Imperial Elite

Chapter 3 Duties and Honors

Marshal Haig is under a lot of pressure today. As the commander-in-chief of the Bonitania Expeditionary Force, he took over from the aging Freige last year.

They then began preparing for this campaign, which aimed to put pressure on the Teutons and force them to be overwhelmed by attacks from the Bunitanias and Gauls on the western front and the Lucians on the eastern front, thus causing their battle lines to collapse.

However, after a full six months of preparation, all available forces, including the 15 divisions of the Kitchener New Army, which were generally considered to be undertrained, were reinforced to the front lines.

Even before the formal attack began, the expeditionary force conducted seven days of continuous artillery preparation.

Theoretically speaking, under this level of firepower, let alone people, even cockroaches and rats on the Teutonic positions would not be able to survive.

After the shelling stopped, all the expeditionary infantry had to do was cross the no-man's land and occupy the undefended trenches.

The battle to capture the Teutonic first line of defense will be as easy and pleasant as an armed parade.

However, the reality was that even though the artillery bombarded them day and night for seven days, when the infantry left their trenches to launch their attack, the Teutons seemed to spring up from the ground and used machine guns and artillery to mow down the poor infantry.

After a full day of attacks, the expeditionary force's best achievement was pushing the front line forward by 500 meters.

For these 500 meters, the expeditionary force paid the price of more than 50,000 casualties.

A full 50,000 people!
Haig could already imagine what awaited him once this news reached the rear.

Faced with this terrible situation, even though Marshal Haig was an experienced soldier, all he wanted now was to find a quiet place to calm down.

However, as the commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force, Marshal Haig still had work to do, so he could not rest yet.

Although he already knew that the expeditionary force had suffered a great loss of lives, Marshal Haig still needed to read the report, study just how badly the fighting had been fought, and think about how he should write his report to his superiors.

If this incident isn't covered up, things like selling war bonds and recruiting new soldiers probably won't go so smoothly.

Fortunately, as an experienced officer, Marshal Haig was well-versed in the traditional skills of Bunitania. If he could find a bright spot in this failed attack, he could then carry out a traditional Bunitania funeral-turned-celebration to divert attention from the rear.

Thus, the campaign was successfully completed, but the only problem was... even a funeral needs a celebration, there has to be something to celebrate...

While struggling through the reports sent from the front, Marshal Haig quickly discovered a report from the 32nd Infantry Division, and... a medal application?
After quickly reviewing the medal application, Marshal Haig realized that this was exactly what he needed. It was a pity that the person didn't say anything more. It would have been even better if he had said something like, "Bunitania expects everyone to fulfill their duties."

Although somewhat disappointed, Marshal Haig still signed the application form with a flourish, and also attached a small note to it.

Now, Marshal Haig could begin to consider some more important questions, such as whether to maintain such a fierce offensive tomorrow, and what to eat tonight.

Meanwhile, Joe returned to the rear of the front lines with the stretcher team known as the Bandage Guys.

The devastation in the field hospital far exceeded that in the no-man's-land of the battlefield.

At least the corpses in the no-man's-land wouldn't scream, but in the field hospital, the groans of the wounded and the severed limbs of the medics made it so that Joe didn't even hear what the officer was telling him.

It wasn't until after leaving the hospital, when Joe wanted to return to his unit's base, that he discovered the remaining troops had been relocated due to the ongoing offensive.

The entire rear area is now in chaos, just like a stadium after a football match, with people everywhere busy with their own things. The place where I slept last night has now become the barracks of a company under the Liverpool Regiment.

After chatting for a while about the weather and fleas with the Liverpool guy who had inherited the cave he'd carved out in the trench the night before to use as a bed, Joe embarked on his journey to find his team.

After asking around, Qiao finally found the base of his 206th Field Company in a charred forest.

The moment he found the camp, although it was Joe's first time in this scorched forest, seeing the familiar faces there, Joe actually felt a sense of coming home to this unfamiliar forest.

After this eventful yet ultimately fruitless day, all Joe wanted to do was rest. He even found himself craving the stews in the field kitchen that looked like vomit, hoping to warm his wounded soul with some hot food.

When those rascals in the squad saw Joe return, they were as excited as if their company commander had returned and announced a day off. Everyone dressed smartly, looking at Joe with the same expression they had when they were going to Paris.

"Boss! You're back!"

Seeing the excited expressions on the boys' faces, Joe's terrible mood improved a bit. It seemed that at least the drinks he had spent at the bar on weekends over the past year hadn't been a waste.

"You rushed off so fast, we thought you were dead!"

