In the stove on the wall, the warm and warm flame danced, and the room was as warm as spring. It's still cold outside the stone castle, but the temperature is rising. The snow has begun to melt and the roads are muddy at both ends.

Accardo saw off his wife, Mercedes, in the morning, and the German first lady rushed back to Berlin because of the latest plan for the production of a helicopter by the White Lanhua Group, and now that he was alone with Anna, the whole room seemed a little lonely.

Listening to the crackling of the firewood in the fireplace, Accardo sat there in silence, holding a telegram from the Far East in his hand. It was the contents of this telegram that made Accardo sit from morning to now.

This morning's telegram, because Germany has changed its strategy and intensity of aid to China, Japan has also changed its corresponding strategy. At 7:15 this morning, the late Battle of Songhu officially began.

The situation in the Far East looked dire, and the Japanese forces in Shanghai encountered the most stubborn resistance from Chiang Kai-shek. Four German armament divisions engaged in a fierce battle with the Japanese near Shanghai, and the Japanese troops suffered heavy losses. Chiang Kai-shek's 20 Messersmit 109C fighters, which had been smuggled from Italy with great painstaking efforts and pants, actually achieved the brilliant record of shooting down 27 Japanese fighters on the morning of that day.

And that weak Far Eastern China actually gave birth to two aces of air combat in an hour. Even Accardo himself did not expect that under the command of the Kuomintang general General Zhang Zhizhong, the 9th Army of the National Revolutionary Army, which Sickert had repeatedly boasted to Accardo in telegrams, would be so powerful.

Just two hours earlier, at 9 a.m., less than two hours before the start of the war, Chiang Kai-shek's 150-millimeter Krupp heavy artillery produced at the arsenal he had secretly built on the outskirts of Wuhan had made a miraculous feat by hitting the command post of the Japanese landing force and reimbursing two major generals of the Japanese Army.

Regardless of this kind of slight luck in the record, just to say that as soon as the war began, the Chinese army pulled out 50 75 mm caliber field guns and 25 150 mm heavy guns, which made the Japanese army completely unexpected. As soon as these Krupp hardcover artillery units appeared, the Japanese army learned what it means to suppress Ashkenazi firepower.

In addition, the Mauser 98K bolt rifle in the hands of the Chinese infantry has better comprehensive performance than the Japanese 38 rifle, the Chinese army's Makqin machine gun is also more practical than the Japanese Type 92 heavy machine gun, and the Czech light machine gun is the creator of the casualties that make the Japanese army entangled, so except for some advantages in tanks and ships, the rest of the weapons and equipment seem to be inferior to the Chinese defenders.

Judging from the content of Sickert's last telegram, the Japanese army had to drop 100,000 men in Shanghai at least this time to achieve the result of the year.

However, Accardo also knew in his heart that it was impossible for China to win this war. Within a few hours, the Chinese defenders will be outnumbered, and the Chinese armed forces, which lack the support of a complete industrial system, will not be able to withstand a war of attrition, and will eventually collapse and lose Shanghai at the post-conference juncture, as in history.

China, which is far away, is remarkable in this time, and it is enough to make me feel a lot better. At least in this time and space, the Chinese have more confidence to defend their homeland and have higher combat capabilities. At least in this decisive battle of Shanghai, the overall equipment level of the 9th Army, the main force of China, was almost the same as that of similar German troops, and it also gave the arrogant Japanese Army a glimpse of the true level of the European Army.

But Accardo was still not happy, for what he had in his hand was the last telegram sent by Sickert—the last telegram indeed, and the old general, who had been in poor health, Accardo's old superior, and Accardo's teacher of many details of military knowledge, had closed his eyes forever just half an hour before because of his illness and the fluctuation of his feelings.

This old man who volunteered to go to China to help the poor and weak Chinese people regain their vitality is gone, and this old man who has been praised by President Chiang Kai-shek as a model for international friends and the cornerstone of China's national defense is gone—although under Accardo's careful care, he died two years later than in history, but he still left when the Chinese people needed him most.

A telegram had just been sent from a secret agency of the German intelligence agency stationed in Nanjing, and the Ninth Army of the Chinese National Revolutionary Army had just sent a telegram of condolence, and the Chinese soldiers on the battlefield had spontaneously wrapped sackcloth around their waists.

Sickert was extremely mournful in China, and at the end of the telegram there was a thing that made people sigh, although the flag could not be lowered at half-mast in mourning according to the courtesy of the national soldiers, but the blue sky and white sun flag of the Nanjing Presidential Palace was not raised to the top today, but was a full foot short.

