artillery arc

Chapter 712 Assassination
Colonel Berg paced back and forth in his office, smoking one cigarette after another.

His orderly opened the door, glanced around the office, and asked, "Shall I empty the ashtray for you?"

"Ah?" Colonel Berg was stunned for a moment, then he looked down at the table and realized that the ashtray was full. "Pour it out, please."

The orderly walked over to the table and emptied the ashtray neatly, without spilling any ash.

After doing this, he looked at Colonel Berg with concern.

The colonel noticed his gaze and asked, "What's wrong? Did I forget to shave again?"

"No, it's just that when you are worried, you will call me 'you'." The orderly replied.

"Everyone can see that I'm worried, right?" Colonel Berg smiled bitterly.

Orderly: "But the Office of Reserve Affairs is a waste of money, especially now that there are no reserves."

Since the general mobilization began, all the reserve forces of the Proson Empire have been transferred to active service, and the local youth leagues and labor camps that were originally managed by the reserve office have all been incorporated into the empire's logistics system.

So the Reserve Office, which was originally a clean government office, has become even more clean.

No wonder the orderly had this question.

Colonel Berg: "I am worried about the future of the Proson Empire. As a Proson soldier, no matter where I am, I will worry about the future of the Proson Empire."

He didn't lie, he was indeed worried about this matter at the moment, but it was also mixed with a little worry about his personal fate.

The Reserve Servicemen's Office, a low-paying office, still retains the functions of the reserve system.

For example, officer certificates, temporary passes, etc. can be issued to reserve officers. This is one of the countless small loopholes in the sophisticated war machine of the Proson Empire. Because it is not fatal, no one cares about it at all.

Colonel Berg had taken advantage of this loophole not long ago and issued a temporary pass that allowed anyone with the pass to enter the Eagle's Nest's logistics line and go upstairs from the freight elevator there.

This freight elevator usually only transports the goods listed on the manifest, and before each shift begins, three groups of people who do not know each other will check the contents of the shipment.

In addition, after the goods are moved into the elevator, the porters will not take the elevator upstairs. The elevator will arrive inside the Eagle's Nest under the control of external commands, and then another group of porters will take over the goods.

The system worked perfectly, except for one problem: if someone entered the elevator and started it to go upstairs, they didn't need to undergo any body search.

Of course, under normal circumstances, the person who enters the elevator cannot operate the elevator from inside the elevator. He must have an insider in the operating room to manually start the elevator.

There will always be guards from the Imperial Household Ministry on duty in the operation room.

However, the rigorous and smart engineers of Proson have prepared for all possible situations, so there is a control panel inside the elevator for use in emergency situations, and the cover of the control panel can be opened without special tools.

The engineers did not tell the officers who were developing the safety plan about the existence of this control panel, but simply wrote it down in the engineering maintenance manual.

Apparently, the serious engineers assumed that the equally serious Officer Plosson would read all the maintenance manuals before making any plans.

Thus, another loophole appeared in the sophisticated Proson chariot.

Colonel Berg, who is equally rigorous and intelligent, discovered this loophole, and today is the day to put this loophole into practice.

The pass the assassin carried was issued by Berg, and if the matter was exposed, he would be doomed to death.

Colonel Berg had the cyanide ready.

He was supposed to wear special dentures with cyanide capsules inside. If he bit the dentures hard enough, they would break and the cyanide would leak out.

But he was afraid. He was afraid that there would be a hole in the capsule, that he would have a seizure and break his dentures, and that there were all kinds of accidents.

So he put the specially made dentures in his pocket and kept the same dentures he had worn for more than ten years in his mouth.

Of course, in addition to taking poison, Colonel Berg also prepared a second plan. He placed a loaded Luger pistol with the safety off in the first drawer of his desk.

However, as long as the assassination is successful, all these backup plans will not be used.

At that time, I will become one of the heroes who saved Proson.

Colonel Berg continued to pace back and forth in his office, even forgetting that his orderly was still in the room and did not notice the change in the orderly's expression.

----

The orderly quietly left the office, left the door ajar, turned around and walked quickly, stopping next to the vase in the corner.

After making sure that no one was around, he turned the vase.

