Chapter Thirty-Seven: Enfeoffment

  "Soldiers, from the summit of these pyramids, forty centuries are looking down upon you." — Napoleon Bonaparte.

  As one by one the strongholds raised white flags, Liu Qi also stopped firing in his mind. Under the supervision of German and Italian soldiers, the British troops at the strongholds walked out slowly with their heads bowed. The last resistance of the British also completely stopped. Liu Qi climbed out of the tank and stood on it, watching as the German and Italian soldiers pushed aside the abandoned cars and obstacles blocking the road. With a wave of Liu Qi's hand, the infantry led by the SS officer behind him charged into the core area of the British Eighth Army Command.

  From the start of the attack to the British surrender, it only took a short 3 hours, among which Liu Qi used big guns to destroy the concrete strongpoints for an hour and a half.

  The British resistance has completely stopped, and the logistics soldiers of the command organ will not die for nothing because of the word 'bravery'. One by one, they raised their hands, ignoring the German and Italian soldiers taking away their weapons. Because for them, the war is over, no matter where the prisoner-of-war camp is, anyway, after the war is over, they can definitely go home. Although freedom may be restricted, life is indeed not in danger.

  Liu Qi jumped off the tank and immediately saw Keji leading a few people walking towards him. He thought to himself, "These guys are really something, able to get through such a heavily guarded place." This group of people were even carrying explosives, yet they hadn't been discovered by the British. It's as if they were special forces from a later era - probably even more agile than those special forces. Who knows how these guys were trained? Liu Qi couldn't help but feel a great surprise. What was most important now? Of course, it was talent. Someone like Keji was definitely not someone Liu Qi could let go of.

  By the way, the few people brought by Kaito are a group of famous thieves from Sicily, Italy. The leader is called Robert De Niro. However, this De Niro is not the Hollywood actor Robert De Niro. Please don't get confused.

  The gang of thieves led by De Niro, due to their high-level thieving skills, had always managed to evade the police. However, things took a turn when De Niro fell in love with the daughter of a local mafia boss. The high-and-mighty local boss looked down on this small-time thief and wanted his daughter to marry the son of another regional mafia boss instead. Seeing his daughter constantly entangled with this nighttime troublemaker, the mafia boss was extremely displeased.

  The Mafia then leaked the information of De Niro's gang to the local police station. Soon, their families were implicated, and under duress, De Niro's gang had no choice but to surrender.

  At that time, it happened to coincide with Mussolini's conscription order arriving in the area, so De Niro and his gang were counted into the conscription quota. During new recruit training, unfortunately, these few guys were all assigned to the same company. New recruits from other companies were being bullied by their instructors. Only the new recruits in this company did not suffer at the hands of their instructor. The reason was simple: it was all thanks to De Niro and his gang's good deeds.

  These vigorous guys can't stand to see new recruits being bullied. Whenever someone is bullied by veteran instructors, they will come up with some pranks to tease the instructors. For example, when the instructor is sleeping, they secretly pour soap water on the instructor's underwear. Or when the instructor is eating, they add some croton powder to the instructor's food. The most frustrating thing for the instructor is that when he goes to the toilet, he finds that all the squatting positions are occupied by people with a sly smile on their faces.

  However, these did not hinder the display of Deniro and his men's military skills. The thieves' mastery of various locks made them proficient in the use of firearms as well. Later, they even surpassed their instructors in terms of speed in disassembling and assembling firearms. Their shooting was also remarkably accurate. Moreover, their long-term life as thieves had made them exceptional in physical strength and endurance.

  Originally, De Niro and the others were assigned to troops based on their performance as non-commissioned officers. However, in the Italian army where bureaucracy prevails, they did not intend to discover talents at all, and simply assigned them to regiments as ordinary soldiers. That's it, but when their quartermaster made money on the black market with new recruits' supplies, De Niro and the others got angry

  They took advantage of the moonless night to sneak into the arsenal and stole 2 anti-tank guns, which were then sold to local black market traders who frequently traded with military officers.

  The loss of the two cannons was an intolerable thing for that unit. Soon, the secret police found the lost two cannons in a secret warehouse of local black market businessmen. There were also many ordinary military supplies, and when Deniro traded with locals, he brought a locally characteristic headscarf and said it was their quartermaster who came to trade. Now the pot was put on the quartermaster's head.

  It's not a big deal to secretly sell some ordinary supplies, basically all military officers have done it. But this time even the cannons were stolen, and there was ironclad evidence. Now Deniro's military officer can't talk his way out of it, it's like mud in his pants, whether it's shit or not, it's still shit. The military officer was taken away by the military police. Deniro's troops replaced their military officer again.

  The new quartermaster is also a greedy fellow. This time the deductions are even more severe than before. Now it seems that De Niro and his men have learned what it means to be generally blackened by the world's crows. As a result, two anti-tank guns were stolen from the arsenal again, just like the first time.