"How could I possibly die? The bullets that could kill me haven't even been produced yet."

After calming down the excited lads, Joe looked at their squad's makeshift camp.

"Alright, where's my dinner?"

Then these brats showed a somewhat embarrassed expression.

"Boss...this is what happened..."

Among these brats' explanations, Joe, who just wanted to find a place to eat something hot and then take a nap, found that even such a humble wish of his could not be fulfilled.

For some reason, yesterday's dinner included something warm like stew, but today's only thing was some dry, choking biscuits, making one wonder if they were made from flour or plaster.

What pained Joe even more than the reduced food rations was that, because he had rushed too fast and no one saw him during the retreat, everyone assumed he was dead, so his underlings left him no food.

After a day on the battlefield, even if the biscuits were made from plaster, these half-starved brats could still manage to stuff them into their stomachs with the last bit of water in their canteens while affectionately inquiring about the marital status of the female relatives in the logistics department.

According to them, they ate Joe's ration out of nostalgia and gratitude for him.

Not only was there no food, but since everyone thought he was dead, he also had to go to the company headquarters to retrieve his belongings, and another survivor from another squad came to replenish his squad.

So that tomorrow we can continue today's work, such as destroying the Teutonic barbed wire.

Upon learning that Joe hadn't eaten yet, the deputy company commander, who had been a Manchester engineer before the war, gave Joe a piece of his chocolate and said to him half-jokingly.

"Today, you were the one who charged the furthest and fastest in the entire company, even running into the attack front of other units. If you hadn't gone astray next time, we might already be in Germania by now!"

It was only then that Joe realized why there was no one behind him when he came to his senses. It turned out that he had veered off course while running on the battlefield and ended up in an area where other units were responsible for attacking.

No wonder there was no one behind him. He was so focused on running that even if his men had dodged the Teutonic bullets, they wouldn't have dared to follow.

Embarrassed, he told the deputy company commander that he was so nervous that he just wanted to rush forward, but he didn't expect to rush in the wrong direction. He promised to pay attention to the direction next time and try to treat the deputy company commander to coffee in Germania.

Seeing Qiao's embarrassed expression, the deputy company commander smiled, shook his head, patted Qiao on the shoulder, and told Qiao to take his men to rest, as a brutal battle awaited them tomorrow.

Joe, carrying his own luggage and along with survivors from another squad, returned to his squad's campsite and introduced the survivor who had been added to their squad to his team.

“This is John from Yorkshire. You should know him. He was the guy in the second row before. Now he’s with us.”

While John and the rest of the team got to know each other, Joe put down his luggage and prepared to find a comfortable place to sleep.

Then Joe discovered that because he arrived the latest, all the comfortable sleeping spots in the camp had been taken by the other members of his squad.

Although, according to the rules of the Bunitania army, as a non-commissioned officer, he was entitled to have his soldiers move his luggage out of that comfortable place.

But for these young men who had been rolling around in the mud with him, Joe took out a pound and handed it to the poorest young man in his group.

"Take your luggage and get out of my seat right now!"

"Yes, sir!"

Upon seeing the pound in Joe's hand, the young man immediately sprang up from his blanket, quickly packed his belongings, and made room for Joe.

Then, amidst the envious glances of others, he accepted the pound from Joe's hand.

That charred, collapsed tree trunk was very comfortable to sleep on, but it cost a pound!
That's enough to stay one night at the famous luxury Ritz Hotel in London!
Besides, these engineers serve His Majesty the Emperor, risking their lives in mud pits, and they only earn a maximum of £2.25 a month.

Although I don't know why Joe is being so generous this time, nowadays you can get a pound just by moving to a new place. If you refuse this offer, would you even be human?
Exhausted, Joe hadn't even noticed how much money he'd just pulled out. Even if he knew he'd given a pound, he wouldn't have given it a second thought. A mere pound was nothing to Joe, who'd donated a medical team to the army. Besides, he'd already spent a fortune on drinks for these rascals after training over the past year. Right now, Joe just wanted to rest.

After laying out the blanket and eating the chocolate the deputy platoon leader had given him, Qiao fell into a deep sleep.

In his dream, Joe seemed to see his friend, riding a horse and carrying a spear, charging towards a dragon amidst a hail of gunfire.

Before Joe could see whether his friend had successfully completed the charge, he was awakened by a jolt.

"Joe, wake up, Joe, wake up quickly."

Opening his eyes, still half-asleep, Qiao saw the deputy company commander squatting in front of him.

Joe looked at the sky with some confusion. Not to mention the sun, even the moon was still hanging high in the sky. If there hadn't been any major changes in the world's astronomy while he was sleeping, it should still be midnight.

