The 14th Movement: Winter's Romantic Oriole's Whisper

  January 7th every year is Orthodox Christmas. Russians, who are most deeply influenced by Orthodox culture, start to celebrate the festival from this day for two weeks. Before the October Revolution, on the evening of the 6th and the morning of the 7th, Russian high society would solemnly celebrate this most important folk holiday in the country's largest church - the Moscow Jesus Savior Cathedral, and hold a vigil. Hitler, who was directing operations on the Crimean Peninsula, could not and did not have the opportunity to attend the vigil at the Moscow cathedral, but thought that he should improve his food and eat well.

  The cold wind howled and whistled. The bare trees, like a group of bald old men, could not withstand the attack of the cold wind from Murmansk, swaying in the wind.

  It was just past 4 pm and the sun had already withdrawn its faint light, as if afraid of the cold, hiding behind a thick layer of clouds like cotton batting.

  In the evening, Rania came in with a smile, followed by Borman, two deputy officers and Manstein.

  Rania placed the small Christmas tree in the middle of the table, next to a snowman, and then brought over steaming hot oatmeal with butter, milk fish soup, dried salted meat and onion filling pie and black bread pudding, as well as desserts.

  Bormann was also inexplicable, but he was a foodie and a realist. Since there was wine and meat, he would eat first and talk later. He took out cigarettes and alcohol, used his teeth to open the champagne bottle cap, filled the Führer with a full glass of champagne, and poured himself vodka.

  Rania clasped her hands together, closed her eyes and chanted for a moment before picking up the vodka-filled glass: "Merry Christmas."

  Li De La held her hand: "Wait a minute, if I remember correctly, your respected father is a Lutheran, why did you celebrate Christmas today?"

  Rania freed her hand, raised her neck and drank it all in one gulp, looking at him with bright eyes: "Thanks for remembering my father, but your mother is an Orthodox Christian, and her dear daughter invited everyone to celebrate the Orthodox Christmas tonight, no way."

  "Go on, go on. I forgot your mother was Russian," Hitler said. Rania didn't respond, gave him a white eye and said: "Your mother is the one who's Russian. You think all Latvians are Catholics?"

  "Alright, alright, I was wrong, I'll punish myself with a drink." Hitler grabbed the cup and downed it in one gulp. "Hey, I haven't even started yet!" Renia snatched the empty cup away from him, glaring at him.

  She smoothed her long hair, cleared her throat, and raised her glass for a Christmas toast.

  "This second glass of wine I want to toast our beloved Führer Adolf Hitler, wishing him to lead us from one victory to another, occupying Crimea, and avenging my deceased father." Her face suddenly turned icy cold, staring at Lide with a straight brow. Hitler had to get up and press her back into the chair, comforting: "Okay, today is New Year's Day, don't mention those unpleasant things, ah." He raised his glass high, shouting emotionally: "Come on, everyone pick up the glasses in front of you, let's bless Rania and pray for each person present. Cheers!"

  "Cheers!" The six glasses clinked together. As everyone raised their heads to drink, he leaned in close to Rania and whispered in her ear: "Darling, for you to have a good year, I'll use all eighteen of my martial arts skills tonight to make you happy to death."

  "It's all ruined." Rania playfully punched him on the head, her face blooming into a smile.

  Rania served a bowl of creamy oatmeal to Yuan Shou, and handed him an onion pancake, inviting everyone to enjoy their meal. For a while, the only sound was that of wolfing down food.

  After a hearty meal, everyone frequently raised their glasses, two deputy officers and Bormann competed in drinking capacity, Manstein and Rundstedt toasted slowly, occasionally also giving the Führer a cup. In the midst of clinking cups, Schmundt was the first to be unable to hold his liquor, dazed and confused, crawling on the table, sometimes lifting his head to mumble a few words, then crawling down again.

  A dull rumbling sound came from afar, it was unclear whether it was the German artillery or the Russians celebrating Christmas with their bells. The room had already become a mess, turning into a hubbub of chatter, with everyone talking incessantly and garrulously like a bunch of Hu Chai. The Chief of the Reich Chancellery, Bormann, and the Navy adjutant were arguing over some trivial matter, while the Army adjutant woke up from his sleep, stumbled out of the door, supporting himself against the wall, muttering to himself: "The bottle fell but I didn't fall, the wall moved but I didn't move."

  Rania had a cigarette dangling from the corner of her mouth, staring at Manstein with drunken eyes and spraying wine breath: "General... General, I helped you figure out where the Soviet army landed, let you win the battle, what... what reward did you give me? What? Gold ring? Bullshit. Golden earrings? Vulgar! What do you take me for? Golden necklace? Great, thank you General, if you need my help in the future, just speak up, heh heh."

