Chapter 461 So, this is true?
At that time, Lucia and Mr. Girard were arguing with each other about Stein.
"He even has a revolver." The words were directed to Lucia, but Mr. Girard's eyes were on Stein: "We don't know where he is hiding it. We saw him tinkering with it in the backyard one day."
"God, Stein." Lucia stared at her brother with wide eyes: "Where did you get the gun?"
"I bought it with my own savings," Stein replied. "It didn't cost my family a penny."
"It was the money he made from selling newspapers," Mr. Girard explained angrily. "We thought he was going to supplement his family income, but he used it to buy a gun."
"You should hand it over, it's too dangerous." Lucia looked at Stein with concern. He was not old enough to use a gun, and more importantly, no one taught him how to use it correctly.
"No." Stein answered confidently: "I need weapons to protect myself and this family."
Lucia rolled her eyes in anger and she didn't know what to say.
Fortunately, when the Germans occupied this place, they did not find that Stein had a gun, otherwise his whole family would have been implicated. The Germans would have thought that they were all spies of the Allied Powers, and Lucia's identity as a spy would have been exposed.
Lucia gritted her teeth, walked towards Stein with a stern face, and stared at him fiercely with a threatening look: "You must hand it over."
"No." Stein refused without thinking.
"The Germans have surrendered." Lucia found a good excuse: "It's safe here now, you don't need the gun anymore."
"But Belgium has not been recovered yet." Stein puffed out his chest: "We have only recovered one third of it!"
"But that's none of your business..."
“That’s everybody’s business.”
"At least until you are eighteen..."
"But by then Charles might have reconquered all of Belgium, and the war might even be over."
…
As the two were arguing, Mrs. Girard appeared at the door, panting: "Lucia!"
"Wait a minute, Mom, we must make Stein hand over the gun today." Lucia stared at her brother angrily.
"Are they, are they telling the truth?" Girard was out of breath, not sure if it was because he ran too fast or because he was too excited: "You are Charles' girlfriend, are you dating?"
The originally noisy room suddenly became quiet.
Mr. Girard, who was busy grinding coffee beans, looked at Mrs. Girard in shock, and then turned his puzzled eyes to Lucia.
Lucia immediately realized that she was exposed, and she answered hesitantly: "I, I was planning to tell you during dinner!"
"Klang!" Mr. Girard fell down, the grinder broke into pieces, and the coffee powder spilled all over the floor. The room was instantly filled with the aroma of coffee.
Lucia hurried forward and helped Mr. Girard up.
"No, no, I'm fine." Mr. Girard stood up tremblingly.
Stein looked at Mrs. Girard blankly, then looked at Lucia, and then laughed: "I see, this is a play you put on, the purpose is to make me hand over the gun? Good idea!"
Mrs. Girard's voice trembled with excitement: "So, this is true?"
Lucia nodded gently. She was very conflicted. Was this true or false?
Mrs. Girard excitedly stepped forward and hugged Lucia:
"God, I'm so happy for you, kid."
"This, this is amazing! I can't believe this is real, it's like a dream."
"You know what? I saw Charles the other day. He was in the square, accepting the surrender."
Mr. Girard dusted off his trousers, stood up straight, and looked proud:
"I saw him too. He took the sword from the German and gave him a lecture."
"The Germans were silent in his presence."
"They were delighted by the promise of favourable treatment from the Charles."
"He is a very good man, a talented commander!"
For some reason, Lucia just wanted to cry when she heard this, and tears welled up in her eyes.
Stein believed it a little at this time. His expression was very complicated. Sometimes he looked happy, sometimes doubtful, sometimes excited and sometimes worried.
After thinking for a while, Stein suddenly shouted: "Then what are we waiting for? We should go to Antwerp, Charles is there!"
"No, Stein." Lucia objected quickly: "He is very busy. He is commanding the army to fight. I shouldn't disturb him at this time."
"Yes," agreed Mr Gillard. "He's doing what a man needs to do."
"But Lucia is already here," Stein objected. "It's only 59 kilometers from Antwerp. If Lucia is Charles' girlfriend, shouldn't she go meet him?"
Mr. and Mrs. Girard looked at each other.
What Stein said seems to make sense. Charles can refuse if he doesn't have time. But if Lucia is already in Ghent but doesn't go to see Charles, does it mean that Lucia doesn't care about Charles?
Lucia actually didn't want to go because it was all fake. Charles didn't treat her as his girlfriend at all. All she felt was bitterness and pain.
But if she didn't go, would her identity as "Charles' girlfriend" be exposed?
…
In Antwerp, Charles is organizing new training for armored and mechanized divisions.
Tijani looked at the training subjects in a strange way: "Leap tactics, street fighting, trench warfare, trench filling..."
Tijani couldn't bear to watch it any longer. He put the document on the table and looked up at Charles with a puzzled look: "Isn't this what infantry should do? They look like trench warfare. I thought armored and mechanized troops shouldn't have such tasks."
Tijani believed that the infantrymen were too valuable because they knew how to coordinate with tanks and should follow the tanks to break through the enemy's lines on the battlefield.
These trench battles with heavy casualties should be left to ordinary infantry.
Ciel replied calmly: "If it was in the past, perhaps it could be understood this way."
"What do you mean?" Tijani didn't understand.
"There is an anti-tank trench in front of the enemy's defense line, General." Charles raised his head and stretched his sore neck. "Tanks cannot cross the anti-tank trench. There is only one solution: Soldiers clear obstacles and fill the trench in front of the tanks."
"But we can still do this with regular infantry," Tijani objected. "They are 'experts' in trench warfare."
In fact, Tijani did not want to "waste" his troops on attacking the enemy trenches.
Ciel's words left Tijany speechless: "Ordinary infantry cannot cooperate with tanks, General."
Tijani seemed to understand what Charles meant, that the cover between infantry and tanks was "mutual".
If the infantry is blocked, the tanks need to rush forward to clear the way for the infantry, and the infantry provide cover behind the tanks.
Sometimes when tanks are blocked, infantry are needed to rush forward to clear the way for the tanks, and the tanks provide fire suppression behind the infantry.
If ordinary infantry were allowed to go up, it would inevitably turn into a trench war with a stalemate between the two sides.
Tijani was overjoyed and quickly took out his notebook and sat down at his desk to write down this new "experience".
At this time, a guard hurried in and walked up to Charles to report: "Commodore, Lucia is here, she is outside the door!"
"Lucia?" Charles was confused. What was she doing here? Was there any important information?
(End of this chapter)
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