Dragon Clan: Lu Mingfei from All Quiet on the Western Front

Chapter 42: Fort Douaumont (two in one)

Lu Mingfei held his gun and looked at the fleeing African soldiers in confusion. He thought he would face a fierce battle, but he didn't expect that after just one shot, the African soldiers scattered like birds and beasts.

But this was a good opportunity. They followed the fleeing African soldiers and attacked the French defense line. The African soldiers blocked the machine guns of the French soldiers like a human wall. Lu Mingfei and his men approached the French trenches without suffering any damage.

The battle ended without any suspense, and Lu Mingfei and his men won the victory at the lowest cost. The battlefield was filled with the smell of gunpowder and blood, and the bodies of French and African soldiers were scattered on the snow. The tragic scene made people shudder.

"Corporal, what are they going to do?" Hill pressed an African soldier in front of Lu Mingfei.

The African soldier was squatting on the ground, holding his head and trembling. He was Omar, the first African soldier to escape. He was lucky because he tripped over a stone while escaping and happened to avoid the French machine gun fire.

"Go ask the company commander." Lu Mingfei glanced at the African soldier and said casually.

"Oh, Corporal, I didn't expect there really are people with black skin." Hill felt a little curious when he saw Omar squatting on the ground. It was the first time he saw a race that was completely different from them.

"Why are you suddenly interested in these?" Lu Mingfei took out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it, then asked Hill who was excitedly surrounding the African soldier.

"I'm looking for material for my own paintings. The old guys at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts said that I was good at drawing architecture, but my drawings of people were terrible. They never let me pass the entrance exam, so I want to look at more different people to get some inspiration for myself." Hill kept looking at the African soldier, his eyes almost shining. The African soldier trembled even more violently when he looked at him.

Hearing Hill's words, Lu Mingfei's hand holding the cigarette trembled and he almost dropped it to the ground.

"Damn it..." Lu Mingfei cursed softly, then slapped Hill on the head.

"Stop playing around, go find the company commander and ask him to send someone to push them to the rear."

"Oh." Hill covered his head with his hands and said "Oh" with some grievance, then took the African soldier to find their company commander. He couldn't figure out how he had offended Lu Mingfei.

Lu Mingfei looked at Hill's leaving back with a complicated expression. He had already vaguely guessed something.

"What the hell... there are such coincidences in the world..." He took a deep puff of cigarette and quickly suppressed the speculations in his heart. After all, those things would not happen for decades anyway. What he had to consider now was how to survive in this battle.

Their next target was Fort Douaumont, known as the strongest fortress of this era.

The fort was guarded by two lines of barbed wire 30 yards apart, behind which was a solid angular fence 8 feet high. Below the fort was a 24-foot deep moat surrounding it.

There are concrete gun positions at the two corners of the northern side of the fortress system, facing the moat, with double-layer turrets at the top, shaped like a flattened letter M. These three groups of gun positions are equipped with light rapid-fire guns, heavy machine guns and searchlights, so that any enemy troops who dare to go down to the moat will encounter deadly fire.

Each group of gun positions is connected to the center of the fortress by a long underground passage, so that the defenders do not have to worry about enemy firepower and can reinforce the front gun positions at any time.

In addition, a gradually rising ramp was built on the north side of the fort, which was completely exposed to the fire of the defenders' machine gun towers. If the gun positions on the flanks of the fort were silenced, the enemy would still be unable to advance even a step if they attacked here.

Even if the enemy rushed over the raised ramp and further infiltrated the fortress street connecting the top of the east-west wall at both ends of the fortress, they would still be killed by the defenders rushing out from the underground shelter behind them.

The interior of Fort Douaumont is a veritable underground city, connected by many maze-like corridors, and it takes a week to walk through them all. There are two underground barracks in the fortress, which can accommodate most of an infantry battalion. Each barracks has thick concrete walls on the exposed south side and has firing holes, so that even if the enemy can advance so far, each barracks can be used as an independent bunker for defense when necessary.

