Codegease: Air and Land Warfare 1946

“I really think the Soviet soldiers were more determined than any enemy we had ever encountered before. You know, when I looked them in the eye, I sensed an aura I had never seen before.”

"Hmm? Isn't this how all the rebels have resisted to the bitter end in the past?"

"No, sir. In the past, I only saw fear in the eyes of those who were captured, fear hidden beneath angry glares, and of course, the casual air of a defeated man. But in their eyes, I read a strange wariness, and a strong resistance. Have you ever seen a brown bear or a black bear?"

"A 'job' in the zoo?"

"No, no, no, I'm not talking about exhibits in cages, but wild bears. They are very wary of approaching outsiders, especially mother bears with cubs. Even if you chain their limbs with the strongest chains, their eyes and their roars are enough to make anyone who has never seen a wild bear back down, just to protect their cubs."

"It was in the eyes of these soldiers that I read this unique message of the bear. Although they did not roar or bare their teeth, the feeling of having their heart's flesh taken away was bursting out in their eyes, or rather, it was a kind of desperate desire to protect their family and homeland when they were invaded."

“Aside from fanatical extremists and the mentally ill, I have never seen an ordinary person with such awareness.” Caronville said, shaking his head. “We are likely facing an enemy as fierce as a bear, or even more formidable than a bear. I find it hard to imagine what a terrible threat it would be to the whole world if there were a country whose entire army was filled with such enthusiasm for fighting the enemy.”

"You mean, these soldiers can talk and laugh with wild bears bare-handed?"

"I don't know, I'm just making a bold guess."

"So, in order not to dampen everyone's enthusiasm, you didn't present these messages to His Highness the Prince?"

"Yes, I eavesdropped outside the conference room for so long, and I really felt..."

"Since we're on this topic, I'd like to know, since you said the Soviet prisoners of war were very tough, what about the attitude of the American soldiers you made deals with before?"

"Well, it's like chatting with a bartender. Apart from one young man who's hot-blooded and resistant, they're all fine. Remember the POW I mentioned, the one who had his leg amputated? His prosthetic leg was installed this afternoon, and they were all very cooperative."

"Why are you in such a hurry to use these things on them? Shouldn't you be using them on your own wounded soldiers right now?"

"It's still necessary to break their will. Besides, I'm only leading a group of 'outsiders in the military.' Who knows if the medical supplies allocated from above are defective? Let's pull one out as a guinea pig first."

"Haha, really? Let's get back to the important matter. Have you considered that since we're facing a potentially extremely fanatical enemy at the landing site, three army groups and corps might not be enough? Regarding..."

"Of course I have considered these things, Your Excellency. Please rest assured that as long as General Marendor truly assesses the situation and stops giving us false intelligence, there are always more solutions than problems."

"So tell me your plan now, can you tell me?"

……

……

……

It was at this moment that the two unknowingly arrived in front of an academy. Under the black night sky, two female students carrying a lot of things were about to walk into the school gate. The school gate lights shone on the sign next to it—Ashford Academy.

"Hey, Shirley," the girl with the blonde hair on the left said first, "when you were in class today..."

"Hey, President, you!" The girl with long orange hair on the right seemed very agitated. She looked at Caronville and his group and was eager to tell her companion to shut up.

Now, the girl named Shirley has her hands clasped in front of her stomach, and among the small boxes stacked in front of her nose, one of the boxes has slowly tilted out of place because of her swaying.

Caronville smiled slightly upon seeing this.

"See, Your Excellency, the show is about to begin."

"Hey hey hey!" Before she could finish speaking, the boxes in front of Shirley started to wriggle. She was still holding several full paper bags, and then, right in front of the blonde girl, she gave a big thud, sending all the little boxes tumbling to the ground.

How could you be so careless again!

"I...you're not allowed to say that to me! President Mirei!" Shirley got up and reached out to grab Mirei's neck with both hands.

"Hey! Pick up the box first!"

When Shirley turned around, she saw the officer slowly walking over and helping her clean up the mess on the floor.

"Ah, thank you..."

"No problem, no problem at all. Do you need me to help you get into the school, little sister?" Caronville smiled playfully at the girl.

"Huh?" The words stunned Xia Li. She hurriedly took the box and she and Mi Lei slunk into the school.

……

"Then, Caronville," the Duke pondered for a long time before finally speaking, "what are you trying to say?"

"Did you see that, Your Excellency? The Soviet army is like that tall box they just built. They are a tightly knit force that has kept us pinned down in Berlin. However, if one of them breaks down, it could very well be a complete disaster. They are not gods; they have the inherent weaknesses of humans. They are an army, and even the strongest army has its weak points that are vulnerable to attack."

……

"I may have to entrust you with some work over the next ten days. After all, I cannot personally intervene. I think that if I can fully understand the situation of our 45th Army and the other two corps, especially the information outside Berlin, then the siege may very well be broken."

