Section 1 Visiting Prisoner of War Camp

  What kind of woman is this, with an ordinary appearance, thin and small, except for her captivating smile and plump legs, she can be considered a plain and unremarkable woman. If it weren't for the few tears she shed last night, Li De wouldn't have taken much interest in her.

  Just as the swindlers in the jianghu shouted: "You don't know if you don't try, and you can't escape if you try." Li De is now inseparable from her. In other words, the leader is inseparable from his flight attendant.

  Li De had tasted many women, but he had never known there was such a woman: **her whole body trembled uncontrollably, quivering like she was on an electric vibrating iron sieve, while below she clung tightly like an octopus's suckers, making one fall into ecstasy instantly, experiencing unprecedented comfort, as if transformed into a celestial being.

  It is said that among women like her, only one in three hundred can be found. I don't know who came up with this statistic or how accurate it is, but she's definitely a rare treasure.

  "In the past, I met Tiandai Sima Ziwei in Jiangling, who said that I had a fairy-like demeanor and could wander with the gods to the edge of the eight extremes...... Li De truly experienced Li Bai's poetic realm, perhaps Li Bai also encountered a queen like Miss Adela?"

  "Knocking outside the door, Borman came in: 'My leader, did you sleep well last night?'"

  Bormann waited for the Fuehrer to complain, complaining that he snored, farted, ground his teeth and farted, but saw the Fuehrer smiling at him with a smile, feeling stunned.

  In fact, the emperor didn't even have time to thank him, it was his noise that covered up the emperor's and Ludvika's affair, which can be described as a timely coincidence.

  Bormann went up to Liedtke and whispered: "Speer has arrived."

  "What?" Li De was taken aback and didn't react for a moment.

  Bao Man repeated it again, Li Deteng jumped up: "Quickly invite quickly invite."

  Speer had apparently been waiting outside the door, and before the Fuehrer's second summons was even finished, he strode in with an air of confidence: "Good day, my Fuehrer. You've kept me chasing after you long enough."

  Two people hugged each other, Speer wore a blue suit, white tie and black leather shoes, giving a fresh feeling, unlike most members of the government who wore uniforms with bright red armbands and boots that made people feel oppressed.

  After the attendant handed him a leather bag and left, Speer opened the bag and pulled out a stack of documents. Li De joked: "What's this, are you preparing to make a long speech? I haven't had breakfast yet."

  Speer pulled out a few photos from a stack of files, hesitated and said: "Since the Fuehrer hasn't had breakfast yet, I think I'll put these things away first, so as not to spoil the Fuehrer's appetite."

  Hearing him say that, it actually piqued Li De's curiosity. He snatched the photo away and took a look, feeling his stomach churn with unease.

  The photo shows layer upon layer of corpses, the bodies swollen like popcorn, their facial features distorted, their mouths twisted into a round hole, resembling inhuman monsters.

  Li De looked at him reproachfully, threw the photo into his arms and walked out the door. Speer suddenly stood up, but a thick stack of files scattered all over the floor, he chased forward a few steps and then returned to pick up the documents on the ground.

  The head of state who had already left the door returned to the entrance and shouted at him: "Leave the ass-kissing job to your assistant, come with me."

  Speer hastily caught up and followed behind. Hitler walked to a vacant lot far away from the house, suddenly turned around, Speer was caught off guard, bumped into the Führer, the two faced each other and collided, then simultaneously covered their faces and squatted on the ground.

  Speer, wincing in pain, stepped forward and helped the Führer up, hastily apologizing. The Führer smiled, waved his hand, wiped away the tears from the corners of his eyes, cleared his throat twice, and regained his composure: "Speer, wasn't our meeting today a bit too formal? Speak, give me something a little more relaxed."

  Speer hesitated over his words: "I am acting on the orders of the Fuehrer, and in accordance with the powers granted to members of the Cabinet under the Reich's War-Time Law, as of November..."

  Li De bluntly waved his hand to interrupt him: "Speer, the reason I entrusted you with this important task is that you have relatively less bureaucratic air about you. Just state the result directly."

  Speer's face turned slightly red, and he said with a relaxed expression: "My Führer, regarding the winter wall construction, I think it has basically been completed. We first dug trenches on the ground, piled up logs around them, covered them with rails, logs, etc., and then covered them with at least three meters of soil, poured water... By December, when Russia's temperature drops to minus 30 degrees Celsius, I believe that the frozen soil will be as hard as steel."

  Speer looked at the Führer with a self-satisfied expression, expecting praise from him. Hitler slowly issued instructions: "The depth cannot be less than 15 kilometers, and build lateral roads parallel to the front fortifications to facilitate the movement of troops between them. This is one."

  Li De looked out at the east, behind him, more than a dozen planes flew over his head, disappearing into the morning sun.

  "Second, take advantage of the river water not being completely frozen and have the soldiers pour water on one side of the fortifications along the river to form an icy cliff wall. You should think of this. Another point is to absorb some good ideas from the soldiers. Another point: the supporting points in the trenches need to be denser, the Russians have a 302mm cannon that is very powerful, they call it the trench opener."

  Schpeel stared blankly at him, Lide stretched out his palm and waved it in front of him, still no reaction. He had to kick him, Schpeel suddenly came back to life, ending the frozen state.

  "What are you thinking?" Li De said in a bad tone.

