Natural Allies Section 11

  He put down the baton, straddled a chair, lit a cigarette and took a deep drag, his face flushed with excitement, gesticulating wildly as he shouted at the round-faced man wearing a monocle:

  "Model, you already have six regiments, I suspect those poor roads will be ruined by your passage. You are to follow the shortest route and dash towards the Vistula River like a dog."

  "Model is a dog." "What dog wouldn't pounce on a bone?" "A male dog, not a female one." "This dog still has eyes." The colleagues made a commotion. Model remained deaf to this and carefully measured the distance on the map.

  Li De maliciously spoke ill of Li Bo, interjecting: "A few days ago, General Leb promised me that he would definitely occupy Tikhvin in ten days. Who would have thought that a few days later, he would lose it instead? What a boastful talker."

  The head of state was extremely disappointed, and the generals did not echo him at all, focusing on Hepburn. The generals were unwilling to do the dirty work of falling into a well and throwing stones, unlike the East Asian nation who was good at "dog chasing down the slope wolf" and "tiger falling in the plain being bullied by dogs".

  The commander of the 41st Armored Army stood up spiritedly and stared intently at the commanding officer.

  Heppner looked at Li De and added:

  "The Commander-in-Chief has agreed to my request: at that time, the 163rd Infantry Division north of the Vistula River and the 9th SS Panzer Division Nord will make a limited advance southward to meet you."

  "Ja!" General Model rose again, his eyes gleaming as he gave the Führer a keen salute. The Führer raised a hand in response.

  General Model was notorious for his ruthless tactics, and once he had chosen a target, he would stop at nothing to achieve it, even if it meant sacrificing most of his troops and staining his own uniform with blood. His successes were also based on his correct judgment and bold decision-making, as well as his iron will.

  He turned to a tall general whose cheeks and nose were red as if he had a cold. He slowly got up to listen to the order:

  "General von Manstein, you will use two divisions of the 56th Army and the 20th Armored Division of the 39th Army to first retake Tikhvin, then advance northwards, striving to reach that river. You must be as cunning as a fox, guarding against the Russians' wolf-like tearing, especially on your right flank."

  "Yes." The 56th Armored Corps Commander-in-Chief General Shar sat down weakly.

  "The fox is no match for the wolf." said Lieutenant General Brendenberg, commander of the 8th Division of the 41st Army.

  "Then I'll personally take up the rifle and poke out the wolf's eyes," he retorted, before bursting into violent coughing. General Brendenberg hastily patted him on the back, thinking it was because of his anger.

  Hepburn stifled the humming noise beneath him and continued:

  "The rest of the 39th Army's three divisions must hold the entire right wing. The 61st Division of the 21st Army serves as the general reserve."

  A noble-looking lieutenant general grumbled: "This is the 4th time in a month that I've been put on standby. From now on, my division shouldn't be called the 61st Division anymore, just call it the Standby Division."

  Schimmelpfennig stepped closer to Lee: "General Daniel, a nobleman from Gnesen in East Prussia, Goethe's compatriot."

  Lee Te said: "The people of East Prussia are not racist because it is a multi-ethnic gathering place." Daniel nodded slightly to the leader. The other generals were indifferent.

  The commander stood up and swept his gaze over everyone, saying in a stern tone: "You must remember this point: stare straight ahead, don't care about your flanks. Remember, meeting with the Finnish army is your ultimate goal. Move fast, be ruthless, got it?"

  "Got it." The whole house was filled with loud cheers.

  "You must also remember that I, the German Führer, will always be with you." Li De took a deep breath, and in return, everyone expressed their willingness to die for him.

  "Heppner announced: 'Now everyone is free to discuss and report the situation to the Chief of Staff.'"

  A buzz of conversation erupted, and the previously waxen generals sprang to life. Amidst the crackling of lighters, wisps of smoke curled upwards as everyone chatted in huddles, patting each other on the back. General Shal complained hoarsely about his heavy workload: "The 41st Army is the main attacking force, doing a fantastic job, while I'm surrounded on three sides, doing the dirty work." General Daniel spoke loudly and intentionally: "I don't even get to wipe my own butt." He glanced at Hepner as he finished speaking.

  Heppner cupped his ear, said something to Li De's ear, and the two of them nodded apologetically to everyone before ducking into another tent deep in the forest.

  This is the Eastern Battalion of Hepner's network, mostly consisting of former Soviet soldiers who had defected and Russian émigrés scattered throughout Europe, all of whom were desperate fugitives with a deep-seated hatred for the Soviet Army. Hepner planned to disguise these men as Soviet soldiers and send them behind enemy lines to kill and set fires, causing widespread destruction.

  The air was thick with the smell of mutton, smoke and booze. A small group of people dressed in Soviet military uniforms sitting around a stove stood up as they saw them.

  "Heil Hitler!" The Fuehrer's eyes gleamed with pleasure as he stepped forward to the microphone.

  Everyone was shocked by the unexpected turn of events, and then they applauded excitedly. Li De pressed his hands down, and they clapped even harder, with happy smiles spreading across their faces, which were flushed red from the stove fire.

  "Welcome, Chief, to give us instructions." A bespectacled young man who had been drinking and was flushed in the face shouted.

  "Shut up, you sacked university student." Hepburn ordered him to sit down.