The eyes in the relief on the wall suddenly opened, revealing the "cat's eyes" hidden inside.

Orderly: "Colonel Berg is not in good condition today. Maybe they have taken action. The colonel is very careful and has not allowed me to touch his documents. I don't know what he has done. Please hurry up."

The relief's eyes closed.

The orderly let out a long sigh.

Just at this moment, two female clerks walked past the vase while holding documents and chatting.

The two men cast curious glances at the orderly.

The orderly pretended to hide and smoke secretly.

One of the female clerks said, "Don't throw your cigarette butts in the vase, sir. There's a trash can fifteen meters ahead."

"Ah? Oh, okay." The orderly put out his cigarette and pressed it into the vase, then realized, "Oh no! Wait a minute, I'll get it out right away!"

Female clerk: "Really, sir, there are too many people like you, and the vase is full of cigarette butts! This is not what should happen in the heart of the empire."

"Sorry, sorry." The orderly took out the cigarette butt covered in dirt and put it directly into his pocket.

"I didn't ask you to put it in your pocket. Here, take this handkerchief and use it to wrap it—"

"No, thanks, I—"

At this moment, three gunshots were heard from somewhere.

The orderly shuddered.

The female clerk was still wondering: "What's that sound?"

Before he could finish his words, an explosion was heard at the end of the passage.

The next moment, a shrill alarm sounded throughout the eagle's nest.

The female clerk holding the handkerchief was shocked: "What happened? The enemy plane finally dropped a bomb on us? Should we go to the air-raid shelter?"

The orderly ignored her and ran towards Colonel Berg's office, trying to block him inside, but he ran into a group of palace guards running wildly.

The major in charge yelled, "Anyone who runs could be an assassin! Shoot anyone who hasn't seen it in the newspaper!"

The orderly braked suddenly and stopped, lying on the ground with his hands on his head.

Gunshots could be heard in the distance, and it was unclear whether the guards were shooting at the running people or the assassins were firing at His Majesty the Emperor.

----

Colonel Berg threw away his cigarette butt, not even bothering to put it out, and rushed out of the office, grabbing the passing guard and asking, "What's going on?"

Guard: "I don't know. I saw everyone else running, so I ran too!"

Colonel Berg released the guard's shoulders and looked for someone of higher rank.

At this time, Lieutenant Colonel Ferdinand, who was very familiar with him, came over and said, "Colonel, please stay in the office. The guards are very tense now and there may be a mistaken shot."

Colonel Berg: "What happened?" Lieutenant Colonel Ferdinand looked around and came over to whisper: "I heard that there was an explosion in your Majesty's conference room. The details are unclear, but the bomb was very powerful. The people attending the meeting were either killed or injured."

Berg breathed a sigh of relief, then realized something was wrong and quickly looked at Lieutenant Colonel Ferdinand.

The lieutenant colonel looked at him with an expression that said, "I knew you were going to do something bad." "Well, stay in the office. If you leave the Eagle's Nest now, you will be beaten to a pulp as an accomplice."

Colonel Berg nodded, turned and went into the office, but did not close the door immediately. Instead, he held the door handle and looked back at Lieutenant Colonel Ferdinand.

"Close the door. Neither you nor I can influence what happens next," said the lieutenant colonel.

Colonel Berg then closed the door.

----

Five minutes ago, Eagle's Nest, War Room.

"The people want to see new progress from us," the Imperial Propaganda Minister said loudly.

This meeting was not a purely military meeting, so it was attended by the Minister of Propaganda, the heads of various internal affairs departments, and many of the emperor's advisers.

The participants also brought their own entourage, so all the maps in the operations room had been replaced. Even if an entourage relied on their super memory to copy the map outside, they could only get wrong information.

"The battle line has been retreating, and some people are already doubting our propaganda," the propaganda minister continued. "We must have something to excite the masses."

The emperor raised his right hand and circled it near his temple. "We can ask the Imperial Science Department to show us some new weapons. Aren't our jet planes ready for actual combat? And our V2 rockets."

Propaganda Minister: "It is not enough to just show these things. The masses care about practical matters."

