Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei's War Journey

Chapter 79 Rainstorm and Disease

"Hurry up! Get all the water out! Don't stop for a second!" Lu Mingfei shouted to the soldiers around him.

The surrounding soldiers sprang into action, using helmets, iron buckets, and hand pumps to frantically drain the rising water from the trench.

By this time, a month had passed since their last rest period. During this month, Lu Mingfei and his remaining troops were organized into a platoon and officially joined the Ninth Company.

Captain Henrik, who originally planned to pack up and return to the rear training camp to continue his gilded career, also became the new company commander of the Ninth Company under an order from his superiors.

Since Captain Henrik was essentially an airdropped company commander, and the Ninth Company didn't have a single confidant, he wasn't just drinking tea and reading newspapers in the rear training camp anymore. Now he was facing real war and real death, and he couldn't be sidelined like before.

So he began to promote Lu Mingfei and his group without regard to precedent. Lu Mingfei was promoted directly from a private to a sergeant, a speed that was almost like riding a rocket.

Normally, it takes several years and rigorous assessments for an ordinary soldier to be promoted to sergeant. Lu Mingfei had only been out of recruit training camp for a month. However, if there are too many casualties on the battlefield, he can be promoted exceptionally, which is not considered breaking the rules.

However, Lu Mingfei was still the acting platoon leader, since only officers could hold the position, and as a non-commissioned officer, he could only serve as an acting platoon leader.

Otto and Caesar were promoted to corporals, while the rest of the soldiers were promoted to privates, officially becoming veterans.

On the battlefield, sometimes you get promoted not because you're good, but because you're alive.

Thanks to Lu Mingfei and his men's incredible counterattack, they not only returned alive but also wiped out a French company headquarters and captured over a hundred people. The rest of the Ninth Company no longer dared to underestimate them.

With the full support of Lu Mingfei and others, Captain Henrik finally secured his position as the company commander of the Ninth Company.

Although Captain Henrik was essentially a peacemaker who preferred to avoid fighting and stay in the rear whenever possible, being on the front lines meant he had to follow orders and complete various combat missions.

Lu Mingfei and his men recently captured a French position near a small village. The battle was not too intense, and the French resisted for a while before retreating.

But before they could clean up, a torrential downpour began and lasted for three days and three nights.

The French position that Lu Mingfei and his men captured was located in a low-lying area. Before the war, it might have been a wheat field, but it was hastily converted into fortifications after the outbreak of war. Three days of torrential rain turned it into a complete swamp.

The water in the trench was already knee-deep and still rising. The rainwater mixed with mud, turning into a thick, brown slurry, and each step required three times the usual effort.

Even more terrifying is that many of the artillery shelters have partially collapsed, allowing rainwater to flood in and turning them into death traps. Two soldiers were buried alive by the sudden collapse of the shelter roof while trying to salvage ammunition.

"Duck boards! Lay duck boards quickly!" Lu Mingfei shouted hoarsely from a relatively high section of the trench.

The so-called "duck plank" was actually a makeshift wooden path. Soldiers used door panels, bed boards, and even coffin boards salvaged from village ruins to lay on the bottom of the flooded trenches, barely creating a passable path.

But the planks would soon be swallowed by mud and needed to be constantly replaced, making it an endless battle against the rain.

Otto carried a door panel, trudging through the muddy water. The blacksmith's son had lost weight, but was still strong.

He laid the door planks in a particularly muddy trench, panting heavily, and said, "Platoon leader, this won't do! The water is still rising, and we simply don't have enough planks!"

Lu Mingfei looked up at the sky. The rain was so thick that he could barely see anything more than ten meters away. This damned rain had been falling for three days and showed no sign of stopping.

"Let the wounded and the weak evacuate to the villages behind first," Lu Mingfei decided.

"Those who can fight, stay and continue to drain the water and reinforce the fortifications."

"What if the French take the opportunity to attack?" Caesar walked over from the other side, his uniform soaked, his blond hair stuck to his forehead, and he looked somewhat disheveled.

"The French troops are also getting rained on. Their positions are not much better than ours. In this kind of weather, artillery fire is basically impossible, and charging is even more impossible. Their legs will get stuck in the mud and become our targets."

Indeed, the torrential rain brought the entire front into a strange ceasefire. Soldiers on both sides were battling the rain and mud, temporarily forgetting their mutual killings, and nature became their common enemy.

But Lu Mingfei knew that this calm was only temporary, and once the rain stopped and the mud dried slightly, the fighting would resume immediately.

Moreover, since their positions will be flooded and their fortifications destroyed, they will be in an extremely disadvantageous position.

"We need more planks and sandbags. Otto, you take ten men and go to the village to dismantle the houses. Don't touch the ones that are still inhabited; look for the abandoned ones," Lu Mingfei said.

"Understood." Otto immediately led his men off.

"Caesar, use the Kamaitachi to monitor the French army's movements. Although it's unlikely they'll launch an attack in this weather, we still can't let our guard down," Lu Mingfei continued.