  "I thought everything that needed to be considered had been, but I never could have imagined so many oversights. In other words, I never could have imagined the Führer was so thorough. I am deeply ashamed." Speer hung his head.

  Li De felt like he had eaten honey, the only thing lacking was that there was no one around to listen. If Bao Man could hear these words, it would be great, he would be completely convinced.

  Li De thought so, and his feet unconsciously walked back and forth. Schpiel reported the recovery production situation to him.

  Baurmann walked over, Li De wanted to show off and interrupted him: "The Bryansk city you mentioned is also famous for producing steam engines." Unexpectedly, Speer corrected him seriously: "No, Bryansk mainly produces rails, not steam engines. What you said is Kaluga."

  ……

  After breakfast, Speer insisted that the Fuehrer inspect a prisoner-of-war camp 40 kilometers from the division. Liddell was well aware of his purpose but didn't find it convenient to say so, besides, they were on their way anyway, and after inspecting the POW camp, they planned to return to Kaluga and then head back home.

  Everyone got into a large sedan of the division, and arrived in about an hour. Li De, Bao Man, two deputy officers, and Speer went to the prisoner-of-war camp, while others waited in the car. Miss Rudvika insisted on following, took out paper and pen for an interview, under Li De's hint, Speer's secretary flashed those few photos in front of her, she was left squatting on the ground vomiting, those guard soldiers stared at her exposed thighs in a daze.

  An Air Force blond-haired captain greeted them. Five days ago the prisoner-of-war camp had been turned over to the Air Force, and everything seemed in order. Li De looked at Speer with suspicion, who shrugged his hands and made a please gesture.

  Goldhaar led them to the large courtyard behind the office area, where it was filled with a foul smell, and sheepskins were piled up like mountains. Some prisoners held beer bottle caps and scraped them on the sheepskins, which had already been sheared once, and the remaining hair was scraped off with beer bottle caps for processing into wool. Baumann covered his nose with a handkerchief and shouted: "Speel, what do you mean? Do you want to make us order leather jackets, but we don't need to know that the sheepskins are scraped with beer bottles?"

  Despite the foul smell, the frostbite on the prisoners' hands was severe, but there were no signs of mistreatment. Everyone followed Lieutenant Kim in confusion, passing through several open-air workshops that also emitted a sheepskin-like odor, and turned into the last locked courtyard. Inside, it was still piled up like a mountain, only this time it wasn't sheepskins, but young and shriveled corpses, mouths agape, with helpless arms stretched out - the corpses of prisoners of war.

  "Everyone died of starvation, they say. Every day there were deaths from starvation, the most on November 8th. To avenge Stalin's Red Square parade, all composite bread was withheld for one day, and as a result, 88 people starved to death that day."

  "They swell up before they die, their faces swollen like big pumpkins, their upper and lower eyelids swollen like the soft pears eaten by people in western China in winter, with a bag of water inside. They walk with shaking bodies, stopping for several seconds after each step. Their mouths are swollen to both sides, their hair standing on end. The noise has changed, speaking in sharp, high-pitched voices like little dogs barking."

  After entering the courtyard, Bormann's handkerchief fell to the ground from his mouth. Speer pried open a corpse's hand and took out a small piece of something grayish, brought it in front of the Führer, pinched it with his fingers, and it crumbled like dust through the gaps between his fingers. The Führer took it over, placed it on his palm, felt it was very coarse, and didn't know what kind of food this was.

  "Colonel, do you know what this thing is?" Blond Lieutenant Schimdt asked Colonel Schmont of the Army with intentional ignorance. "This is the composite ration that your army invented, half wheat flour and half sawdust, not even a pig would eat it."

  Schmundt's face fell: "What are you saying, Captain? Not every army officer knows about this. For example, I was in the Great Headquarters..."

  Air Force Lieutenant Belo also said two sentences to Schmünt, he clenched his right fist and slapped it on the palm of his left hand, raised his head and sighed, asking: "Why not dispose of these corpses? Are you trying to hold an exhibition here?"

  "By the Lord above, I swear it's not like that," Hauptsturmführer Goldhaar protested vehemently. "After all, I've only been in charge of this camp for five days. In any case, we are a national defense force. Reich Marshal G?ring often reminds us: the air force is an army with National Socialist ideas and the traditions of chivalry."

  "An army with National Socialist ideas and the tradition of ancient chivalry." Li De muttered to himself, at this moment he thought again, how good it would be if Himmler were here.

  Li De silently stared at a corpse's mouth corner with cotton wool in a daze. The sound of blonde hair echoed beside his ear:

  "Yes, my sovereigns, they eat everything: cotton wool, sheep's wool, paste from books, potato peels. One has to thank them, there are no mice and disgusting insects here."

  Bower was also moved, saying that the conditions in the camp could only be found in Dante's Inferno.

  Lee told Schommer gravely: "Except for temporary PW camps, all fixed PW camps are turned over to the Air Force."

  "This..." Speer suddenly stuttered and walked over. Li De knew he was extremely disappointed at this time. He had been persuading him to come to the prisoner-of-war camp, and his idea of using cheap labor forces had apparently fallen through. What Li De was considering was that it was already prestigious enough for him to be the Minister of Military Supplies in the future, personal power could not be too great, and the momentum could not be fully revealed.

  The blond lieutenant made a beckoning gesture and everyone hastily left the gloomy place, standing in the courtyard and letting out a long sigh.