  Accompanied by the sound of waves and laughter. Li De felt himself getting drunk, but seeing her charming and unrestrained appearance, his heart itched, like several kittens running around, eager for everyone to leave quickly.

  The night was deep and quiet, with a cold wind blowing in waves. A crescent moon cast its clear, cool silver light on the ground. Renya was excited by the wine, pulling the leader to the vast fields. In the bright moonlight, the cold seeped into their bones, and their cheeks felt like they were touching ice blocks. The scenery under the moon seemed frozen in place, unable to move. Under the combined influence of love and alcohol, the ruler of today's world, the leader of the Third German Empire, and his little-known lover, a low-ranking official, sneaked around the farm in the middle of the night, wandering in the river of love. The cold moon in the sky was truly dazzling! The heavy quilt felt like iron, everything above and below, all around, was cold. Only the two of them were connected by flesh and blood, deeply in love, with a special warmth.

  Li De stood up the collar of his military coat for Rannyah, and they strolled east and west, arm in arm. The occasional distant sound of gunfire made them feel the discordant sounds in pastoral poetry, bringing them back from romance to reality. Rannyah's breath wafted onto Li De's face, giving him a strange feeling. They supported each other, moving in perfect sync: the woman talked incessantly, while the man listened silently, walking from the beet fields to the apple trees and then back to the fields. Looking up at the distant sky, the crescent moon played with the clouds, and under the cold light of the waning moon, their faces reflected a pale and wan glow. Despite it being a bitterly cold winter night, the two clung tightly together, not feeling particularly chilly.

  "After countless comings and goings, Li said: 'Dear, tomorrow the bombardment of Sevastopol is about to begin, let's get some rest early.'"

  "Alright, tonight you're starting to attack me too, hehe." Rania eagerly pulled him back into the house, flames burning all over her body, pouncing on him like a lioness and pinning him down on the bed, stripping off his clothes and straddling him. The usually refined and dignified leader let out a pleasured whimper: "Baby, you're so strong... you'd be put to death for this in the past. Ah——ha——uuuh..."

  The oriole's song and the swallow's murmur, flowers blooming all over the courtyard. Leaning on the railing, spring dreams awaken, speechless with a sorrowful face.

  ……

  Since ancient times, warriors have found the Crimean Peninsula to be a place of scenic beauty but at great cost. Over eighty years ago during the Crimean War, Russian troops heroically resisted the onslaught of British and French forces on the peninsula, including withstanding the desperate attacks of the famous "Light Brigade" in its ill-fated charge, after which the Light Brigade and the Russian defenders lay dead or dying on the battlefield, their blood flowing like rivers, the stench of death lingering for a month.

  After the Crimean War, the defensive fortifications that withstood the siege were continuously improved by generations of Russian military engineers. After the outbreak of the German-Soviet war, more than 100,000 Soviet soldiers and countless civilians worked day and night for 20 weeks to further strengthen the city's defenses, and the fortifications became increasingly perfect.

  Manstein's 11th Army would face a complex defensive system, with the outermost line being very deep and labyrinthine trenches, as well as dense minefields. Behind these were intricate networks of tunnels connecting reinforced concrete bunkers, where even small hills had been hollowed out to accommodate mortar emplacements and machine gun nests, as well as large quantities of white phosphorus shells and flamethrowers.

  The third line of defense consisted of a series of fortresses named after red geographical names, the outer walls of which were reinforced with ten-meter-high concrete bastions, while the fortresses themselves were huge armored gun turrets. The interior of the fortresses extended tens of meters underground and contained power plants, water supply pipes, field hospitals and armories.

  The fort was extremely solid, surrounded by countless trenches, rows of barbed wire and pillboxes. The artillery positions built on the hillside were difficult to destroy unless they were hit directly. Moreover, many landmines were buried in the front line and defensive depth, and a three-meter-wide and four-meter-deep ditch was dug around each fort.

  The code name for the assault on the fortress of Sevastopol was "Operation Crocodile". When drawing up the plan of attack, the staff officers of the 11th Army gave memorable names to the batteries in the fortress, such as Battery No. 1 "Gorky", which was a point equipped with 35 cm caliber guns, protected by steel armor and connected to other points by tunnels. There were also "Stalin", "Mikhailov", "Timoshenko", "Budyonny" and "Molotov", all members of the Soviet Defense Committee were on the list.