"Ah, I value you highly, child, but I don't like overly arrogant people."

"People are arrogant because they don't know many things. If I know enough, arrogance is just false information that indicates a successful plan."

Under the night sky, Caronville slowly raised his head, gazing at the twinkling stars. A game of Go, brewing in his heart with iron and blood, had only just begun...

Section 107, Chapter Sixty-Seven: I Come From "England"

The German sky had fallen into the dead of night, and Berlin, too, burned brightly under the dark night sky.

What's different from the feint attack the day before? The artillery fire extending towards the city center is still deafening, the corpses and vehicle wreckage piled up along the roadside are still towering, and the direction of the attack has changed from a single line to two more all-out attacks from the north and south. The intensity of the battle is no less than before.

But things always change, right? After all, a day has passed, and some people just can't stand it.

Where is it? Inside Berlin? No, it's not inside Berlin at all, but outside Berlin, and it's a rather familiar-looking dilapidated building—not far to the west is a Soviet infantry position.

The dilapidated building remains the same, without lights or noise, quietly nestled here as a spectator watching fireworks from several kilometers away on the front line.

Only the two soldiers standing in front of the door seemed more alive than the dilapidated building. They looked left and right, their ears ringing with the powerful siege artillery fire, their eyes warily scanning the darkness.

Just then, a soldier slowly walked towards them on the path in front of them—the two looked at him carefully in the light and realized he was dressed as one of their own.

"Hmm, Sheva?" The two comrades from the guard company easily recognized the face under the green steel helmet.

"Ah, comrade!" Sheva approached, and the two then noticed that he was holding a piece of black bread in each of his hands.

"Are you hungry? Lieutenant knows you'll be on duty for quite a while, so he asked me to bring you some leftovers. Here, save them for later, there's still a long night ahead."

"Oh, thank you." The two took the bread and each took a bite.

"Hey, Lieutenant, I'd like to ask you something too." Sheva brought the bread to his nose and smelled it, then licked the crumbs off his fingertips. "How's that guy in the basement doing?"

Just as the two were about to answer, a heart-wrenching howl suddenly erupted from inside the house. It wasn't like the sound of someone whose leg had just been blown off by a shell on the battlefield; it was more like a wounded wolf left out in the wild by its pack, its hoarse howl agonizingly piercing towards Lonely Moon with its last breaths. Although not very loud, it was still clearly audible in the relatively quiet suburban night.

"Ah, hehe." The two guards looked at each other and then couldn't help but laugh. "This singing style is no better than that of the German devils of the past."

"Hehehe!" Sheva chuckled along, "Alright! I'll head back now!"

"Ok!"

……

Let's go down into the basement of this building and see what kind of scenery it has.

On a small table next to the stairs was a white metal tray, like the trays used in hospitals for storing alcohol and cotton swabs, but it didn't contain any medical supplies.

A Soviet soldier approached, holding a pair of tweezers. On the tweezers was a tooth, a complete tooth with its crown and root intact. The soldier tossed it into a dish, the tooth, still dripping with fresh blood, making a crisp sound as it struck the metal.

Inside the plate were other teeth and toenails, surrounded by specks of blood. Apart from some cracks and indentations caused by tweezers and pliers, they were mostly intact. At their bases, the blood had not yet dried, and the surface of the plate had already become a silvery-white sky with a blood-red galaxy floating in it.

That's right, this must have just been taken from a living person. So, where is this living person?

Look over there, a Soviet NKVD officer and an American officer who had come from afar, along with several Soviet soldiers, are surrounding a man who has been suspended in the air, his limbs bound and his feet not touching the ground.

That's right, the one who screamed after having a tooth ripped out was him. Like a pig waiting to be bled by the butcher, he was hung up like that without any dignity, his eyes empty and devoid of any spirit.

His gums were covered in wounds from tooth extractions, and the flowing blood had submerged his tongue, trickling down his lower lip and chin to his neck. His cheeks were swollen from being slapped, and his body was covered in whip marks, knife cuts, and needle pricks, like chess pieces scattered across the tattered clothes and skin—not something that required much effort to find.

Then look at NKVD. He slowly rubbed his fists together with the usual leisurely look, humming a tune—somewhat like Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 in E minor. The American officer also curled his lip, glanced down at the bloodstains on the ground, snorted, and shook his head slightly.

"Tsk tsk tsk, why bother, buddy?" he thought to himself.

"Okay...enough...no...no more..." the pig weakly uttered a human voice—we don't know what this poor prisoner's name is, so let's just call him "pig" for now.

“Come on, sir.” NKVD lowered his hand, looked up at his lifeless face, and asked in rolled-tongue English, “Tell me, are you going to continue pulling the tooth, or tell me the truth?”

"I...I'll talk...I'll talk..."

"Tsk tsk, well, it should have been done a long time ago. Come on, answer my first question: tell me your name, your unit, and so on."

