Chapter 4 Combination Department

  The German and Italian troops in North Africa were pinned down by the British army after several major offensives, in an area south of Alamein from the Mediterranean coast to the Qattara Depression. There were 8 Italian divisions in the north and 4 German divisions in the south. The military control camp where Liu Qi was located was situated between the two forces, and there were no British troops on the opposite side.

  Liu Qi only found out after Philip's account that he had crossed over to the North African battlefield during World War II, without any time to prepare. The British had already started fighting. The rain outside kept pouring down non-stop, and the British artillery was also firing non-stop.

  "Come on, help me get some fresh air outside," said Liu Qi.

  "Alright, young master." Philip said, and then helped Liu Qi up and moved towards the outside of the house. Just as they walked out of the door, Liu Qi suddenly felt something was off. He only felt that two black dots vaguely appeared in his mind.

  "Huh......?" Liu Qina muttered in a low tone.

  "What's wrong, young master? Are you still feeling unwell? If it hurts too much, go back and lie down first."

  "No, no, don't speak, be quiet." Slowly, the images in Liu Qi's mind became clearer and clearer. Several outline lines appeared in his mind, and slowly more and more outlines emerged, forming a military camp. There were also more and more black dots appearing, which eventually became clear as well. To his surprise, they turned out to be German soldiers. Liu Qi was astonished to find that the scene in his mind was exactly the same as the radar map of Red Alert he played before. What's going on?

  The book describes that Liu Qi was playing Red Alert crazily before crossing over, and the lightning bolt that struck him also vaporized the computer. Part of the Red Alert function program in the computer was assimilated into Liu Qi's consciousness cluster, which was then taken to North Africa during World War II by an unknown energy body in an unknown space. Even the unknown energy body would not know why Liu Qi appeared in this situation.

  Liu Qi knew he had acquired superpowers like radar and was overjoyed. He couldn't help but dance with excitement, but in his carelessness, he slipped on the stairs and rolled down. The stairs just so happened to have a small puddle of dirty water at the bottom, and Liu Qi landed right in it. This was quite a commotion.

  Next to him, Philip and several SS guards were in a flurry, hastily helping Liu Qi up. Liu Qi's face was covered with bruises, his hair was matted with mud and stuck to his face. But on Liu Qi's face, there wasn't the expression that should have been seen after being beaten. His whole face was filled with smiles. His mouth still let out intermittent laughter of "Ha... Ha". A thread of saliva also flowed from the corner of his mouth.

  A few SS officers standing on one side looked a bit silly and were whispering to each other.

  "Don't be like Zhong school being bombed silly."

  "It's possible that the early stages of mental illness are just non-stop silly smiling."

  "Yes, a normal person wouldn't laugh after falling into water. I think we should find a psychiatrist to diagnose him."

  Only Philip couldn't help but burst into tears at the sight of Liu Qi.

  "Master, you must hold on, something's happened to you. How can I explain this to the old master and mistress? Uh... uh..."

  Liu Qi slowly came back from his ecstatic state and found Old Philip sobbing beside him.

  "What's wrong, Philip?"

  "Ah, ah, young master, you're alright. Your mind is clear now?"

  "My mind is of course normal, how could I be abnormal?"

  Several SS officers next to him were whispering, "See, the legendary symptom of severe mental illness is that they don't admit their own mental illness."

  "Not really..."

  When he saw Liu Qi's resentful eyes looking over, the SS officer hastily stopped his discussion.

  "You dare to speak ill of me behind my back, I've got you in mind." Liu Qi thought.

  With the support of several people, Liu Qi returned to the house again.

  "Master, let's go back and rest for a while first. Then we'll return to Tunisia," said the old butler.

  "No, no way. Can't go now." Liu Qi said hastily.

  "Don't be like this, young master. The British are about to attack. It's estimated that it won't be safe here soon. If we don't leave now, it will be too late."

  "No way, I can't leave, if I leave, it's all over."

  Philip exclaimed in surprise, "How is that possible, young master? The old master and mistress will not let you come to harm. Don't worry, your superior will be fine."

  "It's not like that, you don't understand. Anyway, I just can't go back." Liu Qi said with a helpless expression.

  Liu Qi was worried that if he left, history would slowly return to its original trajectory and move forward. At the time, in the unknown space, the unknown energy body clearly told him to win this war, but did not specify whether it was winning the North African campaign or the entire World War II. So Liu Qi also dared not take risks, and had to grit his teeth and stick to the gap between the two armies.

  "No, young master, you wouldn't want to surrender to the British, would you? That would be very difficult for Master and Mistress." According to the old butler's previous understanding of Andrew, the young master was not a brave warrior at all. However, the old butler also understood that only commoners needed bravery to support themselves, while someone like the young master didn't need to face danger at all.