  Manstein had three aces: the powerful artillery and air support of the German army, plus sufficient manpower. The Soviet advantage was solid positions and naval support. The Soviet Coastal Group had 1 million men, plus other troops, militia, marines, and internal security forces, totaling about 2 million men; the Germans opposing them had almost four armies, with both sides evenly matched. If the Romanian Third Army is included, the Germans still had a slight advantage, which was already a luxury on the Eastern Front. All signs indicated that this would be a tough battle.

  In the pincer movement plan devised by Hitler and Manstein, the German 54th Army was to push southward against the fortress from the north, with the requirement that the 54th Army use its forces absolutely in the main direction of attack, i.e. directly opposite the northern high ground of Sevastopol Bay. Neither the German Führer nor the army commander emphasized not to get entangled in the Soviet forward strongpoints, but to bypass them and then break through from behind. This was also a development of the German Army's infiltration tactics during World War I.

  The containment attack on the south was undertaken by the 30th Army, which included two infantry corps, the 72nd and 170th Divisions, as well as the 28th Light Infantry Division, with the 170th Division temporarily serving as a reserve.

  The 49th Mountain Corps was assigned to the northeast direction, advancing along the highway from Simferopol to Sevastopol. As its name suggests, the 3rd Motorized Infantry Division served as a mobile unit.

  On the 8th, Li De accompanied Manstein to inspect the artillery positions. They first came to the artillery position of the 54th Army, commanded by General Zhukov, who commanded a total of 56 heavy and medium artillery battalions, 41 light artillery battalions, and 18 mortar battalions, plus two assault artillery regiments, totaling 121 artillery battalions, with two observation battalions for support.

  The Commander-in-Chief repeatedly emphasized that during the artillery preparation, it was impossible to use the usual intense barrage fire, as the enemy troops were mostly hiding underground. "Must be steady, accurate and ruthless!" The Commander-in-Chief instructed with emphasis.

  Li De made a special trip to visit the commander of the special artillery regiment, who had previously commanded the Dora super cannon and was now commanding the Karl mortar on the battlefield. When Li De and his entourage climbed up to him, he was hiding in a depression, boasting to a group of soldiers with flying eyebrows and dancing hands and feet:

  "...we hid a kilometer away, and just heard a loud 'boom', even we who were a kilometer away were knocked over. That smoke! Have you seen a volcanic eruption? Compared to the Mandalay super-cannon, these Kartoum cannons are nothing but garlic-crushing mortars."

  Some of the audience snickered because they saw the Führer popping out from the hill, one of his Dora gun comrades teased him: "But the Führer ordered it to be blown up, what's the use of boasting about it?"

  The artillery lieutenant general turned his back on the leader and muttered: "Bullshit, in the past we were white swans, now they've become ugly ducklings, all of this is because of the leader."

  "Achtung!" Manstein barked, and the lieutenant colonel spun around to meet the Führer's angry glare, his teeth chattering so hard he couldn't close his mouth for half a minute.

  Li De quickly put on a friendly face, shook hands with the soldiers one by one, and even patted the lieutenant general's shoulder, making him feel both awed and terrified.

  The head of state poses for a photo with the soldiers and pulls aside a disheartened lieutenant general. Schmundt picks up the camera, the naval adjutant and Bormann rush to the head of state's side to grab the shot, Bormann comes down and steps on a floating stone, grabs wildly in the air with both hands and slides down with his butt.

  After taking the photo, the head of state made a pun and said to the major general: "What's wrong, are you still worried about that great labor-intensive and money-wasting project and high-tech facade project? My ugly duckling? Remember my words, in my eyes, you and your comrades will always be little swans, biting people's little swans."

  "Yes!" The lieutenant colonel jumped up from his salute, his voice so loud that the soldiers at another artillery position came running to see what was going on.

  At 11 o'clock, the Tsar and Manstein arrived at the forward command post, the seaside palace of the Grand Duke of Russia on the Black Sea coast. When the second hand, minute hand, and hour hand of the clock overlapped, the earth suddenly shook violently, with countless thunderclaps colliding in the sky, countless shells piercing the air flow, fiercely pounding the earthworks, trenches, barbed wire, and shelters.

  238 German artillery units, 850 guns fired a deafening roar, making precise attacks on the Soviet fortifications that had been measured in advance. The technically advanced Richthofen's German 8th Air Corps alternately attacked the Soviet port supply lines and launched fierce attacks on Soviet ships. Huge shells tore through the air, exploding the Soviet underground ammunition depots. Tens of square kilometers of the city were shrouded in flames, the sound of artillery fire shook the sky, as far away as the northern coast of Turkey on the Black Sea could feel the smoke, rolling dust obscured the sky, the earth was trembling, countless lives were lost.