Paris, I'm coming (1)

  Some members of the British Special Forces 'Commando' squad sneaked out of the castle, using the terrain to cover themselves as they approached the Spanish army's position. As they drew closer to the Spanish army's position and the terrain was about to lose its ability to conceal them, they suddenly stood up and poured fire into the Spanish army's position.

  The Spanish troops were caught off guard, and some soldiers who had not taken cover in the trenches but stood above them (believing they were far enough away that the British would pose no threat) fell down convulsing under the hail of bullets from the British assault troops. Other Spanish soldiers were frightened by the British advance and dropped their weapons, starting to flee to the rear, naturally becoming targets for the British assault troops as well. A Spanish officer in the trenches, seeing this situation, became enraged, shooting and killing several fleeing soldiers, shouting loudly at his men to pick up their weapons and open fire on the British advancing towards the trenches.

  The sniper in the British assault team had long since framed the jumping, loudly shouting Spanish officer in his sights. After a dull gunshot, the Spanish officer suddenly stopped shouting, and a small hole appeared on his forehead, with blood flowing out of it. The Spanish soldiers were all distracted after seeing their officer fall, and they could no longer muster the courage to fight the British. They crawled out of their fortifications one by one and ran towards the back, some carrying their guns, others not even carrying their guns, and some even lost a shoe while running, but still kept running forward without regard for the gravel on the ground.

  The British storming party, seeing the Spanish soldiers running away in such a state of panic, did not fire at them but instead entered the trenches set up by the Spanish army. Their mission was to cover the withdrawal of the main force and attract the attention of the Spanish army. When the attention of the Spanish army was attracted by the attack of the British storming party on the castle, their heavy artillery had already been set up before the British storming party's assault, but had not yet fired at the castle. At this time, the heavy artillery shifted its muzzle and began to bombard the positions occupied by the British storming party. The Spanish commanders believed that this was the main direction of the British breakthrough, so they transferred the Spanish soldiers who surrounded the British from all sides to reinforce, leaving only a few people on the original position for surveillance.

  This left a weak point in the Spanish army's encirclement. The British commandos inside the castle took advantage of this and slid down the castle walls with ropes. After gathering, a bold raid broke through the weak Spanish army's encirclement and entered the nearby forest. After Richard led the main force to break out, he fired two red signal flares into the sky to indicate to Lieutenant Lassen that they had successfully broken out. They could also end their covering mission and break out on their own. However, in the end, only five people broke out with Lassen. Lieutenant Lassen covered the other soldiers who were breaking out, operating a ZB-26 machine gun alone at the back of the breakout team, continuously firing at the Spanish, until he was hit by shrapnel from a Spanish mortar shell on his forehead and fell on the breakout route.

  The plane carrying Zhou Tianlei landed at a French airport that had been occupied by the German Air Force, where his general's car was waiting under the escort of guards. When the deputy officer and guards assigned to Zhou Tianlei saw him emerge from the cabin, they all saluted him. Zhou Tianlei was startled at first, but soon realized that these people who were saluting him would be his entourage in the future, and they had not followed him previously because he had been organizing a special operation in Spain. He quickly regained his composure and solemnly returned their salute with his right hand to his subordinates who would accompany him from now on.

  After a five-second pause, he dropped his arms. As he walked up to the car, the deputy officer had already opened the door for him. Once he was inside the sedan, the deputy officer closed the door and walked over to his own seat, bent down to get in, and closed the door on his side. The guard soldiers saw Zhou Tianlei and his entourage get into their cars, so they started up their motorcycles and several of them sped away from the airport quickly, with Zhou Tianlei's sedan following closely behind, and a few more escort motorcycles trailing behind. The deputy officer turned around in the car. He looked to be over twenty years old, wearing the rank of naval lieutenant commander. He handed Zhou Tianlei a piece of paper with some names written on it, saying: "Sir, these are our names. I'm Laer, your deputy officer. He's Leiteman, your driver. There are other people's names on here too, but they're not in this car. When they arrive at your side, I'll introduce them to you." Zhou Tianlei asked with feigned ignorance: "Where are we going now?"

  Larl said, "The Supreme Command has issued an order for us to go to Paris. We are preparing to attend the surrender ceremony of France." Zhou Tianlei asked, "Then why didn't our plane land in Paris, but instead we have to take a car?" Larl replied, "The airport in Paris is being renovated to welcome the arrival of the leader, so the airspace over Paris is currently restricted. Without special permission from the Supreme Command, no planes are allowed to appear in the skies above Paris." Zhou Tianlei nodded and said, "Oh, I see." Larl continued, "General, we have arranged a hotel for you to rest in Paris. You can take a break when you arrive. We all know that negotiating with the British in Spain must be mentally exhausting work for you."

  Zhou Tianlei nodded, thinking that it was not just a matter of negotiating with the British, but also creating trouble in Gibraltar, stirring up local people and British people who had been together for a long time. Intercepting French gold, and even being ambushed by the British when leaving. However, the British seemed to have planned their ambush carefully, which meant that they had already come out of their initial confusion and arrogance, and were seriously facing reality, thinking about how to deal with the new tactics brought by Zhou Tianlei. But it must be admitted that the British ambush was not necessarily intended to capture or kill him, but rather to grab him, judging from the performance of the British army at the time. This was a good method, although it couldn't be made public. Just as he was thinking this, Lai Er suddenly turned around and said: "General, we have entered Paris."