  However, unlike the previous time, De Niro and his men were caught by the gendarmerie who had been lying in ambush while trading with the black market merchants. This was because the gendarmerie officer had long suspected that the original military officer did not have the ability to complete such a transaction alone, and specially dispatched someone to monitor those merchants in the black market, just waiting for De Niro and his men to deliver themselves.

  Several people were sentenced and imprisoned in the North African German-Italian military prison. Originally, escaping from this military prison was a piece of cake for Deniro and his men, but their identities had already been exposed. If they escaped from prison, their families back home would definitely receive unfair treatment. So they could only reluctantly stay in this military prison.

  Such a person, Liu Qi, of course, could not let go, and waited until Kechi led the group to approach and was about to pay their respects. Liu Qi quickly raised his hand and gave a proper military salute to Kechi, De Niro, and several others. It was a genuine military salute, rather than the usual German gesture of shouting "Heil Hitler". Kechi, De Niro, and the others were startled by Liu Qi's action and hastily stood at attention, also saluting Liu Qi.

  It's worth noting that although Liu Qi is not very old, only in his early 20s. However, the military is a place with strict hierarchy. There is a natural gap between officers and soldiers. A ordinary lieutenant is already a high-ranking existence in the eyes of soldiers, let alone a lieutenant colonel. In modern times, 30 years old has become the minimum age for a major officer, and some countries even stipulate that no one can be awarded the rank of general before the age of 45, no matter how meritorious they are.

  The only exception was this 20-year-old Andri. One reason was that Hitler was deceived by Andri's pure Aryan appearance. The other was that Hitler hoped to get the support of Andri's father and mother in politics and economy. So, at the age of 17, Andri was appointed as a lieutenant colonel, a rank that many officers could not achieve in their lifetime.

  It can be said that Andrey didn't have to struggle, and it's not impossible for him to become a general of the SS at the age of 30. Because his starting point was relatively high. Others had to study hard in military school just to become a junior officer. But Andrey became a lieutenant colonel with just one sentence from Hitler. Of course, Hitler's main intention was to make Andrey a mere ornament.

  Liu Qi's mid-level officer rank was worthless in the eyes of other officers who knew the inside story. But to ordinary soldiers, it was a supreme existence. Not to mention German officers, who generally considered themselves two levels higher than Italian officers. So when Liu Qi saluted Keitel and Dernero first, it was equivalent to an Italian general saluting these few soldiers first, which shocked Keitel and Dernero greatly.

  "Liu Qi didn't mind the expressions of Deniro and others, and directly said: "Italian soldiers, as your commander who fought with you, I am extremely proud of you. You infiltrated the enemy's command center and destroyed their important communication equipment. Your actions have proven your bravery, and you are all true warriors. I am proud of you, and rest assured that you will all be recorded in history. And I will give you a raise. There will also be a bonus for this action. In addition, I have decided to award each of you the rank of lieutenant, not just one person, but every single one of you. And Lieutenant Kaito, I have decided to promote him to captain, with full authority over all Italian soldiers under my command."

  Denario and several others couldn't help but be overjoyed by Liu Qi's words, thinking that they would not only get rich but also rise through the ranks. The middle school in front of them was simply too lovely, and it seemed that following the middle school's decision was correct. Especially Denario, who had originally given up on his hometown's godfather's daughter as a thief. But when he heard Liu Qi promote him to an officer, his heart reignited with passion, his little heart beating thump, thump. Because as an officer in his hometown, that was a very high status, even the mayor of his hometown would have to smile and welcome him. When the time came to ask for the godfather's daughter's hand in marriage, the godfather would definitely agree.

  Even Keitel, who was usually very serious, had a joyful expression on his face at this time. Yes, following this German lieutenant colonel was really something to look forward to. In just 8 short days, he himself had transformed from an ordinary Italian military prisoner of war into an officer, and even a senior lieutenant officer. To think that at the age of 28, he had already become a senior lieutenant officer, which was also relatively young in other troops.

  These few only considered how to promote themselves, and never thought about whether the African Legion would agree with Liu Qi's report. Because the procedure for appointing an officer is very complicated, it needs to go through many departments' approval and recognition.

  But Liu Qi wasn't worried about these things. Liu Qi was clear that even if he were to tell Rommel that these guys had destroyed the communication system of the Mongolian command center, it's likely that even if he were to offer a lieutenant general's military rank in exchange for Rommel, he would be willing.

  In addition, Liu Qi also had some understanding of the guy who possessed himself. Liu Qi knew that a person who didn't even put Gorlin in his eyes would have a huge influence, and at the very least, he was well-connected. If Rommel disagreed with promoting these people to officers, he could go straight to Mussolini. Based on Mussolini's phone call to save Andrei earlier, Liu Qi judged that promoting a few officers would be no more than a fart to Mussolini.

  Just as everyone was cheering, a lieutenant colonel of the SS ran over. He gave Liu Qi a salute and said hastily, "Colonel, something's gone terribly wrong! We've searched the entire camp but can't find Montgomery!"

  "What? Montgomery has fled..."

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  Two more updates for you, hope you like them.