为了鼓舞士气，中央主走廊里用大写字母印刷着标语“宁可埋葬在堡垒的废墟下也决不投降”。不过堡垒真正的武器还是可伸缩炮塔里部署的大炮。其中有射速每分钟3发的短管重型155毫米炮，北面堑壕边另一座炮塔里有双联装75毫米炮。此外还有3座机枪塔和4座重装甲保护的圆顶瞭望塔。

The French turrets were so sophisticated for their time that the mechanical structure of the turrets used on the Maginot Line three or four decades later was almost identical: a 48-ton steel counterweight lifted the turret 1 or 2 feet into firing position, and the entire turret could be retracted into concrete protection when enemy fire came close.

Only a direct hit from the heaviest German shells on the two-and-a-half-foot-thick tortoise-shell top plate could destroy it. As long as they were not completely destroyed, these turrets could cause huge damage to approaching enemies.

Lu Mingfei and his men stopped not far from Fort Douaumont. They would rest here for one night and wait to launch an attack on the fortress tomorrow morning under the cover of Prussian artillery fire.

On the morning of the 25th, a fierce bombardment began. Lu Mingfei and his men could even vaguely hear the roar of the 420mm Big Bessa cannon in the rear. The sky was filled with smoke and the vibrations of explosions, and the ground was shaking slightly under the impact of the shells.

But this time, the indestructible cannon failed. The horrific shell was blocked by the concrete cover and sand on the top of Fort Douaumont, and only half of the logo on the gate of Fort Douaumont was knocked off.

But the signal for the attack had already been given, so Lu Mingfei and his men could only move forward. There were still many machine gun positions in front of the fortress, but these positions were all subjected to heavy artillery fire from the Prussians.

After the Prussian artillery had carried out a wave of attacks on the positions in front of Fort Douaumont, they extended their firepower and poured all their shells onto Fort Douaumont, suppressing the artillery fire from Fort Douaumont so that the infantry could launch an attack.

"Go!" Lu Mingfei shot a machine gunner who had survived the bombardment in front of him in the head, and then he was the first to charge towards Fort Douaumont, with Paul and Hill following closely behind him. They ran in the muddy snow, and the snow under their feet splashed with their heavy footsteps.

During the charge, Lu Mingfei pulled out a MAS M1892 revolver from his waist, which he had seized from a French officer last night. Although the power of this gun was not very good, it was much more useful than a rifle during the charge.

Lu Mingfei fired all eight bullets in his gun in one breath, and each bullet hit a French soldier. He also used the sickle weasel to find a place where the French had the least number of defenders. Every enemy that fell made him more confident, and the tension in his heart was gradually replaced by the adrenaline.

Led by Lu Mingfei, they ran to Fort Douaumont without much hindrance. They lay in a French position in front of Fort Douaumont, panting and looking at the fortress in front of them. The strongest fortress of this era was only a stone's throw away from them, and a huge shadow loomed over their heads, making people feel terrified.

"Damn it! Where are the others!" Paul lay on his stomach, looked around, and then cursed in a low voice. His face was full of anxiety and anger, and he held the rifle tightly in his hand, his knuckles turning white due to the force.

Lu Mingfei turned his attention away from Fort Douaumont after hearing Paul's angry curse. He also looked around and immediately understood why Paul was angry.

Now there was only their small team around Fort Douaumont, and they rushed so fast that they left all the other attacking troops far behind.

"Sir Corporal, what should we do now?" Hill asked with a gun in hand. He looked around nervously at this time, guarding against the French soldiers who might suddenly appear. Cold sweat flowed down his forehead. At this time, a shell landed not far from them, and the splashed soil sprayed on them. This was a shell fired by their own people. Those Prussian artillerymen could never have imagined that soldiers would run to the front of Fort Douaumont so quickly and continue to bombard Douaumont.

"Continue the attack." Lu Mingfei pondered for a moment and then gave the order to continue the attack. They couldn't stay here, otherwise they would be accidentally injured by their own artillery fire. It was even more impossible to retreat, otherwise the charge they had just launched at the risk of their lives would be in vain, and if they retreated, they would not only have to face their own artillery fire, but also the French artillery fire.

Then there was only one option left, which was to launch an attack. Lu Mingfei used the sickle-weasel to detect that there were several people on the turret in front, operating the cannon on it and firing at the distance.

