Conquer Europe from the West

Chapter 52 My 150mm cannon can race!
The troops of the Second Battalion were successfully evacuated, but the troops of the Fourth Battalion were left behind because the troop transport truck that was supposed to replace their troops got stuck in the ground again.

While waiting for rotation, the people of the Fourth Battalion also confirmed with their naked eyes that the Farlans were wandering outside the border. Wolf immediately ordered the FK.96 field gun, which had been adjusted in position, to shoot the Farlans into the sky.

But he was so excited that he accidentally mistook the armor-piercing bullet for a grenade. As a result, the Farlan man flew five or six meters in the sky, and in the end only his torso and head were left. He roared in the territory of the empire for half an hour.

After Ryan learned about this, he called him back to the front-line staff headquarters and scolded him for half an hour. Then he asked Brian if he could let the driver take Wolfe to the city for a meal.

The same thing happened to the artillery crew that fired the cannon. They were scolded for half an hour, and then went out to have a good meal - again, it was Ryan's treat.

Brian was amused by Ryan's way of hitting him in front and then giving him a bite of meat from behind. He was about to say that he also wanted to have a good meal, but he was immediately immobilized by a toy car that Ryan had exchanged for a dozen bullet shells from children on the street.

As someone who had seen the "gadgets" that Ryan had brought out before, Brian naturally didn't think that Ryan, who was rotated in for a short period of time, would bring some unimportant things.

He waved his hand in front of Ryan, dismissing the guards, then paced back to his desk and asked in a calm tone that could hardly conceal his curiosity and anticipation, "What is this?"

Ryan raised his left eyebrow. He heard the anticipation in Brian's words, so he chose to keep it a secret.

He chewed his gum and mumbled, "A military truck, Your Excellency the Brigadier General."

Brian shook his head. "But it's just a Daimler bus, isn't it?"

Mercedes-Benz is not a luxury car manufacturer here. Its main products are large (yes, large) buses with a capacity of 24 people and small family cars with a capacity of 8 people.

The large car Ryan got in exchange for the bullet shell.

But one thing worth mentioning is that this car toy is different from the ones made of iron sheets. It is made of wood, has doors that can be opened, and has four proportionally scaled rotating wheels.

That's why Ryan wanted it.

"Indeed, Your Excellency." He nodded to Brian, and then placed the little toy on Brian's desk just like he did a few days ago.

He said, "But I think he's more suitable to be called a truck."

With that, Ryan turned around and left the room. He used his military cap to scoop a helmetful of soil from the flower bed at the door, then hurried back to Brian.

Brian was very curious about Ryan's actions. He began to feel that this young man whom he had rescued from the military academy could always bring him some unexpected surprises.

Furthermore, General Hellingen from the seventh episode currently has no manpower to escort him back to Stuttgart, so Brian is temporarily allowed to take over the command of the front line - two rooms further inside is the front-line staff headquarters.

"What are you doing?"

Brian looked at Ryan with some curiosity.

Because he found that Ryan was spreading a helmet of dirt on his desk, and the small insects and sand flowed into the drawer below through the gaps in the wooden boards. This made Brian suddenly feel that it was a good thing that he did not put the documents in the drawer.

Ryan didn't say anything. He fumbled around on the table, grabbed a stack of typewriter paper, rolled it up, and stuffed it into the toy car. Then he put the toy car on the table.

"Your Excellency, Brigadier General, what did you see?" Ryan asked immediately.

"A toy car, and an Imperial captain playing with a toy car." Brian suddenly felt like a fool.

Seeing this, Ryan pushed the toy car's rear end with his finger again, but the toy car didn't move at all. "Your Excellency, what now?"

Brian's eyebrows twitched, and he raised both his hands, looking a little upset. "The toy car got stuck in this mess on my desk, and I just watered it half an hour ago."

"Yes, the toy car is stuck in the ground." Ryan seized the opportunity to speak. He knew that Brian would not actually work here - because he would usually be in the staff meeting room further inside.

