Chapter 352: Shooting Pigeons
May Day is also known as the "Lily of the Valley Festival" in France. On this day, people will send "lily of the valley" to their relatives and friends to show good luck.
(Note: The French tradition of sending lily of the valley flowers on May Day began in 1561, when King Charles IX of France received a lily of the valley flower as a symbol of good luck. Since then, this tradition has become popular in France.)
Holidays were only a fantasy for soldiers during the war.
During the war, all holidays have nothing to do with soldiers. Not only will they not have any rest, but they will also have more intense and cruel combat missions.
This is the aftermath of the "Christmas Truce Incident".
After that, the top brass on both sides of the enemy were worried that this scene would happen again during the holidays, so they would deliberately carry out heavy bombardments or launch attacks to keep the soldiers "fighting spirits" and hate each other!
The 105th Infantry Regiment was spared because it was in Paris.
Although they also had no holidays, they received countless lily of the valley flowers.
There are all kinds of colors, white, purple, blue, etc. "Little bells" are hung everywhere in the training base, and the air is filled with a faint fragrance.
The amount of lilies of the valley that Charles received was particularly exaggerated. Others received them one bunch at a time, but Charles received them by the truckload.
The reason was that the signalmen and orderly soldiers were unable to take over, so they could only ask Laurent to drive out in a car and shout: "Gentlemen, please put the lilies of the valley for the brigadier general in the car and we will pass them to the brigadier general."
Then one truck couldn't carry all the goods, so another truck came, and another truck...
Adrian initially planned to move the flowers into the living room, but soon realized that if he did so, he would not be able to move around in the living room, so he ended up having to place them on both sides of the walkway in front of the office building.
Charles looked at the flowers helplessly. There were also many notes of blessings hanging on them. If he wanted to read every one of them, it might take a whole day.
Compared to these, Charles would rather face telegrams or count supply lists.
But this morning, Charles did not stay in the office as usual. He walked to the training ground with his guards.
Charles felt that this was also a kind of enjoyment, wearing a neat military uniform, walking with his chest held high in the warm sunshine, without worrying about being hit by enemy bullets and shells...
"Bang!"
The sound of the gunshot startled Charles, and he ducked down reflexively. The guard quickly rushed in front of Charles and raised his gun.
During this period, the 105th Infantry Regiment was teaching the front-line troops how to use gas masks, and there was basically no target practice.
Besides, target shooting doesn't involve just one or two gunshots.
“Bang!”
The gunshots rang out again, accompanied by cheers and applause from the soldiers.
Then Charles realized that this might be some kind of shooting competition among the soldiers.
Sure enough, Adrian stepped forward to take a look at the situation, then hurried back and shouted, "General, they are shooting pigeons, and the people competing are the instructor and Shen Billy!"
"Shooting pigeons?" Charles was puzzled.
However, his interest soon turned to his opponent.
The instructor Adrian was talking about was Dominic, whose marksmanship was comparable to Billy Shen’s, and Charles also wanted to know who was better between them.
As he walked forward with his guards, the open shooting range was already full of people, with Dominic and Billy Shen standing in two places, holding their rifles and quietly aiming at the void in the shooting range.
Suddenly two pigeons were released, flapping their wings and trying to fly into the blue sky.
“Bang!”
Two gunshots rang out almost simultaneously, and two pigeons fell down.
The soldiers cheered again. Some of them excitedly clenched their fists and shouted to cheer, while others waved their fists like gamblers to protest to the opposite side.
Later, Charles realized that this was not an ordinary game, but a gamble.
In this era, this kind of "pigeon betting" was popular in both rural and urban areas in Europe and the United States. Just like horse racing, they bet money on the gunner they thought would win.
(The real picture may not be found because it is not suitable for publicity. Pigeon shooting was originally an Olympic shooting event. Live pigeons were used in the first few sessions, and later it was changed to Frisbees)
“Bang!”
"Bang!"
The gunshots went off, and the final result was that Dominic lost to Shen Billy with 8 pigeons to his 9.
Both of them were very good. They used rifles at a distance of more than 200 meters, but they could only hit 8 or 9 of the total 10. Only a sharpshooter could do that.
The crowd dispersed, Dominic shook hands with Billy Shen, and sat back on a chair for rest on the side of the shooting range with his gun in his arms, staring blankly in the direction of the target.
"What's wrong?" Charles walked over and sat next to Dominic.
Dominic turned around and found that it was Charles. He sighed and shook his head: "I could have achieved better results, but..."
"I know." Charles nodded.
"I don't understand why this is happening." Dominic said with some frustration in his eyes.
"I know." Charles said the same thing.
"You know?" Dominic looked at Charles in confusion.
"Psychological quality, Dominic." Charles said, "Your shooting skills are no worse than Shen Billy's. The problem is that Shen Billy is a hunter. His shooting skills were honed by hunting kangaroos, and even facing the enemy on the battlefield."
Dominic understood instantly: "As for me, I mostly face immobile gun targets. I rarely even train with pigeons. I am not used to this kind of blood and killing!"
Charles said "hmm", raised his head and glanced around: "And here."
Dominic nodded slightly in understanding.
The environment is also one of the factors that affect his performance. Dominic tests his gun more often at the indoor shooting range, but this is a military camp, and all he sees are rough soldiers with murderous eyes. This is Billy Shen’s home turf.
Dominic muttered to himself: "So, I should go to the battlefield to train."
"You think so?" Charles asked.
Charles was not surprised at this. Last time in the restaurant of the Ritz Hotel, when Dominic asked Charles what it felt like to be on the battlefield, Charles knew that he was interested in trying it.
A person who is obsessed with guns and marksmanship, if he is unable to truly make use of guns throughout his life, and even his marksmanship does not improve due to lack of actual combat training, if he wants to make further progress, he will naturally think of going to the battlefield, even if he knows it is dangerous.
"Yes!" Dominic nodded, but there was still hesitation in his eyes.
"You are not suitable for the battlefield." Charles concluded.
"No, you can't be sure," Dominic denied.
Ciel said the same thing: "I can be sure of that."
Dominic's gun couldn't kill people. Even when he killed a few pigeons, there was reluctance in his eyes. When checking the results of the battle, he shot a wounded but not dead pigeon again, and the muscles on his mouth were tense because of gritting his teeth.
Such a person cannot even pull the trigger when facing a living person on the battlefield.
(End of this chapter)
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