Mongols in the German Army Section 08

  Li De took a step forward, removed his gloves and wiped the blood from her mouth with his hand. She looked straight at him, her eyes brightened, and her face was as clear as a spring day. She suddenly stood up straight and saluted: "German volunteer soldier, Latvian, former Soviet army lieutenant Rania pays respects to the commander."

  Li De asked kindly: "Tell me your reasons for beating the German military officer. If your reason is sufficient, I can consider reducing the punishment."

  Her face had just cleared up, but suddenly dark clouds gathered, and her smile disappeared. She pointed at the bald head: "He's bothering me."

  Li De laughed, but he wasn't the only one. The whole room erupted in snickers and whispers, as if they were facing a middle school student who didn't understand the ways of the world.

  Rania suddenly burst into tears, big drops of tears falling straight to the ground: "He doesn't have that kind of skill, but he insists on entangling me... He's a pervert, he's sick, impotent..."

  "Rania——" Baldy desperately shouted, "Why are you doing this to me, why?"

  Rania stopped crying, lifted her head and coldly said to him: "Why? Because I want to leave you, for this I have warned you no less than ten times, begged you no less than ten times, but you stick to me like super glue, wanting me to be a widow for the rest of my life..."

  The officers under his command were so insulted that General Leb's face was unbearable, and he sternly shouted at Rania: "Enough, you shameless girl! If you want to break up, take proper measures. Who allowed you to become a German volunteer from a prisoner of war?"

  After the German army entered the Soviet Union, the people of the three Baltic states regarded the German army as liberators. The Latvian Forest Brothers and other anti-Soviet armed forces, and even more so the Latvian officers who were estranged from the Soviet army, cooperated with the German army to fight against the Soviet army. Latvia was no exception.

  With the backing of the head of state, Ran Niya even dared to be rude to General Leb: "I have great respect for you, General, and I also know that you are friends with him over wine, but not even if it were the head of state himself could make me change my mind."

  Rania began to boast of her achievements in front of the leader: "As for what you said about the prisoners of war, I completely agree with you. However, you left out one sentence: when the 18th Army was still dozens of kilometers away from Riga, the capital of Latvia, it was I who rescued the German prisoners and occupied Riga before handing it over to you. You didn't even reward me for that. The Soviets killed my parents, all I can think about is revenge."

  Rania rushed to Li De's side, grabbing his hand before the guards could intervene, and tearfully implored: "Respected leader, please uphold justice, I will listen to only your words. Moreover, I can serve the empire, make contributions to building a new Latvia."

  The whole house was filled with ridicule and sarcasm, an officer stuck to the head of state like a mischievous teacher's assistant to inform on him, she was the operational staff officer of the Latvian General Staff and also a member of the Soviet KGB.

  The betrayal had the opposite effect, and after hearing it, the leader looked at her with new eyes, more determined than ever to keep her by his side. He turned his eyes and came up with a grand reason: The empire was in need of people, and one should be good at discovering talent, using talent, and promoting talent without being bound by conventional rules.

  Field Marshal von Brauchitsch's face twitched, the high-ranking marshal was made to lose face by a little girl, and Lide felt both pitiful and delighted. He turned around and glanced at his entourage, becoming even more pleased: Bormann had an undisguised look of schadenfreude, Goebbels stared blankly at Renya, with a hint of drool at the corner of his mouth... He coughed, Goebbels came back to himself, whispered a few words in Bormann's ear, and Bormann, who had already picked up on the Führer's unspoken meaning, gave orders to the guards with an air of importance: "Take away this foreign young woman who attacked the Imperial Marshal and hand her over to the Imperial Racial Affairs Bureau."

  Several guardsmen stepped forward and, without a word, slapped handcuffs on Renya and pushed her in front of Bowman. The senior lieutenant asked what to do with the bald man, and Bowman listened again to Goebbels' whisper before answering loudly: "What's there to ask? This is an internal affair of the Northern Army Group, of course it will be handled by Marshal Leeb. What a fool."

