On a hurried business trip to Jiujiang, Mu had time to ask for leave and apologize to all the officials!

Dornbirn, a small town in western Austria located on the edge of the mountains and on the Rhine River, is eight kilometers north of Lake Constance, where Germany, Switzerland and Austria meet, and 30 kilometers south of the small neutral country of Liechtenstein, and this 40 kilometers long and average width of about four or five kilometers of river valley is a rare open area at the northern foot of the Alps. ^//^ The Upper Rhine valley has long been a fertile and attractive tourist destination, with a unique natural environment that has allowed it to escape the brutality of the two world wars. However, it is difficult to find a true pure land, and as soon as Lynn's 3,000 men arrived, the fierce gunfire broke the long-term tranquility of the place.

The German Free Corps, tempered by a harsh environment and high-intensity combat operations, was like a tiger descending from the mountains, and in just a few days, it raided many Soviet garrisons on the western border of Austria one after another. Whether it was a post of dozens of people or a barracks and fortress of hundreds of people, they all swept through with the autumn wind sweeping away the leaves, leaving no luxury for the Soviets, and even Bregenz, a military stronghold held by more than 1,000 Soviet officers and soldiers, also went down in one battle. With only a week to go before the New Year of 1949, the area of the Austrian River Valley, which stretches from the Swiss border in the west, to the Liechtenstein border in the south, to the steep mountains in the east, and to the shore of Lake Constance in the north, is a "land of freedom". This time, however, Lynn did not announce that it would become another "land of freedom" from Soviet control, as in Salzburg, but buried himself in armament warfare. Under the influence of the Allies' diplomacy, the Swiss government turned a blind eye to the personnel and vehicles that "smuggled" supplies to the Free Corps across the border, and with the Imperial reinforcements from northern Italy to the Alps, Lynn's main force soon expanded to more than 5,000 men, and received a large number of artillery, ammunition, mine explosives and other important combat equipment.

In Schofsoven, Salzburg, Traunstein, and Oberstov one after another, and almost every time they were annihilated by the opponent who did not have the advantage in numbers, the Soviet military, which had a strong sense of self-esteem, could not tolerate such humiliating provocations from its opponents under any circumstances.

This time, more than 2,000 people were lost in the Upper Rhine Valley, and the Soviet army quickly moved westward with the heavy corps that had assembled in the Salzburg area and swept the nets in northwestern Austria, and the main forces deployed in the hinterland of Austria and Germany continued to divide their forces to the south, and even the mountain troops of the Caucasus Military District rushed thousands of miles to the Alps

Before receiving the news of the movement of Soviet troops, Lynn had a clear understanding of the situation he was in, and he ordered the main force to build a defensive line in a dangerous position while resting, and at the same time transferred personnel from the imperial elite to form more than 20 special operations detachments to carry out surprise attacks on bridges and passes more than 100 kilometers east of the river valley. Although most of the bridges and important passes were garrisoned by Soviet troops and Austrian auxiliaries, these elites were led by veterans of special warfare. With the roar of the mountains, more than 30 bridges erected on tributaries of the Rhine collapsed, more than 50 guarded passes were blocked by earth and rocks, and a large number of mountain roads were damaged to varying degrees. As a result, the road from the Austrian hinterland to the upper valley of the Rhine was basically cut off, and Lynn's special operations detachment did not retreat, they lurked in dangerous areas with sniper rifles and mortars, and carried out flexible and varied attacks and harassment operations against Soviet reinforcements who were trying to re-erect bridges or forcibly swim across, so that these menacing Soviet soldiers had no way to detour, and the artificial bridge construction faced many difficulties, and they fell into a dilemma for a while. The east side was impassable, and the southwest side was "protected" by the two neutral countries of Switzerland and Liechtenstein, and the only areas that could be reached by the large forces of the Soviet army were Lake Constance and the slower mountainous terrain on the east coast.........

On December 30, 1948, at the northern foot of Mount Paden north of Bregenz, a fierce offensive and defensive battle began. The Soviet heavy tanks could hardly climb over the main body of Mount Paden, which reached an average altitude of more than 400 meters, and the Soviet troops engaged in the attack attacked the Frederick Corps with the main force of infantry, and at the same time carried out a strong breakthrough in the lakeside depression less than 40 meters wide between Paden and Lake Constance with more than 100 T34 and troop transport armored vehicles, trying to seize the northern barrier of the Upper Rhine Valley from more than 1,000 enemy defenders at any cost. The Soviet army, which had a large number of self-propelled guns, field guns and air force support, completely occupied the scene, but the opponent's defense experience and ability were first-class, they made full use of the solid mountains and steep terrain to organize layers of defense, and the first morning of the exchange of fire caused the Soviet army to drop more than 2,000 corpses on the northern slope, and the beautiful lakeside depression also became a purgatory for the Soviet armored troops, and the anti-tank guns that fired from the concealed positions, the mountain fighting vehicles of mobile defense, and the heroic and invincible infantry anti-tank men formed an impenetrable fire network. The smoke and clouds were everywhere with the wreckage of the chariot and the bodies of the dead.

