Chapter 20 She's the leader, I'm cold!

  After the head of state and his entourage finished eating the salad, the mutton was also cooked. Bao Man was truly a gourmet with a big appetite, after eating so much salad, he could still eat large chunks of mutton and drink wine in big gulps, while others could only sigh at the sight of the meat.

  Under everyone's persuasion, Yuan Shou drank a bowl of mutton soup and felt refreshed.

  Soldiers gathered at the kitchen door again, this time not to catch a glimpse of the leader, but for mutton, and some were also attracted by vodka.

  To prevent being trapped after a bombing, most of the air raid shelters built by Harald had two exits, and the kitchen was no exception. Harald led the Führer's party out through the emergency exit at the other end, emerging directly onto the surface.

  According to the commander, the Central Group of Forces has already moved south along the Ostashkov-Volga River to Rzhev and then to the Ruza River, and then along the Mozhaisk defense line built by the Russians through Mtsensk and Zusha River to Verkhovye, connecting with the fortifications of the Northern and Southern Groups of Forces. After switching to defense, everyone felt a sense of relief.

  Three Heinkel 111 medium bombers flew east, their noses glinting in the sunlight. In the distant East, the German Second Tank Army launched a renewed attack on Tula, the result of his compromise with the military, and he did not have much hope for occupying Tula, nor did he have much hope for Halder's plan to occupy Tula and then head north from the south to encircle Moscow.

  The regimental commander and the head of state exchanged a few words, then went with Burlang to preside over a funeral for Sanlian, who had died in an air raid two days ago. Originally, it would have been enough for Commander Burlang to attend the funeral of a regimental commander, but the regimental commander, like most national defense military officers, always felt uneasy when together with party and state leaders, so he used this as an excuse to slip away.

  The company commander and the battalion commander walked down from the top of the bunker, one in front of the other. Bao Man's face was red all over as he gazed at their backs and muttered: "Drinking and then presiding over a memorial service, only the army would do such a thing."

  Li De went to the corner of the bunker to urinate, just in time to see his superiors and the regimental commander walking by from below, right under where he was pointing. Li De held back his urine at the last moment, narrowly avoiding a serious and dramatic incident. He heard his superior say to the regimental commander: "Who says the leader doesn't eat meat? I put so much of it in his black bread, and he eats it with relish?"

  Li Deyi listened and suddenly lost all desire to urinate, and returned dejectedly to the crowd.

  Bao Man crossed his arms and said to Li De, "Today is the 16th. According to your schedule, it's been five days since the Russian army counterattacked Tikhvin. There's still no news from Leb, I don't know what he's up to."

  Li De asked his deputy for a match, broke it in half, concentrated and picked at his teeth for a while, spat on the ground before speaking: "I think he's already in a precarious situation. When the Russian army counterattacked, he was very confident that he could quickly repel the enemy, now the enemy has taken the upper hand, he doesn't dare to report to me again, afraid that we will blame him for not reporting and missing the opportunity."

  Bormann shrugged his shoulders in a mixture of good and bad luck. Schmundt excused himself, saying that perhaps they should quickly organize troops to reinforce. Liddell exchanged a knowing smile with Bormann, and Schmundt, seeing that the leader had not responded, sulkily went aside to smoke.

  Li De waved his hand: "Let's go, we'll go to the underground bunker to comfort the soldiers."

  Schmidt threw away more than half of his newly lit cigarette and took two steps before looking down at it regretfully.

  Everyone returned to the bunker and first came to the main bunker, where the company commander and second platoon were stationed. Li De entered the company commander's room, and more than a dozen people in the company commander's room shouted in unison: "Pay respects to the supreme leader." The shouting was so loud that it actually shook down Hitler's portrait on the wall. Such shouting may have been related to eating mutton.

  Since the beginning of autumn, the soldiers have eaten too many potatoes. Today, a whole sheep was swept away like a whirlwind, and after several days, the smell of mutton still lingered in the second company's bunker.

  Li De entered the second row of trenches. The second-row captain, Hei Ge, was a man who never knew fatigue. As he saluted the commander-in-chief with his right hand, he held a shovel in his left hand. As soon as the commander-in-chief's gaze moved away from him, he continued to dig the soil with his shovel. Under his influence, the soldiers were all busy like ants, and after finishing their salute, they immediately started working, making Li De feel that it was unnecessary to say anything encouraging.

  Schmidt, fueled by drink, walked up to the machine gunner and saw a baby-faced new recruit clumsily changing the barrel. He swayed his body, patted the baby face, and demonstrated: pull the latch up, then rotate the gun body 90 degrees to the right and upwards, eject the old barrel, and take over the new one. The baby face watched with dizzy eyes.

  Schmidt peered out of a firing slit in the bunker and saw several ducks swimming on the river below. He shouted to the new recruits, "Pour the drinks."

  The new recruit was shocked, but quickly came to his senses and loaded 50 rounds of ammunition into the machine gun.