Emperor: "How about free champagne rations? If you open all your wine cellars, you should be able to give every citizen of the Prosun Empire a bottle of champagne, right?"

The marshals and generals looked at each other.

Propaganda Minister: "So, can't we achieve some more 'miracles' in the military? Miracles like the Carolingian miracle! Or more recently, the Sardinian miracle would be fine!"

Emperor: "It's been less than half a year since the Sardinian miracle. Has the publicity effect disappeared?"

"Unless we move Erwin Romer to the Eastern Front now and have him fight Rokossov," the Propaganda Minister said, "that way we can divert people's attention from the dwindling vegetable rations until the outcome of the showdown."

Emperor: "No, no, I can safely withdraw troops from the Western Front to supplement the Eastern Front because Erwin is in charge of the Western Front Command. I am using his reputation to deter the United Kingdom and the United States! After all, they were defeated by him!
"Our biggest concern will always be the Western Front. The Ants are just an inferior race—"

Suddenly, the emperor stopped.

The entire conference room fell silent.

"Damn it." The emperor looked at his hands dejectedly. "I clearly said these words, but it feels so strange to say them again."

At this moment, the door opened and a colonel entered the room.

"Sorry, I'm late."

After saying this, he entered the room under the gaze of everyone, walked around the right side of the long conference table, and walked towards Emperor Proson.

Because everyone brought their own entourage to the meeting, everyone thought that the colonel was someone else's man, and no one stopped him for a while.

Suddenly, Giles shouted, "Whose attaché are you? Stop!"

The colonel immediately threw the briefcase in his hand to the emperor: "The glory of the Proson Empire will last forever!"

Giles jumped onto the conference table, grabbed the briefcase in mid-air, and then rushed to the window with the briefcase in his arms.

Almost at the same time, the assassin drew his pistol and aimed it at the emperor.

However, he was surprised to see that the emperor's gun was pointed at him.

The emperor fired three shots.

The assassin fell backwards, blood spurting out from the bullet hole in his forehead in a literal fountain.

The emperor was overjoyed and said to the propaganda minister, "Is the news that I personally killed the assassin enough to inspire the people?"

Then he remembered that there was a handbag.

He turned his head to look at Gil Ace, only to see Gil Ace rushing towards the tempered glass window.

Giles hit the glass with a bang.

The glass didn't move.

Obviously, the tempered glass of industrial products cannot be broken by the human body.

Then there was an explosion, and a blazing light engulfed everything at the scene.

Seven or eight guards threw the emperor to the ground and protected him with their bodies.

……

It was unknown how much time had passed before the emperor was pulled out from the crowd.

His brain was still in a trance, and his ears, destroyed by the overpressure, could not hear anything.

He looked at the window and found that the tempered glass was finally shattered. All the windows on the west side of the conference room were broken. The walls between the windows were still there, but the surface was completely lifted up, revealing the steel bars underneath.

Obviously, given the size of the briefcase, the bomb was incredibly powerful.

The emperor saw the Celtic Marshal being dragged out from under the conference table, his upper body covered in blood. If this was his blood, the old marshal would probably be dead.

Marshal Rundstedt had disappeared. He was located opposite Marshal Celtic, with his back to the explosion point.

The Imperial Propaganda Minister survived, half of his face was covered in blood, and the medic was bandaging him.

Dr. Porsche and other scientists were at the farthest place, so it seemed okay - fortunately the conference room was large enough and the conference table was long enough.

The "Treasures of the Empire" were safe and sound, which made the emperor feel relieved.

Fortunately, the loss is not big——

wrong!

The emperor's scalp went numb.

He looked towards the explosion site again.

The window was broken, even the window frame was gone, and outside was a towering snow-capped mountain - the Eagle's Nest was built on the top of a mountain, just as its name suggests.

The emperor pushed away the people who wanted to examine him and tried to step towards the window, but was grabbed by more people.

Although he couldn't hear, he still shouted: "Don't stop me! Gil Ace! Gil Ace!"

----

Sanssouci Palace.

Emperor Proson's sister was reading a book. Suddenly she looked up at the flowers that Giles gave her.

That is Edelweiss, which is said to come from the top of the Alps.

The pure white petals withered silently.

(End of this chapter)