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This......

Stopping to look at the scene in front of her, Lynn's mind short-circuited for a moment.

This time, instead of taking them to a dangerous forward position, the "Yankel" did not take them to a "black car" with an unknown purpose, and the group finally arrived in front of a house located at the back of the hillside. There were about fifty or sixty civilians gathered here, some of them gray-haired, hunched over their waists and on crutches, and it seemed that they would have to catch their breath for a while after walking a few steps; Some are pale and must rely on the support of others to stand; Some are still in infancy and completely incapable of self-mobility. Such a group of old and weak women and children with difficulty in moving still have large and small suitcases and backpacks at their feet. Two wagons were parked near the woods, with people either with colored clothes on their heads or bandages on their arms, and what little space was left for carrying bags of food and bundled bedding.

It is said that the normal population of such a town should be close to or reach 1,000, and excluding the young and middle-aged people who joined the army and went out to work, there are still several hundred old and weak women and children. Perhaps, as Lynn had previously speculated, most of the civilians had already been evacuated before the Soviets approached, and the rest were either immobile or nostalgic for their homeland and pinned their hopes on the Germans to be able to withstand the enemy's attack. Unfortunately, the situation in the empire had long since been brought to a deterioration, and the invincible and mighty division at the beginning of the war was affected by the two-front battle, and even if there was a supposedly strong defensive line, it could not stop the Soviet offensive in waves.

Looking at the anxious and helpless expressions of the people, Lynn guessed her new mission: to escort these civilians from the front line.

In previous PC games, escorting civilians to the rear was not an easy task, often full of difficulties along the way, and even evil enemies came to snipe, and once the number of civilians lost exceeded the limit, the mission was declared a failure. Now, in front of Lynn, these are flesh and blood living people, personal safety is only one aspect, and their fatigue and hunger must be considered along the way, even if the mission fails, there will be no more S/L opportunities. Thinking of this, Lynn looked around, in addition to the 5 soldiers brought by "Yankel", there was also a small group of German soldiers who had arrived in advance. Of the nine of them, only two wore steel helmets, and the remaining seven were all wearing bandages on their heads or "plasters" on their foreheads, or wearing field caps, beanies, or simply bareheaded. With the exception of the firehead with cooking utensils, the others carried their own weapons, but none of them did not have the heavy firepower output of machine guns, grenades, and rocket launchers. It can be seen that the officers deliberately selected lightly wounded from the forward positions to carry out the less intensive escort mission, and as long as the defense line along the river is not breached, what they need to guard against is the air attack of Soviet aircraft. Of course, the luggage and parcels that could not fit in the carriage were also shared by these soldiers.

After a short time, another German officer came with six soldiers who were "not in the line of fire with minor wounds", and then a major gave orders to all the personnel, including civilians and soldiers: civilians must obey the arrangements of the soldiers, and the soldiers must do their best to protect the safety of the civilians, and the destination of this trip was Königsberg, forty kilometers away.

Yes, Königsberg, one of the last bastions of the German army in East Prussia at the end of the war. Lynn was sure she heard correctly. In his impression, in order to evacuate as many civilians as possible from the area to be occupied by the Soviet army, the German high command launched a large-scale naval evacuation operation codenamed "Hannibal" in early 1945, and finally successfully evacuated millions of civilians, and the German Navy exhausted its last foundation. Unfortunately, history is always written by the victors, and although the overall scale of this retreat was three times that of the Dunkirk retreat, it was deliberately downplayed and forgotten by the Soviet Union and the British and American allies.

According to his memory of the East Prussian campaign and the "Hannibal" retreat, Lynn could already confirm the time, location and main situation of the war, but he did not expect that he would experience the epic retreat full of tragedy and sentimentality so soon, and his thoughts suddenly became a little messy.

If you make it to Königsberg, will you board the ship with the civilians or return to the front line?

After experiencing the most brutal war tempering, although Lynn has not yet reached the realm of putting life and death out of the way, he has also looked down on personal life and death a lot. In fact, whether he boarded the ship to evacuate the former or returned to the front line, as long as he was still alive, he had to continue to fight against many hardships and dangers, and there may be a thousand possibilities for the future road, no matter where he went, he would face it with the calmest attitude possible. But how sad is that despair when you know the end?

