess energy of these soldiers, but also maintain and improve the combat capability of the troops.

In the days that followed, the armed German patrols outside Paris suddenly outnumbered the ants, and at their densest they were only fifty meters apart from each other. This is no longer a patrol, it looks more like a division-level armed march around the city.

In the dense woods and grass, you can see heavily armed German soldiers holding rifles and conducting actual combat drills, and there is a sound of gunfire and artillery everywhere, although they use training ammunition, but they successfully create an atmosphere of actual combat.

These troops are all elite and experienced in battle, so they quickly got into shape. In a few confrontation exercises, the intensity of which was almost close to actual combat, and injuries were inevitable in such enthusiastic military training activities, but so far no one has died in the exercises, and it is finally thanks to the previous rigorous training.

As a result of these full activities, the morale of the troops can be said to have improved by leaps and bounds compared to the previous stage.

Moreover, these troops have actually explored a set of bushland combat methods in these training exercises, and have also invented a bunch of new tactics, which is something that the commanders who made this suggestion had not expected before, and the improvement of the combat skills of the troops has really made those commanders really refreshed.

"Sergeant Gernell, have you received your salary this month?"

Lieutenant Colonel Deel lowered his head and lit a cigarette, then raised his hand to throw the burnt match out of the window.

"Oh, take it, sir. How did you remember to ask this. ”

Gernell expertly took the steering wheel, his eyes scanning the road and the trees on either side.

It was the first time that Gernell was driving for Lieutenant Colonel Deel, and it turned out that the driver had a cold, so he was temporarily transferred from the headquarters convoy.

This is not a good task, although the conspicuous white flag is planted on the front of the car, and the Germans have been very polite in the previous negotiations, but no one dares to guarantee that the Germans will continue to be so polite, that there may be a German bullet waiting to get into their heads at the next turn.

"Oh, I'm trying to say that as things stand, there's a good chance they'll be paying you next month."

Lieutenant Colonel Deer raised his hand and pointed ahead, and a well-equipped checkpoint appeared in the field of vision of the two French ** men.

"Looks like I'm not going the wrong way, sir." Gernell said in a trembling voice.

"Actually, you can take it any way, Gernell."

Deel squinted and skimmed Gernell.

The car continued to drive towards the sentry post, and in a short time, De El and the others were able to clearly recognize the German's facial features.

Some German soldiers were running into the bunkers on the side of the road, and De El clearly saw that most of the gray artillery shields exposed on the pile of sandbags, and a black barrel pointed smoothly in his direction, it was a terrifying 20mm machine gun.

Although Lieutenant Colonel Deer knew in his heart that the Germans would not fire at him, he still felt a little hairy on his spine, and for an unarmored target like himself, this rapid-fire small-caliber gun was undoubtedly the embodiment of death.

"Stop, Gernell."

A German soldier stood in the middle of the road and gestured to the car to stop, and De El hurriedly ordered the driver to stop.

"I'll get out of the car and talk to them, you wait in the car."

Deel turned to Genel and said, only to see the driver's fearful eyes.

"Don't worry, we're messengers, it's going to be fine."

Deer comforted the driver.

"As long as you stay in the car, don't move around."

Seeing Gernell nodding desperately, Lieutenant Colonel Deer couldn't help but smile bitterly, and then he opened the car door and slowly got out of the car.

Deer straightened the hem of his military uniform and picked up his military cap and a small flag from the dashboard of the car.

"Hey, I'm going to do it again. This is the first time, sixth or seventh, forget it, no matter how many times I still hate this kind of thing. ”

Deel shook his head, then put on his military cap.

Taking a sharp puff of his cigarette, he threw the remaining half of the cigarette to the ground, and then crushed the spark with his shiny leather boots, De El wanted to show himself more calmly in the eyes of the Germans opposite, this was the only way he could preserve his dignity in front of them.

"I am the emissary of the command of the army group in Paris, and I am here to negotiate."

Deer unfurled the small white flag in his hand, and then strode towards the German soldier with his chest straight.

"I'm Lieutenant Colonel De El of the French Army Group in Paris, and I want to see the commander of this outpost."

Deel walked up to the soldier, his chin slightly raised on his chest, his eyes looking straight into the soldier's eyes, and said loudly.

Deel struggled to maintain the dignity and pride of a judicial officer in front of heavily armed German soldiers.

"I'm sorry, Lieutenant Colonel, for your credentials."

The German soldier, a corporal, gave De El a standard military salute and then extended his hand.

"Oh, here."

Deer hurriedly returned a military salute, then took out his ID from the chest pocket of his military uniform and handed it to the German corporal.

"I didn't see you last time I came, corporal. Is the commander here a second lieutenant of Stre? ”

Deer pulled out a cigarette case from his pocket, and he took out a cigarette and gently swiped it on it.

