Today is a nice sunny day, with blue sky, white clouds and golden sunshine. The mountains and fields are lush green, and the breeze blows, bringing the singing of birds and the fragrance of flowers.
However, the soldiers who accepted the instructions of the joint investigation team composed of the staff of the frontline headquarters and the officers of the Military Disciplinary Department felt a creepy feeling, with a cold wind blowing all over their bodies. It's very simple. They were ordered to dig the big pits where enemy corpses were buried. The people who came from above had to recheck the number of enemies that had been eliminated. Then they had to check again to see if there were that many corpses.
Major Liederfunk stood up with a cold face and asked the soldiers to obey the order. There was no other way. This time Claude led three squadrons and the result of the battle with the territorial nobles of two principalities was really unbelievable. His military exploits The good news has been questioned by countless people. After all, the disparity in strength was so great that even the most conceited officers would not dare to admit that they could win under the same circumstances. It is said that the staff of the frontline headquarters conducted countless deductions on the map based on the battle reports, but the best outcome was to resist the enemy's attack for half a month and finally all the soldiers on guard died on the battlefield.
Therefore, Prince Hansbach shelved this victory report and did not deal with it. Many officers in the frontline command headquarters who knew about the matter secretly talked about it and felt dissatisfied. They even made several suggestions to the prince on this matter. It is required that such false reporting of military exploits must be severely punished. Otherwise, once the troops below start to follow suit, the consequences will be disastrous.
However, Prince Hansback ignored the suggestions of his subordinate officers. It was not until the temporary passage in the Picklet Mountains was set up and reinforcements were sent to the three southern counties that a military meeting was convened and a joint force was dispatched for this victory report. The investigation team went to the 1st Ranger Battalion to investigate the authenticity of this victory report.
It is worth noting that most of the officers participating in this joint investigation team were those who believed that the victory report was false and suggested severe punishment. The prince only sent his personal adjutant, Captain Skerry, to supervise to prevent the joint investigation team from Some members resort to deception to achieve their goals. People's hearts are unpredictable, and it is not impossible for arrogant people to become angry after discovering that they have made a mistake and deliberately distort the facts to frame others.
Because the temporary passage in the Picklet Mountains was still being erected at that time, Major Leedfunk, who had no direct contact with the rear, could only use falcon messaging to convey victory reports to the frontline headquarters. To be precise, the establishment of the four ranger battalions should be regarded as temporary wartime establishments. They were established with the support of the eldest prince and were combat units directly under the jurisdiction of the frontline headquarters. Even if they enter the three southern counties and come under the temporary command of the Blue Feather Army, the responsibility for rewards and punishments still lies with the frontline headquarters.
Falcon communication is the same as homing pigeon communication. The report should not be long and should be concise and to the point. Therefore, Major Leedfunk only briefly reported the results of the battle, and all supporting documents and battle report were still left at the battalion headquarters. He knew very well that it would be easy for people to disbelief when this report of victory in battle was passed on, but he did not expect that it would cause such a big disturbance in the frontline headquarters and attract so many resentment and doubts from the staff officers.
As soon as the joint investigation team arrived at the headquarters of the 1st Ranger Battalion, they turned over all the certification documents and battle reports, hoping to find evidence of fraud in these documents. But it is a pity that Major Leedfunk was very prudent and thoughtful in his work and did not let the staff officers of the joint investigation team pick out the bones from the eggs.
Unable to find any evidence of fraud, the joint investigation team simply threw these supporting documents aside and decided to go through the process again. First, they interrogated the six captured territorial nobles, then they found the nearly a hundred prisoners who had recovered from their injuries, and then they checked the captured trophies. The last step was to inspect the battle scene in Squirrel Village where Claude was located.
After arriving in Squirrel Village, Claude and the staff officers of the joint investigation team spent three days surveying all the battle scenes and recalled in detail how he directed the entire battle. Although Squirrel Village is under reconstruction, traces of the fire are still everywhere. Claude had no choice but to rewrite a battle report, draw the original Squirrel Village floor plan, and mark on the map how he set up traps to lure the enemy into taking the bait.
After torturing Claude for three days, it was the turn of Markchi, Murray Ed and others. Every soldier who participated in the battle was inevitably questioned by the joint investigation team, who basically recalled the entire battle process and Check to see if anyone is making up lies. Even Diavid, who went out to suppress local riots, inevitably brought his squadron back to Squirrel Village to be questioned by the joint investigation team.