  "Where did you go? How could I surrender?" Liu Qi thought to himself, "My previous life's character was really that despicable." Not retreating would actually be considered as wanting to surrender.

  "Philip, I'm writing a letter for you to take to headquarters, hand it over to Rommel personally. Then at headquarters, find a way to inform my father and mother, they must persuade the Führer to increase troops and supplies for Rommel. This is very important."

  "Master, what are you going to do? Don't we have telephones and telegraphs?"

  "No, this letter is very important. You must deliver it personally."

  "What about you, young master? What will you do?"

  "I... I have something to attend to, after I've taken care of it, I'll go find you." After saying that, Liu Qi picked up the letter paper and scribbled on the desk for half a day. After finishing writing, Liu Qi folded the letter paper and sealed it with wax.

  "Alright, go and handle it now."

  Philip hesitantly accepted the letter and wanted to say something, but seeing Liu Qi's resolute expression, he could only turn around and leave.

  Liu Qi and others followed Philip out. Immediately afterwards, he said to the several SS officers at the door: "How many people do we have now?"

  "In our camp we now have 215 men, of whom 15 are officers, and also 1,350 military prisoners who have been sentenced for breaches of discipline."

  "How can there be so many military prisoners, who are they?"

  "In this report, there are 187 military prisoners of the Empire. They were those who escaped from the battlefield during the last battle and were all captured in Tunisia."

  "What? Are we German soldiers also going to flee in disarray?"

  In Liu Qi's impression, the German army was a silent, calm and highly disciplined fighting force. He never thought that there would be deserters. However, in reality, as long as they are human, they will be afraid. When people are afraid, their first choice is to escape. This is human nature, even soldiers who have been indoctrinated with the fervent imperial ideology of Germany can become deserters, let alone those from other countries.

  However, the desertion rate of this German army was very low. In general, on land battlefields, those who cannot be found are treated as missing. They will not be reported as deserters if they have not been found. The navy and air force do not report missing persons, but rather report deaths in action. Generally, when a country shoots down an opponent's plane or ship, it will rescue the surviving pilots, sailors, etc. and inform the other side of their situation through the International Red Cross. Therefore, the navy and air force generally have no missing persons.

  "Yes, it's true that some new recruits only received 3 months of training before being sent to us. That's why we had deserters last time."

  But Liu Qi deeply knew that Germany's front line was too big. 14 countries in Europe, and a Soviet Union bigger than Europe. It can be said that only Hitler achieved what Genghis Khan did in history. However, Germany's population could not meet the demands of so many wars. Otherwise, there would not have been 15-year-old child soldiers in the later period of Germany.

  "What about the other prisoners."

  "The rest were soldiers of the Italian African Army. There were deserters, thieves, robbers, officers who sold arms, and a few swindlers. Finally, there were also a few rapists and homosexuals."

  Liu Qi had just taken a sip of coffee and was about to swallow when he heard the words, but instead spat it out. It happened to spray onto the officer who was answering questions at the time. "Sorry, sorry." Liu Qi quickly pulled out his handkerchief to wipe the officer clean.

  The officer hastily said, "It's all right, it's all right, Lieutenant Colonel."

  Liu Qi saw the situation and didn't bother being polite anymore, continuing to ask "Is there anything else besides these?"

  "Oh, and there are dozens of engineers, plus a magician."

  "How can there still be a magician?"

  Here is the translation:

  "It was like this, before he enlisted, he was a magician in a circus. Later when the African legion was formed in Rome, he signed up for the army. The logistics department saw that he was from a circus and sent him to the Italian legion's logistics to feed the military horses. This kid had a grudge against the logistics officer and wanted revenge. He allegedly tied his officer with dozens of ropes and put him in a box used for storing cannonballs. It wasn't until several days later that someone discovered this, but by then his officer was already severely mentally traumatized and couldn't even see sunlight. Later he was sent back to Italy for treatment. And this kid was sent here and sentenced to life imprisonment."

  "Is he telling the truth?"

  "Honestly, every other day there's a new trick, saying it's going to be the greatest magic in history. They're going to make the Great Pyramid disappear."

  "Making the Great Pyramid disappear would be a large-scale magic trick."

  Liu Qi had seen many magic shows by David Copperfield in the 21st century, such as making the Great Wall disappear, making trains disappear, and even making planes disappear. Liu Qi knew that when performing this kind of magic, the audience would be arranged to sit in a special seat, which would rotate during the performance, but the audience wouldn't notice it. When the curtain was lifted, the direction the audience was facing had already changed, and the scenery in that direction had been set up beforehand to match the original scene, except for the building that was supposed to disappear. This way, the audience thought the building had disappeared, when in fact it hadn't moved at all.

  "What's his name?" Liu Qi asked.

  Nicolas Cage

  “…………”