Thanks to tdn-chinsy, Xuanhu no1, Sagittarius dē Shenyue, ll1989, No Xiaosheng, Taipingqiao and other book friends, especially pandaboy. Sky just made up for a wedding in Nanchang yesterday, hehe, very tired and hard, but finally the merit is complete! In the next stage, we will go all out to create and live up to everyone's expectations!

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Unable to wait for daybreak, the SS corporal, who temporarily commanded the retreat of the civilians, made the decision to restart. For Lynn, four or five hours of rest was quite generous, but these old and weak women and children had been trained and tempered by the army, and they all looked tired and yawned, but no one relied on them to leave or do other out-of-the-ordinary actions. With the help of the soldiers, they each took their luggage and took care of their families, and reorganized into a long column in natural order.

When she woke up, she saw that "Daddy" was still there, and she smiled as brightly as a flower. Just as Lynn bent down to pick her up, she offered a sweet morning kiss, and then said something that surprised Lynn: "Dad, I'll go by myself!" ”

After that, the little hand took the initiative to hold Lynn's big hand. Although he was a soldier, he had not served for too long, and Lynn's hands were not as rough as those of the veterans, so he could clearly feel the delicate and delicate nature of the little hands, and every few steps, the little one would always look up at himself, sometimes laughing playfully, sometimes jumping happily. In her world, this is not a refugee escape, but a pleasant trip to the east.

Although she still had to carry the cunning old man's suitcase, because the carriage was gone, and the blanket of the White Goatee family could only be carried on her back, but after resting for most of the night, Lynn still walked with great ease. If it weren't for the fact that it was really difficult to hold two suitcases in one hand, he could even help the old man and the young woman carry all the luggage. He looked back at the "white goatee" and the young widow, who had tucked their clothes tightly, but the thick scarves and capes helped them to resist the cold as much as possible, but the white air exhaled was so clear that it was enough to show that the temperature outside was low.

"Katri, are you cold?" Lynn asked, looking down at him, and as he spoke, he was a little worried that his pronunciation would not be accurate, which would make the child unable to understand his question.

The little girl immediately looked up and replied, "It's not cold, Daddy!" ”

Every "Dad" is like a spring breeze, which makes Lynn's heart surge with warmth. Perhaps, there is nothing wrong with a slightly longer trip......

After walking for about an hour, the little girl looked up at Lynn more often. Lynn smiled knowingly, bowed down to pick her up, and naturally received another pure fragrant kiss. Katrili was undoubtedly happy to meet this young, strong and kind "father", but the civilians who retreated to Königsberg together were not so lucky. The long procession was always walking at a pace of about two kilometers per hour, and it was fine at first, but after a short time, people stopped to rest—old men with gray hair and beards, and then women with children. They went from the top to the bottom of the team, and most of them struggled to keep up, but as time went on, more and more teams fell behind, just like the day before.

It was finally dawn, and before the sun could rise, the rumbling of cannon could be heard from the rear again. It was not clear whether it was a Soviet attack or a counterattack by the German defenders, and the speed of the retreating ranks increased for a short time, but soon returned to their previous state, and even slowed down.

The sound of the artillery had already affected the fragile nerves of the civilians, and then a flock of Luftwaffe warhawks flew from the direction of Königsberg, some civilians stopped to cheer and wave their hats, and several soldiers joined in. But at the end of the war, any optimism was destined to be blind. Looking back at this moment, the larger-scale Soviet aircraft group is like a dark cloud. As they appeared, the rumbling of the defense line along the river suddenly intensified, and the momentum became stronger and stronger, and the ground even trembled.

There were more than 20 German fighters in the air, which was the most Lynn had seen in a few days, but he was not happy at all—the greater the investment of both sides, the more it meant that the battle had escalated to the stage of deciding the surname. If the Germans were able to hold their positions, the time limit for the retreat of this civilian contingent would be relatively relaxed, and if the Soviets broke through the defense line along the river in one go, the consequences would be as terrible as a flood bursting the embankment!

Many civilians and soldiers stood on the road with great interest to watch the battle in the air, and although the German fighter pilots had the same heroic fighting spirit as their predecessors, by 1945, except for the more advanced jet fighters, the other air combat units had lost the technological and equipment advantages that they were proud of. Knowing both intuition and reason, Lynn hurriedly called the old man and the woman, and carried Katrili to the woods on the right side of the road, and turned back to the civilians and soldiers in his broken German, and shouted to the civilians and soldiers: "Hide, take cover!" ”

The distance of three or four hundred meters is not too far, but when the physical strength is not abundant, it takes courage and determination to take a rainy day to walk a little longer. Despite the unknown reason, "White Goatee" and the young widow followed Lynn out of the way, but among the remaining civilians and soldiers, few of them responded to the SS soldier. Only a dozen or so men left the road and headed for the woods, six or seven of whom were SS soldiers who accompanied them. By the time they entered the woods panting, the air battle was coming to an end, and the remaining small group of German fighters retreated in defeat, and the huge Soviet group continued to fly in the direction of Königsberg, and along the way, a group of fighters continued to break away from the main force. German positions, villages, houses, bridges, and anything that was considered to have a military role could be targeted by Soviet pilots. Looking down from hundreds of meters in the air, this column on the road must be very eye-catching.

The disaster that Lynn feared had struck, and the two wagons were stocked with red cross sheets, which might have some protection at a critical moment. But the carriage had already left first, and the dozens of civilians and soldiers left on the road could not change the Soviet pilot's intention to attack, even if they shouted and broke their throats and broke their arms. I saw four olive-green painted Jacques fighters swooping down in a standard tactical formation, the elegant and dexterous posture was like a flight show, and the rockets mounted under the wings were probably consumed in the previous air battle, and the pylon position was empty, and it seemed that there was no sense of dragging!

"Run, run!"

Seeing that the Soviet fighters were in a dive-strafing posture, the soldiers and civilians who were already in the woods anxiously shouted to their comrades who had stood and watched the play and burned their butts before remembering to flee for their lives. But how can the two legs of a person be faster than the plane, and most of them have not yet run half the distance, when the roar of the aviation machine gun "da-da-da" bursts in the air, and a coherent bullet immediately flies with a clear trajectory. The civilians who did not have time to flee screamed in alarm, and wisely chose to fall on the spot to dodge, and the stupid or panicked still ran forward, and even ran away in a panic under the interference of the enemy's bullets......

Although he was not a real "compatriot", seeing these unarmed innocent civilians suffering in front of his eyes, Lynn's heart felt like a needle prick, painful and depressed, but he could not find an outlet for release. As an unfortunate person born in the war, little Catrili had apparently witnessed a similar scene before, burying her head tightly in Lynn's arms, sobbing and trembling slightly. Her mother, the young woman Alice, could not bear to watch this human tragedy either, and she stood behind Lynn and pressed her forehead against the back of Lynn's shoulder without saying a word.

In the storm of bullets, the people lying on their stomachs remained motionless, and those who gave up their lives to run fell one by one, and it seemed that no one would flee into the woods again. The face of the "white goatee" full of vicissitudes of life was engraved with endless sadness, and it stretched out to the woods. The surrounding soldiers either smashed the tree with their fists, or knelt on one knee without raising their heads, and the civilians who were lucky enough to escape were all extremely sad.

I can save myself, I can save Katrili's family of three, but I can't save more innocent civilians. Lynn looked up, and the otherwise clean and flawless sky was cut into irregular strips by the white condensation of airplanes. If Heaven exists, how many sad souls can it carry?