Chapter 242 Berlin (Second update, please subscribe)
Actually, this year’s winter was not easy for the whole world.
When Japan fell into unprecedented hunger due to the US military blockade and the spread of chemical weapons, the same was true in Europe. The shadow of hunger almost enveloped the entire Europe - from Eastern Europe to Western Europe, Few countries have been spared.
Almost everyone is hungry, ushering in the winter of four or five years.
What was Europe like in October 1945?
From Italy to France to Germany and Russia, cities were turned into rubble fields. The rubble of high-rise buildings filled streets and highways, and the wreckage of submarines and warships clogged ports and naval bases. Europe's largest industrial center, Germany's Ruhr region, known as the "Factory of Europe", used to be lined with steel plants, coal mines, power plants and related facilities. Thick smoke covered the sky and the sun, and people were worried about air and noise pollution. Now, under the clear blue sky, the land is empty, the air is spotless, and people in ragged clothes are struggling to survive among the rubble.
On the streets of Germany, you can hardly see many young and middle-aged men, almost all of them are women and older men. ——Men either entered prison camps and worked hard to rebuild other countries, or they were buried in graves. During the war, the death toll in Germany was close to 9 million, and more than 8 million of them were male soldiers. .
In fact, you can also see young and strong men on the streets in Germany, but most of them are wearing the uniforms of the occupying forces. But the occupying forces will not participate in the reconstruction. Among the rubbles, almost all the people cleaning the rubble are women and old people. Otherwise, they are just some children with sallow complexion and skinny muscles.
“30 years!”
Looking at the devastated ruins on both sides of the street, Zheng Tao said.
"What?"
"A few days ago, the British Labor government mentioned in a report to the House of Commons that Berlin is now completely in ruins. Even if 1,000 tons of rubble are removed every day, it will take 30 It will take years to clean it up.”
30 years!
This is still the most optimistic estimate. After all, there are not many men working in Germany now. They rely on women and the elderly to clean up the ruins left by the war.
"There is no way, everything has been destroyed, so, people say..."
Liang Bingde sighed.
"This time, the lights in Europe have really gone out, at least in Germany, there is almost no hope at all..."
What hope is there?
Eight million men died in the war!
And most of these men are young adults.
The remaining people in a country are basically the old, weak, sick and disabled. There are only a group of women and old people in the rubble, cleaning the rubble with their weak hands.
Under such circumstances, how can there be hope for this country?
Is it possible for this country to emerge from the shadow of war?
Almost no one can see hope in it.
Whether it is the allies or the Germans themselves, they all believe that Germany has completely lost hope.
Germany is in ruins now, and it is very likely that Germany will still be in ruins in the future. Maybe this is Germany's future.
Further forward, there is a long queue in front of the relief station opened by the occupation authorities. Women wait in long queues to receive the meager rations. The children beside the queue are so skinny and dry. , only a pair of big eyes remain.
Pitiful eyes looked at them from time to time - in Berlin, hungry people all know who has food in their hands.
Of course it is these foreign occupying troops wearing foreign military uniforms.
Even if they only give them a camel cigarette, they can buy enough bread for a family on the black market.
"Hey, let's stop being sentimental. Don't forget why they became like this. Moreover, our own battle is not over yet!"
Zheng Tao muttered casually, feeling again and again in his heart That song popped up.
"My hometown is on the Songhua River..."
He often heard his father sing this song, but he had never seen the Songhua River. Fifteen years ago, his father He entered the customs with the army as an officer of the Northeast Army. A few months later, he went to Peking with his mother. That year, he was eight years old. After that, he never returned to the Northeast again.
And what about the father?
Also died on the battlefield.
Now, the Russians have reached Harbin, and soon the Northeast will be liberated. Maybe one day I can bring my father's bones back to the Northeast.
At this moment, a cry for help came from a distance, which made him stunned. He looked up and saw an occupying soldier holding a bicycle with one hand and a woman with the other.
The woman who was reluctant to give up her bicycle struggled and shouted for help, but the people around her seemed not to hear them and were busy with their own things. They have long been accustomed to all this.
This is the power of the occupying forces! The scene in front of them made Liang Bingde and Zheng Tao frown, and the woman's desperate cry made Zheng Tao curse.
"Damn..."
As he spoke, he walked over.
"Don't be impulsive, they are..."
Just when Liang Bingde was about to stop him, he saw Zheng De already rushing over there. While holding down the bicycle, he pulled the German woman behind him.
Seeing someone ruining a good thing, the soldier wearing a boat-shaped hat pulled the bolt of the Bobosha submachine gun and shouted loudly at Zheng Tao. The muzzle of his gun was pointed at Zheng Tao's chest.
Just when he was about to shoot, Zheng Tao said in Russian
“Comrade, do you want to smoke? "
While speaking, he had already taken out a pack of "Bactrian Camels", smoked one himself, and casually stuffed half the pack of cigarettes to the soldiers in front of him.
Duan The soldier holding the submachine gun looked at the camel cigarette in his hand, and then looked at the guy in the US military uniform in front of him. When he put down the gun, a bright smile appeared on his angry face
While lighting this guy's cigarette, Zheng Tao glanced at the frightened woman beside him and motioned for her to leave. The girl looked at him gratefully and hurriedly pushed her bicycle away.
Zheng Tao chatted with the soldiers in fluent Russian, and a crisis was resolved invisible. When they parted, Liang Bingde looked at him in surprise.
“I originally thought you could speak German and English, but I didn’t expect that you could also speak Russian…”
“My sister’s piano teacher was from Belarus, and when she was in Shenyang…”< br>
As if he thought of something, Zheng Tao suddenly stopped talking. He just took a few puffs of the cigarette and didn't throw down the cigarette butt until he finished the cigarette.
As soon as he threw down the cigarette butt, several children rushed over to argue about the cigarette butt...
"Don't be impulsive next time, those people are unreasonable. What if..."
Before he finished speaking, Liang Bingde opened his mouth and stopped talking. He just sighed. At this moment, he felt someone following him, and when he turned around, he saw someone following him.
It was the German girl pushing the bicycle. The girl, who still looked frightened, said in stiff English when she saw them turning around.
"Thank you, but, can you take me, take me home..."
Facing the girl's expectant eyes, Liang Bingde pulled his comrade in front of him and said.
"Zheng Tao, send the Buddha to the west. Well, the task of protecting the flowers will be left to you!"
The messenger of the flowers.
In the mixed-race Berlin, the safest thing for a woman is to have an Allied soldier as her lover.
Of course, the best opponent is the US military.
Because the US military is generous and because they have money. But their attitude towards women is often just playful.
But for women, there is no choice. After all, they have Camel cigarettes in their hands. In Berlin, one cigarette can buy a day's rations, and a pack of cigarettes can even protect a person for a month. of overhead. Cigarettes are a treasure that residents strive for. It has even become a common transaction to exchange two cigarettes for one night's companionship.
Not only that, they also have Spam, and there are even beautiful dresses in the Military Welfare Club.
It can also be British or French. In short, as long as it is not Russian.
For Susanna, she is undoubtedly lucky. When she was robbed by the occupying forces a few days ago, she was not robbed of her belongings like some of her friends, and was dragged into the ruins and ravaged. , that day, her guardian angel appeared and saved her from the clutches of the devil.
A polite Chinese man, at first, she thought he was a U.S. soldier because he was wearing a U.S. military uniform.
He rescued her, and then she seized the opportunity and asked him to send her home, and then...she knew his name and knew that he was at the Berlin Military Academy.
Now that you know the address, the rest is easy.
(End of this chapter)