Iron Cross Fire

Kuster suddenly got off the plane and gave Franz a warm hug.

"Really, I really miss you!"

"Me too!"

The greeting between the two did not last long, because there was something important waiting for them.

But this did not stop them from chatting on the road, and they kept talking until they reached the outside of the city.

With Kuster's current identity, he couldn't appear openly, at least it couldn't be thought that he left during the battle.

In fact, he didn't need to make any preparations. He could just take off his clothes.

The war has always been a consuming thing. Kuster has not stayed in the city seriously since the war started. This also made his beard thicker and thicker. He is completely different from the Kuster before the war.

Kuster himself didn’t know, but Franz reminded him:

"If I hadn't met you in the Caucasus, otherwise it would be really difficult for me to recognize you with only the photo. But this is also a new beginning. At least I don't have to go back to the battlefield..."

This sentence was extremely ordinary, but it inspired Kuster.

He took off his clothes and asked a guard beside him to keep them.

But suddenly I felt that the person standing behind me was a little familiar. I turned around and took a closer look, and found that it was my old subordinate - Sergeant Wheatfield.

"Hey, it's your boy! Long time no see!" Kuster said enthusiastically.

To be honest, Kuster had never felt that there were so many coincidences. He thought that this fearless noncommissioned officer had died heroically on the battlefield just like Gerstoli.

Mai Tian did not answer, but forced a smile from the corner of his mouth.

Only then did Kuster discover that there was an obvious scratch on the right side of his face that he had not seen before.

He sighed with emotion, straightened his collar for the wheat field, and then walked towards the town in silence.

Halfway through, I suddenly remembered that I hadn't changed my clothes yet, so I hurried back to change.

Franz happened to have a colonel's uniform, so he put it on for him.

The "colonel" looked to be as old as fifty or sixty years old, which may not be common, but it does not mean that it is not uncommon. Besides, there is a lieutenant general next to him. It is estimated that this colonel will be promoted to general soon. The citizens thought so when they saw a group of troops entering the city.

Custer and his men met the awe and envy of the citizens and walked to the palace in a swagger.

As soon as the citizens saw them walking towards the palace, they became more sure of their thoughts.

"War is really a good way to make a fortune! If there had been no war, I'm afraid that colonel would have died of old age." A citizen said with emotion.

"If that's what it says, you might as well try it," another joked.

The people around them couldn't help but laugh when they saw the conversation between the two, and at the same time they were a little depressed. They looked at the soldiers on the street with quite complicated eyes.

Many of them were veterans, who had been drafted at the beginning of the war, but since Russia surrendered, they were no longer needed.

Although the government gives them some pension, it is very little. The money is only enough for one meal a month. If they really want to survive, they have to do odd jobs.

No capitalists like soldiers who like to cause trouble like them. They are unemployed upon graduation and have been trapped in the borderline of hunger and cold for many years.

Facing the hatred of those people, Franz may have felt uneasy. He said to Kuster:

"The disarmament policy we pursue is not perfect, and there are more and more unemployed people on the streets." As he spoke, he pointed back and forth, and the roads were full of poor people wandering the streets.

When Kuster heard this, his face was full of disbelief, and he said as quietly as possible:

"What! What you call military reform is disarmament? Oh my God! How can any country like yours disarmament during war!" No matter how much he suppressed it, he could not stop the anger from his heart.

He pulled Franz to a corner, and the other guards knew that he was going to get angry, and they all went to the street to be on guard.

He stretched out a finger and asked loudly:

"What the hell did you do!"

Franz was speechless for a moment, and all the words he had prepared were forgotten in front of Kuster.

He really couldn't bear to fight with soldiers like himself, so he accepted his fault calmly.

"Stop talking, I did this all by myself. I thought peace was a good thing..."

"Only war can bring peace... Sigh." Seeing him like this, Kuster didn't want to continue scolding him anymore, and suppressed his anger again.

He glanced away and suddenly noticed Franz's crutch.

If it weren't for this glance, Kuster would have thought that he was still a normal person. It seemed that he had mastered the crutches so well that he couldn't even notice it.

"It's okay, bro. It's hard for me to even notice that you're holding a cane in your hand."

"Ah? Is there any difference between me and before? Isn't this how I hold it?" Franz was confused by the question. He leaned against the wall with his left hand, and then used his right hand to fiddle with the crutch. He felt nothing special, except that he stood a little more stable.

Kuster seemed to have noticed something, and suddenly became depressed, rubbed his eyes and said:

"It's nothing, it's just that I'm old. Oh, let's go."

Franz nodded, then walked out of the alley with him and continued to the palace.

The guards outside were a little surprised to see them come out without making any big noise, but still followed them.

But the citizens didn't think so. Although some people with incomplete brain development thought they were going to pee, more people believed they were discussing secrets.

The group was silent. The journey between them and the palace was as difficult as crossing the Alps. No one knew why.

It was just a dozen minutes, but it felt like a year.

The citizens didn't know why they were so unhappy, and they didn't want to know. They watched them go to the threshold of the palace and left.

According to convention, the dozens of guards behind them were not allowed to follow their superiors into the palace. That was disrespectful to the emperor and his ministers.

Even Kuster was rejected. When the two gorgeously dressed sentinels saw that he was a "colonel", they approached him with guns and said:

"Sir, please leave. If it is an award, please go to the army to accept it. Hofburg does not welcome old and unsuccessful people."

The simple words were full of arrogance, which was their loyalty to the emperor.

Kuster was not dissatisfied. He was like a mountain, motionless, not even moving his feet.

Franz, who was standing by, saw this and shouted:

"Soldier! I tell you in the name of the minister that I do not welcome people like you."

Before the two sentinels could react, Kuster whispered in his ear:

"Then is our emperor the least welcome in the Hofburg?"

"My friend, you said that last sentence, your reaction arc is a bit slow." Franz was not surprised by his treason, but felt sad that he was really getting old.

The two sentinels saw that the two of them were chatting so well, and because of Franz's status, they did not dare to say anything more.

The emperor was curious about the noise outside, and several guards pushed open the door.

"Who is coming?"

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