  A big Russian slowly got up and casually saluted: "Hello, Commander-in-Chief."

  It was Li De's turn to be shocked, but after a closer look, he calmed down: the Russian Mongolian - Kalmyk people he had seen in the Northern Group Army last time. He stretched out his hand:

  "Hello, Kraske Ilyu... Lieutenant Colonel."

  "Just call me a Kalmyk, Your Excellency." The Kalmyk replied matter-of-factly.

  These were the enemies of the Bolsheviks and natural allies of the German Empire, anti-Soviet elements fished out by Hepner from Soviet prisoners of war and émigrés, including half-Germans like the Kalmyks, Cossacks dissatisfied with the Soviet Union for taking away their horses, Ukrainian nationalists, Baltic resistance forces hiding in forests after the Soviet occupation, and Russian "Red Hunters" who specialized in hunting down Communists, political workers, government officials, and guerrilla fighters, with blood on their hands. Li De shook hands with these ruthless and bandit-like people. Hepner squeezed into the crowd of Russians, holding his hand over the stove to warm up. If not for the red stripe on his riding breeches, he would have looked like a middle-aged Russian peasant wrapped in sheepskin clothes, with a flat head and a face reddened by the fire.

  "Are you all ready? Russian heroes?"

  The Cossack leader pulled out a revolver and shouted loudly, spitting everywhere: "My gun tells me it hasn't eaten for many days."

  "Don't be so loud, Captain, my ears can't take it." The bespectacled young man wiped the spit that had sprayed onto his face while snatching the gun from him, and gave Li De a glance.

  When that guy pulled out his gun just now, Li De was a bit nervous. At this time, he pretended to be relaxed and asked: "Manager? What manager?"

  In the midst of thunderous laughter, the bespectacled young man chuckled: "Look at his bull-like appearance, what else could he be but a stud farm manager? Before the war, he was in charge of breeding cattle, specifically responsible for mating cows. Sometimes when there weren't enough bulls, he'd climb onto the cows himself, saying it was to complete the task assigned by the Party, this guy."

  He dodged into the room to avoid the Cossack leader's fist: "Maybe we ate your descendant in the beef today."

  Some people jeered, some people hated, and some people watched the leader's every move.

  "A university student, what you're saying is not funny at all, and besides, you've already said it eight hundred times." protested an Armenian wearing a high hat.

  Heppner raised his hand to stop their nonsense: "Alright, pay attention to your image in front of the Führer. You are about to penetrate deep into enemy territory. Most importantly, don't be afraid of being surrounded, even if you are surrounded, you will be rescued, because to your east is the 56th Army, they will definitely come to rescue you, unless you surrender, they won't bother collecting your corpses. In addition, there is a Waffen-SS unit cooperating with you in the north, you must do a good job of coordinating with them. Now, please let our beloved Führer give everyone a pep talk."

  Li De encouraged a few words, his throat was itching. Mo He's smoke made him tearful, the crowd in front of him gave him a feeling of being in a bandit's den, besides, everyone heard him talk about Sun Wukong drilling into Iron Fan Princess and other metaphors, they stared with wide eyes, for those who had not read "Journey to the West", it was simply a waste of saliva, so he hastily ended his speech.

  Heppner whispered in Liddell's ear: "Führer, come with me."

  Two men walked out of the tent, Hepner's face wore a sly smile and asked: "How is it, Yuan Shou?"

  "Not bad. Especially that young university student, he looks refined and courteous, but his words are so rough, it's as if he's a hoodlum." Li De said.

  Khlebnikov's sly smile turned into a mysterious one: "I'm asking whether we should receive the members of the Kalmyk assault team, including female members?"

  Li De understood, and a figure suddenly appeared in front of him: Ran Ni Ya. This Hepner really knew how to cater to his tastes.

  Heppner stretched out his index finger, hooked the deputy over and whispered a few words in his ear. The deputy expressionlessly crawled into the tent, lifted up the door curtain and heard the voice inside: "This guy is really Hitler, not like the one we saw in the movies, no gestures or snarling at all."

  "The head of another country can go to the front line, but Stalin hides in the Kremlin all day and doesn't dare come out, afraid of being assassinated." It was the voice of that university student.

  "I heard Hitler only had one testicle..." The cotton door curtain came down, and the rest of the sentence was replaced by a buzzing noise.

  After a while, the deputy came out, followed by the Kalmyks.

  Lee Dequan sent away Air Force Deputy Officer Belo, letting him tell Bowman to wait patiently, leaving only Schmunt. He walked and chatted with the Kalmyk people.

  Karl was born in Elista, Kalmyk Republic to a local herdsman father and a Volga German mother. During the Continuation War his unit was transferred near Leningrad, but as they were regrouping the war ended and they were sent to Latvia.

  After the German army invaded the Soviet Union, they retreated while fighting and retreated all the way to Pskov, defending in a dark fortress.

  The German tank troops have occupied the city, and several generals stand on top of the dark fort, overlooking the smoky ancient city of Pskov.

  The commissar demanded that everyone perish together with the enemy on top of the bunker, but the Kalmyks killed the commissar and his entourage and surrendered to the Germans.

  "Caucasians and Russians are natural-born enemies." The Kalmyk said to Heffner as soon as he emerged from the dugout.