  Schmonte pumped the shotgun and fired several short bursts. The ducks lay quietly on the surface of the water.

  A solitary applause came from the commander-in-chief: "Well, Harold Conlon, on November 16th, 1941, Colonel Schommer arrived at the second company and after a brave fight, he killed the enemy - several ducks. Please record this heroic deed in your company's combat log."

  Accompanied by a burst of laughter, Bowman opened his mouth - everyone knew that nothing but ivory could come out of his dog's mouth, especially when the object of ridicule was a military man: "Colonel Schmunt, today you use the MG34 general-purpose machine gun to shoot ducks, tomorrow you can directly drive the IV tank and fight against Russian chicks. No wonder the army couldn't take Moscow."

  Baurmann seemed to have had a bit too much to drink, for he now turned to the Air Force deputy, Colonel Belov, and said with a grin: "And you, Colonel, can fly an Me *** to bomb the Russians' pigsties."

  "That's enough, that's outrageous, Bowman." Li De hastily stopped him but it was too late. Schumacher stared at him word by word and said: "You're right, this is the result of party education, especially you, the director of the party committee office, have made great contributions."

  Bello continued: "I can tell Air Marshal G?ring what you just said about the air force."

  Bao Man suddenly shouted: "Don't try to intimidate me with the Imperial Marshal, I'm not afraid of him." After finishing speaking, he turned around and walked out of the bunker without looking back.

  Li De's face was no longer presentable, but now, facing a drunkard, he also had no choice. "There is no good road in the rain, and there are no good people when drunk."

  Harold, as if he hadn't seen anything, continued to introduce in a serious tone: "The passageway on the left leads directly to a row of bunkers, while the trench on the right leads to three rows. Which row does the leader go to first?"

  Li De complained to him, "You shouldn't have let everyone drink so much. Vodka, do you know what the alcohol content of vodka is? It's not just the usual 40 degrees, but privately brewed at over 65 degrees."

  Someone whispered: "Isn't the leader a teetotaler? Why does he know so much about vodka? More than an ordinary drunkard."

  "The leader is all-knowing." Someone chimed in.

  ……

  The inspection work ended and Li De returned to the headquarters of the 45th Division in Kozelsk. Due to the exhaustion from the long journey, combined with the fact that everyone had been drinking, as soon as they entered the room, they fell asleep immediately.

  Li De gazed up at the ceiling, his ears beside him picking up the noise from next door, courtesy of Bowman: grinding teeth, snoring and farting, soon followed by a curse: "...not just a deputy officer? The army and air force join forces to deal with me..."

  Li De knew that this was what Bowman had been muttering in his sleep.

  Li De was in a daze when he suddenly heard a faint knock on the door. He suspected it was just the wind, but the sound was too rhythmic to be just the wind.

  A surge of expectation rose in his heart, he tiptoed out of bed, slowly and quietly opened the door, a slender figure slipped in, and a intoxicating fragrance wafted over.

  He knew who the visitor was and asked knowingly: "What brings you here, Miss Adelheid?"

  Someone whispered: "I wrote a news draft and want you to take a look."

  Li De couldn't help but laugh: "You're just a flight attendant, what kind of script are you writing? This is ridiculous."

  She said: "Aren't you asking me to pretend to be a war correspondent?"

  "So you pretended to let me read the news draft, huh?" Li De put on an air, but unexpectedly she threw away the small notebook and pen in her hand, sat directly on his bed and burst into tears.

  Tears are a woman's main weapon for conquering men, and Li De is no exception. He sat beside her, placing his hand on her heaving shoulders to comfort her, and she suddenly flung herself into his arms, burrowing in like a frightened rabbit: "Leader, I'm cold."

  Li De Mo stroked her hair, breathing rapidly, heart racing, speaking softly and tremulously: "Don't be afraid, I'm here, you won't feel cold, you'll be hot, hot to death, thrilled... to death, delighted to death."

  Three "deaths" in a row made Adelaida really "die". She fell back onto the bed, with moonlight shining on her face, so gentle, so serene, with a hint of a smile at the corner of her mouth.

  "The leader..." she called out. The leader responded to the call. He trembled as he unbuttoned her buttons. She thought his movements were too slow, got up and took off her pants herself. The moonlight that had just shone on her face now shone on her snow-white buttocks, reflecting a gentle cold light.

  Li De leaned down and kissed the shadowy area in the moonlight, she also let out a passionate "oh" sound and quickly controlled herself, like the sound of an axe chopping on wet wood. She struggled to lift her head and looked at the leader below, then heavily knocked her head back onto the bed, her body twisting.

  The moon hanging high in the sky cast a cold glow, making the sentry's bayonet even chillier, illuminating the battlefield like a giant canvas, illuminating the snow-covered fields with an extraordinary silver whiteness, shining on their sweat-drenched bodies sparkling like a myriad of twinkling stars.