"It's a pit," David. Webb lamented, "Big pit. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info"

"It's a deep pit." Dave. Fruhauff nodded and made a brief addition.

"A big, deep pit." Harry. Thomas said summarily, but as if talking to himself.

So Weber and Fruhoff just glanced at him, and turned their attention back to where they had been—not necessarily extinct but certainly unprecedented, the largest and deepest pit ever dug by man, the famous and fascinating Kimberlite diamond mine—and now they stood on its side, and anyone who took only a small step forward would fall into it.

Of course, if someone falls into it, then he will never be able to climb out again.

It's too deep!

"How deep do you think this pit is?" Webb cautiously stuck his head out, looked at the bottom of the pit that seemed out of reach, and then inhaled hard, "I think it's at least three thousand feet." ”

"Maybe three thousand two hundred feet." Fruhauff said uncertainly, "Or three thousand three." ”

However, whether it is 3,200 or 3,300, it is an inaccurate and exaggerated figure - when the diamond mine was closed in 1914, it reached a depth of 1,074 meters, or 3,526 feet, so it is definitely not as deep as Fruhoff had guessed - of course, Weber did not know the exact depth of the pit, and how deep it eventually reached, but he knew that Fruhoff was wrong.

Weber was unhappy with the mistake: Fruhoff had been in the Kimberley for a long time, a few weeks, and his position was next to the diamond mine - he should have figured out its depth.

And the time it takes to get to the bottom, stay there for a while, and then return to the surface.

They are all important, very important, and even if no one gives an order, the mercenary commander in Kimberley should take the initiative to investigate.

But now...... Too bad.

"Didn't you ever think to figure out the depth of it?" "Commander, you must understand that this is one of the greatest works in the history of mankind. ”

A pit, no matter how deep it is, has nothing to do with the word "great." Fruhauff commented disapprehantly, but his expression was still serious and meticulous. "I asked the miners here, but they didn't know the depth of the pit either."

"You should be more proactive, Commander." Webb said.

Fruhauff knew what he meant: he should send a team of soldiers with specialized knowledge to pick the right time to measure and evaluate the pit - but that was impossible, completely impossible. "Actually, it's not just me, everyone wants to be more proactive, Mr. Advisor, but Mr. Rhodes forbade our men from entering the mine. His people keep an eye on us. And importantly, there are his people everywhere here. ”

"Really?" Webb's eyebrows furrowed for a moment, and then he sighed, "What a pity. ”

"Indeed, sir." Fruhauff agreed, "It's a pity. ”

"It's a real shame that we're standing on the edge of the world's largest diamond mine and we can't get even a small diamond." Thomas's soliloquy is here again.

There was silence. A few seconds later, Weber and Fruhoff turned their heads to the left and right, as well as to the rear. Fortunately, the results of the observation were reassuring: the closest person was at least thirty yards away from them, and it was a mercenary, not a single Rhodes' subordinate, or any other stranger. The two of them breathed a sigh of relief together, then turned back to stare at Thomas with a fierce gaze.

Thomas took a step back—he had realized what his mistake was, not at any other time, or the moment he blurted it out—and saluted and said in an inaudible tone, "I think I should go inspect my position now, sir." I'm sorry, sir. Goodbye, sir. ”

Then, with these words dropped, he fled from Weber and Fruhoff in a panic.

There was silence again. Weber exchanged a few glances with Fruhoff before leaving the edge of the pit. After all, diamond mines are just an additional topic. Fruhoff knew that Weber must have a very important task on his shoulders, otherwise there would be no need for the company to order him to temporarily suspend his work in China and rush to the Kimberley as soon as possible. Obviously, something special is going to happen here.

The commander has only one question: what task?

When he met Weber, he had already raised the question, but Webb did not answer; So when they returned to the positions of the mercenaries, Fruhav brought it up again.

"What is your mission, Mr. Advisor?"