After the soldiers, it was the turn of the one hundred and thirty prisoners who were regarded as young laborers by Claude. They also had to be interrogated. Claude took the opportunity to ask Major Redfunk for the dozens of prisoners who had recovered from their injuries and were detained at the battalion headquarters. Anyway, those prisoners were being held at the camp headquarters with nothing to do, so why not contribute to the new construction of Squirrel Village
Due to the new construction of Squirrel Village, some villagers from Heishi Village and Kaimen Village who are related to the villagers of Squirrel Village want to move here. There are more than 20 households in total. However, this also leads to a problem: there are not enough mountains and fields around Squirrel Village. The village elder and Sergeant Major Markey conspired to find Claude later, hoping to lease the more than 130 captives to open up some new mountains and fields in Squirrel Village. During this time, the business of the tavern opened by the village elder was booming, and with some money around him, the village elder straightened his back and was willing to pay to hire people to work.
Claude is happy to see the result. The mountain fields in Squirrel Village have opened up more, so whether it is food or vegetable cultivation, it is a good thing for the officers and soldiers stationed here. At least they do not need to ride a horse and walk all day and night to the mountain road. Went to the town outside to buy fruits and fresh vegetables. Coupled with the livestock and poultry raised by the villagers, Squirrel Village can be self-sufficient in food. Maybe if this development continues, it won't take long for Squirrel Village to become a small town.
The village elder is also planning to open a brewery, mainly brewing some wild fruit wine and rye wine from the mountains. This is because the wine he currently provides in the tavern is mixed wine brewed by the mountain people themselves. If he goes to purchase it, the long distance and freight will make the wine price much more expensive. It is not very cost-effective for him. It is better to open more acres of mountain land. Hire people to grow some rye to make wine.
Claude agreed to the request of the village elder. The gunpowder that happened to be captured from the noble camp in the territory was of no use. He decided to use the gunpowder to blow up several hills around Squirrel Village, fill in some ravines, and create a Large areas of flat land opened up new fields for Squirrel Village. Anyway, the laborers are the prisoners, and the employment fees obtained from the village elders can be paid to the soldiers below to make up for their expenses in the tavern. This is a good business.
Major Lederfonk thought that Claude had a good idea. He helped the villagers build a squirrel village and open up new fields to encourage them to breed and plant more. On the one hand, it was as compensation for burning down the squirrel village, and on the other hand, it could win over the loyalty of the villagers in this mountainous area. . With Squirrel Village as a model, other mountain people will easily lean towards the kingdom. Then when a war breaks out again, the mountain people here should stand on the side of the kingdom and will not be easily instigated and incited by spies sent by the Eskiline Principality. Local rebellions can be avoided.
Therefore, Major Leedfunk decided to have all the prisoners in the battalion sent over to work. In addition to the prisoners he brought to recuperate last time, those prisoners who were arrested for suppressing local riots are also going to be handed over to Claude's care, so that they can work hard here. However, he also reminded Claude not to just seek benefits for Squirrel Village. It would be better to send someone to repair the mountain road, so that it would be more convenient and faster for the battalion to transport logistical supplies.
The joint investigation team spent another three days interrogating all the prisoners, and the facts proved that this victory was indeed real and credible. Unwilling to admit defeat, several members of the joint investigation team resorted to the last resort, which was to demand to see all the enemy corpses that had been eliminated, and to confirm that there were as many buried enemy corpses as recorded in the certification documents.
Claude had to admire the rigor and thoughtfulness of Major Leedfunk's work, which was almost watertight. He might have expected this to happen when he first came to verify the results of the battle, so when he buried the enemy's corpses, he not only marked them in detail on the map, but even instructed the prisoners who carried the corpses into the pit to bury them. All arranged according to his requirements.
After more than two months, the weather has gradually warmed up and become a bit hotter. As soon as the large pit where the enemy's corpse was buried was dug, a rotten stench almost made everyone present vomit. Claude had no choice but to find a few pieces of clean linen in the warehouse of the camp, cut them into strips, and let the prisoners and soldiers digging the holes cover their faces. At the same time, he also ordered Michael to prepare disinfectant in the barracks for the prisoners and soldiers to take a bath, so as not to be infected with any epidemic.
When Major Leedfunk originally buried the enemy's corpses, he ordered the prisoners to stack the corpses in layers, with the heads and feet in the same direction, and a layer of straw mats was spread between the upper and lower layers of corpses. There is data on how many corpses are placed in a large burial pit. There is a distance of about two meters between two large burial pits. Therefore, this time digging pits to count the number of corpses does not require re-moving the corpses one by one. This will become evidence that the joint investigation team deliberately made things difficult. No one wanted to carry the half-rotted corpses that stinked and were infested with countless maggots.