"Let's go!"

With a few notes of caution in a tone of neither joy nor sorrow, the unknown Wehrmacht Major waved his hand, and then watched with calm eyes as the men marched north along the road in a loose column. In terms of numbers, a soldier is responsible for two or three civilians, which sounds high, but the reality of the scene makes people see the hardships of the road ahead: the soldiers are already more or less wounded, and on average each person has to carry an extra piece of luggage or two. Considering the physical strength of the elderly and children, their burden will only increase along the way, not decrease.

The arm abrasion was already unharmed, and after most of the day's rest, his physical strength had recovered a lot, so Lynn took the initiative to help the civilian carry two suitcases. Although they are not as heavy as the big boxes carried by the "Night Warriors", each of them is more than ten or twenty pounds, and it is estimated that they all contain the most important and precious household goods that these civilians consider to be the most important and precious -- gold, treasures, antiques, and may also be rare paintings and calligraphy, and unique books of famous books. Thinking of books, Lynn naturally thought of the bookstore diagonally opposite the church, the room full of books was a lot of spiritual wealth, just look at the situation in the town, most of the houses near the church were destroyed, and the small bookstore was probably not spared. Suddenly remembering the old man in the bookstore, Lynn looked around the loose line for a long time, and finally caught a glimpse of the stylish white goatee at the end of the line.

The old man was still dressed in the same simple attire, but he didn't wear glasses. He carried a small suitcase in his right hand, and in his left hand he held a child of three or four years old, and on the other side of the child was an "old woman" wearing a large plaided shawl. She tugged at the hem of the shawl in her right hand so that her head and face were covered as much as possible, and in her left hand she carried a canvas bag similar to a modern travel bag. At first glance, the position of these three people is like a grandfather, grandmother, and young grandchildren. Lynn turned around and walked back, took advantage of the situation to clamp a box under her armpit, and prepared to help the old man with her free left hand, and directly paraphrased the sentence in "German Conversation" and said:

"Hello sir, nice to meet you! Can I help you? ”

The old man had already noticed Lynn, and when he heard him speak, he replied curiously and gratifyingly: "Oh, it's you, Danish!" Thank you, I can do it myself! ”

Judging from the posture and movements, the old man's physique is also quite tough, in fact, two carriages loaded with luggage items walked behind them, although the carriage was very full, but there should still be a place to put a small suitcase.

"Your son's son?" Lynn didn't know what to say about "grandson" in German, so she had to replace it with this simplest logical pronoun. He looked down at the child, his young face was red from the cold, he was wearing a gray velvet hat, a slightly large tweed jacket, and a pair of small and delicate brown leather shoes on his feet, all of which looked like a typical European boy.

"It's a granddaughter! Son's daughter! The old man looked at the child with kind eyes. I saw her timidly look up at Lynn, and a "Dad" suddenly popped out of her mouth.

The old man hurriedly explained to Lynn, "Uh, I'm sorry! Her father was also a soldier, so ......"

"Oh, it's okay!" Lynn smiled and reached out and touched her head, but the little guy shook off his grandfather's hand and pounced, hugged Lynn's right leg tightly with both hands, and shouted in a childlike cry: "Dad, don't go, don't go......"

Lynn was stunned, and then felt a sour feeling in her heart. He leaned down and gently stroked the back of the child's head with one hand, and the fine hair under the velvet hat had a feel a hundred times softer than cashmere. The light smell of hats and clothes not only distinguishes it from the fishy smell of European adults, but also reminds Lynn, who has been immersed in the smoke of war for several days, of his distant childhood.

"I'm so sorry!" The old man said in a helpless tone: "Her father died in North Africa in 43, and she can't figure out what happened to die, and she misses her father very much, so she ......."

"It's okay! Uh, she'...... Call...... What's the name? Lynn spelled out the question with some difficulty.

"Catrily!"

At the same time as the old man said the name, the "old woman" on the side leaned down and said to the little girl in a light and pleasant voice: "Baby, be good, come to Mommy!" ”