"You're in a hurry, Commander." Webb smiled, "Relax, we still have time." ”

"Usually, when people say that, something very bad happens." "And in the next second." ”

A joke that is not funny. But Webb continued to laugh. "I thought you would say that time is money, my friend."

"Your joke isn't funny."

"I just wanted you to relax, Commander." Webber sighed, stopped, turned to Fruhoff, shook his head, and quickly changed to a serious look—and tone. "The Pentagon thought that the Germans might move their troops and heavy artillery to Kimberley for a large-scale offensive here. So the boss asked me to rush here and assist you with your preparations. ”

"German troops? Heavy artillery? Over here? Weber's words surprised and puzzled Fruhoff, "Is the news reliable?" ”

"No news, only speculation." Webb explained, "The Pentagon believes that Berlin will not allow its forces to engage in a head-on battle with superior British forces. Of course, according to the information we have received, this is true: neither Durban nor Leddy Smith, the British troops did touch the German volunteers and the German heavy artillery. That's why the process of retaking those two places is so easy...... Commander, did you know that the British had recaptured Ladysmith? ”

Fruhaoff nodded. The British army had taken Durban a month earlier, and had recaptured the already ruined Ladysmith the previous week, and had rescued 3,000 British prisoners of war, and he knew that it would be very difficult to ignore the great victories of Lord Roberts and General Kitchener in every newspaper in the Cape Colony, and which had been the main topic of English gatherings in recent times.

It's just that the newspaper reports always follow a fixed pattern, and the content is the same, all nonsense: the brave but inferior and poorly equipped British soldiers, after a bitter battle, finally defeated the evil, cruel, well-armed Boers who were at least five times their own number, and turned the situation around in one fell swoop......

Fruhauff scoffed at these reports and had no doubt that the British would one day describe the battle of Ladysmith as the bloodiest battle in which 4,000 British soldiers fought with bayonets and fists against 90,000 fanatical Boers, the bloodiest battle in which the British army had been involved since the Crimean War. Whatever others might think, the British and their admirers would believe the story anyway - like the joke told by the boss, if someone made up a modern myth that a German soldier killed 3,000 enemy soldiers with a machine gun, the Germans and their admirers would take it as historical truth.

Of course, this is all nonsense, which, unfortunately, can only be seen now, and the real situation, Fruhauv can only admit that he knows almost nothing about it: no one gives him valuable information, and those British officers, who know the situation, will always avoid his ears when discussing the situation.

Because he is the commander of a mercenary army, because he is an American. The Americans saw Britain as a hostile country, and so did the British.

Too bad. He commented to himself, asking, "Easy? How easy is it? ”

"It's easier than our military operation in Vietnam." Weber said, "The Germans and Boers abandoned Durban and deployed only a thousand militiamen at Ladysmith, and no troops were sent for field battles except for sporadic cavalry sniping the British marching columns along the way." The British lost less than five hundred men in battle throughout the operation, and most of them were due to the Boer snipers encountered during the march. By contrast, typhoid fever and other diseases were the main enemies of the British army, and at least 6,000 men were incapacitated as a result. ”

"Just as the boss predicted." Fruhoff nodded again, "The Boers will abandon regular fighting and turn to guerrilla warfare, while the British will be plagued by disease......"

Webb interrupted him. "The situation is not moving so quickly, Commander. Berlin and Pretoria are not yet going to give up frontal resistance. For the Boers, the switch to guerrilla warfare meant that they would lose control of a large part of the territory, which was a serious threat to the stability and legitimacy of the Kruger government. As for the Germans, their actions were decided exclusively by Kaiser Wilhelm. As far as we know, His Majesty doesn't like petty fights. That is, if he wants to play the last hand, he will definitely play a big one. ”

After a pause, he continued: "And the Germans still carry their large-caliber artillery. You know, these big toys are not suitable for guerrillas, and the only thing that can make them useful is large-scale field battles, or ......"

"Or to bombard my positions."