Accardo sat quietly, knowing that the afflicted people had always lived up to the old saying, "A drop of water reciprocates the favor of a spring." He knew that Sickert, who had stepped down from the stage in Germany, had found the best memories of his life in China. With Accardo's support, the old man did more, more. So the Chinese remembered this friend, and in return he was 40,000 burning hearts.

Accardo even felt that in Wuhan's military factories, the machine tools used to produce the cannons were spinning faster, and that the workers were working overtime to load shell after shell into ammunition boxes and send them to the front with slow but never-ending oxen and horse porters.

Accardo even felt that he could feel that on the battlefield of Shanghai, those resolute and silent Chinese soldiers, holding rifles engraved with German in the cold wind, used their flesh and blood to prove that this nation has never fallen.

The nation that carries thousands of years of history, the ancient, rigid, stubborn, and stubborn nation, the weak, tolerant, inferior, and timid nation, they have a straight backbone, a backbone that cannot be bent by tanks, they have blood that cannot be dried, and their liver and brain will not be cooled; they have kindness from the bottom of their bones, so kind that because there is an old man in Nanjing who was buried in Nanjing, they forget about the unpleasantness of Jiaozhou Bay.

Why did you leave like this? Accardo thought silently in his heart, he remembered the previous encounter, remembered the first meeting with Sickert on the train, remembered the **** night in the Wehrmacht, remembered that he watched Sickert leave with a blank face. What was it that wet the collar?Acador reached out and touched it, but when he saw it, he found that he couldn't see clearly.

The years are really merciless, how many familiar people have just left? the stubborn diplomatic god of war Streisman, the wise industrial arrogant Carl Bentz, the stubborn and strong field marshal Hindenburg...... Now, another old man has left this world, silently but not unheard.

"I guess you won't be too lonely. Accardo sighed. What kind of solemnity will the funeral be? Will it be full of Chinese customs? Will there be the white sails that summon the spirit, and the familiar square-hole paper money? Will there be people crying and praying for such an old fellow as you?

Anna didn't knock on the door, she walked in quietly, and stopped behind Accardo, she knew that her lover was in a bad mood, and she knew that the respectable old man was the elder that Accardo cared about very much.

"Führer!" Anna did not call her customary name, but solemnly called Accardo's position. She reminded Accardo in disguise that he was now the Führer, the Führer admired by all German people, the Führer of Germany who had to cheer up.

"Heh......" Accardo let out a sigh of relief, collected his mood, and said softly, "What's the matter?"

"General Rundstede has called! Army Group A has captured Sedan and the French 9th Army has retreated on all fronts. Anna replied.

"I see. Accardo slowly stood up, shook his SS uniform, and restored his former straight back: "Telegraph him back......! I await his good news. ”

......

"Stand up!" a German officer ordered in a loud voice.

"Whoa. The sound of a neat standing sounded, and Wren stood at the front of the line, silently looking at the five crosses nailed with wooden sticks, still expressionless.

The five graves lie quietly in a single grave, and these new graves are all German soldiers killed in the battle of crossing the river, and there are nearly 100 people in sight. There were soldiers crying silently, but Wren just pursed his lips and looked motionlessly at the grave in the center, which had a wreath made of straw that the commander of Tank 125 had hung up.

"I couldn't cry. That doesn't mean I'm not sad. I know you're a good company commander. Marcus stood next to Wren and whispered, "I'll take your share and live well." ”

"You lie here, it shows that it is not enough to be desperate, not enough to kill, not enough to be cruel, not enough to blood. Wren whispered, "I don't know what to tell you, I'll come back here to see you when I'm done beating the French." ”

"I know you're all sad, but remember what our battle song says?" said the battalion commander, standing on the side, looking at his men with a hint of sadness on his face.

Someone took the lead in singing, and the voice was a little tragic, but it was extremely firm. Soon everyone sang along, and the familiar melody grew stronger and stronger. They are seeing off their comrades-in-arms with their singing, so they are extremely dignified:

"If we are forsaken by the goddess of fate,

If we can't go back to our homeland,

If a bullet ends our lives,

If we are in danger,

That at least our faithful tanks,

will give us a metal grave. ”

"Wren!" the battalion commander glanced at Wren and shouted loudly, "The first platoon is under your command for the time being, until you die in battle or I find a better candidate." ”

"Yes!" Wren replied loudly.

"The company commander is temporarily represented by the platoon commander of the 2nd platoon. After the battalion commander finished speaking, he turned around and walked into the distance: "Rest for two hours, and then set off west along the road." ”