This time, the French counterattack was like a bamboo, not only solving the crisis of the siege of Verdun, but also driving the German army out of the second line in one fell swoop, and finally stopped at the front of the third front.

Because the advancing front was too long, the French Marshal Petain ordered to stop the pursuit and instead consolidate the forward front and clean up the battlefield.

On the German side, faced with the defeat of Verdun, Falkenhayn was dismissed, and Field Marshal Hindenburg took over as chief of the German General Staff.

Three days later, the Kaiser ordered the cessation of the offensive, and the German positions were switched from offensive to defensive, and the Battle of Verdun, known as the most inhumane in human history, finally came to an end.

But Zhou Yu knew that although the crisis in Verdun had been lifted, the war had not really stopped.

All the Allied forces used this as a base point to launch a full-scale counteroffensive until the Germans were forced to sign the instrument of surrender.

In this battle of Verdun's "meat grinder", the Allies and the Central Powers invested nearly two million troops, and the casualties amounted to more than one million.

The Germans were also exhausted in this campaign, and could no longer make effective defenses against the French counteroffensive, while the latter began to fully regain large swaths of the country, and triumphantly along the way.

In the following period, Zhou Yu and his C13 Task Force laborers were not sent to the front line, because everyone did not need to dig trenches anymore, the Allied attacks were overwhelming, and they never encountered decent resistance again, coupled with the full-scale participation of the American army, it was only a matter of time before Germany was defeated.

In addition, under Williams's mediation, Zhou Yu and them were transferred to a gathering point of Chinese workers in Paris, where in addition to their C13 contingent, there were tens of thousands of Chinese workers in charge of the logistics of the French army.

When Zhou Yu and the others saw these Chinese workers, they felt a sense of strangeness.

These people have numb eyes and rickety figures, but when they see their fellow workers, they look a little cowardly, a little humble, and they don't even dare to make eye contact with the C13 workers, I don't know how they got over this time.

On the other hand, the laborers of Task Force C13 did not realize that after months of fighting on the battlefield, each of them had a blood in them, which was born only when they crawled out of the pile of the dead, and they were even a little scary in the eyes of ordinary people, so they did not dare to approach it.

"Bruce Zhou, my friend, has not met with decent resistance since the counteroffensive on our side of the Allies, and I dare to assert that at most a month the Germans will be forced to sign the surrender agreement."

Zhou Yu knew that Williams was the son of a well-known earl in England, and most of the credit made by the Chinese workers this time would be on his head.

After all, the Entente was unwilling to do so, and did not want to admit that the turning point in the Battle of Verdun was due to a group of Chinese workers.

Yes, although they are allies, the foreign men who feel superior with arrogance in their bones will never give in even if they admit it in their hearts.

But these are not important, Zhou Yu now just wants to leave France as soon as possible with his people, even if he can't go directly to North America, he can also use the British Isles as a springboard to leave here first.

"Williams, what's going on with what I've told you? Is there room for manoeuvre? ”

Williams looked left and right, and said in a low voice, "Don't worry, I have already communicated with my father by letter, and he will send our family members to drive a ferry over to transport the wounded back to England."

But don't you really take into account the development of our family? We have a lot of industries in London, in Birmingham, especially in the post-war factories that need a lot of workers.

You have proved yourself with your actions, that the Chinese workers are not only smart but also hard-working, and that will allow you to live a much better life than in your previous country. ”

Zhou Yu smiled, patted the other party on the shoulder and said: "I understand your kindness, Williams, if we want to work in the factory, we will be better off staying in France, you can't help but admit that your compatriots have too deep prejudices against us, and the French are much better than you in this regard." ”

Williams was embarrassed, but he couldn't argue with that, indeed, there was very little respect for these Chinese workers in his home country, but on the other hand, France, which was already in tatters, needed these people even more, and they were all men.

"Okay, Bruce, that's just a suggestion, I'll get back to you before the ferry departs, but you know, one boat can't pull all of you, and you have to make a trade-off among these people."

Zhou Yu nodded and didn't say anything more, at this time, there were nearly 80,000 Chinese laborers in France who were silently dedicating, and it was impossible for him to transfer all these 80,000 people.

On the other hand, these people did not share the hardships with him on the battlefield, and it was impossible for them all to listen to Zhou Yu.

