Chapter 227: Hans (Please Collect, Subscribe, and Recommend)

On the night of May 9, 1917, the Verdun front.

At about 6:30, the artillery fire and attack of both sides stopped very tacitly. This commuting war mode was not due to the requirements of those big men. It was a tacit understanding formed spontaneously by the front-line soldiers.

They are living people, not the cold numbers in the reports of those big men. They need to rest, so many front-line commanders will choose to turn a blind eye.

Under the cover of night, both sides will tacitly draw a non-combat zone. These areas are often in the middle of the positions of both sides. Front-line officers will let a small unit walk into the non-combat zone without weapons and with their hands raised.

They are here to collect corpses.

This is what both sides of the war want to do. They hope to collect the bodies of their comrades, and no one wants to be exposed in the wilderness after their death. On this point, the soldiers on both sides have the same position. Any officer who dares to stop this behavior will be shot the next day.

So later on, all the anxious fronts formed a unique battlefield culture. For example, after collecting their own bodies, both sides would send the bodies of the enemy's dead who were close to their own front to the other side in a friendly manner, and the other side would do the same.

The two sides would even exchange some materials in the center of the battlefield. This also gave rise to a lot of battlefield black markets. In fact, the top leaders of both sides knew these phenomena more or less, but no one cared, because the idiots who meddled in other people's business had already died under the black gun.

It was too easy for a group of soldiers to kill their own commanders on the battlefield. They didn't even need to shoot black guns, they just needed to expose their superiors during the battle, and the other side would help them deal with it very cleanly.

By now, those officers with inflexible brains have long been dead. For this, the top leaders have no way at all. What can they do? Clean up those criminal soldiers? Don't be funny! That's a meat grinder! The soldiers here don't even know what their tomorrow will be like.

If you are lucky, you will receive some seemingly serious but not fatal injuries, and will not leave you disabled. When you return to the safe rear from the front line, the soldiers call these wounds "the kiss of the goddess of luck". If you are a little unlucky, you will retreat from the front line with broken arms and legs. But at least you can save your life. At worst, you will become one of the many corpses.

So for the soldiers, life is actually no different. Anyway, they never expect the masters above to suddenly be kind and let them all go home early. In this case, many threats from the top have no deterrent effect on them.

At this point in the war, the top leaders need to coax the soldiers to do many things. If they are really angry, others will directly mutiny, which will be more troublesome. Therefore, the unique culture derived from the battlefield, although it is of no benefit to the country, the top leaders can only turn a blind eye.

Today is the same. A group of French and American soldiers walked into the battlefield without weapons and raised their hands. →The Germans on the opposite side did not shoot, but sent an equal number of soldiers into the battlefield on the principle of equality to clean up the battlefield.

At first, the group of people were very silent, carrying each other's bodies. About an hour later, the bodies of their own side were almost moved, and the two sides began to tacitly send the bodies of the other side's dead to the other side. During this process, the soldiers of both sides could also start talking.

Some people took out some lighters, watches, canned food, and fuel to exchange for supplies that they liked.

But in general, the German soldiers took out more valuable items such as watches, pens, jewelry, etc., and exchanged them with American and French soldiers for more daily supplies such as canned food, cigarettes, wine, chocolate, etc.

There is no way, for the Germans now, those valuable items have very limited meaning to them. Prices in Germany have exploded, especially food, and the shortage has been extremely serious. ,

This also affected the German army.

According to some German soldiers, they have been eating cabbage for several months. The life of French soldiers was not very good before, but anyway, they were fighting on their own land, and the supplies were better than those in Germany. When the Americans came, the French people's life became better.

Therefore, during this period of time, the Allied frontline soldiers made a small fortune. For example, in the exchange on the front line, a watch can be exchanged for a pack of cigarettes.

You can imagine the shortage of supplies for the German army.

From this, it can also be seen that the Germans are at the end of their rope. Apart from anything else, the Allies can wear Germany out.

"Hans, we are here." Steve led his men to mingle among the soldiers who were cleaning the battlefield. When the exchange of supplies reached a climax, Steve led his men to find a German soldier named Hans.

Hans, this name is used by four out of ten people in Germany. It is said that this has also derived a joke. The US military shouted in the trench: Hey Hans, is that you? (Hans, is that you?) The Germans named Hans in the trench opposite all stuck their heads out. The Americans shot them one by one. Later, when the Germans knew about it, they also learned to shout from the Americans during the war: Mike, is that you (Mike, is that you?). Because there are many Americans named Mike.

It's obvious that this story was made up by an American, but there are indeed many people named Hans in Germany.

And this Hans is a man in his thirties, a typical German man, silent and serious. His temperament doesn't match the lively exchange of materials in front of him. But you can't judge a person by his appearance, this guy is the biggest middleman on the German side.

"Where is the chief?" The chief is Steve's friend, a member of the French International Legion, and should be considered an American, but I don't know how he got into the French army. He came to Europe to fight a long time ago. He is also a well-known figure in the battlefield black market and has a good reputation.

"He is injured... A stray bullet hit his butt, and it will take at least a week to heal." Steve said helplessly. He didn't lie. The chief has always had good luck. In the past few years of fighting, let alone injuries, he has not even had any minor problems. But just before they set off, this guy got injured for some reason.

"Well... I wish him a speedy recovery, although I'm not sure if this counts as a blessing." Getting a minor injury on the battlefield is actually a good thing, at least you can hide in the rear hospital. Getting well soon at this particular time and place is not a good thing, because that means the masters in the rear will immediately kick them to the front to die.

"Maybe, okay, Hans, can we go ahead with our previous deal?" Steve didn't talk about anything else.

"Yes! But you must ensure that my comrades will not be treated unfairly." Hans obviously reached a deal with the chief.

"Of course, they will be pardoned and can get special assistance from the Allies. Once something goes wrong, they can be transferred immediately, and the Allies guarantee their treatment." Steve took out a stack of certificates issued by the French government.

This was a deal reached between the chief and Hans before. They needed some identities, some identities that allowed them to move freely in the German-occupied area. This required the cooperation of a group of German soldiers and even senior officers.

To put it bluntly, it means that they need the help of traitors.

I have to say that Steve and his team did a good job. Doing all the work of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the intelligence department.