The Königsberg Line is like a dividing line between two worlds, devastated and deserted outside, while the residential areas, schools, shops and greenery inside are well preserved. As the capital of East Prussia, the traditional territory of Germany for hundreds of years, Königsberg's prosperity is not only concentrated in the port and urban area, the clean and modern suburbs are completely different from Lynn's impression of the "urban-rural junction", and the real European-style architecture reminds him of some so-called high-end residential communities, according to the so-called green space rate and floor area ratio of his time, the current environment is enough for developers to play a huge signboard: urban countryside, prosperous countryside.

The scenery on the side of the road is certainly beautiful, but it's a pity that Lynn is not in the mood to appreciate it at all now. Not only that, but looking at the surrounding groups of war refugees and soldiers on crutches and with wounds, my heart was once again enveloped by the heavy color of the end of the empire. Occasionally passing by some factories with large chimneys, the scorched earth of the bomb craters left behind by the Soviet bombing is still shocking, and the wreckage of the plane is scattered everywhere, as if everything reminds this young man who has just spent a night of spring breeze how cruel the reality is!

After walking for a while, the group finally stepped into the densely built and neighborhood-crisscrossed city in the middle of the afternoon. When they arrived, the people around them were no longer walking in one direction, there were empty cars returning from the direction of the port, there were soldiers in a hurry, and there were men in black hats and black trench coats with a vigilant look - the situation was so urgent that Königsberg could still see the Gestapo, which surprised Lynn. On second thought, whether provoked by others or naturally breeded, it is indeed easy for discontent to erupt in places where refugees and remnants gather, and to trigger some terrible and terrible consequences.

As you can imagine, the closer you get to the harbour, the more pronounced the smell of the sea becomes. The salty wind blew in their faces, and the occasional whine of the steamer's whistle, and the group could not help but quicken their pace, but only after a few streets, the streets became more and more crowded until they could not move forward at all. Lynn stood on tiptoe and craned her neck to look ahead, it turned out that a wooden-framed barbed wire cordon along the street blocked the way to the port, and through the gap between the buildings in the distance, Lynn faintly saw the deep blue.

"Daddy, Daddy, why aren't they leaving!"

Little Catri, who was dragging the hem of Lynn's coat, asked in a milky voice, without the slightest impatience or dissatisfaction in her innocent tone.

Lynn didn't know what to say about "dock" in German, and didn't want to spend extra time flipping through the dictionary, so she roughly explained: "The front should be the place waiting to get on the boat, probably a queue to enter!" ”

The crowd crowded the streets, at least thousands, men and women, young and old, wearing hats, shawls or nothing, and almost everyone wanted to know what was ahead, so much so that their heads were like dogtail grass growing in a small area, swaying slightly from side to side in the wind.

With the body and strength of a young man, it is not impossible to squeeze to the front, but Lynn thinks that it is really difficult for the white goatee family of three to keep up, and if the hard squeeze is useful, I am afraid that many people on the street will already be squeezed into meatloaf by this time. He thought for a moment, turned to look back, and there were still refugees coming in twos and threes, but what caught his attention were the people sitting on the corners of the street and on the balconies of the buildings along the streets, and judging by their attire, they were all civilians who had retreated from all parts of East Prussia. Comparatively speaking, there is less impatience on their faces and more helpless anticipation.

So, Lynn turned to the white goatee and the young woman: "Let's go, find a place to settle down first!" ”

There was neither opposition nor approval, and when Lynn picked up little Catrili in both hands, the two of them also picked up their luggage.

Walking away from the harbor, Lynn quickly chose what looked like a hotel, pushed open the double doors of broken glass, and entered the hallways of the mess. Although the things here are messy, you can still see the traces of human activity. Climbing up the still-intact spiral staircase to the second floor, there are two old men and women in the hallway leaning against the window and looking out.

Lynn paused and asked White Goatee to ask them in English.