Zhou Yu, who has knowledge of relevant aspects, knows that some Chinese unions have settled in France, married girls here and stayed here.

There are also a large number of Chinese workers who are determined to return to their hometowns, and that kind of homesickness is not something he can control, and he doesn't want to be left right, he just needs to take his brothers from Task Force C13 and his brothers who are willing to go to the new world with him.

It was November 11, 1917, which was later known as Singles' Day.

On this day, Germany officially announced its surrender and signed the famous "Armistice of the Compiègne Forest" in the Fuxi carriage of the Compiègne Forest, north of Paris.

And this truce was surrendered, and it was a full year earlier than the stop time that Zhou Yu knew before.

At this moment, the Chinese workers in Paris heard a noisy sound from afar.

Soon, the cacophony of sound swept through the neighborhood where everyone was working.

It was cheers, it was the cheers of the end of the battle, and people gathered in the streets from all directions, singing, dancing, and venting their repression and fear during the war.

Zhou Yu and others also walked out of the street from the factory, and many Chinese workers who had learned a few words of French congratulated each other with the locals around them, shouting long live.

He also saw that Mu Dezhu, Dog Wa and Liu Banxian and others also joined a group of French girls in the dance and danced happily.

Zhou Yu looked around, and a smile finally appeared on the faces of the boiling crowd, how hard-won peace was.

The damage inflicted on humanity by war is incomparable to any catastrophe, and it is a terrible experience that will affect at least two or even three generations, but fortunately this time they have carried it through.

On this day, he did not restrain his brothers and let them sing and dance with the local celebration procession.

The surrounding shops opened wide open and took out bread, milk, and even liquor to share with the procession.

Soon the number of people celebrating the victory grew, and everyone took to the streets of Paris to join in the long-awaited revelry.

The crowd of people marching and celebrating continued until the early hours of the morning.

Zhou Yu looked at the Chinese workers who still had the red light of excitement on their faces, and sighed lightly.

"Joanna, in a few days we will be out of here, leaving France, you must take care of yourself, I will remember this friendship between us, and I will write to you if I have the chance."

The French girl sitting next to Zhou Yu bit her lower lip, combed her hair hanging down in front of her forehead with her hand, and said in a relaxed tone:

"Have a good journey, Mr. Bruce, you are a true gentleman, more of a gentleman than the Englishmen I have ever seen who claim to be old gentlemen.

I know your ambition is not here, you are the one who does great things, Joanna would like to, but she will not insist that you stay here, I just ask you to write to me, a month, oh no, two months or three months. ”

Zhou Yu can vaguely feel Joanna's heart for him, but in the turbulent world with an uncertain future, he doesn't want to think about his children's personal affairs too early.

Since you can't give others a stable life, it's better not to start.

"Don't worry, I'll write to you."

The girl raised her head, looked at the starry sky that had not been seen for a long time, and suddenly stood up and turned around in place.

"Goodbye, Mr. Bruce, it's a blessing to know you, it's a blessing to know you~ I decided to go back to our town to continue to be a teacher, I might be a nurse for a while before that, but eventually I will be back there, the address I have written to you, keep in touch, goodbye~!"

"Goodbye Joanna, and all the best."

The girl, who had just turned twenty, stirred each other with her hands behind her back, stepped backwards step by step in the face of Zhou Yu, suddenly turned around, and quickly turned into a street intersection with a brisk step, and disappeared from Zhou Yu's sight.

But the girl who turned the other way stood there with her back against the wall, not holding back the tears that flowed down her face.

She was eager to invite Zhou Yu to stay, like many French girls in the area, and form a new family with those Chinese workers.

But she knew that this was unrealistic, Zhou Yu was so different, his ambition was not here at all, perhaps, the two of them were destined not to be together.

Joanna, who was beautiful and emaciated, had her chest heaving up and down for a while, and then she suddenly smiled and turned away.

But he had just taken a few steps when he was suddenly covered by a pair of big hands that reached out from the shadows and dragged him into the darkness.

Zhou Yu sat on the steps outside the door of the Chinese workers' dormitory, watched Joanna leave for a while, then got up and said a final goodbye silently, and returned to the house to prepare to rest.

But at the moment when Zhou Yu was about to close the door, he suddenly heard a scream coming from the night sky.

It was Joanna's voice, and she was shouting "don't".