Then he took out two wooden plugs for kettles that he had stolen from the non-commissioned officers' quarters.

He cut the two wooden plugs in the middle, turning them into four thick round pieces of wood.

One piece is exactly the thickness of four car wheels and the size of one car wheel.

Ryan immediately removed the four wheels of the toy car and put the four pieces of wood in place of the wheels.

The truck was lowered back onto the mud.

Brian raised his eyebrows. He felt that Ryan was making some big news for him again.

Then Ryan touched the truck lightly with his finger.

This time the truck not only did not sink, but also moved forward a few centimeters.

Ryan stopped immediately.

"That's what I'm saying, Your Excellency."

He looked at the toy car.

"The wheels of our military trucks are too narrow, not even as wide as those of motorcycles." "Several trucks have become stuck in the ground due to shelling. We need to widen their wheels so they don't get stuck so easily."

After saying that, Ryan took a half step back, stood at attention and looked at the brigadier general who had once again become his boss.

Brian didn't say anything, but he immediately understood what Ryan meant. He pulled his legs back from the corner of the table, and only the cigarette in his mouth continued to shrink.

Green smoke spewed out from the corners of Brian's mouth and nostrils.

"But that would require a major change in the production line, you know."

As the head of the general staff, Brian was well aware of all the logistical work of the army. Just like when Ryan mentioned the Esco explosion-proof wall last time, he immediately guaranteed that it could be tried out.

But this time, it's a little different.

Brian shook his head. "Car tires aren't like those vegetable baskets you can make in a workshop with pliers and a needle and thread. I can't decide on this."

But Ryan didn't give him a chance to speak.

Because he didn't listen to Brian at all, and when Brian opened his mouth, he pinched the wheels of the toy cars together in groups of two, and sandwiched the chewing gum he had been chewing in the middle.

After finishing, he removed the two front wheels of the toy car and replaced them with this wheel set that he had glued together with chewing gum.

"The production line issue can be postponed for a while."

Ryan said calmly, "We can first gather more wheels and weld them together in pairs."

"That way, the trucks on the front lines will at least be able to work on the ground we've loosened up."

But Brian still had no interest in it.

"Your idea is good, Captain," he relit his cigarette, "but the trucks we have now are more than enough to support the combat needs of our troops on the front line."

In fact, what he said was true. The Empire's front line could indeed be maintained using only these front-wheel drive trucks that were finalized ten years ago.

But Brian was not a frontline officer after all. He could understand the importance of fortifications, but he could not understand how much a vehicle that could move freely on land softer than sand after being bombarded would change the battlefield.

After all, even if Ryan said everything, the trenches dug by various countries in the war were less than 500 meters deep.

In extreme cases, the distance between the front trenches of both sides can even be reduced to one hundred meters.

It is unreasonable to modify standard equipment specifically for this short distance of 100 meters.

Ryan understood this, too.

So he didn't put all his hopes on Brian.

The only problem is.

Just as he had tidied up Brian's desk and was about to go to the cafeteria for a meal, the door was kicked open with a bang.

An old man wearing a general's uniform, covered with medals and with a huge mustache on his upper lip, who looked like an admiral, locked his gleaming eyes on Ryan and Brian.

The military police guarding the door were so frightened by the aura exuded by the general that their faces turned pale. They stood aside with their guns on their backs as if they were being punished.

Brian was so frightened that he stood up straight, and Ryan even heard the sound of his knees hitting the table.

Brian never thought that the artillery general of the 14th Army would visit this insignificant front-line staff headquarters - whether normal or abnormal, they should stay in the headquarters or their own camp offices.

It's impossible to go to the front line.

"General Schubert!" Brian called out the other party's name in panic.

Then he heard the admiral roar excitedly.

"Who made that truck with several wheels welded to it outside?!"

“It’s so damn useful!”

"You drag my 150 faster than the Farlan horses!"

"Finally, no one can catch up with my Knuckle Cannon!!"

　Trivia
　　At the start of World War I, the British Army had only 80 trucks.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)