Expedition to Europe

At the beginning of the Battle of the Somme, the British and French coalition forces concentrated 2,189 artillery pieces, 1,160 mortars, and about 300 aircraft to participate in the pre-war firepower preparation for seven days.

The German Second Army opposite the British and French coalition forces had 672 artillery pieces, 300 mortars, and 112 aircraft.

During the seven-day long exchange of fire, both sides fired millions of shells, causing heavy casualties to each other and devastating the area near the Somme River.

Until the 21st century, the Somme River area still had craters from the First World War, silently telling this heavy history.

For Qin Zhiyuan, he was not in the mood to be sad, and it was serious to deliver the ammunition to the front line before dawn. After dawn, the German artillery observation balloons would be launched, and at that time, the transport convoy might be in danger of being bombarded.

After a whole night of hard work, the convoy finally arrived in the Kapi area, which was the end point of this transportation mission.

French wine is world-famous, and Capy is a famous wine producing area. This small town, which was originally full of vineyards, has now become a huge barracks and material concentration area, supporting the French Sixth Army to launch a continuous attack on the German positions.

In the early morning, the convoy arrived in Capy. Qin Zhiyuan was stunned by the scene in front of him as soon as he jumped out of the car.

As far as the eye can see, there are stretchers everywhere, one after another, extending from the front of the convoy to the distance, and one stretching to the hills outside the town. There are at least tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands. With Qin Zhiyuan's vision and knowledge, he was stunned by the scene in front of him.

There are wounded soldiers lying on each stretcher. Strangely, the wounded soldiers did not wail loudly, nor did they cry and scream, and even did not moan in a low voice. There is only numbness, indifference, and despair. Perhaps for them, there is no difference between living and dying.

Military doctors and nurses with red cross armbands on their arms shuttled back and forth. There were too many wounded soldiers for the military doctors to handle. They could only check them briefly and order the nurses to mark them: "This one, handle it immediately... this one, handle it later... this one, don't handle it, he's already dead..."

The lightly wounded were handled immediately, and the seriously wounded were handled later. It's not that the military doctors treated them differently, but at this time, the limited medical resources should be tilted towards the lightly wounded who were easier to recover. As for the seriously wounded, they left it to fate or directly handed them over to the pastor who was already exhausted.

Only God can save them.

A little further away, someone was digging temporary graves. Three or four people were buried in each pit, with simple markings. After the war was over, they would be dug out and reburied.

Many people were carried out of the stretcher area and sent directly to the temporary graves. They were simply wrapped in a shroud and then hastily buried. Judging from the degree of stiffness of the bodies, those people had already died, but because of the lack of manpower, they could only stay in the stretcher area waiting for treatment.

"Treatment"! What a cruel word.

Just a few days ago, they were still living soldiers, marching in neat steps, following the whistle of the officers, and slowly and firmly attacking the German positions. Perhaps they had just jumped out of the trenches, perhaps they were on the way to attack, or perhaps when victory was about to come. Just one bullet could take away all the hopes of them and their families.

"My goodness... how much hatred, how much hatred..." Chen Kangjian muttered in amazement, and more people dropped their jaws to the ground without knowing it. They couldn't understand what kind of hatred would prompt Europeans, who were also human beings, to kill each other like this.

Perhaps it was just like the beginning of the First World War, for "living space".

"Hey! Guys, now is not the time to think about life. Move, move, move now, unload these boxes, send them to the artillery positions, and then load these stretchers onto the cars, and send these poor children home. Their mothers need them, and they also need their mothers..." A captain with a fat figure shouted loudly along the convoy, whipping the carriages with the whip in his hand.

"Hey! Don't you understand French? My God, can someone come, damn, are you also Indian? Where are your turbans?" All the laborers got off the car, but they were all stunned by the scene in front of them. No one paid attention to the captain's order.

India also sent laborers to Europe, not only laborers, but also millions of troops to directly participate in the war. Because of this, British General Claude Auchinleck once said that without the Indian Corps, Britain would not have survived World War I. Because of this, India is called the most dazzling pearl in the crown of the Queen of England.

Not far from Qin Zhiyuan and his team, those turbaned people who were digging temporary graves were Indians.

"Okay, Captain, act immediately." Qin Zhiyuan was the first to react and immediately started to call on everyone to work.

Unlike the Indians who needed to fight on the front line with real swords and guns, the Chinese workers only participated in auxiliary work and did not have to fight on the battlefield.

But the work still had to be done.

The convoy was very long, with about a hundred trucks. The labor team of a hundred or so people was simply unable to handle it. The captain called in a group of Indians and French soldiers, and the unloading speed gradually increased.

Unlike earth and stone, shells cannot be passed from hand to hand. They can only be carried to the artillery position one box at a time. Fortunately, there are people responsible for receiving them there, and the workers only need to carry the shells about 50 meters away.

A box of shells weighs about 30 kilograms. This weight is not strenuous for people who have practiced martial arts since childhood. So everyone ran fast with the shells, and they were very conspicuous among the slow Indians and French.

"Lancers, charge." Seeing the workers running fast, the captain was very happy and shouted the slogan of the cavalry charge. It seems that this is the tradition of their troops.

What surprised Qin Zhiyuan was that although the Chinese workers were running fast, the Indians and French did not have the slightest intention of speeding up. The eyes they looked at the Chinese workers were not envious or resentful, but a little mocking.

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This immediately made Qin Zhiyuan feel bad, so he quietly said to Gao Hongshi beside him: "Slow down, tell others to move slowly, there is something strange."

Although Gao Hongshi didn't understand, he still passed on Qin Zhiyuan's words out of his usual respect for Qin Zhiyuan, and the speed of the Chinese workers gradually slowed down.

Unfortunately, it was too late. The excellent physical fitness of the Chinese workers had already attracted the attention of the captain. It would be a bit too much to hide their shortcomings at this time.

"Lancers, new orders have been issued. You have to send these bullets to the front line to supplement our hungry children." After all the ammunition boxes were unloaded, the captain issued a new task.

"Captain, sending ammunition to the front line is beyond our scope of work. I refuse." Just kidding, the battle over there is very lively, and there has been no sound of artillery for a moment. Sending ammunition forward now, are you looking for death?

"I don't know what your scope of work is. I only know that my children need ammunition, and you are the ones responsible for delivering ammunition. Now please fulfill your job responsibilities." The captain is more difficult to deal with than the second lieutenant. He doesn't beat you or scold you, but only makes vague accusations.

"Okay, but we need to eat something. We haven't eaten anything since last night. We repaired the road all night, and then unloaded the car for nearly two hours. We are all exhausted. We need to rest for a while." Qin Zhiyuan agreed to the captain's request and put forward his own request at the same time.

"Okay, you have ten minutes." The captain agreed to the request, and then someone quickly sent over various canned food and milk.

Qin Zhiyuan looked up and saw that the people who sent the things were the group of Indians and Frenchmen just now. They are very fast now.

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