Qiao looked at the deputy platoon leader with even more confusion, wondering why the deputy platoon leader had woken him up in the middle of the night.

The deputy company commander understood Qiao's expression and stood up from beside Qiao to speak.

"Someone from the division headquarters has come and wants you to report for duty now."

"Now?"

"Yes, now."

Joe got up from the blanket, rubbed his dry eyes, and glanced at the time on his wrist.

"Midnight?"

The deputy company commander reached out to Joe and pulled him up from the tree trunk.

"Yes, it's midnight. The division headquarters has already sent a vehicle. We'll set off now."

Joe looked at the deputy company commander in surprise.

"So urgent? Can I know what's wrong?"

The deputy company commander shook his head.

"I don't know what happened either."

Seeing that the deputy company commander was also unaware of what had happened, Joe could only follow him to a black Ford Model T vehicle painted with the insignia of the Expeditionary Force.

A lieutenant colonel was sitting in the passenger seat, and a second lieutenant was driving. Seeing this combination, Joe couldn't help but turn his head and ask the deputy company commander again.

"You really don't know what happened?"

The deputy company commander shook his head.

"I really do not know."

Feeling extremely sleepy and confused, Qiao got into the car.

"You're Joe? Joe Harrison?"

The lieutenant colonel, who had just sat in the passenger seat, turned around and asked Joe.

"To me, it's Joe."

Joe nodded to the lieutenant colonel, then asked in confusion.

"May I ask what happened?"

The lieutenant colonel looked Joe up and down.

"It's starting to look pretty good, don't worry, it's a good thing."

As they spoke, the car sped along the road at the front lines, a road as treacherous as the surface of the moon.

Joe looked at the lieutenant colonel sitting in front of him with a puzzled expression, wondering what good thing could possibly happen to him.

Then Joe remembered that before he was deployed to Gaul with his troops, he had submitted the design drawings of the machine gun synchronizer and the small model he had made by hand.

After such a terrible day, all the words in Joe's mind finally boiled down to one sentence: 'Why are you taking so long?!'

Although the Ford bounced on the road like a fishing boat in a storm, at other times Joe would complain about the cheap car's terrible suspension.

Now, the thought of being able to leave the front lines and relax made Joe fall into a deep sleep again amidst the turbulence.

However, before Joe could even dream of his friend, or rather, Joe felt as soon as he closed his eyes, he was shaken awake again.

"Hey, wake up, we're here."

Looking at the lieutenant colonel in front of him, Joe patted his face and got out of the car.

Looking at the house in front of him, flying the Bonitania flag and with sentries standing guard at the door, Joe showed an envious expression. This was the first time Joe had been able to enter a house with a roof since arriving at the Somme.

As Joe followed the lieutenant colonel into the house, a sudden, intense flash of light made him feel as if he were seeing the sun. Before Joe could figure out what was happening, a group of people surrounded him.

"Mr. Harrison, I'm a reporter from the Daily Telegraph. How did you manage to occupy an entire trench all by yourself?"

"Mr. Harrison, I'm a reporter from The Guardian. Can you tell me how you feel right now?"

"Mr. Harrison, what are your thoughts on the first day's offensive?"

“Mr. Harrison…”

“Mr. Harrison…”

Faced with the reporters surrounding him like eight hundred ducks, Joe was completely bewildered.

How do I view the first day's offensive? I observe with my own eyes.

How do I feel right now? All I want to do right now is find a place to sleep in this house.

How could I have taken over a trench all by myself? If I could take over a trench all by myself, would I be here talking to you guys? You've got the wrong person.

Didn't I come here because the higher-ups finally recognized my little invention and were preparing to transfer me to the rear to do research? What's wrong with these reporters? Why are they all asking me about getting lost on the battlefield?
Just as Joe was looking at the group of reporters with a blank expression, thinking that they must have come to the wrong person, and that he should have been called here for his inventions, why did they keep asking him questions about the front lines.

Joe saw Major General Parker, the division commander he had only seen twice from afar, walking over with a box in his hand.

"stand at attention!"

Upon hearing the commander's order, even though he was exhausted and had no idea what his situation was, Qiao still instinctively stood at attention.

Then Joe saw Major General Parker open the box, take out a shiny round medal with a red and blue ribbon, and pin it to his clothes.

"For your outstanding performance in breaking through the Teutonic defenses today, and your heroic act of holding the battle flag alone until reinforcements arrived, you are hereby awarded the Medal for Distinguished Conduct. We hope you will continue to do your best."

"what?!"

(End of this chapter)