"Please wait."

The sergeant did not answer De'El's question, he just nodded politely and turned and walked towards the sentry box.

After a while, the sergeant came over with a German second lieutenant officer.

"Ah, Lieutenant Colonel Deel, how did you come here this time?"

Second Lieutenant Rugner approached with a surprised expression.

"Oh? Second Lieutenant Lugna, how did you get here? Isn't the commander here Second Lieutenant Strey? ”

"Looks like you're on the wrong track, this is Route 4, and I've just been transferred, Lieutenant Colonel. I really didn't expect to meet you here, it was really unexpected. ”

"It seems that the problem is my driver, he still ran the wrong way out of the city, but in fact, it is the same from any road, and you can meet your troops everywhere here."

Deel lit a cigarette.

"That's right. Lieutenant Colonel De El, are you still here to negotiate this time? Have you been in contact with the command? ”

"I've been contacted, but I'm on the wrong track, you see......"

Deer looked at Rugner in embarrassment.

"I'm going to make a phone call and report this, you wait here for a while, I've got hot coffee here. By the way, let your driver drive the car. ”

DeEl is now sitting on an ammunition box with a steaming cup of coffee in his hand.

Gernell stood beside the lieutenant colonel, also with a cup of coffee in his hand, and after the initial period of fear, the sergeant was finally relaxed.

Genell found that the Germans were not as terrifying as the legend suggests, and to be honest they were quite easy to get along with, and he was now able to communicate with the German soldiers in broken German and equally broken French, and although there were some obstacles, he was finally able to understand what they were trying to say.

"Lieutenant Colonel Deel, this German soldier, like me, used to drive a forklift on the dock, hehe, I didn't expect to meet my peers here."

Gernell said excitedly to De Eyre.

"yes, that's interesting."

Deel replied with a smile.

The French lieutenant colonel looked indifferently at Gernell, who was talking excitedly to the German soldier in stammering German, and laughed knowingly at what the two men said, and Deel couldn't help but feel a little sentimental.

He looked at the resolute and energetic faces of the German soldiers, as young as Gernell.

These soldiers were ordinary people, just like themselves, and before they put on this uniform, they were ordinary workers, farmers, merchants, company employees, and lived an ordinary life.

Why did they put on this uniform and take up arms and go to war, Deel felt that he knew the reason.

It's all these damned politicians, it's all those stupid careerists, whether it's Germans or French, everyone is just a pawn in the hands of those people, and they are still playing the role of a pawn, an abandoned pawn.

"Lieutenant Colonel Deel."

Rugner walked over and said with a smile.

"I have reported this matter to the regimental headquarters and have received an answer. I was ordered to escort you to the Imperial Command. ”

"What! Emperor...... Imperial High Command? ”

After hearing Rugna's words, Deer jumped violently.

What had happened, De El thought that his mission was not yet for the German High Command to deal with in person.

He originally thought that he would be able to reach Feng this time. The headquarters of Admiral Bock, this is already a luxury, in fact, it is enough to accept the surrender of Paris with only one division commander.

Deer never thought that he would go to the German high command to negotiate this time, and for a while the French lieutenant colonel was stunned with his mouth open.

"Hurry up, Lieutenant Colonel Deel, take my car, and your chauffeur will stay here and rest."

Rugner urged loudly.

"Ralph, Hans, Sterling, you three come with me, the others continue to be on guard, Sergeant Rolf, you will be in charge of the affairs here after I leave, pay attention to the woods, I heard that those guys in the third battalion will be doing interspersed drills today, so that they don't break our toilets again."

"Yes, second lieutenant."

"Got it, sir."

"By the way, remember to entertain our French friend."

"Understood, sir, I'll take care of him like my brother, hehe."

"Don't giggle, you guy. Don't sit on a mine box and smoke, I'll put on the fuse next time. ”

Laughing with his men, Rugner led three heavily armed soldiers to the edge of the woods, where a German VW82 military jeep was parked in the clearing.

"Lieutenant colonel, get in the car, the command doesn't like to wait for people."

Rugner sat in the driver's seat and waved to De El as the three soldiers had made it to the back row and were now busy securing their 98k rifles to the rifle rack in the middle of the car.

"Got it? They're just ordinary people, there's nothing to be afraid of, be careful yourself, and wait for me to come back. Be careful not to let them mess with my car, these Germans are very curious, don't let them break it. ”

Deel instructed the driver Gernell, and after hearing Rugna's shout, he quickly agreed, and then turned and ran towards Rugna.

"You can sit next to me, Lieutenant Colonel."

Rugner opened the door on this side of the car for De El from the car.

"Thank you, Second Lieutenant Rugna."

Deel jumped into the car, and then waved at Gernell, and watched the driver smile and salute him, and the lieutenant colonel had a hunch that he might have told the cow what he had told before.

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