He raised his gun and shot several French soldiers above, then led several soldiers behind him to attack Fort Douaumont.

Their team of ten will challenge this strongest fortress head-on. Everyone knows that this battle will be a life-or-death battle, but they have no room to retreat. Lu Mingfei took a deep breath and tried to calm his breathing. He knew that only by staying calm could he survive this life-or-death battle.

"Follow me!" Lu Mingfei shouted in a low voice, and then rushed out first. The soldiers behind him followed closely. Each of them held the weapon tightly in his hand, with a firm and sharp look in his eyes. Their footsteps left deep marks on the snow.

As they approached the fort, they suddenly heard a burst of intense machine gun fire. A machine gun position on the other side of Fort Douaumont spotted them, and fierce fire immediately poured down, with bullets whizzing over their heads, bringing up pieces of mud and snow.

Not only that, a machine gun tower on Fort Douaumont also began shooting at them.

"Get down!" Lu Mingfei ordered loudly, and everyone immediately lay down on the ground. Bullets flew past their bodies, making a creepy whizzing sound. The air around them was filled with the smell of gunpowder and smoke, which was suffocating.

"How are we going to get through?" Hill asked in a low voice beside Lu Mingfei, his eyes full of anxiety and uneasiness.

Although the barbed wire in front of Fort Douaumont was torn to pieces by artillery fire, it would still hinder their advance. If they could not break through the barbed wire in the first time, they would become sitting ducks.

"We must bypass these machine gun towers and eliminate the machine gun positions on the flanks first. I will deal with the barbed wire in front of the fortress later." Lu Mingfei analyzed calmly. He quickly scanned the surroundings, looking for the best attack route.

"I understand." Hill nodded, gripped the rifle tightly in his hand, and the flame of hope rekindled in his eyes.

Lu Mingfei led the team to move quickly to the left wing. They stayed close to the ground and tried to avoid being exposed to the enemy's sight. The machine gun fire was still fierce, but they relied on their agility and Lu Mingfei's sickle weasel detection to gradually approach the flank of the fortress.

When they finally arrived at the designated location, Lu Mingfei signaled everyone to stop. He carefully observed the machine gun position in front of him, calculating every firing path and enemy movement.

"Get ready and wait for my signal." Lu Mingfei said in a low voice. Everyone held their breath and waited nervously.

"Now!" Lu Mingfei waved his hand fiercely, and everyone stood up immediately and rushed to the machine gun position. Lu Mingfei fired continuously with the rifle in his hand, accurately killing several French soldiers, and Hill and Paul followed closely behind to replenish firepower.

"Cleared up!" Hill reported loudly that they had successfully occupied the machine gun position.

"Keep moving forward!" Lu Mingfei led his team towards the entrance of the fortress without any hesitation. The others followed without any hesitation. They believed that Lu Mingfei could solve the barbed wire blocking them.

Lu Mingfei raised his gun and first killed the machine gunner on the machine gun tower, then a chanting sound came from his mouth. The soldiers following behind Lu Mingfei couldn't help but shiver when they heard the chanting.

The originally cold air began to turn hot and the snow on the ground began to melt. The broken barbed wire in front of them also began to melt like the snow on the ground.

When they finally stood in front of the gate of Fort Douaumont, everyone couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Although the battle was far from over, they had taken the most difficult step.

The gate of Fort Douaumont was closed, but Lu Mingfei found that he could enter through the machine gun tower next to it that had just been destroyed. They climbed up the machine gun tower using a human ladder. It was easy for them to use a human ladder, as these were compulsory items in the boot camp.

The corridors inside Fort Douaumont are complex and twisting, like a huge maze. Every corner may hide an enemy ambush, and every door may be a deadly trap.

"Stay alert and be careful." Lu Mingfei reminded in a low voice after everyone climbed up. His eyes were as sharp as an eagle, always paying attention to the movements around him.

"Understood." The soldiers nodded one after another. They gripped their weapons tightly, ready to meet any threats that might arise.

Thanks to Hannibal III for the 1500 points and monthly tickets

Thanks to Qingdi Changsheng for feeding all things for two monthly tickets
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Thanks to Yunzhixingzhou for the two monthly tickets
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(End of this chapter)