Chapter 3 Sovereignty and Dignity (I)

  Correction: German army called medical soldiers.

  ……

  Please go ahead and provide the text you'd like me to translate. I'll return the translation in English.

  Xu Yang jumped down from the tank and walked straight towards Xiao Gallo. The command tank's turret moved, rotating 65 degrees in place, trying to seal off the enemy's firing angle as much as possible, doing so to ensure that its commander would not be attacked.

  "Private George at your service!" It was indeed Private George, the soldier who had been left behind to ensure the safety of Little Gau.

  Xu Yang returned the salute and asked, "First-class soldier, why did you leave the combat formation? Tell me, what happened here?"

  Georgetown again made a gun salute, without saying a word, a gunshot rang out 'puchi', blood flowers burst from his shoulder, he looked incredulous, slowly falling to the ground.

  As soon as the gunfire rang out, Xu Yang had already squatted down halfway. He stared at Georgetown's bleeding shoulder for a moment before reacting and yelling "Medic!" As he crawled forward to Georgetown's side, he pressed hard on the still-bleeding shoulder, "Don't worry about it on the battlefield from now on."

  "I... I'm fine, he didn't hit my shoulder blade... maybe his target was you?" George's hands trembled as he pulled out a bandage from his jacket pocket, "The bullet went through, would you mind helping me dress the wound?"

  "Rustle, rustle......" A sudden rush of footsteps, a medic with a red cross emblem on his helmet rushed over, also wearing a red cross armband on his right arm. Without saying a word, he took off the first-aid backpack from his back, "Captain, please withdraw your hand, he needs hemostasis."

  Xu Yang's face turned iron-blue as he crawled back into the tank, using the interior observation mirror to watch the medic bandage George Town. The unknown little boy might have been frightened silly, clinging to the wall and trembling constantly.

  "Sorry, sir. I've done my best to cover him, but the soldier who fired might have been in a blind spot... Lieutenant, I feel deeply sorry."

  Xu Yangqiang smiled and said it was nothing, then turned to the tank's wireless radio operator and asked: "Reports from each company?"

  "Each regiment has secured the main intersections, enemy resistance has ceased, and the 1st Motorized Infantry Battalion of the 7th Infantry Division, in conjunction with tank units, has surrounded the French, Belgian, and Dutch barracks. They are awaiting your orders."

  Xu Yang said: "Notify Commander Goodrian, the vanguard troops have controlled all major intersections. Also, order each tank company to be on high alert in place. Moto, advance; go to the barracks of Gallus' Chicken."

  Including the command tank, 13 tanks rolled down the stone road towards the town center. Through the observation mirror, Xu Yang saw a deserted street area, with the doors of shops tightly locked, and behind the glass frames and wooden door panels, there might be countless frightened residents peeking out.

  A group of infantrymen from the National Defense Army who were handling prisoners caught Xu Yang's attention, the rifles in the hands of the prisoners were being confiscated, a Dutch soldier holding a Mauser rifle stubbornly refused to hand over his rifle, he looked at the tank commander with a face full of unwillingness as it advanced along the stone road.

  Xu Yang almost instantly confirmed that the shot just now was fired by this Dutch soldier. Before he could think of a solution, a pistol rang out, and the Dutch soldier fell to the ground with a bullet in the back of his head. A lieutenant platoon leader spat at the corpse with disgust, "The guy who killed two of my soldiers!"

  The captives were soon violently suppressed by the soldiers of the National Defense Forces and were taken away, following behind the tanks of the garrison.

  Two streets away, ordinary people began to appear on the street, looking at the national defense soldiers marching in the middle of the road with an unbelievable expression. When Xu Yang's tank troops appeared, they excitedly pointed at the 'cross' logo on the tank body, their mouths wide open and unable to say a word.

  "They haven't seen a German soldier in over ten years..."

  No one answered; they couldn't see the heart-wrenching scene outside the car.

  The residents cheered and surrounded the soldiers of the National Defense Army, wanting to touch with their own hands the gray uniforms on the soldiers' bodies, with expressions as if in a dream. They touched them and finally knew they were not dreaming, the country's military, Germany's armed forces had finally arrived!