Therefore, to count the number of corpses this time, we only need to lift off the floating soil above the corpse pits, and then dig out the soil partition between the two corpse pits to see and count the rows of stacked corpses. The number of enemy corpses between each corpse pit is clearly recorded on the certification documents. There was no difference in the data of the corpses in the first dozen corpse pits. Even Captain Skerry, who was in charge of supervision, couldn't stand it. He believed that the victory report reported by Major Leedfunk was authentic and credible, and there was no need to dig up the remaining corpses. Tricked. Counting these rotting corpses has left all members of the joint investigation team with no appetite and unable to eat.
However, Major Leedfunk firmly disagreed. He must insist on digging up all the corpse pits and counting the number of enemy corpses clearly, so as to avoid anyone raising doubts about this victory in the future, because it related to him personally. and the honor of all the officers and men of the 1st Ranger Battalion. Under his insistence, the joint investigation team could only pinch their noses, vomit with a grimace, and finally completed the inventory of all corpses and signed the documents confirming the results one by one to prove this miraculous victory.
The joint investigation team arrived with great momentum, but after spending half a month in Squirrel Village, they all left dejectedly like quails infected with the plague. The main reason wasn't that they couldn't find evidence that the battle was faked, nor was it the loss of appetite caused by counting the rotting corpses. It was the contempt of the soldiers who participated in the war that these arrogant staff officers who thought they were military geniuses couldn't stand.
Just as one of the soldiers who participated in the war told them straightforwardly, just because you can't do it doesn't mean that others can't do it. At first, we didn't believe that Chief Claude could hold Squirrel Village under the attack of so many enemies, but in the end We experienced and saw with our own eyes how Commander Claude planned to defeat the enemy. We all respect him because he puts our safety first instead of treating us like cannon fodder for military exploits.
It was then that the staff officers of the joint investigation team discovered that the soldiers here looked at them with contempt and disdain, especially behind the perfunctory salutes and titles in front of them, they seemed to be laughing at their incompetence and Jealousy, this is very embarrassing. So as soon as the investigation is over, everyone wants to leave here immediately.
Captain Skerry naturally went to report the results of the joint investigation to Prince Hansback.
"So this victory is a true and credible fact" asked the eldest prince.
"Yes, Your Highness." Captain Skerry replied: "This is indeed a miraculous victory, an unquestionable victory. This is the report of the entire battle. Lieutenant Claude explained his battle plan in great detail. and planning.”
Prince Hansback couldn't wait to pick up the battle report and read it: "So it turns out that we relied on the geographical location to resist the enemy's attack from the Principality of Karnas. The plan to burn Squirrel Village turned out to be to deal with the territories of the Principality of Eskilin. Nobles. I just didn’t expect that the territorial nobles of the Principality of Karnas would join forces with the territorial nobles of the Eskiline Principality and attack Squirrel Village together. This forced Second Lieutenant Claude to modify his plan. After Squirrel Village He set up a defensive position on the mountain to reduce the enemy's strength, then retreated back to the garrison camp, luring the enemy into the Squirrel Village, and then used red-hot iron pellets to cause a fire."
"Yes, yes, this Claude is indeed a talent. This plan is really unexpected. I didn't expect those territorial nobles to be so cooperative. Building a wooden cart in the village to be used as a shield is simply asking for death." "Prince Hansback turned around and asked: "By the way, Skerry, how is the Ministry of Military Affairs going to reward this Claude?"
"Your Highness, according to the military regulations of our kingdom, Officer Wei Ji can be credited with one first-level meritorious service for leading his soldiers to eliminate a thousand enemies. If calculated based on this, Second Lieutenant Claude can be credited with five first-level meritorious deeds this time, plus He used a small number of troops to defend his position and destroy the enemy's army when the enemy was heavily pressed. He can also record two more first-level merits. In this case, Second Lieutenant Claude can be directly promoted to major."
Captain Skerry paused and then said: "But this promotion and reward caused objections from many officers in the command. They believed that Second Lieutenant Claude was too young. He was only 21 years old this year, and it was inappropriate to be promoted to major. In addition, Second Lieutenant Claude was only 21 years old. , because the enemies he eliminated were private soldiers of territorial nobles and conscripted citizens. Although they were large in number, their combat effectiveness was extremely low. Therefore, they requested that this military exploit be discounted and that Second Lieutenant Claude be promoted to lieutenant. After all, he was still very young. , there will be plenty of opportunities in the future.”