  Li De secretly agreed with their verdict and cast a satisfied glance at Goebbels.

  After a brief digression, Marshal Leeb reported to the Fuehrer on the latest situation: The German 18th Army had surrounded Leningrad by land, the 16th Army was holding out on the northwestern front, and the motorized 39th Army had occupied Tikhvin yesterday and was advancing east and northeast of the city.

  General Meretskov confidently declared that within ten days, the 39th Army would reach the Svir River and meet with Finnish troops, completely encircling Leningrad, and Leningrad would surrender.

  Li De asked unexpectedly: "What is the situation of the Soviet army?"

  "The Soviet Army?" The German commanders were accustomed to calling them Russians, and when Hitler referred to them as the Soviet Army, they felt uneasy. They were even more unaccustomed to putting themselves in the Soviets' shoes and considering their moves, always making one-sided plans, so Hitler gave him an army.

  General Leb calmed down quickly, picked up the long-handled magnifying glass and examined the map for half a day, pointing to the east of Tikhvin and saying word by word: "Bokситого..." He carefully identified the words behind.

  Li De and others couldn't wait any longer, taking over the conversation: "Boksi Togorsk, the Soviet army has deployed a tank division and an infantry division, preparing to launch a counterattack from the east in three days; north of Tikhvin, the Soviet 4th Army has been reinforced with tanks and artillery from the 7th Army, preparing to give the advancing German troops a blow, as well as two rocket artillery regiments and one heavy tank regiment equipped with KV tanks..."

  "What? They will counterattack?" Marshal Leb and the officers looked at each other in confusion. "The Commander-in-Chief is absolutely right." A voice came from the corner, drawing the attention of everyone in the room, but then fell silent, perhaps realizing his own abruptness.

  "Who is it? Come out and finish what you have to say."

  A burly easterner sauntered to the front, General Leeb glared at him, trying to glare this careless fellow back into that corner. He ignored it and walked straight up to Hitler, reporting in standard German: "My Fuehrer, three days ago I returned from reconnaissance on the front line and reported to the general the intelligence you just mentioned, but the general didn't believe the enemy would launch a counterattack at all. The intelligence I risked my life to get was dismissed as cow dung."

  "Others are complimenting you; cow dung is good fuel, after all." The sharp-tongued Goebbels interjected, never missing an opportunity to mock the military officers.

  Li De quickly scanned his brain, but there was no information about this person. The visitor introduced himself: "I am the deputy commander of the 4th squadron of the Brandenburg Division, directly under the command of General Hube of the 4th Tank Group."

  Someone shouted: "He is a volunteer absorbed from Russian army prisoners, his father is Kalmyk."

  The newcomer turned to the man: "You're right about half of it, I'll add the other half: First, I'm not a prisoner, I surrendered on the battlefield. In September, I attended a training session at a country estate outside Brandenburg and became an officer in the German army, swearing allegiance to the Führer; second, my mother is German."

  A moment of silence, the diligent and studious Goebbels asked others what the Kalmyks were, everyone looked at each other in dismay, some people turned to the all-knowing Chief of General Staff Haider, who usually talked a lot but this time deliberately turned his face away, staring blankly at the magpie's nest on the birch tree outside the window.

  Li De took the opportunity to give everyone a history lesson: The Kalmyk people are actually the Mongolian Torgut people of Russia, belonging to the same Eastern ethnic group as the Chinese. As early as the 16th century, the Kalmyks left what is now Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, migrating westward in search of more fertile pastures, eventually settling in what is now the Republic of Kalmykia.

  In 1771, the Russian Empress Catherine declared the abolition of the Kalmyk people's autonomy and attempted to force them to abandon Tibetan Buddhism for Christianity. The Kalmyk leader immediately led 170,000 tribesmen on a seven-month journey, fighting several battles with pursuing Russian troops along the way, losing 100,000 men in the process, before finally returning to the Xinjiang region. They were warmly welcomed by the Qing government and regarded as heroes who had returned from afar. To this day, these heroes are widely distributed across China's Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, and Qinghai regions.