The frontal assault was thwarted, and the situation of the Soviet troops attacking from the east of Paden was even worse, and in those steep areas where it was difficult to climb on foot, a few Imperial soldiers with sufficient ammunition could make a company of Soviet troops retreat, not to mention that every hill in this area at an altitude of more than a kilometer was guarded by battle groups equipped with heavy mortars or light mountain artillery, and it was difficult for the Soviets to cross the defense area even if they attacked day and night. Under these circumstances, the Soviet troops in Germany increased the speed of collecting ferries, and the northern end of the Upper Rhine Valley stretched more than ten kilometers from Bregenz in Austria to Tal in Switzerland, half in Austria and half in Switzerland. In the midst of the fierce battle of Paden, Lynn received important information: the Soviet government sent a diplomatic note to Switzerland, informing the Swiss government that the Soviet army might set foot on Swiss territory on the shores of Lake Constance in the next combat operation, and that the Soviet Union's move was purely for the purpose of fulfilling the terms of the armistice agreement, and had no intention of violating Switzerland's neutrality. The Swiss government strongly protested the Soviet government's note on the grounds of violating its neutrality, and the Soviets did not show diplomatic toughness, but only repeatedly emphasized that the Free Corps was a military force controlled by the remnants of the fascists, and that allowing it to develop would only condone the revival of Nazi power and the loss of stability.

The white snow-capped mountains reflected in the rippling blue waters of the lake are the most representative natural features on Lake Constance. In the middle of winter, in the early morning, a blue-gray mist wafts on the surface of the lake, and the faint sound of a motor comes from the depths of the fog. A gray "big fish" was originally half-floating on the surface of the water to breathe, and when it heard this unnatural sound, it disappeared into the icy lake in a blink of an eye, and from above, the black shadow in the water gradually blurred, leaving only a periscope the size of a can box to spy on the surface of the water.

A dozen minutes later, a light-colored shadow emerged through the fog, it was not the usual ferries or sightseeing cruise ships on Lake Constance on weekdays, but a well-armed and murderous gunboat. On the bow flagpole, the Soviet naval flag was waving in the wind, and on the deck gun position, Soviet personnel in sailor uniforms were waiting for them. Suddenly, a second gunboat with a different appearance appeared, followed by a third and a fourth, and the civilians living near Lake Constance had probably never seen so many combat ships here in their lives. Under their guidance, the ferries, barges, and private sightseeing yachts that were forcibly recruited traveled from north to south, all of which were of the same size and appearance, but at this time lined up in neat columns like naval fleets heading to battle. On these civilian ships, the soldiers in steel helmets, long coats, and bags on their backs seemed to be ready for the landing operation, and they all looked grim, as if they were not even willing to make innocuous jokes.........

Suddenly, "Torpedo!" Torpedo! The false silence was shattered by the shouting, and the first to notice something unusual on the surface of the lake were Soviet soldiers on a large ferry. For this inland lake, the "big ferry" is a vessel carrying two or three hundred passengers and dozens of tons of cargo, but it stands out from the crowd in this complex fleet. Seeing the shark-like stealth object approaching at a rapid pace, the Soviet officers and soldiers pinned their only hope on the guns in their hands, and within seconds, the fire of pistols and submachine guns exploded, and countless water columns splashed on the nearby water surface, but what is the probability that these ordinary bullets will directly detonate the torpedo or change its trajectory? The expert's answer may have disappointed these Soviet officers and soldiers who tried to grasp the straw for life.

Beneath the lake, the Seal miniature submarine, which had been parked in a secret warehouse for three years, turned around and swam away without hesitation after firing two torpedoes——- apparently not worrying that the Soviets would get a sonar-equipped combat ship here. As a two-person submarine designed for attacking ships, the "SEAL" is equipped with the most basic equipment to complete combat missions, the hull is a battery compartment, a crew compartment and a engine room from front to back, the hull has a large command tower, a channel propeller in the tail, and two 533 mm torpedoes are hung under the sides of the hull. These mini-submarines were easy to build and maintain, and in the face of the industrial collapse of the Third Reich, 262 of them were built by various shipyards, and a considerable number of them were put into actual combat. They are equipped with low-power diesel engines for charging, and the endurance is not bad, but the seaworthiness on the sea is really unsatisfactory, and at the end of World War II, only 16 merchant ships were sunk, and their own losses were as high as 105, most of which were sunk due to bad sea conditions such as storms. Fortunately, this time it was fighting in an inland lake with gentle currents, and the ship technicians temporarily hired by the Reich's intelligence department in Switzerland also used their dedicated work to ensure that it could dive and sail, and with the light torpedoes produced in Switzerland, it might be able to create a legend of its own······