“Okay… my name is… George Winter…” The pig coughed twice suddenly, “I come from… Britannia… the 41st Army… the 23rd Hokkaido Regiment, Hab Company…”

"Huh?" The American and Soviet officers' eyes widened suddenly when they heard "Britannia." "Britannia? Spell it out!"

"B, R, I, T, A, N, N, I, A."

“Completely identical…” The NKVD officer and the US military officer, who understood English, exchanged a wary glance.

"Oh, is that so?" The American officer accepted the answer with some skepticism—Britannia and Britain both refer to the same country, Great Britain.

"So, you're from Britain?" NKVD asked first.

“Britain? Yes…yes! You can call it that!” The porky pig twisted its body. “We haven’t used that name in a long time…”

"Then everything is easily solved, isn't it?" NKVD seemed pleased. "Come on, tell me, how did you end up in Berlin?"

"We built a portal...and then we came to this city..."

"A teleportation portal?" The American and Soviet officers suddenly became interested. "How does it work?"

"I...I'm a soldier...how would I know all that?" Meat Pig coughed three more times. "Anyway...the higher-ups told us to go inside the door, and then cough cough...we ended up here..."

"So, there's also a gate at your starting point, right?"

"Ah...yes...yes..."

"Where is it?" NKVD took a sip of water.

"District 10...11..."

"What the hell?" The U.S. military officer raised an eyebrow. "Wh...what is Area 11? Where is it?"

"Huh?" The pig looked at the two of them with disbelief. "You...you know Britannia, but...you don't know Area 11?"

"Hmm..." NKVD released his mouth from the rim of the water glass and called to the soldier next to the pig, "Ivan!"

"Hmm!" Upon hearing this, the soldier walked directly closer to the pig, swung his arm, and punched it right in the nose.

"what!--"

The pig screamed in pain; its nasal bone was already deformed, and blood flowed down its nostrils and into its mouth.

"Don't try to fool us, buddy." The U.S. officer's words were blunt. "Speak properly, what exactly is Area 11?"

"Ah...ah, I missed you all..." The meat pig gasped for breath. "Okay, I remember now...before we went to Area 11, it used to...have a name, called..."

"What's your name? Tell me now!" NKVD said impatiently, taking another sip of water.

"Japan...Japan!..."

NKVD was drinking water when he heard "Japan" and choked on his breath. His stomach tightened, and he almost spat the water back into the cup.

He looked at the American officer, walked directly over to him, leaned close to his ear, and calmly asked.

"Japan, you mean Japan, right?"

"Huh? There's another problem?" the pork pig shouted, sensing something was off about his breathing. "Is there another Japan?"

“Well…” The officer raised his hand, took out a finger and slapped it across the blood under the pig’s nostrils, making the muscles on his face ripple.

Suddenly, the officer abruptly pulled his hand back and then punched the pig hard in the belly, aiming for the spot below.

"Ouch!—" The pig let out another miserable scream like a chicken, which swayed in the face of the impact of the punch.

"Do you think you're telling a fairy tale, kid?" The officer's tone immediately turned serious. "Do you think I don't know the basics about Japan?"

"Huh? Hmph?"

"Japan is now completely occupied by the United States. What does Britain have to do with it? I'm in Germany now, but that doesn't mean I don't know what's going on on that wretched island, understand?"

"America? You're the one talking nonsense!" The pig suddenly became agitated. "Isn't the Americas a million miles away from Area 11? The center of Britannia, cough, is right on the Americas, okay? Japan occupied us, cough cough... and it was renamed Area 11. It's such a simple thing, everyone knows it, do I need to, cough cough cough... do I need to say more?"

With a loud bang, the US military officer followed the horrified look in the pig's eyes and looked back. NKVD had just slammed his water glass aside and strode over angrily.

"Listen to me, you bastard." He grabbed the pig's cheeks and lifted them up. "Playing dumb in front of my tooth-pulling tools is no expedient. If you want to keep the truth to yourself, you'd better start having your final emotional exchange with your front teeth!"

"Pretending, pretending to be stupid?" The pig's eyes were about to break down, and he looked exhausted with a feeling of wanting to cry but having no tears. "I swear I absolutely cough cough cough... I absolutely didn't lie! I've already explained it in so much detail and you're still cough cough... Do you think I'm pretending to be stupid?!"

"So, you little brat, since you know that America and Japan are separated by a vast distance, why did you send Britain to America with your mouth? What the hell haven't you said yet?"

"I, I didn't, I..." The pig thrashed about excitedly.

"Alright, say goodbye to your front teeth." NKVD picked up the pliers with one hand and pried open the pig's mouth with the other, preparing to perform oral surgery on him personally.

"Ugh! Wwwuuuuuuuu!" The pig was clearly terrified and didn't want to be tortured again. "I clearly didn't lie! I!..."