  A woman ran out of the house door, holding a basket in her hands, with black bread and some dried meat inside. She tried to distribute it to the marching national defense soldiers, but was refused with kindness, she was stunned, and after a long time, she put down her hand covering her mouth and shouted: "Long live Germany!"

  A crisp female voice, full of joy and excitement.

  At this time, the residents who had been telling the soldiers about their misfortunes finally came to their senses. Their sons and younger brothers had arrived! They had come with the weapons on their bodies to punish that gang of demons! Under no circumstances could they let the comrades of the National Defense Army think that the people of the Rhine region were petty! They cheered "Long live Germany!" "Long live the National Defense Army!" and invited their relatives to go home and bring out food to treat their sons and younger brothers.

  Unfortunately, the food they brought out was not only rejected by the soldiers, but the soldiers also took out cigarettes from their pockets and handed them to the men on the side of the road, and handed out canned beef from their field rations to the women. Almost every soldier could see a deep sense of sadness in each resident on the side of the road, a thick tragic expression that only appears in an environment filled with worry and fear. The soldiers never had tears, all they could shed was the hot blood that had long been boiling in their veins, and the hands holding the rifles tightened their grip even more.

  The elderly sat on the ground, crying uncontrollably. Their mouths were muttering something unknown, their hands constantly pounding their chests. Faintly audible, they were saying to their deceased loved ones: "We've come, why didn't you come earlier? Why didn't the national defense army come earlier?! Why... why... why..."

  There are countless whys in silent crying.

  Children under the age of fifteen held their parents' hands tightly, not daring to speak and not understanding why the adults were so excited. Soldiers? What's the difference between them and those arrogant military police? Don't know. The children only knew that these soldiers seemed more difficult to deal with than the military police, at least the military police would smile and collect things from the adults, but these soldiers had expressionless faces, marching in strange steps (goose steps), with a fierce look on their faces, completely ignoring the adults' kindness.

  The children innocently thought: "They don't get paid to get more, it must be so!" After thinking about it, they looked at their parents with envy and said: "Their uniforms are so cool, the expressions on their faces are so scary..."

  "Is that so?" The long-lost sense of security in the hearts of adults has finally returned, and they will say to their children: "Our soldiers, the more brutal they are, the safer we are. Do you know? Our... is our soldier, our warrior!"

  People are crying, their soldiers, their men, have finally returned today after many years! They no longer have to lower their heads and live in the shadow of French, Belgian and Dutch military police like dogs!

  "Ours?" A huge question mark appeared on the kids' heads: Our soldiers? Do we have soldiers?

  ……

  Xu Yang ordered the tanks to be concealed within the town and followed alone behind the infantry escorting prisoners of war to the French camp.

  In fact, this cannot be said to be a French military camp. There are three national flags inserted in the military camp, namely France, Belgium and the Netherlands. In the eyes of the residents of Begor town, this military camp is a den of thieves co-occupied by three countries!

  In the distance, in the military camp, a Frenchman wearing a khaki colonel's uniform was pounding on the table and shouting loudly. Since it was too far away, Xu Yang couldn't hear clearly, but he guessed that the Gallic rooster was ranting about Germany openly violating the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Pact and openly marching into the demilitarized zone of the Rhineland.

  The commander of the motorized brigade, Feng-Katino, stood right in front of the French colonel, with a look of disdain and cold smile on his face. The soldiers next to Feng-Katino rudely pointed their guns at the three national lieutenants and captains who were constantly abusing them, and the soldiers must have been eager to pull the trigger and shoot these shameless military men dead.

  As he drew closer, Xu Yang finally knew what the Gallic rooster was shouting about, and that colonel was in a towering rage: In the past, there were no German soldiers in the Rhineland demilitarized zone. Nor should there be any in the future!

  Yes, in the past, Germans in the Rhineland demilitarized zone had no soldiers.

  From today on, soldiers wearing grey uniforms will prove to the world with dignity and weapons that Germany is no longer a defenseless country!