Caesar nodded, closed his eyes, and the wind demon spread in the rain. Soon he heard the voices of the French army in the distant trenches.

"The French army is in chaos—it seems there's an outbreak of infectious disease," Caesar said, opening his eyes with a serious expression.

Lu Mingfei felt a chill run down his spine; infectious diseases were more terrifying than the enemy in trench warfare.

The environment here is absolutely terrible: terrible sanitation, dense crowds, rotting corpses, and contaminated water sources—all of these are breeding grounds for infectious diseases.

"Notify everyone that drinking water must be boiled, food must be thoroughly heated, and the bodies must be taken far away and buried!" Lu Mingfei continued to give orders.

"Keep listening. Report any new information to me immediately. I'm going to report to Captain Henrik." After saying that, Lu Mingfei walked along the path that was barely paved with wooden planks, stumbling and sinking as he headed towards the company headquarters.

The company headquarters was set up in a relatively intact house in the small village they had occupied. It was the village chief's house, a two-story brick and stone structure. Although a corner of it was damaged by artillery fire, it was still quite sturdy overall.

Captain Henrik sat at an oak dining table with a map spread out in front of him and a steaming cup of coffee beside him. This was the style of an aristocratic officer, who maintained his noble demeanor no matter the circumstances.

Upon seeing Lu Mingfei enter, Henrik immediately stood up: "Sergeant Hans, how is the situation?"

"It's bad, Captain," Lu Mingfei reported after saluting.

"The trenches are severely flooded, and at least a third of the artillery shelters have collapsed. We are draining the water and laying planks, but the rain is too heavy and the effect is limited. The soldiers are exhausted, and if this continues, the non-combat casualties will be severe."

Henrik sighed and rubbed his temples: "The situation at the battalion headquarters isn't much better. The trenches have all turned into muddy rivers, supplies can't be delivered, and the wounded can't be evacuated."

"Captain, I request that the soldiers take turns stationed in the village. I heard that an infectious disease has broken out in the French trenches, and I'm afraid that the rain will bring the virus here," Lu Mingfei said after a moment's hesitation.

He had originally intended to station some weak soldiers in the village, but now, with the infectious disease, he had to ensure that all the soldiers were of sufficient fighting strength.

"But what about the positions? What if something else happens?" Henrik said, frowning. Although it was raining heavily and the French army seemed unlikely to launch an attack, this was a battlefield, and anything could happen.

"Don't worry, Captain, I'll arrange Corporal Caesar as the messenger. He has very sharp ears and can hear anything happening in the trench. I'll stay in the trench and direct the soldiers to drain the water. With me here, there shouldn't be any problem waiting for your support," Lu Mingfei said.

"Then let's do it your way." In the end, Captain Henrik approved Lu Mingfei's request.

The soldiers began to take turns retreating to the relatively dry houses in the village to rest. Each shift stayed in the trench for four hours before changing shifts.

Lu Mingfei and Caesar became the hub of this system. Lu Mingfei stayed in the trenches to direct drainage and guard, while Caesar used the weasel's extraordinary hearing to transmit information between the village and the trenches, warning of any possible changes.

The rain continued, seemingly without end.

One evening, as Otto led another group of soaked soldiers back into the village, he noticed something was wrong. A soldier named Peters was coughing, his face was flushed, and his steps were unsteady.

"Are you alright?" Otto helped him up.

"I'm a little cold—I might have caught a cold," Peters said in a hoarse voice, his body feeling very weak.

Otto touched his forehead; it was burning hot. He immediately laid Peters on a bed and sent for a medic.

The medic was the only person in the company who had received formal medical training, but before the war he was just a veterinarian. After examining Peters' symptoms, his expression turned serious.

"High fever, cough, swollen lymph nodes—" the medic murmured, "This looks like—"

"What does it look like?" Otto asked eagerly.

The medic didn't answer immediately. Instead, he asked Peters to take off his shirt. When the medic saw the festering lumps under Peters' armpits and in his groin, his expression changed drastically.

"Plague," he whispered the word, as if afraid that a loud voice would disturb the invisible grim reaper in the air.

The soldiers around gasped when they heard the word. The plague, also known as the Black Death, was a scourge that claimed a third of Europe's population in the Middle Ages.

"Are you sure?" Otto asked anxiously.

"Although not exactly the same, it's pretty close. We must immediately isolate him and everyone who has been in contact with him," the medic said.

The quarantine zone was set up in an abandoned barn on the edge of the village, and Peters was placed alone in the deepest part of the barn, separated by a canvas.

The military doctor put on all the protective gear he could find—several layers of masks, gloves, and even a makeshift protective suit made of tarpaulin—and began to attempt treatment.

But the situation deteriorated rapidly. Peters' body temperature reached 40 degrees Celsius, accompanied by severe headaches and chills. His bones ached all over, as if someone was twisting them out of his bones.

Not long after, two more soldiers developed similar symptoms. Like Peters, they had been involved in moving bodies and debris from the flooded trenches in the past few days.

"It could be water pollution, or those corpses—" The military doctor reported to Lu Mingfei after the examination, his voice filled with despair.

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