  Here is the translation:

  Zhou Tianlei gently lifted the curtain covering the car window with his right hand and saw that the French people on the street seemed to be unaffected by this war. It looked like there had been no war here, and the Parisians, although not friendly towards the Germans, did not show any disgust either. Maybe it was because the French government had abandoned Paris to the Germans, and the Parisians were extremely disappointed with their own government.

  Larl excitedly said: "General, on the 14th, you were still in Spain and didn't see our army's magnificent entry into Paris. I'm still thrilled when I think about it now." Zhou Tianlei asked: "Were you in Paris that day?" Larl nodded and said: "Yes, General, thanks to your influence, originally Leutemann and I weren't qualified to enter, but we told them we were your attendants, so they let us in. Our tanks passed through the Place de la Concorde, our infantry passed through the Arc de Triomphe, and the sound of their footsteps was music to our ears."

  Zhou Tianlei asked: "Where is my hotel?" Larl, who had been enthusiastically recounting his experience of watching the German army enter Paris, stopped talking. He said: "General, our hotel is just ahead on that street." Zhou Tianlei's motorcade arrived at the hotel entrance, and several motorcycles with soldiers got off and took up guard positions. Larl himself got out of the car and hurriedly opened the door for Zhou Tianlei.

  When Zhou Tianlei stepped out of the car, he saw that there were German soldiers everywhere around the hotel, so he knew it had been taken over by the German army. It was probably being used to accommodate high-ranking German officers attending the French surrender ceremony. As he entered the hotel lobby, several officers approached him, and one of them shouted: "Haut, you scoundrel, where have you been? You're just arriving now."

  Here is the translation:

  Zhou Tianlei looked up to see that the German officer who had called out to him was actually his first friend he made after arriving in Germany - General Rommel. Behind him were several German army officers and armed SS officers. Rommel saw Zhou Tianlei and became very excited, rushing over to give him a warm hug. Zhou Tianlei was caught off guard by this sudden attack and tried to resist Rommel's strong embrace while saying: "Erwin, where did you learn this Russian bear-style hug from? You're almost suffocating me!" Rommel released his grip on Zhou Tianlei's arm and laughed loudly: "We haven't seen each other for several months, and your body has become so weak! I remember that day you were as strong as an ox. Is it true that the longer you sailors are at sea, the weaker your bodies become?" Zhou Tianlei said: "Don't you know that I was in Spain recently, responsible for negotiating with the British about their expeditionary force prisoners of war captured by us at Dunkirk?" Rommel said: "I knew that, but it seems like you didn't get any results!" "But since you just arrived today, I'll let you rest. Tonight we'll go out and have some fun. This is Paris! Tonight I'm treating you. You've been at sea for so long, your thinking must be outdated" After saying this, Rommel and the officers left. Zhou Tianlei and his entourage entered the hotel room. After taking a comfortable hot bath in the bathtub, Zhou Tianlei put on a bathrobe. He lay down on the comfortable bed in the room and soon fell asleep, as he had been extremely tired lately. He didn't know how long he slept, but was woken up by the doorbell. He opened the door to see Lale standing outside, with Rommel behind him. Lale apologized profusely: "Sorry, General, I didn't want to wake you up, but you know him..." Zhou Tianlei interrupted Lale's words: "I know, it has nothing to do with you, go rest." After Lale left, Rommel took out a suit that looked very elegant and said: "Put this on, we're not wearing uniforms tonight."

  "Are there others besides us?" Zhou Tianlei asked strangely. Rommel said, "Of course not just the two of us. There are many more!" After Rommel pulled Zhou Tianlei onto the car, they sat together in the back seat, and Zhou Tianlei asked, "Who else is waiting for us?" Rommel smiled and said, "The army and air force have already assembled, and there's also a Waffen-SS officer. The only one missing is you from the navy, so I need to hurry up and bring you over." When Zhou Tianlei arrived at the entrance of a luxurious-looking hotel, he was stunned when he entered the lobby. Among the dozen or so people in front of him were mostly the elite of the German army and air force. The air force had Richthofen and Kesselring, while the army had even more, including Guderian and several other famous ones besides Rommel. There were also some people Zhou Tianlei vaguely remembered but couldn't recall their names for the moment. After exchanging pleasantries, everyone took their seats, and the waiters brought out their pre-ordered French cuisine. The military men savored the French veal and other delicacies.

  Zhou Tianlei was eating when he suddenly remembered that he hadn't had Chinese food for a long time, and every day he basically ate German sausages. Zhou Tianlei was tired of this kind of food, but in the past, there was no way to eat Chinese food even if he wanted to. But this is Paris, where Chinatowns can be found all over the world, and France should have one too. He quietly told Rommel about his idea. Rommel's mouth began to water after hearing Zhou Tianlei's suggestion, and he quickly told other officers about it.

  Many other officers had some contact with Chinese people when Germany and China were on good terms, so they naturally knew something about Chinese cuisine. Several of them immediately suggested settling the bill and driving to Chinatown. More than a dozen German military officers got into the car and asked the driver to take them to the 13th arrondissement of Paris, which is the representative of Paris' Chinatown and also Zhou Tianlei's suggestion.

  When the car turned into the avenue leading directly to Chinatown in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, Zhou Tianlei suddenly heard a very familiar voice coming from a small alley beside the avenue. Immediately, a black shadow rushed out of the alley and collided with the front of the car driven by Zhou Tianlei and Rommel, fortunately, the driver was on high alert, otherwise the black shadow would have been knocked flying. Zhou Tianlei and Rommel quickly got off the car, while the highly vigilant guards had already surrounded the black shadow and the two of them.