After saying that, Fruhaoff fell into deep thought. Perhaps the Pentagon's prediction was correct, the Germans took the initiative to abandon Natal, but still wanted to fight a large-scale offensive operation. However, that did not mean that their goal was Kimberley, which had never been the main strategic objective, and that the army was now close to 10,000 men and had strong fortifications, so that except for the initial stage, the heroic "black general" Piette. The Boer militia under the command of Kronje had never been able to make any breakthrough or achieve any worthwhile results - the Germans knew that the city was a hard walnut, so would they still come here to touch the nails?

"Can the Pentagon be sure that the Germans will definitely come here?" He asked for a clear response.

Weber's answer, however, is still based on speculation. "The Pentagon's view is that, apart from the Kimberley, the Germans could not find a target worthy of attack without inflicting serious damage on them. There were 50,000 British soldiers in Natal, armed with 9.2-inch, 6-inch and 4.7-inch guns converted from naval guns, and it was undoubtedly very dangerous to launch a large-scale attack there, and the colony of the Eastern Cape was the main concentration of British troops, and Lord Roberts put all the remaining 180,000 soldiers in that area to prepare for the invasion of Orange, and if the Germans attacked there, it would be self-defeating. ”

That is, based on rational and logical speculation rather than reliable intelligence, the Pentagon judged that the Germans would target this place because it resembled a soft persimmon...... Mr. Consultant. Fruhaoff shook his head, "If that's the case, then they're very wrong. ”

"Who?" Weber asked, "Germans or Pentagon?" ”

"Germans." The Commander declared, unusually certainly, "They're going to kick the iron plate." ”

"You're confident, Commander." Webb laughed, "We need confident commanders, but ......"

"You can see for yourself."

"What to see—" Then Webb stopped: he had seen what Fruhaul had told him to see, the trench as complex as a spider's web, stretching forward and to the right and left to the right so that no end could be seen—nearly eight feet deep and eight feet wide, and the section in front of him reinforced with planks—and between the two trenches and beyond the first, as long as the trench, and the reinforced machine-gun and artillery bunkers, which were completely impossible to count, probably every fifty yards......

It was a defensive position that he had not anticipated.

"I was surprised." He admitted, "How did you do that, Commander? ”

"Basically, my soldiers were digging fortifications every day, and Rhodes gave me four and five thousand miners, as well as a lot of building materials." "And the British army and the common people of the Kimberley were involved in the work - but they weren't doing it well enough." The best people to do this are actually the miners, look at the big pit they dug......"

Weber automatically ignored his later statements. "So 10,000 people are building fortifications here every day?"

"Fifteen thousand or so."

"So, how long of trenches did you dig?"

"No one has time to count it, Mr. Advisor. But I can say with certainty that we have laid twelve miles of barbed wire and built 460 fortified bunkers. ”

"You must say, you did a great job, Commander." Webb looked around and praised Fruhoff for the first time, "There is no doubt that you will indeed be able to hold your ground." ”

"Of course, Mr. Advisor, that's just a trifle." The commander proudly said, "Like I said, the Germans will kick to the iron plate." ”

"I'll see, Commander." Webb agreed, "so we can move on to the next question." The Pentagon asked me to test a new tactic here. ”

"New tactics?"

"Yes, Commander. Now, let's go to your headquarters, and I'll explain it to you there. Weber began to move on, and Fruhaoff followed. However, the two soon stopped again: as they passed through a trench, they heard a mercenary who was reinforcing the trench complaining to his companion.

"Do you know what people say about our work?" "It's the same as what they say about the miners in the diamond mines." ”

"What is it?"

"Dig a pit first, then die in a pit."

"Very interesting review, slightly cynical." Weber turned his head and whispered next to Fruhoff's ear: "Dig a pit first, then die in a pit, I think it can serve as an unofficial motto for combat sappers." ”

"Mr. Advisor......" Fruhauff did not know what he wanted to do, and was a little dazed.

"I'll make a suggestion to the boss." (To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to the www.qidian.com, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) (To be continued.) )