  After the October Revolution, many Kalmyks joined the White Army during the Russian Civil War, particularly under Generals Lavr Kornilov and Anton Denikin. The Soviet authorities severely punished those Kalmyks who remained in their homeland, executing thousands of them. In 1931, Stalin ordered the collectivization of the Kalmyk people, closing Buddhist temples and burning Kalmyk religious texts. He deported all lamas and Kalmyks owning more than 500 sheep to Siberia for forced collectivization. Approximately 60,000 Kalmyks died in the famine of 1932-33.

  Lee concluded: "The Kalmyks, like the Cossacks, are sworn enemies of the Bolsheviks, in other words, our natural allies, because Stalin took away their legs."

  Seeing everyone's confusion, Li De explained: "The Kalmyks are a nation on horseback just like the Cossacks. They ride horses all their lives, but the Soviet collectivization movement took away their horses, which is equivalent to taking away their legs, making these knights walk silently and quietly. How can they not hate them to death?"

  After a burst of light laughter, everyone was convinced by the Prime Minister's profound historical knowledge. Harold admired the magpie nest and joined the audience with a red face.

  Li De seemed to be talking to himself: "The Soviet Union has more than a hundred ethnic groups, each with its own situation. We need to learn how to take advantage of the internal contradictions within the Soviet Union. To treat them all the same way as before is simply stupid and brainless."

  Everyone was silent and speechless. No one could answer this question. Because the person who had previously grasped everything with an iron fist was none other than the leader himself.

  The Kalmyk man was over the moon with excitement, his words tumbling out incoherently as he sprang to his feet and gave a Nazi salute, loudly declaring: "Major Kraskei Ilyumzhinov pledges allegiance to you, beloved Führer! I surrender my entire being to you; I am willing to sacrifice everything for you!"

  Li De said a few words and got a loyal follower, feeling sweet in his heart, but saying: "Not for me, but for Germany, and also for the establishment of an independent Kalmyk Republic where everyone has horses to ride."

  Two lines of hot tears streamed down the cheeks of the Kalmyk, and all the Germans present, whether generals or high-ranking Party officials, felt a deep respect for the Fuehrer. Only General Karl Wolff, the permanent representative of the SS Main Office, looked puzzled. Back in Berlin he hastily reported to Himmler on the Fuehrer's new policy of establishing Eastern states.

  Lee felt a little disheartened by the repeated deviations from the topic today. Goebbels reminded him that it was time to eat, and Lee only then realized the reason for his absent-mindedness - his body needed replenishment. Marshal Leeb had prepared a sumptuous lunch, but he was indignant: while others had caviar from the Black Sea, mackerel, ham, he was given a serving of sugar-cooked fruit, made from milk, oatmeal, apple puree, walnuts, lemon and some other miscellaneous things. He gazed enviously at the others who were feasting on delicacies, and felt sorry for himself.

  After lunch, the sun had already set in the west. Li De and General Leb exchanged views alone, and General Leb still firmly believed that the German army would soon meet with the Finnish army. Li De no longer insisted, he had made up his mind to wait for General Leb to let the Russians beat him until he came to his door seeking help.

  The armoured train travelled south overnight, via Minsk to Berlin. Goebbels yawned and complained about the Fuehrer's trip north: "We should have gone straight back to Berlin; going all the way up to Army Group North HQ just for a good meal?"

  Li De replied: "You guys at least got to eat delicious food, but what about me? All I get is those sweet fruits, treating me like a patient."

  Goebbels suddenly became interested and nervously asked the Führer how to deal with that Latvian girl. To avoid persecution, Lide took her onto the train, but unexpectedly this guy had a mind of his own and must be dissuaded from his evil thoughts, so he said: "I want to cultivate her into a first-rate agent, let her serve the Empire."

  G?ring took his leave. Li De opened the map of the Tikhvin combat area, and after looking at it for a while, the place marked as Tikhvin brought up Renya's beautiful face. After thinking wildly for a while, his eyelids drooped, and he fell asleep on the map to the sound of rumbling wheels.