"Excuse me, do you know what kind of order is used to wait on board?" The white goatee spoke quickly, not at all worried that the other party would not be able to hear him.

The old man with white hair and a shriveled face replied slowly: "The number plate you received when you entered the defense area is the order of entering the dock area, wait!" We've been waiting here for two days now, and at the current rate, we can't wait a few more days before we get on board and leave! ”

Lynn only understood half of this sentence, and when White Goatee retranslated it into English, he remembered that this family of three seemed to have received a small gray sign when they registered, but he did not. Hurriedly came to the white goatee and the young woman to take a look, and the two small signs were printed with the exact Arabic numeral "273".

"Your number is ......," Lynn looked up at the old man opposite.

"Our batch is 2-3-1!" The old man read the numbers separately instead of making them a big number, which was easier for Lynn to understand.

Although the difference between the two sets of numbers is only 42, I can imagine that each number represents a group of people, maybe hundreds, maybe thousands.

Lynn asked, "How many people are leaving by boat every day?" ”

The old man replied: "I heard that in the past, it was possible to evacuate twenty or thirty thousand people a day in a good time, but in recent times the Soviet bombardment has been very fierce, and only a few thousand people may board and leave every day!" Well, those who got the number 215 plate yesterday were allowed to enter the dock area and wait for boarding, 216 and 217 seem to be still in front of the queue, and tomorrow or the day after tomorrow it may be around 220! ”

Knowing the meaning of this sentence, Lynn sighed in his heart: God, how long will it take to wait like this?

"This is God's punishment for our sinful souls!" The old lady next to her suddenly burst into such a sigh, and her dry fingers, which were as dry as tree bark, crossed back and forth on her forehead and chest.

"Alas......" the old man sighed, "the navy seems to have been trying to clean up the two sunken ships in the channel for the past two days, if it can be completed, and the Russian air raids are not so frequent, the next retreat speed may be improved!" ”

Hearing this, Lynn didn't know what to say for a while.

Hearing someone talking in the corridor, the doors of the next rooms opened one after another, and out came an elderly man, and two children about five or six years old poked their heads out curiously.

"There's still room to spare!" A white goatee broke the silence.

The old man said: "This floor and the previous floor are gone, and there is no first floor, let's go to the fourth and fifth floors to have a look!" Oh yes, the second right turn south is a relatively large air raid bunker, and once you hear an air raid siren, it's best to get there as soon as possible! ”

"Let's go!" The white goatee turned to Lynn and said, the old face washed away by the years was still the same unfazed expression.

Although he thought that the officer would ask him to go to the Kyle Hotel to inquire about the situation when he entered the defensive line, Lynn decided to settle the family of three first.

The innkeeper is nowhere to be found, but the rooms here are full of guests. Finding no vacancy on the fourth floor, the group climbed to the top floor of the hotel and found a small room around the corner. In this day and age, of course, there would be no TV and no air conditioning in the hotel, and a double bed, a small log table, two wooden chairs, and a small dressing table were all the furnishings in the room. The broken windows were filled with cold air, and the balcony door was broken. When I opened it, I saw a small semi-circular balcony with a small coffee table and two sofa chairs in the limited space, and it was nice to sit on such a balcony to drink tea and read a book when the sun was shining.

Walking onto the balcony, Lynn found a view of the large city and a corner of the harbor. Since the Viennese were the first to tear down the city walls, many cities in Europe have stepped out of the traditional framework, but this does not mean that tradition has been abandoned, and Königsberg is a city of old and new buildings, traditional atmosphere and modern atmosphere. The beautiful River Prigg flows into the sea from here, and bridges connect the city with the silt-washed islands. Sweeping the city to the harbor, the water in the sun was not as blue as expected, it glowed yellow-green like a meadow, and carried ships of different sizes and purposes. Such a scene, at first glance, it looks vibrant, but on closer inspection, it is disappointing......